Sales Prospecting & Cold Calling

Cold Calling or No Cold Calling?                                

So… should you cold call or not?

Some don’t mind cold calling and it works for them.  I know several people who started their business with hundreds of cold calls and it worked for them.  One of my speaker buddies, for example, was laid off from his corporate job a few years ago and he says “All I had was my phone and phone book, so I started calling up companies in my niche, offering them my workshops and seminars…”  After a few hours of cold calling, he got his first few prospects and in a few days he got his first paid gig.  He continued with this system for years, till now he gets most of his speaking engagements through referrrals.

If you do cold call, make sure to ask for the person who is in charge of educational programs – if you are a speaker or a coach (who wnants to provide group coaching or a workshop)…

Create Luke-Warm Prospects

I think I told you in an earlier post about my brother, Robert, who used to have this system: Send out 1000 brochures (sometimes much more) and then start calling them.  What happens when you send out a brochure?  Well, in theory now you have a luke-warm prospect; because once the person on the other end of the line pics up the phone, you can say “Hi, I’m Joe Schmoe from Schome Industries – we sent you a brochure with a great offer a few days ago and I wanted to see if you had a chance to look at it…” 

Of course, if you do this, you have to have a great offer on your brochure – but still understand that more than half of those brochures will go straight in the trash can.

So, back to my brother and his system.  He knew that if he’d call 100 prospects, he’d sell three to five cars and that made him happy.  Not only did it make him happy, but also made him one of the top sales-reps in his company.  His coleagues thought he was nuts by “wasting” his time putting together all those brochures and mailing out regularly, but after a few months they realized that he was on the right track and everyone started following his system.

So, have a great offer and send it out to your prospects on an attractive or (as I like it) a crazy looking postcard.  You might want to do two or three mailings before you call; or you can call right after the first mailing (undoubtadly after several mailings – especially if your cards are funny, shocking, or crazy looking – you’ll start developing some name recognition).

Who do you call?  Well, you can buy lists, or you can develop your own list through a great opt-in page (where, again, you had a great offer).  Some of the reputable list landing companies are http://www.infousa.com/, http://www.salesgenie.com, etc.  Ask some of your friends or coleagues who did they use; and remember, you ARE NOT BUYING THE LISTS – most companies only lend you the lists and you can use them once (they have planted names within the list and if you mail out more than once, you get caught and get in some trouble)

Or you can just pick up the yellow pages and call (as my speaker friend used to do it)…

Disqualify As Many of Your Prospects As Possible, As Soon As Possible

Regardless of where you get your list that you’ll call from, you do not want to spend a lifetime on trying to pursuade people to buy what they do not need.  You want to disqualify as soon as possible the prospects who are not likely to buy from you; and you do this by being very honest and by asking very specific questions.

In my case, I’ll say something like “Hi, I’m E.G. Sebastian, I’m an Author, Speaker, and Leaderhsip Development Coach.  I’ve been presenting my programs to organizations such as yours for the past 6 years and I’d like to discuss the possibility to present some of my programs to your employees or management team. … Do you bring in outside speakers?”   … and sometimes, that’s how I start out by asking “Do you bring in speakers from outside?”  (many companies have their own trainers).

If they say that they do not bring in speakers from outside, most often I politely say goodby and hang up; however, if the person on the other end of the line sounds personble, I’ll stretch it a bit and say, “Would you consider bring in someone, if I could show you how my program would benefit your employees or management team.”  and this is the “break it or make it qestion” – if the person says “Our policy is not to bring in outside speakers,” or something like that, then I’ll thank for their time and say good by.

Remember, you pottentially will make hundreds of phone calls in a week – you want to keep them as short as possible; therefore, you want to disqualify dead-end prospects as soon as possible.  (again, do not waist your time trying to pursuade them that they need your product or service – even if you push your product or service on them, they might resent it later and back out from the deal)

Talk Only to the Decission Maker!

Another important element of “cald-calling” or “luke-warm” calling is to know who to ask for.  This also means that you should be super nice to the receptionist because she is often instructed not to connect calls to certain decission makers.  In this case, you can always ask for the manager of the marketing or the sales dpt., and once you get through ask them for the name of the decision maker who could decide about your product or service.

Use Social Media to Create Hot Leads

These days it’s getting easier and easier to gain hot leads, instead of spending most of your time with cold-calls or luke-warm calls.  I think the primary meeting space for business social connections is www.LinkedIn.com and pottentially www.MerchantCircle.com; and you definitely need a www.FaceBook.com account – I see most of my business connections are out there and are doing great promoting their services.  And you definitely need a www.Twitter.com account.

On www.LinkedIn.com, make sure to join groups that are closest to your business area, AND before you start promoting yourself, make sure to provide some value to some discussions – make some friends, and only then start promoting your products or services; and even then, I’d say do it through an article, teleclass, white paper, etc., giving the perception that you provide value, but at the same time you expose people to your offers.  Spend some time “socializing” in the groups (in LinkedIn) and you’ll see how the smartest networkers do it…

Which one is most effective?  The Telephone or the Online Social Media?

I’d say a combination of the two is most effective; however, if you are averse to cold calling, than better become a pro at social networking (and I’m still working on this).  I have several friends who totally shifted to marketing their products and services through the social networks, including videos, eBooks (some free ones), teleclasses, etc.

So… pick whatever works for you, just make sure to be consistent with your approach.  If people will find you to be genuine and find that you have a great product or service, success is inevitable.  But you have to put yourself out there.  You must promote yourself one way or another.  Your business can survive only and only with one condition: you must market, market, and market yourself… if not, you’ll be soon back to flipping burgers or pushing papers on someone else’s desk.

…

Ok, guys, this was a lot….  Pleas let me know if you have a different – more successful – approach.

I wish you great sales and lots of $$$s!

E.G.

Tweet This Post