How To Make A Cold Call Without The Fear Of "What Am I Going To Say??"

All right, we will let people in as they come in. How are we doing today, guys? I have some terrible allergies, so if I literally go like this as I'm talking to you, I apologize.

No big deal. It is a combination of whatever we got going in the fall, and thanks to anybody living out on the west coast right now, our air is filled with smoke, wildfire smoke. So the combination of those two is never a good thing.

All right, we're going to talk about. Yeah, Stacy Flonase, you live in Colorado. I know you get it. All right, we're going to talk about cold calling today. Who absolutely loves cold calling?

I guarantee I don't. I didn't see one hand go up. Who knows? They need to pick up the phone once in a while, but you're really like, shit, what am I going to say?

We've all been there, right? What I want to talk about today, guys, is a little technique I actually was taught through self study that really helped me be more effective with cold calling because I knew I had to pick up the phone. I can't just. This was when I was advising. I can't just build a business without ever picking up the phone. Now, some of you might work for agencies that have a cold calling service, and if you do, cool, kind of solves part of the problem. They're actually scheduling appointments for you. But if you are still in the business where you have to pick up the phone once in a while, what I want to do today is help you at least make it a little easier. Because the number one challenge most people have with cold calling is what the heck am I going to say?

And so you get on the phone. No, the CFO on the other end of the line does not want to tell you what the weather's like, where they are. They don't want to answer any stupid questions we throw out at them because the second we do that, guess who we sound like?

Everybody else.

So what I want to teach you today is share, share. A little trick I'll call it. That helped me out, helped me become more. Here's what it did for me. It helped me be more effective with cold calling, but it more importantly made me more confident with cold call.

Now, you know, I'm not going to make you guys raise your hand, but if you looked in the mirror right now, how many of you said, would it would be willing to admit, yes, I'd like to be a little more confident when I pick up the phone.

And the reason, guys, I share some of these backstories with you is because I want to set the stage for where some of you might be right now. How have you ever found yourself, Let me ask you this. Have you ever found yourself.

Making cold calls and you've got your pen and paper over to the right because you're checking the marks of how many calls you made and at the end of the day you make 50 calls and none of them went anywhere. Who's ever been there? I used to fill my notebooks with that, right? Hey, I made 50 calls. But you know what? Really, at the end of the day, what I did is waste about an hour and a half of my time.

So what I want to do with this strategy is said, no, let's make it more effective. Let's at least help you drive better conversations with your, your, your prospects that you're calling now. I'm not going to share a bunch of tactics you can use, guys, to overcome objections. That's not what this is about. What this is about is more saying, hey, when you get on the phone and you actually get somebody on the other end of the line, what do you say?

Now it is harder today that to make that happen than it's ever been before, right? How many people are actually picking up their phone these days? A lot less than used to.

Especially with people not even working in the offices anymore. Half the time we don't even have the right phone number. But when we do get them, what, what can we be saying? So I'm going to share my screen.

And I am going to start. Guys, if you have been on my webinars, we are starting with three questions you are very familiar with.

We're going to walk through an exercise that's going to set up.

Your cold calling Sprint.

So I want you to start with this question. I want you to look at what you do for a living, what you're, what business you're in. And I want you to look at your prospects, your clients and your prospects. And I want you to answer this question, what problem do you solve for them?

Now, here's the funny punchline to this question.

The first answer that comes to your mind when you say, what question do I solve? Is typically not the actual problem you solve. So let me give you an example.

I'll ask many of my clients what problem they solve, especially the employee benefit advisors. And the one that typically comes out of their mouth quickest is health insurance cost. Okay, I bet you that's not the problem you solved, though. I bet you if you go a layer or two deeper, there's a deeper problem.

For some advisors I work with, it's the misaligned incentives in the health insurance system. Sometimes it's the cost of doing business. I have an advisor in California right now who, hey, it is a expensive state to do business in. So he's out to help employers do business in California more affordably. He happens to do it through health insurance. But his big wise, big problem he's trying to solve is it is just dang expensive to do business in California.

So I want you to think about the problem you solve the most and it's the problem you like solving.

Because when I pose this question, I'll have advisors say, well, Andy, I solve more than one problem. I know, but what's the one that lights you up? What's the one you love solving?

So give yourself some time to think about that.

Because when you figure that out, the next question you're going to ask yourself is, is what is your process to solve it?

This is the brand identity exercise that we've done before for our ideal prospect. If you've been on my webinars, we've talked about having a process. You've gotta have some process you can rinse and repeat that takes prospects from being an unhappy prospect and turns them into a happy client. This is a process. No matter what problem they might have, it's a process you can rinse and repeat.

I would even suggest you give this process a name.

Our clients have all different names of their process, their programs. But the reason you want to have a defined process with a name, a branded process, is it gives you the ability now to go out and sell a process versus trying to sell a bunch of products. Very different way of selling.

So the first question is, what is the problem I love solving?

Second question is, what is my unique process that helps solve it?

If you're struggling with this question and you are a wholesale partner to the insurance industry, meaning you sell a product through brokers to employers. Your answer to this question is easy because your process is the name of your product.

But if you're an advisor, I would challenge you to come up with a process. Preferably three step process. Because people memorize things in threes.

There's a reason when in emergency you call 911, nobody, nobody forgets that number.

And I have clients when it comes to defining their process. They come in all different shapes and sizes.

It could be a three step process.

That they walk clients through that starts with a discovery call that ends with the proposal, ends with the customized plan. I have Clients that have actually built.

A program. I have a client right now. I'm sure he's okay with me sharing this. He's actually built a health plan he calls Remodel Health. That's his process.

Maybe you sell captives. That's your niche. Eric Larue, I see you. You sell a specific product, right? But it's got to have a process. There's a process that's leading up to it. What is yours? Here's another reason why it's important that you have a process. And by the way, guys, this is all leading to your cold calling. This is. You'll see where this is going here.

The day has come. You cannot win business anymore. Being better. You can't try to go into a prospect and try to convince them you're better. If they're happy with their broker, no matter how low their standard is, their bar of expectations, you're never convincing them of better. Ever.

You will convince them you're different. And having a named unique process, that's yours, even though it might talk about the same concept somebody else does, if it's your process, your name, it's different.

I was just talking with a client this morning, one of my coaching calls, and it was like the prime example of where this is true. He walked into a meeting with a prospect last week. Ten minutes in, she said, by the way, we're not leaving our broker. We're really happy with them. Most of us would go, great. What am I going to do with that? Right? He starts having a conversation with her, does a little fact finding. He talks about his unique program called Remodel health and what it does. And by the end of the meeting, she literally said to them, or said to him, I would leave my broker for that because it's different. I have never seen that from him. So. So in one meeting, she literally went from, we're not leaving our broker. We're happy. He was never going to convince her of better.

When he showed her something completely different.

He walked out of the meeting with her saying, if you can prove that to me, I would leave him for that. That's why having something different is so important, folks.

So what's your process to solve it? Now, the last question is, what result does the process create?

These are three very simple questions, but three very important questions. What problem am I out to solve? What is my unique process to solve it? And then what result does my unique process create?

Now you might be sitting there going, okay, great, Andy, I've got this. How in the world is this going to help me cold call.

Here's how we're going to build one. I'm going to build you guys an example because I'm going to set up the cold call.

If I said what problem do you solve? And I my problem I solve is the feeling of being left out in the dark when you watch your health insurance costs go up every year and you have no idea why.

I work with CFOs who are watching their health insurance costs go up and I solve that problem of ever rising health insurance costs.

And I work with CFOs who are frustrated because they're watching their costs go up and they have no idea why.

Imagine that's the problem I want to solve.

Notice I solved the external and an internal problem. Again, if you've been through my courses, you've been in my academies, we've talked about problems come in two forms, external and internal. External is the obvious problem. Internal is the emotional. What did I just say? External. Rising health insurance costs. Internal frustration.

What's your process to solve it? Back in the day I actually had a process I called Empowered Health.

There's a three step process I use to teach people how to do it differently. I called it Empowered Health.

And the result it created.

Was a lower health insurance cost, a better health insurance plan.

And a way for CFOs to predictably know what their future health insurance costs will look like.

So.

Now that you have those three pieces of information.

Let'S go into a cold call.

I pick up the phone and I'm going to call a bunch of CFOs in the Denver market.

Knowing my three answers to the questions.

Before I would pick up the phone. And if I got Jim at ABC Inc. On the phone, I'd be like, hey Jim, it's Andy at, at, at, at Vulcan Bell Health, Vocabell Insurance. The second I say that, what is in his head?

Somebody chime in. Hi, it's Andy Neary from Vocabell Insurance.

Sales. Call. Oh great. What the hell does this guy want? Right?

So before I get to my script, here's some things you want to do.

First and foremost. And I am not a cold calling guru, folks. I am just teaching you things that help me. A guy that absolutely hated cold calling and quite frankly was terrible at it. I'd say.

Now pause. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Do we normally get somebody else on the line before we get to the person we want? We get the gatekeeper, don't we? So if I get the gatekeeper first, the first thing I'm going to ask for Craig. Hey, I'm looking right at you. So you're my target. I'm going to ask to speak with Craig. Hey.

Yes, Is Craig. Hey there. Yes. May I ask who's calling?

Yeah, Andy from Insert Name. I'm very clear about where I'm from. I don't want to play the sneaky game of trying not to tell you who I am.

When I used to try to sneak around the gateskeep gatekeeper by not really disclosing who I was. Rarely did I ever get where I wanted to go.

So. Hi. Yeah, I'm looking for Craig Hay. Who? May I ask who's calling? Yeah, Andy Neary from Vocal Valve Insurance. Hold on now. Often I'll get a voicemail. I get it. But when I would get Craig on the phone, here's what I would say.

I'd say, hey, Craig. Andy Neary. Do you have a moment?

They're either gonna give me one or two or two answers, yes or no.

If he gives me a no.

I'm gonna ask him if there's a better time to call.

Because if I ask if there's a better time to call, what might he say at that point? Anybody have an idea?

If I ask you what this is about? There you go. He's now he's given me the. He's given me the floor. He's gonna what's this about? Or he gives me. You got a moment? Yeah, what's up? He's given me the floor. So either way, I have now given my chance to get the floor. Even if he gave me a no, if now's not a good time.

So now once I have the floor, here's what I'm going to say. Remember these three questions. I'm going to say something like this. Hey, Craig, Andy or excuse me, Craig, I've been working. I'm calling you. Excuse me, I'm calling you.

Because I have been working with some CFOs in the Denver market targeting very specific if Craig is a CFO in Denver. I've been working with other CFOs in the Denver market.

Who are frustrated because they're watching their health insurance costs go up every year and they don't know why.

What did I just do? Which question did I just answer?

The problem I solve. I've been working with other CFOs in the Denver market.

Who are frustrated because they're watching their health insurance costs go up every year and they don't know why.

And I've been sharing a program we use called Empowered Health.

That has been helping them lower their health insurance costs.

And has given them the predictability to know what future costs will look like.

And I'm reaching out to you because knowing you are also a CFO in Denver.

Wanted to see if you had 15 minutes because I'd love to show you how this program has helped your peers.

So all I've done in this script is gone through the prospect, brand identity, simply stating, I have been working with other people like you, Craig.

Who are frustrated because they're watching their health insurance costs go up and they have no idea why. Now, at that point, I have no idea if that is actually Craig's problem. Right. I don't know.

But what I've done by making that statement.

Is I have laid out the kind of CFO I want to work with.

Craig's either gonna say, yep, or we don't have that problem.

Cool. If he does, maybe I got his ear. If he doesn't, maybe he's not a fit. Maybe they have solved it. I don't know. That's where I can ask further questions.

But I have laid out exactly who I am trying to work with by telling Craig, I work with people, peers of his that want this. They're struggling with this. And I've got this program called Empowered Health.

That is helping them create a different result, lower health insurance costs and predictability of knowing what future costs will look like. And I would love to see if you had 15 minutes to show you how it works and to show you how it's helped your peers.

Just that tweak guys.

Helped me take my cold calling to a different level. I went from truly probably a 2 out of 10 when it came to cold calling effectiveness and became a six or a seven. I wasn't great. But you know what? I ended up having a lot longer conversations on the phone than I've ever had before. And I actually generated a heck of a lot more meetings from the phone than I ever had before.

And here's the most important thing it did.

It took the pressure off me of what I was going to say.

Because I just would pick up the phone time and time again and just.

Continuously lay out who I'm trying to work with.

And it just let me pick up that phone with that confidence. It actually made cold calling a little more appealing for me because I was just going to get on the horn and call guys like Craig and say, hey, Craig, I work with CFOs. I'm the guy who's been working with CFOs in Denver who are struggling, they're frustrated because they're watching their health insurance costs go up. And I've been sharing this program I call Empowered Health with them that has been helping them lower their cost and give them that predictability of future cost. I just wanted to reach out because I thought it would be a fit for you and show you how your peers are using it.

And I scheduled more calls than I ever had, more meetings than I ever had with that, had longer conversations on the phone than I've ever had. No longer had how. Asked how the weather was in their market, I didn't have to worry about as many objections because if I said what I just said in that statement in that script and Craig says, you know what, we don't have that problem. We actually been able to control our cost. I now have an easy question. Oh cool. Well, what are you guys, what are you guys doing.

Now? Craig's going to give me feedback of what they're doing. In his mind, that's controlling cost.

And in that moment, one or two things are going to happen. He's going to share some things where I'm like, dang, they are doing some good things. Kudos to you, kudos to your advisor.

Or.

Excuse me guys, or I'm going to learn where Craig's head is at and going, ah, I see what he thinks is controlling cost and it really isn't.

So I can keep the door open and say, well, based on that, Craig, I think you should check this out. This is going to be a little different than what you're doing.

And again, it just elongated that conversation, guys, and led to more, More com. More conversations which led to more meetings.

So what I would challenge you guys to do if you are struggling with cold calling right now and you are like me, I was, honestly guys, I was terrible at it. Just going through the exercise right here. What problem do I solve? Remember, external problem, internal problem, which is the emotion?

What's my process to solve it? If you don't have one, guys get one. Even if you got to make one up right now.

And then what result does my process create? I, I now spin that into my cold calling script and I'm just going to go out and reach out to my target CFOs or HR directors, whoever you work with. And I'm just going to lay that script out to them repeatedly over and over and over again and it's going to give them the easiest way to self qualify themselves. Either that is what they want and that's what they're struggling with or nope, we don't have that problem and you can dig a little deeper to see if it is a problem or if it's not. If it's not, congratulate them. If it is, keep prying.

So with that, guys, what questions do you have? Because this changed my cold calling forever.

Any thoughts, any, any. Anything you've tried that doesn't work, that you want to put out there? This is your chance to ask.

And what do you do if you get the voicemail?

I leave the same message.

Great question. What do you get? What do you do when you get a voicemail? I leave the same voicemail. So if I got Craig, but I get Craig's voicemail, I just simply say, hey, Craig, Andy Neary here wanted to reach out quickly. I've been working with cfo, blah, blah, blah. Just leave the same message. I would have said in person, you can say all of that in 10 to 15, 15 seconds. And to say, hey, we'd love to connect with you when the time permits.

If.

Also you could do that very same thing in an email. Correct. If you have their email.

What you guys all just learned, Craig, I love that you said that. What you guys all just learned is what is known as a one liner. If anybody has ever read the book Building a Story Brand, a one liner is your elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is not. I'm a benefits consultant. No, an elevator pitch is. I work with CFOs who are struggling because they watch their costs go up and they don't know why. My process called Empowered Health helps them do this, this, this and this. That's an elevator pitch. It's more interesting than I'm a benefits consultant. All you're doing is taking your elevator pitch, converting it into a phone message or a conversation. Craig just said you converted into an email. If you say it enough over and over and over again, you're going to get the right people to start going. That's exactly what we are struggling with.

Trust me, guys, it's going to make your cold calling, emails, everything more effective.

So, Andy, something that's changed. I think it's changed through the years that I've been doing cold calls. Today we've got resources that will give us a cell phone number for a CFO or hr, the person we're trying to contact.

Yep.

How do you feel about calling cell phones?

So they've given you the number?

Yeah, we've got some resources that you know. I don't know how the software works, but next thing I know, it's clearly not an office phone number. You know, it'll be a cell phone type of number that you recognize from your area.

Right.

I've been reluctant to pick up to call somebody on their cell phone for that first call.

Absolutely. My opinion is, heck yes.

I know. Cell phones have always been this taboo. Nowadays though, guys, that's how people communicate. In fact, if I have, if I have a prospect cell phone number, not because I went and somehow found it, it was either. If it's. First of all, guys, if it's in their email salutation, their email signature, they're telling you to use it. If it's on their business card, they're telling you to use it. Again, if you went and scrummed it up from somewhere, okay, be careful. But if it was in plain sight where they are giving it to you some way, absolutely use it. And you know what you should be doing on top of it. If they're a hard person to get a hold of, instead of calling them, send them a text, Send them a voice text. Your whole goal is to find a way to stand out. And I am all about using cell phones if they are making it freely available.

Worst case is they say, stop calling me. But they would have said the same thing if you use their office phone. So absolutely, absolutely. Try their cell phone if they're giving you that number.

And I think you made a great point there. Something I hadn't thought about. This software that finds those cell phones, it's finding it from email addresses. It's most likely finding an email address for that person, grabbing the phone numbers connected with it. So okay, very good.

I mean, how many of you, how many of you on this webinar right now have your email and your, your cell phone number and your email signature? Most people do. That's how we operate today, guys. Especially CFOs, CEOs, HR directors that don't report to an office anymore. Most of them are using cell phones to communicate. So don't be afraid to do that. Absolutely.

Yeah. I'm all about finding ways. If you guys are struggling to get a hold of somebody. I know this isn't specifically cold calling, but try a bunch of different mechanisms. Call them, email them. If you are connected to them on LinkedIn, send them a LinkedIn message. Try a text, try a voice text. Try all different ways. I still do that today. I might have done it to some of you on this webinar before. I have people who will not reply to an email.

So what do I do? I'll shoot them a Text, Maybe I'll throw a video in a text to try to get their attention or a voice text. You got to try a bunch of different things to get their attention. If you just send emails over and over again, you just send voice messages over and over again that may not get to them.

Somebody asked, do you mention specific CFOs when making your one liner, especially if they're in the same industry. Scott, as long as that CFO has given you an okay on that, I think it'd be cool. I would be a little hesitant just to throw random names out if they haven't given you approval. But if it's a client that has all day long.

What you guys are trying to do is establish credibility as fast as you can. And one of the best ways to establish credibility is to let your prospects, you know, you work with people like them. If you can throw out an actual name or an actual company name creates instant credibility with certain people.

So I don't know if this was helpful today folks, but I used, like I said, I wanted to share this today because cold calling is something we still do.

It shouldn't be the only thing. You do it if you are excellent at it. Let me be the first to tell you, I am jealous of you because I was not. But this is an awesome little strategy, guys to give you that little boost on what you should be saying when you pick up the phone. Just go into that, go into that cadence, that script over and over, over again.

So if you guys have any questions, this recording is going to go out.

In a few. And one last thing I'm going to share with you guys, just to give you guys a heads up if you have not been on our webinars the last few weeks. Just so everybody knows, we do have our broker Branding Academy online course available now. So you'll get in the email that follows with the recording, there'll be a note about this. Guys, if you want to know more, feel free to reach out. But this is our new online course that you can take at your own pace. You don't have to go through the 12 weeks anymore. And one of the things we love about it is it's over three hours of coaching. You get the full workbook, you get our entire marketing playbook, which is more than 60 pages of coaching documents for 9:33 which the normal academy, the live 12 week course is about three grand. This is 933 bucks and you can take it immediately to help you guys get set up for Q4. So if anybody wants no more, hit me up. You're going to get the follow up email which will have a link where you can learn more. But I'm telling you guys, this thing is a game changer. We're really proud of it because we've taken our whole course that we teach live and it's now coming at you that you can take at your own pace. So having been through the live one, not to shamelessly plug this for you, but I would highly recommend it and appreciate that. Available online. Super awesome. And Andy's awesome. I'm sure he'd be willing to answer questions and kind of do that as well from time to time if you're doing online versus the live. But it was an awesome, awesome program. Appreciate that John. And and we made it available for the people who don't have the time for 12 weeks so. So if you guys got any questions, hit me up. This webinar is done. Like I said, guys, take time. Do the exercise with the three questions. What problem you solve? What's your process? What's the result? That process.