How long can you get through a cold call without mentioning your company or your product?

A common challenge I set for an MDR/BDR is how long can they get through a call without mentioning their company or product. It’s allowed in an introduction. I.e. I’m Keiran from Firstbase but after that the goal is to ask sensible and intelligent questions and get a real sense of:

- the existing process

-areas of pain

- an idea of who is feeling that pain and to what extent

- if there is a quantifiable metric behind the pain

- their decision making process

- the people involved in decision making

- the people involved in system/process change

- any incumbent suppliers and information about when a renewal is due

- what an ideal fix for the problem/pain would like

- their experience implementing similar solutions, what worked and what didn’t

- how their company measures value/ROI

- any other information relevant to your common deal cycles

Now I wouldn’t use this for every call, if I am lucky enough to get through to a member of the C-suite the reality is that they are unlikely to be able to afford the time to answer the full set of questions I have. My calls with C-suites typically seek referrals down to the members of their team responsible for the conversation I want to have and then use their endorsement to secure a meeting with the key people whilst validating that there is a need. If someone called or emailed you and said they had spoken with your boss who suggested you get together, there is a high likelihood that you are going to take that meeting. You might reach out to your boss to confirm it’s genuine but once validated you are likely to be open to that call.

If I get the Unicorn of cold calls where the immediate response is. I love your company, we really need to get your services in and we have a budget set aside. I was due to reach out but since I have you on the call, how do we make this happen? I would still ask all of the same questions and I would then hand this to the AE with some guidance on how to best manage this deal.??

Common pushback I get from the MDR/BDR:

How would I even start the conversation without explaining why I want to talk? - Why can’t your reason to call be to get a better understanding of their existing processes/systems? Hi Mo, I was wondering if you could help me? I was hoping I could speak to the people/team that are responsible for a,b,c. Is this you? Or is there another member of the team you would recommend I reach out to (internal referral, next call starts - I just spoke to Mo who suggested I reach out)? Now intro's need to be authentic to you, so try not to script it but refine it over time.

What if they directly ask why I am calling? - As above, explain that you want to make sure you have a good understanding of their current processes/systems and you are genuinely interested in how they operate today. Explain that you speak to companies on a daily basis and get to hear from different companies at different levels of maturity with regards to this process. Your interest is where they sit on that scale and that you may be able offer some insights based on what you have seen at other organisations in their peer group (who doesn’t have an interest in how they compare?). Even if they consider themselves the thought leaders and in the upper quadrant of every measure, then show a genuine interest in understanding in more detail what that looks like, how they got there, what they would have done differently/sooner, how they see it maturing in the future. Even if it qualifies them out of your pipeline then it’s some great insight that can go back to your product/marketing/sales/leadership team.

What if they ask me directly if this is a sales call? - Answer honestly, I work in our sales team and we would love to have the opportunity to have a sales call with you but we want to make sure we work with the right organisations who have a genuine need for our products/services. If we can get some insight into how you operate today then I can give some genuine feedback as to whether or not I think we would be a good fit based on where you are on your journey. Hopefully I can share some insight based on what we see in the market place and let you know how you compare with your peers. My assessment at the end might be that it wouldn’t make sense to work with us until you have made changes to your existing systems/processes. It may even be that you would be better off working with our competition if your needs are better suited to them. I’m sure you’ll know from your own sales team that if you try and sell a deal that isn’t closely suited to where you operate best then it typically results in escalations, a significant amount of internal time spent problem solving and a reduced chance of securing a long term partnership with a referenceable client.

Should I have a scripted list of questions? - When you first start in a role a list of topics might be helpful pointers to help steer the conversation but where possible scripts should be avoided. The calls should be conversational, you need to have a genuine interest in that organisation and the person you are speaking with and a desire to get a better understanding of their existing processes and their pain.? You need to be able to provide them useful insights based on what you see in the market place and I have found having stories is the easiest way to do this and it’s really easy for someone to tell when a story is scripted or regurgitated verbatim. If you don’t have stories then ask your account managers if you can call your existing customers and ask them what life was like before they bought your product, why they purchased your service and what they would have been differently if they were to do it again, and where they see future developments.

What if they say they aren’t responsible for it? - Still take the opportunity to ask questions, there is a high likelihood that they interact or at least have interacted with the system/process and have their own point of view. You can use this insight when you get a call with the person who is responsible. Appreciate it’s not something you are responsible for but I imagine you have had to interact with it, what was your experience as a user? In your opinion, does it work? Have you heard internal discussions about improving that process? The person who does manage it, is it an individual, or multiple people in multiple teams?

So they tell me everything I wanted to know, how do I close the meeting? - If there is a genuine need and they are a good fit for your business then I would recount the key points you have heard and suggest a meeting with your AE. I really appreciate you taking the time to explain your existing process, what I heard was a, b, c. It sounds like there is an opportunity for us to assist with some of these key areas and it would be great to set up a call with our industry expert who can share far more insight than I was able to regarding what we see as best practice and where we currently see you on a maturity curve in relation to some of your peers. Then propose sometimes that are free in the AE’s diary and make sure all the key stakeholders are included on the invite. Remember you should have asked who is involved in the decision making process and who is currently responsible for their as is process.

So what if they tell me all of that and I articulate the value of a meeting and they still don’t want to take it? Take all of your notes to the AE or thought leaders in the business and write basho content using the insights from the call to their C-suite.

I would highly recommend recording your calls so you can listen to it and review your own performance and see if there were any items you missed or could have dug into in more detail.? It is key that you get excellent at taking notes. Please get used to typing your notes, I know a lot of people prefer hand writing them and their is a thought that the person on the phone will think it’s rude if they can hear you typing but this is nonsense (unless you have a particularly loud and annoying keyboard, try recording an internal call with a colleague and type the notes and listen to the audio to see if it is loud, chances are it will be fine). If you hand write the notes you are only going to have to type them up at some point in the future, which is time that could be used for making more calls. The person on the phone wants to make sure you are paying attention and explaining you are taking notes as they are talking and then referring back to them is going to cause no harm on the call.?

Now this isn’t a silver bullet and there may be some products/solutions that this approach doesn’t work with. Cold calling is a hard grind. This strategy has been the one I have seen the most success from over my career. The person on the phone opens up about the existing challenges and typically leads themselves to the realisation that there must be a better way.

I would encourage you to try it and see what worked and what didn’t and how it feels compared to your normal script. Try it with the next stranger you get introduced to, keep asking them questions and see how much information you get from them.