If there is one thing that most entrepreneurs and new business owners hate doing, it has to be cold calling. The name in it self doesn’t suggest an activity which is warm and rewarding, but on that is frigid and uncomfortable – and rightfully so, cold calling can suck big time.
Especially when people hang up on you.
Over the last week I have been actively cold calling potential business leads for a few hours each day. My background is in customer service, so speaking with people I don’t know comes fairly easy to me. But it’s not as simple as that. Just because you used to be in sales, does not mean you’ll be good at converting cold calls into warm leads. Let’s revisit that one more time…
Converting cold calls into warm leads.
If you’re trying to do anything more than this (at first) you will fail. Last Monday I spent an hour calling up small businesses asking if I could speak with the person who manages their marketing – in hopes to pitch and hustle them on potential business opportunities.
This is wrong.
I discovered through trial and error that I have a better chance if I’m speaking to the owner i.e. whoever is on top and calls the shots. They make the decisions at the end of the day. They write the checks. They have the power.
Secondly, why the hell would someone listen to me if all I was doing is trying to pitch them? This isn’t telemarketing, so don’t pick up the phone and try to sell right off the bat. You might find this weird, but similar to generating leads on Facebook, you shouldn’t cold call and think about making the sale.
Whatchu talkin bout Willis?
Seriously, if you do you are skipping over the entire process of engagement and going straight for the kill. Your potential lead will hang up (which a bunch of them did) or insist that they have no use for your service (which they probably do).
There’s my two cents. Today I did about 3 hours of cold calling in total. Made 2 appointments to meet up and got 5 people requesting more info via email (very interested).
That’s potentially $1000’s in new business over the next 30-60 days.
Not bad.
Cheers,
Elijah