In this video, we provide a cold call example for software as a service. After the call recording, we outline three areas for reflection and lessons that can be learned.

 

1. Have a list of questions to ask

This cold call example for software as a service is a good example of how much having a list of questions to ask can improve your cold calls. The background on this call is that this is an offshore salesperson working in The Philippines. We actually provided her with minimal training by only having her watch some of the videos in our SMART Sales System training program and then provided her with a cold call script.

At the core of the script we gave her were Pain and Current State Questions. And even though this cold call was actually her first time talking with a prospect, because she had a list of questions to ask, she sounded really great and gave off the impression that she was much more polished and experienced than she actually was.

 

2. Create closing opportunities

If you design your questions correctly, they can help you to create opportunities to close the prospect. That is what happened on this cold call example for software as a service when the salesperson asked:

How do you feel about the time it takes to get sales reps ramped up and producing?

And the prospect replied:

It takes about three months.

If you are in product selling mode, this answer will not provide a clear closing opportunity because there is a lot of work needed to get from that answer to the prospect wanting to buy the product. But when you are selling the next step in the sales process of having a conversation, this answer creates a reason to talk more. And you can explain that as you close the prospect by saying something like:

Well, it might make sense to talk more because we have a software platform that can help to reduce that by as much as 50%.

Are you available for a brief call next Tuesday or Thursday to discuss how we have decreased new hire ramp-up time at other businesses like yours?

 

3. Deflect objections

The objection on this cold call example for software as a service was a version of the not interested sales objection when the prospect said:

I think we are okay for now. I appreciate it though.

This objection is guaranteed to come up, so it can be good to have some sort of response. And you need to say something that resolves the objection and changes them from uninterested to interested. The trick here is to say something that keeps the call going simply, and for that, you can actually go back to the questions list by asking another question with something like:

Oh, I understand. If could ask you real quick, how do you feel about the amount of leads your reps are generating?

Not only does a deflection like that help to keep the conversation going, but if your questions are designed well, it could uncover a reason to talk more, and you can then use that to try to close the prospect again. With this approach, not only will you get better at keeping calls going, but you will also be creating multiple closing opportunities per call.

We hope this cold call example for software as a service gives you some new ideas for your own cold calling efforts!