Finally! Proof that cold calling doesn't work!

Cold calling works... cold calling doesn't work. Up until now no supporting evidence from a credible source has been put forward for either position. Up until now. Let's put this issue to rest once and for all. Can someone finally provide proof that cold calling doesn't work? -Calvin

I had an appointment fall through today so I stopped off at a hospital that is actually an inside account sales list. (I am still the capital equipment rep for this account)

I dropped into the O.R. on a cold call and asked some questions oriented around a $9,000 piece of equipment I sell. I found out that they are budgeted to purchase my competitors product and they didn't even know we had a similar product. I got them to agree not to order the other product until they trialed mine. I have an appointment to go back.

I guess I mucked up the cold calling doesn't work theory.

Good Selling -Sell4alivn

You are asking the wrong question. Without a doubt cold calling will lead to appointments and sales. The real question is whether it is the most effective prospecting tool available to you. Your best bet is to create a prospecting plan that includes calling, snail mail, email, faxing, face 2 face introductions and referrals. Then work your plan and figure out what gets you the best results for the time and money spent. Then do more of that! -jdedwa11

I think you're experience is an example of the rule not the exception. msnwnk;

I wholeheartedly agree that a multi-prong marketing strategy is called for but that's another thread.

Opponents of cold calling have said that cold calling doesn't work. This is an opportunity for those people to provide the supporting evidence that backs their position. -Calvin

Cold calling works better for new inventions than products or services that have already flooded the market.

For new inventions, people will more likely to hear about it or even fix an appointment to talk about it. Curiosity is part of human nature (well at least for most of us).

So that depends on the type of business the salesperson is in. -Max_Gwee

I would tend to agree. -Calvin

Calvin you should contact all of the sales trainers who say cold calling doesn't work and ask them to plead their case. I don't think they will but it's worth a try. -Frankie

Even with proof to the contrary I can say that cold calling works for me. It really is amazing how many people say that cold calling doesn't work while at the same time so many people say it does. It's not that hard to prove or disprove. Send in a pro and see what happens. shds; -Houston

seriously what kind of thread is this.....proof that cold calling doesnt work...??


thats like the dumbest thing ive read on this site so far..

or course cold calling works ...and will work for worst of salepeople....as long as they do enough of it.....

some products create much more instant interest than others....but to question whether cold calling words is like questioning whether its possible to learn a foreign language.... obviously possible ...but you have to have a desire to get results....you have to focus to do really good

its all about confidence..voice inflection and body language...

the person who tells you that cold calling doesnt work probably hasnt tried much if any...and if so ....they were probly selling boogers or something... lol

whoever tells you cold calling dont work is definitely not someone to take sales advice from....

there is no debate....cold calling works....its not like a UFO or something i mean comon...that could be a little more controversial...

yeah i mean cold calling will be difficult if you have no skill whatsoever....but any idiot can talk to 1000 people an find a lay down sale some where there... -coolmtn

a sales trainer that will tell you cold calling doesnt work...????

isnt that like the biggest oxymoron...? -coolmtn

With all due respect, Calvin,
Your premise is incorrect. It's a blanket statement that is insupportable. What proof can you give that all cold calling doesn't work.

First, define 'cold calling'. Do you mean calling someone on the phone without a prior introduction? Do you mean going right to the prospect's home or office? Do you judge the value of cold calling on getting an appointment or making a sale?

I started my training career by teaching real estate agents, life insurance agents, home improvement salespeople, auto sale people, bankers, printing salespeople and a host of other industries how to make cold calls ... on the phone or in person ... to get appointments so they could make presentations.

IMHO, the main reason cold calling, on the phone or in person,
doesn't work well, is that salespeople don't learn the language of making appointments, the language of qualifying, the language of making presentations well enough or completely enough to survive or do well.

Example #1: I taught Mike, a new real estate agent, what to say to call 'by-owners' and get appointments. The next week he called 50 'by-owners' and got 33 appointments. However, nobody gave him a listing. Did the cold calling not work (33 appointments from 50 calls is 66% success) or was he simply deficient in the next step ... make a compelling presentation? (At that time, I only taught prospecting ... nothing else.)

Example # 2. A Toronto real estate agent (I forget his name) was struggling with getting appointments and listings from 'by-owners'. He said it took him 10 calls to get an appointment, 5 appointments to get a listing, and three listings to get one to sell. That means he had to make 150 calls to get a paycheck. It worked out that each call made him $26.

This time, I taught him not only the exact same language I taught Mike to make appointments, I also taught him the exact language to qualify prospects, to demonstrate why 'by-owners' statistically lose money selling privately, the exact language to persuade sellers to list with him, and the exact language to help the sellers select the listing price that would result in the most money and the fastest sale. By the end of the next year, he could make 10 cold calls, get six appointments, five listings and have four sell. Now, he got 4 paychecks from every 10 cold calls. Mathematically, each cold call was worth $1,600. thmbp2;

So Calvin, here's my proof that cold calling works. Where is your proof that it doesen't? xerm; -Jerry Bresser

Cold calling rarely works for sales reps who believe cold calling doesn't work.

