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MYTH: Cold calling is a good idea

Guest post by: Sue Barrett

Article Overview: In the "olden days" when I first started my business, over 95% of my sales came about through cold calling, which I had learnt to do really well when I worked as a sales recruitment specialist with Morgan & Banks. At M&B - and in my business - it was very clear that if I didn't bill anything I didn't earn anything. So I got on the phones and I prospected to people I didn't know - that is, cold calling. This was well and truly before the internet was in mainstream use and I had the privilege of learning how to cold call really well. But it is a FACT that in an essentially crowded market place of the 21st century, businesses require a series of "push" and "pull" prospecting strategies rather than one simplistic "push" approach to selling such as cold calling.

MYTH: Cold calling is a good idea

In the "olden days" when I first started my business, over 95% of my sales came about through cold calling, which I had learnt to do really well when I worked as a sales recruitment specialist with Morgan & Banks.

At M&B - and in my business - it was very clear that if I didn't bill anything I didn't earn anything. So I got on the phones and I prospected to people I didn't know - that is, cold calling.

This was well and truly before the internet was in mainstream use and I had the privilege of learning how to cold call really well.

But it is a FACT that in an essentially crowded market place of the 21st century, businesses require a series of "push" and "pull" prospecting strategies rather than one simplistic "push" approach to selling such as cold calling.

Cold calling is simply calling on someone who fits into your target market that you do not know and do not have a warm referral to give you an introduction.

However in today's market, as I and others have found, focusing all your sales efforts on a cold calling campaign puts you at risk of missing many other prospecting opportunities.

I have had to adapt to all the other prospecting methods now available to us. I am not advocating the abolishment of cold calling from your repertoire, not at all. If done effectively cold calling can work, but it is only a small part of a now much wider prospecting strategy available to us.

The very act of prospecting is tactical marketing. In this networked society there are a number of avenues you can call upon to build up your list of referrals and leads to give you access to viable business opportunities.

The average person in the street knows about 800 other people in their network, and for those of us in sales jobs we should have 1000s of people in our network. How big and how warm is your network? Remember six degrees of separation?

Let's just take banks and other financial businesses for instance. In reality they should hardly ever need to make a cold call. Just look at all the referrals, networking and sponsorship opportunities they already have available to them.

However the question is, are they using them effectively?

Whether you are a small niche player or a large corporate, businesses now need to have a far more integrated approach to generate and build sales leads for their businesses and their sales teams - "Push" and "Pull" prospecting strategies.

This is even more important for SMEs who do not have the big marketing and advertising spend many larger businesses can rely upon. Thanks to the internet, SMEs can really start to build a presence without the big price tag. However it still takes effort.

But first you need to know the answer to the following questions:

• WHO is my target market?
• HOW do I need to make contact with them?

Once you have identified who your target market is, think about all the ways you can reach them and how you can help them reach you. However, make sure all your prospecting efforts have a consistent message, because precisely how sales people position themselves needs to match the positioning of the business and how it chooses to position its solutions.

You could even position your sales people as advocates, business experts, industry supports or niche industry gurus to whom interested parties turn for solutions or sources.

So what push and pull prospecting strategies are available to you?

Let's define "push" and "pull" first. Pull prospecting strategies are ways your business pulls people (ideally your target market) to your business for your sales people to then follow up on to identify viable sales deals. Push prospecting strategies are ways your sales people go out into the market and make contact with prospective customers - cold calling

Examples of push and pull lead generation modes are:

• Branding and public relations.
• Website and e-mail.
• Events.
• Phone calls and face-to-face meetings.
• Referrals.
• Direct mail.
• Online marketing.
• Blogging.
• Public speaking.

Your pull and push prospecting strategies should ensure that your sales people invest valuable face-to-face or phone selling time with the right people on a consistent daily basis. Going out willy-nilly calling on anyone hoping for the best won't cut it any more.

You need a clear strategy supported by some market research that gives you the necessary information you need to make informed decisions about how you invest your time and money in positioning yourself with prospective customers, especially if you do not have a big marketing budget.

So now you can also see why I am such a big advocate for an integrated team based approach with marketing, sales and service.

Related Articles
  The Surprising Truth about Cold Calling
  Why You Hate Cold Calling But Shouldn’t: The Common Myths Exposed and Truths Uncovered
  Stop By All That Business Your Are Driving By If You Want to Increase Sales
  What Cold Calling Business Lead Management Can Do For Your Business
  Is cold calling right for my business?

Article Tags: abolishment, avenues, average person, cold calling, degrees of separation, financial businesses, how to cold call, networked society, olden days, privilege, recruitment specialist, referrals, s market, sales efforts, sales jobs, sales recruitment, six degrees of separation, tactical marketing, target market, viable business opportunities



Related Forum Posts
Re: Who hates cold calling? - Cold calling is aways hard, but I think you definitely have to put yourself into the right frame of mind before making them and it will help you muscle through them. If you just ask yourself, "What do I have to lose?" before making each call, I think you have a pre-set attitude that this "no" is just going to get me that much closer to my next "yes". Look at it as a stepping stone rather than a road block and it makes it so much easier to pick up the phone. Since cold calling is almost a necessity for survival in business today, it's crucial to make an effort to do some of it every day. You should have a goal to hit each day, then when you get really good, up the goal just like you would a strength training goal. It's a good comparison. It's just that one makes you have more courage and one makes you have more physical strength. The concept is similar.
What to avoid when cold calling? - Cold calling is the nemesis of all sales people. What words to avoid, what not to do when cold calling? I will start first: avoid the word "maybe". When you're cold calling, your best chance of success is to be self assured, confident, and 100% well versed in what you are selling. If you're using the word 'maybe' in your sales scripts, you run the risk of sounding wishy washy. It either is or isn't. Pick one. Another word: "hope" When you tell your client you're 'hoping' for something, you're not sure, are you? If you're not sure, then why should they be? Never let a prospect hear that you're not 100% behind your product, your company or your service, or it's entirely likely you will lose the sale. So, what other words should we avoid?
Re: Who hates cold calling? - I think it really depends on what you are selling. For example, we sell chiropractic software that they can enter and store their notes on. Since the law is requiring them to go electronic by 2014, we have a pretty good chance of calling someone who needs it. I agree that for other products and services cold calling would probably be a waste of time. I think the key to cold calling is knowing how to get past the gate keeper. If you just keep calling people and have no clue how to get to the decision maker, cold calling is a BIG waste of time. There are some really good books out there that will teach a person how to do that if he/she decides cold calling would be helpful to their business.
Cold Calling - Cold calling is tough, but it is possible. Its a shame that your employer doesn't seem to be giving you any help. I would suggest that you learn everything about the products you're trying to sell to the retailers. It wouldn't hurt to have them close at hand while you're on the phone with a potential buyer. Learn what is great about the items. What do they offer the consumer? Why should the retailer carry them? Who would be most likely to buy the items? Once you know these answers, learn about the companies you are calling. Its hard to tell a retailer that your product is something they need - if you don't know anything about their business and/or the customers. If they have a website that would be a great place to research. Shri
Re: Cold Calling - As long as people are out of jobs, you'll probably have a lot of people who say they want to work for straight commission, but if they don't get paid fairly quickly, they usually move on. We've run into that and went through about 500 people (whose resumes looked really good) until we found about 3 good resellers. People just don't want to work for anything. Or they do a good job getting the business but don't do the follow up necessary to make the sale......so they move on thinking they need money NOW. Our business requires all cold calling as well. It's really tough for people to perfect that but there are a lot of good books out there. On is Cold Calling Techniques, by Stephan Schiffman


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