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Getting Rid of Cold Calling Anxiety Using Brute Force

Everyman

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The problem with cold-calling is that, in the REAL world, it simply DOESN'T WORK.

Have you read the whole thread because writing that cold calling doesn't work, where the OP proved it worked, and was rewarded with GOLD.....

Years ago, cold-calling was the standard, universal way of prospecting and selling. Today, though, in the sage of the Internet, Google, and SEO, it's totally obsolete.

Do you have any numbers to support that? Especially your numbers. I am curious what your experience is.

I agree with @Tony Tony and @CROJosh .
 
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TheFrancophile

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@Tony Tony, @Everyman, and @CROJosh, you are dead WRONG.

I know, I know, you don't like hearing the truth. Facts are stubborn things. But that doesn't make them any less true.

According to multiple independent studies (sources: here, here, here, here and here) :

  • 90% of buyers NEVER respond to an unsolicited enquiry and 88% of them say they NEVER buy from a cold-caller. This includes 80% of executives.
  • Less than 2% of all cold calls result in so much as a meeting (let alone a sale).
  • Cold-calling is 60% more expensive than any other form of marketing or prospection.
There's also been a study commissioned by the Hankamer School of Business at the Baylor University, involving highly experienced sales professionals, who obtained just 19 meeting appointments out of over 6,200 cold-calls made, according to the second source :

Most notable however is one landmark study performed by the Baylor University’s Keller Center for Research in the Hankamer School of Business. The study completed a test on the effectiveness of cold calling by experienced sales executives for the real estate industry. The exercise yielded just 19 appointments from a total of 6,264 cold calls made

Now, keep in mind these were APOINTMENTS, not actual sales.

And again, it bears repeating the questions one has to ask: if cold calling was such a great (let alone necessary) way of selling/prospection, why have several countries, including the US and France, passed laws providing for stiff penalties for calling numbers on the no-call list ? And why do only 2% of cold calls result in a meeting being set up ?

So the FACTS - proved conclusively by study after study - are that cold-calling is by far the least effective, and simoultaneously the most expensive, way of prospecting and promoting your products/services. Given these facts, only an utterly ignorant person would write garbage like:

It is extremely efficient and cost effective to get clients by cold calling, and extremely FAST!
/
ROTFL MAO ! :D So, a method that fails at least 98% of the time, while being by far the costliest of all methods, is "extremely efficient and cost effective" ? :D MEGALOL.

Cold-calling gives almost ZERO return on a very large investment, ESPECIALLY in the B2B sector.

Inbound marketing via the Internet is usually the FASTEST (and most efficient) way of attracting new customers, as most buyers (in both the B2B and B2C sectors) these days usually look products/services up on the Net before searching for them elsewhere. That way, they can find what they want without even getting up from their chairs, LOL :) Put another way, Google is your friend.

Cold-callling is, at best, a tactic one may try when you're a total unknown - when nobody has the slightest clue who you are. Even then, it is highly ineffective; other methods of prospection are much more efficient.

I'm done with this thread as it's a waste of my time.
 
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CROJosh

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@TheFrancophile ok, agree to disagree I mean we’re all in the same boat. Although I’d warn against leaning on theory over practice. It sounds like you’ve watched a lot of conference talks and read a lot of articles, and hey if you’re personally killing it with inbound that’s awesome and I hope you scale it to the moon.

But even Hubspot makes cold calls so... human nature and the real world beat data and behavioral economics every time.
 

Maxboost

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@Tony Tony, @Everyman, and @CROJosh, you are dead WRONG.

I know, I know, you don't like hearing the truth. Facts are stubborn things. But that doesn't make them any less true.

According to multiple independent studies (sources: here, here, here, here and here) :

  • 90% of buyers NEVER respond to an unsolicited enquiry and 88% of them say they NEVER buy from a cold-caller. This includes 80% of executives.
  • Less than 2% of all cold calls result in so much as a meeting (let alone a sale).
  • Cold-calling is 60% more expensive than any other form of marketing or prospection.
There's also been a study commissioned by the Hankamer School of Business at the Baylor University, involving highly experienced sales professionals, who obtained just 19 meeting appointments out of over 6,200 cold-calls made, according to the second source :



Now, keep in mind these were APOINTMENTS, not actual sales.

And again, it bears repeating the questions one has to ask: if cold calling was such a great (let alone necessary) way of selling/prospection, why have several countries, including the US and France, passed laws providing for stiff penalties for calling numbers on the no-call list ? And why do only 2% of cold calls result in a meeting being set up ?

