How to Engage Prospects With a Pattern Interrupt (+6 Examples)

Your prospects are unconsciously conditioned to reject your sales pitch.

Any attempt to grab their attention, such as a cold call, LinkedIn message, or email, is automatically avoided if it’s sent from a sales rep. It’s not your fault, it’s just how prospects are wired to respond.

A pattern interrupt is one way to get past a prospect’s natural bias. This technique is used in sales conversations to break a prospect’s habitual response and make them more receptive to your sales pitch. In a sense, it jolts them to change their natural pattern of thought.

When done correctly, the pattern interrupt can be a powerful sales tool.

Read below for an in-depth breakdown of a pattern interrupt, how to apply it, and best practices in examples.

What is a pattern interrupt in sales?

A pattern interrupt is anything that changes a person’s thought. In sales, prospects are subconsciously conditioned to expect certain behaviors from salespeople. It stems from an unconscious bias caused by their day-to-day experiences with salespeople. A pattern interrupt breaks the natural pattern of behavior and makes them more receptive to you.

The pattern interrupt is an NLP-backed strategy that allows people to change their behavior, break bad habits, or influence someone else’s behavior. Psychologists use pattern interrupts to snap people out of unconscious responses they’ve developed over time.

In sales, a pattern is a consistent set of actions or decisions that lead to a specific outcome. These include reactions to emails, buying processes, or behaviors that include one or many different steps.

An effective pattern interrupt can turn a negative reaction into a positive one by breaking the natural tendency of the prospect and making them more receptive to your pitch. Which can help improve your sales outreach efforts through email, phone calls, or social media.

For example, sending hyper-personalized video emails to your prospects after they’ve received hundreds of generic sales emails.

Doing things out of the ordinary and counterintuitive to our habits seems risky. However, not all patterns are life-threatening. By breaking the norms in sales, you stand out to your prospect and keep them engaged enough to become receptive to your sales pitch.

What is the benefit of a pattern interrupt?

When you embrace a pattern interrupt, you’ll find that it has numerous advantages for your cold outreach efforts and sales pipeline.

Implementing a structured approach to pattern interrupts makes your sales pitch more impactful. Salespeople who use this technique in conversations can improve their meetings booked, pipeline, and even close more deals.

Here are several benefits of using a pattern interrupt:

• Make prospects more receptive to your sales pitch
• Improve email open and reply rates.
• Book more meetings through cold calls.
• Maintain your prospect’s attention during a meeting.

When is a pattern interrupt useful?

Prospects have a natural resistance to sales reps developed from previous negative experiences.

According to Hubspot, 40% of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process. It’s no wonder sales reps get nervous while cold calling since prospects already have their guard up.

When a prospect picks up their phone and realizes it’s a call cold, they automatically put their guard up. Unfortunately, they are conditioned to ignore sales pitches. Their natural tendency is to avoid cold calls or uncomfortable conversations with a sales rep.

Before listening to your sales pitch, they’re already thinking about saying, “I’m not interested.”

Which doesn’t work in a sales rep’s favor. However, a pattern of interrupts placed within the first few seconds of a cold call can change their natural habit.

Here are three communication channels you can use a pattern interrupt in.

Phone

Cold calling your prospects without any prior research is very ineffective. But one way to warm up your cold calls is to research your prospect and find several pieces of information in preparation for your call.

A bit of context will go a long way and break your prospect’s tendency to reject your sales pitch.

Another way to use a pattern interrupt is to break the typical cold call opener by saying something catchy and different.

For example, instead of starting off with a sales pitch, you can use the opening line, “how’ve you been?”

Gong reviewed 90,380 cold calls and found that this opening line was a 6.6x higher success rate than the baseline.

So, why is this line so much more successful?

It’s an opening line that differs from what prospects expect to hear. The prospect is asking themselves if you’ve met before and assumes you’re both familiar with each other.

Email

There are three main components of an email where you can introduce a pattern interrupt: subject line, first, and last line.

The average email open rate is 17-28%. unfortunately, the numbers don’t work in your favor.

However, a pattern interrupt is an effective way to get prospects to open your email and read it. For example, putting something different and unique such as an emoji, the prospect’s name or pain point.

One sales rep uses “Hey hey hey {{first_name}}” as a subject line to stand out also.

In the first line of your email, you can personalize your email by showing you’ve done your research.

For example, placing a quote by their CEO or calling out any similar interests you both have. Both stand out from the sea of cold emails because they’re different.

The last line is an underutilized part of an email.

Typically, it’s used to ask for a meeting, but there are ways to spice up an email ending. For example, you can ask for an odd amount of time for a meeting, such as, “are you available for 27 minutes for a meeting?”

Or, you can include a P.S. line to include your research. If you’re both sports fans, you can include something like, “P.S. Noticed you’re also a Warriors fan, hoping we win the championship this season!”

Regardless of where you place a pattern interrupt in your sales, you’ll be able to catch your prospect’s eyes and get them to respond.

Social Media

Social selling, which enables a sales team to engage on social platforms and create relationships with prospects, is one way to stand out.

Building a professional brand is one of the most important parts of social selling. Consider sharing content and articles on social media to build your credibility and expertise.

