Directpreneur

Most cold call training is overcomplicated garbage.

Permission-based openers. Pattern interrupts. The "seven C's of cold calling." Asking a million directional questions that take the conversation off the rails before you even get to the point.

Conor Murray—a tech sales veteran with six years in enterprise software who went from SDR to enterprise account executive and spent two years coaching hundreds of reps as an SDR manager—has a different approach.

It's called the 3W Framework, and it's dead simple.

The Problem With Most Cold Call Training

Here's what Murray sees wrong with the typical advice:

"A lot of it way over-complicates the process. They want you asking a million different directional questions and there's a million different ways the cold call could go."

New reps try permission-based openers and pattern interrupts, feel uncomfortable, dread picking up the phone, and their cold call anxiety goes through the roof.

Meanwhile, they forget the most basic fact of all:

Your goal is to set a meeting. Not to have a 50-minute discovery call.

Murray puts it bluntly:

"I see these posts on LinkedIn about 'I had a 50-minute cold call that turned into a great meeting' and it's like great. That's well suited for LinkedIn. You'll get a lot of pats on the back for that. It makes for a great story, but that's not a scalable process."

You want to give off just enough value that they think it's worth spending more time with you. That's it.

Quality at Scale Beats Perfection at Low Volume

Here's a mindset shift most reps need:

50-100 cold calls a day at 8/10 quality beats 5 calls a day at 10/10 quality.

You don't need to research their LinkedIn top to bottom, know where they went to school, or memorize their dog's name.

You need a repeatable framework you can execute at scale.

The 3W Framework

Murray's technique answers three questions within the first 30 seconds of every cold call:

Who you are
Why you're calling
What you want

That's it. Three W's. Three steps to the entire call structure:

Opening (very short)
Value Statement (who, why, what)
Close

Let's break each one down.

Step 1: The Assumptive Opening

Forget permission-based openers. Forget "Do you have 27 seconds for me to tell you why I'm calling?"

Murray uses what he calls an "assumptive formality"—a simple opener designed to get any response so you can immediately take control.

Here's exactly what it sounds like:

"Hey Jim, this is Conor Murray calling from X company. How are you?"

Notice the downward inflection on "How are you." Not an upward, questioning tone. Downward. Certain. Almost rhetorical.

The goal is to get them to say "Uh, good. How are you?" or even just grunt something back. Whatever they give you—even if they sound confused or say "I'm heading into a meeting"—you respond the same way:

"Great. Yeah, I'll be quick. I'm just reaching out because..."

And you're into step two.

The key insight: Make your opening identical every single time. This limits variance and keeps you in control.

Step 2: The Value Statement (Who, Why, What)

This is where most reps screw up. They either ramble, ask too many questions, or fail to communicate value.

Murray's structure is tight:

WHO you are (one sentence):

"I'm part of the account team that supports [their company] regarding [relevant processes]."

WHY you're calling (two sentences):

What priorities and challenges you solve (what does your company do?)
How you typically solve those challenges

WHAT you want (one sentence):

"I'm looking to set aside some time next week to get introduced and aligned with your priorities going forward."

Three sentences total for who and why. Then you state your intent.

Here's why stating what you want early matters:

"A lot of people are actually legitimately busy. You might be calling them at 3:58 in the afternoon and they have a meeting at 4:00. If you're quick and to the point and tell them you're looking to meet next week, a lot of people are just more likely to say 'Sure.'"

Compare that to asking a bunch of discovery questions when they're about to jump on a call with their CFO. They don't have time to discuss their software stack. They just want you off the phone.

The Advanced Move: Pause After the Why

Once you get comfortable with the framework, Murray recommends an advanced technique:

Don't ask for the meeting immediately. Just pause after your value statement.

Make your statement about who you are and why you're calling, then stop talking.

What happens?

"If you make a good enough value statement, in their head they're like 'Oh.' And they'll actually just start gushing about what their problems are."

