The Truth About Cold Calling To Generate Business

Cold calling, nobody really likes it, nobody agrees on the techniques to use and it seems that there is a lot of debate out there on whether you should be cold calling at all. Nobody can deny the perception that people have in regards to telemarketers but the numbers don’t lie and it in fact can be a beneficial strategy to generate more business.

Today we’re going to talk about the truth when it comes to cold calling.

Outsourcing Cold Calling and Telemarketing

In the industry of web design, marketing, SEO, and other online services it seems that everybody and their momma is a web design, an SEO expert, a business consultant, etc. People like this line of work or think they do because of the low start up cost involved.

One would think this could easily be a work from home style business. They’re not wrong about that either.

What they are wrong about is the misconception that unscrupulous marketers hype up that 100% of their work can be outsourced, not just the fulfillment side of things, but the sales and marketing as well.

One common thing that is talked about is finding outsourcers to do telemarketing for them.

Finding Outsourcers From Other Countries

You think you have a fool proof plan, surely if someone from the Philippines will call 1,000 businesses at $2-3/hr you can make some sales and grow a huge business. Or maybe it is a telemarketing firm in India that specializes in your industry and you think you have it made.

You spend a couple days creating a script based on what “industry experts” suggest, but unfortunately you find out that after a month or two paying this outsourcer that the results aren’t optimal. In fact, it’s not just that they aren’t optimal, the results are pretty horrendous.

This happens for multiple reasons:

• Business owners in the USA don’t like foreign accents
• The skills and abilities of the outsourcer were lacking
• The list generated didn’t perform well
• The script you carefully crafted doesn’t work

Of course there are other reasons as well but these are usually the most common.

Usually what happens at this point is that these reborn entrepreneurs decide to go a different route.

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Hiring Commission Only, Work From Home Reps

Once the outsourcing route goes haywire this is usually the next brilliant idea that comes along. Sure, maybe the people in another country didn’t work out but maybe the best way to do this is to hire people to do commission only sales for me.

This plan is often doomed for failure before they even begin.

If YOU Can’t Sell, Don’t Expect Decent Talent

This is extremely important. If you’re running a business and can’t sell then you don’t have a business, you just have an idea that won’t be executed.

I know what you’re thinking… “I don’t have great sales skills so I’ll find someone that can sell and all my problems will be over with.”

In order to find someone decent to sell for you, especially when it is commission only and they work from home or set their own hours you better be one of the best damn sales people out there. In order for it to work, you have to not only sell your business you need to sell yourself.

Often times you’ll find commission only reps will not make a single call. Most will never make more than 50 calls in one day, and most likely will never sell a dime for you.

When they work from home, they have no supervision, just their own ambition and drive which usually isn’t enough or else they would already be using their talents for someone else or for themselves.

Even if you get a rare diamond in the rough sales person, they can make all the promises in the world, in order to get the sale and leave you stuck with the fulfillment of those promises even if they weren’t things you ever agreed to.

You Must Have A Physical Location, a REAL Office

If you want commission only sales people, you will have much more success if you have a real office for them to come into to interview and to work. This is going to be their home away from home. This is where you will be able to train them, correct them, and manage your sales team. Without it, it just won’t work out.

Commission only sales reps are hard enough to find, train, and benefit from even with an actual location. You will go through them like Winnie The Pooh goes through honey. Inside your office, you can get some sort of productivity form them but if they work from home, don’t count on much of anything.

You Must Offer Generous Commission

Even with great commission it is going to be hard to keep your sales staff motivated. If you think you can skimp out on commission then you’re not going to have anyone doing sales for you at all.

Commission percentage will kind of depend on your price point. If your product or service is under $1,000 you should probably be giving at least 50% commission to your rep.

When I started, I gave 20% commission + $400 bonuses when they met their sales goals. I eventually changed it to a sliding scale between 20-40% commission but my smallest price point for web design was $1,500.

Cold Calling When You Don’t Have an Office

I know this may kill your dream of making millions without having to do anything to earn it but if you want to build a real business and eventually use someone to handle telemarketing for you, then you need to learn how to do it yourself.

When starting out, there is not a single method that is easier and cheaper at generating sales than cold calling. If you have a phone line whether it is a land line or cell phone, you can start making calls. If this is something you want, then you will do it.

Knowing how to cold call doesn’t have to be some sort of science. While there are plenty of advanced strategies and sales courses out there, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. If there is a need for what you have to offer, then it’s just a matter of finding those people.

Cold calling for yourself allows you to:

• Better training for future employees
• Understand common objections
• Average # of calls to generate a lead
• Average # of leads to generate a sale
• Average sales cycle

How Many Calls do I Need to Make?

How many calls you need to make in order to generate a sale depends on your ability, strategy, script, and how you harvest your list of prospects.

When you first start cold calling, the important thing is to get your dials up. If you don’t have the experience necessary, the only way to get it is by repetition.

You know what separates professionals from amateurs in nearly everything in life, sports, business, etc.? The professionals do the basic things extremely well.

The same thing applies to telemarketing.

Don’t get caught up in how many calls it takes to get a sale. Break it down further, like how many calls does it take you to generate a lead? Then how many leads does it take for you to close a sale?

When you first start out, it’s going to take you a lot of calls to generate a lead, you will notice that number going down until you plateau. Once you have your numbers in line, you know exactly how many dials you need to make on a weekly basis in order to meet your sales goals.

Summary

Cold calling can be beneficial, it can supplement your lead generation efforts and really bump up your revenue. It isn’t easy though, and if you expect to find an easy way out you will most likely be in the crowd that moans and groans saying “cold calling sucks”, “it doesn’t work”, etc.

In order for it to work, you have to work it.

There isn’t a shortcut you will find. Most shortcuts in this realm lead to disaster.

If you want to make it in business, you have to be serious about your business and yourself.

What are your thoughts on cold calling? Let me know in the comments below!

Cold calling is simply one method of generating leads. It’s a great method but there are many more things you can do to generate clients. In my Ultimate Blueprint to Start Your Own Web Agency you will learn a lot of different client acquisition methods, like email marketing, linkedin, direct mail, and much more. Check it out here.