It’s another day on the B2B sales floor, you’re ready and raring to go. Keen to make a head-start and smash your quota.
But then you catch sight of the first person on your cold calling list.
It’s someone in revenue operations.
And your heart sinks because you know this prospect is going to know their tech. It’s their job to understand the tools on the market. So you’d better be on your A game.
The good news is we’re here to help.
There’s no great trick to it: you just have to understand what someone in RevOps cares about. And then provide them with relevant information in a way they’ll respond to.
Focus on solving real problems that people in RevOps face in their day-to-day roles and make your outbound efforts helpful for them in their position.
Of course, not all people working in RevOps will be the same. But we asked Tom Andrews, RevOps Advisor, to share some insights on the role of a RevOps manager.
We also called on Ashley Anderson, Cognism SDR, for some top tips on outreaching to RevOps.
Want to know what interests someone working in RevOps? What keeps them up at night? And what you should say when you cold call them?
Well, you’re in luck. Just keep reading! 👇
What's your goal?
Knowing what you want to get out of the call before you dial can help to steer your conversation. These are the most common goals for a RevOps cold call:
- Raise awareness of your product or business.
- Make them aware of new information.
- Get a referral to the relevant decision-maker.
- Get buy-in from a decision influencer.
- Book a meeting to have a further discussion.
Depending on the size of the organisation you're targeting, the RevOps manager you’re prospecting to will be more or less willing to spend time on the phone.
Ashley explains:
“If you’re speaking to someone in a company of 50 people, they’re more likely to have time to have a deeper discussion with you on their tech stack, so you might have more of a chance to book a meeting.”
“Whereas if I call someone from a 10,000-person company, I know I’ve got to be brief. I have to structure my call to minimise how much of their time I spend.”
“But that means less time to go into detail and potentially a reduced chance of booking a meeting.”
Ashley explains how in a situation like this, he’s more likely to get a referral to someone else in the organisation, if there seems to be a fit.
“My priority is to understand their process and where they experience inefficiencies. Then I can justify why they should refer me to someone else who can keep the conversation going.”
Researching RevOps
Before you ever dial a RevOps phone number, there’s some things you should know first, such as:
- What does RevOps do?
- What are the industry trends impacting the role?
- What can go wrong in the world of RevOps?
- Has this person purchased from you before?
We asked Tom these questions. His answers will give you some insight into the ins and outs of the RevOps role.
What does RevOps do?
Their job is to align sales, marketing and customer success operations across the customer lifecycle. They do this by tying them together with the goal of increasing revenue (and in turn, hopefully reducing silos).
The aim is to drive growth by finding ways to make processes more efficient, whether it be by using tools, streamlining processes or cutting out wasted time.
Tom explains this in more detail:
“I think the best way to look at RevOps at the moment is that it’s about bringing new capabilities to an organisation and making the existing ones more efficient than they currently are.”
What industry trends should you know about?
Wondering what to research next before you get on a cold call with someone in RevOps?
Tom let us in on some big things happening in the industry today.
1. Technology debt
Lots of people in RevOps are very well-versed in people and process, but there’s another P to add to this mix.
Platforms! Tom believes finding the technology skills required in RevOps is a little rarer to find.
“Over the last 5-10 years, companies have bought a whole load of new technologies... but they've been building and deploying them pretty badly, not integrating them properly.”
“Which means a lot of ‘tech debt’ has built up in organisations.”
“So then when you have sales, marketing and customer success teams working across all of those different platforms. It creates friction, bottlenecks and a lot of things slowed down.”
“Nothing really works like it’s meant to. And understandably, that causes a lot of frustration.”
“So then you have lots of companies overcomplicating their processes or providing all this training when actually, all they need to do is strip things back and fix the fundamental problems with the tech.”
This is a key issue RevOps managers will need to face. Assess the tech they have in place, reintegrating the platforms they want to keep. Then they can rebuild their enablement processes to ensure everyone can utilise the platforms as intended.
Tom adds:
“You could make everyone in these companies at least 20% more productive just by fixing these tech problems. If you can make salespeople 20% more efficient, that could have a colossal impact on business performance.”
