Hey guys!
This is Steli Efti with Close.io.
Let’s talk about the bait and switch hack in cold calling.
A lot of times when teams do outbound sales and they have to do a lot of cold calling,
they struggle to both get the attention of the decision maker and once they have the
attention, they struggle to keep the decision maker kind of open-minded and listening to
them to even get the opportunity to sell them something.
A lot of times, people hate to be cold called so they’ll try to hang up as quickly as
possible.
They’re not going to give you any information to have a chance to really have a conversation
and figure out if this would be a good fit and something they would benefit from and
they’ll have that guard up and defend their time and defend their attention as much as
humanly possible.
So because of that issue, because cold calling is really hard and getting people’s attention
is really hard and getting their guard down is really challenging, a lot of companies
will decide to actually try out the bait and switch hack in cold calling.
What do I mean by the bait and switch hack or tactic?
What that means is simple.
You basically call and you pretend to – the reason of your call is X when it’s really
Y.
You pretend that you’re doing let’s say, a survey or you pretend that they have – in
some really scummy ways, companies would pretend you won something.
You won the lottery.
You won whatever, a tax break or something.
But then actually, the entire conversation is a sales pitch to something.
It’s a super shady tactic and lots of people would condemn it from the get-go and say baiting
and switching is really, really bad.
But it’s still pretty effective in many cases.
And a lot of companies and good companies, companies with good products, good services,
good people are trying it out, out of desperation.
So let’s talk about the tactic, the good and the bad, and if you want to do it, how
to do it right.
So first of all, if you do it right, what the baiting and switch tactic can do is actually
allow for enough space for the other person that you’re cold calling to actually listen
to you, for you to get to know them better, and then when you actually figure out that
there’s a really good match to pitch them in a much more effective way as they’re
having their guard down.
So that in itself is actually pretty amazing and exactly what you want.
Now, let’s talk about the ethical side of this.
Is this ethical or not?
Should a good business actually pursue these kind of tactics?
Well, if you ask me, it depends.
It really depends.
It depends on if you truly believe that what you’re selling is creating value in their
life and if the call that you’re making, the thing that you’re offering at first
which is not your product directly, in and of itself is also valuable to them and if
it’s actually truthful.
So let’s say, most or many, many bait and switch cold calling tactics involve a survey.
So somebody will call you and say, “Hey, my name is John.
I’m surveying local businesses like yours in the area.
And if you have a minute, I would want to ask you three questions.
I will assemble the results.
I will share our lessons learned with you.
It might help you run your business in a most successful way.
Do you have just two minutes for three questions?
Let’s just get started.”
And many people will actually entertain the idea and go with the survey with you and answer
these few questions with you.
Now, if you take those questions and you actually just throw them away or don’t even write
them down and it’s just a total fake, you don’t really care, you don’t really listen,
and you would not do anything with that survey then in my book, it’s not ethical.
But if you actually take the opportunity to make the survey valuable then it could actually
be a good idea.
And I think we just got the first two printed versions of our book, The Ultimate Guide to
Outbound Sales.
How fitting is that?
No, no, no.
Let’s wait until I actually finish this recording before we do that.
So coming back to baiting and switching, if you honestly – like why not actually do
a survey?
Why not actually take those results and assemble a report that’s honest, that can teach you
about your market and teach the company something valuable?
So if you actually do a survey and assemble these results and create a report and share
with the people that you call, I think that’s a totally ethical and viable business strategy,
a way for you to build value, a way for you to actually build a relationship, and at the
end of the day, creating value in the market irregardless if they’re going to buy your
solution or not.
All right.
Enough Phil.
Stop it.
All right.
So that’s kind of like the way that I look at it from an ethical perspective.
Now, let’s talk about in more tactical.
When does baiting and switching work and when doesn’t it?
Crazy enough - in the last few days, I’ve talked to two different businesses that are
trying this in one way or another.
And both of them actually had really great results at the beginning of like actually
getting attention, actually getting people to share information with them and get excited
about it and then having really horrible results in the pitch.
So in one company’s case, what they would do is they would call companies and ask them
for a survey.
They would take two, three minutes and actually go through those questions with them and then
they would hang up.
And a day later, somebody else would call that lead and completely disconnected from
the survey and try to use that information they gained from the survey against them and
selling them.
And they found that that wasn’t really that effective because that new person that was
calling still struggled to get the attention.
People have their guard up.
They weren’t listening.
They were hanging up on them.
So it seemed like the survey was a waste of time.
