How to cold call without sounding salesy
Step 1: Set your intent.
It’s not your job to talk everyone into booking a meeting with you.
The problem is the word “into.”
When people feel like they’re being talked into buying, they want out.
Instead, detach from the outcome.
Let go of assumptions.
It’s okay if people want to talk with you. It’s also okay if they don’t.
You’re sorting not selling.
Ironically when you let go of assumptions and sort, you have more conversations because you create an environment where people don’t feel “sold” or “manipulated.”
The joy of cold calling happens when you realize you’re not for everyone.
Step 2: What’s the cost of inaction?
Your biggest competitor is the status quo.
Intertia is powerful.
What does it cost your prospect to do nothing?
Example for Truebill:
$700-$800 YoY on subscriptions you didn’t know you had. (83% of people pay for unwanted subscriptions.)
The labor-intensive, frustrating process of calling customer support to cancel.
Strep 3: What’s better?
See a single list of all your subscriptions & cancel them with one click without changing your viewing habits—no contacting customer support.
Step 4: Pique curiosity by asking a question that gets prospects to think differently about their current solution without having an agenda. In other words, poke the bear.
Here’s the Truebill cold call script:
1. Ask For Permission to Talk
“Hi Lisa, Josh Braun. We’ve never spoken but I was hoping to speak with you briefly. Do you have 2 minutes?
2. Credibility Statement.
“Thanks. I’m with TrueBill. Over 2m people use our app.”
3. Potential Problem (one sentence)
“Not sure if you’re bumping into this, but we’re seeing that a lot of people are paying 600-$700 a year for subscriptions they forgot about.”
4. Poke the Bear (shine a light on a problem your prospect might not know they had without having an agenda).
“Just out of curiosity, how are you keeping track of subscriptions? Are you checking statements, or can you see a single list of what you’re paying for?”
Conversation started.
This is for TrueBill, but you can easily customize the framework for your prospects.
Ditch the pitch
Poke the bear.