“So I think there’s going to be a movement towards either RevOps roles being split into people and process and then platforms being separate.”
“Or alternatively, RevOps managers will need to have the technical skills needed to fix these problems.
2. Recession
With the fear of a recession building, companies are likely to be tightening their belts and preparing to streamline their tech.
Tom explains the impact on RevOps:
“There’s likely to be more pressure to churn, to reduce headcount. There may be job losses and the market will probably become unstable.”
“We’re unlikely to be able to hire as many people as we were beforehand. And ultimately, we’re not going to have as much money to spend on technology.”
“So then it goes back to a focus on efficiency and getting the maximum capabilities out of your platforms.”
In other words:
How can RevOps help the company to grow sustainably and make the most out of what they’ve got?
Tom adds:
“We’ve been bringing down the overall length of our contracts with vendors because we don’t know how the recession will impact the market long-term.”
3. Ongoing adoption
Another trend Tom highlights is that most technology vendors are great at onboarding new companies. They understand the value of getting new customers set up efficiently.
However, many fall short when it comes to ongoing adoption.
This leads to problems when there are changes in internal decision-makers; for example, when a RevOps manager leaves the role and is replaced by another.
The new RevOps manager may perceive the lack of support as the platform being inefficient, using this as a reason to change to other systems they prefer.
This can cause a lot of chopping and changing and means that systems are never utilised fully.
4. The sheer volume of choice
For every technology in the market, there’s likely a bunch of competitors. Everyone is buying from one another.
Tom explains:
“You end up in this situation where there are features in one platform you want, but not all of it, but you want this other functionality from this other system which overlaps.”
“You’re almost playing Tetris to get the perfect tech stack.”
It makes managing the technologies and understanding the combinations much more complicated.
As a result, one of the most important aspects of any cold call to someone in RevOps or during a product demo is integration with the current tools and platforms.
Tom adds:
“I think there’s an under-appreciation for how mature RevOps buyers have become because of this. I get cold calls from some companies and I probably know more about their technology than the person calling me, because it’s my job to know.”
What can go wrong in the world of RevOps?
There’s a whole variety of ways in which RevOps decision-making can impact the business. In fact, there’s almost no corner of an organisation they can’t touch.
Which means there’s potentially a lot that could go wrong, and a lot that RevOps are responsible for.
Tom says:
“There’s a lot that could keep me up at night. For example sales targets, more specifically hitting those targets. I worry about marketing execution, creating pipeline, and whether we’re converting enough.”
“If we’re reaching quota, I worry about customer success capacity.”
“It all comes down to ‘have we built the company in a way that it can grow sustainably?’”
Another point Tom adds is that RevOps are responsible for ‘no persons’ land’, meaning the gaps between each of the teams, such as sales and marketing.
They need to be the glue that binds the sales and marketing leads - as without which, silos emerge. And with those silos come inefficiencies.
Tom adds:
“A great day in RevOps is when I can see everything is working like clockwork. Or I get a message from someone, like an SDR, saying I’ve saved them 30mins a day. Because that's huge.”
“If I save someone 10mins a day, over the course of a year that adds up to a lot of extra time.”
Have they purchased from you before?
As we explained at the beginning of this article, it’s RevOps’ job to implement tech.
So it’s not unlikely that the person you’re calling - especially if you’re working for a big name in the tech industry - hasn’t already interacted or bought from you before (even if it was with another company).
Tom explains:
“I’ve bought Cognism four times and I’ve bought Salesforce 12 times. I’d expect there to be a Tom Andrews file somewhere with that information available to salespeople.”
“If I were to get a cold call from someone at Salesforce saying:
‘I see you’ve been on our website, would you be interested in buying Salesforce?’
I’d feel pretty frustrated.”
“I have less patience for things like that when my perceived relationship with the company is higher.”
“And if you can’t find that information in your CRM, maybe just ask me ‘Hey, do you have any experience buying this tool before?’
