Picking up the phone

Guest Michael Pedone was asked directly whether picking up the telephone and reaching out to people you do not know still works. His answer: yes, it works for sure.

The reason it does not work for most people is that they do not know what they are doing, they had improper sales training, and they do not want to do it.

He is also honest about the part most advocates skip. Nobody wants a cold call. He does not want one either. It is a necessity at times, not a pleasure, and the times are defined by arithmetic rather than preference.

That arithmetic is the most useful number in this course. If you are on salary, you have to generate at minimum four to five times what you are paid for the role to make sense to the organisation.

Run your own number before your manager does. If inbound cannot plausibly get you to four or five times your salary, the gap is the case for the phone, and it is a better reason to dial than anyone else's motivation.

On salary you have to generate four to five times what you are paid.

Source: Is Cold Calling Dead and if Not, How Do You Go About It Effectively? With Guest Michael Pedone, episode 30 of the Oil & Gas Sales & Marketing Podcast. The framework is Michael Pedone’s, from that episode.

Pedone also gives a specific, mechanical fix for the moment a call is about to roll to voicemail: the double tap. If a call reaches the fourth and a half ring and is clearly about to drop to voicemail, hang up, wait half a beat, and call again immediately. About 20 percent of the time, the prospect picks up on that second call, because a second attempt back to back reads as important.

Let it almost hit voicemail, hang up, call right back. About one in five pick up the second time.

Source: Is Cold Calling Dead and if Not, How Do You Go About It Effectively? With Guest Michael Pedone, episode 30 of the Oil & Gas Sales & Marketing Podcast. Michael Pedone’s example, from that episode.

The cheapest calls are the ones where someone already vouched for you.