Walk In or Call?

Personally, I prefer calling as the ability to quickly contact many customers via the phone more than makes up for the decreased closing rate. It can be very time consuming visiting businesses in person, and I think that doing this on a daily basis makes it feel too much like a "job".

This is just my personal preference though, and ultimately there is no "wrong" or "right" way of doing this, as long as you find that it's working for you!

Paul

From my experience, you can combine the two to get the best results. Use calling to contact lots of people and qualify them for what you have to offer. Once they're qualified you can set up face-to-face meetings to achieve the highest closing ratios.

This gives you the best of both worlds. You get to take advantage of being able to contact many people and take advantage of the higher face-to-face closing ratio. This way, you are only meeting face-to-face with people that you know are qualified and are already interested in more information on what you have to offer.

I would rather go with calling just for the reason Paul mentioned above.

SW.

I use to be in outside sales and had some good success with it. I always hated telemarketing - probably why I pretty much sucked at it too.
It's really just a matter of personal preference - whatever works for you, do it!
I actually liked being out and calling on businesses. Sure, I got the run around a few times and a couple of doors slammed on me but it didn't stop me because on balance, I got more yes's than no's. And, for a few days a week or so, it got me out of the house or office. If the weather was bad, I stayed in doing paper work, etc.
I plan on getting back to cold-calling soon but now with my own mobile marketing business. Using the phone for follow ups doesn't bother me once I've met with them.
So, for me, it's cold-calling but if you're good at telemarketing it's definitely a time saver.

I have to agree with Paul - I personally find cold-calling to be a much more effective strategy and helps maximize my time.

This is not to say that I do not do walk-ins though. If I have an appointment with a business, I will typically walk-in to other businesses in the area when I'm finished - I can also use the fact that I "was just meeting with so and so across the street..." as a way to break the ice and gain a little credibility.

Ultimately, it is whatever works for you - but spend any amount of time in this business and you will realize that time is your biggest asset, and I personally find cold-calling to be a more effective use of my time.

GOOD LUCK

I think the answer to this really depends on your personality and preferences. Some people are masters at the first impression walk in sales pitch . . and then on the other end of the spectrum, there are people that are very uncomfortable with both walk in and cold calling.

For me, I shy away from anything that seems "salesy" so I do no cold walk ins or cold calling.

But I have had a lot of success doing the soft sell walk in. Basically, on the first contact, I like to already be a customer of a business. . . and then my purpose is just to build some rapport and intelligently inject into the conversation my expertise. . .

I typically get into a conversation about how I increased customers and sales for my own businesses through internet marketing. . . the conversation will then turn to their business and I usually throw out a few general ideas for their business . . .

I never ask for a sale or sell services. With some consultative discussions injecting some proven marketing principles into the conversation, I usually get them asking me what or who can help them do what I have done for myself or others.

It has been really effective for me!

Amy

We've closed just as high over the phone as we do with walk-ins, but over the years, if you walk in and sell, it always seems to yield LARGER checks.

...and isn't that what's important for you and your business?

Any day of the week, I'd rather have 10 clients paying me $5k/mo rather then 100 clients paying $500/mo. Less headache, stress and customer support.

Because it's personable. Because business owners like to look you in the eye and believe your going to do everything you say. You don't get the person touch over the phone.

Like I said, we do most of our selling over the phone and close decent sized deals (nothing under $1k/mo.), but when we actually go in and meet people, shake hands and give strategies on the spot, our min contract size is about $3,500/mo.

I would definitely go for calling. After that you can take a visit. That's the best deal.

call, any day of the week is better than walk ins.

The highest success ratio for our business is first sending an email or even, believe it or not, an actual postcard. This at least gives you the ability to reference the email / postcard in your 1st call. The 2nd step is to call as a followup to your email / postcard. And, the finally, if both fail to get you a meeting, stop by the office.

We've found business owners to be very POed about our sales people just "showing up."

The majority of my business also comes from referrals but when I do use cold calling to prospect a new client the aim is to get a face to face meeting not to sell my services.

So my answer is definitely call first and set up the appointment, you can even send through a quick market research report (on the particular business industry/market) before you call. Give something of value up front for free and most business owners will be more than happy to meet with you.

Works for my business.

P.S. Back when i still had a 'normal' offline business, I couldn't stand salespeople just arriving unannounced to 'sell' me something. 90% of the time I would just my staff to tell them I wasn't in. Did I miss out on some great services that could have helped my business? Sure I probably did, but it was annoying to me that someone thought my time wasn't valuable and could just rock up without making an appointment.

Totally agree with paul here cause there is no point on doing so ...

I have to agree with Voasi and all the reasons he mentioned. I think cold calling is also good because it allows you to make more contacts to offer your services/products in the shortest time but not as good as walking in method. With the walking in method, one can basically offer their services/products and close the deal at the same time if the owners like their offer and collect the deposits or full payment at the same time. However, this is only my opinion, yet to give it a full force attempt to see the real results.


Qamar

i prefer to call first before walking in, try to set up an appointment, let them know you and your services exist. if you get lucky, you might just get some referrals. but of course, it all depends on preference, what's more convenient, where you're most confident. whatever works for you.

The first thing you see on business doors here in the US is NO solicitation. That means they don't want you there.

Also they're not real big fans of cold calls either - most hang up quickly.

My suggestion would be to send them something (an email, postcard, letter) and then follow up with a phone call or in person visit to make sure they got it.

This way you actually have a reason to visit the store instead of being a pest.

Good luck.

Tim

Cold calling is probably better.. Don't want to waste your time or their pitching on and on about something they are not interested in. I think calling and making appointment is probably the most effective way to close the deal.

it is good to call first and set for an appointment before walking in.