OK, so here are my thoughts on cold calling and sales in general. I better say that I work in an industry where we don't really have a "product". Or at least I don't sell anything exclusive where if you want say a Honda you go to a Honda dealership or that kind of thing. Its a service more than a specific product I would say, so my thoughts are more related to that as opposed to those other kinds of transactional sales.
I think cold calls are a waste of time for a number of reasons:
A) People, specifically private people at home, won't answer the phone if they don't know who's calling. Nine times out of ten this is the case. IF they have a landline to begin with, (which is a steadily decreasing portion of people), they have call display and aren't interested in taking calls to sell them things.
B) A sort of follow-up to point (A) is that people hate being sold things. Even if you know you need to buy it and are interested, how many of us walk onto a car lot (sorry car salesmen...) and just don't want to hear the sales pitch? The idea is that I hate being sold on anything, but I do lie buying things and sometimes even have no alternative! That is a critical point IMO. No amount of cold calling gets you past this point.
C) People buy things and do business with people they like. So if a guy needs to lease some space and he knows you and likes you, chances are he gives you a call and has you find him that space. People liking you goes a long way to overcome other possible issues. No cold call gets you over this either; because people hate being sold to, and that is the only reason you're calling, you have to have something pretty damn impressive to earn that likeability and trust enough to bypass points (B) and (C).
Now some people will quickly point out that you can easily call businesses and they always answer. Fair enough. I get cold called all the time to meet with people about their investment products. We end up taking the calls, because its work and we can't very well leave these people on hold. I suppose if you consider that an increase to your odds, that is fine. I don't. I generally listen politely and have no intention of doing business with these people for the same reasons as above.
I also understand that people have the idea that they'll send an email ahead or maybe even mail ahead. I receive hundreds of emails a week promoting things. I rarely if ever read them. I'm not special....I just don't have the time. When I get the follow-up phone call asking if I saw it I'm candidly telling the caller that I probably got it and deleted it. I think that is the case more often than not. As far as the mail out goes, we fill our recycling bin at the office every week with this stuff. Many times without looking or thinking twice. I do confess that one company included actual money in their pitch and I did note only open that, but spent the money, only to laugh at them giving me money for no real benefit! It might no surprise you to hear that they're no longer in business.
People need to know what you do, and they need to be able to find you. I still think that the most effective way to do this is through networking and meeting people. In businesses like ours you have to have referrals and people telling other people about what you have done for them. This is the way you get qualified leads; the other issue with cold calling is that 1/10 guy who picks up the phone and needs your services isn't the kind of guy you are actually wanting as a client!
Lastly (and this has been way longer than I would've thought), don't fall into the "numbers game" trap. Its a joke. This is where some old-timer tells you that "If you want to make a million bucks its just a numbers game. If every appointment averages you $1000, just book a 1000 appointments. To book 1000 appointments it might take you 10,000 calls and once you get good at cold calling you can make 50 calls an hour, so that's only 200 hours. You're going to work 200 hours this year, aren't you?"
Anyway, those are my thoughts and I apologize for rambling on so long here!
|