They might say something like:

"Oh, okay. Thanks for reaching out. What'd you say your name was? Yeah, I'll write it down. We have had some issues with our supply chain planning system. We're using a whole bunch of different systems. It's hard to coordinate..."

Now they're selling themselves on the meeting. You saved your "what you want" bullet for after they've opened up.

Step 3: The Close

If your value statement is strong, you often don't need to close. They'll close you.

But when they push back—and they will—Murray teaches reps to double down and sell time.

Common objection: "We already work with [competitor]."

Bad response: "How's that going for you? Do you have a renewal coming up?"

They're not thinking about changing software on a random cold call. You're not going to change their mind in any significant way.

Better response:

"Got it. Yeah, we work with customers of [competitor] all the time. This is just more to get introduced and aligned with your priorities going forward and introduce you to our team that will be responsible for supporting [their company] for the foreseeable future. Do you have time on Wednesday or Thursday next week?"

Acknowledge the objection, reaffirm it makes sense to meet anyway, and ask for the time again with conviction.

"I promise you a lot of people who are interested in your value statement—their natural reaction is to give some sort of excuse. But when you double down with conviction like that, you'll end up booking the meeting."

When to Ask Questions

Murray gets asked constantly: "Do you recommend asking questions at all?"

The answer is yes—but only after you've delivered value.

By this point, you've been on the phone 60-90 seconds. They've signaled they have some time. Now you can ask a targeted question.

The keyword is targeted:

"Maybe you tell them 'this is how we work with customers of XYZ company. Usually that company handles these processes and we work with them on these processes. What are you using for XYZ processes that we handle?'"

But always pull it back to what you want: time on their calendar.

"I'd rather be doing this discovery on an actual discovery call when I can properly prepare. You can get with your account executive. You're a lot more likely to get an opportunity."

The 90% Factor: How You Say It

Here's the part most people miss:

"This is 90% of your success on cold calls because they quite literally can't see you. So the only thing they have to go on about whether you're actually valuable is—yes, the words you say are important—but it's how you say them that's by far the most important piece."

Confident, downward-inflecting tone. Certain about why you're reaching out.

Assumptive language: "I'm looking to set up some time next week" or "Let's set up some time next week."

Not: "If possible, I'd love to set up some time next week if you're open to it."

Those little caveats signal you're not confident in what you're reaching out about.

A Live Example

Here's Murray's framework in action, selling financial software to life science companies:

"Hey Jim, this is Conor Murray calling from X company. How are you?"

[Response]

"Good. I'm just reaching out because I'm part of the strategic life science team that supports X company regarding back-office financial applications. We work with companies on priorities related to clinical trial planning, commercial planning, and product lifecycle management—usually by managing data collection through our electronic data capture process and reducing the amount of manual spreadsheets and different data sources.

I know I kind of called you out of the blue here, so I'm more just looking to set aside some time next week to get introduced and aligned with your priorities going forward and introduce you to the team here. How's your calendar look on Wednesday or Thursday?"

That's 30-35 seconds. Who, why, what. Done.

The Practice Protocol

Murray didn't wing this. He practiced:

"When I was an SDR, I literally took 10 minutes a day—which is not that much—but I would literally run through that same script until it flowed off my tongue, till it was literally second nature."

10 minutes a day. Run through it 45 times. Do that for a month and you've said it 800+ times.

At that point, it's not a script. It's just how you talk.

Why This Works

The 3W Framework works because it:

Limits variance — Same opening every time keeps you in control
Respects their time — You get to the point in 30 seconds
States intent early — No games, no manipulation, just "here's why I'm calling and what I want"
Creates trackable outcomes — After who/why/what, there are only three possible responses: yes, no, or objection

And when you track your objections, you can systematically improve at handling each one.

Simple. Repeatable. Scalable.

That's how you book meetings.

This article is based on Conor Murray's video "This Cold Call Technique CONVERTS | Tech Sales & B2B Sales" on YouTube. Murray is a tech sales professional with six years of enterprise software sales experience who coaches SDRs on cold calling techniques.