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Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

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Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#41

Post by 52-6F-62 »

plinkplonk wrote: post #16

I hate getting cold calls. So I avoid doing it to other people. Yes that makes me less of a salesman. So be it. Tangent: In India you can report unsolicited sales calls to a central (government) authority, where you can sign up to get on a "Do Not Disturb" list, and get any sales caller who ignores this fined, and eventually get his number disconnected etc. The system isn't perfect, and there are some impressive hack…

Another one that seems increasingly prominent in the tech/web space is cold email newsletter subscriptions.

I occasionally receive emails from lists specific to trendy-looking SaaS/PaaS products that I've never even heard of. Just the same the emails will start rolling in telling me that my wait was up and their launch is just beginning and "come grab a promo-price for one month" if I sign on for a year, etc.

When I first received anything like that, I thought maybe I'd just forgotten that I'd seen it and asked for updates— but no. After seeing more upon more, I realized that I was just getting spammed. Except none of it gets filtered out, because they don't carry the markings of what I'll lazily classify as 'traditional' spam.

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#42

Post by overcast »

goatherders wrote: post #34
908087 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cold calling people you have no previous relationship with is a dick move. Lenny just helps some people return the favor. 419 scammers are "just trying to earn a living" too.

I call people I don't know all the time because I have something valuable to offer and want to share that with them. It's no different than any form of advertising....its just more direct. Put another way, if I could call you today and offer you a service or product that solved a big problem you have for a fair renumeration you would be thankful.

Is it a whitepaper? I bet it's a whitepaper that I absolutely can NOT live without.

Unless you're purposely hiding yourself from the internet(I don't want to deal with you anyhow). Then why can't I just discover you on Google for my target?

Or are you selling me something that I had no idea I needed?

I will guarantee that for anyone who calls me unsolicited to sell something, I will do everything in my power never to buy your products.

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#43

Post by maxxxxx »

overthemoon wrote: post #37
goatherders wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say to ask. I said to try and get them to tell you. Big difference.

And people say they hate cold callers! Why could this be??

A lot of people will be very happy to talk to you if you are not a complete a...h.... and offer something that interests them.

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#44

Post by overcast »

goatherders wrote: post #29
overcast wrote: post #24

Cold calls like will likely get forwarded to our internal extension that relays to "Lenny". The longest we've had someone on the line talking to the bot is currently at 8:37 on the leaderboard. :D

I don't understand this. Say you're not interested and move on. Being a dick to someone trying to earn a living says a lot about your character. And I promise, the sales rep doesn't care. Their job is dials and talk time. Your bot is helping them reach their daily quota.

So you're already promising you don't care about the person you're trying to sell to? Hooooo boy, where do I sign up for your product!?

To respond to your first statement, telemarketers don't take no, or not interested for an answer.

You contradict yourself, first you say I'm being a dick, but then you say you don't care. So which is it?

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#45

Post by 52-6F-62 »

908087 wrote: post #30

Cold calling me is a guaranteed way to prevent yourself from ever getting my business, and I know I'm not alone in that. My subconscious automatically tags companies that cold call as scams.

I have to say I fall into this bucket.

Most of the cold calls I get are, in fact, scams— so to save myself agony and time-out-of-life, that's the category it goes into for me.

--

Two shorts:

Number one:

I regularly get rotating numbers calling from scam credit collection agencies (second-tier, purchased bad loans allegedly). I regularly now get called for somebody who isn't me, and they're always threatening. Though my favourite was receiving a threatening call once about 'urgent business matters' that pertained to me owing a significant amount of money in outstanding debt to the company I currently work for, and hold accounts with. Ridiculous. That's the camp cold calls fall under for me.

Number two, and so much more infuriating:

a major telecom company held a sales campaign in the lobby of my apartment building. For a week! Every day when I arrived home I would be confronted by two or three sales people to try and convince me to change internet providers. And god they were persistent. Even worse, two of the four elevators were down so most of the people in the building were sitting ducks who couldn't very well escape. Couldn't even deal with the doorman to pick up a package without one sidling up to try and sell to me while I was in a conversation.

Just thinking about it grinds me. If I need something, I will look to buy it. If I recognize inefficiency in my day or workflow or whatever—I will pursue a solution. If I am unhappy with how much I'm paying for internet or some other service, I will try to find something better.

