How to Sell Podcast: Make How You Sell, Why You Win

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:00]:
In this episode, you're gonna learn how to structure a cold call, the importance of intonation, and how to reduce relationship tension, and why you need to prepare for resistance before the call. Welcome back to another episode of the how to sell podcast. I'm your host, Luigi Preston Indian. As always, thank you for showing up. If you're a longtime listener, I just wanna say thanks for always supporting our incredible community. And if you're a first time listener, welcome. We hope you take away some actionable insights that'll help you sell more. Now this cannot be a how to sell podcast if I don't start off making Dave Feel bad.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:39]:
Well, actually, Dave, I've got some news for you. Somebody reached out to me, and they said, look. I've got some feedback about the banter with Dave about how you make him feel. And I actually felt really bad until I read the next line, and it's and the next line said, we really love it. Can you keep doing it more and more?

David Fastuca [00:01:03]:
You know what? I was watching the AC Milan game, because everyone's hearing you giving me crap about Chelsea. Louis is a mad AC fan, and I do not Hope for 1 team to lose as much as I do with AC, and you guys were minutes away. Oh, I had a whole segment ready just to give you crap, And they came back. So

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:21]:
But actually, folks, that's just reminded me on a challenge that David and I set on who could sell more and the person that sold more needed to where the other person's journey. Now David

David Fastuca [00:01:34]:
No. No. Hang on hang on a second. I I I'm happy you brought this up. This is a good lesson For you listening in this episode, yes, Louis. Technically, you have sold more, but I track What has transacted in the bank, my friend. Oh, okay. Until your deals are sold and are in the bank, you haven't sold more, mate.

David Fastuca [00:01:56]:
So, technically, I'm up on you. So, Chelsea, top coming your way. Hang on. Hang on.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:02:01]:
Was that for last month or this month?

David Fastuca [00:02:03]:
Well, so far this month because Hang on. Unless you're unless Heck no.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:02:07]:
I was sandbagging last month, so I could go to this part of it.

David Fastuca [00:02:12]:
Anyway, we have got a a really really good episode today. When we're talking about it before, and you said the subject. I'm like, yes. Yeah. This is a sick one. Right? So this is all about cold calling and the anatomy of a cold call. Lead us in, Louis.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:02:26]:
But I you know, I wanna preference this with we often think about cold calling and think about I've got certain strategies for cold calling. What I want to do the first thing I wanna help out help you listening to this episode, this type of strategy, or content, or topic that we're gonna address today is not just for cold calling, you can also use this on managing inbound lead, and I'm gonna talk to you a bit about why. Right? So one of the first challenges we often experience when we're calling anyone, right, it doesn't matter inbound or outbound, is people aren't just sitting there waiting for you to call. And even even if you are calling an inbound, somebody that's fill out a form, ask you to call them on LinkedIn, doesn't matter what means they've inquired. They don't just put an inquiry and then stop everything they're doing and sit there and go, right, I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna do nothing until Dave calls me. Right? That's not what happens. They do something and they often will then be back to maybe doing what they were doing before they inquired.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:03:33]:
So when you ring, the first things first, is your phone When the phone rings, your number's not appearing. It's not saying, hey, David, the guy that's responding to your inquiry is calling. Right? So when you do ring your the prospect, the prospect's not sitting there expecting your call. It's an unknown number. So they're already gonna have a level of who is calling me and what do they want. So relationship tension is somewhat a little bit high. Right? And this is where we need to use this is a soft skill stuff. Doesn't matter what intro you have, what content you're about to share, One of the most important parts of the phone call, what is intonation.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:04:13]:
Right. And intonation is broken down into 3 parts. It's your tone, your pitch, and your speed. Yeah. So if somebody's answering the phone and they're very direct, Right? They're very and you you can hear it when people when their people answer, they say, you know, good morning, Dave speaking, or this is Dave, or how can I help you? If they're more direct, tone is deeper, it's not a time to start the call and go, Oh, hi, Dave. You know, my name is Luigi, and I'm calling from Growth Forum. And I was looking at your profile, and I thought I'd give you a quick call because that's gonna create even more relationship tension.

David Fastuca [00:04:49]:
So it's almost like being like the on the other end, the anger's building up to get to the effing point. What's going on now?

