Introduction
Cold calling, my favorite thing to do (NOT!)
However, I have found four really effective methods/approaches that enabled me to have much higher success rates and therefore cut my prospecting time in half!
In this article, we’ll cut the BS and just dive straight into each method one by one, enjoy!
Method no.1: Provocation
Check out these two examples of provocative questions provided by Belal Batrawy:
Did you notice the words “what” and “cobbling together”? A master example of gentle provocation.
The word “what” is used to confront, the word “cobbling together” is used to evoke a negative emotion.
The essence of provocation consists of confronting the customer with a big problem you know is relevant today, and making him or her feel a bit uncomfortable about it.
You need a bit of courage to pull it off, and you will get some irritated responses if you push it too far. But if done right it works wonders!
Method no. 2: Curiosity
Although curiosity questions are closely related to provoking questions, they come from a different seller’s mindset.
Curiosity questions are less egocentric, they come from a place of genuine interest and are designed to get your prospect thinking without creating emotional friction.
Check out this example by Jeff Molander:
Situation:
The prospect is selling training via its own website
Curiosity based question:
Notice the use of the first four words, “how do you know”. Using the word ”how” reduces the “I’m calling you out” effect. It comes from a place of genuine interest. The word “know” gets the prospect thinking.
“How will you know” triggers reasoning, so you’re much more likely to get a well-thought true answer. An answer that lays a solid foundation for ongoing conversation.
Method no. 3: Priorities before problems
Priorities before problems I picked up from Jason Bay. Instead of presenting a problem statement, you present the priorities you have found most relevant in your market.
Check out Jason’s example below:
If you’re calling high-level decision-makers, focussing on personal priorities over problems works exceptionally well. It’s the kind of zero BS, get straight to business approach, that will get you success….if you get the priorities spot on.
As you can see by now, critical to all three methods we covered:
You need to understand what is most important to your prospect.
This ability to empathize with your prospect comes from a place of understanding. A place of subject matter expertise.
So up next:
Method no. 4: Subject Matter Enthusiasm
Brought to you by yours truly, and builds from a base of Subject matter expertise.
Your ability to “sell” using your subject matter expertise as the basis, is what gives you what is needed to be seen as a trusted advisor and the right person to partner up with.
Top-performing Account Executives rely heavily on this fundamental skill, yet when we cold call we tend to forget about this superpower.
Meet Subject Matter Enthusiasm.
Engineers are notorious for being difficult to sell to. They are like bloodhounds and can smell a seller from miles away.
Yet when I cold call into a new prospect, engineers often are the first contacts I’ll call, and I’ll use Subject Matter Enthusiasm to secure a meeting right then and there.
How? Check out this real-life example from a producer of rubber anti-vibration products.
Meet the seller:
The company sells products (rubber-metal parts) that are used to isolate equipment so noise or other vibrations are not transferred.
The seller prepares:
The seller researched the prospect and found acoustics to be the prospect’s main differentiator. Their equipment is relatively silent, and this feature is used extensively in their marketing campaigns.
Using Linkedin the seller found the prospect’s engineer responsible for system design. From experience, he knows that this job title most likely is responsible for making sure the equipment is designed to be silent.
The call:
After asking for a moment of the prospect’s time, the seller verified if the person on the other side is indeed responsible for system design including acoustics.
Instead of talking about what the seller’s products can do to solve problems related to noise or vibrations, the seller brings up an intriguing insight and offers innovative industry knowledge. The seller knows that the prospect’s engineer will be interested in new technologies concerning noise and vibrations, as it is the engineer’s job to be the internal company expert.
Using Ensthousiam he gets the prospect excited to know more about it.
Then the seller invites the prospect’s engineer to a short TECHNICAL presentation with the promise to educate.
Want to see how it works? Here we go:
Since I started using this method, I actually stopped hating Cold calling.
Cold calling still isn’t my favorite thing, but it has brought a lot more fun and success to my cold calling efforts.
There is a catch though, It takes two basic ingredients to pull this off:
- You have to be knowledgeable yourself
- Be able to empathize with the requirements of the prospect’s day-to-day job.
Sales gurus bombard you with terms like give value first.
But in today’s world, that’s not good enough! You have to BE THE VALUE!
That’s the essence of selling using subject matter expertise as your base skill.
That being said, if you’d like to know more about how to effectively make use of subject matter expertise to level up your sales game, just register for my newsletter!
I’ll be sharing examples and case studies just like this one twice a month. Be sure to join!
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Take care — Mohamed Ali
