Cold outreach isn't broken, but the way we support people doing it needs a rethink.
In our last post, we talked about why choosing the right partner matters, especially when you’re trying to transform something as tough and human as sales outreach. You need people who have been in the seat! People who know what it feels like to pick up the phone and dial, not just what the CRM reports afterwards.
This is exactly where we have been over the past few months. Sitting alongside a sales team in one of our clients, training and coaching them for confidence and gravitas.
The Reality
Have you ever cold-called someone at 9.01 on a Monday morning? Voice tight with nerves, hoping they won’t hang up before you even say your name (or hoping they will)!
The BDEs we have been working with are living this every day. They face a wall of resistance and still have to go back for more. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s their job, and the KPI’s don’t deliver themselves. What is missing isn’t effort, it’s permission to be authentic and human.
What it takes
When we step in to support teams like this, we’re not just tweaking messaging or running training sessions (although we do this too). We’re helping them learn how to:
Lead with value
Build micro-moments of rapport in the first few seconds
Read the tone, and be able to pivot, not power through a script
Be natural, curious, ask questions
Spark conversation worth continuing for them and their prospects
Where the tech fits
We’re written before about how AI is shaping sales (AI and Sales – How to Harness Techn ology to Drive Scalable Growth (without Losing the Human Touch), and why keeping the human front and centre is critical. The best tech right now doesn’t replace the sales rep, it supports them:
Real-time prompts to nudge better next questions
Confidence buffers to reframe rejections in the moment
Smart nudges to help turn awkward intros into active interest
The future of sales isn’t just built on automation, used properly it can certainly help but people do truly buy from people. Invest in your sales outreach teams. Coach them to be themselves and sell with confidence. You'll be surprised at how they flourish, and the results!
Struggling to get your sales outreach firing.
#SheSparks #BusinessDevelopment #ColdOutreach #AIinSales
