Walking my dog the other day I noticed a sign on an old wooden door. It simply read, no cold callers. Now no-one is going around knocking on doors anymore looking for sales. It’s a cheeky leaflet through the door at most. Cold calling isn’t even better when you’ve joined the 21st century. So cold calling during lead generation online is probably just as silly as knocking on someone’s door and I’ll tell you why.
A Lack of Patience Isn’t Appealing
If you’re looking to put someone off your business quickly all you need to do is look and sound desperate. Sure one or two people might throw some pity business your way, but others might just steer clear of a business clearly everyone else is avoiding. Even if they aren’t if it looks that way it’s a nail in the coffin. Cold calling doesn’t work for lead generation because you’re not generating leads by pouncing on any form of contact you have access to. Generating leads is all about naturally creating conversations and reasons for clients to get in touch and learn more about your business. Cold calling focuses primarily on the salesperson’s ability to create a rapport immediately and turn that into a sale. Not really a lost art, but a very invasive form of winning new business.
Time is Precious
If you’re using cold calling during your lead generation process then you’re immediately trying to make your time more important than your leads. If you’re not trying to develop your conversations to book a call and just pick up the phone you’re telling your prospect, “hey I’m ready for a call even if you’re not”. Which can go either one of two ways, they’ll give you some time and you’ll be able to make your pitch, or you’ll burn a bridge. A gutsy call if this is an important client for your business. Respect the time of others, but follow up when the time comes. A follow-up message is better than an invasive phone call.
I mentioned this during one of my past videos, but as a person of my generation, a phone call must have a point of being a phone call rather than something which could have been a two-sentence message online. This could be to pitch, move forward with a sale or strategise with a client. Anything else which could be an email should be. This is my personal opinion of course, but I doubt I’m alone in thinking, “why couldn’t you just message me this” after a pointless phone call. Subconsciously hating the person on the other line.
Stop The Lies
How creepy would it be if a person called you from out of nowhere and said they found your contact information online. I had a sales call on my personal mobile which starting their sales pitch straight away and dodged the question when I asked one of my favourite questions to torture cold callers, “how did you get my number?” It’s usually the blanketed “It’s on our system” response, but it does mean they’ve purchased a list somewhere with my details on it.
Not a great feeling.
I’ve even had a salesperson tell me a colleague passed it on without that being the case. So, if you’re looking to turn someone off doing business with you in the quickest way possible lie to your prospect. Just tell them blatant lies and you’ll speedrun getting rejected.
If you’re trying to generate leads give it some time to nurture your lead, obtain contact information from them and never lie about your intentions. Cold calling isn’t right for lead generation. So, don’t do it.
