March 23, 2023
It may seem like an outdated sales tactic in this age of cold email and social selling. But cold calling is still very much alive, and a valid way to get your foot in the door with a prospect.
Cold calling does work and can be very effective—as long as you do it well. But make no mistake, the role of a sales development rep (SDR) is one of the toughest in sales. And cold calling is no easy task, either. It takes preparation and practice before you even pick up the phone.
How Not to Cold Call
Before we get into how to cold call, let's take a moment to examine one way not to do it.
CEO and co-founder of Proposify, Kyle Racki, shares a personal story about this. He answered his phone and was greeted by a business development rep (BDR). After the rep's opener, Kyle asked to hear more. The rep then asked to book a meeting.
Kyle responded, "But I'm here now. Why don't you just tell me more right now?"
The sales rep replied, "Well, to be honest, I'm not prepared."
Imagine calling a prospect, interrupting their day, and then saying that you're not prepared. Do you think you'll book the meeting? Probably not.
To avoid getting caught off guard, follow these tips and techniques to make stellar cold calls and book those meetings.
Cold Calling Tips
Cold calling can feel intimidating, especially if you're a new SDR. To make it easier, both on yourself and the prospect, try using these cold calling techniques to get past the jitters and provide smoother experiences for your prospects.
Be Prepared
This is the Boy Scout motto for a reason! It sounds basic, doesn't it? But as we learned above, not every rep takes the time to prepare before they cold call. And if you don't take the time to prepare then, what will make the prospect believe you're qualified to do business with them?
Part of preparing to make a cold call is researching the prospect so you have a good idea of who you're talking to before you even pick up the phone.
For your research, you can:
- Look at the company's website. Make sure you understand what they do and who they are. Try to glean their unique value prop.
- Check both the company's and the prospect’s LinkedIn profiles. What are they talking about? Any news or new launches? What's important to them?
- Use both to find the right person to talk to. The company's site and LinkedIn can come in handy to make sure you're reaching out to an influencer or decision-maker. Look at the company's About or Team pages, and use LinkedIn's people search on the company's profile to see who's employed at the company and in what positions.
On the prospect's side, good research will make them feel as though they're being catered to. Everyone likes to feel special. Be very intentional and up front with specific reasons for the call so the prospect doesn't feel like one of a hundred.
According to Proposify's Director of Sales, Scott Tower, research can help you build a cold call script like,
The reason I'm calling is I saw you just launched a new product. When you launch products, we see XYZ happen, and we're solving that for competitors A, B and C.
Also, anticipate your prospect's questions, and be ready to answer them. One way to do this is to practice with a teammate so you have some go-to responses for common questions. Scott says,
Break the roleplaying down into small chunks rather than trying to practice a whole call. Just practice the potential questions and responses. That way, you can get lots of repetition in, and the answers become more natural and conversational.
In addition, when a prospect is asking a lot of questions, it's a good way to segue into a meeting request. Scott suggests saying something like,
Hey, I'm not too familiar with that, but our account executives are experts with it. How about we get you connected with them to discuss in detail?
Of course, there's also nothing wrong with saying, "I don't know." if that's the honest answer. In that case, offer to get the information for the prospect and provide it as soon as possible, even if it's after the call.
Acknowledge Prospect Resistance
Admit it. When your prospects say they're not interested, they probably have good reason. You haven't even gotten to your value prop yet or had a chance to give them a reason to listen.
Tom Slocum, a 16-year sales veteran and founder and CEO of The SD Lab, says rather than try to fight their resistance, try acknowledging it with something like:
I understand. I cold called you out of the blue. I wouldn't be interested either in what's been shared thus far. Do you mind if I explain a little bit more about exactly why I called you? And then we can figure out if you’d like to hear more. Or better yet, do you want me to send you an email with a little bit more information and I'll touch base with you another day?
Or, try this variation:
I get it. You might not be interested in what I’ve shared thus far. I get this often, but hey, the reason I was giving you a call is I saw your post around XYZ and, is that a priority within the org right now?
Either way, by acknowledging their resistance, you might put your prospect in a more receptive mood.
(You can watch the full video, or skip to minute 24:02 to hear playbacks and reviews of real cold calls.)
Use Humour
Scott Tower, Director of Sales here at Proposify gives this bit of advice—start a cold call with some humor.
To break the ice and put prospects at ease, use a bit of humour in the opener." "It helps to get those first thirty seconds, and maybe a little chuckle as well. Above all, prospects are just human, and people react to the human element.
he says. Scott also shares a story about this.
One of our reps would start with, 'Hi, you know what? This is a cold call. Do you want to throw your phone out the window now, or can you give me 30 seconds to tell you why I called?' Most people are going to give you the 30 seconds.
