Alternatives to Cold Calling

My last several years selling in people's homes, I didn't cold call at all. Of course, I spent most of 35 years knocking on doors, so it's not like it didn't pay.

But I would call past customers on the phone to offer a free inspection/tune up/service on what they already had. Eventually, I also called the past customers of other dealers that sold what I sold. And then I would call the customers of dealers that sold a different brand than I did. Again, offering a free in home inspection/tune up/ service.

Why? Because these people already proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they would buy from a guy coming to their home. This was, as I discovered, the easiest 6% of the population to sell. Sometimes I would go a month, with daily sales, selling everyone I presented to. It ws the quality of the leads, and how I managed them, rather than any great skill I had in closing.

This is pretty advanced selling. But boy...it sure paid off.

The problem with this, and every other form of prospecting, except cold calling...is that I always had a limited list to call, even if it was in the hundreds. It wasn't an unlimited list. There were down times, when I had to seek out another source of customers.

Of course, an obvious alternative to cold calling is selling by referral. Most (certainly more than 98%) of salespeople never gain the skill to keep that referral pipeline full. I was/am great at it, but there are still times you need a different source. Working referrals exclusively, you eventually suffer from "referral incest" where people in the same groups are referring the same people to you. The "seeing past customers of other dealers" certainly helped.

If you use marketing; postcards, advertising, incoming calls from videos, Facebook ads, Adwords, radio...etc. The problem is always that you aren't in direct control of how busy you are. You have to wait for the call.

Of course, some people can get enough flow this way, that they can start getting picky.

But cold calling gets you in front of people (or gets you sales from people) that you would never see otherwise. It's the source for new blood.

And for this reason, when I had reps working for me, these was always a cold calling component to our prospecting.

When I hear people say that they never cold call, and only work incoming leads, my thought is (right or wrong) "what do you do with your down time?"



I cannot imagine a more profitable way to sell your service to business owners. If I were to be more active today, I would go back to that. Most profit per hour of any activity I've ever done.

About ten years ago, I read a full page story in the Akron Ohio newspaper (800,000 circulation) about how online advertising helped and hurt local businesses. The person being interviewed was selling SEO services.

The story cost him nothing, but I know I wasn't the only person to call him. And I was calling to buy.

The problem was, he didn't know how to sell, so I ended up not buying from him, and soon after, decided to go into business myself.

If the newspaper isn't interested in your story, buy ad space. They will be interested then.

Have you considered using dropcards?
The have to be done in bulk (like postcards) to work.

Eye catching, curiousity, high converting online form.

Attraction marketing in general - if executed properly - will beat
out cold calling.

I come across this a lot with business owners who want to create kindle books.

The key to a successful lead gen kindle book is to have it presell for you. To do this effectively you need to understand the medium. There is some variance but essentially people buy books to read stories so tell them.

Provide case studies and testimonials.

Pro tip. Provide case studies and testimonials that reinforce your USP but also handle objections.

Provide them with enough knowledge so that they can do the job themselves but with the lingering though that it might be easier/quicker/cheaper to hire someone.

Now who could they hire?

Now provide them with a unique web address or telephone number so you know who you are dealing with.

Edit

A really important factor as well is to repell people who aren't your ideal customer. If you have a starting price of £2,000 let that be known in the book. Show why it wasn't an issue for customers x,y, and z.

This way you should attract ideal customers and repell those that wouldn't fit your business.

But that isn't a system. It helps dramatically, if you get the name of the referral, have the client call for you, and then you call the referral after they tell their friend that they will talk to you.


Yes, giving great service is key.....but you can multiply your referral business if you just take control of it. I used to use a business card that said, "By Referral Only". Getting referrals, having your client introduce you to the referral, and proper follow up, is a system...complete with timing, scripts, answers to objections, and when to ask for referrals.

Working referrals is a sales skill in itself. It's the hardest to teach, because it isn't as overt as the rest of the sale. Getting referrals isn't a favor the client does for you. Referrals are a favor you do for your client. And positioning it that way makes a world of difference.

Honest guys, this is how the top 1% sell.