Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Target a list of your most preferred types of clients. Email them relevant information such as white papers, and other helpful information. Track who clicks on links and continue the nurturing process. This makes them slighlty warm.

Get friends, family or business assocaites to recommend you. This makes them warm.

Hi, Christelle, good luck with your new venture.

There are volumes written on the subject of how to best make calls - and this has been the subject of many threads here on MarketingProfs. But you are not looking for volumes of info, you would like concise, helpful advice.

Help us help you. Can you provide more information on your service offerings, your location, your competitive advantage? For example, email marketing services might be marketed quite differently than graphics design.

As a general rule, I would say you should respect people's time. One way to do that is to carefully select the folks you call upon, and have a specific reason to believe you can help them before you call. There are ways to use online search tools combined with tools like Zapdata to build prospect lists which will help you pre-qualify companies and give you some conversation starters - contact me directly if you like for more help.

Clearly cold calling can and probably should be a part of your initial strategy, especially if you have an attractive initial "offer". But, if you are in an area with lots of potential clients within driving distance, I would encourage you to network, network, network.

First-- change the core belief you are annoying them You provide a valuable service that will make your clients money!!

Ask open ended questions. Don't just go into your spiel and make a one size fits all presentation. Be truly interested in their business. When I make my cold calls, I operate from the basis that my sole reason for being there is to solve a problem and make them money. They have no need for me if I cannot do that.

Only the first call is cold-- everything else is follow up!

让它温暖——在公司做研究。告诉them you have worked with firms like theirs (its ok to name drop it establishes your credibility). You are familiar with the problems they face and know you can help them as you've helped similar firms. The more you know about the company and can make "connections" the warmer the call. Sell the appointment and only the appointment first.

Prepare! Have answers to the most common stalls. What will your response be when they say "I don't need an agency", "I have an agency" Read, get a coach to help walk you thru this. And make your prospecting part of your everyday routine. The routine will carry you through the day, through the times of self doubt.

Hope that helps, Carol
Sell Well and Prosper tm

Warm calling merely refers to having sent something in advance of your call, telling them what/why you will be calling in the near future.

It can be via e-mail or regular mail. Just don't send too much that you can't call within a reasonable amount of time (usually 72hours). Outside that time they have less chance of remembering.

Since USPS is so slow, make sure you are using a good script to tell them what to expect. And, then follow up again 3 days later to see if they got it.

If you consider TV advertising your strong point, for example, "have you found TV advertising to be more effective for XYZ Company than print advertising?" is an acceptable questions...even if it's a y/n question. Next question would be more engaging.

You're B2B so no need to worry about DNC.

Annoying happens when you're unprepared so practice---can't sound like a script. Even the ums and uhs should be planned.

Michael

Make sure you know yourslef well, and be honest about it.
What are the main strenghts you can offer, your core competencies,and in what category of business.
By knowing these two main factors (and don't forget to be totally honest with yourself!) you can find who are the best people to connect with.
If you are a strong marketer of financial institutions, make friends with people from that business by joining some of their professional associations, become a speaker, be active and schmooze like hell.
如果你是一个聪明的创意总监和想要的to sell your creative ideas concepts and executions, find a sales person to do the job, and pave the road for you. I learned that the best creatives in the world are not doing the best selling job when it comes to their own business.
Cold calling is getting very cold these days.

Dear Christelle

I believe that it depends on what type of person you are. Telemoxie (Dave) is one type of cold caller, a relationship builder and business developer and from all reports bloody good at it. I’ve not got to know Carol as yet, but from all of her comments, she knows her subject and is presumably extremely good at it as well. Anyone who can say, “If it weren’t for cold calling I’d be living – what was it – in a cardboard box?!” is probably very, very good at cold calling.

It’s been a long time since I’ve actually had to cold call because someone told me to do so, and in CRM and sales forecasting sales, it is ineffective. Good telemarketers produce enough enthusiasm to generate leads which can’t turn into business (see next point) and a more relaxed approach will produce a more truthful outcome – I can’t make enough calls to bring together people who I can speak to, who have an interest in what I do, who have an application for it and critically have a budget to spend on it.

I can enthuse them into the first two, develop the third, but I can’t magic money for their budget. For that reason, my telemarketing is of Dave’s variety – I establish and build a relationship until the moment is opportune. Or better still I get someone else to kick start the process for me. I hate being told that “He’s in a meeting” fifty times a day.

I have had the responsibility for all aspects of sales and marketing in some large companies for over 15 years and I have consistently had to fight to ensure that my sales and marketing people do what they are good at. That has been to visit people, ask questions, demonstrate product and close sales, face-to-face and usually on-site. Yes, calling people out of the blue is part of that mixture, but to do so 100 times a day involves a different type of mentality.

Therefore, I have ensured that my telemarketing campaigns are carried out by either an external team, hired, briefed and trained for a project or I’ve built an in house team. The former is a budget and ROI challenge, the latter is a management challenge. Good Telesales or Telemarketing people require superb nurturing, motivation and management.

There’s even a school of thought propounded by Frank J Rumbauskas ofwww.nevercoldcall.comwhich says that cold calling is a waste of time. Frank has a good, arguable point, but he also has a product (A course) to sell, so please make your own mind up about this. He’s even gone so far as to say that these days selling sucks – you should be getting people to buy! Well, it sure is a headline grabber, but good selling has always been about meeting needs and that involves getting people to buy from you. Now. At the price you want to sell at. Etc, etc, etc.

As to whether you should cold call or not – budget will probably dictate in a start up that you must give it a go and hey – you might get lucky, you might be a natural and you might end up wanting to blow your brains out. If the latter feeling crops up, find the resources to hire Carol as I suspect that she can handle it. Or Dave if you want more of the Business Development Management approach.

Best wishes and I too hate cold calling

Steve Alker
SalesVision and Unimax Solutions