A case study for the most effective cold call openers
+Eliminate the words "help" and "struggle" from your script
It’s easy to post an opinion about a topic. The internet is filled with folks who love to offer their two cents on topics they have little to no experience or results in.
What grinds my gears are people who have never done something and give advice on how to do it.
It reminds me of a personal trainer coaching folks on how to lose weight and grow muscles, yet they are overweight and unfit. This has always seemed a bit odd to me.
Not my first choice for a personal trainer.
A wise person told me once to be cautious of advice given by someone who does not have the life or the results you desire.
When it comes to cold calling, I want to know what works most often. What do the most successful sellers do, and more importantly, how?
I knew cold-calling worked, but I knew some sellers were more successful at it than others.
Call recordings and case studies have been a treasure chest. You can learn a ton from your own experience, and there is nothing like it. However, you can accelerate that learning curve by learning from others as well.
Brandon Mullrenin did a recent cold calling case study on the best cold call openers from 100 conversations, ranked them, and broke down the results.
This case study called on homeowners using 10 different openers and then ranked them by success rate.
The results were that a permission-based opener is more effective in leading to conversations. Increased skills will reduce the number of contacts needed to generate desired outcomes.
Here are some takeaways:
1. What’s not measured won’t be improved
The best case study is the one you do yourself. Tracking your progress will help you identify exactly where you need to improve, eliminating guesswork and ambiguity in your process.
It’s hard to argue with numbers. They are what they are. Once you know what the outcome is, you can change the input. You are in control now, and less is left up to chance or opinion.
Tracking your numbers will highlight exactly where you need to do more or improve your skills. Great sellers know their numbers.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel
Have you ever heard this saying?
“There is nothing new under the sun.”
How about this one?
“Success often leaves clues?”
You are setting yourself up for failure if you try to reinvent the wheel every time. Most successful people have outlined their process and journey.
Wise people learn from others.
Most of the openers Brandon outlines in the case study worked 70% or more of the time, and only one worked less than 40% of the time.
I don’t recommend you use that 40% one too often.
There were two that worked almost 85% or more.
“John? John, this is Brandon, I’m a realtor and listen, before you hang up I was hoping to ask you something really quick. Would that be ok?”
Success rate = 84.9%
John? John, this is Brandon, you are going to hate me, I’m a realtor, do you want to hand up or will you give me 30 seconds to tell you why I called?”
Success rate = 88.6%
3. It’s not the script, it’s you
Have you ever considered the difference between a good and a great actor? Both use and read scripts. So how is it that we can look at two actors and have a different reaction to one versus the other?
The difference is their delivery. Actors practice their lines over and over, and their delivery. They want you to feel it.
Cold-calling scripts are similar. It’s important to have a script, but not sound scripted. How a script is delivered allows some cold callers to get results faster than others.
4. Skills Matter
It took me a while to understand what great cold callers did that made them successful. At first, it’s about getting comfortable on the phone and finding your confidence.
There’s no way around experience and talking to potential customers.
However, at a point, I noticed that certain sellers were much more effective. They made fewer calls to book meetings, and their deals progressed faster than others. It often seemed like they were doing less work and getting more results.
The difference was their skills and how they spent their time, focusing on tasks that produced a higher ROI for their time.
In addition, the best cold callers practice and focus on key skills that make them much more effective on the phone:
Objection handling
Tone
Confidence
Consistency
This is simple, but not easy. It’s hard, but worth it.
You are worth it.
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Until next time,
Tajh
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