Are you making dozens of calls, but no one is picking up?
Maybe worse than having your cold call unanswered is having it answered by someone you don’t want to speak to - a gatekeeper, or voicemail.
If this sounds familiar, it’s more than likely that cold calling is killing your mojo.
Fear not - you can get it back! Cold calling superstar Morgan Ingram can help…
Morgan recently sat down with volunteers to answer some of our audiences’ burning cold-calling questions in a live clinic.
Scroll or use the menu on the left to skip to a tip.
You can watch the full episode here ▶️
How can I improve my intro?
Lead with value, not the pitch.
Craft an intro that sparks immediate interest. It should come straight out of the gate with value.
Why should your persona care?
You’re there to address an issue. You should talk about the value of your solution.
You need to understand what your prospect's problem is. For each role that you’re targeting, find out how you can help them.
Morgan explained:
“I would find out how we help people with different job titles, make it specific to them. Explain that you’re working with the top companies in your space. Here’s the problem that they’re looking to address, here’s how they do it.”
How to get a response from a follow-up?
The chance of a prospect responding to an email is extremely low.
If you’re speaking to a VP, it’s likely their inbox will be flooded!
So how do you handle this?
Get an understanding of what your prospect wants.
Morgan told us:
“The question that I ask is, what exactly do you want in this email?”
“When you ask that question, then they have to give you what they want. You're going to stand out amongst everyone else. If they can't answer that question, they're not as interested as you thought they were.”
How do you generate interest at the start of the call?
The key is to reverse engineer the personas.
You have to take a step back; reflect on what would get someone interested.
Pattern interrupt to switch someone’s mindset.
Forbes defines a pattern interrupt as:
“An extremely effective technique in sales that can change behaviours, assumptions, opinions and decisions in an instant, as it pushes people to not rely on their go-to responses.”
Address a pain point or ask a question they care about. Get them thinking!
Morgan gave an example:
“Hey, many of our customers who are VPs of enablement have found that ramp time is an obstacle for them. And I want to see how you are currently addressing that?”
The purpose here is to address a pain point or a goal. If you can generate interest, they’ll lean in to understand more.
People want something relevant, generic messages are often ignored.
Any good tips to get past the gatekeepers?
When you ask for someone’s help, you’re more likely to get a positive response.
The best way to talk to a gatekeeper is to see them as an ally.
Morgan told us:
“When you see them as an ally, you have a better chance of a conversion. One thing I’ll do is say ‘can you help me?’. People inherently want to do good, so they’re more inclined to help people.”
For some more gatekeeper tips press ▶️
What's the best pattern interrupt?
There’s no such thing as the ’best’ pattern interrupt. But Morgan is here with a secret tip, it’ll help you break the mould.
Want to know how to make your prospect more receptive?
PLA: Pleasant, laughing, arms up.
This technique helped Morgan become more personable on the phone. As well as amplifying his confidence.
Here’s an example:
“Hi Sally, thanks for taking my call, I know I’m catching you out of the blue, do you have a few moments to chat?”
Pleasant:
How often are you thanked for picking up the phone?
You immediately interrupt their pattern. They don’t expect you to thank them!
When we haven’t seen something before, we pay more attention to it.
It’s better to avoid using your name. You want them to say: “Who is this?”
This comes down to passing an acceptance barrier. Once they ask you a question, they have opened the door for you to talk with them.
At the beginning of the call, their defences are up. After this question, they’ve opened the door for you to talk to them.
They’ve agreed to hear you out. Then you can go into it!
Laughing:
The second part is the laugh, acknowledging the scenario.
The laugh is helpful because you’re creating levity. You can see this as a crazy situation.
This is where you might need acting lessons…
You don’t want to sound like the Joker right?
The key is to keep it natural, how you actually laugh.
Arms up:
The last part is arms up, you make yourself unassuming and ask them for a few moments to chat.
You don’t want to come across as aggressive.
Morgan doesn’t specify a timeframe, so he isn’t pigeonholed. If they’re interested you can keep the conversation going.
How do I stop talking so fast?
It’s critical to be in the moment with your prospect.
So how do you improve your talk track?
Morgan's advice is to wait for at least a second to process what they said when you finish talking. That way you can provide a worthwhile response.
Morgan said:
“When you pace yourself and pause to slow down your talk track, you’re allowing yourself to embrace sales objections. You can truly listen to what the prospect is telling you, so you ask better questions.”
Morgan’s takeaway is that a pause helps you to get a deeper connection with your prospect. That way you can talk with them rather than at them.
What is the perfect pitch for B2B appointment setting?
There is no single perfect pitch.
So what is a helpful pitch that delivers impact?
What will pique their interest the most?
It’s the results that you bring to your customers.
Morgan’s perspective was:
“Ask yourself - what results have we got for our customers and how can I turn that into an impactful pitch? That is how you do cold calling for outsourcing B2B. And that’s how you’re going to be able to scale this.”
There’s a big problem with prospecting today. Product and features are the only focus.
What prospects want to know is the value they’ll get from the product.
Shabri Lakhani talks about being value led, instead of product led👇
Regain your cold calling mojo with Cognism
It’s true, Cognism can’t give you the perfect pitch.
But we will help you find your match.
We’ll connect you with your ideal buyer.
More conversations, more mojo.
Click 👇 to find out more.
