Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How To Make Cold Calls

Posted by Anonymous on 4/19/2013 at 3:44 PM ET 125 Points
I recently joined in a full-fledged ad-agency's marketing team in Dubai. I am fresh in this type of profession and our team leader is asking me to make cold calls to the tel. numbers which he has given.

But I've no experience in these type of agencies as I was working as a medical representative. Now this is purely a different scenario and atmosphere. Please help me by writing the sentences we can use in cold calls for ad-agency.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Moriarty on 4/19/2013 at 4:14 PM Member
    Are these numbers obtained through "permission marketing" - that is to say, the people on the list have given their names and numbers in order to be phoned? Without that, you're in for a hard time.

    Because cold calling has two real problems - firstly it's unwanted and seen as a waste of time.

    Secondly, and way more importantly, if you are calling companies cold, you'll speak to the reception desk and they are primed to tell you to phone back on Tuesday next, Wednesday fortnight or Thursday the 30th of September. When you do phone back eagerly expecting a commission, you'll be told tht the manager isn't in the office. When you ask when he'll be in, you're told 4pm. You phone back at 4 to be told his wife was ill and he had to go home early.

    HOWEVER - just recently we had a question from someone who did it correctly and got the most amazing responses. This is what he said:

    **************************
    "I've always been a tech person, and like you considered telemarketing to be a waste of our time and our customer's time. We traditionally relied on email, direct mail and our website/SEO/PPC strategy to drive leads to us.

    About 12 months ago we were in the middle of another slump in solar (the Australian solar industry has remarkably regular and consistent slumps and peaks). A business consultant we used urged us to get on the phones, start telemarketing. I was skeptical, but we did it anyway.

    Wow! I couldn't believe the response. Our sales just soared, and we started picking up customers from everywhere. We actually got a bit punch drunk and started calling everyone without properly qualifying who our ideal customers were, but that's another story (and the reason behind our customer ABC categorisation).

    It was just so easy to get someone over the line on the phone. We were seriously using our warehouse guys to make calls, people with no sales training at all. They were smashing it."
    https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=41239

    ***********************

    Has your boss done the necessary preparation on this?


  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 4/19/2013 at 5:19 PM Accepted
    It's much better to make WARM CALLS.

    This will take time, research and planning. Find or create some information, a tool or anything that would be immediately useful to each specific prospect. Then personalize it and send the information, via FedEx or email (directly to the executive or to an assistant). Now, when you do call, it will not be a cold call. It will be a warm "follow up" call .. "I'm calling to see if you have had a chance to review (the materials) I sent you".

    You may have to resend the materials. You may have to send a second or third all new useful information package(s). The key is persistence and listening closely to each conversation for more feedback, more clues.

    Of course, a warm call program takes more time and has fewer contacts/calls than cold calling programs. But, in my experience, the warm calls produce more customers and better quality customers over the long haul.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 4/19/2013 at 8:40 PM Accepted
    Read this: https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/05/cold-calling-basics.html then follow the advice in this article to the letter.

    Know who you're calling, what's in it for them, and why you are worth listening to. You also need to be able to break through to the decision make: you want to speak with the organ grinder, not the monkey.

    You need to be able to prove to someone that you can save them time, or money (or both), and that you're the BEST person to meet their needs.

    You also need to know what the call is for. Is it to secure an appointment? To follow up on a lead? To present a new product or service? Or is it to arrange a demonstration or a practical result for them?

  • Posted by cookmarketing@gmail. on 4/20/2013 at 10:51 AM Member
    Above are all good points...just remember you are simply playing the odds. The person on the receiving end hates cold calls, accept it.

    Cold calls have a certain percentage of the stated goal; if it is 2% conversion rate, anything you do above that you are a hero!

    Cold calling is making as many calls as possible. Do not take rejection personal, if goal is 2% you are automatically going to get rejected 98% of the time
  • Posted by telemoxie on 4/22/2013 at 9:51 AM Accepted
    I have personally spent more than a dozen years as a professional freelance cold caller. cold calling by telephone can be profitable if it is done correctly, if enough time and resources are allocated, if the right companies are targeted, and a reasonable strategy has been implemented.

    There have been hundreds of books written on cold calls. You should certainly read at least one of them.

    In the old days, you used to be able to call and ask questions to qualify prospects. Today, you had better have a really good reason to call before you ever pick up the telephone.

    Part of my strategy was to set a goal that my prospects would thank me for making each phone call. That certainly didn't happen... but my objective nonetheless was to limit my calls to prequalified prospects, and to make the kind of phone call that I would hope to receive myself.

    I'm currently in the process of writing a book about targeted outbound marketing.

    The success or failure of your efforts will, in my opinion, mostly depend on your definitions of success and failure. In my opinion, the majority of telemarketing campaigns do not meet their objectives. In a great number of cases, that is because the objectives were unreasonable.

    are you looking at this assignment as a task or as a potential career? You are considering a career making telephone calls, I would suggest that you begin by reading a good book on telemarketing. After you read it, I will be more than happy to schedule a free coaching session or two to help you get on the right track.

    by the way, if the objective of your boss is to sign new clients as quickly as possible, you will have a much greater chance of success using other techniques such as networking.

    Good luck, and take care.
  • Posted on 4/27/2013 at 12:52 PM Author
    Thank you very much to all. All answers are helpful.
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