How to get insane results thanks to cold call
It's quite rare to see a sales team that really mastered cold call, or even practices it regularly. While it's often possible to book at least 1, up to 6 meetings per day (depending on each persona/market).
3/10/20267 min read
How to Get Results From Cold Calling
Cold calling is generally a neglected part of the sales process. Often poorly understood and rarely mastered, attempts to book meetings over the phone frequently end in failure.
And yet, it's entirely possible to book meetings quickly through cold calling and unlock business opportunities that previously seemed out of reach.
Yes, cold calling still works.
I know this better than most, because I consistently book between 1 and 4 meetings per day when prospecting enterprise accounts, and sometimes even more when targeting independent professionals and small businesses.
What's more, I often book meetings from the very first day of prospecting, even in industries I knew absolutely nothing about beforehand.
So, am I some kind of intergalactic genius? A monster of resilience and persistence? Or is it simply that I have the right mindset, a good prospecting list, and a solid technique?
Personally, I'd go with the first option, but I have to admit that reality is a little less flattering.
I simply do a few straightforward things that work, sometimes repeatedly, with confidence (because I know they work).
The truth is that it's not particularly complicated, even though it can sometimes be mentally challenging.
1. The Right Mindset
When it comes to cold calling, the most important factors, in order of priority, are your mindset, your prospecting list, and then your technique.
Let's start with mindset.
Having the right hunter mentality doesn't mean thinking: "I'm going to get every single one of these idiots!" or "Good for them, I hope I annoy them and manage to rip them off!"
No. That kind of mindset will get you absolutely nowhere. All you'll do is destroy yourself mentally.
Before starting my cold-calling sessions, I systematically read a list of affirmations to get into the right mindset.
Your mindset is extremely important because with the wrong attitude, your tone of voice will suffer, and you won't get results.
My affirmations generally fall into four categories:
"I want to book meetings", "I'm going to book meetings", "I am in the zone!" These affirmations help me get into a positive mindset, build contagious momentum, and prospect with intention.
"It's okay if I don't book a meeting", "I don't need anything", "They're entitled to not want to talk to me", "Low-key, nonchalant." These affirmations help me put rejection into perspective, avoid sounding too needy, and stay detached from the outcome of each individual call.
"I have value to offer", "My job is to connect businesses", "I'm simply offering something valuable." These affirmations help me avoid feeling guilty when I'm not 100% certain about the value a particular product or service can bring. My role is simply to suggest exploring that value in a dedicated meeting. They're the ones best positioned to ask questions and evaluate the opportunity.
"Eternity", "Infinity", "Exploration." When prospecting is your job, the number of potential prospects is virtually infinite. Visualizing this endless flow of opportunities helps you detach yourself from the outcome of each interaction and, once again, sound less needy.
Only once I'm in this mindset am I ready to start prospecting.
2. A Good Prospecting List
If I don't call the right people, I can't book meetings with the right people.
And if I call the right people but do so blindly, without a personalized opening line, it's almost as if I were calling the wrong people.
A good prospecting list is an essential prerequisite for successful prospecting.
Ideally, your list should be segmented by job title and industry. This allows you to immediately mention relevant social proof in your opening line, based on the prospect's profile, and spark their curiosity more easily.
Having a good prospecting list therefore allows you to deliver the right opening line to the right people, making it much easier to engage them in a conversation.
3. The Right Technique
A good cold call relies on three things:
A personalized opening line.
A permission-based approach.
A prepared 30-second pitch that is relevant to the prospect.
Personalized Opening Line
Here's an example of an effective opening line to make things clearer.
Let's say I'm prospecting Procurement Directors at large industrial companies:
"Hello XXX (prospect's first name), nice to meet you. My name is Louis from XXX (company). I'm calling because we work with Procurement Directors at industrial groups such as XXX and XXX (relevant social proof). Would you be open to hearing a little more about it for 30 seconds, just to see whether it might be worth scheduling a meeting sometime?"
Why does this opening line make prospects willing to have a quick conversation in the majority of cases (more than 50%)?
Quite simply, because they immediately understand why I'm contacting them.
I'm reaching out because I already work with people like them, at similar companies.
Their curiosity is sparked, even though I haven't necessarily mentioned the actual product or service yet.
In fact, deliberately avoiding mentioning the product or service at this stage can sometimes prevent an automatic rejection, since I've only introduced the type of professionals I work with rather than going into the details of my offering.
