I get cold-called all the time. Here are the mistakes people make:
1. They waste my time (which is also a waste of their time).
That is, they are selling something that I don't need, generally because they don't know anything about me. If you're cold calling me, you should have read through our company's web site already. It's only fifteen pages or so; you can skip the press releases. You don't know what business I'm in? Why should I bother with you?
2. They are wasting my time.
Frequently I get called by salespeople who don't know what they're selling, except the name of it, a two sentence description that they memorized but don't understand, and they want to set up a meeting. You have a software product? What OS does it run on? Does it have a web interface? You're selling consulting services but you can't describe them because your answer for everything is "we can find people to do that, they are experts!"?
Go away.
3. They are wasting my time.
I already talked to you yesterday, last week, last month or last quarter. We discussed your product or service and it was clear from that phone call that we would never be a good fit for each other. (Your product only runs on Windows. Your service is Exchange consulting. You want to help process our customers' confidential data...)
>Frequently I get called by salespeople who don't know what they're selling, except the name of it, a two sentence description that they memorized but don't understand, and they want to set up a meeting.
"What's the difference between a software salesman and a used car salesman?"
"The used car salesman knows he's lying, and can probably drive."
In my young years I did telemarketing. It's tough but, one of the best learning experience of my life.
I will repeat this in the end. But learn who you need to talk to. (Don't accept a no from someone who cant say yes) a lot of your time will be spend with finding the right person.
Here is my advice.
1. Write down a sales pitch with some alternatives depending on what the answer is. It should be structured something like this.
Step 1
Who you are, who you want to talk to.
Once you reach the person you need to talk to:
Step 2
Who you are, why you are calling, what your product do, what your offer to them is (always have some kind of offer like 20% off or something like that)
Step 3
Answer questions, write down customer skepticism and learn from it. (you will become better and better at answering these questions and even able to forsee patterns)
Step 4
Close the deal, tell exactly what is going to happen next. Follow up with what you promised.
2. Practice this again and again.
3. Make sure your goal is to close something. (either a meeting, sales or sending more info)
4. Create a sales funnel where you places your customers depending on how close they are to a sale.
5. Make sure you understand who you need to talk to (never accept a no from a person who cant say yes)
And the more people we have playing it, the more those of us trying to accomplish something outside of sales have to deal with inane pitches by people who refuse to accept "no" as an answer unless they hear it repeatedly while wasting our time.
Please don't encourage this behavior. It's good that you feel you got something out of that experience, but if no one solicited your call and you're calling anyway, you've joined a deservedly-loathed lower class of humanity.
Advice: don't cold call hoping to sell. Unlike inbound methods, you have no idea where they are in the buying cycle. It could be years before you close, so don't bother trying.
Instead call to get information. Most people want to help. Ask them questions about things relevant to your service to qualify them. Ask them if they want information about your service and collect an email address. Add them to a nurture campaign so if they ever are looking to buy you're at the top of their list.
I got a marketing assistant to make these type of calls for a couple of weeks with a 60% success rate of getting an email address. In Australia email permission is opt in. I don't know what the conversion rate of the nurture campaign ended up being because I left the company.
The key being "most people want to help". The best sales guy I've yet known used to demand of me to "Just ask! People will tell you". It's true. Don't be a pushy ass, just ask, and retreat if someone isn't forthcoming.
It's very immature of me, and I'll own that, but the number one thing you can do to get me to never, ever do business with your company is to cold call me.
It's just reeks of unprofessionalism, in my opinion. If you don't care about me enough to respect my time, then why on earth would you care about me enough to provide me with a good customer service experience after you've already hooked me?
I've had companies call me before claiming to work at google, claiming that my company isn't doing enough /google something/ and that they can help! If I pay them $foo, then I will be number in the google!
It's really annoying. This is why things like this: http://www.itslenny.com/ (which is hilarious, btw) exist.
"Hi, I'm really not sure who I need to speak to but if I could take 30 seconds to explain who I am and what I'm looking for do you think we could work out if it's worth me speaking to anyone? Would that be ok?"
"Great thanks. My names is X, and my company does Y. Does it sound like there might be someone who it would be good for me to talk to? If it's a no then that is absolutely fine." Then go quiet.
