How to handle coldcalling rejection...

[websonalized]

Hello,

I've been thinking about doing some cold calling for my bizz. I like the idea of grabbing the phone and having conversation with other business owners. The problem is, business owners are busy.

My thoughts are that if I get a person who is not receptive over the phone, I respectfully, if they have not hanged up, end my introduction, with something like I can sense this is not a good time. In fact, being honest about what I sense, state it, and then move on to the next number.

But traditional selling tactics call for assertive speech (i.e. keep trying to get the other party to converse). I think that this is a waste of time. I want to help those who want help

So, should I be receptive and sensitive to the other party, or should I use old selling tactics?

[tylerhutchinson]

I briefly did door to door sales in college. We learned many tricks and tactics. One being the three no rule. Keep pushing your product until you hear them say no at least three times. And hard nos also. Not "oh I dont know" but three no im not interested.

It is important to maintain professionalism, but cold calling for business is all about pressure and perseverance. Try to quickly in the first 30 seconds pitch the idea, and why they cannot pass this up. Also throw an intensive in like this is a limited offer on this call only. The risk of losing a deal will sometimes pull them back in to listen more!

Cold calling is something I am debating doing, but I simply do not have time and my current marketing design is doing fine so I have put it off. Good luck though!

[Russ in Vancouver]

Does anyone know what the success rate is when cold calling a your target market? 1%, 5%?

[Spider]

Cold calling is 1960s tactics. It worked great then - I had my first success in sales cold calling for a mutual fund company. In fact, it was so successful the problem was hanging up once you had disqualified the prospect - people loved to talk even when they were unable to buy.

Now? Forget it. It must be the most disheartening way to secure sales, appointments or whatever your initial objective is. People don't have time, receive far too many telemarketing calls and consider all such calls as inconsiderate, interruptive and rude.

Spend your time on more productive forms of marketing. Unless you get your jollies from annoying people and making them mad at you!

[huggytree]

when i first went into business i did alot of cold calling..i didnt have much else to do and i wanted to do anything to keep my business moving forward...i was calling a targeted market of businesses who need me as a subcontractor(about 500 of them)....i learned a lot

cold calling is just like begging for work...it shows your desperate and will only attract customers who want a CHEAP desperate business to work with
cold calling is very annoying...their busy and your bugging them....its being aggressive, but still annoying to most people

what i changed to is sending flyers in the mail every 3 months....over and over and over for years now.....it works well....they see my name over and over and when they decide to change subcontractors they all call me....they typically say 'you've been sending me these letters for years'....that lets me know it works...

i also go to all the builder association meetings...i wear a teeshirt with my logo as large as possible

cold calling did get me a few customers at first...all were bad and had issues....most were looking for the lowest price and not quality....

when i first did my fliers i used to get 10-15 opportunities each time....after 4 1/2 years of doing it i only get 1 or 2 calls at best....alot of it is the economy and the rest is the fact that ive worked through a 100's of possible customers and most were just price shopping and not serious...my mailing list has shrunk to around 350 now since i only focus on the possibilities that will pay a mid level price....i dont bother sending to customers who only want cheap

good luck!

[mettro2]

As a small business owner I get calls all the time of people trying to offer me different services. I usually get really turned off by them because I don't trust them (most of them are scams). When someone unknown calls me to sell me something, I immediately get into suspicious mode. So my advice is when you call people try to earn their trust first. Mention that you drove by their business the other day or something like that so they wont think it's an overseas call center scam. Help them feel they can trust you. If I feel I trust a cold caller I'm usually more open to hear about his offer.

[greenoak]

i just hate them and usually hang up, they are so irritating and i dont give them any time at all........but i did get one this year that got me..... he said i saw your website where you sell iron and have iron for you......
he was right to the point..... and i was actually wanting what he was offering...it was a good thing...

[Patrysha]

I've always found cold calling only slightly less greasy than telemarketing...and since I tried telemarketing once for a few days back when I was 17 and just trying to get a job anywhere...I never went that route...

