Whether your sales team is burning up the phones every day or you’re the lucky recipient of an “exclusive offer,” every business is familiar with cold calling. Ever since phones were invented, there’s been someone on one end of the tin can trying to sell something to the person on the other end. I’d go as far as to say it’s probably the most unpleasant part of owning a phone for consumers and salesmen alike. I, too, despised cold calling, but figured I’d give it a try since I recently heard Grant Cardone talk about it just being a “numbers game.” So, I gathered my list and picked up the phone. 37 cold calls later, here’s my verdict (relative to other forms of marketing):
Efficiency
Cold-calling is probably the least efficient form of selling from a time perspective. First, there’s an 85% chance you’ll initially be screened by a gatekeeper (receptionist, office manager,e etc.) who’s job it is to block solicitations. Therefore, “Can I take a message” is an ominous mantra you’ll hear quite often. Combine this phenomena with the fact that the decision maker (DM) might be out of the office and you soon realize that you’ll have to call most phone numbers multiple times just to get the opportunity to pitch the DM.
VERDICT: Not Efficient
Low Pitch Rate = High Man Hours, just to get to an interested buyer.
Note: There are some tricks that get the DM on the phone more often and I’ll talk about those later in the post.
Effectiveness
Assuming you get the decision maker (DM) on the phone, it’s still very difficult to achieve your goal. This is because as the cold-caller, you’re disrupting the current activity and thought process of the receiver. As I was cold calling, I was essentially trying to get people, who were already mentally consumed in their own activity, to redirect their attention to my message.
VERDICT: Not Effective
It’s easier for the DM to dismiss my message and say “Not interested” simply because s/he’s MORE INTERESTED in doing/thinking what s/he was currently doing/thinking. Therefore, the likelihood of someone taking the time to process a cold caller’s message and agree to a meeting is low.
Caveats
Since I’m new to cold-calling, I’m sure there are some techniques that will increase my efficiency and effectiveness such as
- Better List
- Calling at Better Times
- Better Script
- Quicker calls
- Etc.
Here’s what I used over the phone:
Gatekeeper Script:
[Me] “Hi, good afternoon! May I speak with X”
[GK] “And your name?” OR “Who’s calling”
[ME] “This is C. Payne, s/he’s expecting my call.”
I found this gatekeeper script to be most effective because it was quickest and eliminated the chance of the GK saying “he’s busy/with a client”. In fact, when I used the “s/he’s expecting my call line” 80% of the time the Gatekeeper would step away from the phone to go speak to the DM. 20% of the time, the DM would actually come to the phone. The problem here is that the DM isn’t expecting my call and doesn’t recognize my name. Therefore, s/he either just asks me to leave a message or abruptly shoots down my pitch out of annoyance.
DM Script
[ME] “My name is C. Payne and I’m following up on a letter I mailed you… it won’t take more than 30 seconds of your time. I’m with Regal Spri Creative Group, a nationally recognized marketing agency that works specifically within the medical industry.
We want to turn BUSINESS NAME into the #1 INDUSTRY provider in Miami and drastically increase the number of new customers walking into your establishment each month.
The way that we do it is simple and we guarantee results. Still with me?
**SERVICE OFFERING***
Each month TENS of Thousands of potential patients in South Florida search the internet for things like:
- Slipped Disc Treatment
– Back Pain Specialist
– Miami Chiropractor
These are highly motivated buyers who are looking for a service provider, like you, to solve their problem.
We will make BUSINESS NAME show up FIRST every time someone searches the internet for your services.
Being first on the internet today, is the same as being first in the yellow pages 20 years ago. In fact, it’s like having a full-page ad under every category that applies to your business.
********************************
Again, with our help, we guarantee that we can drastically increase the number of new customers you receive each month.
I’d like to sit down next week and discuss this further. What date and time are best for you?”
Of the 37 calls I made, I got to this script 4 times. 2 DM’s abruptly stopped me and were not interested (due to the “expecting my call” piece I suspect); 1 DM listened to half and requested I send an email; 1 DM listened to half and mentioned that they already had a service provider that they were happy with.
Verdict, cold calling doesn’t appear to be worth the time. However, this is only my 2nd true attempt at cold calling. Therefore, I think it’s best to be done in short bursts, maybe 10 calls every day, as oppose to 100 calls/day. I’m also optimistic about more effective techniques that I may come across in the future!
