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Excuse me? Did you just say cold calling?!

It sounds crazy, I know... But, cold calling is far from the stereotypical
sleazy telemarketing you might associate it with. When harnessed
correctly, it’s actually an incredibly rewarding tool for lead
generation—especially if you’re just starting out in the agency world.

So, what exactly is cold calling? And how do you harness the beast so
you can benefit from it and start to generate qualified leads of your
own?

This resource will guide you through all that and more. You’ll learn
about the perks of using cold calling as a lead-generating tool. Then,
you’ll get a step-by-step walk through of the best strategies to help
you successfully implement cold calling in your business. Finally, You’ll
get a collection of tips, tricks, and phrases you can swipe and use on
your own prospecting calls!

But first, let’s define what modern-day cold calling actually looks like...

Cold Calling Guide | 1

What is Cold Calling?

Cold Calling Guide | 2

Let’s start by addressing the biggest assumptions you might have
about cold calling…

“Cold calling is all about harassing people into buying things.”

Not anymore. Gone are the days of grabbing a phone book, or

randomly dialing numbers....Nowadays, cold calling is all about
prospecting and relationship building. It’s about seeking out the
people you most want to work for, and building a relationship
with them.

“But, cold calling is just a dead pitch to a stranger, and no one is

gonna buy from a random person calling them”

Sure, at some point you’ll want to pitch your services. But again,
landing the sale on the first call is not the goal.

It’s about trying to earn a little more time to connect with that
person—regardless of if that’s 10 more seconds, a couple minutes, or
an arranged call for another time.

In a lot of ways, that first cold call is essentially a verbal landing page.
It’s a way to build awareness for your brand, and get someone to
engage with you and make a micro-commitment.

Sometimes that commitment is 5 minutes of their time spent talking

with you about the issues they are having in their business, while
other times it’s committing to look at a resource you could email them
(we’ll talk more about that in the next section).

The end goal might be a sale, but really it’s all about peaking
someone’s interest.

Cold Calling Guide | 3

 “Okay, sure it’s important, but who has time to sit and dial random
numbers all day long?”

Now, this assumption is only partially true. Calling up people does

take time, and with cold calling, it’s very much a numbers game.

For example, let’s say you call 100 people in a day—you will probably
only actually talk to 20 or so people, and maybe close 1 or 2 on the
first go. But don’t let that discourage you!

While you definitely won’t close all of the people you talk to, you will
have an opportunity to gain a ton of great leads from cold calling
[you’ll find out how in the next section]…

If you aren’t convinced yet, here’s the biggest perks of using cold
calling that you won’t want to miss out on…

1 YOU GET TO CHOOSE YOUR PROSPECTS

That means no more waiting around hoping your ads turn up

qualified leads… No more taking on clients you don’t really want
to work with, but need to to keep your business afloat. You find the
prospects you want to work with, and you go after them.

2 A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY

Even if you can only spend an hour or 2 a day prospecting, it will still
make a significant difference for your business long term. Again, it’s a
numbers game, remember?

Cold Calling Guide | 4

 3 YOU CAN OUTSOURCE

If cold calling really isn’t your thing, you can easily hand off the
process to a sales-savvy employee, or outsource it altogether once
you have landed a few clients.

By now, you should have a firm understanding of why cold calling is

so powerful, so let’s get into implementation!

Cold Calling Guide | 5

Strategies For
Cold Calling

Cold Calling Guide | 6

Implementing cold calling in your agency is a super simple, 5-step
process.

Step 1: Create Your Dream 100 List

The first step in cold calling is to create your dream 100 list. This is a
list of all the prospects you want to work with.

You might already have a dream 100 list, but if you don’t here are
some tips on sourcing and qualifying prospects to add to your Dream
100:

Define your criteria: These are the qualifying factors that will
determine if a business is the right fit for your agency. Some
criteria you might consider are: specific market, size, specific
number of/rank of their customer reviews (this can be a great tell
of how internet-focused the business is, and how the business
treats their customers). Your criteria will be unique to your
businesses capabilities and ideal customers.