This is the best opener I have used and it gets me a name and my call forwarded 80% of the time - which is the main aim of a cold call, if you're going in with getting a sale in mind it will always feel like a massive mountain.
Also, if in the 30 second explanation you can get something about them in first it works even better. Also, don't go over your 30 seconds.
I don't do cold calling much, but the few times I've done it have produced almost everything good I've ever achieved professionally has come from a few well targeted cold calls or emails
I'm an LSAT instructor, and author of LSAT explanations. Here's the result of my cold calling
1. I contacted a small company in Toronto that did LSAT and SAT instruction. I'm in Montreal. I called and asked the secretary if they would like to be in Montreal.
She handed me to the founder, who said yes, interviewed me, and I'm still doing work for them. I've traveled the country teaching courses, added new tests to my skillset, and been able to build a private tutoring practice based on things I learned from them.
2. I emailed the guy who runs LSAT Blog, the major blog in my niche. As a result of a few back and forth emails, he asked me if I'd like to write LSAT explanations he could sell.
This led to royalties from him, and manuscripts I later turned into print books, which pay me even more royalties. I now sell the explanations through other online affiliates as well, and turned them into my own site
3. I emailed the founder of another LSAT prep company, just to say hi, after his company experienced a setback.
This led to them bringing me on board for a six month term. I learned a lot, and now they refer me tutoring students.
I think there may be others. But given that these three are 90% of my business success, I probably wouldn't even BE in business if it weren't for cold calls.
The key to all of them was that I was somehow relevant to the people I contacted. They could help me, and I could help them.
The modern cold call is a cold email. Although I've done straight cold calls and had a small team in the Philippines, a lot of businesses do not like calls (esp. Restaurants and service businesses). There is a great book on cold emails called Predictable Revenue[0]. link: http://www.amazon.com/Predictable-Revenue-Business-Practices...
Edited now that I am on computer to add more detail:
Some of the key points in the book are:
-Split sales team into two parts, one group that only sends out opening emails, one set that closes the leads/sets up meetings. Once a meeting is set, the opener passes the prospect onto the closer.
-the first email should be three sentences introducing who you are, what you do (can put clients you work with) and what you are looking for (appointment or referral)
I get pitched by a lot of companies, and one company had used this exact pitch on me and out of hundreds they were one of the few to get me to take an appointment call. Months later when I read this book, I recognized their tactic and went back and read the email and it was 100% based on what came out of this book.
I have amnesia / sleeping difficulty (being awake for ~20 hours, then sleep for 10), which means my waking cycles roll around. UK-based sales people, on the other hand, tend to do their cold calls at 10am sharp.
Long story short: when they call me, I'm generally in REM sleep, and have been for a mere 2 hours. After their interruption, I will not be able to sleep back, but will spend the next 10 hours in zombie mode.
I have found a fantastic new way to use this zombie time: looking up legal, and law services, small courts, corporate databases about their company, facebook of their personal, and any and all leveraged counter-offense methods, that will make these companies, and individuals within not exist ever, ever again.
Please for the love of all that is holy, respect TPS's do-not-call lists.
Definitely. Outbound sales was how we validated our business model before we wrote a single line of code. There is so much you can learn.
Outbound sales, be it cold calls, cold email or warm intros, are very powerful. Keep in mind "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". Don't waste people's time. Ask for permission to speak. Listen.
This is really interesting. Validating your idea is so important, and unless you know a bunch of people who have X problem or are in X industry and aren't going to just 'be nice' about your idea, then you do need to ring around.
I did a little bit of cold calling when I was running a start-up. It's supposed to be really intimidating, and I have to say that before each call, I'd take a few minutes to warm myself up and think 'the worst they can do is say no'.
However, I went into EVERY call, knowing the person I was calling. I'd research via LinkedIn, and find out everything I could about that person, and the business.
I was amazed at how many times I'd contact somebody and they'd already heard of my business, and were keen to do business with me.
At the same time, more often than not, things didn't work out. But as some have said the key is to know what you're selling, and you're not selling your product, you're selling what your product can do for them. Make sure you're able to speak to that.
"I thought it would be great if you guys had x,y,z and could do a,b,c for your customers. It would ease problem a for you, and I'd estimate, based on what I know of your company, increased revenues of y".
