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Cold calling blitzes are a tried-and-true way to see a lift in performance and engagement from your sales team. But without the right approach or cultural buy-in from your people, blitzes can start to feel stale, especially if you run them frequently. If you really want your call blitz to be effective, you have to find ways to keep things fun and engaging.
The best way to do that is to rent a dunk tank. I’m kidding (kind of).
When our SDRs showed up to Ambition’s Nashville office for a recent call blitz, they were surprised to see a dunk tank in the parking lot—a sight that sparked excitement about how this would play into the day and created motivation around the task at hand. This wouldn’t be an average call blitz. Every time a rep set a meeting, they got 3 chances to dunk their sales leader. Within 4 total hours of blitzing, our reps hit a new record for meetings set, and their sales leader got dunked. A lot.
Was it the dunk tank that led to such a successful blitz? Or was it thoughtful preparation, a sense of camaraderie, and the sheer commitment of our SDRs? Probably a little bit of everything. In this post, we’ll talk about the elements of a successful call blitz and give you some creative ideas to help make your next blitz more effective.
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What is a call blitz?
What is the purpose of call blitzes? A sales call blitz is a highly focused period of call activity in which the whole team participates. Blitzes focus on specific activities or metrics, and generally, there’s a contest or scoring component, or a target that reps are trying to hit before the clock runs out.
Sometimes, blitzes are part of a larger business strategy or objective. For example, you might hold a call blitz with the intention of sharing a new offer, product, or service with prospects, or gaining traction in a different market or geography. Ultimately though, you want to make sure your SDRs are having the right conversations with the right people.
A call blitz can help you achieve a quick spike in energy and activity, especially if you’re trying to hit a certain goal. A spike is great, but wouldn’t you prefer for that spike to keep trending upwards? The best blitzes provide that short-term lift, re-energize your team, and allow your reps to practice results-driving behaviors that will ultimately benefit your revenue organization in the long run.
Why do call blitzes work?
Call blitzes are all about intensity and momentum. They should be used to shake up a normal day on the job, pull your reps out of their usual routine, and create a sense of urgency and excitement around call activity.
Let’s be honest—cold calling isn’t inherently fun and can suck the life out of you. When you’re doing it as a team, though, everyone feels a great sense of camaraderie and energy—especially when there’s a prize (or punishment, like dunking your sales leader) at stake.
Of course, all of that helps create a surge in activity, but how can you use a call blitz to drive long-term performance improvement? Let’s talk through some of the best practices and call blitz strategies we use at Ambition to see immediate and lasting impact.
Sales Blitz Strategies to Make Your Call Blitz More Effective
Step 1: Determine your sales blitz length and frequency
By nature, a call blitz should feel high energy and focused, which is why keeping it short is effective. The ideal call blitz length may vary from one organization to another; at Ambition, our typical call blitz frequency is two days a week for two hours at a time.
Step 2: Prep your people
Success starts with preparation. Prior to the blitz, your reps should be prospecting, adding more leads into sequence, and ramping up on call activity. Doing this work on the front end will ensure they have a solid list of people to call during the next blitz. Track rep activity in one of our free scorecard templates to hold them accountable and make sure they’re set up for success.
Step 3: Identify your blitz metrics and KPIs
Obviously, you want to get people on the phones and see a high call volume—but what are the blitz metrics and KPIs you want to hit? You’ll want to measure both hustle and effectiveness. This ensures you reward hard work that may not lead to an immediate win (like follow ups), while giving extra weight to quality conversations that deliver results. Here’s an example of metrics you might choose to measure and how you can score them:
- Calls: 1 point for every 10 calls
- Call Connects: 2 points for every connect
- Talk Time: 1 point for every 2 minutes of talk time
- Meeting Set: 5 points
Step 4: Have a blitz debrief
At the end of the blitz, set aside some time to debrief with your team, review scores, and listen to some of the best calls from the day. This is a great opportunity to celebrate your people, share win stories, and offer real-time coaching. Play back calls that resulted in meetings or moved pipeline, and talk with your team about the qualities that made those calls effective. This will help solidify results-driving behaviors reps can repeat over time.
7 Creative Cold Calling Blitz Ideas for Your Team
Keeping your call blitzes fresh is key to ensuring they’re engaging and effective. But you don’t have to break the bank to do it. Here are some ideas for your next blitz.
- Pump up the music: This is something we do on the reg in the Ambition office, but you can also get remote teams pumped up with shareable playlists, or download an app that lets everyone listen to the same music in real-time. Let your reps take turns putting the playlists together.
- Surprise your team: When you do blitzes as often as we do, you have to keep your team on their toes. Randomly offer surprise incentives or activities, like an airfare voucher or the chance to dunk their sales leader.
- Offer fun prizes: Again, you don’t have to spend a lot of money here. The idea is to ignite the competitive spirit, even if the prize is small. Doing an early morning blitz? Send the winner some bucks on DoorDash/GrubHub/UberEats to treat themselves to lunch. Or do a “winner’s choice” and have a few options for your winning rep to select from.
- Leverage triggers and alerts: Especially if you’re remote, keep visibility high (for the team and company) by firing off real-time alerts and gifs every time someone sets a meeting. Replicate the energy of an in-person blitz with a sales activity tracker.
- Stretch it out: Your call blitz may only last a few hours, but you can keep the energy up by aggregating scoring over the course of a week or month, and then crown a winner.
- Make it a team sport: Set a target for the whole team to hit, versus individual benchmarks. Then come up with a team prize everyone can get behind, like a Friday half-day.
- Go big or go home: Instead of aiming for volume, aim for size. Reward the rep who makes the biggest sale or hooks a prospect with the highest revenue potential.
Kicking Off Your Blitz
We all know that cold calling is a grind. It’s hard and often defeating work, and we owe it to our reps to find ways to make it fun, effective, and exciting. That’s why the way you tee up your blitz is so important. As I mentioned earlier, prepping your team beforehand is essential to making sure everyone is prepared and aligned on goals. But it’s also key to helping your reps get into a positive mindset to tackle a task that’s usually pretty daunting.
Before every blitz, have a sales blitz kickoff call. Gather your team before the blitz starts to check in, see how everyone’s feeling, and go over any sales blitz strategies that might be helpful. This is also a great time to remind your people that while individual wins are worth celebrating, your whole team is working together toward the same goal.
