Brrrring the Cold Call Back!

Cold call principles

What I’m about to tell you is contrary to what you’ve learned about cold calling.

What is the primary objective of the call?

To get the person’s attention as a real human being. In the digital age, attention spans are so fleeting. Social media and email are great, but unless you’re communicating through video it’s not going to convey your human energy.

Why can’t I get a meeting on the first call?

Where’s your patience?

On your website, advisors are always saying they’re the most patient and understanding people on Earth. Why is it that this doesn’t apply to your attitudes towards prospecting?

Yeah, I said it.

Why is it that all of you expect a highly successful, highly compensated, highly valued person to just flock to you? They’re going to snap to it and do what you want right away, as if he or she has absolutely nothing else to do? As if you’re King Tutankhamun. This is a human being you’re talking to. Do any of you have kids? True or false – human beings love being told what to do. False!

Advisors hate it when your clients want you to make them a quick profit and trade the hot stocks. But do you realize this is how short-term oriented some of you can be with your marketing? It’s a long-term strategy folks, so buy the ETF and hold throughout the market volatility.

On the first call don’t expect:

• A meeting;
• An indication of interest in the service;
• A sign up or a sale of whatever you are selling; or
• A proclamation that you are the best and smartest.

Unrealistic. May happen but not likely. Remember we’re starting from zero and they don’t know anything about you. Too humbling for you? Then stop reading. Go read the nonsense that my competition writes about SEO strategies.

What does the person you are calling need to sense about you in order to engage?

That you communicate in a real way.

Here’s an example of how telemarketers can be so fake. They start the call off with “Good morning! How are you?” as the first line. This is fake empathy. Do you really mean it? What if she answers with, “Well, I just got an audit letter from the IRS, my husband of 30 years just cheated on me, and I have to shut my business down, get therapy, and get a divorce.” What are you going to say? You’re not their mom.

I’ll show you a sample cold call script later.

How should the cold call be used?

Cold calling on its own is going to be soul crushing. Would you ever eat a whole bowl of ketchup? No, but you’d love some ketchup drizzled on a hamburger.

Here’s a few ideas on how to sprinkle it on.

• Send out your quarterly market commentary and then call the prospects who clicked and read it.

• Call a prospect who you’ve initiated a connection request to on LinkedIn, but hasn’t accepted it yet.

• Call someone who constantly shares and comments on your postings on social media and may possibly be a COI.

• Call a prospect before you initiate a connection request on LinkedIn and explain why you think they should accept the request, then after you hang up, send the connection request.

Use cold calling to enhance your other marketing activities: digital, in person, through the mail. Do this enough and they’ll get the impression that you’re not going away until they pay attention to you. Grit like this is rare and highly attractive.

Sample cold call script

Let’s say you’re cold calling a difficult (oppositional) prospect.

You: Hi, this is Sara, may I speak with Elba?

Prospect: This is.

You: Elba, if I could explain to you in five seconds why I’m calling would you resist hanging up?

Prospect: Make it quick.

You: I’m calling to ask you to accept my LinkedIn request that I sent last week. I know, I know (use animated voice), you get this all the time. Unlike the 100 (say this in an inflected voice) other financial advisors bugging you online, my tax newsletters are suuuuuper duper useful for highly taxed physicians like you in the Menlo Park area.

Prospect: I’m not on LinkedIn.

You: Great! How about I email it to you instead?

Prospect: I don’t have email.

You: You’re filing your taxes this year, right Elba?

Prospect: Of course.

You: I’ll mail you a copy. Make sure you read this before April 15th as there are some 2019 tax return tips you’ll want to tell your accountant about.

Prospect: Okay. Gotta go.

You: Look for the envelope with Sara Grillo’s name on the front. Bye

You may say this was a failure because you didn’t get a meeting. But not if you account for her human tendencies. Like any successful person, she is busy and guarded. Can you empathize with that feeling? Of course you can!

Here are the successes:

• This cold call script allows you to get your point across while showing value and a little personality.

• It meets Elba where she is, a position of high distrust, without trying to force her to trust you. You allowed her to lead the call. With an oppositional prospect, this is what you must do in order to keep things positive.

• You’ve gotten her attention. The next time she’ll be more likely to recognize you.

• She gave you an opportunity to show value by mailing her something.

You haven’t closed on a meeting yet, but given where this prospect is, this is the best that could be achieved. Make sure your newsletter is super informative and that is has all your contact info on it. If it has meaning to her, she may just come around.

Rebutting your objections in advance

Now I know you advisors are going to have all sorts of rebuttals. So just like the good marketer that I am, let me address your objections in advance.

I don’t have their phone number

That’s why you call business owners. And by the way, if you connect with the person over LinkedIn first, there is a way to find out (many times) what their phone number is.

Rich people won’t respond to a cold call

Probably not at first. But they might respect you depending on how you conduct yourself. I’m sure you’ll agree that a business owner (who came up the ranks his or her self at one point) is going to respect someone who is:

• Well spoken
• Driven
• Brave
• Can get to the point quickly and not babble

I’ll get screened to voicemail

Yes, you will! Anyone with a life is not going to answer their phone from an unknown number and we all have caller ID.

You want this. Once you get put to voicemail, it takes the pressure off. Now it’s not a live dialogue and you’re free to put on an entertaining show without the pressure of being caught off guard by whatever the person on the other end of the line may say.

My Sam voicemail mentioned earlier is an example of a killer voicemail that closed a sale.

Sara’s upshot

As a resource, I provide cold call scripts in my membership. If you express an interest and I follow up with you, you will heartily enjoy receiving my fascinating cold calls.

Sara Grillo, CFA, is a marketing consultant who helps investment management, financial planning, and RIA firms fight the tendency to scatter meaningless clichés on their prospects and bore them as a result. Prior to launching her own firm, she was a financial advisor.

Read more articles by Sara Grillo