Play #002 Does the 📞 still work as a GTM Strategy?

Welcome to play #002 of the Founders GTM Playbook Newsletter. Each week I will bring you one GTM play that is tested through scaling multiple 7-figure B2B businesses that you can put into action to scale your business.

The phone has been part of the go-to-market strategy for many organizations before the term GTM was even a term widely used by startups. I want to get straight to the point here and then I will explain. The short answer is YES. the phone is still an extremely powerful tool when companies have a sound strategy. I believe that cold calling is still the most effective way to communicate with cold prospects and get instant market feedback on your targeting and messaging which is essential early on.

The biggest issue companies have with their cold calling strategy is they think that more reps and more dials equal more pipeline. The problem with this thinking is that they waste a ton of time for sellers and budget for the company. Reps get burnt out and founders think "cold calling is dead."

No, cold calling is NOT dead is the way in which many are approaching it that is dead.

So lets get into some ways companies can have success with cold calling. There are three fundamental things to consider in order to have a sound cold calling strategy. Your target, your message, and your process. I will cover each of these in today's play and I will not be going into tech as the tech is less relevant. The technology you use can speed things up once you have a sound strategy.

1. Your Target

Don't take shortcuts when building your target list and no giving your team access to ZoomInfo or Seamless is not a list strategy. These are great tools but again not a sound strategy for your target. The ideal targeting needs to be developed by the founder or sales leadership.

Companies need to know their swim lane as Ryan Reisert likes to say. When testing the swim lanes you will have a general idea of what you think your target market is but the more you can refine that the better you will get at building a quality pipeline via cold calling. This means rolling up the sleeves to get in the mud in order to find out who the company best serves and who is NOT an ideal prospect. Companies need to get this right on the first try. Part of the reason cold calling is so effective is the ability to get instant feedback from the potential target market. If the team gets lazy and skips this step, a ton of time will be wasted and people working the campaign will end up like every other idiot on LinkedIn that says "Cold Calling is Dead".

2. Your Message

Using a script is essential when setting up an outbound calling campaign for both tenured and new sales reps that will be working on the campaign. I'm totally okay with sales reps making the script their own flavor as long as they are following the proven messaging and framework that has been tested to yield the most positive results. Everyone wants to know what the perfect cold call opener is. The answer is simple the one that the rep making the call with feels the most natural and confident using. Don't listen to what the GURUs say, they likely have not made a cold call in this decade. Test your messaging in your target and track what works. The goal is never to set the meeting, the real goal is to have positive conversation that might just result in a meeting.

2. Your Process

Having a good process with cold call campaigns is essential. This is where a lot of money is lost. The follow-up is where the magic happens. This means whoever is making calls on the campaign needs to take good notes and schedule dedicated time for following. Most of the meetings set are in the follow-up. The people that asked for an email, the people that sounded interested but wouldn't commit, and the people that asked you to call back. taking good notes will allow you to recapture where you last left off rather than starting the conversion off cold again so. And of the love of GOD please use a proper CRM and not a spreadsheet, it kills me how many people won't spend a bit on good tech to set their team up for success.

See you again next week.

-CM