Cold calling frequently works for sales reps who believe cold calling will work.

Must be some kind of weird universal karma thing or something.... :dun -WhyZeeGuy

People are always looking to justify that 'cold calling doesn't work'. It is usually the people who are not good at cold calling that are looking to justify that since it is not effective for them, it is simply 'not effective'. They can't handle the fact that perhaps, how they do their cold calling is the problem.

Cold calling should be a part of the prospecting mix for any salesperson. Networking can take a long time to deliver results; marketing and mail campaigns can be costly and are difficult to create statistics for ROI of the money spent. Cold calling can be managed by the investment in time and the results seen, along with keeping statistics of the appointments that result from the effort and the closed sales that occur.

You never have to stand in line to make a cold call....you just need to know how to do it effectively. -Paulette Halpern

Im just reading through replies here and can't believe the convo...

about whether cold calling works...like theres a big debate or something...

any salesperson who says cold calling doesnt work is not really a salesperson...they are just blowing smoke.

I mean i made $3600 the other day from a couple cold calls...a guy i know makes about 500k maybe 1 mil a year just cold calling in the field.....selling insulation...funny how a person can let you into their home and buy something for $3-10,000 within 30-90 minutes....

or how about talking someone into allowing you to sell their time share for them and charging them from $500-1000 on a credit card within 15 minutes of cold calling them on the phone...

or better yet...homeopathic human growth hormone...bunch of bs...but within 15-30 minutes of meeting them on the phone you can get someone to give you a credit card for $400 -$800 sometimes more....

is that proof enough..i mean provided that what i say is true...

i mean cold calling doesnt work....LMAO...right now there are thousands upon thousands of telemarketing rooms here in the USA using cold calling to sell a wide range of products...

when i sold $2000 vacuums (kirby) door to door...i sold 5 in day cold calling.....in fact on a crew with several other salespeople all setting appointments to come back later to show their product....i just "knocked in" on the spot and was always the top dealer in my organization....so maybe its better than a warm call...theres something to be said for the surprise element as well. -coolmtn

Cold Calling DOES work. It all depends on how you do it. Proof...

In my last live cold calling sales training workshop, we set appointments with the CFO's at:

A NY Credit Union

Magotteaux in Belgium

Vzajemna Life Insurance in Solvenia

Best regards,

Ron -accelerated-sales

What exactly is a 'cold call'? As I define it, a cold call is a phone call or walk in, when the person being asked for is not expecting you. It doesn't matter if you got their name as a 'lead' from networking or a referral from existing client or from a list. If they don't expect the call, it's as a cold call.

No matter who they are, you're interrupting them; if you get to them and you need effective conversational tools to get their attention and keep it to 'take the conversation to the next step'.

Then you have to be sure of what the next step is, in your world. Most of the time it is a face to face appointment. Not always in some cases.

Whether the cold call results in a sale (not every end result has an immediate monetary value), will be determined by how well the sales person handles the process after a positive 'cold call' happens. But if a positive initial interaction doesn't happen, the next step doesn't either.

Client of mine USED to send out hundreds of letters to marketing executives and their presidents at mid to large credit unions. If they were lucky, they got 1 interested call in a year. We changed the approach to cold calling on the Presidents of the credit unions, and they added 9 new clients in a year. Sure the President did refer the sales person to the marketing executive in the first call, but the end result was a business deal put together.

Were those cold calls effective? -Paulette Halpern

I wouldn't hold your breath. Claims like cold calling doesn't work survive in the shadows not in the light. -Houston

Cold calling works. People who say it doesn't are people who don't know how to use it and/or don't do it very well.

To be successful, your list must be highly targeted and you need a message that will resonate with your prospects. Bottom line, this is a communication skill. If everyone with whom you speak says, "I'm not interested," you're not saying anything interesting. -Wendy Weiss

You hit the nail on the head, Wendy! I agree.

Skip -Skip Anderson

I will agree, that your message has to be meaningful to your prospect. Saying something 'interesting' is not necessarily going to get their attention.....pointing out a 'problem' that the prospect has, that 'other companies or people have had that your product or service can resolve', will get their attention. Then they may be willing to focus for a minute or two or 5 on it, so you can determine what to do next. -Paulette Halpern

Guess you need to stay close to your customers - have a territory calling plan so that you can service your accounts on a regular basis -colly

I am a Senior Advertising Sales person for a Fox and a CW affiliate which means I have been doing B2B sales for many years. I am the local direct queen in our sales staff and do you want to know how I won and continue to wear that CROWN? COLD CALLS!!!! -MPrince

You are asking the wrong question. Without a doubt cold calling will lead to appointments and sales. The real question is whether it is the most effective prospecting tool available to you. Your best bet is to create a prospecting plan that includes calling, snail mail, email, faxing, face 2 face introductions and referrals. Then work your plan and figure out what gets you the best results for the time and money spent. Then do more of that! -cocosan

A client asked me last week, when we were going to be doing our next "No Pressure Prospecting Workshop" (our secret title for our cold call workshops), and I asked him why.

