Warm Up Your Cold Calls

I don’t know many sales professionals that enjoy cold calling. The reality, is however, it’s a strategy that can work, if your approach and language is correct.

What’s better, of course, is warm calling.

That is, reaching out to connect with someone who has some familiarity with you.

Referrals are one of the most common ways to generate warm calls, but what if you aren’t over-run with referral offers?

Fortunately, LinkedIn can be one of the easiest ways to warm up a cold call, and you don’t need Sales Navigator to do so.

The key to this method working is having a strong LinkedIn network, so make sure you regularly connect with prospects, customers, suppliers, colleagues, and acquaintances on LinkedIn.?

Doing so only serves to ensure warming up your outreach is easier.

Then, take the following steps:

1. Search for your prospect on LinkedIn.
2. View their profile.*
3. View mutual connections.
4. Select a mutual connection you have a good relationship with.
5. Reach out to the mutual connection (on LinkedIn) and ask if they’d be willing to introduce you.

*If you don’t want your prospect to see you viewed their profile, there is a way to turn off the public profile view in LinkedIn. However, I wouldn’t recommend it, as it doesn’t allow your profile to be viewed publicly. This also requires a paid package.

The key to this working is the language you use, both with your request for the introduction and when reaching out to your prospects.

Don’t try to be sneaky about it. Just be transparent about your intentions.

For example, you might message your existing contact and say “I noticed you are connected to Greg Smith, at ABC Company. Do you know Greg well?”

If the response is positive, then you can follow up with “I’ve been wanting to connect with Greg to make his acquaintance. Would you be willing to make an introduction? Or could I mention you as a mutual acquaintance?

In my experience, you’ll almost always get a yes to one if not both asks.

And there you have it – a warm introduction to a cold lead.

Best,

Shawn

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