So the FACTS - proved conclusively by study after study - are that cold-calling is by far the least effective, and simoultaneously the most expensive, way of prospecting and promoting your products/services. Given these facts, only an utterly ignorant person would write garbage like:

/
ROTFL MAO ! :D So, a method that fails at least 98% of the time, while being by far the costliest of all methods, is "extremely efficient and cost effective" ? :D MEGALOL.

Cold-calling gives almost ZERO return on a very large investment, ESPECIALLY in the B2B sector.

Inbound marketing via the Internet is usually the FASTEST (and most efficient) way of attracting new customers, as most buyers (in both the B2B and B2C sectors) these days usually look products/services up on the Net before searching for them elsewhere. That way, they can find what they want without even getting up from their chairs, LOL :) Put another way, Google is your friend.

Cold-callling is, at best, a tactic one may try when you're a total unknown - when nobody has the slightest clue who you are. Even then, it is highly ineffective; other methods of prospection are much more efficient.

I'm done with this thread as it's a waste of my time.

These sources are rubbish, they are all blogs from digital marketing firms. MEGALOL on you. Did you end up purchasing their services?

The "study" from Baylor university is DEEPLY flawed.

These agents were given a "script" made by the researchers.

Were the researchers trained in sales? What did the scripts say? Were the agents trained in cold calling? Who were they targeting? Did they just randomly phone numbers? Did they have accents? You can't sell if the person is not interested in buying, its like asking a girl out to a date if she is married.

It would have been more conclusive if these same agents were given sales training and then given another sample to work with.

In spin selling, the book, it was mentioned that these types of studies are meaningless and useless as there are TOO many factors and variables when it comes to selling on the phone.

Wouldn't it be funny if we found out that the 2% of appointments made were by the same guy?
 
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Everyman

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So the FACTS - proved conclusively by study after study - are that cold-calling is by far the least effective, and simoultaneously the most expensive, way of prospecting and promoting your products/services. Given these facts, only an utterly ignorant person would write garbage like:

It was good that @Vilox hadn't read the studies. Otherwise he wouldn't have proved that cold calling works and we wouldn't have this thread....
 

Tony Tony

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The Francophile,

Thanks for letting me know about those studies.

I need to go and let my bank know that the big cheques I deposit or are wired directly into my account by my very large B2B clients should not be accepted or are fake.

I should also let High end auto dealerships know that all the brand new cars I bought from them over the years that I paid cash for, came from something that doesnt work.

Forget those worthless blogs, it is the REAL world that matters.

And by the way, percentage success doesnt matter much in cold calling.

Even if we use a 98% failure rate, the 2% success rate could be worth Millions in Revenue depending on the industry.

The problem (and opportunity for people like me) is that nobody wants to do any hard work anymore.

This is my last post on the subject as I typically do not post much as I am busy calling and making money for myself and my clients.

As a previous poster said, please keep spreading the lies that cold calling doesnt work, and we will make even more money with less competition.

It is amazing what happens when you do not hide behind keyboards and go into the real world and actually speak to real people, and provide them real solutions that benefit them.

Thats also why I dont waste my time on social media of any kind other than LinkedIn. You should take some of this advice.
 
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heyhihey

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Anyone reading this thread DO NOT get discouraged by @TheFrancophile .. He clearly has no idea what he's talking about. As someone who has worked in sales for a long time in many different avenues, cold calling is tough but still very effective and the business model for most sales oriented businesses. Yes it's true you might only get 5 meetings from 100 calls but that's still going to get you paid and get the ball rolling for other outlets of sales like referrals. @TheFrancophile if you convert 3 sales from 100 cold calls it is considered successful in a service based business. Think of it as 3 sales within 3 to 4 days.

@Vilox the info in this thread is great thank you!
 
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Crexty

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Cold calling is definitely not the most effective form of acquiring customers.

It is way more effective to spend money on advertisement and close deals with customers who are already looking for your product/service.

Regardless, cold calling will always be the most cost effective and scalable way of building a business.

Cold calling may change in some ways in the future (ways we contact, etc). However we will always be able to figure out a way to contact someone, and offer some sort of value/benefit to them. If you can do that, any form of the "Cold Call" will always work. (Obviously with a low conversion rate, but thats expected when turning thin air into GOLD)

Heck, I met the love of my life via "Cold Call".

Edit: Another thing to note. Everything is essentially a numbers game. Even with inbound (it will take a certain number of people to call you to make a sale).

If a man in Times Square offers a wallet to every person that walks by, he will find someone to buy.

If you offer your product/service to enough people, who actually could find use or benefit to it, someone will by. Wether its by door to door, email, phone calls.
 
