Welcome to this weeks edition of The Daily Sales Rep.
Today is Part 1 (of 4) in a new series we’ll be unpacking in detail through September: The Anatomy of a Cold Call ☎️
Just like any great story, every great cold call contains a beginning, middle, and end.
So today, we’re going to break down the beginning.
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Within the beginning, there are core sections: research, opening, and easy-contract. Let’s take a look at each section:
Research: you can think of this like “Step 0” or the work you need to put in before you decide to make a call. There are couple key reasons research is crucial to finding success on a cold call:
- Preparedness: “If you’re anxious about something, that means you aren’t prepared.” - Unknown
Early in my sales career I learned that I experienced far less call anxiety when I knew exactly who I was calling, the details of their role, and what their interests were. The more you know, the more confidently you move forward with precision. With Linkedin at your fingertips, there’s almost no excuse to not educate yourself on the company and the individual. Do yourself a favor and understand who you’re calling before you even think about picking up the phone.
- Competition: you’re putting yourself in a more vulnerable position if you aren’t conducting proper research, because there’s a great chance your competition is. Of all the sales calls your prospects receive week, you don’t want to be the one who didn’t their homework.
- Insight & Observations: when you give yourself the space to complete deep work, you equip yourself with a unique perspective on the prospect’s position, organization, and industry which then allows you to have educated and engaged conversations. Again, you don’t want to be the salesperson that can’t hold their own when it’s time to get down to business. Your ability to understand how a single company might be impacted by industry macroeconomics, and connect the dots down to your prospect’s position is a key contributing factor to standing out.
This new age sales game is about working smart, not hard. Don’t play into volume metrics. They make you feel busy with little production to show. Trust a research process and apply your research in real-time conversations - this will pay off major dividends.
Need guidance on conducting effective research quickly?
Check out this issue on the 3x3x3 Research Framework2. Opening: Okay, the hard work is done. You’ve done the research and you know who you’re calling. Ensuring an effective opening to a cold call is very simple, very easy - it just comes down to execution. Here’s how you open a cold call:
”Hey (Prospect), this is (Your Name) with (Your Company) and I know I’m calling you out of the blue so I’ll brief.”
…that’s it! that’s your opening. Seems crazy, right?
Here’s why it works: you’re addressing them by name, telling them who you are, and calling out the fact that you’re interrupting the day. Quickly establishing familiarity and owning what you’re doing knocks down an emotional barrier. Letting the prospect know you’ll be brief also takes away the likely “I’m running into a meeting” objection (which we all know is b.s.)3.Easy-Contract: This part of your beginning plays into understanding what will make prospects say “yes” to the questions you ask. Simply put, you ensure a “yes” by asking a question that makes it nearly impossible to respond any other way. Here’s how you do it:
Opening: ”Hey (Prospect), this is (Your Name) with (Your Company), I know I’m calling you out of the blue so I’ll brief.
Easy-Contract: If you’ll give me 30 seconds to tell you why I’m reaching out and why I think we’re a good fit, you can let me know if it makes sense to continue the conversation. Does that sound fair?”
Asking “Does that sound fair?” is the most important question you’ll ask throughout the entire cold call. This sets you up for success. When the prospect says “yes”, then you just earned your window to have the conversation you need to have. You just earned permission.
It’s extremely unlikely that a prospect is going to respond and say “no that doesn’t sound fair at all.” If that ever happens to you - please let me know because you’d be the first I know of!
This is simple, but it just works.
Here’s the best part: assuming you’re delivering your Opening + Easy-Contract at a healthy, confident pace and with conviction - this should take you no longer than 12 seconds!
That’s it - 12 seconds of talking to open a gateway to the rest of the call.
Which leads us to Part Two, The Middle of a Cold Call. Coming next week, stay tuned!