Episode 116: Turn a Cold Prospect Into a Warm Connection

Bob Woods  0:00

Greetings, welcome everyone to Making Sales Social Live. Wow. I’m Bob Woods and with me today is co-host and LinkedIn Whisperer, Brynne Tillman. How you doing, Brynne?

Brynne Tillman  0:13

I’m good. I felt with whisperer I should be quiet. No, how are you, Bob? I’m having fun today.

Bob Woods 0:19

Good. And if you know Brynne, she doesn’t whisper very much, but she is a whisperer, so that’s the key there. 

Intro 

Welcome to Making Sales Social Live as we share LinkedIn and social selling training, strategies, and tips that will have an immediate impact on your business. Join Brynne Tillman, and me, Bob Woods, every week. Making Sales Social Live.

Let’s get into it, turning cold prospects into warm conversations, who want to hear about what you can do and how you can help them. God, that is what all of us want as salespeople. So, while most people use old-school tactics to reach that goal, we have something that works even better to start sales conversations with those cold prospects because it’s done in a way that’s authentic and in your own voice. And not in that salesy, “Hey,” you know, used car salesperson kind of way, and apologies to good used car sales pros to for that one.

So, let’s get right into it. Before we can really understand how it’s done, we should probably discuss a little bit the philosophy and mindset behind how it’s done, Brynne?

Brynne Tillman 1:38

Yes, I love starting with philosophy and mindset because you know what, if we have the wrong mindset, we can kill this whole thing, right. And our goal, hands down, is to start conversations with people that care about our topic that we can bring value to. So here’s the thing, couple quick little, detach from what that prospect is worth to you, and attach to what you’re worth to the prospect. So that means as we are pursuing this relationship, as we’re building rapport and bringing value to them, that should be our focus, bringing value, being a resource, having an impact on this cold prospect. That’s how we’ll earn the right to get a conversation where we can, by the way, add more value and be even more of a resource, which then earns the right for them, for them to say, “Hey, I’d like to learn a little bit about how you can help me and my business grow,” or whatever that looks like, right?

So the mindset is, value value value, not sales conversation, commission, sell them a product or service. Don’t go in with a preconceived notion beyond how can I bring value.

Number two in philosophy and mindset, which most people do wrong, salespeople do wrong, including us some of the time because you just want to get to the conversation, is we just jump in too fast before they’re ready, and we scare them away. So we need to slow down our outreach to speed up the outcome. This is really important. Yeah, talk a little bit about why you think it’s so important. I know I think it’s (crosstalk)

Bob Woods 3:36

Yeah, it’s really important because it’s just like what Brynne said, a friend of ours always calls it commission breath. You know, you don’t want to have that commission breath, usually a big a big indication of that commission, we should call it commission halitosis, but anyhow, commission breath is you really want to just speed things up. You know, speed things up, speed things up. And that’s not necessarily because you’re, you have bad or negative intentions or whatever, it’s just the salespeople, we just want to get through the process. So it’s not like you’re thinking wrong, necessarily, but you still have to get into that mindset of slowing down your outreach to speed up your outcome.

And the nice thing that happens is when you do that, you’re putting much less pressure on the person who you’re trying to get that conversation with. So hopefully, when they make that decision to speak with you, they’re actually making it based on what they feel about your product or service and the fact that they really want to know about it because you’ve added so much value prior to that.

Brynne Tillman  4:45

100%. I absolutely love that. Alright, so we’ve got mindset, we’ve got to be a resource for a prospect, we have to slow it down, we have to detach from the sale now that we’ve got our head in the right place, what should we be doing? 

Bob Woods5:04

Oh, and do everything in your own voice too, that was the only other thing that I want (crosstalk), because if you come in scripted, and then all of a sudden, you’re talking to him and you’re a completely different person because you’re not talking in script, that feels inauthentic. So always be in your own voice as well. You can adapt scripts and things like that to your voice but it’s got to be in your own voice and I’m shaking my monitor because they feel so strongly about that.

Brynne Tillman 5:33

I think that’s really important. And, you know, we trained thousands of people with templates but we always say go in and tailor them. So it sounds like it’s coming out of your mouth. So that’s 100%. I love that. Love that. Okay, so now that we have the right mindset, let’s talk about what maybe strategy, was it strategy?

Bob Woods  5:55

And steps to take. Yeah, yeah. So, the next two we’re going to cover are strategy and steps to take, and then we’re going to push through it a little bit and actually kind of go over the actual initial conversation when the stars and planets align and everybody wants to talk.

Brynne Tillman 6:11

All right, so strategy, you know, we’ll get to the tactics but strategically, we need to, number one, find out where are they hanging out and what are they talking about, right?

So I want, I guess, this is a little strategy slash mindset. I want you guys to think about this as a networking opportunity like you are at a trade show or conference or a business card exchange and all of these folks are, you know, interested in keynotes and breakouts, and they’re engaging on content, you know, content in a live forum while they’re doing this on LinkedIn also.

