How to Cold Call In 2012

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 by Frank Rumbauskas

Cold calling has changed a lot over the years, and as time goes on, it continues to change, so I decided to write this article on how to cold call in 2012 now that the New Year is upon us.

Years ago, cold calling was the preferred method of lead generation. Thousands of salespeople would go out, hit the street, go door to door whether it was business-to-business or business-to-consumer sales, and made cold calls.

Back in those days, the prospective customer would invite you in for a cup of coffee, sit down, and appreciatively listen to what you had to say. If you cold called an office, you would have an opportunity to explain why the prospect should buy from you. And in door-to-door sales to consumers – think of the old-fashioned vacuum and encyclopedia salesman who used to go door-to-door – you’d have a chance to show off and demonstrate your product, and have a good shot at making a sale.

As time went on, the difficulty of cold prospecting went up. Prospects became more resistant to it, and salespeople had to come up with new and clever approaches to making cold calls.

Now that we’re in 2012, it’s important to consider the various challenges that you will encounter while making cold calls, and make sure you’re prepared to meet them:

1. Cold calling is frequently not tolerated by prospects. Nowadays, prospects may refuse to take cold calls altogether. In fact a recent university study concluded that 80% of business decision makers absolutely will not take cold calls and will never buy as the result of cold calling. This means that salespeople need to consider new and innovative ways to prospect for leads.

2. Cold call selling is becoming illegal in some jurisdictions. Particularly in the UK and other European countries, many regions are banning cold calling altogether and anyone who gets caught doing it will face jail time. In the US, a surprising number of cities and states require a telemarketing license to make cold calls on the phone, something few salespeople are even aware of, putting them in legal jeopardy.

3. Cold calling presents many time management challenges. Since cold calling is particularly time consuming, it forces salespeople to manage their time to an extreme degree, and in many cases it becomes impossible to find enough hours in the day to get everything done that you need to get done, and have enough time leftover to prospect for new leads.

4. Leads generated from cold calls have the lowest closing rate of all leads. This is known to all salespeople: Leads from trusted referral sources are best – they’re practically sold before you even meet with them – while leads from cold calling can be difficult to impossible to close because they’re not fully qualified in the first place.

5. Cold Calling is something that few, if any, salespeople enjoy, and as a result they cannot do it well. Napoleon Hill’s principles of success include the cold hard fact that no one can ever be truly successful at work they do not enjoy, while on the other hand, it’s practically impossible to fail at work that you love. Salespeople who want to enjoy huge success need to engage in sales prospecting methods that they enjoy. Some salespeople are master networkers and do well at networking events, others are great at getting referrals, while still others can effectively use social media like LinkedIn to get leads; however, it’s practically unheard of to find a salesperson who has found tremendous success by cold calling.

I personally went through many disturbing experiences while learning how to cold call, experiences that destroyed my motivation and really inhibited my ability to make sales. I’ve had people curse at me, I’ve had doors slammed in my face, I’ve been threatened with violence, and so much more.

Once I even had the police called because I was cold calling in a building with a “no soliciting” sign, and the only reason I avoided arrest and jail was because a friend’s father happened to be a cop on that city’s police force.

Considering all this, is cold calling really worth the hassle and risk? Especially when it’s neither tolerated nor effective nowadays in 2012?

If you want to become a hugely successful salesperson, the solution isn’t to make more cold calls. The solution is to use cutting-edge, Information Age ways to connect with new prospects like the Internet, social media, and good old-fashioned referrals and networking, whether that networking takes place in cyberspace or at a happy hour business mixer.

Make a New Year’s resolution to cut out cold calling and replace it with effective sales techniques, never cold call again, and watch your results explode!

Tagged: 2012, business, closing, cold calling, difficult, direct marketing, door to door, doors, doors sale, ineffective, lead generation, leads, marketing, personal selling, police call, prospecting, sales, salespeople, selling techniques, telemarketing     Posted in category: Cold Calling