[Spider]

Our original poster doesn't seem to have come back after starting this thread. If he does return, here is something I wrote on this subject some time ago that provides a proven alternative that works -- PROSPECTING FOR NEW CLIENTS - Frederick Pearce, Business Coach, Personal Mentor (http://networkprospecting.info)

You might find it useful.

[Nicole Hurley]

I hear that it is 1% but have no evidence except word of mouth.

[DLWindsor]

There are so many other great, not to mention less time consuming, ways to generate awareness and new business for your company. Cold calling should be at the bottom of your list, as many people on the receiving end of a cold call get very annoyed when they are interrupted with something they are not needing or looking for. I am not a big supporter of cold calling and I don't really like receiving a cold call.

[billbenson]

Well, you need to first define what cold calling is. The ones that most people seem upset about here are the calls from appointment setters. However, If I haven't heard from a client in 6 months, why not give him a call. If it is done right it's not really that intrusive, particularly if there was a relationship their at one time or the customer is likely to need your services or have questions you can answer.

If you are shopping for a car and a salesman you saw two weeks ago calls back with a better deal, you still may be interested in talking to him.

All of these are unsolicited phone calls and can close sales.

[Spider]

On that basis, one really does need to define 'cold-calling." For me, Bill, both of your examples are 'warm' calls, and thus more understandable (even if still intrusive.) If I had a relationship with a supplier and they called me, I would not be offended - as long as I really did have a relationship. A car (or any other product) salesman who called me back after a single visit two weeks previously had better have a really new and better deal or I would not like it - much would depend on the approach.

Either way, having spoken to the person previously and in circumstances that bring recognition - that, to me, is not cold calling. Cold is cold, in my book. The prospect having responded to an ad and the caller trying to set up an oppointment is a warm call.

I use the "Oh, yes!" test to determine a warm call from a cold call. If the person called can say, "Oh, yes, I remember you," or "Oh, yes, I did send in that reply card," etc. then that is a warm call. A call that is a random call, a number picked from a directory - that is a cold call. And a total waste of time in today's world.

[billbenson]

Ok, I'll buy off on that description Frederick. However, I still say that cold calling by your definition can work if the leads are qualified (and it varies by industry of course). If by some other manner, the car salesman finds out you are looking for a car, you are a good lead. If the show room is full of leads, calling you is probably not time well spent. If he has a ten minute slow period, why not call you (someone looking for a car). And I bet if he spends an hour on the phone he turns at least one lead into a prospect. In fact I do know that car dealers buy leads and they pay by lead quality. They are mostly web generated leads.

And that is very close to a cold call by your definition (somehow the lead had to opt in for the call). At least its colder than your warm call :) And it will work for plenty of industries, products, etc.

[Spider]

Yes - sound reasoning, Bill. But is sound reasoning a good enough excuse? Being in the market for a particular product and being open to an uninvited call are two different things. Having expressed the desire for a new car does not make me a good lead for a Ford if I have had bad experience with Fords. And the salesman is taking a chance that I am willing and able to discuss it with him at the precise moment that he calls. Or that I am prepared to discuss anything with a total stranger who calls me out of the blue.

There are so many instances that will make a cold call a waste of time. All the tiny parts must coincide for the call to be worthwhile. The important part remains, random calling - even of supposed 'good leads' - makes the whole cold calling process progressivey less and less effective. Back in the 60s it was great. I made my first business success cold calling then. But as time went on, and cold calling became more and more prevalent, it became more and more of a nuisance. Now, even "good leads" might react to receiving a cold call, and may even baulk at receiving an unexpected call from a salesman they know. The public has become sensitized to such intrusions.

Networking is far, far better.

[billbenson]

Networking is far, far better.
I agree. Additionally that is the answer the OP was looking for. However, I am responding to an attitude in many posts here that say or imply cold (or lukewarm) calling doesn't work.It does. It has to be done right etc, but it works.

Personally, when I have free time I work on Adwords or something else that is more productive in the long run. But then, like most here, I run my own small business. I can select the most important thing to do. If a sales guy has free time and no tasks, pick up the phone!

