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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Cold Calling SUCKS
Sorry for the bluntness. Just need to vent. I took a sales job and as much as I love what I do, I hate cold calling. I am trying to mix up online media with advertising and good old fashioned cold calling...but the cold calling part just doesn't do it for me.
Any advice from my fellow sales people? What do you all do to drum up business?
Re: Cold Calling SUCKS
Does cold calling even work?
When something even remotely sounds like a sales pitch my ears and brain automatically shut off.
They must work if people still do it but I just can't see it working.
OMG, I think the next worst thing to cold calling is email blasts. I know when I got them at work I rarely read them and just deleted them or had them directly sent to "deleted" folder. It's no different than spam to me.
I am in the phonebook now, I have a facebook page and website, and I am advertising locally.
I have gotten some response from cold calling. But it's very little and it's for jobs where they have publicized projects and are needing the product I am selling. I have about a dozen or so of those that won't need bids on until next year. I need some sales now.
I keep my cold calls brief and friendly. Just letting people know I'm here, I'm in business and would love the opportunity to work with you if there is a need in the future. But oh is it ever so painful making the same call and visit over and over.
I am also trying to network with industries and businesses that are involved in the same projects but do not compete with my product.
I don't know how much more I can do to drive sales in this economy.
What are you selling? I own Happy Medium and we do media buying (every type of medium) for clients. I used to work at the NBC affiliate here and learned how people sell and I use that to help buy for my clients. If you tell me what you're selling i might be able to help. otherwise we always put media buying tips etc.. on our FB page. facebook.com/itsahappymedium
We attended a google training seminar yesterday that was awesome too - so i might be able to lead you in a few helpful directions! good luck!
Commercial Office Furniture. Hawkeyes00 - you have a PM.
I used to HATE cold calls. I always preferred warm calls - leads that came from referalls etc. It's all in your mindset. Cold calls can be depressing and totally awkward. Make an effort to prepare yourself. You WILL get rejected, you WILL get shut down. But your message, regardless of how it's received will get out there. People respond well to things they are familiar with. Be persistent
Here's a great article I found:
Recently, a participant in one of my public seminars gave me a ?warm? lead, the name and telephone number of the training director of a company with a large sales force. She told me to call. She said she knew that they needed help, and she told me to use her name.Wow! A ?warm? lead! I was excited! I called!
Once I reached the prospect, I introduced myself and then mentioned the name of the participant who had given me the referral.
The response was not what I expected. ?What did she say?? he snarled. ?How do you know her?? It seems the two of them were not on very good terms, and he didn?t think very highly of her. What had just happened to my ?warm? lead? (Why this woman gave me this lead is perhaps the subject for a different article.)
Does this type of scenario happen all of the time? Let?s hope not! But the point is that the difference between a ?warm? call and a ?cold? call exists only in your mind. Whether or not you have a referral, when you call your prospect, you must have done your homework. You still must be able to represent yourself intelligently and articulately on the telephone. If you cannot do that, you will not move to the next step.
These arbitrary distinctions of ?warm? and ?cold? actually make it more difficult for you, because you assume that the ?cold? call is harder than the ?warm? call. That is not necessarily true. Frequently, people avoid making ?cold? calls, assuming that they will be more difficult and yield fewer results. Conversely, they don?t always do their homework on a referral, assuming that it is some how ?in the bag.? The truth is that ?cold? calls quickly become ?warm? calls when the caller has done her homework and is able to introduce herself in a clear and succinct manner. Don?t limit yourself with artificial distinctions of ?warm? vs. ?cold.?
Whether or not you have a referral, you are calling to introduce yourself, your company and product or service. Forget ?warm? calls and ?cold? calls.? Think ?introductory? call.
So, what happened with my ?warm? call turned ?cold?? I stayed calm. I got the appointment anyway. The rest I?m still working on.