Cold calling opinions!

Im not sure either, would like someone to answer this!

 

Briefly held a marketing position in which we did this.
It can provide results if you're persistent+patient. You will get a lot of annoyed, confused people but you will also get those who if explained what is being sold will be legitimately interested.

 

I've hired call centers for 2 businesses, one for direct sales, one for customer feedback. Neither produced enough results to return a positive ROI. I gave each an honest chance at working, 90 days +.

If you're looking for product sales, I found direct response ads work best (for offline endeavors) on a consistent basis over long periods of time. With the advent of the Internet, direct response ads in publications have become less and less costly, and they tend to have great information of their demographics. They're also somewhat flexible on ad-spend if you tell them that you're only interested in a specific segment of their demos they will work with you on ad-spend. For example, if I'm only interested in 80% of their demographics, I'll hardball to only end up paying 80% of their after-discount rates for the ad space. Get the discount first (they always hit you higher), then address the demographics.

If you just want lead generation, I have found buying leads from reputable brokers within your specific market segment as a more fruitful endeavor.

Hope some of that helps.

 

This is one area that I don't think I would ever try. It annoys me to no end to get these calls at home, so I just can't see myself doing this to anyone else. I know it is a legitimate job opportunity, but one that's simply not for me. Good luck, if you try it.

 

what sort of leads were you buying? What were you paying per lead/making per lead on average?

 

@K

We bought various types of leads. People seeking specific types of services. Similar product purchase leads.

It's not possible to give an average. You pay more for quality leads. You pay less for bulk, unspecified leads.

You have to factor in whether it's a service-based business your buying leads for (consulting, educational, etc.), for which you can spend a premium per lead for quality, proven leads.

If it's product-based leads, which can be less specific, and either filled with people who show consistent interest in purchasing products in your market (such as people who are interested in auto-ship supplements), or targeted leads of people who have (for example-->) purchased more than 2 items within you broad business category, at a price point between $39.99 and $69.99, and have purchased at least one OTO in the post-sale process, within geographical region XYZ.

You have to factor in the value of leads based on an average conversion ratio, product costs, etc. Lead generation through a broker is not generally a supplement to ad-spend, but rather a replacement. So you approach it in the same way, factoring in what each converted lead can cost you to meet your margins. Such as with web-based traffic sources, SEO, etc. there is a trial and error phase, and working with brokers can be difficult finding a good one.

 

Getting leads or not, but you should give a try to it may it works. Cold calling is not much effective and very rarely it helps me to get less business.

 

I had managed a contact center for about five years and cold calling was one of the services that we offered. Sometimes, it worked extremely well, and other times it did not. It depends on a number of factors, such as the quality of the calling list, product/service offer, and especially the script. Some clients would ask us to use a specific script to pitch to their customers, but the script would be garbage and produce no results. Other clients would let us develop our own script, but their product/service was crap so again no results. Then others would have a great service, great script, and terrible calling list, so we would be pitching their service to people who did not care or have a need for it. However, if your product/service is great, script is solid, and calling list is fresh and targeted, then cold calling can certainly work. The stars must align first.

 

You have to just find the right people for it. It might take some time, but you'll learn how to get people.

 

Theres a variety of factors involved in cold-calling. I managed a call-centre for a finance company for about 5 years and we were instructed to perform some cold-calling during that time. It was normally done for a specific reason or to promote a specific product as cold-calling can cause a lot of negative feelings in established customers. We had a strong, well-known brand with a loyal customer base, we were attempting to increase sales in a generously rewarded bond, which our customers had asked for, yet it had never been offered before. On this occasion, the people being called were not existing customers but people who had, at some stage, requested information about this type of bond. Technically it wasn't classed as cold-calling because of this 'request', however the request itself was quite possibly a box they had failed to tick on some of our literature, so lets be honest, it was cold-calling. The scripts were good and the product was good, we did better than expected, maybe 0.2% lead to business generation. I don't think that you could ever expect much more in terms of business from your leads but it really depends on what you're trying to sell, and who you're trying to sell it to.

 

We do calls for marketing our business, because our service is geared towards psychiatry only. We've paid for the area directory that is available, and we split the calls between our employees, so that some get done each day. We have brought in clients in this manner, but it IS time consuming, and we're looking to branch out in other directions. But it does indeed work, slow though it may be.

 

Cold calling gives a negative impression on your business in most if not all cases. I would avoid it.

 

I don't personally know anyone who's had success with this, but from my own experience, I find cold calls to be quite a bother, to say the least. There might be some nice, patient people out there who'd be interested in what a cold caller has to offer, but I think they're a bit rare compared to the number of irate potential customers you'd have to deal with when making calls. I'm not totally discouraging cold calling for businesses, however, seeing as some of the commenters in this thread has had success with it. My advice would be, simply to assess whether or not the industry you belong to, and the product you're offering, would be a good fit for cold calling. Success with this really varies.

 

There are results if what you're selling fits what most people need. You also need to have a great attitude and sound believable. It will take some time at first, but you can work your way up to success.

 

Have you had personal experience doing this? I'd like to know how to get success as well as many others

 

When our call-centre peformed cold-calling there was a very high ratio of calls to sales. However, about 50% of the sales came from 2% of the callers. They were the top three or four salespeople in the team, so again theres that magic X-factor that some salespeople have, and just like in normal lead-driven sales, your top performers are far more likely to get sales than the more mediocre salespeople. I can't emphasize how important your script is as well, in my experience a hard-sell strategy will be unlikely to yield good results in cold-calling, it will always work on a small number of people, but its unlikely to leave a good impression of your business to everyone else.

 

I have no problem cold calling, however, it is friends, aquaintences or referrals from those people. It is simply a way to start the conversation for me. I am passionate about Thrive and I don't let the fear of no stop me. Balls to the wall, see what sticks!