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rynor

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I'll be the doing cold calls, since the mere thought of doing them terrifies me.

I have thrown a sales script together and used a web data extraction platform to get a few hundred leads from the yellow pages.

I love this thread because you're attacking your fear head-on. Bravo sir. I'm actually in the process of doing this for my own business. The thought of cold calling also terrifies me! I've never liked calling people in general [typical introvert haha].

So far I've put together a script and a list of numbers that I scraped from the White Pages. Using a technique I learned from this thread, I'm going to send a recorded voicemail to 100 people and track the ROI.
 

Kevin88660

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I am a salesperson.

Cold calling isnt magic pill, it is not dead either.

In sales it is the return on investment of times that matters. Yes rejection rates are high but you quickly dial the next numbers. No other method brings two ways engagement easily and quickly.

How much sales do you closer per HOUR? Thats what it matter.
 
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focusedlife

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So far I've put together a script and a list of numbers that I scraped from the White Pages. Using a technique I learned from this thread, I'm going to send a recorded voicemail to 100 people and track the ROI.

Report back how it goes (with gory details), @rynor >

Best of luck.
 

dgr

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How much sales do you closer per HOUR? Thats what it matter.
When you sell services and not products, the quality of those sales matter more than the quantity, imo.
 

Kevin88660

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When you sell services and not products, the quality of those sales matter more than the quantity, imo.
How much to me means how much money, which can be quantified and should be the top priority.
 
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Kevin88660

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If you have super successful social media campaign that people actually look for you and call you for your service, good for you. Then cold calling could be a waste of time for you. Well not just cold calling, most other conventional methods are not necessary. You are raking it.

But website and social media is a winner take all game. You could be wasting a lot time and if you are not the top few in driving traffic then you have wasted a lot of time and effort.

As a salesperson I know a lot of cold calling hating comes from sales people hating rejection. The major cost of sales is time. There is no rationale basis against cold calling when a rejection takes place less than 30 seconds and after that you begin to qualify the next prospect.
 

rjrobbins2

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When I was in the mortgage industry we used beer. When the late afternoon hit, we would have 1 to 2 beers and it would loosen us up just enough to be relaxed when we called people. I know this wont be good advice for everyone but it helped me tremendously on cold calling days.
 

The Abundant Man

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If you have super successful social media campaign that people actually look for you and call you for your service, good for you. Then cold calling could be a waste of time for you. Well not just cold calling, most other conventional methods are not necessary. You are raking it.

But website and social media is a winner take all game. You could be wasting a lot time and if you are not the top few in driving traffic then you have wasted a lot of time and effort.

As a salesperson I know a lot of cold calling hating comes from sales people hating rejection. The major cost of sales is time. There is no rationale basis against cold calling when a rejection takes place less than 30 seconds and after that you begin to qualify the next prospect.
Fox mentioned this in his Youtube live video where he felt cold calling was sort of a waste of time. He may still cold call every now and then but the majority of his prospecting comes in through his referrals. As long as a website gets results then that's when he gets clients.

Fox mentions he's not really into the design of a website. As long as the website fulfills it's purpose which is results.

He also doesn't care if he gets rejected because he's getting clients anyway.

So I guess it's like dating where if you get rejected you shouldn't care because you know you can get another girl.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI-sA-_eRRk
 
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Solid Snake

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i know a guy who's cold calling ratio is 1/5 reaches for a SaaS product. He uses a dialer and within 2 hours he's lined up 3-5 meetings for the next phase in the sales funnel.

i suck at cold calling right now, but in my experience its about the skills mostly, and then using tools to enhance those results from the skills you have.

if cold calling was a "waste of time" then all these b2b tech companies with cutting edge sales systems wouldnt hire SDR's and make them cold call all day long
 

Monica Rose

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Alright, done for today.

The plan was for me to start at 9. Well, at around 8:30 I started pacing like a caged animal through my apartment. After doing that for the better part of two hours I managed to pull myself together and got started. I can't really say what makes me so nervous about the whole thing. On a purely rational level that's ridiculous. Doesn't change the fact that my emotions are in turmoil, even now that it's over.