Make it easy for them, hand them your business on a silver platter. Like I said, most times you won't get the sale, but you'll make more contacts in the industry, they may recommend you to other potential partners, or who knows.
Don't think "I'm going to sell them", think "I'm going to help them".
^ This here is the best advice for non-sales folks doing sales call. This man did a lot of reading on sales.
You basically have change your mindset about it. You are not selling things to them (and no money is even exchange on the first call either), you are trying to help them.
-- No one likes to be sold to. Stop selling. Also don't think of it as cold-call.
Think of yourself as a consultant.
Think of yourself as a student.
A student in business class, writing a report and researching a company. Find out their current news about their business, and recent trends affecting their industry. Now, can your product fill to relieve some of the workflow they have according to your research.
If so, the client will open up to you. At the end of the day, that client, that manager just wants to get their work done better. If your product does that, and you found out that recent issue, your product can help with. You got a good consulting gig starting to happen.
Once you have your report, write a cold email instead.
This is obviously highly dependent on industry, market, product, etc. I do cold e-mail (personal preference vs calling) but within some basic guidelines:
1) Target Potential Customers
Rather than blanket e-mail every person in my industry, I look for people and organizations that are significantly more likely to be receptive to my product. I've segmented my market based on highly-relevant characteristics to increase chances that my e-mail will be well received. The contact may even already be looking for a product like mine. I also keep an eye out for news articles and mentions for people in my space that show they are a relevant lead.
2) Do My Research
Nothing gets deleted faster than a stock e-mail. I research my prospective targets and try to understand what their situation is. What is their reputation in the market, what are they struggling with, and can my product help alleviate any of that? This shows that my e-mail is more than just SPAM and that I'm trying to develop a relationship.
3) Play It Slow and Develop a Relationship
As mentioned in other posts, cold calls can be as much for info as a sales lead. In some markets, its also about developing a relationship that may take a long time to convert. Even if someone's not interested in my product, if I can help them in another way (maybe an intro) I'll do it to keep the conversation going. Maybe down the road they'll return the favor by providing me a rec.
4) Let It Go
Followup is key, but beating someone up is a waste of time. If someone's not interested and doesn't want to be bothered I'll let it go. The last thing I want is to develop a bad reputation or be reported as SPAM.
DON'T:
Be scripted.
Ask stupid questions that are supposed to be leading, like "Do you want to increase your revenue and cut costs?".
Go straight into pitch mode.
Call them so often that it pisses them off.
DO:
Keep it brief, don't give the full pitch.
Ask for 15 minutes on the calendar to explain in more detail.
Ask if you caught them at a good time. If not, ask when would be better to call back.
Leave a voicemail.
Be casual and genuinely excited to talk to them, like hearing from an old friend.
Send 3-4 sentence email, both for intro and to follow up ("My voicemail" subject lines get good open rates).
Call multiple people at different levels in the organization (and ask if they're the right person to speak to).
I cold call for a living. By cold calling I mean 40 outbound calls and 15 emails or LinkedIn InMails on a regular outreach day.
Result: 6 figure income on a 70k base, for 4 years.
I also do Customer Development-type emails for my own side business, and for others (as-a-service).
Summary: it works. If you learn how to do it right.
Top tools: Stephan Schiffman's Telesales and Basho Email System.
Also: for cold calling to work you must have something of value, that solves a real pain/problem. Not something ephemeral like an app that, say, splits the dinner bill amongst friends.
We do but it doesn't work the same depending on the country.
For example, in France (where we were originally based) and Europe, it's pretty effective if we call the company we target and ask for the right person (thank you Linkedin).
Though, we recently moved in the US and the first calls we made didn't really work. Some people were even pissed that we called them from nowhere and where wondering how we got their phone numbers.
Possibly relevant: We work in mobile advertising
A company that I started in the early 2000s used cold calling to generate leads. It was very affective to generate solid qualified leads. We were lucky that we go an experience cold caller that trained other younger sales people. Having someone (either an agency or a person in-house) helping you is key to your success.
IMO, a good cold caller will work very hard to get to the right person, if that person exist. They will be committed and relentless to generating the lead for their sales team. They will work on their script to a point where they have answers for most types of questions. They will use the tools that they are provided (e.g. salesforce) to ensure to keep a log of what they've done and their todo list. And they will be in constant contact with the sales team to ensure that all information is provided back to them in a structured manner.
