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Are you cold-calling for new clients?
Many agree that Cold-Calling is the best way to gain new clients. They say it beats email, direct mail, etc.
Are you using this method to gain new clients? If so, how is it working for you and what’s your pitch?
Owner
Plus More Media Group
Website Design – VA, Corporate Web Site Design – PlusMoreMedia.com
Marketing designs and videos that do more for your business! -
24 Replies
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Nope.
100% referrals for us and of course answering questions here on the Cow.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Yes, I cold call. It works far better for me than email.
But do I share my script? Not really.
The overall strategy I use I will share and that is that I try to learn as much as possible about the prospect before I call. I make the call about them and what I see as their need, not about how good at blah blah blah I may be.
Talking about them and what may be their need gets them talking, while trying to tell them I am the greatest thing since sliced bread — which may impress my mom — will likely set their eyes to rolling in their head and elicit a yawn.
That’s what works for me.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
Depends upon what we are selling. Our company does a combination of direct sales, work for hire and services combining many aspects of our services.
It’s all about knowing who to contact. For product lines that are sold directly to a known customer, a surgeon for example, we may selectively contact these folks with an e-mail or phone call. It helps to have a relationship with someone already, or alternatively a relationship with someone the lead knows. This gets back to the many conversations about networking – not just social networking, which is a 21st century word for what people in business have always done.
Lately we have been using e-mail marketing to promote events and products. We use an established list of past and current customers. In our latest effort, at least 50 people out of 1500 recipients clicked a link to the offering, and at least 11 people actually made a conversion, that is, a purchase. And we are happy with that result, based upon what we are selling. But we also sent out a mailing via snail mail to the same group of people, so repetition is as important as how you contact someone.
Mike Cohen
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See, Ron, what I would describe what you are doing is not exactly cold calling, maybe “warmed-up” calling🙂 You’re doing research and surveying first, as you gauge if there is an actual opportunity with the subject.
When I hear “cold calling” I think of people in a boiler room who have no idea who I am or waht I do, getting my name wrong and my organization name wrong, and hitting me with a generic script that insults my intelligence. I hang up on that call instantly.
Now if I was to get a call actually surveying me about something, honestly, I *might* give them thirty seconds or so. And another thirty if they aer going along well. But I HATE people trying to sell me anything over the phone. Especially when I didn’t ask for the sales call. Maybe that’s the issue with permission marketing: I don’t give out the permission willy-nilly.
I had this one bozo from some graphics company, would call me without fail every two months, asking me if I was interested in some generic clip art stuff. Well, I was, at that time, enough to ask him to send a sample, one time. But after seeing the samples and the rate cards and going over our budget, it wasn’t going to work out, and the next follow-up he made, I told him so.
And the next time.
And the NEXT frigging time.
He called *just* infrequently enough that I would have practically forgotten him and so I would just give him a polite brush-off, but he never took the hint. Finally, he caught me on a particularly bad and hectic day, and I just gave him both barrels, an R. Lee Ermy type dressing-down (but without cuss words) about three unbroken minutes long. That’s what it took to get him to stop.
I hate cold calling, I’ve been on either side of it.
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Milton,
Gaining new clients is always a challenge. Cold calls has a negative connotation as noted earlier in the thread. Most of us will do some investigation about a company and find out if they have any need, or even a slight possibility of need, for our services. When I started freelance editing, unbooked days were spent cold calling. I would call companies in the area that seemed likely candidates. But to be honest, not much ever came from those calls. Almost all the work came by referral.
The old clique – It’s who you know, is very true.
Typically, one call is not going to land a job. You will need to call several times before getting your foot in the door. Just don’t be like the guy Mike talked about – know when to stop calling.
Ed
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Anything worth doing at all, is worth doing well.
– Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield -
There is not ONE OUNCE of what you said that I would disagree with, Mark. You are spot-on, as always.
When I call someone “out of the blue” with an idea that I have based on some preliminary research that I have done on their company, I always ask first if I have caught them at a bad time and I tell them that I would like to discuss an idea that I have regarding a need that I think I see in your company for…insert the idea here.
If I am right and I have done my research correctly, they nearly always say that they have a few minutes.
