Two days ago, I received one of the better cold calls that I’ve received.
He did a few things that most salespeople are told not to do.
This is how it went
Sales guy: Is this Umair?
Me: Yes
Sales guy: I’m X from company Y. You’re probably going to hate me for this as this is a cold call. But I can promise you that this’ll be interesting for you at the very least.
Me: OK, go ahead.
Sales guy: *goes on to talk about what they help their clients with before asking a question – how do you currently do A?
I cut him short there to save us both some time telling him that I’m not the right prospect for their service.
He then asked if he could send me info so that he’d be on top of mind when I’m ready to purchase a service like his company’s.
A few things could obviously be improved but what made me think was the effectiveness of his permission-based opener.
A lot of sales advice is about NOT asking for permission & most definitely not being apologetic.
I’ve also seen someone advocate that the seller should say something along the lines of “I only have 2 minutes for this call” so that the prospective customer values the seller’s time.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing but I would hang up on anyone who tried this approach on me.
I’d give a minute to someone can get to the point immediately without a permission-based opener.
But this guy – I gave him 2-3 minutes and a compliment as I hung up.
Are permission-based openers really all bad or can they be effective?