Rallier

SDR Manager and Consultant

Illumination questions on cold calls

I've been seeing a number of posts on LinkedIn about asking 'Illuminating' questions on a cold call. I'm curious if anybody else does this and could provide an example.

Typically, illuminating questions are questions that shine a light on problems that a prospect might not be thinking about.

Does anyone have an example of this? Doesn't have to be from your company, just any company

📞 Cold Calling

12 comments

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brotato

WR Lieutenant

Head of Sales

Belal Batrawy gives 4 different examples in this webinar he did with Jason Bay: https://youtu.be/m2UBXcY4KCE?t=1735

He calls it the Mic Drop method -

Permission
Problem
Mic Drop
Promise

Goes like:

Permission
Hey ___, I know you're not expecting my call. Do you have a moment? I promise to be brief

Problem
For most businesses like yours, the second largest cost after payroll is health benefits. A lot of companies are seeing on average a 9-15% YoY increase in these costs in the state of California.

Mic Drop
How are you handling your second largest cost rising that much YoY?

Then he says you should always be the first to hang up so when the conversation heats up you say "I promised I'd be brief when I first called. Would it make sense to schedule something in the next week to go over this in detail?"

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

This is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks so much. Definitely going to watch the rest of this video

brotato

WR Lieutenant

Head of Sales

Yeah we had the whole team watch this and come up with 3 different versions to test out. Already seeing results with less hang ups and longer talk times with better results.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Wow. Thanks for this

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I don't think cold calls are the time/place to get into in depth questioning with a prospect. My goal is to book an appointment, that's it. The interrogation comes later lol.

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Right, but I don't think that's what this is. It sounds like it's typically used to start the conversation. Like what question would you ask after your opening line

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

My cold calls generally go like:

Hi this is funcoupons calling from Company, did I catch you at a bad time? Great, I'm calling because...(15 second pitch.) Do you have time for a quick call sometime this week or next so I can learn a bit about your company and share some info about us with you to see if we might be able to help?

I have a great booking and show up ratio, I think it's because I intentionally keep it as simple as possible.

88MailMan

Financial Advisor

I really like your language - if you are open to feedback I would change "I'm calling because" to "The reason for the call today (name) is (15 sec pitch)" and "do you have time for a quick call this week or next" to a defined amount of time (5, 10, 15 minutes) and defined days (tomorrow or next business day).

'Reason for the call' is from Jordan Belford who I would strongly recommend for any sales person (language, tonality, selling, etc.)

The definite time and date is important so they feel like they have an understanding of the topic and length of the call and almost always we know what our days look like tomorrow or the next business day. If someone calls me on Monday and gives me the opportunity to push it to next week - I can say "Call me next Thursday or Friday" that is 9/10 business days away and you may have to ask an additional question 'when would be best?' - where as if I say tomorrow or next day I get to them 5x quicker and their minds go to a specific time they know they can speak. They may push further back but I would say 95% of the time I get tomorrow or next day.

If you do make the change to your language I would love to hear any changes you have seen good or bad. Hope it helps!

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Thanks! Funny you mention Jordan, I actually took the Straight Line Persuasion Course and took a lot of my pitch inspiration from it. I'm trying to get used to "the reason for my call is..." but I keep accidentally reverting back to "I'm calling because..." lol. But I know his version is better.

I do define the time (15 minutes) at least half the time, when I don't it's usually just because I forget. I do ask for a specific day once they confirm they'd be interested in talking and give them options (Monday at 11 am or 2 pm or Tuesday at 1 pm or 3 pm) and try to keep it within 48 hours as much as possible.

I appreciate the feedback though, we're on the same page! I just need to continue polishing my script.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Can correlate and agree - did the same during my calling days ✌️

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

I pitch a prospect before asking any questions except is now a bad time? My thought process is 99% of people aren't going to take a blind sales meeting if it's not relevant at all. With LinkedIn, you can see someone's title and typically if they're in your ICP you are better off pitching and getting straight to it. Otherwise, you might end up wasting hours on the phone with prospects who end up not being qualified and are looking to talk your ear off.

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

If you do some research ahead of time you can say you've noticed a particular pain point or trend within their vertical and ask how he tackles/addresses those challenges

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Rallier

Illumination questions on cold calls

12 comments

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