Add These 6 Questions To Your Cold Calling Pitch

As salespeople, we live our professional lives measured by “ends.” We live for the end of the month, the end of the quarter, and the end of the year. This month marks another end. And as we’re closing out this decade as sales professionals, you should stay true to a simple best practice that often gets overlooked: Ask your prospects for their business. Below are 6 cold calling questions to add to your pitch.

Ask Your Prospects For Their Business

Asking for the sale may seem obvious, but while we’re cold calling and hustling to qualify prospects, prepare tailored pitches, and guide our prospects through each part of the sales funnel & value propositions, it’s easy to forget the fundamentals. Here are a few talk tracks that can help sharpen your close and make you an effective salesperson.

Cold Calling Closing Questions

1. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that it’s the end of the month/quarter/year. Can we go ahead and take care of this contract today?

Guess what? Your prospects know that you’re a salesperson—they might have even answered your cold call. Lean into the seller you know you are and call it like it is. You have a cold calling quota to hit, and if you’ve done your job in building the relationship with your prospect, they won’t mind helping you hit your goal.

2. It sounds like we’re all on the same page. With that said, is there any hesitation in moving forward and working together?

Give your prospects an opportunity to share their hesitations or concerns so that you can overcome them coupled with #2. Building trust with a prospect is important, especially if the relationship started via a cold call.

3. I have my product/finance/onboarding/client success team on alert of this partnership, can I let them know that this is looking like we’ll have a start date of {insert date}?

Assume the sale by guiding the prospect into onboarding. Depending on your implementation efforts, it sometimes can take a lot of effort from both parties. Get organized out of the gate and get an onboarding date solidified for a time in which you need to have the deal closed.

4. What does my company need to prepare in order to move forward into the procurement process within your organization?

We’re happy to connect you with someone in our finance or operations team, if necessary. Again, depending on the business, sometimes getting a deal closed isn’t as easy as collecting a signed contract. Assuming that the deal is more complicated to close than it is in reality, can help to set the prospect up for letting you know how easy or how difficult it will be to become a partner.

5. With it being the end of the year, I have more negotiating power internally, what would we need to do in order to get this done today?

Depending on your industry and revenue streams, many sales organizations are open to running discounts towards the end of the month. Let your prospects know! Tell them that you’re in a position to internally advocate and negotiate on their behalf.

6. I’ve really enjoyed working with you up until this point, is there anything else that I can do in order to earn your business?

Show the prospect what it’s like to work with your organization. Make the deal painless, showing them what kind of experience they can expect throughout the duration of the contract.

Cold calling remains a top sales tactic and when done correctly, proves itself. Stay tuned for more cold calling tips from Abbey in 2020.

Click here to connect with Abbey on Linkedin.


Read more:

Outbound Sales: Sell Less, Connect More

How To Make Your B2B Sales Process More Efficient

Hiring & Staffing An Internal Sales Team