Cold Calling Gets Hot

On average @gordontredgold says it takes 17 cold calls before you connect to a live person and have a conversion. What’s your average? He goes on to say that only six percent of calls lead to a conversation. So, perseverance and persistence are keys of being successful. He says that he made 3025 calls, that led to 178 conversations which resulted in 18 follow-up meetings. That’s ROI, and you can see his blog here.

In fact, if you Google “call calling tips” or “secrets of cold calling,” you’ll get a myriad of ideas. While they are all useful, they boil down to a simple formula we’ve uncovered: be genuine. People can sense things on the phone just by the tone of your voice. In “Staying in Front of Your Customers: Phone,” Jim Nowakowski provides an hour-long webinar this coming November on using the phone. But the webinar is really about technique — ideas to help you when you jump on this proven door-openers. You can register for Jim’s webinar here.

“Have I reached the party to whom I am speaking?”

Lily Tomlin’s famous sketches of the telephone lady Ernestine are classic. But those skits bring home in an odd way the importance of one of the most powerful communications tools ever invented: the telephone. Sure, today there is E-mail, texting, and video (Skype™), but like radio, a voice on the telephone still holds a kind of love-hate relationship that connects person-to-person.

And person-to-person is what marketing is all about! Talking. The telephone uses a person’s imagination, one of the most powerful marketing tools available. And the key to phone marketing isn’t talking; it’s listening!

In fact, the key to selling  is listening to what your customers and prospects want, and the phone is one of the ways you can do that very effectively.

It’s not the kind of telemarketing phone calls you receive in the evening, or the political calls that begin with a recorded message from some important Congressman or woman. That’s not marketing! Instead,  the phone is the ability to connect with another human being, using your voice, your personality, you. It’s the ability to use words, tone, rhythm to your advantage in connecting with a customer or prospect and move closer to a sale. Yes, the “sale” word. Because selling is really what the  business is all about. If you are in a  business, the phone can be one of the most powerful tools you have to sales success.

What do you think? Let us hear from you.