?? Cold Calling is fun ??

Indeed, cold calling is fun.

But you need to figure out which approach you feel comfortable with and train, over and over until it becomes natural. Keep in mind that the goal of a cold call is to:

??Lower the zone of resistance

? Find a pain

? Book a meeting

?I’m happy to share with you a methodology that I hope will inspire you and help you drive success.

?The structure is the following:?

1.????Introduction + Pause

2.????Permission-based opener

3.????Observation

4.????Leverage insight into one of your company’s use cases

5.????Confirmation

6.????Ask open-ended questions

7.????Negative impact of the status quo

8.????Your solution

9.????Positive impact of using your solution

10.?Confirm value

11.?Quick summary

12.?Book your meeting live

13.?Send a Tolstoy video in your meeting invitation

14.?Pre-send reminder emails to avoid no-show

Now, let’s dig in.

1.????Introduction

?? Introduce yourself, say hello and PAUSE. By saying hello back to you, your interlocutor is already engaging the conversation.

?2.????Permission-based opener

?? Be transparent and empathic. By mentioning that you do not know the person or that it is a cold call, you lower the zone of resistance of your interlocutor who will trust you more and be more willing to listen.

Examples:

“I know I’m calling you out of the blue”??

“I know you did not expect my call”

"We’ve actually never spoken before”,??

“I probably caught you in between your next meeting”

“I know there is no good time for a cold call so I can keep it super brief”

Then ask permission:?

“Do you have a minute for me to tell you why I’m calling? And then you can let me know if you’d like to keep chatting?”??

“I’m calling you to see if it makes sense for you to talk further on improving the sales performance of <company/your team>.”??

“<Name>, this is a cold call, so you are more than welcome to hang up, though I've called today with good reason...is now the worst time in the world to speak?”

3.?????Observation

?? Use “I noticed statements”. Show that you made your research, and you are calling for a good reason. You want to personalize your approach to build up a relationship.

Examples:

“Great. I noticed that you’re doubling down the growth of your team and that’s really exciting.”?

“Great. I see you’re looking to hire a lot of sales talent”?

“Thanks. I see you’re running a sales team of <number>,”?

“Awesome, I read on your Linkedin that you <insert information>”

“I see a lot of companies in <industry> like yours have big expansion plans”?

4.????Leverage insight on one of your company’s use cases

?? Talk about a pain/statement that a similar persona has. Use strong words such as frustrated, pain, struggle…

Examples:

???????Revenue Gap / Forecasting

“All the sales leaders I talk to have the same headache: They all complain about their revenue gap because they keep losing opportunities because of a weak strategy because they do not have enough visibility on the deals, and do you know why? because the information are missing in the CRM.”

???????Onboarding

“I talk to sales leaders every day and they often complain that:

-??????Their onboarding process is too long and inefficient

-??????It’s challenging to align the sales reps on the same methodology/process.”

????????Performance & coaching

“Most salesleaders I speak with tell me they

-??????lack insights in what their top reps are doing differently compared to the rest of the team

-??????They would like to have more time to coach their sales reps”

5.????Ask for confirmation

?? You need to make sure your prospect can relate to the pain you are talking about. If not, ask customer-centric questions to understand what his/her biggest challenge is.

Examples:

“Do you also face these challenges?”

“Does this situation feel familiar?”

“Is it something you have been experiencing as well?”?

6.?????Ask open ended questions

?? Once you identified a pain, you want to dig into the subject and extract metrics that will help you build a strong case.

7.????Highlight the negative impact of the status quo

?? Once your use case is solid, you need to ask your prospect, how this pain is affecting his business/productivity/revenue. By formulating it, your prospect will see be more aware of the situation and will be craving to hear your solution. ??

8.????Propose your solution

?? Use the information previously gathered to present a hyper-customized solution. Use the power of imagination for a stronger impact.

Example:

“Imagine a tool, which could help you do….”

9.????Highlight to positive impact of using your solution

?? In response to the negative impact previously highlighted, you now demonstrate concretely the positive outcome they will get if they chose your solution.

10.?Confirm the value

?? This is the mandatory question that will optimize your chance to book a meeting.

Examples:

“From what I’m saying now, do you think this can be valuable for your team?”

“Now that you listened to me, do you think this could help”

11.?Quick summary

?? You want to summarize in a sentence the identifies pain(s) and your solution to it. Make it clear, concise, and impactful.

12.?Book your meeting live

?? Remember you promised to be brief, so if the use case is clear and the prospect sounds curious to investigate further, go for it! Make sure you agree the timing on the phone to avoid back and forth communication and ultimately no shows. Send your invitation live and ask if he/she received the invitation.

Examples:

“I know you are busy, and I do not want to abuse of your time. But I see a strong use case here and I believe it’s worth investigate further”. Would you be open to extend this conversation to a 20-30 min call this week to investigate further?”

13.?Send a Tolstoy video in your meeting invitation

?? In your meeting invitation, you send an interactive video to ask few questions to help you prepare the discovery call.?

14.?Pre-send reminder emails to avoid no-show

?? Send one 24h before and one 10 minutes before the meeting. You can add your calendar in case he/she needs to reschedule. Seeing if he/she opened the emails will help you anticipate and reduce your no-show rate.

Extra winning tips?:

·?????Do not forget that before selling a product/service, you are selling yourself. So be human, friendly, chill and SMILE. Your prospect cannot see you but he can hear your vibe.

·?????Speak slowly, pause and use end tone.

·?????Mention your prospect’s first name in the conversation. He/she will feel valued and listened.

·?????Always end your last sentence with a question. Avoid pitching! You want the conversation to be interactive. The more the prospect talks, the better the outcome of your cold call will be.

·?????Only ask one question at a time.

·?????Ask customer-centric question to avoid interrogation.

·?????Be empathetic and transparent. Always label emotions to lower the zone of resistance.

·?????Always have paper and pen next to you to write down key elements you want to explore further. This will help you develop your active listening skills and perform better.

?

Feeling pumped and ready to pick up the phone??? Happy selling everyone !