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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

#51

Post by InclinedPlane »

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.

> "Being a dick to someone trying to earn a living says a lot about your character."

Wow, you hit the nail right on the head. Being a dick to someone trying to earn a living does say a lot about your character.

Cold calling someone is being a dick to someone trying to earn a living. Period.

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

#52

Post by WingH »

sremani wrote: post #23
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…

Are you an entrepreneur? Have you built a business? When things are done to extreme sure.. the slimy salesman or the spammy robo-calls are a nuisance. Take a list of the world's 400 billionaires and ask them who has NOT Cold-Called? My guess is its less than 10. Or to put it another may, most successful people Cold-called, their "heros" or experts in their field or successful people in town etc. So I disagree the way…

You can be an entrepreneur and still hate receiving cold calls.

Just like you can be a dentist and hate getting tooth fillings.

Or you can be a surgeon, and hate having surgery.

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

#53

Post by sctb »

chockZ wrote: post #47
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.

You're going to have to please up the civilly and substantiveness in order to meet the guidelines here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#55

Post by amorphid »

Nullabillity wrote: post #28
sremani wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you an entrepreneur? Have you built a business? When things are done to extreme sure.. the slimy salesman or the spammy robo-calls are a nuisance. Take a list of the world's 400 billionaires and ask them who has NOT Cold-Called? My guess is its less than 10. Or to put it another may, most successful people Cold-called, their "heros" or experts in their field or successful people in town etc. So I disagree the way…

Yes, all cold calling is horrible and unethical. Whether or not it works is besides the point.

I like getting contacted about things that don't stink. Some things don't sell themselves.

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

#56

Post by whataretensors »

WalterGR wrote: post #50
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?

Yes. I find projects that do not require much human communication. Some is fine.

You always have to do things you don't like when building a business. I'm just saying don't make something you don't like part of your scaling strategy.

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

#57

Post by istorical »

goatherders wrote: post #8
rpedela wrote: post #5

Are there any good resources on who to call and where to get phone numbers? Obviously it should be potential customers, but should it be the CTO of the company if it is tech product for example? And how do you get their phone number?

Yes. But you don't need them. You need Google, LinkedIn, a spreadsheet and time. Calling the main line of 99% of companies will get you to the person you are looking for. The other 1% are multibillion dollar companies that aren't going to buy from you.

Actually, multibillion dollar companies make the best customers, because they won't balk at a $400,000 contract, they'll expect it.
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