“Because then it gives me the opportunity to fill the gaps rather than get frustrated at the lack of awareness.”
Researching top tip
Ashley has an interesting tip for researching before he calls someone from RevOps.
He calls up someone in the team who is using a certain system or is in the team he believes his solution could help.
Using Cognism as an example, he would call an SDR using contact data either from a competitor (or maybe they’re not using a tool at all). He would then ask them about the quality of their data.
Because then he can call someone in RevOps with more information than just ‘we have quality data’. In this case, he can call them up and say:
‘I’ve had a call with someone in your sales and marketing teams and they feel the quality of your data isn’t as good as it could be. It’s affecting their workflows and their prospecting efficiency.’
Well, now you have a use case. Something tangible that applies directly to them.
Ashley says:
“When you’re approaching those bigger companies, it really helps to have something like a use case under your belt. This helps to help justify your call to decision-makers.”
Who else should you call?
Again, depending on the size of the company you’re targeting, you may need to think about who else in the business might influence the decision to close a deal with you.
Because in larger organisations, the CRO may not be the only decision-maker - meaning you have more people to get on side if you want to get a deal done.
Ashley gives us an example:
“If I’m working a recruitment consultancy, typically, I’m going to want to speak to the Director or Managing Director.”
“Or if you’re targeting a tech SaaS company, your best bet is to include a Head of Marketing or Head of Sales into your list of people to talk to, alongside your CRO.”
“I’d sometimes recommend you speak to those people first; they’re more likely to understand what it’s like to use the processes the CRO helps to manage. It just gives you more information to back yourself up.”
How long should your cold call with RevOps last?
It’s a skill to read the room - well, metaphorical room - when on a call with someone. A skill that hopefully most salespeople have.
Being able to mirror the prospect’s tone, use similar language and judge how long you can keep the conversation going without irritating them.
Ashley explains:
“If I’m on a call with someone who is clearly very busy, I’m going to try to get as much information out of them as quickly as I can without burning the bridge.”
“So for me typically, if it's a company with 500+ employees then I might be able to have a 5-10 minute conversation.”
What time of day should you call?
Every RevOps manager might say something different to this question, because after all - we all have different preferences and ways of structuring our days.
However, Ashley has some wise advice:
“If you’re calling people across the globe then of course you need to take into account people’s time zones. So I start my day calling people in the APAC region, Australia for example.”
“Another word of advice would be to call in the last 15 minutes of the hour, 1:45pm, or 3:45pm for example.”
“I tend to find the pickup rate is much higher in these last minutes of the hour as typically meetings are started on the hour. Prospects are more likely to be free at those times.”
Tom says:
“I fully admit to being a nightmare to get on the phone. Some weeks I’m on 30-40 Zoom calls, and I’d imagine that isn’t too dissimilar from other people in RevOps.”
“But I’d recommend trying to call me towards the end of the day, between 4pm and 6pm. I’m still at my desk, but my calls are more likely to be wrapping up by then.”
“Personally I’d prefer that to being called in between meetings so it doesn’t make me late.”
Another thing to take into account when figuring out when to call your RevOps targets is the countries they do business with. For example, people in the UK who work with the US are more likely to be online later into the evening.
Should you leave a voicemail?
Voicemail is a contested subject. Some people love to utilise voicemail, while others persist with calling until they can get someone live on the phone.
However, Tom advises salespeople to use voicemail:
“I love it when someone leaves me a voicemail. I can so rarely answer the phone during the day because I’m going to and from meetings. But I always listen to my voicemails.”
“What I like even more is when I get a voicemail, and then 5 minutes later I get an email saying:
‘Hey, I just tried to call you about xyz’
“And on that note, if they sent me a white paper or some research saying:”
‘Here’s some research I thought might interest you’
“Or something else along those lines, I’m far more likely to open it, read and engage - if it’s interesting content.”
The RevOps cold calling script
Alright, now all the pre-call shenanigans are out of the way, let’s get into the juicy stuff. Here’s what you should say when you get on the phone with someone from RevOps.
