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A solid cold calling script is vital to your success when trying to sell your service. Today, I\u2019m going to be running through how to write your own cold calling script for your SMMA business<\/strong><\/a>, regardless of your industry. That\u2019s where my experience lies with my current marketing agency.<\/p>\n First of all, we will be talking about the importance of a script and whether you need it.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n Cold-calling script is the biggie. Getting this script right is the secret to getting your first SMMA client<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s the key, it\u2019s the fundamental, it\u2019s core to success in cold calling for SMMA businesses.<\/p>\n Cold calling has been around for years and years and years. It\u2019s the OG of outreach. These days, it really wants to be used as part of a multi-platform strategy. You want to use cold calling as one of your outreach strategies in your bigger-picture sales process.<\/p>\n One of the most common questions people ask is:<\/p>\n The misconception that you need to get out of your mind, the common conception that people have about call scripts, is that it\u2019s this physical piece of paper that they\u2019re going to be holding in front of them. That\u2019s not what I want you to do at all.<\/p>\n I want you to memorize this script. I don\u2019t want you to be holding this piece of paper, reading from it. I want you to treat it as if it was a monolog in drama in high school. We\u2019ve all done their monologs and drama. You learn that script.<\/p>\n Once you actually learn it and internalize it, you can truly master the tonality because that\u2019s when you understand why you\u2019re saying what you\u2019re saying and not just what you\u2019re saying on a piece of paper.<\/p>\n That is when you separate yourself from the other agency owners who sound robotic and salesy and struggle to close.<\/p>\n What really separates good salespeople from average salespeople is their sales script and the ability to master their tonality and the way they execute their script.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not going to call it a script. It\u2019s the structure. It\u2019s the framework. It\u2019s the blueprint.<\/p>\n Here are the five things that you want to include in your cold calling script.<\/p>\n The biggest mistake that I see in so many sales scripts is when I see someone say,<\/p>\n \u201cHey, how are you doing?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHey, how\u2019s your day going?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This fake rapport building. You don\u2019t care how their day is. You don\u2019t care what they\u2019re up to or how they\u2019re doing. You don\u2019t know the person you\u2019re calling. They don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n If you care about that, it\u2019s just this fake facade of niceness. It just doesn\u2019t work. It doesn\u2019t wash because every salesperson thinks that they should say that to build rapport. However, it\u2019s not building genuine rapport at all.<\/p>\n You\u2019re saying it to absolutely everybody. Hey, how are you doing? It\u2019s just a false conversation, and it doesn\u2019t need to be in there. In fact, the best thing for you to do is diffuse them on the thing they\u2019re worried about the most, and that\u2019s you wasting their time.<\/p>\n They do not want their time wasted. They get pitched all the time. If you\u2019re doing business to business, these people you\u2019re calling up, they are getting pitched day in, day out.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one of the things you need to recognize. How can I separate myself from everybody else, which is calling that person up?<\/p>\n So diffuse them right away and diffuse them on time. You could say,<\/p>\n \u201cHey, John, I know you\u2019re busy, so I\u2019ll be quick.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHey, John, have I caught you in the middle of something?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n You can ask that question. You could almost be a little bit of a role reversal because no normal salesperson would ask somebody, Have I caught you in the middle of something? They can then potentially give you an objection. Actually, it works the other way around. It then proves that you have respect for them, and therefore, they\u2019re going to trust you a lot more and be more inclined to give you their time.<\/p>\n Because you should be grateful for the time of someone that you don\u2019t know. Make sure you diffuse them right away. You don\u2019t bother about that fake small talk.<\/p>\n We want to say who we are, where we\u2019re from, and what our company actually does. Keep it this really short, no waffle. This is the whole theme of how your cold calling script should be in this day and age.<\/p>\n Gone are the days of these A4 pieces of paper, this long script where you could get away with pitching someone over the phone for about five minutes without them saying anything. It doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n You need to make sure you\u2019re not waffling, you get straight to the point, and you respect the person you\u2019re speaking to.<\/p>\n You can say something like,<\/p>\n \u201cMy name is [Your Name]<\/strong>. I\u2019m the managing director of the [Your Agency]<\/strong>, and I help restaurants get more clients per month using social media ads.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n You could say something that is relevant to your service. But make sure it is relevant to you, who you are, where you\u2019re from, and exactly what you do in just one sentence. It doesn\u2019t need to be longer than that.