Collect the information: Once you have your criteria, you can
go ahead and start collecting the criteria information, as well
as contact information (it’s great if you can get contact info for
decision makers, aka managers or Executives) and a snippet of
a great highlights from a customer review (this is a great convo
starter that shows you did your research). All that info can go into
an Excel doc, Google Sheet, or whatever you prefer. Hint* If you
have your criteria in place, it’s really easy to outsource this step
through Fiverr, Upwork, or any other freelancing site.

Once you have your dream 100 list, you can move on to step 2.

Cold Calling Guide | 7

Step 2: Create Some Content
In an ideal world, every call you make would result in an automatic
“Yeah, where do I sign?!” but sadly that hardly ever happens on the
first go. Most of the time, your prospect is going to want to blow you
off at first, but that doesn’t mean you’ve wasted your time.

One of the best tactics to implement while cold calling is having

some content you can point your prospect to when they don’t
have time to talk with you. This way, you can deliver some value
in advance, and get them into a funnel designed to show them how
working with you will help them grow.

The value-in-advance content should provide your prospect with a

quick win. This could include...

A tool or guide your prospect can use or implement that solves a

problem they may currently have.

A quick video of you pointing out a problem you might see on

their site/ad/ect., and a plan for how they can fix that issue (or
better yet, how you could fix it for them..)

A blog article that relates specifically to a problem your prospect

might be facing (just make sure you explain how and why it
applies to your prospect...the point is to make it feel personal and
actionable)

Value-in-advanced content is one of the best ways to build credibility

and trust with your prospects.

Cold Calling Guide | 8

Step 3: Set Up Your Funnel
With your value-in-advance content finished, it’s time to make sure
you have a nurturing funnel you can add prospects to in the event
they don’t have time to chat or aren’t ready to commit to taking on
your help.

You’ll want to make sure your funnel:

Starts with an email that includes your content piece (accessible

via a trackable link).

Continues with a cold email campaign that offers more

information about your business, testimonials, and other authority
boosting information. Plus, you’ll want to include CTA’s to either
book a meeting, fill out an info request form, or call you (whatever
works best for your business).

Includes a remarketing ad campaign (based off the trackable link

in the first email) with ads that have information on your agency,
testimonials, or other authority-boosting content, as well as CTA’s
similar to those in your emails.

When you get to a prospect who isn’t ready to close, all you need to
do is ask for their email “so you could send them [insert your content
piece here]”. By having a segmented funnel to add them to, you can
be almost certain that the next time you call them, they are more
familiar with your company because they have seen your ads and your
emails.

Cold Calling Guide | 9

Step 4: Schedule Some Calling Time
With everything in order, your next step is to schedule dedicated
calling time for yourself or your employees—depending on who is
doing the calling.

It’s best to schedule this into your daily activities, because chances are
if you don’t plan it, it won’t happen. So carve out an hour or 2 in your
daily schedule to dedicate to cold calling.

You want to make sure that during the time you carve out…

Your phone is off

All notifications are silenced (with the exception of your email,

because you’ll want to quickly respond to any prospects whos calls
you may have missed, or who are responding to any emails you
send)

You won’t be interrupted

You are feeling alert and confident

Hot Tip: As you call more and more prospects, you’ll start to identify
people who may not be actively working with you, but are still open
to chatting. This community of happy, uplifting prospects are the
perfect people to call first thing during your scheduled call time
because they will lift your spirits, make you feel confident, and put
you in the right attitude to begin calling. That way, even if you called
70 people, and no-one answered, at least you got to talk to John,
and he made you laugh!

Cold Calling Guide | 10

Step 5: Call
Now comes the hard part: picking up the phone and dialing.

Most people don’t like the idea of cold calling because it means you
might fail, but here’s the big secret... Even if you are the world’s
best cold caller, you’re still going to fail! It’s inevitable. That’s why
persistence, and a lack of an ego are the 2 most important traits of
great cold callers.

