Should I outsource cold calling?

You could always try craigslist.

Here are some tips for hiring telephone salespeople from craigslist:

1) Always have them send you a resume. No exceptions. Make it very clear in your added that if they do not include resume they will not be contacted. Stick to your guns on this and if someone sounds interesting, rather than communicate with them, you can always e-mail them back and say, "I am sorry but I do not consider applicants without a resume. If you would like to be considered you need to send the resume first.”

2) Verify the references that are on the resume. If there are no references, ask for them.

3) Have an exact script for them to follow, and before anyone can begin work they must learn the script and practice it when you were someone within your organization to make sure they have it down properly.

4) When calling them back, your call needs to be an actual job interview, not just to chat. Ask who they've worked for, what they've accomplished, what their sales experience is, asked them how they handle objections, and what they're looking for in a job.

5) Never hire someone on the spot. It looks desperate. I always tell them, “I already have 50 resumes on my desk in the expecting more. I can only hire two salespeople at the moment. Why should you be one of them?” Let them answer this completely, and no matter how good they sound tell them you'll get back to them in a few days after you've made a decision.

6) If you do hire them provide them with the spreadsheet so that each day they can keep the log of who they called, the name of the contact person, the telephone number, and the results. Have them also keep track of any and all follow-up. They need to e-mail you that at the end of every workday.

7) Make sure all workers are under contract, and do all necessary tax paperwork. If this is in the states, I would recommend getting the W9 so that you can send them a 1099 at the end of the year. I would also have them sign a noncompete and nondisclosure document. All leads and clients or you were proprietary property. Let them know this up front when you hire them.

8) When you have a new person you hire from craigslist, after a day or two, I would call back some people at random from their list. Let them know that you are simply doing a courtesy follow-up call to make sure that the sales rep that contacted them earlier was courteous, professional and answered all of their questions. This is not only a way to make sure you've hired the right salesperson, but could also save some lost deals from time to time.

Hope this has been of help. Good luck!

EDIT: Always pay commission per sale, no hourly pay. A good salesman will prefer this anyway.

Cold calling works. Might be tedious, but it works. If you're new, it's a great way to start getting clients. Eventually working off nothing but referrals is great, but not very effective for just starting.

Do you know what you are saying?

I'm not trying to pretend I am some savvy marketer, but seriously - can you please not spread disinformation like that when it seems you either have not tried cold calling, or haven't tried it long enough to see the success that comes with it.

I hired a cold-caller from the Philippines and wrote a short script for selling websites in about 2 minutes, literally. He has set me 3 appointments in one week, one I have already attended and have sold the website.

So there is still potential to sell another 2 websites. Not to mention the amount of people who gave their email address to send further info about our services (not just websites but SEO, etc).

If you still think cold calling does not work then let me tell you, you're wrong. Please don't go telling people this type of stuff. It works if you just give it a go.

In saying that, your method works well too, no doubt - but that's not what we're discussing here, so we won't get in to that.

Just out of curiosity, how do you propose someone "finds one good client" without some form of cold contact?

Not saying it can't be done, just wondering how you'd do it.

Exactly. Try to think about the last time YOU were sold on a product from a cold call. Probably never. Spend your money in other, more productive areas.

Nick,
I would be interested. How many appointments can this guy knock
down in a 10 hr block?

Thats the trick, especially with Americans as majority of the time we're bombarded by foreign call centers... callers have to have an clear english accent. I've been in sales for years and I can't stand it when someone over seas calls me that I can barely understand... I've had people from India (insert simpsons abu voice) and say "hi my name is a bob" lol. I'm like dude your name isn't Bob haha. Reason thats funny to me is I knew some people that setup call centers overseas and one of the things they would do is have their "worker" use American names lol.

I couldn't agree more. Cold calling is not really so much about skill or personality, but more about persistence and determination to knock out those numbers even when you're getting rejected left and right.

A friend of mine told me about a similar scenario where he knew of a Korean lady in California who spoke very broken English, and was selling computers to customers over the phone. She always came in on time, and started calling like a robot and knocking out those calls non-stop all day long, despite the language difficulties and constant rejections. In spite of all these considerable setbacks, because of her work ethic and determination she was able to make six figures a year and make at least 3 times more than what her next best colleague made.

If you have the right script to do your cold calling with, then all you really need is the persistence and determination to knock out 100 calls per day or more. Whether you or an outsourced worker do it, the end result should not be very different.

Paul