Prospects you reach through cold calling are often very guarded, and there are small yet powerful steps you can take with your cold call script to reduce and defuse this guardedness.
Try not to sound like a salesperson
When you sound like a salesperson, you typically raise a prospect’s guard. They will begin to protect themselves from a scenario where they have to deal with a salesperson trying to sell to them. If you agree with that, then try to design your so that it does not make you sound like a salesperson.
Don’t mention your product in your introduction statement
One way to not sound like a salesperson is to avoid all of the product mumbo jumbo at the very beginning of the call. It can be common for someone to say something like:
I am with XYZ Corp and we are the industry leader in calibrated injection systems.
When a prospect hears that, they will become more guarded as they will begin to think:
Oh great, this person is going to try to sell me some calibrated injection systems and I am not looking to buy anything like that right now. This is going be a disruption. Must find a way to get out of this situation.
Focus on the value that you offer
Since we are trying to minimize or eliminate product lingo in our cold call script, we can replace it with a mention of the value we offer. For example:
Purpose for the call is that we help manufacturers to minimize any disruptions from system failures.
This small change can have a big impact because it shifts you from triggering guardedness to triggering curiosity.
Confirm that they are available for your call
One thing you can do early in your cold-calling script is check whether the prospect is available for your call. When you do this, you will be moving forward with their permission, and this can buy you a 2 to 5-minute window.
While you operate within the window of time you have bought, the prospect’s guardedness will be less than it would have been if you tried to keep the call going without their permission or checked whether they were available.
Ask if you have caught them in the middle of anything
A not-so-great way to confirm availability is to ask:
Are you busy right now?
This is not good because it is safe to assume that the prospect is always busy, especially when calling B2B. The most likely answer to this question is the following:
Yes, I am busy right now.
One small change that you can make in your cold call script is to ask this question:
Have I caught you in the middle of anything?
This is powerful for a couple of reasons. It confirms availability by checking the temperature at the level of busyness. It basically says that you know they are busy, but you are checking to see if they are involved in something where they really can’t break away for a couple of minutes.
When it comes to decreasing guardedness, this is a great question because it sounds very friendly and casual. Meaning it sounds like something a friend or coworker would ask, rather than a salesperson.
SalesScripter helps sales pros to build a powerful cold call script.