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:04:56]:
Because that's the first thing they're out there wondering. They're wondering why you calling me and what's in it for me. If if I can't find out very quickly that I'm gonna take away some value from this call, I don't want I don't want I don't wanna have this call. Right? And it's also they've got a bias to deflect. They're busy doing something else, and if it's not something that's immediately of interest, they wanna deflect it. Right. Again even inbound, because you often hear because they They're not really listening. You call them and some calling from growth from there, like, sorry.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:05:25]:
Where are you calling from? Oh, you inquired about x. So the purpose of my call is to help you with that inquiry. And they're like, oh, yes. Yeah. But if it's cold, there is no oh, yes. Yeah? Yeah. So the first outcome I want you as a listener to take away is when somebody answers the phone, try to mirror their tone, mirror their speed, and mirror their pitch as quickly as possible. Because you are in control of that, and it's a it's a learnt skill.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:05:56]:
Right? If you're engaging with somebody that's more faster paced, direct, you've gotta be faster paced direct in your pitch. Yeah? How how do

David Fastuca [00:06:03]:
you start your call, Louie? Like, do you and I think even a step before that, what do you do to get into the right frame of mind? Because Look, even me, you you get that cold call anxiety before you dial and you'd be done soon. Yep. Do you have any sort of, No. Process that you go through and then what's your tone and pitch like to begin with because you're leading that at the start.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:06:25]:
So again, I'm a big fan, you know, mindset matters more than anything else. And if I'm going into my calls, feeling that anxiety, feeling a bit stressed, thinking about something else, gonna transfer onto the telephone. So the first thing I do is I actually stand up. I like to create positive energy. Yeah? I like to mindset role play what I'm about to say. Right? There's no point starting the call fumbling your way through your script, and I don't care what anybody sales. I don't like scripts, etcetera, but I can guarantee you if you record 50, a100 of your sales, if you don't use a script, If you record your calls and review your calls, you'll actually see that you're using a script whether you like it or not. You're using a very similar framework each time you call.

David Fastuca [00:07:10]:
Yep.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:07:10]:
So what I do to try to get my my mind in into the right frame is I will kinda go through my little script. You know, I will I will do it out loud and my my partner, he's been in the room when I do it and she laughs at me, but I like to get get it out. Get it out. Here it kind of go, you know what? Maybe we're gonna change this up a little bit, and especially if I'm doing pragmatic research, which I do with pretty much all of my calls. I'm doing a little bit of research first to make sure that introduction is customized and contextualized for the person that I'm talking to. Now There are tools out there and we're gonna practice because I've I've I've sent it to you, David, hyperbound dot a I. This is not a plug, guys. We're not getting paid from them.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:07:53]:
We've only just found it. You can actually role play with an AI, and a different persona. And we're gonna start to play with it because it's fantastic. Right? But That's not the point of this episode, but if you do go check it out, hyperbound dot a I, because it allows you to do that role playing. Why? Because when you practice something before you pick up the phone, you're more confident. Yeah? And confidence comes from being competent. So that's the first thing I do. I try to get that nervous energy out, Make sure that I've got a clear reason for calling.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:08:25]:
You've gotta have the reason. Right? So preparing is your secret weapon. Okay. Then when you finally do pick up the phone and make that call, try to match your tone. Intonation. If it's a somebody that's a bit more softly spoken, don't come out of the gates. Bang. This is why I'm calling because there's a mismatch.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:08:48]:
Right? You've gotta kinda match their tone. If they are more direct, be more direct. If they're more softly spoken, lower your voice. This is all stuff that you can absolutely learn. Yeah. So that's the first part of cold call Naomi.