And the other company, they tried something completely different.
They had like an exclusive deal with a big amazing bank in the area and they would call
companies and tell them, “Listen.
We have this exclusive deal with this bank and we can include you in the program that
will actually get you free marketing to all these bank’s customers.”
And that was actually true.
People would get totally excited.
They would say, “Yes, I want to sign up for that.
I want to get my business get free marketing through that big local bank that I love and
trust.”
So that was awesome.
And they would say, “Do you have 5 minutes for us to go through this program with you.”
People would say yes and then when you actually look through the demo.
They actually demoed me and gave me that presentation.
There was no word anymore about that bank although that program truly exists.
They start it.
They jump right into the pitch of their product and why they should become customers of it
and there was a massive disconnect.
And they figured out that a lot of people were excited and wanted to talk to them but
then a lot of people didn’t really buy into the pitch.
Why?
The problem with baiting and switching is that you can’t just basically throw out
the bait and catch their attention and then immediately switch without a transition between
the two, without a logical transition that creates context around why you started telling
them about a survey and then ended up pitching them or why you had started telling them about
a banking program and then started pitching them.
Like if there’s not context and a step in between the transition, people are pissed
because they feel tricked and that’s not really a way for you to build a relationship.
Not if you’re not scammer.
If you want customers, they’re not just going to buy your pitch or buy into your product
or service and then the next morning they’re going to have a remorse about it.
They will try to cancel, ensure they not talk to you anymore.
You want people that feel that they’ve been treated with respect and that they made decisions
freely and that what you actually presented to them was something of value and that the
relationship started off on the right foot.
So the reason why a lot of times bait and switch will not work just tactically, putting
ethics aside, is that companies miss the transition step, the step in between that explains why
we started with one topic and ended in another.
Here is how to do it right.
You want to bait?
Throw something out there that will keep people’s attention, that will make them bite, want
to learn more, want to talk to you that will put down their guard and then actually let
them eat that bait.
Let them enjoy it, digest it.
Let them relax and feel comfortable.
And then you don’t pitch them once they are kind of full and sitting there after they
had lunch, free lunch from you.
You don’t then start hitting them on the head with your pitch.
What you do instead is you ask them for permission to pitch.
You make it optional and you actually let them know why it would be valuable for them
to hear your pitch.
And then you empower them to make the final decision.
I’ll give you an example how to do this.
So let’s say you call local businesses.
You have some kind of a product or service for local businesses that you think is amazing
and you call them and you say that you are making a survey in the local area and will
share the results with them.
Let’s say they say yes.
“I have two minutes to give you a few answers.”
And you start asking them questions.
Instead of just keeping the questions on the top level and saying, “Well, what are some
of the challenges that your business has?”
Let’s say that’s a question that we have.
“What are some of the challenges that your business has?”
Well, the guy on the other line says, “Well, you know, growth is always a thing like always
more customers, more revenue.”
Ha ha ha…is that not something that everybody wants?
You just don’t go, “Cool!
My next question is…”
No, no, no, no, no.
You stay with that question for a little moment and you actually truly qualify them.
And I’ve talked about qualifying how to do it right before.
You actually qualify them.
You actually ask, “What does that mean?
Hey, what does growth really mean for you?
What would it look like?
Have you experienced kind of a decline in the past of revenue?
Has it been steady and stagnating or has it been like slightly growing but not enough?
Like what really is the thing?
And how many more customers would you have to service?
And what have you tried to actually kick back the growth curve?”
Like you stay with them with the question, not just with the surface but you go really
deep and you try to understand what their business is like, what their needs are, and
what the situation is really like.
And then don’t make the mistake of being like a sales asshole.
Don’t just go – when they say something that is a signal to you that you’re going
to be able to give them a good pitch when they say, “Well, I would love to grow.”
Don’t just go, “Oh, awesome!
Right, growth.
You really need growth?
You’re really desperate?
Well, we have something for you.”
No!
Fuck you!
Why don’t you stay with them and you empathize a little bit and you tell them that it’s
OK that they need more growth or that it’s OK if the company has declined.
If they tell you, “Well, we’ve been declining steadily,” say that it’s really worrisome,
“But you know what?
I’m talking to many small business owners and a lot of them are going through the same
phase like a lot of them having the same issues that they have.
I totally get it.
And I do think that some of them find a way out of it.
So there is hope and I’m an optimist.”
But like tell them that it’s OK.
Tell them that it’s fine.
