My FIRST SEMI-COLD CALL . RESULTS...

That's great, it is nerve racking picking up the phone for the first few calls, I did telemarketing years ago. Once you get a rythym and start to sound confident, you will be surprised how many people will listen to you. Once you make a sale, this give you huge momentum to keep going.
Good on you, and good luck for lots of sales.

Well you obviously have very very very low standards. Any marketing technique for client acquisition is something that needs to be tested more before saying it doesn't work.

A call next week doesn't seem promising. Maybe if you called 100 more people then you would have a sale. A possibly, maybe, or talk next week is the same as a no to me.

Direct mailing.. try 1,000. Emails? try 5,000. Linkedin? Build over 1,000 connections and maybe you'll get a sale but there is more to it than that. Cold calling... try 1,000 calls. PPC, a test campaign is usually 1,000 clicks.

Good job on picking up the phone, but your view on marketing tactics is a bit skewed. Don't think that something doesn't work... you need an adequate testing period, and 10, 100, isn't enough.

This amount of testing, is not really a test.

There is not enough data, to make any decisions.

There is a saying in my industry, its "garbage in garbage out"
while it usually refers to databases, i have found it equally applies to
phone,email ... well darn near everything.

Hey Karen great job on getting your first contact, as you can see you are making progress in the right direction! It can be scary when you first get started, but just as anything in sales, its a numbers game... The more people you call and the more rejection you face, the closer you are to getting the result that you want! Keep trying until you achieve the results that you desire. Those that succeed are usually the ones who are willing to fail more than others. If you are trying local, try to set up appts.

Hope that helps,
Richard

Nice job Karen!

Now don't stop!

You found a spark. Now do it over and over. Pour gasoline on it.
Use the same line until it doesn't work. Ask for a favor, an opinion, etc as you did. But don't wait. Get back on the phone right away. Will it work the same every time? Of course not.

What you found out by accident is a solid and proven prospecting technique. (Phone or in person) I have taught this to many over the years.

If I ask you for a favor, after telling you my purpose and my purpose posed no threat to you, what would you say? Either Yes, or tell me what is it you want. Either way the door is now open.

Yes testing needs to be done and yes your sample was not large enough. But think of this and do the math. It sounds like you picked up the phone "one" time and got a prospect. Not a sale yet but a prospect.

You sent out 125+15 letters=135 attempts by "painless" mail. You are 1for 1 on the phone do I need to say more? Even if you were 1 for 100 on the phone it would be better than 1 for 135 for letters. (Remember all this is to put money in you pocket book right?)

Now for a dirty little secret if you are average and I assume you are, the phone, using the approach you used, would probably yield at worst 1 for 20 in interested prospects. These are general figures I know but take it from someone who has done this. It will work.

How bad do you want it and how fast?

Go get em tiger! Pick that phone back up!

Old Dog

+1 behind Old Dog for cheering you on!

Have you ever sat down with a yellow page book or a ValPak or even a map of your town and figured out how many merchants you know... and how many know you in a favorable, friendly light?

Make a list and think of the things you have to offer them that will help *them* make more money or serve their clients/customers better.

Then make your calls... if you're too chicken to walk in to a place to track down the owner/decision maker. At least set a time over the phone that you can pop in and show them something when you're going to be "in the area" "doing ______".

For me, I always tell them that I just need 5-10 minutes. (but I book off at least 30 for the visit) I keep looking at the clock to let them know that I gotta be somewhere else... and this helps keep me from giving marathon spiels that only turn counter-productive.

In sales.... remember... each contact (phone, visit, next phone call, whatever) is just to get you to the NEXT STEP ... once you get a feel for this, it really works.

Ya did great. Ya got out of your comfort zone.

Now rinse and repeat!

Firstly, congratulations on your success, Karen. Keep it up and follow with more action while your success fuels that enthusiasm.

I have to agree with the other posts here, you are drawing conclusions (doesn't work) based on faulty reasoning. I don't want to generalize without seeing your mailing pieces, but your statistical universe was not clearly defined, no control for testing, and not really enough numbers.

I would like to ask... Did you make proactive followup PHONE calls to those 15 really targeted letters with super nice images? Did you followup the next day by calling them. The phone is truly your friend. "Mary Jones, with XYZ, I'm following up on that report/sample/dvd I sent on Tuesday."

