Dr. Coldcall or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Phone

One of the biggest transformations I see in SDRs who are struggling, occurs when they change their relationship with the cold call.

SDRs new to the role, are typically given outbound activity guidelines which they dutifully follow, but don’t seem to produce results.? Of the 30 custom emails, 80 outbound calls, and 10 InMails, they might be required to make for instance, the calls are frequently seen as an obstacle: something to just get over and done with, so they can focus on sequencing new contacts and accounts.

They clench as the rings tick by, secretly hoping to make it to voicemail (spoiler: they won’t leave one).? “See, these are a waste of time, no one uses the phone anymore anyways,” they justify to themselves.

It might sound a little woo-woo, but SDRs who are reluctant to actually get a pick-up from a cold call, manifest not connecting with their prospects by sabotaging themselves in ways subtle and obvious.

To use a different analogy, one of the classic pieces of advice in golf is to “hit through the ball, not at it.” The logic behind this is that if you think of the ball as being in the way of your swing, not the target, you’re more likely to have better follow through and avoid deceleration before striking the ball.

Something similar applies to cold calling your prospects—if you view your cold calls as just a task to complete as opposed to a vehicle for actually connecting with your prospect, you’re aiming at the call itself, not the main objective behind it and your results will suffer accordingly.

So, what does it look like when an effective SDR actually tries to reach their prospects?

• They start their outreach with great research, seeking compelling answers the prospect might have for the 3 Whys (Why do anything? Why you? Why now?)
• They send an initial email with an observation and a call to action based on this research.
• They make a phone call, hoping to catch their prospect to review the message—if they don't, they leave a voicemail calling attention to their most recent email (you can measure just how powerful voicemails are by watching the email opens occur in real time after you leave a message).
• If they don’t get a response, new attempts to answer the 3 Whys are made via email and the process repeats.

The key here is that the SDR is earnestly trying to connect with their prospect when calling and emailing.? They optimize their chances by calling an executive after 5:30pm when they’re still working but meetings are done or on bank holidays when the rest of the team is gone, but they’re still at it.? The SDR leaves voicemails letting them know that they’ll be reaching out again and when.??

When an SDR starts to think longer term and act like owners of their patch, they’re able to adopt the mentality that it’s not a question if they’ll connect with a prospect, but when.? Not every ICP account in an SDR’s territory is going to be in a position to buy or be in a deal cycle in a given year, BUT the best SDRs knows that they’ll be having a conversation with nearly every one of them to determine whether they have any initiatives or challenges that would merit a deeper business discussion before the year is up.

If you’re not satisfied with your results as an SDR, stop “making calls” and start trying to make connections.