--- title: "Cold Call Preparation: the Three-Minute Method | Skipcall" description: "Who, why them, which trigger, which promise, which next step: the five-line sheet that prepares a cold call without over-preparing it. With a quiz." url: https://skipcall.io/en/academy/sdr/prepare-a-cold-call language: en --- [Stage 3 · The cold call](https://skipcall.io/en/academy/sdr) # Prepare a cold call in three minutes Three minutes of preparation is enough, as long as you know what to look for. Past that, you are no longer preparing the call. You are postponing it. 5 min +50 XP 1/6 [Academy](https://skipcall.io/en/academy/sdr) 0 % Rookie · 0 XP ## Why three minutes and not thirty An SDR who spends half an hour on every call reads LinkedIn profiles all day and talks to ten people. One who prepares nothing makes a lot of dials, but opens every conversation with a question the prospect has heard a hundred times. The sweet spot is a short, targeted preparation: know who you are talking to, why this person and not another, and what you will ask them to do at the end. There is one test for the right amount. When the prospect picks up, you should be able to say in one sentence why you are calling them, today. If you cannot, prepare for one more minute. If you could have said it ten minutes ago, you over-prepared. ## The five lines of the sheet Before each call, write five lines, not one more. They stay in front of you during the conversation and take thirty seconds to update afterwards. - Who: first name, last name, title, and how that title experiences the problem you solve (a CFO does not feel it the way a sales director does). - Why them: what makes this person the right target in this company rather than their colleague. - Which trigger: the recent fact that justifies calling now (sales hires, funding round, new market, tool change, a post they published). - Which promise: in one sentence, what your solution changes for someone in their situation, with no product name and no feature. - Which next step: what you will ask for at the end if the conversation goes well (a 20-minute meeting on Thursday, a call back next week, an email with two customer stories). ## Finding the trigger in one minute The trigger is the most important line on the sheet. It is what turns “I’m calling to introduce” into “I’m calling because”. Fast sources: the company’s Careers page (a company hiring SDRs has a call volume problem), the prospect’s latest LinkedIn post, a funding announcement, a recent job change. If you cannot find a specific trigger within a minute, use a category trigger: “teams your size that prospect by phone” is weaker than a precise fact, but far stronger than nothing. Write it down and dial. ## What you do not prepare You do not prepare the pitch: it will come from what the prospect tells you. You do not prepare objections one by one: there are three or four to know for your whole market, and they are covered in stage 5 of this track. And you do not prepare your tone: that is built over weeks, not before one call. Once the sheet is written, close the tabs, keep it on screen, and dial. The preparation that drags on is the one that stops you from calling. ## Key takeaways - Three minutes per call: who, why them, which trigger, which promise, which next step. - The trigger is the line that changes everything: a recent fact that justifies calling today. - The promise is written with no product name and no feature. - Decide on the next step before you dial, or you will not ask for it. - Prepare in batches of ten, then call without reopening a single tab. ## Check what you remember Question 1 of 4 One correct answer per question. The explanation appears after your choice. You have three minutes before calling a Head of Sales. What do you look for first? ## Go further - [Call scripts Twenty complete scripts by situation, to adapt to your own voice.](https://skipcall.io/en/scripts) - [Prospecting calculator How many calls it takes to hit your meeting target.](https://skipcall.io/en/tools/prospecting-calculator) A term you are not sure about? [The cold calling glossary](https://skipcall.io/en/academy/cold-calling-glossary)