My Cold-Call pitch that books meetings (I'm not selling you anything)

Hey everyone,

First, let me start out by saying that I am writing this without any ulterior motive. There will be no link to my calendar, or my "cold call course" or anything like that. I do not offer any type of training and I certainly do not claim to be a cold call professional. I am simply writing this because I found a pitch that works really well, and would like to share it with others. Sorry for such a lengthy post.

Background: I run an AI agency called Agent Automation which helps real estate agents integrate AI into their business. I SOLELY target real estate agents, although my business does have a handful of clients in other niches that just came from referrals.

Again, I am no professional. I am simply just sharing my experience and my opinion on what I think works. Maybe this pitch would suck in other industries, I don't know, but I think it's worth a try.

Step 1 - WHO: Figure out your 'ICP' (Ideal Customer Profile). By this, I do NOT mean that you have to sit down and write up a biography on "John Smith who is a 32 yr old male that plays hockey on the weekend and has 3 kids". No, that stuff won't help you. What I mean by this is don't just say "I'm going to call any real estate agent in __________, because that's who my customer is". Get a bit deeper.

Initially I was doing that (calling any and all agents) and found that my success rate for booking a 2nd call was very, very low. This leads to discouragement which usually leads to quitting.

Then I realized that the only agent who would REALLY benefit from a chatbot would be an agent who get's a lot of traffic to their website. And how do I find those agents? Simple, find the agents who are paying for sponsored ads on Google or Facebook that lead back to their website. They have already shown that they are willing to invest money towards driving traffic to their website, and a chatbot is a great way to capitalize on all of that aid traffic.

Voila! There was my sales pitch (sort of). "You are paying for traffic, and I have the solution for maximizing that traffic".

So now I know WHO I am targeting. I now need to figure out what I am going to say once they answer the phone.

For this, I listened to a LOT of outbound/cold call podcasts and other live cold call videos to see what works. I highly recommend the "Outbound Squad" podcast on Spotify.

I then did a lot of trial and error, had some hang ups, some "f*ck off"s, and eventually, some yes's.

Here is what I say and why:

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Part 1: The intro - break down their walls

It's important to remember that when someone answers their phone off of a number that they don't recognize, they already have their guard up. You need to get them to lower this guard by sounding genuine, maybe a little funny, and definitely NOT salesy:

*Person answers*

Me (option 1): "Hey John, my name is Brandon. I apologize man, I'm calling you out of the blue right now, but do you have 30 seconds to chat?"

Me (option 2): "Hey John, this is Brandon. Your'e totally going to hate me brother, but I'm cold calling you. Do you have 27 seconds and I can tell you why?"

**Option 2 usually gets a chuckle and/or a "27 seconds hey? sure go ahead". **

** The important thing about either of these options is that I sound like a genuine person that they can relate to. I'm not immediately saying "Hey I'm so-and-so from X company and i'm calling you about X service". That immediately sends red flags**

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Part 2: The info - Tell them why it relates to them specifically.

You don't want to just tell them what you do. Frankly, people don't care.... They want to know how ti relates to them and why it is going to make their life easier.

Caller: "Sure, I got 30 seconds, whats up?"

Me: "Awesome! So the reason I'm calling is because I build AI Chatbots for real estate agents websites that help you convert more of your website traffic into leads. THE REASON I AM CALLING YOU SPECIFICALLY is because I was Googling Realtors in [city] and you popped up on the first page of Google, so I'm guessing you're getting a pretty good flow of traffic to your website every month, is that right?"

*at this point the caller usually agrees in some way or another, because we already know that they are investing money to get traffic to their site. This is why the ICP research is so important. But the important part here is that when they AGREE, they are subconsciously telling themselves that they are a match for our service. They are essentially saying to themselves "yes I do have the problem that your service solves"*

Caller: "Yeah we do pretty well I guess"

Me: "Yeah I figured. It's not an easy task getting on the first page of Google so kudos to you! I figured we would be a god fit because what my AI does is it engages with every person that comes to your website. So rather than you spending a ton of time and money driving traffic to your site, and then just sort of crossing your fingers, hoping that they reach out to you, the AI reaches out to them first, get's the conversation started, and then from there can qualify clients, gather search criteria, book appointments on your calendar, and more."

*This part is important because I first started with a compliment (feed their ego), and then went into a relatable scenario. After I say this, it makes them think "yeah I guess I am just sort of crossing my fingers" and then I follow it up with a clear explanation of how the AI would handle their traffic better than they are.*

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Part 3: Go for the second call

Too much info is a bad thing. Remember, your goal for this call is not to sell them on a chatbot. It's to sell them on a second call.

Me: I know I'm calling you out of the blue here, and I'm sure you're busy so I don't want to take up any more of your time. But I just wanted to see if something like this would be worth a 15 minute call later this week? I can show you a demo and you can see first hand how it works and how it would benefit your business. Would that work for you?"

*At this point they might have more questions, which you can handle on the fly, but generally I find that they either agree or just say I'm not interested. If they are not interested, I just say "no problem, would it be okay if I just sent over an email with some more info, that way if you ever think about it in the future, you know where to find me?".

If they are interested, then you book the call.*

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Obviously the script changes from call to call, but that gives you a general idea of how 99% of my calls go.

Step 1. Do you research to find the right ICP

Step 2. Open the call by sounding like a real, genuine, relatable person. Make them laugh if you can.

Step 3. Tell them why you are calling THEM SPECIFICALLY. You're not a spam call selling your service to anyone. Your'e selling them specifically because you genuinely think your service would be a good fit.

Step 4. Go for the second call.

Most people try and give as much info as they can on a cold call. They want to explain every feature, every benefit, the cost, the timelines, the results, etc.

All of that can be discussed on the second call. The important thing is that you have identified a problem that they have, and shown them that you have the solution. If you do it right, that should be enough to get a second call.

Regardless of your success rate, cold calling is a numbers game, and I strongly believe that you should be able to gauge whether the person is interested or not within the first couple minutes. If they are clearly not interested, don't waste your time. Move on to the next call. You can't win them all.

And remember: THE OBJECTIVE of the cold call is to book a second call, not to sell them on the product or service. Why? Because if someone gets to a second call, then they are in a different mindset. They WANT to know more. They WANT to know about the features and the pricing. Don't sell features to someone who is not in that mindset. You'll just get hung up on.

Hope that helps!

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My Cold-Call pitch that books meetings (I'm not selling you anything)