There is too many "offliners(cold callers)"?

It doesn't matter anyway. We all know that telemarketing died years ago.

Then your business must have been either 1) an anomaly 2) not present anywhere only at all, no directories or 3) Somehow not listed in any business database. 4) In such a desolate area that no one thought to call you


I find the last 3 difficult to be true so it must have been an anomaly haha

where do you get it?

I could not agree with you more. It's like this section of the forums has been taken over by narcissistic self proclaimed telemarketing gurus who can't hold a conversation in a thread without hijacking it and talking about telemarketing.

I should hold my tongue and not say any more otherwise... well you know.

No...but it's hard if your not unique or have something unique to offer or approach it in a unique way that no one else is, or few are at least.

thanks, but i think like ronrule say "you refine your pitch and talk to enough people, eventually one will say yes. " i mean 1 of 35 calls will make a sale....

I have. But what I can tell you for certain, the more I learn about running a business, the more capable I'm becoming, the less and less I enjoy conversations with cold callers.

Even Yelp cold called today trying to sell us ads.

The woman who called was the rudest person I've ever spoke to. I straight out asked her what she was trying to sell, and told her that I very likely wouldn't be interested in it.

Her cocky response was, "but Yelp has already made your business money, and I just want to show you how we can make your company more money".

In my head I'm thinking "wth is this woman talking about?"

I said "wait.. wut? You've made our business money? How come I don't know about this but you do?"

She said something like "I have access to 'special data' on your company, I can tell you for certain that we've made your company money".

At this point I was both laughing but infuriated. Then I remembered we had reviews on Yelp, and that must have been what she was refering to. As far as them "making us money".

I said, "wait, are you talking about our reviews?"
She said, "yes, precisely".

I said, "well thats great, because I'm the one who had to do all the hard work to get those reviews, and those customers didn't come from yelp they came from my google places, but I asked thoese customers to leave reviews on yelp because our google places had too many reviews... just go take a look".

Then I mentioned how if it wasn't for google, I wouldn't even be using yelp in the first place, because I wouldn't have customers to leave reviews on their site.

I also mentioned how we track every call that we get (its always the first question we ask callers), and how I knew for a fact we only got 1 call from Yelp which didn't convert.

After that, its like she ignored what I said as she repeated, "we just want to show your company how we can make you more money". I couldn't believe how dense this b!tch was. That was the point I said, "look, I don't care what happens to my listing, and thanks to this akward conversation, I will intentionally go out of my way now to avoid yelp".

Then I hung up.

I'll be honest, I was looking forward to getting more reviews on my yelp, and ranking it, I do see a tiny bit of potential that way.. (along with dominating local directores in general) but if yelp employees are really that rude & cocky, I don't want a thing to do with this company.

Anyway, this was a completely off topic rant. But I do hear what you're saying.

-Red

but Im guessign because he never used another approach other than cold calling, you dont have his contact details right?

So the bozo does all that work , the same thing time and again, and fails (with you anyway)

Yet split the lead gen up, cold call, direct mail, email, cold call, email, lumpy mail, cold visit, postcard etc etc and youd have his details and hed have more ways to connect

This forum is about sharing ideas and what works. Cold calling works. So does DM and inbound marketing. Would you prefer no one to add anything of value out of fear for more competition? What's the point of this forum if so?

Red,

I get why you are pissed at the callers. Almost nobody ENJOYS getting the calls. So, I am not going to argue with your personal feelings on the matter as that would be futile.

But, I CAN answer your question above.

Marketing has changed. People have many, many choices. People have access to all sorts of info. The market is saturated in almost every single industry.

This means that 90% of potential customers for any given product are not actively looking for your product. I understand you do mold remediation, so that is a different story. Your customers have an urgent problem and need someone to solve it so they go looking for you. The passive marketing solutions still work well for you because of this.

These days marketing is not about going after the 10% who are actively looking for a specific solution. The market is so crowded that the way to reach customers is through ENGAGEMENT. We have to actively engage with our marketplace. We have to reach out to that 90% who aren't currently looking. Maybe a third of them have a nagging desire in their mind that we can help with and our call is just the thing to help them take action.

As a business owner, you KNOW how there are so many things going on in your mind and things you need to do and just don't have time right now. If someone came along and offered to do them for you, you might take a second and deal with them. Maybe your business is going pretty well right now, so marketing is not a desperate or even a nagging need in your mind. There may come a day that will change for you, and you will give that caller a few minutes because you hope he can help you.

For your mobile example, there is no way in hell I would reach you via mobile advertising. B2B sales are much, much different than B2C.

However, mobile advertising just might work wonders for your business. Imagine this scenario - you know a local neighborhood was flooded and mold is likely to be an issue.

So, you create a nice little marketing funnel. First, you send people around knocking and leaving door hangers. Second, you target that neighborhood with some direct mail like EDDM and ValPak. Then, you top it off with location specific mobile advertising and some internet display ads leading people to a landing page. And to finish, after running all these, you send someone around again knocking and leaving hangers, just to help harvest the seeds you have been planting.

This stuff individually might all work OK. Combine them, and you might have a kick ass sales funnel for the few hundred homes in that neighborhood. Your cost per customer will be so low its a joke to even talk about. After three months of this, anyone who even thinks they might have a mold problem will think of you.

So, no, us marketers will never reach you via a mobile app. BUT - maybe you should give a real marketer a few minutes to see if they really know how to use the tools they are selling you and help you test to the next level.

Sure, most of them will be amateurs. But once you work with someone who is a true marketer and knows how to grow businesses, you might be very happy that they cold called you.

Nope. Nobody is HAPPY when they get a cold call. But they are damn sure happy they gave me two minutes to explain how I can help them.

And the people who are rude and angry? There aren't as many as you think. You are in the minority. I get MAYBE 1 or 2 rude people every 500 calls. And even they aren't really THAT rude. They weren't going to pay me anyway.

I'm looking for people who have a need that I can help them with.

The national Do-Not-Call list protects home voice or personal wireless phone numbers only. While you may be able to register a business number, your registration will not make telephone solicitations to that number unlawful.

Unwanted Telephone Marketing Calls | FCC.gov

Me too

I worked a bunch of crappy menial jobs to pay for the basics in life .. such as food.

Then one day .. completely by accident, I found sales... telephone sales
to be precise... that became my career and was what allowed
me to make it through schooling, have a nest egg, start a business , ect ...

sales are sales are sales ...but to me ... telephone sales have a special place
in my heart ... it gave me the momentum to change the direction of my life.

No self-promotion in your posts, please. Do it in your signature if you must.

So true. I got lucky a few weeks ago and the main guy picked up the phone. I pitched for an appointment but he asked me to call back at a certain date/time.

I did for the past 2 days but couldn't get to him (gate keepers / not in office)

I called back today and we finally set an appointment for 13th May.

Was it luck? Who knows but I like to think I made my luck here but actually taking action and doing what most people hate doing.

Persistence! Consistency! Ability!

Thank goodness most cold callers are so terrible, the call never gets started off right and ends abruptly.

A market can be saturated. So what? Most sales are made in the salesperson's mind. Funny how the good ones get a consistent revenue every month--their comfort zone won't let them do any less.

I personally don't worry about the competition...let them do what they're doing (usually badly); I'll be here long after they're gone. And so will your friend here.

I would thanks this 10 times if I could!