Recession, recession, recession! Have you heard much about anything else in the news these past months? The point of today’s article is to outline why cold calling (and telemarketing in general) shouldn’t be discounted as a means of starting and developing new business relationships.

While many businesses are laying off staff, cutting costs in some of the most dangerous areas and generally forecasting downturns in profit, other businesses whose marketing activities remained an important, constant part of the business plan are weathering the economic storm and some are actually thriving.

Continuing to engage with existing clients, constantly obtaining feedback and looking for new and better ways to provide services or products they need and want will help to establish a healthy client retention rate. So too does constantly networking, getting to events where your target business audience gathers, and asking for referrals. That’s far from being the full picture however. It’s called a marketing mix for a very good reason. There has to be variety, but more importantly there also has to be commitment to testing and measuring each marketing activity to determine what works best and where to devote the most attention.

So why disturb your comfort zone? Why pick up the phone to establish relationships with people and companies that you could potentially serve or provide product for but with whom you’ve no previous relationship? Here are five of the most compelling reasons:

1. Response Rate:

There is a higher rate of response to a person asking a few intelligent questions by phone (as high as 80% is not uncommon) than to a brochure or email sent without any prior warning. There is plenty of published evidence to support this, so whenever the next person asks you to “send some literature or information” be wary that their main intention isn’t necessarily to obtain your information but often to get you off the phone.

2. People Buy People:

Unless a purchase is low-risk, low value (e.g. simple retail purchase like a book) agreements to do business can only exist between people. There are only three outcomes you can really end up with:

- No

- Not now, possibly later

- Let’s meet (which can lead to an agreement to do business).

3. Double Your Development:

With cold calling, especially in a recession, you double your development: Personal and Business development go hand in hand.
Data providers can provide very targeted lists covering significant criteria such as business names, addresses, named contacts with specific titles, telephone numbers, geography, sectors/sub-sectors of business, number of employees, turnover, and more. What they cannot do is pick the phone up and call your prospects for you. Only you can do this. If you can develop the habit over 15 working days, you’ll begin to cultivate a life skill, become more resilient to rejection as a result, and get better at dealing with people, some of whom will be thanking you later on for making the decision to contact them.

4. Market Intelligence:

Never discount the value of what people tell you. You can ask more searching questions by phone than you think possible. The power of the simple question: ”Why?” should never be understated. If you don’t try to find out why specific things happen in someone’s business, how will you ever be in a better position to respond to and capitalise upon it? Your brochure can’t gather and record information from prospects. Only you can.

5. Next Call is Never Cold:

Often, after a couple of calls you’ll have obtained permission to send emails, call again, and even meet with people. At this point you’re very much “on their radar” and the only way to go off the radar is to ignore them.

Perhaps the most obvious reason is actually number six: It’s an extra channel to market. By using the phone, you add an extra channel for developing and serving your marketplace. Who, during a recession especially, would want to decrease their number of channels to market? Competition is fierce. How would you feel if your competitor won a major new contract or account all because they were willing to utilise that extra channel and you were not? In fact, don’t answer that. You may already have a sickening feeling in your stomach speaking volumes for you…:-)

If you’re still hesitant to pick up the phone, contact us at shaun@phoneforbusiness.com or, for those willing to be brave, call 0044 (0) 203 348 8702

Copyright: Shaun Gisbourne 2009

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