November 14, 2023
Cold calling is an intimidating task, especially if you haven’t made any before. As a salesperson, you cannot have the fear of rejection. It’s important to have a goldfish mentality - forget about it after five seconds and move onto the next call. A lot of the time with sales you are receiving no over and over again.
At Dakota, we like to say “become a professional meeting setter-upper.” The only way to do this is practicing your pitch over and over again until you can recite it in your sleep. We have been doing this for 20+ years, and know a few things about cold outreach and being addicted to setting up meetings.
In this article, we are teaching you how to successfully complete a cold call, as well as the factors you need to include in your pitch. By the end of this, you’ll have an idea for how to create your own script for cold calling.
The first thing to keep in mind when you're cold calling is that due diligence analysts get hundreds of calls and emails a day. This is why your script needs to be short and to the point.
For the beginning of the cold call, you can't go off script. Once you get out the first 10 to 15 seconds, then you really need to be prepared for what is next.
So, you dial the phone and the analyst picks up. Introduce yourself and say the firm you’re calling from. For the sake of explaining, we’ll use Dakota as an example.
“Hello, my name is Gui Costin from Dakota. We’ve never spoken before.”
Move on to explain what your product and strategy is in order to draw them in.
“Our firm partners with a select group of boutique investment managers across long only equity and private alternatives. I will be in Boston on October 30th, can you meet at 9am?”
That's it. That's your cold call.
The analyst will most likely say something along the lines of, “Tell me a little bit more about your firm,” before they agree to a meeting. This is where it's so important that you get in front of a mirror and practice, so you’re fully prepared to answer the follow up questions.
The key is to know what makes your product, or what you’re cold calling about, different. Once you say your first differentiator you should hope that you don’t need other factors because you want it to be so impactful.
One for example would be saying who is invested in our products… “Our partner funds are used by over 800 investment firms globally, by some of the largest foundations, endowments, consultants, banks / broker-dealers, RIAs and leading family offices”; we pack a punch with that statement.
The end of your call should be asking for a meeting. Keep this short and to the point.
“I'm going to be in Boston on August 24th. Can you meet at 9:00 AM?”
After concluding the call, or maybe just leaving a voicemail, send an email to follow up 5 minutes after the call so you have a few touch points in with this salesperson you’re trying to get a hold of.
Sales is an emotional job. Once you get your practice in, you’ll become more comfortable and realize it’s not personal when someone tells you no or even hangs up during your pitch. The next cold call you make could be the one that lands you your next meeting.
Start your free trial of Dakota Marketplace to learn more tips and tricks on tightening your sales process in the Sales Training tab.
Gui Costin is the Founder and CEO of Dakota.