The opener
What you say on a cold call to RevOps will come down a little to your calling style. Would you prefer to call a spade a spade and tell them off the bat that it’s a cold call?
For example:
“Hey, just being honest - this is a cold call. You haven’t spoken to me before, but I wanted to reach out to find out if Cognism could be a good fit for your company. Do you have a couple minutes to talk?”
Or maybe you’d prefer to keep things casual. This is how Ashley likes to start his cold calls:
“Hey, it’s Ashley from Cognism. I appreciate you’re busy, I wanted to have a quick chat to see if I can provide any value to your company.”
He follows this up directly with a pain point statement:
“Typically, I speak to people in RevOps who say they are finding 'xyz' difficult, and I wanted to see if that resonated with you?”
A Cognism-specific example would be:
“I just wanted to let you know I’ve spoken to (insert marketing, sales or RevOps names here), and they believe that the efficiency and quality of the data they’re currently using is slowing down their work processes.”
“I wanted to have a conversation with you to see if it’s worth reviewing a comparison between our tool and the tool(s) you’re currently using?”
One thing to note here is that anyone in RevOps worth their salt will know the tools on the market. They’ve done their research and they’re keeping an eye on emerging tech. Especially in larger enterprise-sized companies.
So they’re not likely to be impressed with someone sharing surface-level features. They’re more likely to be interested in seeing how your solution stacks up against their current setup to see if you can improve inefficiencies.
In addition, if you’re working for a larger company yourself, they’ve likely heard of you before. So don’t act like you’re introducing them to something - say:
“I’m sure you’ve heard of us before, but I wanted to see if you were aware of this new addition to our product that might help you with 'xyz' problem.”
The main thing Ashley relies on in his opening lines is to have real-life information. He wants to be able to say ‘I’ve spoken to a, b and c people, and they believe there’s a problem that I think I can help with.’
This goes back to the research he does before the call even takes place, when he speaks to other people in the company and other RevOps professionals in the industry.
Armed with this knowledge, he’s more likely to have the information he needs to capture the attention of someone in RevOps quickly.
RevOps cold call pain points
We’ve already touched on using the ‘typically I speak to RevOps people and they tell me they’re experiencing problems with 'xyz…’ statements, which is a helpful way to pick out pain points.
But what else can you do to dig into RevOps pains?
The important thing to note here is that people in RevOps are responsible for the processes that everyone in marketing and sales use. They’re looking to improve those processes, reduce bottlenecks and minimise time wastage.
So they’re going to be sensitive to the decisions that impact those areas or the teams they serve.
So saying things like:
“Our solution can help you alleviate 'xyz' pains for your colleagues.”
Is going to be more influential, because that allows them to do their jobs better.
Tom adds:
“I think what’s more important to someone in RevOps is knowing that the product is going to work.”
“I’d rather not go through the traditional pain point discovery process. Instead, cut to the chase. Is this going to practically integrate with my existing ecosystem?”
“I want to know this first before I go through all the next steps.”
“And then I’d always be trying to find out about the onboarding and customer success plan to make sure me and my teams are getting ongoing support.”
“I want to know if we can get specialist training if we need it, or if we have new team members join, they can get the support they need to learn to use the tool. Because ongoing adoption is always a challenge.”
Hit the message home
The meat and bones of your cold call is going to be about reinforcing the pains they’ve revealed to you, and how you can alleviate those pains.
For example, Ashley says:
“We’ve talked about how 'xyz' is negatively impacting your sales team's workflow. For someone in RevOps, how might this impact your role?”
“This tends to get them thinking about:
- How they’re the person in charge of the tools.
- What the implications of not giving their teams the best tools and resources to use might be.”
Ashley also explains that because of the nature of their role, there are also some specific keywords and phrases you should use on your calls.. Such as:
Instead of saying ‘what’s your data like?’
Say: ‘what’s the accuracy of the data in the regions you’re currently targeting?’, or ‘what’s the health of your CRM data?’
Tom offers some 3 areas he would like an SDR to focus on during a cold call:
- Integrations.
- Who it helps.
- How it saves time.
