Personally, having my entire job be that kind of “churn n’ burn” role would probably launch me on a tri-state killing spree before long.

I guess the conclusion we can reach is this. IF you have to cold call, then the information you posted in your original post was spot on. But if you don’t HAVE TO cold call, there are other methods that could work better.

I’m sure most people know that referral business and building up solid long lasting relationships is always going to be the best option. There are enough stats to suggest that it’s between 5x and 9x cheaper to retain a current client than gain a new one.

What you said isn’t a pipe dream, it is what successful sales people do do and have done for years in ADDITION to cold calling. I was talking about one aspect of gaining business, not the only aspect by any means.

When a business is new it needs clients and by default they can’t come from referrals. Also, every business need new clients and the best bring those in through multiple approaches. I doubt there is a single Fortune 500 comapny that doesn’t operate new business sales teams. It is their lifeblood.

True, people are bombarded by sales messages. I get about 10 offers from credit card companies per week. They simple don’t work. Or rather they do work and work well on an ROI model. The banks know the take up rates and they know what they need to make them successful. As soon as they stop working (and imho they will) they’ll dry up. Do you know the life time worth of a customer to AMEX? Let me tell you it pays for several thousand mailers.

With scripts, they have to sound conversational and as such I tell people to write what they would say in an ideal world without the um’s and ah’s and stopping to think what to say next. There are scripts like you hear from call centers and there are individual scripts used by successful sales people that you never know are scripts and that is the point.

I’m sure Naomi will be cool with this, cuz she’s a cool person ;-)

As I said, everything about HOW to cold-call that you put in your post was spot on. It is the contention that Cold Calling is still significantly effective that I disagree with.

Large companies have gate keepers. And the gate keepers have gate keepers. Your ability to reach a decision maker cold is severely limited.

With small companies, yes you can often reach the owner. He is the guy who answers the phone. If you are lucky, he will give you a Yes or No answer, and follow through on it. Some people hate confrontation, however, so they will say Yes, allow you to schedule an appointment, and then conveniently forget or deliberately avoid it. They do this in the hopes that you will give up.

Those salespeople who focus on cold-calling are often focused on the mindset of “The key to success is getting new customers.” This means they usually neglect their current client base until the clients contact them.

I say you are much better off implementing a system where you constantly meet new people, get referrals, and have a steady stream of new business coming to you. Keep in steady contact with your existing clients, develop solid relationships and loyalty, and you will still get new clients, but you won’t NEED as many new clients because your previous clients are also selling you to their friends, and also doing more business with you.

Sound like a pipe dream? It isn’t.

People are bombarded with sales messages every time they turn on the TV, drive down the road, pick up a newspaper, or go to their mailboxes (real or virtual). We have evolved an amazingly sophisticated filtering system, so whenever we get a phone call that sounds the least bit salesy (I just made up a word!), the person on the other end had better knock our socks off or the conversation is over. You could be selling the secret to eternal life, if your cold call strikes me as being a sales pitch, you lose.

Another strike against the “old ways” is that they have become cliche’. People have adopted the very methods you wrote about, and twisted them into hideous abominations. The script,t he test for availability, they have all become over-used. Back when I had my insurance license, I got 2-4 calls per week from a specific company looking to recruit me. Each time, they used the exact same script, so I knew within the first 5 seconds who was calling me and why.

I think this is a very interesting debate, especially because you seem to be approaching it in a friendly way, and I certainly thank and respect you for that.

Later this evening, I will post about this on my own blog at http://www.BizWarriorOnline.com. You are welcome to come comment and we can continue this discussion. I would even welcome you as a guest poster.

If Naomi feels this is all too self-promotional, she can remove the last few paragraphs. (Or heck, it’s her blog, she can remove the whole comment!) It was not my intention to hijack this thread.

I accept I have been out of sales 5 years, although I do still coach people from time to time and still read sales books and love the sales process and I’m not seeing many changes in the fundamentals. I also still have plenty of friends in sales that I talk to regularly too.

The one thing I did see change over my last few years was the security round business’s and the fact that you could no longer wander into many reception areas and hope to get to see somebody prior to 9/11.

Remember I am talking about small and often one man business’s dealing more often that not with the same, not Fortune 500 companies.

I’m really intrigued to know what you’d do differently because to disagree wholeheartedly presumably means you wouldn’t call companies, wouldn’t prepare what you were going to say, wouldn’t gather data and as much information as possible and would be put off by the first no and fear rejection as well as try and close the deal on the phone, eh? ;-)

Playing Devils Advocate, have you considered that you may just not have been very good at cold calling? Seriously, just because it didn’t work for you, doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t work per se, does it?

I genuinely want to hear what you say because I’m always looking to learn.

I did sales for over a decade. I did the whole cold-calling thing, and i found it to be one of the most inefficient methods of lead generation.

Everything Tim said in here was spot on, for the old way of doing sales. I am sure he enjoyed tremendous success doing it this way, at one time.

But the business climate (at least in the USA) has changed. And people who do things the old ways are going to find themselves extinct before long.

Again, not to bash Tim, or Naomi, or anyone else. This is the opinion of one warrior from the trenches that happens to contrast with another trench-warrior’s opinion. Your mileage may vary.

@ Johnny – Nah, I love it! The whole sales process is fun to me. What I hated was working for unethical companies that just chased profit to any end.

@ Michael – Well yeh I guess there is that if you’re looking for ways to avoid cold calling. It’s not illegal in the US or UK, although both have a ‘Do not call’ register (it’s called Telephone Preference Service or TPS in the UK). Large companies often have a database tied into that so sales people get warned not to call restricted numbers.

I have never heard of any individual even being reprimanded never mind prosecuted for such an action. I have heard of large companies being rapped on the knuckles for calling DNC numbers though.

I understand what you’re saying, and as I said, don’t just batter numbers out of a phone directory, but if you really are looking to help people with whatever it is you have, then call them and seek forgiveness not permission if they are on a register.