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A common mistake I see SDRs make is the use of discovery call strategies while trying to execute a cold call. While discovery call strategies work well in a discovery call setting, they will get you hung up on in a cold call.
There is a major difference between someone voluntarily showing up to talk for 30 minutes (discovery call), and someone who accidentally picked up your call that interrupted their day. In most cold calls, you will not get 30 seconds!
The fundamental goal of a cold call is to get a prospect to agree to a meeting before they hang up and these are often only 2 minutes long. So you need to approach them differently.
Let’s dive into strategy. Seconds count in cold calls so we need to be concise while also generating interest. Here is a great base script to get you started:
Open by introducing yourself and asking, “Did I catch you at a bad time?” Whether they answer yes or no, your answer will be, “Okay I’ll be brief.”
Most openers, executed well, will get you to the next part of the call. This one is nice because it is easy to execute well. They will usually say “yes” and you respond with “ok, I’ll be brief.” But if they say “no” you still respond with “ok, I’ll be brief.”
There are no extra points for unnecessary complexity.
Tell them why you are calling, if you have sent personalized an email to them, you can often leverage customization from your first email. That will sound like “We help (prospect title) like you overcome (challenge) by (value statement).”
Ask them for a meeting directly after you offer your value statement. Don’t pause. Continue with the following, “The purpose of me reaching out is to set up a brief introductory call. What is your availability?” Now you pause. Don’t say anything else after this question! Wait for them to respond.
Asking for their availability early will usually get a “no” as a response, but it’s almost always followed with a reason why.
Getting that reason upfront makes it much easier to focus your attention on the right thing.
Asking for the meeting is the easiest way to find what is standing between the prospect and taking a meeting early in the call.
Prepare to handle objections, it’s easier if you have some common objections in front of you. Some of these objection types include “not interested”, or “I don’t have a budget” or “I’m not the right person”. You should be ready with answers to these common objections and immediately ask for the meeting again once handling them.
Set the meeting. Once you have a meeting set, it is then you can ask qualifying questions. This transition can sound like, “Just a few quick questions to make sure we make the most of our call.” People hardly ever hang up here, no matter how rushed they said they were at the beginning of the call. Once they say yes to the meeting, they will be interested in making sure that meeting is productive.
And if you find out they aren’t qualified? Then just cancel the meeting. It’s much easier to do that than try to work qualification questions upfront and lose the prospect to a hang up.
If you get a mean cold call, don’t let it stew! We all have these moments no matter how good you become at sales. When this happens, get back on the phone as quickly as possible. Race to get to the next call. If you stop at this point, it will be twice as hard to pick up the phone next time. Don’t let a mean cold call ruin your momentum.
Happy hunting!
Sam