No More Cold Calling...EVER!

In the movie Mommie Dearest Faye Dunaway plays the title role of Joan Crawford, an abusive and harrowing mother. In one famous scene Dunaway encapsulates Crawford’s rage and anger by scolding her adopted daughter for using low quality wire hangers. She famously screams to her child, “No more wire hangers, ever!”

While I cannot duplicate the rage that Dunaway channels for her character, I can echo her passion with my own not-so-famous mantra: “No more cold calling, ever!”

A strict cold call has two characteristics: 1) it’s a call to a person that has no previous connection to your business and 2) the purpose of the call is to directly sell your product or service.

Given this understanding, it’s important to note that cold calling is a major distribution channel for marketing messages. Entire industries specialize in cold calling, except they give it a euphemistic name like outbound telemarketing (aka OBTM). And with not-so-new regulations that allow telemarketers to call mobile phones, the industry is primed to call more and more. (I speak from experience. I used to help manage the OBTM channel for a credit card company.)

However many small business owners shudder at the thought of cold calling. Cold calls seldom result in sales and more often result in rejection. A series of rejections can deflate even the biggest ego.

So I recommend you tackle cold calling with a different attitude. You still want to contact new leads and prospects and keep pushing your brand. But take the fear and dislike out of cold calling and instead make warm calls. Here are two ways to make warm calls:

1) Market Research: instead of calling for the sake of selling, call for the sake of research. Build a relationship with your call by asking questions. Listen more, speak less. Ask for a moment of the prospects time to ask a few questions about their current needs. For maximum impact, repeat what the prospect is saying in your own words and ask “is that what you mean?” Track all of your answers so you can understand all of your prospect’s needs. Finally, avoid closing the call by selling your product or service. Instead, thank them for their time and perhaps give your contact information. At most, ask for a good time to follow up.

2) Invitation: a cold call quickly becomes a warm call if you are not selling anything. The Market Research strategy outlined in #1 is one way, but another way is to invite prospects to an event, a seminar or a conference call. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent specializing in short sales. Set up a weekly conference call where you present the latest and greatest industry information. Now when calling your list—instead of selling them on your service—invite them to your event. The close in this case is warm and cordial. “Call in or come on by” is an easy close. It is a warm way to turn contacts into prospects.

Ultimately, any successful business should have an ongoing calling campaign. You have to keep your sales funnel full and calling is an excellent way. So set a number of new contacts to make over the phone; 40 a week is a great number, but maybe 10-20 is more realistic depending on your business.

Regardless, set up a target of contacts to make. When you call, ask questions or invite them to something. Take the cold out of your calling and approach them with warmth. This can truly help your small business marketing and will move your business to the next level.

After all, you attract more bees with honey than vinegar. Too bad Joan Crawford didn’t understand this.