The Winner's Sales Strategy Blog

Another new ban on cold calling

Ireland has now joined the list of nations to ban cold calling. This is even more proof that cold calling is no longer tolerated in today's modern world:

http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/0721/comreg.html

Selling with leverage vs. cold calling

I've heard from a few people this week who say that cold calling is working well enough for them and they don't need to change anything. That's fine - as I've always said, if it works for you, then keep doing it. My materials are for people who either are not getting results with cold calling, or who do not want to do it anymore.

However, here's something to think about. Even if cold calling is working for you, you're failing to use the amazing power of LEVERAGE to your advantage. What I'm getting at is the fact that as a cold caller, you can only make one call at a time or knock on one door at a time. Add into that the fact that you must also fit appointments and other work such as generating proposals into every business day, and your ability to make a large number of quality cold calls diminishes rapidly.

Systems of self-marketing allow you to use the power of LEVERAGE. Let's say you do well at cold calling and continue to make, say, 30 calls a day. What if you could put systems into place that effectively made an additional 300 calls per day while you're free to do other things? If your 30 calls per day got you one hot lead, wouldn't a system that performs the equivalent of 300 calls generate 10 hot leads in a day?

This is the power of leverage, and this is where those who rely solely on cold calling are missing out. If cold calling works for you then keep it up, but doesn't it make sense to add to it and increase your number of leads exponentially? Then you'll be so busy with all the appointments that you really will drop cold calling after all :)

The Cold Calling Challenge - Results

Okay, it's now been over six weeks since I issued the cold calling challenge, and exactly ZERO people came forth and were able to demonstrate that they've made any money at all by cold calling! Two people made the usual wild claims that they are millionaires thanks to cold calling, but of course I never heard from them again when I replied with, "Can you back that up with any proof?"

It's official. I'm changing my estimate. Instead of saying that cold calling works 1% of the time, it's now 0%.