Here are a few things I observed and learned today:
  • By far the most common sentence I heard was "we already have a guy doing that". I spent some time yesterday to make sure to only call companies whose sites are in desperate need of a rework, so I feel like that shouldn't have stopped me. I'll have to do some reading on how to overcome common objections. My response to hearing that so far has been ("Nothing you can do. Thanks for your time, bye!")
  • The sales script definitely helps, but the structure is terrible and doesn't really flow with the conversations I'm having. Definitely need to make some adjustments.
  • I agree with what people said earlier: It would definitely help to sell something that exists and provides real value. I got quite a few messages already from people asking me to do sales for them. And while I appreciate the offers, there are two issues:
  1. I'm in Europe and can only make calls in the morning, so hitting up companies in the US doesn't work due to time zone differences
  2. As of right now, I'm a stumbling mess who can't close shit and get's a nervous breakdown just by thinking of getting back on the phone. But that's something I'll get over real soon. In the meantime, I'll reach out to a few local folks who do good work and offer to help them sell their product
And some minor things:
  • I printed the names and numbers of the companies I wanted to call on a sheet of paper and had my computer turned off the whole morning. Pretty sure I would have managed to get lost on the Internet if I hadn't done that.
  • I use Skype on my iPad to make the calls. But entering a number manually and waiting for Skype to connect takes around 30 seconds per call. Doesn't sound like much, but definitely adds up with increasing volume. But since optimizing workflow is the least of my problems right now I'll push that issue back a little.
Overall, I'm quite happy, even though it was a rocky start. As with everything in life, making the first step is the hardest, and I'm really glad that I managed to catch myself before procrastinating the whole day away. I'll reply to all the kind folks who volunteered their time to participate in this thread or sent me a message, and then I'll go for a long walk to clear my head.

Thanks everyone!

Have you heard of Sid Walker? I'm new to your thread but based on what you've expressed here, perhaps approaching cold calling with a different mindset would help your anxiety, and Sid has a wonderful book that has helped me tremendously called "How I Conquered Call Reluctance, Fear of Self Promotion, and Increased My Prospecting" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0173X2Q08/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20
 

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Reading the replies and people views is a great way to see how we all think differently.

Growing a customer list is a war on many fronts, be it digital foot print with reviews all the way to reaching out to potential customers.

I found that the first call is the most stressful for the day and as you go on it gets easier and easier, you just have to start.

Yes your mission should be clear, is it to get INFOMATION, FIND THE NEXT WINDOW OF PURCHASE, A NEED FOR SERVICE OR PRODUCT.

Then you move the customer to the next step or remove from the process, maybe that means re calling them in X-XX months - who knows - but you :)

It is a numbers game, start at a good time (I start at 8.30am - my customers are in or settled in & I can get ahold of them)

I Call X amount of customers to make sure they use my product (STAINLESS STEEL) and then see if I can meet in person. If yes, I schedule them for the next day.

I do my calls and reports, I pack up my home office and do 8-12 solid meetings or site visits.

I combine this with research of trends and talk with my customers to stay up to date with the industry, I beleive I am getting better every week - but cold calling always is stressful (first call) and gets easier as you dial.

JUST EAT THAT FROG - OR SOMETHING
 

Guyfieri5

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Amazing thread. I had a similar experience knocking doors for a couple years. For the first few weeks I struggled to get a sale because I'd stumble at the door or find the quickest exit from interactions. Once I got the hang of it my conversion rate went way up. I feel even though I've been at sales for a few years now I'm no expert. It's an experience of constantly learning and developing yourself so that you can present your best self to prospects.
 
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Kevin88660

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Amazing thread. I had a similar experience knocking doors for a couple years. For the first few weeks I struggled to get a sale because I'd stumble at the door or find the quickest exit from interactions. Once I got the hang of it my conversion rate went way up. I feel even though I've been at sales for a few years now I'm no expert. It's an experience of constantly learning and developing yourself so that you can present your best self to prospects.
It is a great physical exercise when you are combing apartment. I think I lost a lot calories from the months of door knocking.
 

cikatomo

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Honestly, at this point making the calls isn't nearly as hard as collecting the leads. Gosh, that stuff gets boring. I wonder how real sales people get their leads for cold calls.

A Proper Introduction
I already mentioned that having a sales script helps tremendously. It's not only the content that matters, though. The delivery, the way you convey your message, is even more important. You gotta be a little enthusiastic when you pitch. If you're not excited about what you're selling, why should they be?

The following is working well for me right now.

Hey, this is Stefan [one second pause]
I found your company through the Yellow Pages [one second pause]
In a nutshell, we help companies acquire and retain customers through their website. Does this sound interesting to you?
Making the pauses in the beginning is important. They don't know you, and they don't know what you're selling. I found it way more effective to give people a moment to process what they just heard.

Next, regardless of whether they answer the question Does this sound interesting to you? with yes or no, I ask them how they currently go about acquiring customers. From there, a conversation develops quite naturally. At this point, it's more important to ask the right questions and just listen. Once you know about the issues they're having, you can show them how your product solves said problems.
you seem to be learning really fast, how are your sales now?
 

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