<\/p>\n When they\u2019re going to say what is the reason we called, this is where we want to introduce some personal touch. We want to say something that says to that person that we have only called up them, that they\u2019re not just one part of some big Excel spreadsheet.<\/p>\n What information can we dig up on them?<\/p>\n Can we say something that\u2019s relevant?<\/p>\n Basically, you want to highlight something unique to them.<\/p>\n As a marketing agency, I could say something like, \u201cI was on your Facebook profile earlier, and I noticed the range you brought out recently. How\u2019s that going?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n You could ask them a question about their product or their service, something unique to them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u00a0Just build some rapport. This is your chance to build rapport<\/strong><\/a> with the business owner.<\/p>\n You\u2019re telling them why this is what you\u2019re actually called, but you could drop something in there to let them know, like a little bit of tangent conversation to let them know that you\u2019ve actually done your research on them.<\/p>\n Or you could just say something which is unique to them:<\/p>\n \u201cHey, I saw you\u2019re running some ads at the moment. I\u2019ve seen that retargeting ad. That\u2019s a really nice copy you\u2019ve got going on there. But actually [You can tell them what it is you can do to improve on that for them.]\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This is my tip. Give them a compliment on something unique to them, personal to them, and then you can serve them up the fact that you can improve it. You don\u2019t want to go straight in.<\/p>\n The big mistake people are making is to go straight in, all guns blazing; you\u2019re doing something wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019re just going to put them on the back foot. They\u2019re going to feel attacked. You need to make sure if you are going to deliver criticism to somebody, you deliver it with a compliment as well.<\/p>\n You make them feel good, then give them some criticism, and then at the end of the call, you will make them feel good again.<\/p>\n You\u2019re going to offer them something that they really want. That is your why. Why is it you\u2019re actually calling and how can you make this unique to them. What can you add there in your sales pitch, something unique about them that makes them feel personal, like you personally outreach them.<\/p>\n Now, at this point, we can ask them a question to qualify whether they are suitable for our service. For example, if we are a marketing agent, so if we could ask them:<\/p>\n And you\u2019re asking them a question to pre-qualify whether they are actually a suitable client for you.<\/p>\n You\u2019re going to make them think about whether they want your product or your service before you\u2019ve even offered it to them. A<\/p>\n s I said, you don\u2019t always need to do this. There will be instances when you already know that this person is qualified. They\u2019re already really keen.<\/p>\n You think that the conversation is going well, and you\u2019re pretty sure that you can get out of them what you want to get out of them. The majority of the time in SMMA, it\u2019s going to be getting some a meeting with them, some a follow-up call, so you can actually close them.<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t recommend you selling on a cold call if you have a B2B client.<\/strong> People need warming up. You want to arrange some a meeting with them.<\/p>\n But on the flip side, that person is a bit standoffish. They don\u2019t really sound interested. When they answer the phone, they sound like what? You might want to dig deeper.<\/p>\n You might want to try and get some conversation out of them, build some rapport with them, and ask them a question about their business, about whether they are doing something that you provide for them already.<\/p>\n Ask them a question that makes them think about your service before you actually deliver it to them on the actual call.<\/p>\n What do we actually want? We could transition to the what just by saying something like,<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason for my call is I want to see if you\u2019ve got 10-15 minutes over the next couple of days or so I can share some ideas with you. I can talk you through this. I can talk through how this works. I can see whether we\u2019re a good fit for each other.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s a good one to say. I can see whether we\u2019re a good fit for each other. That\u2019s a nice bit of psychology in there. The key to why that actually works, and I\u2019ve used this in many sales scripts before, is you\u2019re almost de-qualifying somebody.<\/p>\n You\u2019re almost saying you might not be the person we want to work with. One thing we\u2019ve introduced into our cold call pitches is something like:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m only looking to take on one or two new clients this month,\u201d or<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe only have the capacity to take on one new e-commerce client this month.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n To them, it\u2019s like, I want to be that person.<\/p>\n You create that scarcity and that desire. Scarcity in marketing<\/strong><\/a> is a technique that makes people want to buy from you.<\/p>\n You can introduce that into your script somewhere by saying to them, by de-qualifying them. You\u2019ve got either a qualification or a de-qualification, something like that:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re only looking to take on 1 or 2 new clients this month. But I want to see over the next couple of days if you\u2019re free for 10-15 minutes so we can see whether we\u2019re a good fit for each other.