When we’re looking for cold prospects, we’ll talk a couple of things, but one of them is figure out where are they hanging out? What authors are they engaging with? What creators, content creators are they hanging out? The other thing is really defining who that ideal person is, and searching those folks. And we can search them first-degrees. Now we’re saying cold, so you might say, “Well, first-degree is not cold.” Well, my guess is you only know 20% of your connections, so 80% are still cold, right? So, searching your first-degree connections and finding your ideal prospects, and searching your second-degree prospects and finding your ideal prospects. So let’s start tactically with number one, which is the content and the creator. Do you want to add to that? Or should I just keep trucking along?

Bob Woods 7:40

Just keep going and I’m sure I’ll definitely have thoughts as as we continue to go through things.

Brynne Tillman 7:47

Okay, because I love this topic, you know how much I love this topic.

Bob Woods7:50

Yeah, I am, too, but you articulate it probably a little better than I do (crosstalk). 

Brynne Tillman 7:56

Well, I love, I love this, okay, so, find those great content creators that are already attracting your prospects. This is a powerful way to warm up a cold prospect or find them and then warm them up, right. So I’m going to just randomly throw out, let’s say, Mark Hunter, who is a great voice on LinkedIn and sales trainer who attracts a lot of the same people that we want to work with. So he’s got some great content and he’s got 17 likes and reactions, and he’s got 26 comments. 

And so now I’m here hanging out with the other people that also like Mark Hunter, right? So what do I do with this? Well, how do I engage and warm these folks up? Well, there’s a few ways. Obviously, liking their comment and engaging on their comment, but if I want to start a conversation with these folks and I start with, “Hey, I’m not sure if you’re exploring my solution, if you are, I’d love to send you lots of things I can sell you,” right? And that’s what a lot of people do. However, we can actually kind of leverage the Mark Hunters of the world and say, “Hey, I’m not sure if you heard his podcast with Meredith last Saturday. It was killer. Here was the topic. These were some of the takeaways. Let’s connect, I’m happy to send over a link.”

And all of a sudden, we’re talking about the content that clearly this prospect of mine is interested in and an author and an influencer. And all of a sudden I can start a conversation around a common topic. So if we were at that conference, it would be the keynote or the breakout session that we’re having conversations around. The conversation again, we’ve got to slow it down, to slow down the outreach to speed up the outcome. We can ask him, who else are you following? What are some other topics? At one point, I might say, “Hey, is social selling of interest to you? I’ve got lots of content around that, let me know…” — ask permission — “…let me know, I’m happy to send some resources around that.”

But it might be it for the fourth touch, or the fifth touch. With enough of the right communication and your profile positioned well, many times I don’t even have to get to the point where I’m asking them if they’re interested. A lot of times, they’ll say, “Hey, I noticed on your profile this” because we’ve had this conversation and often it leads to that inbound question (crosstalk)

Bob Woods10:33

Because you’re already starting at a common point, a common reference, a common interest that also has to do with business in the first place. So I mean, sometimes we get deals from people who meet in purely social situations and that’s obviously cool and fine and everything else but for this, it’s definitely more along the lines of connecting and I mean that in the figurative sense, at this point, connecting with people on a one-to-one basis, who you share the same common interest with, in this case, it would be Mark Hunter and his content.

Brynne Tillman  11:05

Awesome. Now, so we’ve talked about one of them, we talked about, you know, the conference on LinkedIn, right, the follower. The next one, I guess, is our first-degree connections, right. So let’s search our first-degree connections and identify who it is that we’ve been ignoring.

Now, again, we want to slow this down but we can do this through exporting our connections, or actually doing a really specific search on LinkedIn, using the first-degree filter.

So now we start to, let’s say, you want CEOs in the hospital and health care industry, you know, whatever it is, like you break it down, and wellness or whatever that is, and you break it down, and you find out, you’ve got 18 first-degree connections that match your criteria. My guess is, let’s say 20 because I’m better at math when it’s a round number. So, you know, you may really actually know four of them. And then there are 16 people that you’re already connected to that are still kind of cold, even though at one time. Now, before you reach out to them, check when did you connect, and you can do that by clicking on their contact information and looking at the date. Click on messages and see if you’ve had any message exchange, maybe it’ll be a reminder of how you connected. Check on your shared connections, right? See who you have in common. Take a look at the people they’re following, the influencers in their life. It’s all the way down at the bottom. Look at who’s recommended them on LinkedIn. Look at the content they’ve added to their Featured section and in their activity.

All those things that I just listed are triggers to start conversations, opportunities to start conversations. If they had activity or they have content that they’ve shared, this is where we slow it down. Right? So maybe they shared content on HIPAA laws, I’m just going with the healthcare thing, right, they’ve shared and that’s the content they’ve shared. Go out and find additional content on that topic and reach out to them and say, “Hey, Fred, it’s been a long time since we last connected. When I came across this HIPAA law thing and I saw you had shared some content around that and I thought you might some find some value from it. Here were some of the takeaways. If you’re interested, let me know, I’m happy to send you a link.” And we’re starting to warm up this cold prospect but it’s not around our products and services. It’s around topics that she or he cares about, right? Really, really important. And when I add to add, or should I jump into number three?

