Creating a Great Hook

You place a cold call and a prospect picks up the phone. Quick—what’s your hook?

When we ask our clients this question, most emphasize one key selling point that they believe will capture a prospect’s interest in a matter of seconds.

Historically, this approach has worked well—however, the task of crafting a great hook is getting increasingly difficult. As markets evolve and purchasing processes become more complex, decision makers become busier and more elusive. It can seem like they’re looking for any excuse possible to get off the phone.

How do you push through such objections? By switching up the focus of your hook. Instead of convincing your prospects that they need your product itself, instead convince them that they need to take the appointment you’re trying to set for them.

To do this, first examine your current formula for lead gen conversations. It probably looks something like this:

1. The caller introduces your company, product and/or services.
2. The caller succinctly describes how that product/service solves a common pain point.
3. The caller asks the prospect if they experience this pain point or would be interested in your solution.
4. If the answer is yes, the caller schedules an appointment.

To refocus the hook, consider restructuring that same conversation so that it looks more like this:

1. The caller acknowledges that the prospect is busy, and reassures them that the call will be simple goal and won’t take long.
2. The caller explains that their goal is merely to connect the prospect with someone from your company who can help them solve a problem or gain insight into a certain aspect of their business.
3. Then, the caller asks for the appointment—right off the bat.
4. If necessary, the caller asks further qualification questions—only after the prospect says they’re not interested or while scheduling the call.

As you can see, the two call styles differ significantly. Switching from the first to the second might seem like a real leap of faith.

Keep in mind, though, that giving too much up-front information about your product or service allows an initially skeptical decision maker to pigeonhole you into the category of a vendor providing something they don’t want. Because they’re fielding such a high volume of cold calls, many decision makers do this reflexively.

In these cases, it’s quite possible that a longer, less hurried conversation would change their mind. By leading with the appointment, you empower your skilled sales reps by entrusting them with that conversation instead of having your BDRs do the difficult work of starting it themselves.

Since adopting this approach, VSA has been able to set 2-3 times as many appointments for our clients, who report that the leads we’re sending them are just as interested and well-qualified as ever.

We’re happy to share more about the results we’ve achieved by implementing this one simple adjustment, and help you think through how your team can achieve these results, too. Just give us a call!