David Fastuca [00:09:03]:
Do you go midway, like in between? Because if I'm calling you And I don't know who you are. Look, obviously, I know who you are. Sorry. I haven't heard you speak, so I don't know your tonality, your speed, your pitch. Yeah. I I need to, like, have a bit of a, I'm gonna go in with this sort of tone, this sort of, cadence and pitch, and then adapt to yours.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:09:23]:
Yeah. Well, you can tell a lot by the way they answer the phone. Right? And if Yeah. And sometimes though they're answering the phone and they're still a bit unsure who you are. So that's why I like to get to the reason for my call as quickly as possible. Yeah. I don't like to use and this is just my tactic. Right? There are other people out there that might share things that work for them.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:09:41]:
But What I what I like to do is just tell them as quickly as I possibly can, hey, David. The reason for my call is that's what I do. Right? I read this post. I looked at this report. Your CEO mentioned x. Right? Such and such told me to give you a call because I understand that you're trying to tackle this particular problem, and given the space we work in, We've got some insight on how others are tackling this issue to fix this problem and achieve x result. Is now a good time to chat? Or when can we put some time in the calendar? And so because again, you're trying to respect your time, and it's a closed question. Now or later? Yeah? Now again, usually what that does, it's still they're still not a 100% listening, and they're sort of so sorry.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:10:30]:
Sorry. What's the call about? And then you can go a little bit deeper. Yeah? But the key thing is you've gotta make sure that for me, you gotta get to the purpose, the reason why you're ringing, and show them that you know them. Right? I mean, that's a term that's been thrown around a lot. Samantha McKenna has actually coined that term, show me you know me, and I love that. I love the fact that she's really building a business around that framework. But from the days that I started cold calling. My very first job in a contact center when I started in sales, you had to make the call as relevant as possible in that first sort of 5 to 10 seconds because otherwise the individual's like, well, this isn't for me.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:11:13]:
Yeah? Now this is I wanna separate this from a call it's not a call that you're receiving at home having dinner and you just hear that You know those calls that you get, it's from a contact center overseas. They don't know who you are. They haven't done any research. They just got a lot of data going through and it's a dialer. This is not that type of call. What we're doing in b to b sales is we are calling people. It could be mid level. It could be user base to get some intel or it could be c level.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:11:42]:
Right? We are calling people with a purpose and we're respecting their time by saying, hey, based on this, based on what I've read, based on what you shared, based on what you said on a podcast. Whatever reference you want, whatever trigger event you want, this is why I'm calling. Yeah? So that's the first part, but the intro and your intonation go hand in hand. This is a holistic approach to it. Yeah?

David Fastuca [00:12:06]:
Louie, when you're speaking and you you you got a good sense, they wanna chat further, how are you closing them onto your calendar? Are you doing it then and there, getting their email address, they send them a link. Talk us through that because that's the nitty gritty there where people think like, oh, great. Now I've got the call. I'll send you my calendar link, and then it goes.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:12:25]:
So first things first, I don't want them to do the hard work and we send them a link and they book in. Right? And this is why you've got to pay for any resistance before the call. People are gonna have resistance. People don't know who you are. And even if they do know who you are, they're mindset still at that point of, well, I haven't asked for this, Dave. Mhmm. Even inbound. Like, we see this from inbound.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:12:45]:
Like, people think inbound is is this fantastic, you know, golden pond where you can just you get all these leads and they convert. There's some data to show that a lot of inbound doesn't convert. In fact, there are most industries only 3% of all inbound convert. So there's a lot of people that don't convert. Right? Just because somebody has signaled a little bit of intent, it doesn't mean they're necessarily ready to buy. So That's a crazy stat. It's an insane stat. Right? So you've gotta really anticipate that people will have resistance, and this is why it's important to think about the resistance before you pick up the phone to try to bring that resistance up first.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:13:21]:
It's also and something that I it's my go to. It's my go to statement. When I do hear resistance, I can say, hey, David. Completely understand that I've called you, you know, out of the blue. However, given the type of challenges that, my research or that other people like you are facing, I've got insight that's actionable that, even if we don't progress past that first meeting together, you'll be able to use that insight to improve a couple of areas within the business that could affect a, b, and c. So I try to share with them that it's actionable insight. Yeah? Just like I do at the start of this episode. Right? They're gonna walk away with something tangible because the very first stage of commitment I want them to have is or I want to occur in that process is commitment of time.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:14:16]:
I'm not asking them to make a decision about my buying my product or service because it's way too early in the process to do that. I'm just asking them to give me what is very, very valuable, which is time. So they need to say, yes. I will walk away with some insight. So or assume they're gonna walk away with insight, so they will then say I'm happy to trade some time for some value. Yeah?

