Welcome to The Anatomy of a Cold Call, Part 2 (of 4).
Last week, I broke down the beginning of a Cold Call - where we discuss the research, opener, and easy-contract - you can check out it out here.
Today, we’ll look at the middle of a Cold Call, which I would argue is the most important piece. Once you understand how simple opening a call really is, that part gets easy.
The challenge is carrying a conversation in the direction you need it to go in order for your prospect to see your value and for you to secure next steps.
Let’s dive in 👇
Following the Beginning (research, opener, & easy-contract) the Middle consists of three core components, let’s look at each one in detail:
Priority Drop: this is where you frame a question in a way that gives your prospects options to choose from. The two types of traditional sales questions are Yes/No (which we know are ineffective) and Open-Ended (generally effective). But, asking an option-based question increases the probability your prospect runs with the conversation. Here’s what it looks like:
”Most people in your position tell us they’re focused on one of two things: (Problem A) or (Problem B), which one of those is a bigger focus for you right now?”
Reasons this works:
1) when you give people options, they make a choice.
2) posing problems their peers have is interesting.
3) you demonstrate you understand their position.
4) their answer fuels your discovery to follow.
Simply asking which problem they care about most right now provides you with a ton of insight and the ability to ask in-the-flow discovery questions opposed to regurgitating a set of discovery questions your boss showed you during onboarding.
The best sales conversations take place when the salesperson is asking questions based on what the prospect is giving them in the moment. The priority drop method sets you up to learn what you need in order to not rely on canned discovery questions.
Give yourself a chance at genuine curiosity and true discovery by setting things up with the Priority Drop.
Speaking of discovery… 👇Discovery: imagine you’re talking with a friend who has gone all-in on crypto investments. You’ve been thinking about it for a while but don’t know where to start. Naturally, you’re going to have a lot of questions for your friend.
That’s how you should think about discovery.
Lean in, listen, and become genuinely curious. Your brain feeds you questions when you’re actively listening.
You might have a general persona-based understanding of your prospect (which allows for the priority drop), but you have no idea what that specific individual cares about.
The most skilled salespeople I’ve worked with have what I refer to as Conversational Agility. They don’t rely on a certain set of discovery questions, there’s no google doc with a bulleted list of “must-ask” questions, they’re simply asking the prospect more questions based on what the prospect is saying to them in the moment - making the conversation natural.
Because I’m a believer in Conversational Agility, I don’t have a list of questions or anything tactical to give you here - other than practice.
You need to practice discovery via role play and challenge yourself by bringing nothing to the call past your opener. This will force you to listen, understand, expose the prospect’s pain and connect your solution.
Simply put - get in your daily reps!
Now, there are two primary types of questions you can ask:
1) general discovery / curiosity: simply trying to learn more. Typically questions that start with “how”
2) impact-based: this is towards the end of your discovery, when you need the prospect to understand the upside of action as well as the cost of inaction. Questions like “what would it mean for you and your team if (problem A) went away?” or “what happens 6 months from now if this problem isn’t solved?”
Pro-Tip: don’t let surface level pain be enough to satisfy your discovery. If a prospect says “yeah, we’re really struggling with keeping our CRM data clean” - that’s when you dig in.
Based on that statement, my mind immediately goes to:
1) what challenges does this cause for your sales team?
2) what challenges does this cause the Rev. org as a whole?
3) how is this impacting cross-functional relationships?
4) what would it mean for your business if (problem b) was no longer a problem?
Deep discovery builds rapport and credibility. It also helps accelerate next steps because the better you know your prospect, the more pointed solution you can offer.Objection Handling: if you joined our recent Enablement Session, you know this is my favorite part of any sales call. Why?
Because this is where the pressure kicks in. This is where you can lose a prospect even if the conversation has gone well. If you’re not prepared, confident and patient with your objection handling - you’ll deflate the call in a matter of seconds.
The good new is, there’s a very simple and tactical way to deal with this part of the conversation. Keep in mind, the goal of the objection is to better understand the objection itself.
You are not trying to convince them of anything in your response. In one way or another, they’ve just told you “No”, you’re not going to change their mind by biting down and selling harder.
When responding to an objection, you want to push the conversation back to the prospect as quickly as possible using this framework (you’ve seen me use this before because it works)
1) acknowledge - don’t blow past their objection, show that you’re listening
2) respond - reframe the objection in your own words to demonstrate understanding
3) close - wrap up your objection with a question that brings them back into the conversation
This should take all of 20 seconds, here’s an example:
Prospect: “Thanks for the call, but I just don’t think we’re ready for this kind of thing right now.”
You:
A: “I understand, you have a lot going on right now…
R: “…and the idea of bringing on a new tool in a down market might not be a priority…”
C: “…but I’m curious to know, when you say you’re not ready, what does ready look like for you?”
Stop and say those words out loud real quick.
20 seconds tops.
That’s all you need to do to bring the prospect back into the conversation, and begin to close them on next steps.
Which brings us to next week’s issue - where we’ll cover The End of a Cold Call.
Stay tuned!When you’re ready, here are a few ways I can help you:
1) On-Demand Enablement Session w/ live role play > get instant access
2) Elevate your email game in 30-minutes w/ this course
3) Hire me for a Team Training