If you think that cold callers are waisting your time, simply try and tell them that you are not interested or point them to a different person who may be interested (if that person exists). There's no point for a caller to place a call to someone who has no interest in buying their offering, that's just a waste of time. Cold callers are "not" telemarketers.
Shocking that a bunch of engineers don't like being cold-called ;-) But it's silly to write it off as a viable sales strategy. At my startup we've had a ton of success with cold-calling, and I've talked to software CMOs and VP Sales all over Boston that use it as a core part of their strategy.
If you're doing B2B sales in a relatively new category there's basically no other way to reach your early market; they're not googling for your category, and probably not even for a technical solution to it, especially if you're selling to a non-IT function (marketing, sales, finance, etc.).
In those contexts, cold-calling, done well, can help educate the market, create demand, and set the stage for later inbound efforts. Often we'll have a cold call where the prospect's response isn't "WTF you wasted my time" but "I had no idea this kind of thing existed; where were you 5 years ago?"
It's not easy; you have to select your targets carefully, and have a good pitch, not be too push, and get a lot of other things right to make it work, but it DOES work.
"Potential customers" is a key part of your phrase. If you have someone's contact information and you have some reason to believe they'll be interested in your service, that's a lead.
Without a referral or lead, if you're cold calling, you're calling someone who not only hasn't inquired about your service, but whom you have no reason to believe wants to hear from you. In my opinion, you have no place calling that person. If you choose to do so anyway, it's your responsibility to waste as little of their time as possible in as cordial a manner as you can. Hard sells are absolutely awful.
I only get upset with cold callers that don't quit the first time I say no. No matter how qualified you believe a lead is or how it's been validated/verified, if the person on the other end says no, don't push it. Maybe they'll just keep saying no, but maybe they'll remember you as the pushy jerk whose product/service they'll now never consider.
Yes. Building out a list of pre-qualified contacts, then "cold calling" by means of telephone or email is one of the best ways to get in front of people that your product/service can help. The key is to be respectful of everyone's time and come to the table with something of value. And of course, pushiness or over-persistence is never appreciated. Also, "cold call" doesn't mean "blind call". The sales person should have some notion of the prospect's business, their role in that organization, and exactly where this product or service might fit in.
To those that hate receiving cold calls, remember: most of these sales development folks that call leads are fresh out of school and simply trying to gain a foothold in a hyper-competitive space. Don't let them waste your time if that's what they're doing, but have a heart!
I have been doing a little cold calling recently. One thing I have understood from the various introduction statements is
1. Ask for the person's name or company's name first thing: this tells the person you are indeed looking for them
2. Do not sell in the first 20 seconds. Tell them you are looking for someone in their line of business and ask them if you can ask them a couple of questions
3. Ask them questions relating to their business
Only then do you explain how your business solves the problems. I have found that this recipe almost always makes it impossible for the target to say 'no' and cut the call. Once they answer your questions, they are interested to know how exactly you come into the picture. This process seems more successful than anything else for me.
[+] [-] dsr_|12 years ago|reply
1. They waste my time (which is also a waste of their time).
That is, they are selling something that I don't need, generally because they don't know anything about me. If you're cold calling me, you should have read through our company's web site already. It's only fifteen pages or so; you can skip the press releases. You don't know what business I'm in? Why should I bother with you?
2. They are wasting my time.
Frequently I get called by salespeople who don't know what they're selling, except the name of it, a two sentence description that they memorized but don't understand, and they want to set up a meeting. You have a software product? What OS does it run on? Does it have a web interface? You're selling consulting services but you can't describe them because your answer for everything is "we can find people to do that, they are experts!"?
Go away.
3. They are wasting my time.
I already talked to you yesterday, last week, last month or last quarter. We discussed your product or service and it was clear from that phone call that we would never be a good fit for each other. (Your product only runs on Windows. Your service is Exchange consulting. You want to help process our customers' confidential data...)
[+] [-] blueskin_|12 years ago|reply
"What's the difference between a software salesman and a used car salesman?"
"The used car salesman knows he's lying, and can probably drive."
[+] [-] morganherlocker|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ThomPete|12 years ago|reply
I will repeat this in the end. But learn who you need to talk to. (Don't accept a no from someone who cant say yes) a lot of your time will be spend with finding the right person.
