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Ask HN: Do you cold call?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#41

Post by hiharryhere »

hdivider wrote: post #3

I've been wondering about this myself. In a typical, successful B2B cold call, how does the conversation actually go?

Typically a cold call script is just a qualifying call, ask a few questions, see what problems they face and if they would benefit from the product. If they agree to a followup then it's great to schedule a followup email and call them again in after some period.

What we've found is that it's impractical to think that you'd close a sales call in one hit. A combination of phone calls and emails is important and providing customers with something of value before you push the sale is really effective. E.g. whitepapers, videos, blog posts, webinars etc.

I work for a company called GoodCall (http://www.goodcall.io) at the moment, which facilitates thousands of calls each week to businesses. We're building a tool to help businesses devise an effective call script and sales funnel and A/B test different scripts and sales processes. It also shows you your cost-per-acquisition, something that is really easy to measure with Google Adwords, but hard to do with inbound sales.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#42

Post by ErrantX »

Not directly, no. But I work for a company that has a sales department that does cold calls.

Interestingly, organic traffic performs better than cold calling. By a decent margin. But, on the road sales blows both out of the water. Obviously.

So if your looking at marketing strategy, someone on the road might be a good investment (depending on the product and customer base).

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#43

Post by simonbarker87 »

"Hi, I'm really not sure who I need to speak to but if I could take 30 seconds to explain who I am and what I'm looking for do you think we could work out if it's worth me speaking to anyone? Would that be ok?"

"Great thanks. My names is X, and my company does Y. Does it sound like there might be someone who it would be good for me to talk to? If it's a no then that is absolutely fine." Then go quiet.

This is the best opener I have used and it gets me a name and my call forwarded 80% of the time - which is the main aim of a cold call, if you're going in with getting a sale in mind it will always feel like a massive mountain.

Also, if in the 30 second explanation you can get something about them in first it works even better. Also, don't go over your 30 seconds.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#44

Post by graeme »

I don't do cold calling much, but the few times I've done it have produced almost everything good I've ever achieved professionally has come from a few well targeted cold calls or emails

I'm an LSAT instructor, and author of LSAT explanations. Here's the result of my cold calling

1. I contacted a small company in Toronto that did LSAT and SAT instruction. I'm in Montreal. I called and asked the secretary if they would like to be in Montreal.

She handed me to the founder, who said yes, interviewed me, and I'm still doing work for them. I've traveled the country teaching courses, added new tests to my skillset, and been able to build a private tutoring practice based on things I learned from them.

2. I emailed the guy who runs LSAT Blog, the major blog in my niche. As a result of a few back and forth emails, he asked me if I'd like to write LSAT explanations he could sell.

This led to royalties from him, and manuscripts I later turned into print books, which pay me even more royalties. I now sell the explanations through other online affiliates as well, and turned them into my own site

3. I emailed the founder of another LSAT prep company, just to say hi, after his company experienced a setback.

This led to them bringing me on board for a six month term. I learned a lot, and now they refer me tutoring students.

I think there may be others. But given that these three are 90% of my business success, I probably wouldn't even BE in business if it weren't for cold calls.

The key to all of them was that I was somehow relevant to the people I contacted. They could help me, and I could help them.

The more targeted, the better.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#45

Post by philmcc »

I decided I wanted to get into independent software development. I found a company ($1mm revenue) I'd done a little bit of business with (unrelated)

I sent them a mockup of what I thought their web-page should be (4 hours of work?), one meeting later I'd locked down a nice 5 figure contract to develop an internal app (they decided they didn't want a web page) and it looks to become an ongoing relationship.

The web page, I later found out, is what really hooked them, despite them not wanting it ultimately.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#46

Post by pedalpete »

I did a little bit of cold calling when I was running a start-up. It's supposed to be really intimidating, and I have to say that before each call, I'd take a few minutes to warm myself up and think 'the worst they can do is say no'.

However, I went into EVERY call, knowing the person I was calling. I'd research via LinkedIn, and find out everything I could about that person, and the business.

I was amazed at how many times I'd contact somebody and they'd already heard of my business, and were keen to do business with me. At the same time, more often than not, things didn't work out. But as some have said the key is to know what you're selling, and you're not selling your product, you're selling what your product can do for them. Make sure you're able to speak to that. "I thought it would be great if you guys had x,y,z and could do a,b,c for your customers. It would ease problem a for you, and I'd estimate, based on what I know of your company, increased revenues of y".

Make it easy for them, hand them your business on a silver platter. Like I said, most times you won't get the sale, but you'll make more contacts in the industry, they may recommend you to other potential partners, or who knows.

Don't think "I'm going to sell them", think "I'm going to help them".

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#47

Post by smelliot415 »

Yes. Building out a list of pre-qualified contacts, then "cold calling" by means of telephone or email is one of the best ways to get in front of people that your product/service can help. The key is to be respectful of everyone's time and come to the table with something of value. And of course, pushiness or over-persistence is never appreciated. Also, "cold call" doesn't mean "blind call". The sales person should have some notion of the prospect's business, their role in that organization, and exactly where this product or service might fit in.

To those that hate receiving cold calls, remember: most of these sales development folks that call leads are fresh out of school and simply trying to gain a foothold in a hyper-competitive space. Don't let them waste your time if that's what they're doing, but have a heart!

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#48

Post by wrath »

A company that I started in the early 2000s used cold calling to generate leads. It was very affective to generate solid qualified leads. We were lucky that we go an experience cold caller that trained other younger sales people. Having someone (either an agency or a person in-house) helping you is key to your success.

IMO, a good cold caller will work very hard to get to the right person, if that person exist. They will be committed and relentless to generating the lead for their sales team. They will work on their script to a point where they have answers for most types of questions. They will use the tools that they are provided (e.g. salesforce) to ensure to keep a log of what they've done and their todo list. And they will be in constant contact with the sales team to ensure that all information is provided back to them in a structured manner.

If you think that cold callers are waisting your time, simply try and tell them that you are not interested or point them to a different person who may be interested (if that person exists). There's no point for a caller to place a call to someone who has no interest in buying their offering, that's just a waste of time. Cold callers are "not" telemarketers.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#49

Post by na85 »

smokeyj wrote: post #24
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.

> That's the definition of spam. According to who?

Well, according to wikipedia for starters.

Re: Ask HN: Do you cold call?

#50

Post by bellaccione »

I cold call for a living. By cold calling I mean 40 outbound calls and 15 emails or LinkedIn InMails on a regular outreach day.

Result: 6 figure income on a 70k base, for 4 years.

I also do Customer Development-type emails for my own side business, and for others (as-a-service).

Summary: it works. If you learn how to do it right.

Top tools: Stephan Schiffman's Telesales and Basho Email System.

Also: for cold calling to work you must have something of value, that solves a real pain/problem. Not something ephemeral like an app that, say, splits the dinner bill amongst friends.

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