Those who are coldcalling, do you use a program or dial one by one?

Wow...ruffled your feathers didn't I. Since I don't know what I am talking about, please explain how my 50 dials per hour has helped build a million dollar financial services practice? That means, my practice grosses a million per year (recurring too I might add), grows by about $100,000 in fees per year(that's $10mm in new assets per year), and I net about 51% of that. I have two other partners that are in my practice and I gross the least out of all of them.

How did the practice grow? Picking up that 800lb phone, calling to make appointments, then going to meet the client and bringing home the bacon. I am not going to even waist my time arguing with you. I have made more dials than most people on this planet to the tune of 40,000 dials on a light year and 50,000 dials on a heavy year...FOR YEARS...and there is no doubt that a dialer is faster. It is indisputable. A dialer gives me more dials and more contacts...period.

You bring into question your experience because anyone that dials for a living doesn't sit at a phone bank all day without regular breaks. Calling in 45 to 50 minute call blocks with a small break is the reason I outlasted the rest. Even the Godfather of coldcalling in our business Bill Good recommends this. People are scared to death of calling which is why most people quit...that and the monotony. Cold calling is hard work and even I don't like doing it, but i do it anyway because it fills my bank account with tons of cash. It always has and always will.

BTW, I am glad people are emailing you to to request your services. Wasn't that the intent of your posts?! Good luck...and don't expect a call from me. I will be on my dialer! LOL!

Yes, everyone does business in their own way. I did 'cold' calling in my own business and working for one of the largest banks in the USA. We called them 'power hour'. I don't like or believe in auto dialing. I like to be able to reach someone or VM so they can hear me and not a recording. I believe in my experience this is keeping the 'human' factor where it belongs. With all the electronic advances we are making, it is also making less human contact even with the social medias. This is going to be harmful for our up and coming generations. You have to do what YOU feel is going to work for you. Good luck to all.
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This very rarely happens to me (given a different number to call) because of they way I operate while on the phone. I generally talk to 10 to 12 decision makers per hour (a 45 minute call block). In a typical day, I usually speak with 40 to 50 decision makers depending on how much time I put into it. That takes 400 to 500 dials. The rest of the dials that I make may be gatekeepers, "He's not it in", "He is in a meeting", "Please take us off your list", or whatever. It doesn't really matter as far as I am concerned because they either get thrown out never to be called again or recycled at the bottom of my list.

Out of those 40 to 50 decision makers, 5 become what I would consider "hot leads", meaning they either went for my offer right off of the bat or they want to meet to discuss the offer. Out of the other 45, another 2 or so will become "warm leads" that are added to my drip list. I have a system in place to follow up with everyone in the funnel (multiple touch points) and at the end of every month, I flush everyone out with a simple questioning methodology that I have developed over the years. It is very effective in keeping my funnel functioning effectively.

My pitch/offer is fairly straight forward (actually it is very straight forward) and I want my decision maker to disqualify himself as quickly as possible because there are thousands and thousands of prospects out there. Because of this, no prospect is more important than another. Very simple. Either they want what I have to offer or they don't. If they don't, they get a "thankyouverymuch" and I move on.

Once a month in my firm we have a "training call" with the rookies to help them build their businesses. Two months ago, the person that leads my division (largest wealth management firm in the U.S.) and the National Training Officer, gave me a call and asked if I would lead the call because so many folks struggle with how to build a business using the phone for lead generation and it is well known within my firm that I have been successful using the phone.

Based on that call, several individuals from the firm followed up with me directly and asked if I would be their ad hoc "Coach" of sorts. Normally, I wouldn't agree to do something like this on a national level because it is too difficult to manage although I do normally take on one or so rookies per year locally when I see potential. At any rate, I gave everyone my formula for success, laid out expectations, and we have a quick call once a week to cover questions or concerns. Out of this group of 12 individuals, three did not do what they said they would do in terms of calling and as a result one got ****canned, and two are very close to having the same happen to them. Weak! The other 9 report their dials to me on a weekly basis and their production is incredible compared to their peers and this is only after two months. I can't wait to see what happens after several more months of this.

Plain and simple, what I do works. My business is purely a contact sport and the more contacts I make, the more clients I end up with. Fairly straight forward stuff. Nothing more and nothing less. I am at the point in my career that I almost discourage appointments unless I am fairly certain the prospect is serious about doing business. In other words, I qualify like crazy because I do not like wasting time "reaching" for appointments. As a result, I screen hard for Need, Dollar, and Commitment. Others call it Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline (BANT). Whatever you call it is fine...as long as whomever you spend your time with is actually motivated and qualified.

As far as having a phone on my desk, I do. I was referring to a friend (a client actually) that owns a large lead generation firm and works primarily for technology companies. His people do not have phones on their desks and they do a significant amount of business setting appointments for others. Very significant.

Cold calling has gotten harder and harder every year that I have done it (over a decade) because there are so many ways to screen you out these days. Make no mistake about that. But, bottomline, this year is going to be my biggest year ever because I have simply spoken with more people and a dialer has allowed me to do that. I started using a dialer at the beginning of the year, and by the end of July, my stats have shown that I will have spoken to as many people as I normally would have spoken to in an entire year. We are talking about six months that has yielded what twelve months has yielded for me in the past. My pitch hasn't changed. The name on the door hasn't changed. Nothing. The only difference, and I mean the ONLY difference, is that I have simply spoken to more people.

Don't get me wrong. Using a dialer didn't make customers don't come at a quicker pace. By that I mean, my dials per contact, contacts per lead, and lead per customer stats are still statistically the same. No real variation. Again, the only difference is that I can now do in one day what used to take me two days to do. My dials and contacts are double what they normally are. Using the dialer has been a true force multiplier.