Stop guessing and use your prospect's words

Jason Bay highlighted a highly effective cold-calling approach shared by Kyle Nelson. The strategy focuses on using real language from past sales conversations to craft better cold calls and emails.

Here’s how it works:

1. Use your prospect's words

   Take the exact language prospects use in sales calls to describe their challenges and bring it into your cold calls or emails.

2. Example for cybersecurity sales

   If recent conversations with vulnerability leaders highlight issues like "unclear ownership for handling findings or routing assets," incorporate that into your outreach.

3. Craft your opener

   When prospects give you 30 seconds, lead with: "Other leaders I've spoken with at companies like A & B are struggling with unclear ownership and lack of scalable systems to route issues. Does that resonate for you?"

4. Leverage insights across teams

   Share key snippets from sales calls with SDRs to improve their outreach. This helps book more meetings and aligns the sales process.

The language and problems prospects reveal in conversations are your best tools for creating compelling outbound messaging.

What makes cold calling openers work?

Brandon Mulrenin conducted a study to identify the most effective cold-calling openers, based on his 20 years of experience. The goal was to test 10 openers across 1,000 calls and find which ones led to productive conversations. Each opener was used for 100 calls, targeting decision-makers. Here’s what he found:

• Most common cold opener fails: Traditional lines like "How are you today?" had a 37.2% success rate. These lines often feel inauthentic and cause prospects to hang up.

• Permission-based openers: Lines that ask for permission to continue performed much better. For example, “If I told you I was a realtor, would you hang up or give me 30 seconds?” had a 68.8% success rate.

• Empathy wins: Addressing common objections upfront, like “I know you hate these calls as much as I hate making them—can I ask you something quick?” worked 70.1% of the time, earning trust and goodwill.

• Transparency builds trust: Being upfront about the call’s nature, such as “I’m a realtor, this is a cold call—do you want to hang up or hear me out?” resulted in a 72.8% success rate.

• Best opener tested: The top-performing line, “You’re going to hate me, I’m a realtor—can I have 30 seconds to explain why I called?” achieved an 88.6% success rate. Delivered with light humor, it disarms the prospect and fosters engagement.

Results: By switching to permission-based and empathetic openers, the study showed significant improvements in contact-to-conversation ratios. This reduces the number of calls needed to generate leads and saves time.

Advice: Test multiple openers yourself and track success rates. Use those that consistently lead to conversations and eliminate resistance from prospects.

Stop pitching, start earning conversations

Tom Slocum outlined his exact approach to targeting HubSpot's Sr. Manager, Austin Bokmeyer, who leads four BDR teams.

Here's how he plans to secure the meeting:

• Start with the opener: Keep it consultative and casual. Ask a direct question like, "What’s been the biggest focus for your outbound efforts as you gear up for 2025?"

  Avoid fluff or pitching right away.

• Ask deeper questions: Once the conversation starts, use open-ended questions to uncover key priorities and challenges.

  Examples include:

  • What’s been the biggest win for your BDR teams this year?

  • Where do you see the biggest opportunity for improvement?

  • How do you approach upskilling reps in a competitive market?

• Transition effectively: Wrap up by tying his challenges to a clear solution.

  For example:

  "I recently helped a CX AI team improve quota attainment by 31% in one quarter through workshops and strategy tweaks. Would you be open to 30 minutes to see if this aligns with your 2025 goals?"

• Follow up if no response: If he doesn’t pick up, leave a quick voicemail, send a follow-up email, or create a tailored Sendspark video. The goal is consistency in outreach.

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