It’s gonna feel uncomfortable at first, and that’s okay! The more you
practice, the better you’ll get.

As you practice, there are a few things you’ll want to remember

during your call:

1. Treat your prospect as a person: Remember, that there is

another person on the line so be respectful of their time, and
talk to them like you’d talk to a friend. Being personable will
make prospects far more likely to engage with you.

2. Gratitude goes a long way: Don’t be afraid to show your

gratitude when a prospect takes you up on your offer, even if
it is just taking 30 seconds of their time. By pointing out that
they are nice, you are showing the person you assume they
are nice, and it makes them less likely to decline you or act out
of character of the “nice guy” you labeled them as (this is a
technique called boxing).

3. Optimize your pitch along the way: Everyone has a particular

style and flow to their pitch. This comes from honing your pitch
over years, so make sure you are making micro-adjustments
and learning from every call you make. Eventually you will have
nailed down your own unique style.

Cold Calling Guide | 11

If you’re not sure where to start or what to say, Check out this list of
winning phrases and integrate them into your own calls.

And with that, you’re ready to start reaping the benefits of cold
calling!

Winning Phrases to Swipe For Your Call

Starting the Call:

“Hey [Prospect Name] My name [Your Name] from [Your Agency/

Business Name]. I was looking at your reviews online, and I saw
that [Reviewer’s Name] said you helped them [Snippet from
Review] and I just thought that was so cool that I just had to call
you up and hear more about it.”

“Hey [Prospect Name] this is [Your Name] from [Your Agency/

Business Name]. I sent you a video the other day about [Insert
VIA Video Topic] and I’d love to chat with you about it sometime,
but today I just wanted to talk really quick, it’ll just take about 30
seconds, to share this statistic I learned about [Insert Relevant
Statistic] and I wanted to hear your thoughts on it.

When the Prospect Isn’t Ready to Close

“Hey [Prospect Name] , I know you aren’t ready to make a

decision. I didn’t expect you to, since I just called you out of the
blue, but i don’t want to be totally out of the blue, so I at least
want to let you know more about me and my agency so that the
next time I call we can have a better conversation, so can I send
you a link with some more information about who we are, what we
do, and why we’re different?”

Cold Calling Guide | 12

 “Oh you’re working with an agency right now? Oh okay, well I
know you gave me a couple seconds of your time and like I said
I work with business just like you everyday to [ drive more sales,
increase leads, etc…] , so were you giving me more of your time
because your not currently seeing as much success with your
[sales/leads/ect..] as you’d like?”

Buying More Time

“Hey, I know you’re busy and I don’t want to take up too much of
your time, but if you could just give me 10 more seconds, I just
want to ask you….”

“Hey can you give me a few seconds of your time, and if you like
what you’re hearing we can keep talking..”

“Thanks for giving me the time, do you have a few more seconds
to spare because I’d love to share a little bit about my passion, and
that’s helping other businesses just like yours to……”

“Hey [Prospects Name], thanks so much for taking some time to

talk with me, you know i was worried because i know you don’t
know me very well, and you know most people just hang up on
random telemarketers, so I really appreciate you taking the time
and being so gracious.. If you’re not super busy now, i’d love to
show you a little more about... “

Making The Close

“I don’t want to take up any more of your time today, cause I know
I called you up out of the blue and I want to be respectful of your
time, so would there be a better day or time that I can call you to
talk about how we at [Insert Agency Name] are …”

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WHAT’S NEXT?

Now that you’re following up and nurturing your sales-qualified

leads, you’re ready to take your business to the next level!

If you’re ready to get more clients, improve client retention,

and generate more passive income from the clients you already
have, DigitalMarketer is here to help with our Certified Partner
Program. We want to double the size of your business so you
can do the same for your clients.

So, if you’re serving small businesses, then we want to serve you.

Let’s start a conversation today about becoming a
DigitalMarketer Certified Partner and get the tools and training
you need to double your client’s business and your own.

LEARN MORE »

What’s Next? | 18