Psychology of Booking Calls

The 4 Steps to Booking a Sales Call from Cold Outreach

“Do you have 15 minutes to discuss this?” — Every Cold Email or Cold Linkedin DM

👆 That doesn’t work.

The modern prospect doesn’t bother with a CTA that jumps to book a time.

When trying to schedule a sales call with a prospect, you need to follow four steps in the right order. Don't rush to ask for a meeting right away. It's important to move at the prospect's pace and meet them where they are in their decision process.

1. Step 1: Check Relevance
1. First, make sure your service is actually something the prospect needs
2. If you're not sure they need your service, focus on finding out if it's relevant to them before anything else
3. Remember: If your service isn't relevant to them, they won't be interested in talking
4. When they confirm it's relevant, this naturally leads to interest
2. Step 2: Open the Gap
1. Once they’ve revealed relevance, you could also ask “How so?”
2. Doing this before your ask allows them to open up about the situation/pain
3. Then be a human being and empathize with social proof
1. eg. “that’s tough, one of our clients was in that situation recently”
4. Then you can move on to confirming interest
3. Step 3: Confirm Interest
1. Sometimes prospects will directly say they're interested - that's great!
1. But remember that interest just means they're curious, not that they're ready to buy
2. If you've confirmed relevance & opened a gap, the next step is to check their interest
1. A good way to do that is to start an ask with "Would it be appropriate if we..."
2. This gentle approach lets them decide for themselves if they want to move forward
3. It helps them connect the dots: if it's relevant to them and they have a tangible issue, then it's worth discussing
4. Step 4: Schedule the Meeting
1. Only schedule a meeting after you know they're interested
2. Ask something like: "Would it be appropriate if we found a time to chat?"
3. Another version is: “Would it make sense if we hopped on a call?”
4. Wait for their "yes" before suggesting specific times
5. Remember: Always confirm both relevance AND interest before trying to schedule
6. Following these steps helps avoid wasted time, reduces no-shows, and help you talk to engaged prospects (who are open and want to talk to you too).

Recap

Sometimes you'll need to help prospects recognize their own interest in your service. When they show a small sign of interest in solving their problem, carefully build on that initial interest - just like turning a small spark into a steady flame.

ps. Other tips

• Sometimes prospects ask questions, this indicates CURIOSITY in your offer or a GAP in their business. DON’T answer the question if it leads to a dead end or closes the convo. Instead, gently suggest hopping on a quick call to sort it out and help them. Then, actually help them.
• Alternative: You answer, diffuse their curiosity, chase them for a meeting, get ghosted.
• Sometimes prospects say they want to visit later. See if there’s some way to help them now or make an intro without the expectation of a close. SOW THE SEEDS.
• You’ll be more than a vendor to them if they had a pleasant conversation with a knowledgable expert. Additionally, try to book-a-meeting-from-a-meeting into the next time they are assessing a buying decision. FORTUNE’S IN THE FOLLOW UP.
• Alternative: Complain that cold outreach doesn’t work when you left replies hanging.
• Repeat: You can really hook people in by asking “How so?” or “How come?” when checking for relevance. Then they HAVE TO OPEN UP about the situation that put the problem on their radar. Be a human being an sympathize with what they told you. Follow that sympathy with asking if it would help them to chat about it. (Boom, meeting booked.)
• Note: You should be asking them for more context before having a call anyway.