Transcription
Hey Sarah, this is Micah from AB Solutions. Do you have a minute?
You've probably heard something like this before. And the problem is everyone is sick and tired of hearing the same opening lines. I know this because after making over half a million cold calls in the last 5 years, I've tested countless openers. A lot of them make people hang up instantly, but a handful of them worked like crazy. So, in this video, I'm going to share with you what I believe to be the best cold call openers that you can use to keep your prospects on the phone longer and crush phone sales.
First, we have what most people would call a cold call out. And it'll sound something like, "Hey, David, it's Micah from ABC Company. Just a quick heads up, this is actually a cold call. Want to hang up now or give me half a minute to see if it's worth your time?" So, the idea here is it's playful. It's sort of tongue-in-cheek and it calls out the elephant in the room. The problem with this one is you lose a lot of status when you explicitly label yourself as a salesperson, specifically a cold caller. And I guess I would say the most effective vertical is other sales personas. They'll typically get a kick out of it.
Moving along to the second opener that I've tried. Some folks call this the value drop or benefit-led opener and it's a very simple formula. You know, I help [titles] at [company type] solve [whatever the specific pain point]. You know, mind if I share how? So, it can sound something like, "Hey Mark, it's Micah from Acme Corp. We work with heads of IT at midsize banks to reduce their QA testing cycles by 40%. Would it be okay if I share how we're doing that?" So, it's not bad. It gives off the vibe that you're a straight-to-the-point person and that it's highly targeted to their exact role. However, you're sort of pitch-slapping them right out the gate and that'll quickly label you as a low-status salesperson and it gives them enough context to feel confident saying, you know, they're all set.
Next up, we have the context or relevance-based pitch. So, really similar to the value drop, but it can sound something like, "Hey, I noticed your team just rolled out a new mobile app last quarter. We've been helping other SaaS companies tie in their release testing and security. Thought it might be relevant. Can I give you the quick rundown?" So again, very similar to the value drop opener, but even more specific to, you know, what's going on in their company. This can be marginally more effective as you show you've done your research, but that research may take more upfront time. And if you're using an AI or intent signal tool, you risk being wrong or it turns out that the data is completely irrelevant.
The next one is the curiosity or question-first opener. And it'll sound something like, "Hey, Alex, just a quick question. Who's in charge of handling third-party pentesting for your web apps?" And so an intro like this is great for again, just getting straight to the point, but your tonality has to be on point here. Not enough trust is usually built at this stage just to start asking questions. So they might be a little more resistant if they feel you're a salesperson.
And then the fifth one that I've tried is the conversation, human-to-human approach. And this one you're going to want to use a friendly or informal tone. Can sound something like, "Hey Tom, it's uh Micah over at Company X. You know, how you been?" And so the casual tone can disarm the prospect, but if your tone is even slightly off, it can instantly destroy your status. And sometimes the prospect feels like it's a bait and switch because you give the impression that you know them, but then they find out that you're just a stranger.
And then the next one is the permission-based or sort of polite opener. And this one's used pretty widely. It'll sound something like, "Hey Sarah, I know you weren't expecting my call, but can I grab 30 seconds, let you know why I'm reaching out, and then you can tell me if it makes sense to keep going." It's not a terrible opener, and you do a lot by calling out the elephant in the room and giving them the autonomy to either let you continue or not. I do think that your status can be diminished in this formula, but adjustments can be made, which we'll talk about shortly here.
The main reason I didn't rate any of these super highly is because they all take a pretty high degree of skill in your tone and delivery to succeed with, which can take thousands of calls to master and months, if not years, to get right. So, yes, you can use any of those, but that's not why you're here. You're here to find out what the best cold call opener is. And I believe that's what I call the Door Opener Sequence, or DOS for short.
There's three parts to the DOS opener, which are: number one, what we call an optimized PBO or permission-based opener; then a pattern interrupt question; then an upfront contract. And before I get into each part, the reason why this works so effectively is that in a cold call, the buyer journey starts from a place of fear. And as soon as they pick up, you need to turn that fear into enough trust to lead into a curiosity-inducing pitch. The problem is if you haven't properly set up stable ground or sort of a stage to launch into your pitch, you're not going to get very far.
So, diving into each part, the optimized PBO consists of a double tap on the prospect's name, introducing yourself and the company almost in an explanatory, matter-of-fact tone, then into a tactical empathy statement addressing the problem that they have now, which is you. Then leading into an ask, which is really suggesting the solution to solve their problem again, which is you. And aka, you know, hear me out and I'll go away. Optionally here, you can uh close the loop to give even more autonomy and show non-neediness.
Then you have the pattern interrupt question where you act as if you're going straight into your canned pitch, but then cut yourself off and ask a qualification or clarification question. The reason this is so important is that from an evolutionary perspective, our minds are drawn to fast-moving objects because fast-moving objects signify either great danger or great reward. Think of a falling tree overhead or a gazelle running away from its hunter. Going straight into a pitch becomes predictable in the mind of the prospect because they've been through this motion a thousand times before. But when you change lanes quickly, they instinctively perk up and leading into a question creates an involved dialogue and helps you gauge where to take the conversation next.
Finally, the last thing you want to do is set what's called an upfront contract. This gives the green light for the prospect to cut you off while keeping their self-dignity intact. And if they cut you off at any point in this manner, it's actually a really good thing because then they either verify that for one reason or another, it's not worth talking to them, or an objection or question comes up that you can use to progress the conversation closer to the objective, which will typically be in the form of booking a meeting or closing a deal.
One quick note is to introduce some ums and a's and filler words in your opener and really in your entire talk track. We call these verbal disfluencies, and they help you sound authentic and not like you're reading off a piece of paper.
So, putting it all together, it can sound something like, "Oh, hey, John. It's uh Micah over at Company X. I know I'm an interruption here, but do you mind if I grab half a minute? I'll let you know exactly why I called, and then you can let me know if it's relevant or not." And they say, "Yes, great. They'll appreciate that." And then remind me, uh, have you heard of Company X? Just by the off chance. Usually, they'll say, "No, okay, no worries. Well, feel free to cut me off if it's not in your wheelhouse."
And so another variation of that could sound something like, "Yeah, hey John, it's uh Micah calling from Company X. I know I'm catching you on the fly and I don't think we've ever spoken before, but was looking to grab 27 seconds. I'll tell you why I called, and then I can let you get back to the salt mines." And I say, "Yes, great. Sweet. Appreciate that. Um, remind me. Is application pentesting uh still in your swim lane?" Right. If they say no, then you might not be talking to the right person. But if they say yes, okay, gotcha. Then I think this should be relevant. But feel free to cut me off at any point if I'm barking up the wrong tree here.
So again, the DOS opener gives you the runway to fully explain your value proposition, to generate curiosity and intrigue within your main pitch, and set up a strong close. Now, my hope for you is that you take what I just showed you and try them to see what works best for you. But if you want to see them in action before you get started, click right here to watch me actually make cold calls in real time and start from complete scratch until I make my first sale. So you can just copy my process start to finish.