Cold Calling Sucks (Book Synopsis)

Cold Calling Sucks (2024) asserts that success in sales is determined by the number of uncomfortable conversations you're willing to have. And by conversations, the book means cold phone calls. While cold emails can get sellers to quota, cold calls can get them to President's Club. The book teaches sellers how to optimize and maximize each step of the cold call: the opener, the pitch, the handling of objections, and the setting of a meeting.

Context

The book is written by two young salesmen who worked their way up the corporate ladder at a rapid pace, and then founded the sales education brand: "30 Minutes to President's Club (30MPC)."

Goal

The goal of the book is to take average sellers and upgrade them into sellers who make President's Club. The book attempts to achieve this goal by focusing on optimizing and maximizming prospect meeting setting, exclusively through cold calling. While there is a place for cold emails, it's the cold calls that get a seller to President's Club. This book is for both full-time meeting setters and full-cycle sellers alike; the only difference is the portion of the day devoted to cold calling. By following the teachings of this book, a seller should be able to hit and exceed quota every month, quarter, and year.

Openers

Don’t waste time by asking a prospect about their day, if this is a good time to talk, or if this is the person you intended to call. Wasting time frustrates your prospect.

Name Drop Opener:

* Lead with context, saying that you or your company works with some group that your prospect is a part of.

* Say your name and your company.

* Ask if they’ve heard your name tossed around.

Tailored Permission Opener:

* Lead with context.

* Admit that this is a cold call.

* Ask for permission to pitch.

If permission is denied:

Give them an incentive in order to find out the real reason for the objection. Listen to their response. Admit that you don’t love making these calls but you did do research on the person/company. Ask permission for 30 seconds to share what you found.

Tone of voice:

Make sure you're speaking with a relaxed tone of voice as if you're lying back in a chair with your feet up. Avoid over-enunciation or upward inflections of your voice.

Couldn't find enough context on your prospect? Use a non-tailored opener.

Try practicing your opener 100 times holding your phone with your phone off.

Problem Proposition

Describe the prospect’s triggering problem (instead of buzzwords); the problem needs to be specific and painful.

Tell them your one-sentence solution; it should only need one sentence if you’re right about their problem.

Give the prospect an interest-based call to action. Validate their interest in a soft way before asking for a meeting. Make them only decide one thing at a time.

Try creating a cold call script (an opener and a problem proposition) and then practice it 100 times.

Handling Objections

First, agree with the objection.

Second, ask for the real reason behind their objection.

Third, sell the sales demo by positioning it in a way that the prospect gets value even if they don’t buy.

Finally, slow down and laugh; be comfortable like a peer.

Practice by picking 4 objections you’ve dealt with and agree and incentivize those 25 times each.

Handling Specific Objections

Post-pitch dismissive objections: reveal the real objection, then handle it.

Pre-pitch dismissive objections: be disarmingly blunt; then pivot back to your permission-based opener.

Situation Objections: let the prospect think they’ve won with the objection today; convince them during the sales demo.

Existing solutions objections: reveal the problem with a trap question; then sell the sales demo with social proof.

Try picking one objection per week to practice, and drill it 30 times.

Handling Gatekeepers and Voicemails

Gatekeepers:

Slowly share information, act like you own the place or are the close friend of the prospect (but not the gatekeeper); if necessary, share context for your call; if necessary, share social proof.

Voicemails:

The goal is to have the prospect to reply to your email (which you will send immediately after leaving a voicemail). If it’s the first voicemail left, then share only context in 15 seconds; if it’s the second time leaving a voicemail, then share context and social proof in 30 seconds.

Try practicing the voicemail script so that not a single word or second is wasted.

Maximizing Dial Conversion

Dial connect rate: document bad numbers and phone trees; avoid spammy behavior.

Meeting set rate: optimize your call list by removing disqualified prospects, prioritizing top companies, and calling the highest-level employees that you can.

Meeting show rate: send 1-2 personalized confirmation emails; if the prospect doesn’t show, postpone the meeting a few days and offer additional times.

Try making your own prospect qualifying criteria in order to filter and sort your call list.

Maximizing Dial Throughput

Do cold calls first thing in the morning.

Divide and order your day into prospecting, customer calls, and admin work (including research for tomorrow’s prospecting).

Make 40 dials per hour.

Dial for 1 hour per day if a full-cycle seller or 2 hours per day if a meeting-setter only.

Try making weekly dial commitments to yourself that have fun but non-trivial consequences.

Summary

Cold calling sucks; it’s generally going to take 50 calls to set one meeting. The sellers that make President’s Club face the same challenges as the average rep; the only difference is that they don’t let it stop them from making the calls. Before you start cold calling: know your minimum viable talk tracks; and practice them out loud 50 times. Make the calls every morning to start your work day. Make the calls every single work day. Set your call goal every week with a consequence if you miss it. Enjoy the suckiness and make President's Club.

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