NFIB

Generate Business by Making Cold Calls One Morning a Week
10/ 28/ 2002

by Jeffrey Moses

Does the thought of cold-calling potential customers give you goose bumps? If so, you're not alone. Most small business owners hate the thought of calling strangers and trying to convince them to buy. But the rewards of cold-calling can be tremendous for any growing business.

Set aside just one morning each week for making cold calls. Schedule a two-hour block for yourself in which to make calls, preferably from 9 to 11 a.m. People are usually less involved in their daily schedules early in the day. It gets more difficult to reach people later in the day. People are often tired and busy trying to wrap up their day to go home.

Setting aside this relatively brief time each week gets you on a schedule. Plan ahead so that your two hours can be solely dedicated to calling. The day or night before, create a list of people to be called. When making the calls, go right down the list, calling one after another, jotting notes about the results of each call (whether you reached the person, left a message, what you talked about, when to call back, etc.).

Decide before you start calling whether you'll leave a message when the person with whom you wish to speak isn't available. If you do leave messages (either by voice mail or receptionists), you'll need to have a system to quickly look up names to see the companies, corporate titles and any special offers or messages you had for the people calling you back. In general, leaving messages makes cold-calling more difficult. But if most people you call aren't available, you may have no choice.

Always know exactly what you want to say before starting your calls. If you work from a script, practice it beforehand. If you have specific points or items of information you need to give to each person, have these handy so you can refer to them on every call.

However, you should never dive into a sales pitch when you reach a person. Introduce yourself. Ask if you're interrupting something important, and offer to call back if you are. Don't alienate customers by reading a pre-written sales talk from the second they pick up the phone. Speak slowly and give the person on the other end a chance to break in with questions or comments. As with any sales presentation, the more you find out about your customer, the better chance you'll have of making a sale.

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