Hi Dan! Cold calling conversations always feel like they're on the clock, like a slightly longer elevator pitch. I recommend planning to touch on just 1-2 specific products or improvements that could be made on that first call. This keeps things concise and respects the customer's time. These products should be accessible, foundational, and preferably affordable to start. For example, initiating a conversation around listings is a great start because everyone needs accurate listings, it creates the foundation for good organic SEO, and the solution (Listing Sync Pro) is affordable AND fast!

In terms of specific scripts, I'd use something like the Street Level Sales Deck, but pare it down to best suit the prospect you're hoping to cold call. Very curious to see other cold-calling scripts in this thread!

Hey Dan,

I may be able to shed some light on this. I used to do cold calling both here at Vendasta as a Sales Development Representative and at another SaaS company.

Cold calling needs to be kept relatively simple with a goal in mind. Once you've sent the snapshot report or snapshot report email campaign, you need to know your why: Why are you cold calling?

The answer to this is usually to get a meeting. You're not trying to marry them on the first date, rather you're just trying to get the first date. Example of an opening line would be: Hello 'business owner', I was looking to have a conversation regarding your online presence. I sent you report card of your digital presence, did you receive it? Usually, they'll respond with yes, or no. But your goal is to just get the meeting. So ask for it.

Yes, I did, it looks kind of interesting. From here you'd ask if you can get 20 minutes of their time to go over it with them on a date that works well for them. (Book the call right then and there, and if they're unsure at least get something on the calendar and they can always reschedule late if needed).

No, i'm unsure what you're talking about - At this point this is where you should know exactly the email of the title, when you sent it, and have them check. Also, make sure they check the spam folder in case it landed in there. Since they haven't seen it, maybe reference their specific snapshot report and say you did great in x, but lacked in y.

Ask for the meeting still, the worst they say is no. Don't ask if they can meet, just ask when works for them.

I hope this helps @danbrandingcompanyllc-com

Let me know if you'd like to dive deeper.

@infobrownetechsolutions-com here's the thread we were discussing in the Watercooler Wednesday hangout!

Hello Everyone.

I am in the process of mastering my cold calling skills.

I highly recommend the teachings of Jeremy Miner and learn about NEPQ - Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questioning.

Check out his interview with Brad Lea.

One thing Jeremey recommends is to never begin a call with:

Average Salesperson Cold Call:

“Hi, my name is ____, I am with XYZ company and we do ____. “

They only offer their solution, without focusing on whether there is a sale to be made in the first  place. No Trust = No Sale.

This approach is what 99.9% of salespeople are trained to do by traditional selling techniques.

The old, introduce yourself, tell them what company you are from, and then tell them a few benefits to your solution to build value. The only problem is in the Post-Trust Era, with trust at its lowest point in the history of the world, this no longer works.

Ask yourself what usually happens when you call your prospects with this approach? What comes out of their mouth when you say these three opening lines? “Oh we already have that,” or “We don’t need that,” or “Mr. Johnson is not in today, maybe you can call back next week, next month, next year,” “Don’t want it,” “Don’t need it,” “Can’t afford it,” and so on.

NEPQ Selling Cold Call:

When you place a call and hear the other person say, “Hello,” reply in a very relaxed,
conversational tone of voice, “Hi, this is Jeremy, I was wondering if you could possibly help
me out for a moment?”

Remember, there is absolutely no trust between the two of you yet, so it’s very important for you to sound, and in your mind be, low-key and relaxed. Otherwise you will automatically trigger sales pressure, which almost always leads to getting rejected or objections thrown in your face.

After you say, “Maybe you could help me out for a moment,” the person you called will almost always say, “Sure. How can I help you?” When someone asks us for help, what do we almost always do? We almost always offer it, as this is a normal human reaction.
This simple exchange has helped you to create a two-way dialogue with the potential client
that you have called. You’re not like all the other “salespeople” who call with their canned
phrases like, “Hi, my name is, I’m with... and we do…”

Now once they ask you how they can help you, then we will go into what I call your “problem statement” that leads into how what you do helps other people.

Example for a salesperson in advertising or leads: You would list here one or two problems
that your clients have that your solution solves. You won’t talk about your solutions yet, only asking them to see if they have problems, and if they do, finding out if you could actually help them.

After they say how can I help you, you would then say, “Well I’m not sure you could yet
but I was calling to see if you would be open to looking at any possible hidden gaps in your advertising that might be causing you to lose sales.”

Again, imagining that you sold advertising solutions, in this case.

Now we would probably get more specific about what your client’s problems are than this, this is just off the top of my head, but do you think they might be interested in NOT losing sales?

Most of the time, they will reach with something like, “Now who is this,” or “What does your company do exactly?” You’ll usually get some type of question from them about what you do.

You would then respond with how what you do helps other people.

“Well, you know how a lot of businesses now a day are finding it harder to advertise with
the increasing cost of ads, so many competitors to compete with, and all the changes in the advertising market going on all the time? Well what we do is we help businesses lower their costs of advertising by targeting higher quality leads so they can start keeping more of their profits rather than keep losing it in advertising costs.

“And before I go through who we are and what we do, and all that kind of boring stuff, it might be appropriate if we knew a little bit more about your company, and what you do for advertising now, to see if we could actually even help you.

“For example, what forms of advertising do you do now to generate leads?”