It was all LinkedIn was talking about for months. Instead of cold emails or calls, youâd dial someone via the FaceTime app, jumping straight to a face-to-face conversation.
At the time, most people thought it was a meme.
But some sales reps saw its potential.
Those salespeople are using cold FaceTime as the ultimate pattern breaker. Theyâre winning their buyerâs attention, booking meetings, and closing revenue. If you want to follow their success, this guide will show you how.
Cold FaceTime had a miserable introduction to the sales industry. When folks started talking about the tactic, the LinkedIn community went wild.
Some just couldnât believe sales reps had the guts.
Others joked about what tactic would come next.
Buyers and sellers piled on FaceTime, calling it creepy and invasive. But when the dust finally settled and the hot takes cooled, folks began to wonder whether it really was all that bad.
Junior Lartey, an AE at meeting analysis tool Pickle, put it best, comparing FaceTime pushback to the resistance older tactics once faced: âWhen receptionists were created: âI would never cold knock.â When email was created: âI would never cold-email.â When cell phones were created: âI would never cold-call.â When texting started: âI would never cold-text.â When face-timing started: âI would never cold-facetime.ââ
Those old tacticsâcold knocks, cold emails, cold callsâare normal now. Theyâre probably standard tools in your sales toolkit. According to one poll, seven in 10 sales reps already call their prospectsâ personal cells. If youâre already calling a prospectâs personal cell, is FaceTiming them all that different?
Some highlight the video component. Speaking to a prospect while theyâre having breakfast is one thing. Watching them work through a bowl of Capân Crunch is another. If you think a cold video call is too intrusive, long-term sales manager turned consultant Kyle Vamvouris has a suggestion: use FaceTime Audio Call.
âThe way I view it is that FaceTime Audio Calls are the exact same thing as calling somebody’s phone,â he says. âI treat it like a normal cold call.â
Kyleâs tweak gives his reps another channel without stepping into territory they consider creepy or invasive. Itâs a win-win.
At the end of the day, whether cold FaceTime becomes a standard sales tactic isnât going to be determined by its creepiness. What matters is whether it lands meetings
The short answer is yes.
But hereâs the long answer.
The cold FaceTime frenzy was in full swing when Alex Nelsonâs Slack pinged. Up popped a screenshot from LinkedIn. This screenshot, in fact.
Along with the image was a simple message from Alexâs manager: âYou gotta do this.â
Now, you have to understand that Alex is a rockstar sales rep. He was the highest-performing SDR in his first job out of college and followed it up with a Presidentâs Club gold award in his current role at PandaDoc. He isnât afraid to hustle, experiment, and innovate.
So he copied the execâs email into FaceTime and hit call.
One conversation later, Alex had successfully booked a meeting with the Vice President of Sales at Sourcemap.
Alexâs isnât the only success story. Weâve heard from many reps whoâve successfully landed meetings (and closed deals) via cold FaceTime. Some conversations went so well that their prospects even called them out on LinkedIn.
Okay, Wiltonâs call was nine months ago. Back then, cold FaceTime was still novel and exciting. Everyone was talking about it, but very few reps were actually trying it.
So what about more recently?
Seanâs original LinkedIn post made him a prime target for gutsy sales reps. Instead of telling them to get lost, he accepted as many as possible. (He still does apparently.) In a separate post, he even shared how one call inspired him to buy a new piece of software.
These stories are encouraging, but stories are easy to cherry-pick. Data-minded reps will say, âThis worked on a handful of prospects. Whereâs the proof itâs scalable?â To answer that, I want to share a poll PandaDoc ran on LinkedIn.
The first two results might not surprise you. Prospects love email and like calls. But what about the FaceTime stat? More than one in 10 respondents said they would prefer to receive a cold FaceTime than any other channel.
Thatâs encouraging, especially when you remember that cold FaceTime calls arenât going to exist in isolation. Reps will try email, then phone, then social, then FaceTime. (Or a different combination of those channels.) FaceTime doesnât replace other channels. Instead, it gives sellers another shot at reaching someone.
âYou’re gonna see an increase in connect rates,â explains Kyle Vamvouris. âThere’s a big difference between calling the main office line and calling somebody’s cell phone number. FaceTime is essentially the equivalent of somebody’s cell.â
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When youâre thinking about dialing your first cold FaceTime, itâs going to feel pretty daunting. What happens if your prospect actually picks up? Whatâs your goal? What do you say? Times like these, it helps to see what other reps are doing.
So we found sellers and sales teams experimenting with FaceTime and asked them a simple question: When youâre calling prospects on FaceTime, whatâs your go-to script?
