This is an example of cold calling for lead generation. After the call recording, we break down what went well and what could have been handled better on the cold call.
The Cold Call Opener
This salesperson used a cold call opener that is worth stopping to talk about. He used the self-depricating approach by admitting the call is a cold call by saying:
To be honest, this is a cold call. Hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time?
I know a lot of people use this, and it may appear to be effective. But it is actually a fairly weak way to start a cold call because you are basically flagging yourself as a salesperson who is trying to sell something and creating the impression that you are doing something wrong by cold calling. If you found a wallet on the ground at the park and you were going up to people to see if they lost their wallet, would you start out by saying you are the person who bugs people at the park? You would not be because you would know that what you have is extremely valuable.
The product you sell also offers tremendous value to you, so you do not need to act like you are calling from such a weak position when you open the cold call.
Value Proposition
In this example of cold calling for lead generation, he then went on to share his value prop, and I think the value prop he used was really good.
We have built a platform that can cut down your GTM costs and increase your revenue.
Just being hyper-critical, I would tweak his value prop to make it a little less salesy by changing it from “we can do this for you” to “we do this for other businesses” by saying something like:
We help businesses to decrease GTM costs and increase revenue.
Product Introduction
He then went on to introduce his product by saying:
And what we do is we find the right leads for you, automated LinkedIn outreach, and tell you who is ready to buy.
It makes sense to say this at the beginning of the cold call. But doing this can flag you as a salesperson who is trying to sell something and trigger the prospect’s guardedness. I will show you a recommended script to use when cold calling for lead generation, and in that, we will introduce the product at the end of the cold call.
Cold Call Close
He then tried to close the prospect by saying:
If this is something relevant, I would like to show you how it works.
The main problem with this is that this close attempt is focusing more on the last step in the sales process, which is the purchase. And there are many reasons this is not good:
- The prospect is likely not in buying mode
- Creating a mismatch
- Leading to an increased probability of objections
But the main problem with this type of close is that, when cold calling, the next step in the sales process is not the purchase; it is simply talking more and having a conversation. I will show you what that looks like and how that differs from the recommended cold calling for lead generation script.
Objection Handling
This salesperson faced some version of the “not interested” objection, and he actually responded pretty well by deflecting with questions:
Current State Question: Are you currently using any kind of a CRM?
Pain Question: Are you happy with the outbound volume you are getting?
This approach for objection handling is good, but there is room for improvement in the questions he asked. Here are some pain questions for a cold calling for lead generation script:
How much of a priority is it to improve lead generation?
How concerned are you about the amount of time and stress that comes with generating leads?
How do you feel about your ability to grow your sales team?
And here are some current state questions he could ask:
How are you generating leads?
Are you currently performing any type of cold outreach?
Do you have internal sales staff working on cold outreach?
Have you ever worked with an external agency to help with lead generation?
How many leads are you generating per week/month?
How many salespeople do you have working on cold outreach?
We hope this gives you some new ideas for cold calling for lead generation!