If the content is relevant to your prospects, then such best practices and how-to articles then it’ll teach your prospects something new.

By sharing educational content instead of going directly for the sales pitch, you’re essentially breaking the pattern of negative experiences your prospects have had with salespeople. That in itself is a great long-term strategy.

6 pattern interrupt examples

1. Email Subject Lines

Think about all of the emails you get daily. If you’re like most people, you’re opening an email based on the sender or the subject line alone.

You don’t have time to open and read every early, so you’re naturally drawn toward subject lines that grab your attention.

According to Convince&Convert, 35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line alone. That’s when a pattern interrupt can be used in an email subject line.

Your subject line needs to stand out and be unique. Most salespeople put their company name, product, or prospect’s name in the subject line.

To get an email opened, you need to think outside the box.

For example, research your prospect to see what they care about most. Look on LinkedIn to see what they have under their responsibilities or interests. Reference something you know is unique to your prospect in the subject line.

Another way is to add a very compelling statistic.

For example, if you’re reading this, you likely want to increase your email open rates.

Imagine getting an email that had the subject line, “{{First_name}}, 57% sales email open rates.” You’d likely open it because it was relevant to your pain and included a compelling statistic.

2. Direct Mail

Send your prospect an unexpected yet pleasant surprise in the mail.

Direct mail stays true to the old adage of giving before you receive.

For one, it’s different and unique because it’s an item that can be physically touched and seen.

Second, you’re bypassing traditional channels such as cold calling and emails.

Third, your prospect will be curious to determine who sent them the item and why.

A thoughtful gift can make a genuine great first impression with your prospect and get the conversations started much more easily.

For example, send a personalized gift to your prospect to impress them. Check on LinkedIn or Twitter to see if they’ve posted something they’re passionate about. You may find they’re into hobbies such as golfing, running a marathon, or baking.

Let’s say they’re into golfing and shared pictures of them playing golf. You can send them a set of golf balls since everyone needs new ones after they play, a nice polo shirt, a reusable water bottle, or golf clubs – all items that a golf fanatic would love to get.

Depending on your prospect’s interests, there are many unique and creative gift ideas you can send.

3. Cold Call Openers

The first few seconds of a cold call can either make or break the conversation.

During the first 10-20 seconds, you have to build rapport, establish credibility, grab your prospect’s attention, and build interest, all while trying to get them to stay on the line. That’s a lot to fit within the first 10-20 seconds.

The key to an effective cold call opener is to use a pattern interrupt that allows you to break their negative pattern and establish familiarity. It should sound like this:

• Hey John, how’ve you been?
• Hey Paul, do you have 27 seconds for me to tell you why I called?
• Hey Sam, this is a cold call, would it be okay to continue the conversation?
• Hey Sarah, this is Bob calling from ACME Corp, I don’t suppose those two names ring a bell?

4. Bringing up Objections Early On

Objections are usually the biggest obstacle in the way of you closing a sale.

However, An objection doesn’t always mean a deal cannot move forward. Instead, it can be an opportunity to use a pattern to interrupt and change the situation.

When addressed the right way, pattern interrupts can build rapport and provide your prospect with confidence.

For example, by knowing common objections, you can bring them up before your prospect.

Another way to handle sales objections is to ask your prospect permission to understand and explore the issue. Understanding their objection can reposition their concern and help your buyer see the bigger picture.

5. Price Anchoring

One common way to break the pattern of a prospect’s assumptions is through price anchoring. It is a cognitive bias in pricing where a prospect relies heavily on the first piece of information offered.

Price is relative, and the first price establishes a frame of reference.

In the context of a pattern interrupt, price anchoring can introduce an extremely high price to start and provide a more accurate price. Since you’ve presented a high price point, you now present a price that is relatively worth the value they would get.

You’re playing into a prospect’s initial tendency to use the first piece of information as a reference point by providing an initial anchor price. You can shock prospects with a respectful manager by saying:

• What if I said our product costs $1 million?
• Don’t worry, our cost isn’t going to be $5 million.
• My biggest fear is that we talk about pricing, and our solution is way out of your budget.

6. Video Emails

Video emails can be a more powerful and authentic way to engage prospects and advance deals.

Imagine reading through a dense 15-page proposal or skimming through a written email. Both would be time-consuming. Whereas a video can be quick, simple, and much more personable. Additionally, video emails break through the traditional text-based messages that prospects use.

Video emails are not only a great way to improve response rates, but they can grab your busy prospects’ attention. There are numerous ways to use video emails within your sales process as a pattern interrupt:

• Hold up a sign of your prospect’s name on a whiteboard.
• Screen capture your prospect’s LinkedIn profile.
• Walkthrough a pricing proposal.

Final takeaways on pattern interrupt

A pattern interrupt is a powerful sales technique that can help you close more deals and increase your conversion rate.

As you add pattern interrupts into your sales conversations, be mindful of your tone. When said with the wrong tone, it can come off as rude. Whereas a positive and sometimes playful tone can help.

Try this technique in your next conversation. By breaking the thought pattern, you can keep your prospects engaged and increase their likelihood of doing business with you.