[Spider]

... If a sales guy has free time and no tasks, pick up the phone!Absolutely! The real question is - who is he going to call? In order of preference (my preference, that is...)

1. The last three people he sold - How's the product doing? Is it serviing you? Any problems I can help you with? What did your friends/colleagues say about it? Did they ask you any questions? Can I call them to answer those questions?....

2. Bird-dogs. Any car salesman worthy of the title has several bird-dogs. Sales people of all sorts should have 'fans' who often send referrals. But when speaking to them, the salesman shouldn't ask for more referrals, he should ask how he can help them in *their* business.

3. Regular customers who haven't ordered for a while, or one-time users who haven't ordered for a long while. (Friendly call, haven't heard fro you for a while, how's things? Can I help you with anything.) This type of call will often put a salesman in touch with the person who replaced a regular user.

4. Recent visitor/prospects who made it clear (because he asked them) that they would welcome a call if "xyz" (another car of this type, a special discount was announced, new inventory, etc.)

All of these are sort of telephone networking, rather than cold-selling. A) they are not cold-calling and B) they are friendly 'how are you?' type calls.

As an alternative to picking up the phone, send 'Thank you' cards, birthday cards, holiday cards, or any other kind of greeting card to as many past customers as time permits. Hardly anyone sends greeting cards anymore and they are still greatly appreciated - more so in this fast-paced world. Joe Gerrard made his fame and fortune using greeting cards, and I'll bet they are even more effective today.

[billbenson]

I agree with everything but:

All of these are sort of telephone networking, rather than cold-selling. A) they are not cold-calling and B) they are friendly 'how are you?' type calls.


Yes you are selling. Every step closer you come to making a sale is closure. There aren't two many one call closes. To me everything you described above is selling!

[Spider]

Indeed it is. On that level, networking is selling. Getting out of bed and going to the office is selling (if you are a salesman.) But it is not cold-selling, which is what I said. I meant one wasn't discussing the product with a stranger, trying to excite the prospect about the product or create interest, overcome objections and offer trial-closes, and all the other steps one learns in sales training class.

Yes, it's all selling but there are more pleasant ways of going about it.

[billbenson]

Ok, then, I've been getting calls recently trying to sell me a merchant account. They work like this. You get a call from someone that says they can reduce your cc processing fees. Its a scam, but thats for a different thread. They try to get you to accept an appointment to have a high pressure sales guy come by your office. They obviously got my name somehow because I am a small business, working out of my house, process credit cards. I don't know how they got my name but they know that much when they call. So, even this call out of the blue is not truly a cold call as I was prequalified to some degree.

About three years ago I kept getting calls from a machine saying please hold the line sounding like it was an important message. Someone would come on pitching insurance or something-don't remember what. High pressure though. This was truly a cold call although initiated by a machine. It was very annoying to me as it came in on my business line and every call can be an order so I run for the call. Eventually after getting tired of this, I waited through the message and asked to be taken off the call list. Of course I wasn't. They left a call back number if I didn't answer, so I called that and asked to be removed from the list and I wasn't.

So, after I had really had enough - probably several months - I waited through the message and hold and got a real person. If you were to think of every graphic vulgarity you could use to describe a woman, I screamed that through the telephone. That didn't solve the problem, but I felt better knowing I had really offended her. I'm "sure" I offended her. So I put a fax on that phone line and changed my main number.

Thats a true story albeit off topic. And obviously I can be annoyed by unsolicited calls as well.

But that has been several years. I don't recall, since then, ever receiving a true cold call by your definition. Only qualified cold calls as described above.

[Spider]

...They obviously got my name somehow because I am a small business, working out of my house, process credit cards. I don't know how they got my name but they know that much when they call. So, even this call out of the blue is not truly a cold call as I was prequalified to some degree. ...Your definition. My definition is that this IS a cold call. The person calling has not spoken to you before, therefore, it's a cold call. Variations might have made it a warm call - a referral from someone personally acqainted with the prospect, salesman taking over from a previous salesman who had already been in contact, but merely being a likely prospect (a suspect) due to prequalifying is not a warm call, to me.

