This is a great cold call example to stop and listen to because it provides some tips for what not to do.
TLDR
- The salesperson in this cold call example uses a really bad approach by talking primarily about his product and company.
- You can improve cold calls by making them more about the prospect than about the product.
- All you have to do to make this shift is simply ask questions before introducing your product or service.
- This will not only help you have better conversations but also help you learn about the prospect, find more opportunities, and generate more leads.
Product-Focused Sales Approach
The salesperson on this cold call is using a very product-focused sales approach and pitch. This is where the salesperson primarily talks about their company when communicating with prospects, using this type of outline for what they say:
This is who I am.
This is the company I am with.
This is the product I sell.
Do you need what I sell?
Can we meet to discuss what I sell?
This salesperson did exactly that, and you can see that with the cold call opener he used:
We are a direct sales organization. We work on all stages of the sales process. Whether that is frontend development, developing prospects, setting next stage appointments.
He then went for the quick close by saying this, which also aligns with the product-focused sales pitch:
Without us getting into a conversation around if you guys are working with an outside company, what I would like to do is get you guys a small breakdown of our services in the next week or so. The owner of our company can tell you about who we work with, how we execute the sales process, Are you available for on Monday or Tuesday sometime?
This is a great example of what not to do when you are cold calling because it:
- Makes the call all about you
- Flags you as a salesperson trying to sell something
- Triggers the prospect’s guardedness
- Leads to more objections and rejection
- Does not allow you to gather information about the prospect
- Positions you for fewer leads and deals
Prospect-Focused Sales Approach
An alternative to what the salesperson did on this cold call example is to make the cold call more about the prospect than about the product you are trying to sell. This would be to completely flip everything around, communicate along these talking points:
This is how I help.
These are the problems I solve.
How are you doing in those areas?
We might be able to help.
Are you available for a conversation?
To do this, you only need to ask questions before you talk about your company and product. Not only does this allow you to learn more about the prospect, but it also makes the conversation more about them and creates a more balanced and engaging conversation. After you learn what the prospect is doing today, you can then present what you sell as a solution to their needs.
Open Cold Calls With Your Value Proposition
With the prospect-focused approach, you can open cold calls with your value proposition. This replaces the product explanation and introduction that most salespeople use and will not only make you stand out from other salespeople, but it will also decrease the guardedness and objections you trigger. For this salesperson, he could open the call by saying something like:
The reason for the call is that we help businesses to:
- Get more clients and revenue
- Increase sales revenue from new clients
- Generate more leads
- Decrease time spent generating leads
Use a Sales Takeaway
A really nice thing to do after you share your value proposition is to use a sales takeaway. This is to share a little doubt and slightly take away what you just shared with your value prop by saying something like:
I don’t know if you want to improve those areas, and that is why I was calling with a question or two.
This is powerful because it shows you are making this more about the prospect than about you trying to sell something, which will help to decrease the prospect’s guardedness.
The Key is Asking Good Questions
After you use a sales takeaway, transition to asking questions to learn what is going on with the prospect. Here are some pain questions this salesperson could have asked:
- How much of a priority is it to increase your growth rate?
- How do you feel about your ability to get into new accounts?
- How do you feel about the amount of leads you are currently generating?
- How important is it to decrease time spent on lead gen activities?
We can either mix in or transition to current state questions.
- What are you doing to generate leads?
- Are you performing any type of cold outreach or outbound lead generation?
- Are you working with a provider or agency for lead generation?
- Do you have internal resources to work on generating leads?
- How many salespeople do you have?
- How many meetings are you currently setting with potential new clients per week or month?
These small changes would likely completely change the results and effectiveness for the salesperson in this cold call example.