Furthermore, this permission-based approach makes it more likely that a booked meeting will actually take place.
I'm not forcing anything. The prospect decides whether to listen to me and whether to book a meeting.
With a more aggressive approach, meetings are often less solid. I know this from extensive experience.
Of course, there are different ways to open a cold call. This particular opening line should be adapted depending on your target audience and industry.
Sometimes, you can spark curiosity by asking an open-ended question about the prospect's business instead of directly asking for permission. The result can be exactly the same.
Also, some target audiences are traditionally more resistant to prospecting, simply because they receive far more cold calls than the average professional.
In that situation, you'll need to be more direct and say something along the lines of:
"My goal isn't to take up your time right now. I'd simply like to see whether it might be worth scheduling a meeting sometime. Would you be open to hearing a little more about it for 30 seconds, just to see whether it could be relevant?"
The objective is to get a positive response to this type of opening line in at least 50% of cases. Once you've got permission, you can deliver your pitch.
The Pitch
A good cold-calling pitch is extremely important.
It should include social proof, directly address the problems your target audience faces, and/or explain the benefits of your solution or product, particularly from the prospect's perspective.
In reality, pitches can vary significantly depending on the industry, because each market has different challenges and priorities.
Your pitch needs to be adapted to your offering, your target audience, and the competitive landscape.
Broadly speaking, there are two main types of pitches:
One for agencies and IT services companies (ESNs), operating in extremely competitive environments.
Another for SaaS, software solutions, and other B2B services.
I'll go into more detail about this in my article on building an effective cold-calling pitch.
A) For an Agency or IT Services Company
Let's say I'm working with an agency targeting enterprise accounts (larger SMEs, mid-sized companies, and large corporations).
The reality is that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the company you're prospecting already has an agency or someone in-house providing the service you're selling.
If you immediately introduce yourself as an agency, the answer will automatically be no.
You'll therefore need to put much more emphasis on social proof in your pitch and simply propose a neutral introductory meeting to explore potential areas of complementarity and see whether there might be an opportunity to work together at some point.
This approach allows you to book meetings with large corporations and get your foot in the door.
It's a long and complex process, but with enough meetings, it's possible to secure very lucrative contracts, often worth tens of thousands of euros per year or more.
Unless your agency or IT services company has a very strong competitive advantage (which is rarely the case), this is pretty much your only option.
Of course, I'm not talking about prospecting small businesses and independent professionals here, as they're not necessarily already working with agencies.
The problem with these smaller targets, however, is that they often don't have much budget.
You'll therefore generate considerably more meetings, but with much lower average deal values.
For IT services companies and recruitment firms, the principle is pretty much the same.
There's no point trying to uncover some unmet need during the cold call. They don't necessarily need you. Their existing operations are already running smoothly.
Sorry to put it so bluntly, but your goal should be to get your foot in the door and find a way to become part of their existing way of working.
Trying to identify an unmet need directly during the cold call simply won't work in more than 99.9% of cases.
And it will prevent you from proposing a neutral introductory meeting in the first place.
B) For Software, Machinery or Other Products and Services
If I'm prospecting for B2B software or other types of services, it can be useful to mention social proof right at the beginning, within the first ten seconds, before going into more detail about the product.
The idea is then to explain the different benefits of what we're offering, as well as how it differs from competing solutions and/or how it addresses the problems faced by the target audience.
You can continuously test and refine your pitch to find the positioning that works best when booking meetings with different personas.
When operating in a highly competitive market, even with B2B software (for example, when prospecting for a CRM), it's crucial to immediately highlight your product's competitive advantages.
Unlike agencies, software companies often have much clearer points of differentiation.
Mentioning these differentiators directly in your pitch also helps anticipate the prospect's objection: "We already have a CRM" (or another solution).
You can then dig deeper into their specific situation and quickly suggest a meeting to demonstrate the tool, allowing them to decide whether it could complement or outperform their existing solution.
Conclusion
A successful cold call comes down to three things: the right technique, the right mindset, and a good prospecting list.
When all three are in place, it's often possible to book qualified meetings consistently and almost immediately, creating opportunities for new business collaborations in the months ahead.
More and more founders and Heads of Sales are choosing to outsource B2B sales prospecting to professionals because of how challenging this discipline can be.
Curious to find out more?
Feel free to send me an email (louis@outbound-machine.com), and I'll let you know whether I can help.