If I am wrong, then they get defensive and I know that I needn’t call them back — ever. ;o)
While I DO cold call, I never call without what I believe to be a “well loaded gun” of true value based on what I see in their company.
Again, the call should be about them — never you. If it gets that way, you have almost always lost the battle.
Sure, I sell myself, but I always veil it with the concepts and structures of what I see as their story, amplified.
Calling someone to slam them for graphics services and clip art is a great example of exactly what NOT to do in a call, in my experience and opinion.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
Can you offer some specific information that you would be looking for, and how, that would help you determine what a company’s video needs are?
Mark
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Mark,
I never go into my research with a pre-conceived idea based on what I do and what I can bring to them. Each case is ABSOLUTELY unique to me and therefore I do not start with any preconceptions whatsoever. If I want to work with a company, I will watch them for a bit and see what kinds of things I notice. Then, based on that, I will dig deeper. Based on what I am learning about them, that tells me what I should be talking to them about.
Often, I have no idea what specific product I will pitch; I am looking for a “mental hinge,” a connection point where we discuss a need that clicks with them. As we chat about it, I will throw out everything from comprehensive multi-pronged attacks to very focused things that they may bite on. That way, we are killing two birds with one stone — I am getting to “soft pitch” them, while softly feeling out what kinds of budgets they may have.
The important thing that I remember is that I am in the Communication business, not the video business. Video is just ONE of the things that I do. My real business is to be a communicator and that may sometimes be best served by the web, by print, by video — or maybe a combination of two or more of them.
My goal is to serve the need of the client and in doing so, collect a check. My goal is not to sell video.
Others may disagree and have other strategies.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
[Ron Lindeboom] “The important thing that I remember is that I am in the Communication business, not the video business. Video is just ONE of the things that I do. My real business is to be a communicator and that may sometimes be best served by the web, by print, by video — or maybe a combination of two or more of them. My goal is to serve the need of the client and in doing so, collect a check. My goal is not to sell video.”
This is the best advice I’ve ever read on the Cow, and I’ve read a ton of great advice.
Clients never need just “a video”. They need a way to communicate their message. Now if a video is the best way to do that than it’s the route you take, but producing a video for the sake of producing a video to get a paycheck will end up being the last video you make for someone. If it doesn’t effectively communicate a message that drives predetermined results (direct sales, name recognition, sales leads, etc…), it’s just wasted dollars.
I think too many times we get caught up in the hype of new gear, awesome effects, and crazy flashy flying graphics and forget that it all means nothing if it doesn’t tell your message effectively.
The best spots I’ve ever done consisted of 1 graphic that fades on at the end and straight cuts throughout. Usually no more than 3 or 4 cuts in a full 30 second spot, but the message is crystal clear and effective. Sales for the client are through the roof. They’re not the most glamorous spots we’ve done and definitely not the most difficult to produce but they work. And that’s all that matters in the end.
Michael.
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I’ll be working late. -
My goal is never to sell but to educate. And just like applying for a job, doing your homework and speaking intelligently to a prospect about their business is critical. I don’t sell videos, we provide solutions. You must first identify what a client’s need is and then seek a solution and it may not be video. There’s been numerous times after a call that a client needs print or web and I introduce them to a partner at a lunch – keeping me in the loop. This builds trust. What happened in the last case was that while my initial prospect didn’t need me directly, his friend did; so we got a job with a new client but not the original one I was courting. Nifty.
While getting new clients is nice, maintaining current clients is far more profitable. There’s a huge cost to gaining business. Keep your customers happy.
Part of my mission statement – you have one of those, right? – is “…to make you the hero in your organization.” What triggers that prospect? A raise? A promotion? A bonus? A pat on the back? But what will get them that? Increased sales, reduced downtime in training, fewer callbacks on services? What can you provide to them that will help them achieve that goal. You have to be able to identify what triggers them and fix the problem they have.
So in response to your question, am I cold calling, no. For me it’s all about my current client base:ask for referrals, keep in touch with newsletters (only names I get personally), call and say hello, send cards, recognize their achievements. Meaning, when I see them in a publication I’ll call and let them know, even cut it out and send it. This is LOTS of work. Probably why I’m still at 70+ hours and writing this on a weekend.
Steve
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