Bob Woods  13:39  

Yeah, you definitely went through everything. Again, it’s just about, you know, connecting on that personal level with a business-related type of thing and taking the conversation from there essentially.

Brynne Tillman 13:49

Absolutely. So number three, if it’s a second-degree connection, right, so this is someone that we have a shared connection with. How do we warm them up? The first and easiest way, well, I’m not going to say easiest way, most effective way, is to reach out to your shared connection or connections with a quick little note that says, “Hey, I’m looking to talk with Fred in the next coming weeks or so, I noticed your connection. I’m wondering how well do you know him and if you have any insights you might be able to share?”

And so now you talk to Bob, who knows Fred, and he goes, “Oh, I worked with him years ago. He’s a great guy.” Maybe he shares a couple little things on him and I’ll say, “Should I tell him you said hello?” I go, “Hey, Fred, Bob Woods and I were chatting the other day on LinkedIn and your name came up in our conversation. He says hello.” What better way to warm it up than a shared connection, right?

So that is definitely one of the ways but also look at their content and engage. Engage on their content, view their profile, follow them first, right. Don’t connect yet, they’ll get a little notification that you follow them. I mean, just do a whole bunch of little touch points. And one last thing, ask for it, first or second, ask for their perspective on something — a vote on a poll or a little comment on content that you put out there.

Bob Woods  15:16

Yeah. So and then, you know, you can do the same type of thing with a first-degree connection too, except you don’t have to go through some of those preliminary steps. Like if you just put out a poll, you can just message them directly and and ask for their one-click comment on their on the poll that you did, too, even if you haven’t, warming the whole thing up as as well, if you haven’t communicated with the first-degree connection for a while, either.

Brynne Tillman  15:42

That’s great. So Joe asked, “Is there a worksheet or notes on this?” So we highly recommend that you sign up for our free library at LinkedInLibrary.com. Lots of resources, lots of downloads. I’m sure this content is in there somewhere. Yeah, we do. We have a lot of content. So it’s totally free, LinkedInlibrary.com. And Joe reached out to me on LinkedIn. Alright, let’s take it in for a landing, my friend.

Bob Woods 16:11

Let’s just talk really quick about that initial conversation, though. So you got this person on there. It’s not really a discovery call, at least the way that we believe in it, like, you know, like, IT always has discovery calls and things like that, where you’re hammering people with questions and, and you’re putting people on the spot. We like to think of them more as discovery calls.

Brynne Tillman  16:35

Well, I wouldn’t even go to discovery call yet, exactly. Let’s say discovery-ish. (Bob: Yeah, discovery-ish.) And the reason is, the goal of this call is not just for us to learn about them but for us to bring insights to them. And so that, so the concept really is question, answer, insight. Question, answer, insight, so don’t ask a question that you don’t have insights to bring to the conversation unless they raise their hand and said, “You know, we’re searching we’re looking for solutions like yours. Can we talk?” If it’s all come in through, you know, this warm networking, make sure you don’t jump into the pitch too soon. And then the goal of that call is if you hear that there are some opportunities, you want to essentially ask them if they’re interested in exploring at the end, do not bait and switch that call though, do not go into sales mode. And sometimes and the reason, even though we make, what we call discovery is different than what’s out in the world, because discovery out in the world is mostly, “I need to find information so I can help sell you,” our discovery is to find information to help them and if there’s an opportunity where we can help them more, we’ll close to that but that isn’t, the goal of this call is to bring enough value that they’re excited to work with you.

Bob Woods18:01

Yeah, exactly. And then for those out there who are like trained to discovery calls as an actual way to qualify people and you’re thinking, “Oh my god, if I don’t ask all these questions that check all these boxes, how am I going to make sure that they’re qualified?” By doing what Brynne just said, you’re going to get a good idea of whether or not they are qualified. So I mean, so don’t don’t really depend on checking every single box with the questions that you have there.

Brynne Tillman 18:29

Awesome job. Okay, now we can bring it in for a landing.

Bob Woods 18:33

(crosstalk) at home especially because wow, this one turned out a little longer but you know, something, hopefully, all the information we shared made it very, very worth it to you.

So thanks again for joining us on Making Sales Social Live today. If you’re with us live on LinkedIn, YouTube, or Twitter right now, we do this every week, so keep an eye out for our sessions. If you’re listening to us recorded on our podcast and you haven’t subscribed yet, go ahead and hit that Subscribe or Follow button to access all of our previous shows and be alerted when new ones drop. If you want more information, go to socialsaleslink.com/podcast Again, socialsaleslink.com/podcast. We actually do two shows weekly, this one and our Making Sales Social interview series where we talk with leaders and experts in sales, marketing, business, many, many more areas, all of which can help you in your own business and sales efforts. So with that, when you’re out and about, be sure to make your sales

Brynne Tillman  19:33

Social. Bye guys. (Bob: I love that pause. Bye everybody.)

Bob Woods 19:38

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