Here is my advice.
1. Write down a sales pitch with some alternatives depending on what the answer is. It should be structured something like this.
Step 1 Who you are, who you want to talk to.
Once you reach the person you need to talk to:
Step 2 Who you are, why you are calling, what your product do, what your offer to them is (always have some kind of offer like 20% off or something like that)
Step 3 Answer questions, write down customer skepticism and learn from it. (you will become better and better at answering these questions and even able to forsee patterns)
Step 4 Close the deal, tell exactly what is going to happen next. Follow up with what you promised.
2. Practice this again and again.
3. Make sure your goal is to close something. (either a meeting, sales or sending more info)
4. Create a sales funnel where you places your customers depending on how close they are to a sale.
5. Make sure you understand who you need to talk to (never accept a no from a person who cant say yes)
Rinse and repeat.
Keep in mind cold calling is a numbers game.
[+] [-] mildtrepidation|12 years ago|reply
And the more people we have playing it, the more those of us trying to accomplish something outside of sales have to deal with inane pitches by people who refuse to accept "no" as an answer unless they hear it repeatedly while wasting our time.
Please don't encourage this behavior. It's good that you feel you got something out of that experience, but if no one solicited your call and you're calling anyway, you've joined a deservedly-loathed lower class of humanity.
[+] [-] kaliblack|12 years ago|reply
Instead call to get information. Most people want to help. Ask them questions about things relevant to your service to qualify them. Ask them if they want information about your service and collect an email address. Add them to a nurture campaign so if they ever are looking to buy you're at the top of their list.
I got a marketing assistant to make these type of calls for a couple of weeks with a 60% success rate of getting an email address. In Australia email permission is opt in. I don't know what the conversion rate of the nurture campaign ended up being because I left the company.
[+] [-] auxbuss|12 years ago|reply
The key being "most people want to help". The best sales guy I've yet known used to demand of me to "Just ask! People will tell you". It's true. Don't be a pushy ass, just ask, and retreat if someone isn't forthcoming.
Most people want to help.
[+] [-] blhack|12 years ago|reply
It's just reeks of unprofessionalism, in my opinion. If you don't care about me enough to respect my time, then why on earth would you care about me enough to provide me with a good customer service experience after you've already hooked me?
I've had companies call me before claiming to work at google, claiming that my company isn't doing enough /google something/ and that they can help! If I pay them $foo, then I will be number in the google!
It's really annoying. This is why things like this: http://www.itslenny.com/ (which is hilarious, btw) exist.
[+] [-] simonbarker87|12 years ago|reply
"Great thanks. My names is X, and my company does Y. Does it sound like there might be someone who it would be good for me to talk to? If it's a no then that is absolutely fine." Then go quiet.
This is the best opener I have used and it gets me a name and my call forwarded 80% of the time - which is the main aim of a cold call, if you're going in with getting a sale in mind it will always feel like a massive mountain.
Also, if in the 30 second explanation you can get something about them in first it works even better. Also, don't go over your 30 seconds.
[+] [-] graeme|12 years ago|reply
I'm an LSAT instructor, and author of LSAT explanations. Here's the result of my cold calling
1. I contacted a small company in Toronto that did LSAT and SAT instruction. I'm in Montreal. I called and asked the secretary if they would like to be in Montreal.
She handed me to the founder, who said yes, interviewed me, and I'm still doing work for them. I've traveled the country teaching courses, added new tests to my skillset, and been able to build a private tutoring practice based on things I learned from them.
2. I emailed the guy who runs LSAT Blog, the major blog in my niche. As a result of a few back and forth emails, he asked me if I'd like to write LSAT explanations he could sell.
This led to royalties from him, and manuscripts I later turned into print books, which pay me even more royalties. I now sell the explanations through other online affiliates as well, and turned them into my own site
3. I emailed the founder of another LSAT prep company, just to say hi, after his company experienced a setback.
This led to them bringing me on board for a six month term. I learned a lot, and now they refer me tutoring students.
I think there may be others. But given that these three are 90% of my business success, I probably wouldn't even BE in business if it weren't for cold calls.
The key to all of them was that I was somehow relevant to the people I contacted. They could help me, and I could help them.