His reply was simply, "I struggled making cold calls until I learned how to do them effectively." It seems he has a few friends who have gone into business in the last year, and they are frustrated making cold calls the way they are.

He went on to elaborate, that he attributes much of his business growth to cold calls. Of course he does get a lot of referrals now, but he can trace 'many, many' clients back to an original cold call he made. Even today, he sets aside an hour a day to introduce himself to new people at companies, via cold calling, using our No Pressure Prospecting Process.

Effective cold calling starts with a belief it works and then finding a strategy that can help you be successful at it.

For those in S. Florida, we are holding a No Pressure Prospecting Workshop on May 21, 2009. It is on the Sales Practice Calendar. -Paulette Halpern

You know.... I'm surprised at ALL OF YOU!

I can get sucked into almost anything without too much provocation... like the time... ok well never mind, not too proud of that anyway... but for YOU ALL ... I mean come on .... ;bg

Have any of you NOT made a cold call?

I feel vindicated actually..... sn;

Aloha.... shds; ;bg -rattus58

Is it really that the people who say "cold calling doesnt work" just don't know how to make it work for them?

Personally, I find that cold calling is the only way to launch a new service into a new market where there are no referals (as no one knows you or your offering).

Better to have a fully rounded prospecting plan as mentioned previously. Don't leave out cold calling, refine your approach, list and practice. -Julian

Calvin,

It seems that regardless of what is stated on this thread, you have the mindset that cold calling does not work, and therefore, will dispute anyone who says otherwise. -Kelley Robertson

even without a good sales script, cold calling works. Part of sales success is the "number of games" theory....meet lots of people then statistically there will be prospects who need our products/solutions.

It is very interesting that competitors sales person did the cold calling (educating the prospects about the products/services) and he just gave up, then I came (cold calling in the same area), met the the prospect and he was so happy to meet me because he wanted to buy the products but cannot find the competitors' sales person who previously cold calling in the area.

Cold calling always work. -wiriadinata

Cold Calling by phone is cost effective, however there are periods when it appears to be like digging a hole with your head. This month is a particular example. It's not that people are on vacation, its just that they wont take sales calls at all... -Julian

I am re-posting this for this thread!

I love to Cold Call. It energizes me!

Cold Calling 101!

I love to Cold Call. It energizes me whether I get a yes or a no. I am not talking about Cold Calling on the phone. I am talking about grabbing a hand full of business cards and doing it the old fashioned way, face to face. For me visual works best. I need to see the hustle and bustle, or not, going on at the business I am calling on. I need to see the reaction and body language of my prospect. There are thousands of Cold Calling ideas out there. Some are good ones and some not so good but after twenty-five years of Sales and Cold Calling face to face Cold Calling has worked best for me. The prospect can see I am a living breathing person; not just a sales voice on the phone. It is also harder for the prospect to say no to an appointment when he is looking me in the eye. Another advantage in face to face Cold Calling happens if the prospect is not there. It gives me a wonderful opportunity to begin a relationship not only with the gatekeeper but other employees. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get to know the employees of the business you are calling on. They can be your most important advocates. Gain their trust and you are that much closer to closing the deal. These advocates can tell you What, When, Where and How about your prospect. They many times offer up important information you will need to know about the person that holds the purse strings. Never underestimate the influence of theses people, the gatekeeper and other employees.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that you never make a Cold Call over the phone. You should use the phone and use it often. As a matter of fact you should use every tool in your sales tool box, the phone, internet, referrals, networking, face to face, even a megaphone on the street corner as long as you are not arrested. For many sales people the telephone works best. We just need to find and develop the sales tools best suited for our personal skills and use them often and with ATTITUDE!. -MPrince

1 The number one reason why people leave sales is "rejection." Everyone knows this.

2 So, how attractive would it be if you read that a speaker was offering a seminar called, "Never Cold-Call Again." Or "Learn Why Cold-Calling Doesn't Work?" (Implying there is an alternate available)

3 Since the cold-calling environment is responsible for initiating rejection, having not to cold call and still make a living is very attractive.

4 The alternative is usually called "relationship" selling and/or making "warm" calls. Others involve marketing techniques based on shared interest etc. I am sure there are other derivations.

5 Depending on what you sell and to who, you run out of these "warm" and "relationship" calls and must inevitably resort to cold-calling.

6 Also, just because you know someone better than a stranger, that does not mean he or she will buy.

7 In fact, I have had "warm" and "relationship" calls be less fruitful than a cold call. Since I know this person, I will not push a "no" further than the relationship can withstand.

8 Now, if your product or service is repeatable whereby a client base can grow yes, cold calling will not always be necessary. In fact, I had a sales route of over 1,000 solid accounts I saw every 3 months. Once this was build, I cold called only if I wanted to.

9 From my experience, cold-calling is very effective and essential at various points in a sales career.

I hope that helps -John Voris

This thread appears to have run its course and is now closed. -Jeff Blackwell