I sure hope you did make followup calls. You were half-way there using a proven marketing technique known as Lead Generation. This is systemizing your prospecting with lead generation techniques. Traditionally, B2B marketing departments are tasked with creating "leads" and hand them off to the sales department.

For small time operators, a lead generation system helps many overcome the fear of "cold call prospecting". You had created a targeted list, and sent them a custom personalized message, so calling them on the phone is easy... and what many define as warm calling. "Mary Jones with XYZ following up on that report/sample/letter I sent Mr Gregory on Tuesday." Makes it a lot easier for new marketers to pick up the phone and make the call. Also makes it easier to get to decision makers on a first phone call. And in the real world of B2B, you would very likely make several more followup calls over time to those very same 15 prospects.

But make no mistake about it... you will be picking up the phone, or going to see them for face time. Whether you call cold from a list, or warm them up with email or direct mail. The phone is actually your friend. The phone is a tool... its a very effective time-saver versus driving out and randomly dropping by cold businesses.

There really is no a debate about "calling your prospects", its just a question of when and how you do it. Use lead generation to qualify your list... and make followup sales calls, or you can just cold call selling straight to the list. That decision is pretty much down to your skills and personality. Just decide which club you want to join.

The phone is a communication tool. In the business community, sales are begun or closed on the phone all the time. You will either phone them or go see them. Using the phone scares about 95% of all marketers, however, in my experience it can't be avoided, and once your mindset gets wrapped around the idea that telephones are business tools... deals are made over the phone every day... you won't have the fear.

The bigger question on prospecting by cold calling a list over the phone is the time element. Takes some serious time to plow through the 100 numbers to get down to the 1,2, or 3 interested qualified prospects in that 100. Even with auto dialers, it's a lot of time. You can hire others to do that prospecting for you, because the other reality is you will go way beyond 100 calls.

On the other hand, marketing with targeted, personalized direct mail, or lumpy mail, or single personal emails sent on a business-to-business level are also standard marketing tools for prospecting, just like cold calling with the phone. Direct marketing for prospecting is used by all types and sizes of businesses And these simple tools can save a lot time for small time operators as part of your system.

Or you can hire telemarketers for doing your lead generation with cold calling. Which in my vocabulary is different than Tele-Sales cold calling. Telemarketers traditionally make phone calls to a list using a carefully crafted script to gauge "Interest". Their goal is a lead, not a sale. A Lead is where someone has raised their hand and says, "I'm interested." Tele-sales involves skilled sales people using the phone for the whole enchilada from prospecting to qualifying to closing the deal over the phone. Anyways, the words telemarketer or tele-sales... its just vocabulary; the point is whether you want to do all your own prospecting/selling at one go, or systemize your lead generation with another person calling.. or letting the USPS helping you find interested prospects and qualified leads.

With a lead generation system, the leads that your telemarketers produce, you will do followup phone Calls. And most B2B marketers will tell you that B2B selling takes several followup calls after that first one. Often called "touches" because you can "touch" the prospects with emails, letters, and with phone calls during the sales process to get you to closing. These are all just tools. It's you and your message that makes the cash register ring.

Anyways, congrats again on your success...

Personal contact with your prospects is unavoidable. In the real world of B2B you have to go out and get them. First, create a highly targeted list using segmenting and psychographic profiling. Then... phone them, mail them, these are all missionary tools for prospecting amongst the suspects sifting for Leads, whether you are a one call closer, or you are using the USPS or hiring telemarketers to do prospecting/qualifying with you making followup calls. And many products/services, do require face time. If you're local, go and see them. But if you have the sales skills and the right business model... the reality is, you can close any of them over the phone. If you're good enough.

Best Regards,
Jan Gregory

P.S. I might add that quite of few of my clients who hated cold calling developed a new respect for their phone skills with some practice. We setup some small lead generation systems sending to extremely targeted lists... using personalized direct mail. The client religiously did a minimum of 7 followup phone calls to the entire list. Resulting in very high conversion metric to sales. With all that phone work, they soon had a different mindset about calling local business owners. It's like riding a bicycle or a horse... takes some time in the saddle to get used to it.

To tell you the truth, phone is by far the most effective method for getting clients. Alot of people will try any other method imaginable just because they are scared of cold calling. If you are comfortable doing that, then you are a step ahead of most!

Awesome! I cold called a few companies on the weekend for my website services, and got a few leads! Keep cold-calling.. as long as you tell them your credentials and purpose, and tell them you can show them a demo, they're in!