He says:
“If someone called me and said:”
‘Hey, I’ve got a tool you’ve never heard of but it will save your teams an hour a day.’
“I’m interested. I will make time to save time.”
“But honestly, the best kind of cold call I’ve received was someone saying:”
‘Hey Tom, we’re about to release a whitepaper that I think you’re going to find really interesting. Do you mind if I add you to the pre-release list?’
“Because it let me do my own research, which ultimately, I feel is my job.”
“Any time someone is able to teach me something I didn’t know, then it becomes less about a purchase decision, and more about me being better at RevOps which is much more motivating.”
Objection handling
An unfortunate part of any cold calling role is that you’re likely to face some objections from sceptical prospects.
And in the case of a RevOps manager, well… you can imagine they get cold called a lot! So they’re going to be well-versed in their objections.
Here’s how to handle objections on a RevOps cold call:
For example:
“I’m busy.”
Can be countered with a simple:
“I hear you, I appreciate you must have a lot on your plate. Is there a better time when I can call back when we can have a chat later?”
Another common objection from someone in RevOps could be:
“This sits with someone else.”
And in this case, you have a golden opportunity to ask for a referral to the right person.
Such as:
“Understood, would you be able to introduce me to the right person to speak with about this and I’ll get out your way?”
Referrals are brilliant outcomes - because now you can name-drop the RevOps contact when you outreach to this new person, saying:
“I spoke with (RevOps name here) and they said I should speak to you as you’re responsible for 'xyz'. Is that right?”
Being able to name someone they work with is a great way to bring down the protective barriers and get someone to open up and talk.
A slightly more difficult objection is:
“We’re happy with the tool/process we’re using.”
Because it’s the role of a RevOps manager to research, implement and review whatever systems are in place. So they will - for better or worse - feel like they’ve done their due diligence to choose the best tool or process for their teams.
They’re probably not going to like someone suggesting that the tool they chose is a bad tool, because… well, you’re basically saying they made the wrong decision.
But at the end of the day, RevOps aren’t the ones using those systems or tools - they may be misinformed about the reality of the process they’ve chosen.
This is where Ashley likes to use the information he’s gathered from those who are using the tools. Because how can you argue with that?
The close
You’ve made it through the 5-10 minutes of your cold call with your RevOps target. Now it’s time to draw some form of conclusion.
Ashley says:
“Depending on how your conversation has gone, and if you’ve been able to drive those points home about how your solution could be better than their current one, then you could say:”
“I appreciate you’re the budget holder for this, you’re the decision-maker.”
“So rather than going through speaking to all the other people at your company individually, why don’t we set up a call with yourself and anyone else you think needs to be involved.”
If you’ve managed to keep their attention this far, you’ve got a good chance of getting the outcome you want - and remember, a meeting doesn’t have to be the only positive outcome!
An SDR’s secret weapon
We know, we’ve shared a lot of information so far - but here’s one last thing before we close out this ultimate cold calling script for RevOps. And we promise, it’s worth it!
While this is useful for RevOps, it’s also a good trick to implement for all of your outbound sales calls.
After each of your calls, keep a record of what happened. Whether it’s a field in your CRM or a separate spreadsheet - note down some important points, such as:
- Where did they answer? Email, phone or on socials?
- Which channel are they most responsive on?
- And at which time of day?
Because over time, you’ll build a history of information that can help to guide you on when and where to contact someone the next time.
Not only that, your AE is going to love you when you can pass on all this additional information about the target. For example:
‘These are the five people from this company we’re speaking to. This is where they’re most active and likely to respond, and at these times of day.’
Tom says:
“I knew an SDR who did this once. He had a response rate for every person he had ever outreached to. And all the AEs wanted this guy's leads because they’d get a dossier of how to contact this person.”
Get more cold calling scripts from Cognism
Alright, we promise - we’re done now! But if you’ve not got your fix for cold calling scripts quite yet, you can check out our other cold calling scripts below.
Choose from our library - including ones for prospecting to CEOs, CMOs, CROs, enterprise companies and more!