What I don't want is to be confronted and put on the spot when I'm not actively seeking to do business.

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#46

Post by alexbeloi »

lefstathiou wrote: post #20

Cold calling is an extremely effective strategy for us. Most important lesson I learned building our SDR program is that nobody natively likes cold calling so to do it well, it needs to be their only job. When I had account managers that had to do their own cold calling they greatly underperformed. When I had someone whose only job was to cold call and book demos which were then closed by account managers one person…

> the number of people that don’t mind (cold calls) statistically out number the ones who do. We have tons of data to support this. I highly recommend evaluating this as a strategy in any B2B customer acquisition program.

I don't doubt it's a good strategy, but I doubt most people actually "don't mind". What kind of data do you have to support your claim?

If you replace "don't mind" with "tolerate", I would find it more believable.

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#47

Post by chockZ »

EtDybNuvCu wrote: post #25

If you cold-call me, I will spend the first few minutes feeding you false information. I will deliberately drag out the process, and at about 12min into the call, I will confess that I've been faking everything. At this point, I will attempt to tilt you so that you lose your temper and start cursing at me. On a really good day, you'll be so angry that your manager will have to come onto the call. I will feed them a f…

Two thoughts on this:

1. You sound like a douchebag.

2. I don't believe you.

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#48

Post by gnicholas »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #41
plinkplonk wrote: post #16

I hate getting cold calls. So I avoid doing it to other people. Yes that makes me less of a salesman. So be it. Tangent: In India you can report unsolicited sales calls to a central (government) authority, where you can sign up to get on a "Do Not Disturb" list, and get any sales caller who ignores this fined, and eventually get his number disconnected etc. The system isn't perfect, and there are some impressive hack…

Another one that seems increasingly prominent in the tech/web space is cold email newsletter subscriptions. I occasionally receive emails from lists specific to trendy-looking SaaS/PaaS products that I've never even heard of. Just the same the emails will start rolling in telling me that my wait was up and their launch is just beginning and "come grab a promo-price for one month" if I sign on for a year, etc. When I…

What's the most effective response in this situation? Officially opting out and then marking the "I never signed up for this list" button? I've wondered what threshold an emailer has to hit before MailChimp or whomever will give them the boot. Perhaps it's just better to mark as spam in Gmail or in your mail client so that their future email will be more likely to be marked as spam (for you and for everyone else).

I've also wondered if there was a way to connect email spammers to each other. Like send an email to two spammers who had both emailed me and try to engage them with each other. I haven't figured out an elegant/useful way to do this yet.

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#49

Post by 52-6F-62 »

gnicholas wrote: post #48
52-6F-62 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another one that seems increasingly prominent in the tech/web space is cold email newsletter subscriptions. I occasionally receive emails from lists specific to trendy-looking SaaS/PaaS products that I've never even heard of. Just the same the emails will start rolling in telling me that my wait was up and their launch is just beginning and "come grab a promo-price for one month" if I sign on for a year, etc. When I…

What's the most effective response in this situation? Officially opting out and then marking the "I never signed up for this list" button? I've wondered what threshold an emailer has to hit before MailChimp or whomever will give them the boot. Perhaps it's just better to mark as spam in Gmail or in your mail client so that their future email will be more likely to be marked as spam (for you and for everyone else). I'…

You're probably right about marking them spam. Often I'm just trying to be quick so I unsubscribe, check this "never signed up" option if it exists, and carry on.

It would be fun to toy with them, but really I just wonder how they think others will look favourably upon their business when they try to make a sale that way. Maybe not everybody feels the same way, but it just seems cheap. Then again, my cell provider just initiated texting me advertisements randomly so I guess if it can be done, it will be done...

Re: Cold calling for my startup and how I learned to embrace the challenge

#50

Post by WalterGR »

whataretensors wrote: post #18

Cold calling is not for me. I hate even answering email or inbound communication. One thing I've realized working on my own is that you can do anything you want. You don't have to do the thing you hate the most to make progress. It will feel draining, feel like more work, and be less productive than focusing on where you are strong.

You've made a living being self-employed and by doing exactly what you want to do?

Is that it?

How do you accomplish that without communicating with others?

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