Sales storytelling is a great technique to use when working to close a deal, and using it with Cold Calling can help you get there. Cold calling is a sales approach involving contacting potential customers who haven’t shown previous interest, aiming to generate leads or sales. According to a blog on Cognism, while the average cold calling success rate is 2%, strategic approaches can significantly enhance B2B success. Gong suggests a simple opener, asking prospects how they’ve been, can boost rates to 10.01%. LinkedIn recommends mentioning a shared group for a 70% meeting increase, and a purposeful opening line can elevate success by 2.1%.
Why Storytelling?
Storytelling in cold calling is crucial because it goes beyond typical product pitches. By crafting a narrative, you connect with prospects emotionally, making your message more memorable and relatable. Stories build trust by humanizing the interaction. Rather than a standard sales pitch, a thoughtfully constructed story captures attention, sustains interest, and demonstrates the value of your product or service. This approach not only sets your cold call apart but also boosts the chances of a positive response by resonating with the prospect on a personal level.
Last week, I read a book called “Storytelling for Startups” by Mark Evans. It spoke about how storytelling has been a took that the world’s best marketers like Steve Jobs, have used. I couldn’t agree more. This led me to think of the possibility of what storytelling could do for the cold call scripts? The internet lacks a lot of blogs and articles about what cold calling scripts are successful. I found some resources that pointed out to what a script should look like, but there’s a lot less about the storytelling.
When I say storytelling, do not mistake it for a lengthy script. It’s simply tying facts together and talking about the experience. Consider Steve Jobs’ introduction of the iPhone: “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything and Apple has been – well, first of all, one’s very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple has been very fortunate.” In those simple yet potent words, Jobs captured the essence of a transformative experience, emphasizing the rarity and significance of such moments in the world of technology.
In the book, Mark has mentioned how a story should be educating, engaging and entertaining. And that happens to be the crux of a successful cold call script as well. Yes, it does take a lot more effort to get this aspect fit a 30 second pitch, but that’s the art. Engaging is to involve the prospect and ensure that we are asking questions and helping them open about their needs. Education means speaking about the product. And entertaining means that we can evoke some emotion – which can be a feeling of relating to the product.
After reading a lot more about storytelling and getting some pointers from the book, I came up with a few pointers that I believe could be incorporated in storytelling in a pitch.
- Creating a context and building rapport: Commence the script by offering context about your product, emphasizing problem-solving benefits to help prospects visualize its relevance. Foster engagement by posing questions, enabling a dialogue to identify and address their specific pain points.
- Making data memorable and overcoming objections: When presenting statistics, incorporating a client’s success story can be impactful. In a saturated market, a relatable case study addresses prospects’ concerns, demonstrating relevance and showcasing the tangible benefits of your offering.
- Retaining attention: Brief calls and active engagement may not blend seamlessly, but a concise narrative—comprising a problem, solution, and positive result—proves effective. When you give the clients a story, they remember the use case of your offerings better and it helps them to relate with you more.
- Personalizing the pitch: Thorough research is key to personalizing interactions by understanding your audience. It goes beyond an introduction, allowing you to uncover prospect pain points and tailor your narrative or share relevant use cases.
During my extensive experience as a face-to-face sales rep, I found that sharing past stories was key to successful pitches when addressing my client’s concerns. I see cold calls in a similar light. By moving away from a transactional mindset, crafting a script focused on providing help becomes more natural. This not only helps in building connections but also improves the presentation of our offerings.
If you are still trying to make that compelling story-focused cold call script, let me help you! Let’s connect and make that script together. Find me here.
