Tactics to Succeed and Make Prospects Laugh on Cold Calls, Recognizing the Opportunity in Small Markets - Tactician #0041

23/01/2024

TACTICS TO SUCCEED AND MAKE PROSPECTS LAUGH ON COLD CALLS

Florin Tatulea, Director of Sales at Barley, shares practical strategies on succeeding with cold calls in “#57: This is how to NAIL a cold call”

• Importance of Tone and Confidence in Cold Calls:

  • “Surprise! The opener doesn’t really matter… as your tone/confidence is really the key BUT if I had to go with one I’d focus on the permission-based opener which most of you already probably know: ‘Hey {Name}, I know you weren’t expecting my call, do you have a moment? I promise to be brief.’”

• Alternative Fun Opener for Cold Calls:

  • “If you are looking for a fun opener that’s gotten a laugh from prospects when I’ve done it, you can try this: ‘Hey {Name}, this is technically a cold call. Would you prefer if I hung up or did you want to roll the dice?’”

• Problem Statement and Provoking Cost of Inaction:

  • “ALWAYS ask an open-ended question to provoke the cost of inaction so that you open up a discussion to start the call. Closed-ended questions that result in Yes/No answers will kill your chances of getting meetings booked.”

• Techniques for Handling Objections - Labeling and Mirroring:

  • “If you get these concepts right, you will be shocked at how much more meaningful your conversations become.”

    • “Labeling is simply the verbal observations of feelings. It makes the prospect feel heard:

      • Prospect: “We are not interested, we already have a solution in place.”

      • You: “That must feel good” or “It sounds like you are quite happy with the current solution in place””

    • “Mirroring is about repeating the last few words your prospect said to encourage them to expand on their point and reveal information they might not have before:

      • Prospect: “This all sounds great, but it’s just too expensive”

      • You: “Too expensive?” *pause and let them talk*”

RECOGNIZING THE OPPORTUNITY IN SMALL MARKETS

Harry Stebbings, Founder at 20VC interviews Adam Fisher, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners in “20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets […] with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer“

• Recognize the Value of Small Markets:

  • Insight: Fisher emphasizes the advantages of focusing on smaller markets over larger, more competitive ones.

  • Quote: "I personally like to invest in in smaller markets for two reasons [...] first there's unlikely to be competition focused on that same market and the second is that if you price it right, and you've come in at the right valuation you can still achieve an exit in that smaller market [...]  I like niche areas where there are adjacent sectors where they could grow this way, they can grow that way, they can go up market, they can go into a second related niche. I think that's a that's a fine way to grow into a bigger market."

• Surprise People Out of Nowhere:

  • Insight: Fisher advises caution against overly ambitious growth plans and high valuations.

  • Quote: "I don't think that the way you build a big company or the way you get a big exit is by investing in the most ambitious companies growing the fastest. Those are also the companies that crash and burn. In my experience it's been companies that require patience and that over time figure it out and surprise everybody out of nowhere."

• How to see several years into the future:

  • Insight: Fisher highlights the significance of a Founder’s ability to demonstrate continued learning.

  • Quote: "The key for looking at first time entrepreneurs is identifying somebody that you have chemistry with [...] that they can learn from you and you're learning from them. It's also people who progress very fast on the learning curve, meaning from meeting to meeting you can witness what they've discovered and what they've learned [...] that is generally an indication of what the next several years are going to look like."

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