A Non-Salesy Technique to Start a Conversation With Your Dream Customers

Love this tactic from Robert Graham that starts a conversation by offering something of value rather than asking for 15 minutes on someone’s calendar (which can feel a bit sales-y and common).  His outreach feels genuine, friendly and human.

I was so inspired by Robert’s approach that I wrote a cold call script and email template for my friends at Skill Scout.

An Example: Cold Call Script for Skill Scout

Open

Hi Lisa. My name is Elena. Maybe you could help me out for a moment? (Hat tip to Ari Galper for this highly effective opener that feels good when you say it.)

(Pause)

Pitch

Thanks Lisa. I run a blog about recruiting and I’m looking to have conversations with leaders like yourself (or Hiring Director’s) about what they’ve learned recruiting manufacturing candidates. I’ll post our talk and give you folks some exposure by including a link back to your jobs page.

Ask

Option 1

Lisa, feel free to say no, but allow me to ask, would you be open to carving out some time to chat?

Option 2

So Lisa, are you in?

Option 3

Lisa, what do you think?

Option 4 (my favorite)

Lisa the question is are you ready for your 15 minutes of fame?

Objections & How to Diffuse Them

Why are you doing this? What are you selling? Or what are you getting out of this?

Thanks for asking. Let me step back Lisa. Have you ever heard of Skill Scout?

Prospect: No

Option 1

We’re crazy passionate about helping Hiring Directors in the manufacturing industry attract and spot the most qualified applicants. To help our customers be more awesome in this area, we’re interested in learning from leaders like yourself and I’m happy to offer you some exposure as well by linking back to your job page.

Lisa, would you be open carving out some time to talk over the next couple of weeks?

An Example: Email Template for Skill Scout

Subject: Your 15 minutes of fame . . .

Hi Lisa,

I run a blog about recruiting and I’m looking to have conversations with Hiring Director’s (their title) about what they’ve learned recruiting manufacturing candidates.

After pursuing your LinkedIn profile, I thought your perspective would be valuable to my audience.  I’ll post our talk and give you some exposure by linking back to your jobs page.

Lisa, would you be open to chatting?

P.S. You’ll have to tell me about “working” in Italy if we connect.  Tuscany is on my bucket list for sure.

~Elena

How to Elegantly Transition from Your Interview To Your Offering

One of the best things about this tactic is that you can use the interview to identify problems that ladder back to your offering.   For example here’s a question you could ask during the interview: