Cold Calling Tip #2: Conversations Are The Constraint

So the theory of constraints is a principle that says: in any given system, there’s always a maximum constraint that keeps that thing from being efficient. And if you focus on that constraint and make it more optimal, you’re going to get more yield, more production, more results.

And so, if you think about cold calling and outbound, it's a system. And when it comes to cold calling, or outbound in general, the number one constraint we have is getting people into a conversation or said differently, getting somebody on the phone…. dial to connect rate. How many dials does it take to get somebody on the phone? So one of the biggest challenges that I’ve thought about for years using the theory of constraint and cold calling is...

How do we eliminate the number of dials it takes to get somebody on the phone? That is something that I’ve perfected over the last 17 years. Using a well-structured call script can significantly improve connect rates and make conversations more efficient by providing a clear structure and key elements to guide each call.

Cold Calling Tip #3: Eliminate Wasted Dials

So when it comes to connect rates, and we’re thinking about theory of constraints, the average rep is sitting at somewhere between a three to 5 % dial to connect rate. Said differently, it takes anywhere from 20 to 33 dials to get just one person on the phone. That’s what most people do because they take a list, they call the list, and they’re not thinking about the theories of constraint.

That’s a lot of dials if my average rep only makes 50 dials a day to just get one conversation. They’re getting one, two, maybe three conversations if they’re lucky. The ideal dial to connect rate should be somewhere between 16 and 24%.

So the way that you’re able to actually get to the optimal connect rate is by eliminating the wasted dials your reps are making on lists that are never going to actually answer the phone. So if you think about cold calling on any given list, there’s only gonna be three types of leads. You can also use CRM data to create cold call lists by identifying dormant or inactive leads who may now be receptive, leveraging historical interactions to generate new cold outreach opportunities. There’s gonna be some bad data, easy to solve for, frustrating and wasteful. I make a call, bad number.

There’s gonna be workable data. This is the worst kind of data. You make a call, you get to a voicemail. It looks like it’s the right person. You can call this number into infinity. They’re never gonna answer the phone.

And finally, there’s gonna be reachable data. Reachable data is what you’re actually after. It’s workable, but if you call enough times, they will actually answer the phone. And any given list, it’s gonna break down into something like this.

Five to 20 % of your list will be bad. 60 to 80 % of your list, will be workable, that’s where cold calling goes to die, and 20 to upwards of 40 % might be reachable. The way that you get to a 16 to 24 % connect rate is by eliminating all the bad data and all the workable data before you send lists to your sales organization. And by doing this, your reps will now average a conversation every three to five dials versus every 20 to 50 dials.

Cold Calling Tip #4: Completions > Meetings Booked

So once you’ve solved for connect rate, we can get somebody on the phone every three to five dials. Now we want to actually focus on what’s happening in our conversations. Most organizations fail at outbound because they focus on only one outcome being how many meetings did we schedule? Meetings are one of four, what I would call completions. When we’re calling, we want to focus on completions.

A completion is we’ve reached the right person at the account that we intended to target—specifically, the decision makers or key contacts who have authority. This is the person on the list, not an admin, not a gatekeeper. It’s the intended target. They actually allowed us to share what we had to offer, why we were calling, and we get to an effective yes, that’s a meeting, maybe an activation, no, no, not me, no, not now, not me, not now. Okay, so I wanna get to a yes, no, not me, not now.

And a completion is so important because it gives us insights into the most important levers we can pull at the top of the funnel, meaning are we actually targeting the right people? Are we saying the right things?

And if we are on track, of course the meetings will come. That’s one of the completions outcomes. But by getting a holistic approach, we can actually come in and identify where we’re struggling and ensure that we are coaching our reps on the things that they need to be coached on or improving our lists so that we are effective in our outbound strategy.

Cold Calling Tip #5: The Math Of Markets Doesn’t Lie

How do we know we’re actually on track once we’ve solved for connect rate and we have our completion outcomes? Well, we do that by looking at the math of markets. So the math of markets comes from a concept I’ve pulled from a book, The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. He has a concept called the buyer’s pyramid. Buyer’s pyramid gives us the general math of any given market at any given time.

So in any given market at any given time, we know that around 3 % are buying now. We know that around 7 % are open to it. These two segments have expressed interest and should be prioritized for immediate follow-up, as they are most likely to convert. We know that 30 % aren’t really thinking about it. And we know that 30 % don’t think they’re interested. And we know that 30 % know they’re not interested. So if you think about that buyer’s pyramid, it’s really a funnel, flip that on its head, right out the gate, 60 % of our market knows they’re not interested, don’t think they’re interested.

So we know right away, that six out of 10 of our conversations in our market, if we’re going after a market, are likely going to be no’s, not nows. That’s okay, that’ll map properly. But what about that other 40 %? How are we capturing that other 40 %? Well, 10 % should in theory be blind squirrel gets a nut likely meetings, right? They’re buying now or they’re open to it. So as long as we have our right message to market fit, one out of 10 conversations should be moving forward because the market is open to it or actually buying right now.

Where the winning zone comes into play and where you have opportunities for improvements are in that 30 % that are not thinking about it. And that’s where you focus your attention on messaging strategies.
It’s not just about getting people into meetings.

It’s about educating the market with content and information. You want to build exposure for what you’re doing and explain why prospects should be open to it now versus later. At the same time, you need to understand that the other 30%—even if they’re not scheduling now—still matter. They should be followed up with in a timely way. That way, we can drive them into the buying window faster and stay ahead of our competition.

So the math of markets gives us a roadmap of understanding who’s in the market now, who’s potentially kind of reachable and receptive at this moment, and then who we should be putting into our future follow-ups.

Without over indexing on optimizations, thinking that we can get greater than 20, 30 % success rate in our first attempt to getting somebody on the phone, but also bucketing or categorizing our follow-ups in a timely manner so that we can capture folks as they move through the market. The math of market is not a static situation. It’s always changing, it’s always evolving.

And so the goal here is once we understand we can get people on the phone by solving for connect rate, we can understand where we’re at in the journey by using completions, mapping that to math and markets. The final step here is to ensure that we are on top of and calling these people consistently, making sure we’re reaching our customers at least once a quarter over time. If you get to that process and position inside of that system, you will be in a position within two to three years to completely dominate any given market.

Cold Calling Tip #6: Fix Your Top of Funnel with Buckets

Putting this all together, this is why I created a methodology that I call Buckets. Buckets gives us stage definitions and exit criteria at the top of the funnel to organize this system and process in such a way to solve for all the things we’ve talked about today. Number one, how do we ensure that through our process, we are not calling too much workable or bad data and focusing our energy on reachable data?

Number two, how do we focus our attention on leads that are closest to that buying window first and working them backwards? Buckets helps identify and prioritize warm leads for follow-up, ensuring your team spends time on prospects most likely to convert. So Buckets is a methodology at the top of the funnel that puts all this together, creating those stage definitions and exit criteria to streamline your process from how do I take a lead from we’ve never connected, uncontacted, to working, should I be working you in which channels, to priority,

I’ve reached you in a channel and when should I be following up to ultimately that scheduled meeting, which we’re all usually after and understand what to do from there in any sales motion. Buckets gives you these clean stage definitions and extra criteria to ensure that you can stay on time and on focused in the process. The North star for me as a sales leader has always been if my sales organization is not in a scheduled interaction with a customer.

They should have a system and a process to click a few buttons and be in their next best conversation. Buckets is the methodology that allows you to actually achieve that in a short period of time.

Cold Calling Tip #7: Structure Your Cold Calling Script LIke This

Now that we have an idea of connect rates, completions, math of markets, a system to stay on top of it, now it comes down to putting the rubber meeting the road, the conversation, what do we say in this conversation? The structuring of a cold call is fairly straightforward when it comes to the first interaction with a prospect. Cold calling is nothing more than interruptive communication, and using a well-prepared cold call script helps ensure consistency and effectiveness.

Okay, so the structure of this call should be seen as a way to accomplish really one of three things and maybe all of these things. But we have to understand that the goal of a cold call is to build awareness, gather information, schedule a meeting. These are kind of our three main outcomes. And the structure of the call should be such a way that allows us to maximize our likelihood of of getting the information we need first. And sometimes the information is really the only thing that matters most.

That information might just be, we know that we can reach a prospect and they pick up the phone. But the structure of the call goes pretty straightforward, right? We want to, one, confirm the target, whether that is them actually telling you their name or you getting the name from them. When confirming the target and opening the conversation, it’s important to introduce yourself and your company name to build credibility and establish authority.

Number two, we want to open the conversation. You have some sort of opener and you can use any version of that that you’re consistent and confident with. I train a specific opener that you’ve seen in other videos and you can take that. When using openers and pattern interrupts, make sure to capture the prospect's attention early in the call. The next thing is we want to have some sort of credibility or familiarity if we can using names to ensure that once we’ve opened the conversation that we limit the likelihood of someone saying, this isn’t relevant to me. So how do we gain relevance in the conversation that could be used by a peer group, that could be used by triggers or events.

This could be used by just research you’ve had, right? But this credibility statement provides this level of, I’m showing you that I know you a bit. The next phase is we want to break the pattern. I’m to break the pattern as much as we can by not pitching here. And again, I’ve shared an example of this in previous videos, but you can use a pattern interrupt in some fashion to try to get somebody to ask you the magic words, which is, "What do you do?"

Once you get to what do you do, you’re into the pitch section of a framework. At this point, clearly communicate your value proposition to differentiate your offering and address the prospect’s needs. Remember, the sales pitch should be delivered after establishing rapport and uncovering needs, not before. When you’re discussing what to say in the call, make sure to highlight key points that are relevant to the prospect’s challenges and interests.

Once you’ve pitched the conversation, you want to move into an open question for qualification if necessary, or just setting the tone for getting them to agree to wanting to get to what you’re asking next, which is your call to action. When asking open questions, encourage prospect talk to gather insights and build rapport.

That’s the general framework of a call. And if you structure that with consistency and you’re confident along the way, you’re going to get gates that allow you to measure what’s working and what’s not working and ultimately get you into a greater number of completions over time. And that will map back into the system to know exactly if you’re on track at any given time in your process.

Cold Calling Tip #8: Consistency Before Optimization

Tone and pace is something that folks obsess about and I don't disagree that Tone and pace are important, but at the same time it is all contextual to the conversation so Without getting into too much details here. I think that before you obsess on tone and pace in your cold calling, you should really focus on consistency and confidence with who you are from there. You can start to measure.

I say this with kind of tongue in cheek, because of course people are going to ask about tone and pace and the delivery of a message. But just like David Goggins would tell people in their fitness journey right now who are asking about what do I do about overtraining? Just go train first.

And then we can talk about overtraining and that's where tone and pace comes into cold calling. You need to be consistent and confident with your delivery before you can focus on how do you actually deliver that in a way that's going to make a significant difference in your actual success when cold calling.

That could be discussed in a later stage here, but if you're thinking about tone and pace, I would highly recommend you doing a consistent delivery of a message that you're confident with, measure the results, and then you can come back around and figure out if tone and pace is killing your gains.

Cold Calling Tip #9: Common Objections = Information

Objection handling. Keep in mind that once you actually start to put these principles in play, you’re gonna quickly learn that there’s no such thing as an objection in this world. Objections are just information.

And one of our main objectives with calling is to gather information. So when folks are telling you things like they’re not interested and or they’re busy, that is a piece of information that you can capture. And what you want to do is seek to understand, not seek to overcome. “Not interested, that’s fascinating. What makes you say that?” “I’m busy, completely understand. I have no problem giving you a call back at another time.” Some of that is contextual again with the situation of the call, but…

You’ve got to understand that we’re not trying to overcome objections. We’re trying to seek to understand why they’re saying something. In the case of not interested, there’s lots of different ways to try to dig deeper into that. One effective approach is to ask follow up questions to better understand the prospect's concerns and gather more information. When it comes to people being busy, my number one thing with cold calling is to understand that this is not this is not Eminem's 8 Mile.

You have more than one shot, one opportunity. So If somebody gives you information, you should capture that, jot it down, and then use that in your follow-up. And a follow-up is where the money’s going to made in cold calling. That being said, the biggest thing you can do to overcome specific types of brush-offs is to basically mirror, call it out, use things like, “that’s interesting”, or “that’s exactly why I was calling”.

If a prospect is concerned about product effectiveness, offering a trial period can be a strong rebuttal to demonstrate value and build trust. And you’ll be surprised how much further you might be able to get into certain discussions.

Cold Calling Tip #10: Get To Know the Gatekeeper in Cold Calls

Gatekeepers. This is something that comes up often. The number one thing to think about when you’re calling lines is that there is in this process a way to identify #1: line type, and #2, what I call Path. So when I call a list in buckets, I’m working a lead from Uncontacted to Working.

I have to make sure that in order to maintain a follow-up call on any list that I actually have what I would call a path through a line to either the person or a working voicemail. So when gatekeepers or people, operators come into play, you’re gonna wanna make sure that you’re documenting this in your attempt. And you can actually break gatekeepers into two types of people.

One are operators who will transfer and two gatekeepers who probably won’t transfer. So you have to define that first. So I call a list, I come across the human who is in between me and the prospect I intend to call. My goal is to try to see if that individual will transfer to them or their voicemail. When confirming if the person you reach is the intended target, always verify their job title to ensure you are speaking with the right contact.

And if they don’t, I probably don’t want to spend a lot of time calling this person unless they are a true admin who schedules for an individual, their job at the company is to block you from getting through to them. So I have to set the stage here on understanding that concept. In terms of tactics to get through individuals who are there to filter calls, the approach on the very first call should be very casual.

And if someone picks up and it’s not the person that you’re trying to call, a great line to attempt or try is, ”Hey, this is Ryan, is Darry running around there today?” Okay. You’ll see that that might actually get you through more people than saying, “Hey, this is Ryan with Reisert Consulting. We do sales consulting for startups. Is Darry in the office today?”

There’s a very big difference between asking directly for the transfer and casual way versus trying to pitch your services, immediately showing yourself as a salesperson and getting blocked. Okay. So all that to say, gatekeepers, first things first, we want to see if we can actually get through them.

Second, if we are reaching them, we want to casually try to see if they will transfer. If that individual is busy, always, always, always see if, even if they say, “can I take a message for you?” Don’t leave a message. See if they’ll transfer. they, if they’ll transfer, you now know you have a path towards the voicemail.

If they don’t transfer, you may be getting blocked. The last piece I’ll put here is make sure you’re collecting names. So I get somebody on the phone. I’m trying to get through.”Is Darry running around there today? No, they’re not. Can I take a message for you? Is it possible you could pass through the voicemail? No, cannot. Hey, I’m so sorry. Again, I didn’t catch your name. Sally, Sally, thank you so much for helping me today. I’ll go ahead and try Darry back.” I added a letter to the date. Jot that information down. What did I get information wise?

Line type: gatekeeper. Name: Sally, not validated. Job title: not confirmed. I can’t get through to a voicemail, okay? It’s actually no path rather. Next time I call back, if I’m gonna go through that record and a woman picks up, what do I do? “Hey Sally, is Darry running around there today?” Now you’re moving closer and closer to getting through to getting through to a transfer.

Cold Calling Tip #11: Stay Motivated by Dialing for Dollars

If you dial for dollars, then you need to know your dollar per dial metric. Sales representatives and sales reps can use these metrics to track their performance and identify areas for improvement in their sales calls. All right, so if we put a lot of the stuff that we cover together, we can always reverse engineer from something I call your math of sales, which is a key part of the overall sales process.

How many dials does it take to get a conversation? How many conversations does it take to get a meeting? How many meetings does it take to create an opportunity? How many opportunities does it take to get a sell? Structuring your sales calls for maximum effectiveness at each stage is crucial. Depending on your comp plan as a seller, you likely have some combination of the following, a base salary, a commission structure, and a bonus structure. Right? You might have a base plus a bonus for setting up meetings. You might have a base plus a bonus for setting up meetings and a commission on sales.

You might have a base plus the commission. might be a hundred percent commission based. Doesn’t really matter. You get paid to do work and that work can get mapped to your math of sales activities, produce outcomes, outcomes, produce bonuses, commissions, revenue for the company. When you run this data, you can reverse engineer all of that back to legitimately how many dollars you make for every outcome in the math. Analyzing these metrics provides valuable insights that help refine your cold calling strategies.

And so if you dial for dollars, I recommend you actually running your math of sales all the way through to whatever your commission rate is. So if you are a full stack seller, it’s revenue. If you’re some sort of sales development, it’s meetings or opportunities generated.

At that point, you have your base plus your variable compensation that’s put in there. in any given week, any given month, you can actually plug in how many dials you’ve made, how many conversations you’ve had, how many meetings you scheduled, how many outcomes you got from that, the associated dollar amount associated with that, and now you get legitimately a dollar per those outcomes. Taking that all the way up to the dials that you make every day, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that for many of you, you could be making multiple dollars every time you click that dial button.

Every time you click that dial button, it could be worth two, three, four, 10, 20, $50, depending on your comp plan. It becomes very, very motivating to make the next dial when you know that every single dial is actually worth legitimate dollars. Sales teams can use dollar per dial metrics to optimize their approach and drive better results across the team.

So you can avoid getting this fear of rejection and overcoming, or maybe get off your high horse when you’ve actually gotten the outcome you seek as a meeting early in your dialing structure to give up for the day to go after the next one because you just made $5,000 for one dial today. Now you’re not going to make it 5,000 every dial after that, but at what threshold are you willing to continue to dial 50 dials a dollar, 25 dials a dollar, whatever it might be. If you dial for dollars, you need to know your dollar per dial metric.

After each call, whether it’s your first cold call or a follow-up, plan the next call to keep moving the prospect through the sales process. Learning from your first cold call helps you improve future outreach and increase your chances of success. Remember, successful cold calls are the result of preparation, strategy, and continuous improvement.

That also gives you the levers that you need to pull to ensure that you’re actually motivated to make dials every single day because if your dollar per dial is too low Something is completely broken on who you’re targeting what you’re saying and the outcomes you’re looking for and you need to ask for help immediately.

If you want to learn how to get out and dominate your quota, take a look at the Skool community we’ve created for cold callers, just like you. You’re going to learn from me live every single week, and you’re going to network with other sellers motivated just like you.

Final Thoughts on Cold Calling

Look, cold calling isn't going anywhere. It's still the backbone of killer sales and marketing strategies, and we're telling you right now - it's how you'll connect with fresh prospects and blow up your reach in whatever market you're targeting. Sure, everyone's obsessed with digital channels these days, but the phone? That's still your secret weapon for standing out, getting real conversations going, and driving more cold calls that actually matter.

Here's the deal - if you want every cold call to count, you've got to do your homework first. We're talking about researching your cold call prospects, getting inside their industry, and figuring out what's keeping them up at night. This isn't optional stuff. When you tailor your cold calling script and approach based on real intel, you're already miles ahead. Throw in some open-ended questions during your sales call and watch prospects open up about their needs and challenges. That's when you position your product or service as exactly what they've been looking for. Build that rapport, make a genuine connection, and boom - you've turned a cold lead into a warm opportunity.

Want to crush your cold calling process? Master your cold calling scripts, practice until your delivery's smooth, and actually listen when prospects talk. (Crazy concept, right?) Leverage technology like CRM systems and sales dialers to manage your cold call lists, track follow ups, and pump up your call volume. This stuff makes your cold calling efforts way more efficient and effective.

Here's what you need to remember - cold calling's a numbers game, but quality beats quantity every single time. Making more cold calls opens more doors, sure, but each call better be well-researched, relevant, and focused on delivering real value to the prospect. You need a positive attitude, persistence, and the guts to refine your cold calling strategy based on feedback and results. That's how you overcome objections and actually achieve sales success.

Stay sharp with the latest cold calling techniques, trends, and best practices. That's how your sales team stays ahead of the competition and keeps your cold calling strategies working as the sales cycle evolves. Apply these cold calling tips consistently, and you'll build stronger relationships, convert more cold leads, and drive serious revenue growth for your business.