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This past summer I decided to get a second job cold calling, for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to learn to sell, two, I wanted to overcome my own fears about contacting others, and three, I wanted to get accustomed to bringing in money aside from my nine-to-five. It wasn’t fastlane income, but it sure was fastlane education.
Here’s what I learned spending my summer on the phone. I should mention that I was using warm leads, though some of them were from pre-2001, making them older than a couple of forum members.
1) The product makes the difference. If I am calling, I can be confident if I’m confident in the product. I’m not trying to trick people into buying something, I’m introducing them to something that will make their life better.
2) Cold calling is a great place to deploy those tripwire offers. I do painting services, but the opener is a free estimate. Sure, it’s an opening into the sales funnel, but a professionally done estimate still has value in and of itself.
3) Most people who aren’t interested really aren’t interested, and if they give you a straight NO it’s probably best to end the conversation politely right there. Then, they will remember you as that one sales guy that treated them with respect rather than yet another annoying pest. Also, multiple interactions with one or two asks may work better than multiple asks in one, epic-length session (still testing this). I had one customer finally say ‘yes’ after a couple of these low-annoyance level interactions.
4) By the same token, if they say no, but give me a reason, it is sweet music to my ears. The first time I overcame an objection to book an estimate, I set the phone down in sheer amazement at my utter slickness (or how a well thought out and communicated sentence can make you feel like utter slickness
)
5) Personality is so very, very important. Keep it friendly, and professional, and don’t be afraid to back off. I had this brought home to me recently. As mentioned above, I called a person for a third time (by accident, actually), and finally got some business from them. He joked about my persistence, but didn’t seem to find it that aggravating as he didn’t find me that aggravating.
I’m going to turn this into an axiom, because it’s just that important: The difference between pushy and persistent is personality! (With alliteration like that, I could be a guru!)
6) Some days are better than others, but to keep motivated you should calculate your average per call income and then try to raise it from week to week. If your income-per-call is $0.40, then you get that $0.40 no matter what. Rude call? Answering machine? Fax machine that takes sandpaper to your eardrums? Doesn’t matter. $0.40.
7) Familiarity (and money-dollars) turns the terrifying into the exciting. At the beginning, I dreaded getting a person on the phone, and breathed a sigh of relief when I got the machine (favoring busy work over scary real-work). I kept at it though, and eventually that stab of anxiety whenever somebody picked up turned into a neutral blank, and then finally a thrill of excitement.
Hope this is useful! I’ve gotten so much info, knowledge, and motivation from this forum that I wanted to add to it myself. Please let me know if you have any similar experiences, if I missed anything big, or if any of these ‘lessons’ are actually disastrous.
Here’s what I learned spending my summer on the phone. I should mention that I was using warm leads, though some of them were from pre-2001, making them older than a couple of forum members.
1) The product makes the difference. If I am calling, I can be confident if I’m confident in the product. I’m not trying to trick people into buying something, I’m introducing them to something that will make their life better.
2) Cold calling is a great place to deploy those tripwire offers. I do painting services, but the opener is a free estimate. Sure, it’s an opening into the sales funnel, but a professionally done estimate still has value in and of itself.
3) Most people who aren’t interested really aren’t interested, and if they give you a straight NO it’s probably best to end the conversation politely right there. Then, they will remember you as that one sales guy that treated them with respect rather than yet another annoying pest. Also, multiple interactions with one or two asks may work better than multiple asks in one, epic-length session (still testing this). I had one customer finally say ‘yes’ after a couple of these low-annoyance level interactions.
4) By the same token, if they say no, but give me a reason, it is sweet music to my ears. The first time I overcame an objection to book an estimate, I set the phone down in sheer amazement at my utter slickness (or how a well thought out and communicated sentence can make you feel like utter slickness
)5) Personality is so very, very important. Keep it friendly, and professional, and don’t be afraid to back off. I had this brought home to me recently. As mentioned above, I called a person for a third time (by accident, actually), and finally got some business from them. He joked about my persistence, but didn’t seem to find it that aggravating as he didn’t find me that aggravating.
I’m going to turn this into an axiom, because it’s just that important: The difference between pushy and persistent is personality! (With alliteration like that, I could be a guru!)
6) Some days are better than others, but to keep motivated you should calculate your average per call income and then try to raise it from week to week. If your income-per-call is $0.40, then you get that $0.40 no matter what. Rude call? Answering machine? Fax machine that takes sandpaper to your eardrums? Doesn’t matter. $0.40.
7) Familiarity (and money-dollars) turns the terrifying into the exciting. At the beginning, I dreaded getting a person on the phone, and breathed a sigh of relief when I got the machine (favoring busy work over scary real-work). I kept at it though, and eventually that stab of anxiety whenever somebody picked up turned into a neutral blank, and then finally a thrill of excitement.
Hope this is useful! I’ve gotten so much info, knowledge, and motivation from this forum that I wanted to add to it myself. Please let me know if you have any similar experiences, if I missed anything big, or if any of these ‘lessons’ are actually disastrous.
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