David Fastuca [00:14:44]:
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David Fastuca [00:15:46]:
Visit growthform.oforward/apply and schedule Your free sales strategy review with us today. Now back to the show. So you got 1 objection and you've countered with, you know, know, giving them some insight and some value. Yeah. Now they object again. Yeah. How many times do you keep going back before you just call it And go, this is not gonna move forward.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:16:10]:
It depends on your strategy day. Like, again, if you're pursuing a a pretty large account and there's multiple people in the account that you are potentially targeting. You gotta think about, do I want to keep pushing this person so that relationship tension go goes higher until a point of, hey, you know what, you're just a seller trying to push me into a meeting. Sometimes the strategy is, hey, look, completely understand your position. So you kill that tension. In understanding that time is a bit of a challenge for you at the moment, would it be okay if I send some information about this particular topic, and I pencil some time in for next week to give you a call and walk you through that. Right? Mhmm. Now what you're doing there is you're reducing that tension.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:16:56]:
You're removing the task tension as well for them going, no, I don't wanna make that final commitment, but you know what? Yeah. That makes sense. Send me some stuff about how a, b, and c are tackling, and let's pencil some time. So you'd you send them a tentative meeting request for next week at Friday based on what you've shared. Yeah?

David Fastuca [00:17:18]:
Yep. I can so I could I could see there. So you're lowering attention. You're giving them you're giving them an easy way to Get off the phone because, you know, they probably want to. Everyone's probably using that same thing of jumping into a meeting. Yeah. But then, You know, do people most of them ghost you after that? Have you found?

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:17:35]:
Or In some cases, but, you know, there are other ways and you could try to handle that. Hey, okay. Before I send you, what information would you like? But they're not at that point of thinking about what information, and for me Sure. I'm not there to handle every objection. Because we've got to also remember, Dave, that the minute I've made that call, the minute of established connection, and I'm having a conversation with them, they are becoming aware of who I am. Yeah. And if I'm able to then say, hey, completely understand. Appreciate time is really challenging for you right now.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:09]:
So you completely kill that tent. You you kill it. Right? You've accepted their position. So, again, I I like permission based. It's worked for me, Dave. It's helped me get appointments with some of the biggest companies. Like, you've seen some of the companies we've got appointments with, right, that have also converted. This is a strategy that's worked well for me over the years.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:28]:
You killed attention, ask permission to maybe share a little bit of insight via email about x topic, and then seek to connect with them in a week's time to maybe review that and see if it makes sense to even have a further conversation. Now what will happen in between that time as well, you have a connection request. So you'll send that connection as a a a greater chance of them accepting.

David Fastuca [00:18:52]:
Mhmm.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:53]:
You've then now got an additional channel to start communicating with

David Fastuca [00:18:56]:
them on.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:56]:
Right, maybe dropping them a voice note, then you'll start maybe share a piece of content on LinkedIn that's relevant to that particular topic, that's relevant to their situation. And all of a sudden now they're starting to see more of your content. They're seeing more of your point of view and your perspective. Right? And they're going, you know what? This is interesting. So then you've sent the email, you might be sending a follow-up to sales, hey, We had the tentative session next week or you send the calendar invite. Right? But what what you're doing here, David, this is why for me, This is not just a tactic of saying, hey. I'm calling you and I wanna book you in, and this is a closing way of booking you into next step. I just wanna make my target market aware of who I am.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:19:43]:
Yeah. Right? And I'm building this is a marathon not a sprint. So if we wrap this up, the anatomy is be prepared for the resistance early, Have something when I say prepared, have a some insight packaged up that you can maybe share with them post that call. Right? Remember to mirror tone. Mirror tone, you know, the pitch, the speed, critical. And get to the point of why you're calling early. If you follow these principles, you'll find that making cold calls and following up with prospects is a lot easier. And another key takeaway, don't be afraid like, if you think of a tennis match with Australian Open are open on right now.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:20:31]:
The tennis players don't just get on the court and start having a game. Right? They actually get on the court, and they start hitting the sales to each other. They start serving against each other before they start the game. So don't start the game. Don't start work and you're gonna pick up the phone and go live first. Just role play a little bit. Right? Get the get your tone and vocal cords going. Get some positive energy happening.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:20:56]:
Listen to some whatever gets you going, and listen to some music, have a coffee, smash a Red Bull, whatever. Right? Whatever works for you, Get the mindset right. Get yourself into a position where you're comfortable, you're confident, and feeling good.

David Fastuca [00:21:11]:
And that's a great point there. Right? Just to put a final bow on this, To do that warm up practice at the start. Look, we we do it where we sit in a room and we're listening to each other, so we're there as, like, our accountability sort of buddy. But if you got another team member, do some warm up, you know, practice calls with your teammate, pick each other up in a few little issues, and then you feel like you warmed up and ready to go. Absolutely.