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Ask HN: Do you cold call?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#31

Post by davecyen »

DON'T: Be scripted. Ask stupid questions that are supposed to be leading, like "Do you want to increase your revenue and cut costs?". Go straight into pitch mode. Call them so often that it pisses them off.

DO: Keep it brief, don't give the full pitch. Ask for 15 minutes on the calendar to explain in more detail. Ask if you caught them at a good time. If not, ask when would be better to call back. Leave a voicemail. Be casual and genuinely excited to talk to them, like hearing from an old friend. Send 3-4 sentence email, both for intro and to follow up ("My voicemail" subject lines get good open rates). Call multiple people at different levels in the organization (and ask if they're the right person to speak to).

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#32

Post by bhartzer »

Cold calling can work if you are selling the right thing. But you still have to qualify people ahead of time. If you're selling a domain name, then finding companies that might be interested in buying (like the ones already bidding on the keyword) is a way of qualifying for selling domains.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#33

Post by smoyer »

morganherlocker wrote: post #25
dsr_ wrote: post #13

I get cold-called all the time. Here are the mistakes people make: 1. They waste my time (which is also a waste of their time). That is, they are selling something that I don't need, generally because they don't know anything about me. If you're cold calling me, you should have read through our company's web site already. It's only fifteen pages or so; you can skip the press releases. You don't know what business I'm…

I have been dodging calls for the past 3 years from a company that makes Java profiling tools. I am not and have never been a Java dev.

JRebel and I had a long-distance phone relationship too ... I stopped by their booth at JavaOne and explained in detail why I literally couldn't use their product and they stopped calling - why should they waste their own time. I did however explain that I understood their use-case and would call them back if I ever needed their product.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#34

Post by napoleond »

mindcrime wrote: post #27
na85 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume from the way you worded your response that you are the one sending "cold email." That's spam. That's the definition of spam. You and your company are spammers. You need to stop.

You and your company are spammers. You need to stop. Yeah, I felt that way at one time as well. Idealism is a good thing. But it doesn't pay the bills. And, pedantry over definitions aside, most people these days seem to think of "spam" more as completely off-topic crap, phishing messages, advertisements for illegal products, etc., etc. I don't know many people, in a B2B context, who actually object to receiving cold…

I don't know many people, in a B2B context, who actually object to receiving cold email IF they fit the criteria above

As a person in charge of both buying and selling B2B services/products, I couldn't agree more. I absolutely abhor and detest long cold emails from strangers who want me to give them money, but I don't mind receiving short, snappy emails from people who have something to offer me (and have done enough homework to think I might want it). The former are adding work to my pile (if I bothered to read their long stupid emails) while the latter are taking work off my pile (saves me time researching the space--99 times out of 100 I'll go with the guy who has already made an effort towards establishing rapport over the strangers with the nice website).

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#35

Post by dclara »

mindcrime wrote: post #27
na85 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume from the way you worded your response that you are the one sending "cold email." That's spam. That's the definition of spam. You and your company are spammers. You need to stop.

You and your company are spammers. You need to stop. Yeah, I felt that way at one time as well. Idealism is a good thing. But it doesn't pay the bills. And, pedantry over definitions aside, most people these days seem to think of "spam" more as completely off-topic crap, phishing messages, advertisements for illegal products, etc., etc. I don't know many people, in a B2B context, who actually object to receiving cold…

I really appreciate your posts, although they are not short.

It takes more than a moment to read, but as long as it provides relevant information, it should be ok.

The rest is really about a pattern or manner for people to communicate. Somehow in some pattern, things are easier to be accepted than other manners. It's very hard to tell.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#36

Post by qwerty_asdf »

na85 wrote: post #21
mindcrime wrote: post #18

It's more "cold email" for us, but yes to some extent. I think some of the keys are to be: 1. brief 2. relevant 3. professional I think in terms of the cold email pitches I get, and think of which ones I'm willing to consider and which ones I don't. Given that, my thinking is something like this: Regarding 1 - If you send me a rambling 6,000 word manuscript, I'm not reading it, and I probably will hit "delete" in aft…

I assume from the way you worded your response that you are the one sending "cold email." That's spam. That's the definition of spam. You and your company are spammers. You need to stop.

Don't worry about the downvotes. I don't care about what the others say. I agree with you.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#37

Post by auxbuss »

kaliblack wrote: post #12

Advice: don't cold call hoping to sell. Unlike inbound methods, you have no idea where they are in the buying cycle. It could be years before you close, so don't bother trying. Instead call to get information. Most people want to help. Ask them questions about things relevant to your service to qualify them. Ask them if they want information about your service and collect an email address. Add them to a nurture campa…

This is great advice, imo.

The key being "most people want to help". The best sales guy I've yet known used to demand of me to "Just ask! People will tell you". It's true. Don't be a pushy ass, just ask, and retreat if someone isn't forthcoming.

Most people want to help.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#38

Post by blhack »

It's very immature of me, and I'll own that, but the number one thing you can do to get me to never, ever do business with your company is to cold call me.

It's just reeks of unprofessionalism, in my opinion. If you don't care about me enough to respect my time, then why on earth would you care about me enough to provide me with a good customer service experience after you've already hooked me?

I've had companies call me before claiming to work at google, claiming that my company isn't doing enough /google something/ and that they can help! If I pay them $foo, then I will be number in the google!

It's really annoying. This is why things like this: http://www.itslenny.com/ (which is hilarious, btw) exist.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#39

Post by hiharryhere »

logvol wrote: post #23

Definitely. Outbound sales was how we validated our business model before we wrote a single line of code. There is so much you can learn. Outbound sales, be it cold calls, cold email or warm intros, are very powerful. Keep in mind "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". Don't waste people's time. Ask for permission to speak. Listen. Recommended reading: Jason Lemkin http://www.quora.com/Jason-M.-Lemkin How Gui…

This is really interesting. Validating your idea is so important, and unless you know a bunch of people who have X problem or are in X industry and aren't going to just 'be nice' about your idea, then you do need to ring around.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#40

Post by morganherlocker »

smoyer wrote: post #33
morganherlocker wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been dodging calls for the past 3 years from a company that makes Java profiling tools. I am not and have never been a Java dev.

JRebel and I had a long-distance phone relationship too ... I stopped by their booth at JavaOne and explained in detail why I literally couldn't use their product and they stopped calling - why should they waste their own time. I did however explain that I understood their use-case and would call them back if I ever needed their product.

That is precisely who it was.
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