The more targeted, the better.
[+] [-] matznerd|12 years ago|reply
Edited now that I am on computer to add more detail:
Some of the key points in the book are: -Split sales team into two parts, one group that only sends out opening emails, one set that closes the leads/sets up meetings. Once a meeting is set, the opener passes the prospect onto the closer. -the first email should be three sentences introducing who you are, what you do (can put clients you work with) and what you are looking for (appointment or referral)
I get pitched by a lot of companies, and one company had used this exact pitch on me and out of hundreds they were one of the few to get me to take an appointment call. Months later when I read this book, I recognized their tactic and went back and read the email and it was 100% based on what came out of this book.
[0] edit: misspelled title
[+] [-] DerekH|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spitfire|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] conrey|12 years ago|reply
http://www.startupmoon.com/how-i-got-meetings-at-twitter-lin... http://life-longlearner.com/how-to-cold-email-prospects/ http://okdork.com/2013/04/18/cold_email/
[+] [-] sdrinf|12 years ago|reply
Long story short: when they call me, I'm generally in REM sleep, and have been for a mere 2 hours. After their interruption, I will not be able to sleep back, but will spend the next 10 hours in zombie mode.
I have found a fantastic new way to use this zombie time: looking up legal, and law services, small courts, corporate databases about their company, facebook of their personal, and any and all leveraged counter-offense methods, that will make these companies, and individuals within not exist ever, ever again.
Please for the love of all that is holy, respect TPS's do-not-call lists.
[1] See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6163051 for more
[+] [-] logvol|12 years ago|reply
Outbound sales, be it cold calls, cold email or warm intros, are very powerful. Keep in mind "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". Don't waste people's time. Ask for permission to speak. Listen.
Recommended reading: Jason Lemkin http://www.quora.com/Jason-M.-Lemkin
How GuideSpark Tripled Revenues Two Years in a Row, Growing to Almost Eight Figures in ARR — All Using Outbound Sales http://saastr.quora.com/How-GuideSpark-Tripled-Revenues-Two-...
[+] [-] hiharryhere|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pedalpete|12 years ago|reply
However, I went into EVERY call, knowing the person I was calling. I'd research via LinkedIn, and find out everything I could about that person, and the business.
I was amazed at how many times I'd contact somebody and they'd already heard of my business, and were keen to do business with me. At the same time, more often than not, things didn't work out. But as some have said the key is to know what you're selling, and you're not selling your product, you're selling what your product can do for them. Make sure you're able to speak to that. "I thought it would be great if you guys had x,y,z and could do a,b,c for your customers. It would ease problem a for you, and I'd estimate, based on what I know of your company, increased revenues of y".
Make it easy for them, hand them your business on a silver platter. Like I said, most times you won't get the sale, but you'll make more contacts in the industry, they may recommend you to other potential partners, or who knows.
Don't think "I'm going to sell them", think "I'm going to help them".
[+] [-] chany2|12 years ago|reply
You basically have change your mindset about it. You are not selling things to them (and no money is even exchange on the first call either), you are trying to help them.
-- No one likes to be sold to. Stop selling. Also don't think of it as cold-call.
Think of yourself as a consultant.
Think of yourself as a student.
A student in business class, writing a report and researching a company. Find out their current news about their business, and recent trends affecting their industry. Now, can your product fill to relieve some of the workflow they have according to your research.
If so, the client will open up to you. At the end of the day, that client, that manager just wants to get their work done better. If your product does that, and you found out that recent issue, your product can help with. You got a good consulting gig starting to happen.
Once you have your report, write a cold email instead.
[+] [-] nimrod4|12 years ago|reply
1) Target Potential Customers
Rather than blanket e-mail every person in my industry, I look for people and organizations that are significantly more likely to be receptive to my product. I've segmented my market based on highly-relevant characteristics to increase chances that my e-mail will be well received. The contact may even already be looking for a product like mine. I also keep an eye out for news articles and mentions for people in my space that show they are a relevant lead.
2) Do My Research
Nothing gets deleted faster than a stock e-mail. I research my prospective targets and try to understand what their situation is. What is their reputation in the market, what are they struggling with, and can my product help alleviate any of that? This shows that my e-mail is more than just SPAM and that I'm trying to develop a relationship.