That’s going to allow them to trust you more, open up more, and feel OK about their
situation versus you being like this overly excited salesperson that goes, “Well, something
is weak about your business?
I smell blood.
Let me actually hit you on the head with this in order to pressure you into buying what
I have.”
No, fuck that!
Why don’t you practice a little empathy and create comfort for them?
That’s really what you want.
You want to create comfort so they can open up more and more and you can honestly truly
understand them to then discover if what you have is of true value to them and if they
should buy your product.
And then when you are convinced because you have true understanding then pitch them and
close them.
But you want to actually stay with those questions and ask for follow-up questions until you
get to real understanding.
You want to go, “Well, tell me about the growth challenges and what have you done?”
And every single question in your survey, have a really conversational opportunity to
build rapport, trust, and comfort with them.
And once they shared enough about their business and what really is going on, then you can
end the call by telling them, “You know what?
This was amazing.
I really, really appreciate your openness.
I really appreciate you sharing your challenges with me.
It’s going to make the survey so much better.
So I’m excited to share the results with you further down and I feel like you’ve
provided a lot of value to me.
In this specific case, I actually love to give back to you and offer you even more value
than just the report.
See, we work with many local business in this area and we really help them grow their business.
And I feel like after I heard all these things and I learned a lot more about you, Bob, that
what we have could truly benefit your business and make a big difference.
But the purpose of this call was not for me to actually tell you more about what we do
but kind of feel like an obligation to do so.
So why don’t I leave it up to you?
I want you to decide.
If you think that we used up all the time, we’ll hang up.
I’ll send you the survey.
I really appreciate it and I hope that we’ll get a chance in the future to actually chat
some more and hopefully build a relationship over time.
But if you’re curious and you have another minute to spare, I think it will be really
good for you to hear out what we’re doing and then make a decision if you want to learn
more about it because it could a big difference in your business and help you actually grow
and transition out of that stagnant phase that you have been or the declining phase
and actually turn this around.
Up to you, Bob.
You want us to take another minute together and explore this really quickly?”
See what I did there?
I build the trust.
I learn more about their business.
I told them that that’s fine and that could be the end-all be-all of this call but then
I also tell them truthfully that I discovered that they are a perfect fit for our business
and our business is a perfect fit for their needs so I feel the responsibility to highlight
that and I want to give them the power to decide if they want to spend another minute
to explore this or not.
If you deliver it in the right way, could you see how this would have good results and
how people would appreciate that and feel treated well and how the bait and the switch
would actually turn just into a really powerful sales conversation that starts with exploration
and ends with a sales pitch?
Could you see how this would work?
But it’s all about the delivery.
If you go through a question like a robot and you go, “Well, what are your current
sales challenges?”
Oh well, growth will be good.
“Cool.
Second question.
How many employees do you have?”
Well, you know what?
I mean it has been going up and down but right now, we have about ten employees.
“Cool.
And then last but not the least, are you using any other marketing automation tools, Bob?”
Well, I don’t even know what marketing automation is.
“Well, do you use any software to do marketing online?”
Well, we tried something but right now, we’re really not doing anything.
“Cool.
Well, I really feel the obligation to tell you that we have a service that’s really
great for you.”
See how that doesn’t work?
See the disconnect here?
See how that feels like a fucking bait and switch like you didn’t even listen to what
I was saying.
You just ran through your fucking list.
It didn’t mean anything.
It didn’t make a difference whatever I was saying.
You as a salesperson just seemed eager to get to the next question to the next question
and then at the end, to actually get the opportunity to pitch me.
People will never resonate, never respond well to that.
Ask yourself, if you want to be pitched that way, probably not.
So don’t be surprised when people don’t actually respond to that.
Use the same mechanics of the bait and switch to actually design a really, really powerful
and valuable sales call.
Do a survey.
Offer them some kind of a program that they’re really going to be interested in.
But at the end of the day, make the transition from that to the pitch and empower and allow
them to actually be the driving force in saying yes or no.
If you do that with a little bit of finesse and elegance, most people will say, “Well
yeah, we spend a little bit of time talking.
This was really enjoyable.
It seems like you really know a lot about my business now.
And if you think what you have is really valuable, sure, let’s chat about this for another
second and see if this is interesting to me or not.”
Always, always, always when you do the bait and switch, offer the transition.
Offer something.
Start off with something they’re going to be curious about, that’s going to put down
their guard.
Make sure that you actually deliver that and then ask them for permission to pitch and
you’ll see amazing results with this.