But this is semantics, Bill. We all have our level of tolerance. The point is that telephone marketing is a minefield and there are more effective and more pleasant means of winning new business.

Minus points to you for behaving so badly. I constantly remind myself that the caller is only doing their job, not a very pleasant one at that, and probably gets yelled at a lot. You gained nothing, she gained nothing and the company - the people you were angry at - weren't affected one iota. Lossers, all round. I try to compliment them in some way - "What a pretty voice you have. Please take me off your calling list," usually is more effective at getting what I want. Because that is possibly the first compliment she has had since she started working this rotten job.

[billbenson]

You are correct on my reaction to that one company calling and calling and calling...

And we are talking semantics. My point as stated above is really that cold or warm calling works. It never was that it was the best use of time.

[windowwasher86]

The trick is persistance. Cold calling is a HUGE way to promote new business, depending on your business type. I have aquired a large number of clients this way, who have in turn, referred me to even more clients. However, cold calling does not need to be your dominant form of advertising.

Try something along the lines of this....

Introduce Yourself
Hello my name is _________, Im calling from _________. Hey, I know youre probably really busy, however I was just calling to let you know ____________________ (what your service is). I'm giving you a heads up and would love to do business with you if not now, in the future.

You know just something generic like that. And be confident, speak fast but not too fast. Other business owners are generally great senses of character, and can tell when someone isnt confident. Be confident. Since Ive been in business for myself, I've been told NO! now more than ever. But there are 1,000's of business and people that can use your service, you just have to find them first sometimes.

[windowwasher86]

There are so many other great, not to mention less time consuming, ways to generate awareness and new business for your company. Cold calling should be at the bottom of your list, as many people on the receiving end of a cold call get very annoyed when they are interrupted with something they are not needing or looking for. I am not a big supporter of cold calling and I don't really like receiving a cold call.

Enlighten me of all of the other ways that are as powerful as cold calling, please. Here's why I say this. Though cold calling is NO ONE'S favorite method of advertising, it is, if done correctly, extremely effective. If the caller has confidence, and has a bold purpose for calling, most people on the other end, even if not interested, are quite receptive and respectable. Now I understand if you just call up and WHAM try to sell your product, yeah, that's no good for anyone. But calling with more of a personal approach is best.

Even if you don't make the sale right over the phone that very day, you have introduced yourself and your service. Some of the biggest sales I've made have been formed over a long period of time. Generally if someone isn't interested on a cold call, I have them take down my number and respectfully end the call. Often times, 2-3 weeks, 1 year later I get a call. In turn, those people tell other people, even if they are never going to be interested.

Cold calling opens up avenues to marketing that you may never have come across. Example, referalls.

Just my opinion. :)

[seolman]

@windowwasher86 - yes there are possibilities of success in cold calling. I did cold calling for years back in the 80's (dag nabbit). Nothing wrong with it if you have a very limited marketing budget. However, those of us who have been in marketing for years know that cold calling gets old very quickly and even a small amount of well placed advertising often brings much better results. Even a cheap print ad in your local small town paper can bring in good prospects ready to buy your product/service.

[Spider]

Cold calling is definitely a technology from the last cetury. It was standard practice in the 1960s, '70s and '80s - I had great success with it in the 1960s. It was already losing effectiveness for me in the '70s. If you can use it effectively today, more power to you. However, one must recogize that it is, and always was, a way to annoy more people than you can please. There never was a time when you could call 100 people and get 50 or more sales on a consistent basis. Therefore, coldcalling inconveniences more people then it helps. Any means of advertising that annoys more people than it attracts is bound to fail.

There are techniques for using the telephone to advance your business that are not so universally annoying. Going around annoying your target market cannot be good for business in the long run.

[EndersGame]

I would love to hear more solutions.