Just make sure the humour you use is appropriate to the situation and doesn't go too far. The last thing you want to do is make a prospect feel awkward with an inappropriate joke.
Use Uncertainty to Your Advantage
You have no idea whether the person on the other end of the line is interested or is even a fit for what you're offering. So if you feign confidence, it'll likely be off-putting. By listening to his own cold calls, Tom has found that uncertainty is a winning trend.
He suggests weaving a little bit of that natural unsureness into your tone of voice with something like,
What I do at The SD Lab is help early stage companies like yours work on XYZ. Is that a priority for you right now? Is that something that’s really top of mind?
Approach your calls with a curious mindset so it feels more like a conversation, not an interrogation or a pitch.
Lead the Call (Without Being Obvious About It)
It's important to keep conversations on track while still letting the prospect talk about what matters to them. You want the prospect to feel empowered.
To achieve this tricky feat, Tom recommends using a choose-your-own-adventure approach, something like,
Hey, based on your post and this event you've got going on, I can tell that cold calling might be something you're focusing on. Tell me about that. Where is it that you see you're struggling?
You're leading the conversation but in an open-ended way.
Know When to Go for Quantity Over Quality
Sometimes, it’s okay to choose quantity (volume) over quality (personalization). A focus on volume might be useful for certain business models and target audiences.
Tom says,
I think a high volume of calls is important in the beginning because I encourage everyone to fail hard and fail fast in the first 90 days. Rip the bandaid, and get in as many convos as you can, get as many failures as you can, objections as you can. And know that you’re going to be better after each one.
This is also helpful when you’re new to cold calling and practicing your technique.
Try the Bucket System to Prioritize Your Personalization
After you've gotten through 90 days or so of focusing on call volume, you should prioritize which prospects deserve a personalized approach.
Consider this advice from Tom:
What I teach SDRs is prioritization and bucketing. And so your top tiers are getting that personalization and you're putting in that research. For your top accounts, use the three-by-three or five-by-five method, meaning you’re sharing three pieces of prepared information in under three minutes or five pieces in under five minutes. For your lower tiers, you're doing more persona-based outreach. You’re outreaching around the problem and the solution.
Tom also recommends taking excellent notes in your CRM on what outbound techniques you used and what value props you covered. This will not only help you track lead conversations, it will help you hone your cold calling skills.
Book the Meeting in the Next Slot Available
Once a prospect expresses interest, capitalize on the fact that they're interested right now. The longer you wait to book the meeting, the more the prospect's interest will cool. Kyle says, "They'll forget about you by next week." And when that happens, Scott says "They'll make excuses to blow off the meeting."
Rather than asking to book the meeting next week, try for that afternoon or the next day. Whatever is the soonest next slot the account executive has available. Don't let that interest wane.
Keep Yourself Top of Mind
If, for some reason, you do have to book the meeting a little ways out, make sure the prospect doesn't forget about you. One way to do that is via LinkedIn. Scott says:
A sales rep once booked a meeting with me about a month out. During that month, every time I posted on LinkedIn, guess who was in the comments? That rep. Not trying to sell anything, just commenting and adding value to what I was saying. I thought that was very clever, to get the meeting to hold. It's a nurturing process. I ended up taking two meetings with that company.
Before your next call, try practicing these tips for cold calling to get more comfortable and be more relaxed. With time and practice, you can also develop your own cold calling best practices.
Best Cold Call Opening Lines
When you cold call a prospect, you're interrupting their day. Acknowledge that interruption. Outright ask someone for a little bit of their time because you're interrupting them.
This can help alleviate the irritation they may feel at getting an unexpected sales call, and make them more amenable to listening to you.
The best cold call script will depend on the industry you're targeting, who the prospect is and the questions they may ask. But here are five suggestions for opening lines that might just warm up those cold calls.
Remember, these are just cold call examples. You'll want to add touches of personality or humour to make them your own, and make them even more effective.
Give these a try, and mix and match them to best suit your needs. With a little practice, you'll open your cold calls like a pro.
When is the Best Time to Cold Call?
As for which days to cold call, Tuesday through Thursday is often seen as the most effective time. However, Scott says you may also see some success on Mondays and Fridays because, as those days are usually seen as less productive, fewer sales reps will call then. You can take advantage of being one of few instead of one of many.
Get a Yes, Create a Proposal
When you're past the cold calling and you're ready to create a proposal, consider Proposify. It's proposal software that includes all the features you need to streamline your sales process, and it gives you all the tools you need to close deals more quickly and efficiently. Once you've tried it, you'll wonder how you ever made a sale without it.
Schedule a demo today to learn how Proposify gives you end-to-end visibility into and control of your proposal process.
