The World's Best Cold Calling Framework (set over 3000 meetings in 2021)

https://youtu.be/hF5zSiRlNC0?si=4DhtLO2_tPYqGL6a

One of the reasons people hate cold calling is that they don’t know what to say.

Cold calling becomes much easier when you have a framework. A framework that generates buy-in and interest from the prospect along the way.

Here’s how we structure them at Sales Science.

Stage 1 - Permission based opener

I wrote a blog post recently on 4 ways to open cold calls (check it out here). They are all variations of the concept known as a permission based opener. This is essentially getting permission from the prospect to have a discussion. Variations of this include:

• Hi {{name}} it’s matt here, I haven’t caught you at a bad time have I?
• Hey {{name}} it’s matt here, look I know I’m an interruption, can I get 27 seconds to explain why I’ve called?
• Hey {{name}}, look I’ll level with you, this is a cold call, do you want to hang up or can I get 30 seconds to explain why I’ve called you?

Stage 2 - Outline the problems you solve

In stage 2 you outline a couple of business problems that you help people to solve. Why is this important? Because the prospect wants to know what’s in it for them. They don’t care about your company. Business people are paid to solve problems or prevent them from happening. It’s that simple. So tell them what problems you solve. We recommend outlining two potential problems at this point in the conversation Here are a few examples of how you do that:

• Typically we work with Sales Leaders that are struggling with one of two problems, either net new pipeline creation is lumpy because reps aren’t spending enough time prospecting or our clients don’t have a system in place to actually identify and then reach out to new potential customers. Either one of those an issue for you at the moment?
• We work with Ecomm businesses that are struggling with one or two issues, either they’re having a tough time scaling their marketing budget due to high ROAS, or they don’t have access to the capital they need to scale inventory. Am I wrong in thinking one of these is an issue for you?

Notice the focus on the problem and not on what it is you do specifically.

Stage 3 - Dig into the pain

The next step is to dig into the pain that the problems are creating. You do this by asking expansion questions based on the prospects' response. Expansion questions are things like:

• How long has that been an issue?
• What have done to try and address this in the past?
• Do you have plans for how you’ll address it in the future?
• Does this create flow on issues for other parts of the business?
• Is this a key challenge that might impact this years growth targets?

Stage 4 - Close for the meeting

This is the final piece of the framework. It’s where you ask the prospect to take the next step and schedule a meeting. Here’s how we typically do it:

So it sounds like what we do might be able to help. Any reason you’d be opposed to spending 20 minutes learning how?

The reason we frame it this way is because we want the prospect to say “no”. With the way the question is phrased, “no” results in us getting the outcome we’re after. It’s much easier to get a no from a prospect than it is a yes. Use this to your advantage.

‍