I recently started doing outside sales (mainly commission) for a company that makes wood finishing products (stains, laquers etc). The owner although a brilliant chemist, insists on Cold Calling as being my only marketing effort. It seems absolutely fruitless and leaves me burnt out in no time flat.

Any suggestions welcome. I am open to links, books, ideas--whatever you can think of.
*Dont want to hijack this thread, if Need be I will make another*

[billbenson]

You need to get qualified leads somehow. Personally I write or have written a website but there are other ways of getting qualified leads.

Hopefully your boss isn't requiring detailed reports on who you met, when etc.

[Spider]

I would love to hear more solutions.
... Any suggestions welcome. I am open to links, books, ideas--whatever you can think of.... Here's an article I wrote describing an actual conversation I had with two IT recruitment specialists. They were struggling with the ineffectiveness of cold calling and were initially resistant to my suggestions until they actually tried them. The results were amazing! (Surprised even me!)

Prospecting for New Clients (http://networkprospecting.info)

[huggytree]

ive been getting a lot of cold calls lately....usually its someone wanting to sell me credit card processing....i started not answering any calls that arent from my area code...sometimes i get 2-3 sales calls a day...its always when my hands are full too....i stop what im doing to have someone bug me....i get very annoyed....i do not cold call anyone anymore

[fsbo]

I think the actual success rate of cold calling is generally in the 1% - 3%, depending on your niche or industry. But that is not the real value to you. The real value comes in doing the action. This allows you to practice on people who weren't your customers any way. If you start doing the proper behaviors, you will start to get better and more efficient with practice. I would also suggest investing in some good sales training.

[Spider]

Practice makes perfect, they say.

Practicing annoying people is a sure way of getting perfect at annoying them!

[JeremyJ]

We actually found a referral system that can be put in place to have cold-calling over time completely removed. People who are referred to you are 10x more likely to buy that someone you contact cold.

[alphadore]

I briefly did door to door sales in college. We learned many tricks and tactics. One being the three no rule. Keep pushing your product until you hear them say no at least three times. And hard nos also. Not "oh I dont know" but three no im not interested.

It is important to maintain professionalism, but cold calling for business is all about pressure and perseverance. Try to quickly in the first 30 seconds pitch the idea, and why they cannot pass this up. Also throw an intensive in like this is a limited offer on this call only. The risk of losing a deal will sometimes pull them back in to listen more!


I respectfully dont agree. I dont think an approach like this would work at all on a B2B approach. In my opinion, all you need to do is to present your organization professionally. Tell them where you are calling from, who you are with your name, surname, and your position in the organization and what your company does. If they are not interested, then you are probably not approaching the right audience. In B2B, there is no cold calling, there is only presenting on the phone. There is a difference. You dont need to be pushy. Just gain respect and try to obtain their e-mail address. Follow up with an e-mail, send a brochure, etc. It will work like a charm.

[KristineS]

I would have to agree that a hard sell almost never works. I'll just hang up on people if they start giving me the hard sell. If someone calls me to sell me something, or e-mails me or contacts me in any way and starts with a hard sell they've pretty much lost any chance they had of making a sale. I don't like the hard sell when it's something I might be interested in buying, so I certainly won't put up with it when the sales call is unsolicited.

[Spider]

When someone calls me (if I answer the phone, most times I don't - Caller ID is wonderful!) once I have determined that this is a sales call, I immediately start pitching my coaching service to them.

Eh?! This is MY telephone which I PAY for and which is for MY business, not theirs. They have no right to think they can use MY equipment for THEIR business, and I don't let them get away with it.

I have never picked up a coaching client in this fashion, but it is good for practicing one's "elevator" speech! :)

[alphadore]

This is MY telephone which I PAY for and which is for MY business, not theirs. They have no right to think they can use MY equipment for THEIR business, and I don't let them get away with it.


Haha. I like your logic here.

[LFinkle]

Rejection is a natural part of any sales process and even more so in cold calling. Having been in sales for years and years I encourage you to take a non-traditional approach. Remember the point of the cold call is to get the person to listen to you and engage in conversation. So whatever you can say to keep them engaged, especially if it's unique is what you should do. I teach sales people to start conversations with "This is a sales call, shoul we continue?" Guess how often they say no?