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In which case, they\u2019re going to be like, Well, yeah, obviously, I\u2019m a good fit for this company. What do you mean? Why wouldn\u2019t I be a good fit? Let\u2019s have this call, and let\u2019s see if I am.<\/p>\n It\u2019s that reverse psychology, and it works really, really well.<\/p>\n So what do we actually want from this call? Do we want to sell them our service? Do we want to have a meeting with them?<\/p>\n Then you go ahead and actually arrange all the technicalities.<\/p>\n Now, the majority of the time, these calls aren\u2019t going to go the way you want them. That\u2019s just the way it is. That\u2019s just sales. You don\u2019t always get a plain sailing yes without any hiccups. You\u2019re going to get some objection. This is a numbers game.<\/p>\n But an objection is not a rejection. It\u2019s just a request for more information. Remember that. Any good salesperson will push back on an objection.<\/p>\n The majority of the meetings we have at our marketing agency is when we push back on some request for more information.<\/p>\n For example, if somebody says to us, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t have the time,\u201d This is a really common one.<\/p>\n Your answer to this objection could be like:<\/p>\n \u201cSo when are you going to have the time to increase your sales? When are you going to have the time to increase your client base? I thought you just told me you want to expand your business. When are you going to have the time to do that?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOkay, so you don\u2019t have the time now. That\u2019s fine. What about tomorrow? What about next week?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n And that\u2019s just one objection that you can get. Another objection is: \u201cI\u2019m not interested.\u201d<\/p>\n You answer could be like:<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, fine. I presume you\u2019re making a lot of money from Facebook ads at the moment. If not, why would you not be interested in making more money from a new source? I just want to share 15 minutes with you over the next couple of days. What have you got to lose?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The question of \u201cwhat have you got to lose?\u201d is super powerful. They haven\u2019t got anything to lose. You\u2019d just overcome these objections.<\/p>\n The best thing to do to prepare for objections in cold calling is to write down every possible objection that you could get or over 100 cold calls. Just write down every objection that you\u2019re getting and then write down an answer next to that<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Over time, you\u2019re going to master objections. Just like with SMMA email outreach<\/strong><\/a>, the secret is in the follow-up that the success is in the follow-up. It\u2019s not in the initial outreach. It\u2019s the exact same for cold calling, where the success is in the objection handling.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t get it the first time. And if you give up on the first hurdle, you don\u2019t deserve the sale or the meeting in the first place. You need to push back again and again and again and again until that person doesn\u2019t want you on the phone anymore.<\/p>\n Because you don\u2019t want to just burn a lead with an objection if there\u2019s just a request for more information, a really simple, easy request, but more information that you could have given them.<\/p>\n Make sure you always, always, always push back on objections.<\/p>\n Now, once you\u2019ve actually written out your script and you\u2019ve internalized it, you\u2019ve learned it, I\u2019ve got a huge tip for you. This is a massive one. This will help me improve my sales adequately more than anything else. That was recording my cold calls. You can easily do that with a cold calling software like JustCall<\/strong><\/a> or GoHighLevel (30 day free trial)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Record your cold calls over a period of 7-14 days, judge them, and critique them.<\/p>\n Even better, have other people critique them. Judge the way that you are pronouncing and delivering every single word, every single sentence, and play with it over time and continue recording it.<\/p>\n Over a period of a month or two months, you\u2019re really going to master your own script because you\u2019re going to be able to listen to it subjectively.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re saying things, you\u2019re not actually hearing what the other person is hearing. You\u2019re only hearing what you\u2019re saying in your own voice, and you\u2019re actually thinking about what you\u2019re going to say next. You\u2019re not actually paying attention to what\u2019s really coming out of your mouth.<\/p>\n The only way to truly judge that is by recording yourself. It\u2019s super uncomfortable, but it\u2019s where you\u2019re going to see the most growth in your sales delivery.<\/p>\n I hope it gives you enough to go on to create your cold calling script. I hope you\u2019ve got a ton of value from this.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nThe Importance of a Cold Calling Script<\/h2>\n
Script or No Script: Addressing Common Concerns<\/h3>\n
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5 Key Elements of a Cold Calling Script<\/h2>\n
1. Diffuse Initial Resistance<\/h3>\n
2. Craft a Concise and Impactful Introduction<\/h3>\n
3. Personalize the \u2018Why\u2019 of Your Call<\/h3>\n
Qualification: Identifying Suitable Clients<\/h3>\n
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Defining the \u2018What\u2019: Your Call to Action<\/h3>\n
Handling Objections in Cold Calling: Turning \u2018No\u2019 into \u2018Yes\u2019<\/h2>\n
How to Prepare for Objections?<\/h3>\n
How to Get Better at Cold Calling<\/h2>\n