Hereâs what they told us.
When Kyle Vamvouris says he treats cold FaceTime like a cold call, he means it. His consultancy Vouris has a go-to cold call script (published below), which he encourages reps to use on both phone and FaceTime.
â
Part #1: Introduction
Hi, this is [name] from [company]. Howâs it going?
<Prospect response>
â
Part #2: The path
Thatâs great to hear. The purpose of my call is [value proposition]. I think we can help you, but Iâm not 100% sure. Do you mind if I ask a few questions and let you decide if we should chat?
<Prospect response>
Thanks for your time. Typically, we help companies with [challenge #1] and [challenge #2].
Iâm curious, which of those resonates with you?
<Prospect response>
â
Part #3: Finding the gap
Let me ask, why do you think that is?
[Follow-up questions until you find the root cause]
â
Part #4: The ask
Thanks for filling me in, [name]. From what Iâve heard, you are trying [what theyâre trying] to get [whatever challenge resonated]. Why donât we do this: Letâs set up some time to have a conversation about your current setup and some of our offerings that will help you achieve [their goals].
<Prospect response>
What does your availability look like tomorrow?
â
Kyle treats cold FaceTime as a supporting channel. He always defaults to phone and email, but will try FaceTime in two situations. One, after three or four unsuccessful touches via email or phone. And two, when he simply canât find a prospectâs workplace contact details.
Both situations give Kyle another bite at the cherry, another chance to make his pitch before he consigns a lead to the bin. Itâs that grit and determination that separates superstar sellers from the pack.
Matthew Roberts was several sequences deep when he began to wonder whether heâd ever make contact with his prospect, the CEO of a large security platform. The frustrating thing was his CRM was showing the CEO had more than 10 opens across four or five emailsâmany of them personalized one-off messages.
âHe was very engaged with the content, but I just couldn’t get in front of him,â says Matthew, business development lead at Mosaic. âThere was nothing else I could do⊠so I tried this crazy shot.â
That crazy shot was a cold FaceTime.
Hereâs how it went.
â
Part #1: Introduction
âHey, it’s Matt from Mosaic.â
â
Part #2: Acknowledgement
âI know itâs absolutely insane that I cold FaceTimed you, but I really appreciate you picking up. â
â
Part #3: Context
âI’ve been trying to get in touch with you. I called you last week, but you mentioned it wasnât a good time. So now I’m here, on your screen, putting a face to the name.â
â
You know what Matthewâs prospect did? He burst out laughing. He loved it. He promised to introduce Matthew to his head of finance and set up a demo.
Looking back, Matthew describes the tactic as a âhail Mary.â He says he wouldnât use cold FaceTime at the start of a sequence because itâs high-risk. Sure, this prospect liked his approach but itâs easy to imagine someone biting his head off, too.
Instead, he suggests reps wait until theyâve exhausted all their regular channels. When their white whale is disappearing over the horizon, then itâs time to break out the last-ditch cold FaceTime.
Despite his post likening cold FaceTime to now-standard sales tactics like cold calling and cold emailing, Junior Lartey is cautious about the tactic. He says he wouldnât use FaceTime for truly cold contacts.
âCold being we haven’t had any conversations and I’m still trying to get in front of you,â he explains. âOnce someone enters the funnel, it’s possible that FaceTime makes sense.â
But heâs had success switching to FaceTime when a prospect gives consent to a conversation or requests a callback. For example, he recently texted a prospect and they responded with âCall me.â Instead of jumping on a voice call, Junior opted for FaceTime and a face-to-face conversation.
âI figured [his call request] was a strong enough invite so I FaceTimed,â he explains. âIt was much less âcoldâ because I was given permission to reach him. You don’t really need permission to cold-call, but [having] permission for cold FaceTime seems to be most successful.â
Cold FaceTime isnât a sales silver bullet. Itâs not going to fix a broken sales strategy or turn a novice sales rep into a superstar. When you peel away the myths, memes, and LinkedIn frenzy, youâre left with what it is: a sales tactic. Use it well and youâll boost your connect rates, land new meetings, and close more revenue.
According to Kyle Vamvouris, the difference between success and failure comes down to confidence. âHave you seen those kids on YouTube who carry a ladder and bluff their way into venues?â he asks. âIf you walk with confidence and carry a ladder, no oneâs going to stop you.â
So dial your prospect on FaceTime, channel Kyleâs âladder energy,â and see how cold FaceTime works for you.
Follow this step-by-step outbound campaign template to get on your contactsâ radars before you start dialing.
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