Although cold calling may not be the most effective form of lead generation in terms of conversion rates, I would not rule out cold calling if you need to get some momentum in your business development. I have a client whom since biting the bullet and starting to make the calls has started getting loads more referrals. Weird eh?!!
He listened to the excellent free audios and videos on this site on cold calling by leading experts to learn some key strategies. We then worked out his approach and did some role playing and objection handling to help build his confidence.
Listening to the experts really got him to realise that his objective was to find people with the problems he can fix rather than try and push people into buying things they don’t really need. Once he had evidence that people with these problems were open to his solutions it took his motivation to a whole new level. It is as if the blinkers were removed from his eyes and now there is no stopping him! The enthusiasm has spilled over to his other forms of lead generation and the cash is beginning to flow.
I am sure he will take some of that cash and invest it in the excellent offline courses by the trainers on this site. However, the material was enough to help him make a breakthrough and start getting his business onto an even keel.
Job done!!
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on Feb 25th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
It’s never about it being pretty or pleasant, but this is yet another example of someone getting on with it and getting some payback for their efforts.
Most businesses, if they run a low level but diligent cold calling effort (even as few as 10 per day) will still make well in excess of 2000 cold calls in a year and the time investment will be less than an hour, sometimes as little as 25 – 30 minutes and that includes recording the results in CRM / Excel
Thank you for sharing this Richard
on Jan 28th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I love the part where he went and found some expert input. I hope that in 2010 and the age of Social Media that more small businesses will do this, and start getting the positive results that this guy did.
on Jan 28th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Can a solopreneur or small business owner build a business without ‘Cold Calling’? Probably – over time. But let’s face it, building a business is about making strangers aware of the offer and encouraging them to buy.
‘Cold calling’ can be a very important element in business and personal development. One of our major clients – now in our 10th year of relationship – came to us via a cold call.
I discovered powerful words, phrases, triggers, motivators and drivers through my cold calling activities. This fired my enthusiasm for my business, deepened my learning and strengthened my confidence in speaking with strangers … great side benefits that have served me well. Oh, and it’s all measurable – a key component in any business activity.
The real question is this: Is it fear or is it the opportunity to invest in alternative routes to market that stops people from picking up the phone?
on Jan 28th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
He started doing something very important – looking at things from the perspective of the “callee”.
on Jan 28th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Great post and fantastic to see that people do benefit from making sales calls.
The telephone is the quickest route to your target audience and is very effective once a person has managed their expectations (its in the majority a profile raising and appointment getting exercise), made a commitment to a number of calls or timeframe of activity for calling, and got a system in place to measure effectiveness of the activity.