Cold-Calling: Does it Work?
Here’s my straight-up advice on cold-calling: if you have a way of generating enough revenue some other way, don’t do it.
Did you get what you came here for? Great! Thanks for visiting.
But, wait … you say you’re not generating enough revenue and need a way to find clients or customers immediately? Then cold-calling just might fit the bill.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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How to Write an Effective Cold-Call Script
Ring, Ring!
“Good afternoon, Affordable Insurance. May I help you?”
“Hello, this is Joe Schmo from Joe Schmo Consulting Firm. Is this a good time to talk?”
“Yes.”
“With whom may I ask I am speaking?”
“Mike.”
“I am an expert in the web design field. You might have seen some of my work: xyz.com, 123.com, and blahblahblah.com. I could design a site for your business at the lowest rate around. If you are interested, I could give you a free 1-hour consultation.”
Would you say yes?
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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How to Cold-Call
If you’re a freelancer, independent contractor, or own a service business, sooner or later you may find it necessary to make cold calls.
The debate over whether or not cold-calling is an effective way to obtain new customers continues to be debated online. Many of those proclaiming its demise seem to have an agenda—to sell you their particular marketing program.
With no such agenda in mind, here’s my expert advice on cold-calling: it works. The company I’m employed with has thousands of B2B clients, all of whom we’ve obtained through cold-calling and cold-canvassing. For the past five years, I’ve trained hundreds of sales reps and dozens of lead generators to do both.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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Inbound and Outbound Marketing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Michael Hyatt, Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, says that when we think there’s a singular solution to our woes, we’re guilty of “silver bullet thinking.” It’s precisely this type of thinking that’s led to the debate over whether inbound or outbound marketing is “best.” Proponents of inbound marketing claim that, in new era of social media, outbound marketing is no longer effective. Yet, many companies continue to use outbound marketing with great success. Let’s take a look at each.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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Outbound Marketing is Dead! All Hail Inbound Marketing
The following was a guest post at TMR’s Direct Mail and Marketing Blog.
In their book, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg say that …
…customers want to enter into dialogs with businesses, to establish relationships, participate in the conversations, and be more in control of the exchange. They expect a level of personal communication tailored to their needs and wants—relevance and context are their top priorities. (p 41)
That sums up the philosophy behind inbound marketing in a nutshell. Customers are in control. They TiVo past commercials, subscribe to commercial-free satellite radio, circumvent pop-up ads with pop-up blockers, opt out of receiving phone books, and use caller ID or the “do not call” registry to avoid telemarketers.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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I’d Rather Staple Bacon to My Face Than Make a Cold-Call
After publishing an article on their website, the folks at SitePoint have asked me to be one of their business core bloggers. I’ll be publishing about 6 blog posts a month. Here’s the first:
In 2008, Eyes on Sales featured an article entitled, “Why Decision Makers Hate Cold-Calls.” If you want to be convinced that cold-calling doesn’t work, that it’s a colossal waste of time, and that it’s the most “ineffective and costly” way to find prospects, then go ahead and skip what I’m about to say and go directly to that article. (Just be sure to read the numerous comments from people who vehemently disagree with the author.)
On the other hand, if you’d like to explore how cold-calling can be a great way to find new clients, then stick around, because that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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About Me
Thanks for visiting. I’m a Marketing Evangelist, Blogger and Sales Trainer.
I get excited about geek stuff. But I’m also passionate about helping people and companies reach their fullest potential and becoming wildly successful.
That’s why I love helping businesses figure out how to market (especially web marketing) and why I train sales people to be the best they can be at what they do.
