Calling it in the Ring: The (Un)Reality of a Cold-Call

Professional wrestling is fake.

Big surprise, I know. Everybody knows it’s fake.

From the wrestlers to the announcers, to the crowd in the audience, and to you, the viewer sitting at home watching the match on TV.

We all know it’s fake.

Nothing more than a charade, a theater production with spandex and suplexes.

So, what does this have to do with cold-calling and sales?

Hear me out.

The Art of the “Sell”

In wrestling, there is this very important and integral part of the act called “ the sell.” Long story short, “selling” is the insider jargon that describes the methods and methodologies that wrestlers use to make wrestling look believable to the audience. No matter how silly or hokey the act inflicted on the wrestler, it’s expected for the recipient to believably react as if they were in tremendous pain.

Sometimes, it doesn’t take too much effort to sell that pain. Unsurprisingly, falling ten feet onto the concrete-hard wrestling ring from a top-rope super plex does hurt quite a bit. But usually, it takes some acting to make those fake punches and kicks look like they are actually connecting and hurting the recipient.

There is another term used in the wrestling industry that also relates to cold calling. “Kayfabe,” pig-Latin for “fake”, is the illusion of reality that is maintained between the performers and their audience. To maintain kayfabe is to willfully ignore the obvious incongruencies happening in the ring. To break kayfabe is to unravel the very essence of professional wrestling; it’s all scripted and pre-determined, of course, but bringing attention to this is taboo.

“Selling” is to make the theatrical unreality of wrestling somewhat more believable and maintain “kayfabe,” even when everybody involved knows that it’s all fake. It’s to encourage the suspension of disbelief and to allow the obvious chicanery to proceed. All despite the overwhelming evidence that the man standing in the middle of the ring is actually a 50-year-old normal guy from Houston, Texas, whose jet-black hair has been dyed for years, and whose back has been hurting for years longer.

It's not a coincidence that these carnies, whose entire livelihoods revolves around the willful deception of their audience, call this “selling.”

What is sales and cold calling, if not the complete suspension of disbelief from both the SDR and the prospect that the call they are both in is not actually a “sales call?”

To the SDR, the call is actually about making introductions. It’s for forming connections with others and reaching out to important people within the industry. But for the prospect, it’s simply always a bad time, they don’t have the budget, or unfortunately they are not the decision-maker.

It’s never just a “sales call.”

Except both parties clearly know that it is.

Putting on a Show

Cold calling is a carefully choreographed wrestling match between the SDR and the prospect, with both parties essentially following a script to act out their role. The kayfabe of the call is that the prospect and their company is completely happy with their current process, while the SDR understands that, and is not looking to sell anything but just make introductions.

The reality of course, is that the prospect most likely is putting out a few fires and doesn’t necessarily want to admit that their current process is imperfect in any way. Meanwhile, the SDR is trying to coax this information out from the prospect under the pretense that they are just conducting outreach.

Both parties know the motivations of the other, but the kayfabe of the call – a friendly conversation between two strangers – is what ensures that neither of them has hung up quite yet. Because the SDR is looking to sell a product or service, or at the very least book a meeting with their Account Executive, they will keep the conversation going until they get the meeting booked (or they get hung up on).

As for the prospect? Maybe there are a few fires raging on in the background that they are deliberately ignoring, or maybe they are sitting on a proverbial pile of dry kindle, faulty wiring sparking underneath them. Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt for them to listen to another question or two and see where the SDR is taking the call.

At this point, the conversation can go one of two ways, similar as to how a professional wrestling match can play out:

Will both parties follow kayfabe to its logical conclusion, with both the SDR and the prospect agreeing to a meeting after following their script?

Or will the SDR break the fourth wall, tearing down kayfabe and admitting that the call is indeed a sales call, thereby “getting naked” with the prospect, and then booking the meeting that way?

A wrestling match can follow the fundamentals, hitting the important moves that the audience expects and wants to see. At the end, the good guy overcomes adversity and defeats the bad guy with the pin. Or it can break kayfabe, pointing out the absurdity of the sport by showcasing a wrestler having a match with, and even losing to, a completely invisible opponent.

Cold calls too, can follow the fundamentals, or strain the internal kayfabe to its natural breaking point. A solid opening statement can lead to great discovery, which eventually leads to a clean and proper booked meeting. The talk track is tried-and-true, endlessly repeatable, as long as the SDR follows the script.

They can also take a turn and feature both the SDR and prospect cracking jokes and using very casual language. Or the SDR can diffuse a tense conversation by being honest and admitting up front that they are a salesperson with a quota to hit, and the end of the month is coming up fast. Too fast. But not fast enough that the prospect can’t take 15-minutes out of their admittedly very busy day to meet with their Account Executive.

Taking It Home

What’s important to note is that neither method is inherently better than the other. A great SDR will be able to determine which route to take during the course of the call and apply that strategy accordingly. It’s even entirely possible for a call to change from one to the other, and even back again, switching throughout the conversation to reflect the complicated match between the SDR and the prospect.

The best SDRs follow the flow and tone of the conversation, reading where the call is going and acting accordingly. A conversation that begins with a fiery accusation of being a sales call can turn into a cordial agreement to meet later that week, while another can start off by-the-book and end up needing a fourth wall break to solidify the meeting.

The greatest wrestling matches feature both wrestlers working together in lockstep, regardless of whether they are having a by-the-book match or one that breaks kayfabe. Overall, the best calls that SDRs can have to book meetings are the ones where they can read where the conversation is going, and decide for themselves to either stick to the fundamentals or break the fourth wall as needed.