[mfine]

I certainly don't have a lot of experience with selling, but I was once told to try to find new business from a list of people who had dropped their business cards into a bowl trying to win an iPod at a trade show, about six months after the trade show had ended. Some of them were rude to me and hung up or told me immediately, "The only reason I gave you my card was to win an iPod." I actually got a few people who listened and seemed interested, and one of those turned into a real contact. I'm sure that's probably considered a "warm lead" of some sort, since those people had at least heard of our company and they volunteered their business cards.

LFinkle, I'm going to try that with a few calls and see what happens! I'm not experienced at sales, but I'm motivated to make money for myself and not work for someone else ever again, so I'm willing to attempt just about anything right now.

Spider, I read that article. I think it might work for people in other industries, but it won't work for all of them. It depends on who is in your network and whether their friends would be helpful to you. For example, it's really not useful to me now, but as soon as I get some customers, I can start utilizing that advice. The reason why it won't help me now is because as the representative of another company, most of the people I helped didn't get to know me. My skills were attributed to the company that was subcontracting us, and as a subcontractor, I never informed those business customers which designs were my own handiwork, which problems I solved, how I was the one who kept their websites functioning and beautiful. As a result, I cannot call those customers now and ask for recommendations.

Another example: The IT company I worked for attempted to use that strategy, but the problem was that most everyone that they had already worked with were project managers in this huge corporation, and when asked if they could recommend us, they didn't know anyone whom they could recommend us to because everyone that they worked with were people in the same section of the company. They had no contacts either in other companies, nor in other areas of their corporations. A few of the small business owners gave some recommendations that provided extremely small contracts, but the method did not turn out to be very successful for them. In other words, most of the very small business owners didn't actually know a lot of other business owners who could afford their IT services, and their corporate "customers" that they directly worked with could not help them find more IT work because that multi-national corporation was so large that their own network of contacts didn't extend beyond the division that they worked for.

[RMMarketing]

I respectfully dont agree. I dont think an approach like this would work at all on a B2B approach. In my opinion, all you need to do is to present your organization professionally. Tell them where you are calling from, who you are with your name, surname, and your position in the organization and what your company does. If they are not interested, then you are probably not approaching the right audience. In B2B, there is no cold calling, there is only presenting on the phone. There is a difference. You dont need to be pushy. Just gain respect and try to obtain their e-mail address. Follow up with an e-mail, send a brochure, etc. It will work like a charm.

I pretty much agree with everything that you have said. When I get soemone who tries to "hard sell" me they usually get hung up on. Just send me the information and Ill look at it when I have a chance.

[LFinkle]

Almost every business has to do some cold calling at some time. In my past life most weeks I did several hundred cold calls a week. Each week some of those were ones that eventually turned into further discussion and some eventually into business. It takes time to build relationships. One can't always be at networking events or having referrals come from friends and colleagues. How are others going to get to know you if you don't interact with them. While cold calling can be uncomfortable, the more calls you make (and mess up/do brilliantly or simple fumble through) the easier it gets.

[Spider]

Almost every business has to do some cold calling at some time... I don't agree. Some choose to do it, most don't. Most businesses find other, more productive, more effective ways of attracting prospects to their business.

I used to work extensively with cold calling - got darned good at it, too. But that was in the 1960s. It worked back then. It was a very effective means of selling and advertising. The method had pretty well dried up as an efficient means of winning business by the 1990s. Now, in the 21st century, about the only people who cold-call are new business owners who read a book from the 60s or took a marketing course that is stuck in a time-warp.

[scottish]

how to handle cold calling rejection - realise you're wasting your time, their time and you are very annoying and the world is better without you.

[billbenson]

how to handle cold calling rejection - realise you're wasting your time, their time and you are very annoying and the world is better without you.

I fail to see where unsubstantiated opinions attacking a poster with a valid question have any value.