Good day and happy Tuesday. Best of luck to everybody as we finish out Q1!

A big shout-out to our sponsor again this week - Agent.ai! Be sure to check them out!

Here’s what’s on the agenda:

• Tips from the top

• No thanks, we’re using a competitor

• Agent.ai - Let AI Agents Supercharge Your Outbound Strategy

• Detaching from the outcome

• 6 Cold Call Pro Tips

• Creative Tactic of the week

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Tips from the top

"If you are required to ask qualifying questions, ask them after you've already solidified a day and time for your meeting. It could sound like this:

"Just so we make the most of our time on Friday, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your current situation?"

Most prospects won't cancel a meeting just because you ask them a few additional questions.

If you can't gather enough information from the decision maker, don't be afraid to reach out to lower-level individual contributors on their team to gather information. For example, if you're reaching out to a VP of Sales and you are having trouble understanding their current tech stack, reach out to a few of the AE's on the team.”

“No thanks, we already use (competitor)”

Talking about your competitors can be tricky. If you are too negative about the competition, your prospect will sense your quota-driven salespitch.

If you are too positive, they won’t have a reason to keep speaking with you! There’s a happy medium. Here’s one way you can approach it.

1. Mention that you’re familiar with the competitor

2. Mention something the competitor does well. If you skip this part you’ll risk painting yourself as the quota-driven salesperson who is only interested in making money instead of helping them.

3. Mention how you differentiate

"Let’s say we work at ACME, a platform for sending newsletters, and you’re on a cold call. The prospect says “we’re already using Mailchimp”. We could respond with something like:

“Mailchimp’s a solid platform, especially if you’re using high levels of automation and want an e-commerce integration.

Oftentimes I see people switch to ACME instead when they want a platform built specifically for newsletter growth - referrals, recommendations, and built-in monetization, all in one place. That way you don’t have to duct-tape different solutions together, which leads to tech bloat and added cost as you scale.

Think this could be helpful for your team?”

These 3 steps can help you steer the conversation away from your competitor and back to you - all without painting you as an overly salesy salesperson.

Detach from the Outcome

Ever wonder why reps who use the same talk track might have different results?

A lot of that has to do with voice tone and the motivations behind that. How you say things on a cold call significantly affects performance!

Check out this video from Josh Braun where he demonstrates how you can change your voice tone to avoid resistance on cold calls. If you like this video, be sure to like the video and follow Josh!

5 Cold Calling Pro Tips

1. Document everything you can ASAP - Phone tree paths, name pronunciations, teammates, relevant articles, links, etc. By leaving this information in the notes, you can reference it later in your outreach.

Example: Leave a note something like “OfficeTech LLC published 3 new articles on their blog last week"

2. Not as common of a situation, but be aware of timewasters. If you get the sense that someone is just talking with you for a casual chat, get off the call. Make an excuse and move on to somebody who will generate revenue!

3. Go in with a plan. Top performers have a structure for how they plan to structure their cold call. Know what to say in your opener, know how you’ll overcome objections, etc.

4. Voice tone is everything. Speak slowly, use downward inflections, and avoid the "salesperson voice". If you sound like a telemarketer, people will treat you like a telemarketer.

5. You are selling something; don't tell prospects you aren't. Own the fact that you're a salesperson. Target appropriately and help solve their problems!

Creative Tactic of the Week

"I leave super simple voicemails + 1 piece of context. It sounds like:

“Hey Bob - Saw your team is using Intercom for support. I was calling about that. It’s (name) at (company). Give me a call back.”

Most people get automated spam as voicemails. This adds a little bit of context, so the next time I email, message, or call them back - hopefully they remember who I am.”