If there is one thing that most entrepreneurs and new business owners hate doing, it has to be cold calling. The name in it self doesn’t suggest an activity which is warm and rewarding, but on that is frigid and uncomfortable – and rightfully so, cold calling can suck big time.
Especially when people hang up on you.
Over the last week I have been actively cold calling potential business leads for a few hours each day. My background is in customer service, so speaking with people I don’t know comes fairly easy to me. But it’s not as simple as that. Just because you used to be in sales, does not mean you’ll be good at converting cold calls into warm leads. Let’s revisit that one more time…
Converting cold calls into warm leads.
If you’re trying to do anything more than this (at first) you will fail. Last Monday I spent an hour calling up small businesses asking if I could speak with the person who manages their marketing – in hopes to pitch and hustle them on potential business opportunities.
This is wrong.
I discovered through trial and error that I have a better chance if I’m speaking to the owner i.e. whoever is on top and calls the shots. They make the decisions at the end of the day. They write the checks. They have the power.
Secondly, why the hell would someone listen to me if all I was doing is trying to pitch them? This isn’t telemarketing, so don’t pick up the phone and try to sell right off the bat. You might find this weird, but similar to generating leads on Facebook, you shouldn’t cold call and think about making the sale.
Whatchu talkin bout Willis?
Seriously, if you do you are skipping over the entire process of engagement and going straight for the kill. Your potential lead will hang up (which a bunch of them did) or insist that they have no use for your service (which they probably do).
There’s my two cents. Today I did about 3 hours of cold calling in total. Made 2 appointments to meet up and got 5 people requesting more info via email (very interested).
That’s potentially $1000’s in new business over the next 30-60 days.
Not bad.
Cheers,
Elijah
you rock!
@Veronica – Thanks baby.
Here’s another tip…
Call before or after business hours, when there is no receptionist there to field your calls…
@Dawn – Thanks for stopping by! Totally agree, before 9 is usually a good starting point.
I used to work in tech support group for HP products and I really know about this Cold Call think. Honestly, I did not really know how to speak to people, specially to unfriendly people who is having trouble with their printers. However, I learned how to deal with this and even did some good sales. This is just a matter of knowing that we are humans and we are talking to another humans so turning the ambiance have been the key for having success with these calls.
I enjoyed reading your experience. Thanks.
PD. It is true that speaking with the owner is a lot better.
@Daniel – Hey man, I agree, it’s really important to remember that you’re talking to a “person” at the end of the day. Regardless if they are the president or secretary. Talk to them like people and not a sales quota and the call should go just fine!
Good luck in this new channel of business Elijah. Do remember that businesses can be such a pain and would tend to withhold your cheque until the last minute. Grab them asap..
@Anand – hey! I haven’t seen you around here in a while 🙂 I never understood why clients love taking their sweet time when it comes to paying, even when they have the money!
I’d blame you for that Elijah! You haven’t been updating the blog frequent enough.. 😉
@Anand – If you can keep a secret… I’ve been designing the new theme – which is coming very soon! An updated blog design / model will definitely inspire me to post more!
wow really? This very theme looks kinda new to me..You used to have a different theme back in the day! Anyway, looking forward to it :))