3) Play It Slow and Develop a Relationship
As mentioned in other posts, cold calls can be as much for info as a sales lead. In some markets, its also about developing a relationship that may take a long time to convert. Even if someone's not interested in my product, if I can help them in another way (maybe an intro) I'll do it to keep the conversation going. Maybe down the road they'll return the favor by providing me a rec.
4) Let It Go
Followup is key, but beating someone up is a waste of time. If someone's not interested and doesn't want to be bothered I'll let it go. The last thing I want is to develop a bad reputation or be reported as SPAM.
[+] [-] davecyen|12 years ago|reply
DO: Keep it brief, don't give the full pitch. Ask for 15 minutes on the calendar to explain in more detail. Ask if you caught them at a good time. If not, ask when would be better to call back. Leave a voicemail. Be casual and genuinely excited to talk to them, like hearing from an old friend. Send 3-4 sentence email, both for intro and to follow up ("My voicemail" subject lines get good open rates). Call multiple people at different levels in the organization (and ask if they're the right person to speak to).
[+] [-] bellaccione|12 years ago|reply
Result: 6 figure income on a 70k base, for 4 years.
I also do Customer Development-type emails for my own side business, and for others (as-a-service).
Summary: it works. If you learn how to do it right.
Top tools: Stephan Schiffman's Telesales and Basho Email System.
Also: for cold calling to work you must have something of value, that solves a real pain/problem. Not something ephemeral like an app that, say, splits the dinner bill amongst friends.
[+] [-] arthurquerou|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wrath|12 years ago|reply
IMO, a good cold caller will work very hard to get to the right person, if that person exist. They will be committed and relentless to generating the lead for their sales team. They will work on their script to a point where they have answers for most types of questions. They will use the tools that they are provided (e.g. salesforce) to ensure to keep a log of what they've done and their todo list. And they will be in constant contact with the sales team to ensure that all information is provided back to them in a structured manner.
If you think that cold callers are waisting your time, simply try and tell them that you are not interested or point them to a different person who may be interested (if that person exists). There's no point for a caller to place a call to someone who has no interest in buying their offering, that's just a waste of time. Cold callers are "not" telemarketers.
[+] [-] kryptonika|12 years ago|reply
If you're doing B2B sales in a relatively new category there's basically no other way to reach your early market; they're not googling for your category, and probably not even for a technical solution to it, especially if you're selling to a non-IT function (marketing, sales, finance, etc.).
In those contexts, cold-calling, done well, can help educate the market, create demand, and set the stage for later inbound efforts. Often we'll have a cold call where the prospect's response isn't "WTF you wasted my time" but "I had no idea this kind of thing existed; where were you 5 years ago?"
It's not easy; you have to select your targets carefully, and have a good pitch, not be too push, and get a lot of other things right to make it work, but it DOES work.
[+] [-] mildtrepidation|12 years ago|reply
Without a referral or lead, if you're cold calling, you're calling someone who not only hasn't inquired about your service, but whom you have no reason to believe wants to hear from you. In my opinion, you have no place calling that person. If you choose to do so anyway, it's your responsibility to waste as little of their time as possible in as cordial a manner as you can. Hard sells are absolutely awful.
I only get upset with cold callers that don't quit the first time I say no. No matter how qualified you believe a lead is or how it's been validated/verified, if the person on the other end says no, don't push it. Maybe they'll just keep saying no, but maybe they'll remember you as the pushy jerk whose product/service they'll now never consider.
[+] [-] smelliot415|12 years ago|reply
To those that hate receiving cold calls, remember: most of these sales development folks that call leads are fresh out of school and simply trying to gain a foothold in a hyper-competitive space. Don't let them waste your time if that's what they're doing, but have a heart!
[+] [-] esdailycom|12 years ago|reply
1. Ask for the person's name or company's name first thing: this tells the person you are indeed looking for them
2. Do not sell in the first 20 seconds. Tell them you are looking for someone in their line of business and ask them if you can ask them a couple of questions
3. Ask them questions relating to their business
Only then do you explain how your business solves the problems. I have found that this recipe almost always makes it impossible for the target to say 'no' and cut the call. Once they answer your questions, they are interested to know how exactly you come into the picture. This process seems more successful than anything else for me.