This week, let’s take a look at cold calls a little more closely and in the process, let’s also look at other ways of gleaning new clients.  When you read what follows, you’ll find that cold calls are only part of the process.

Pre-call Planning

Let’s not confuse pre-call planning with Paralysis by Analysis.  I see all too many times salespeople cherry pick, review files, do research, review prospects’ web sites, try to figure out what to say to get to the decision makers and generally waste a tremendous amount of time getting ready to get ready.

Let’s make one thing very clear:  THE ONLY REASON YOU SHOULD BE COLD CALLING IS BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH REFERRALS!

Take a look at the hierarchy of prospecting efforts and which ones produce the most fruit.

Cold Calls – They don’t know you and you don’t know them. You got their name off a list, ad advertisement, a flyer, or some other lead source. In general if you made 100 cold calls you might get 1-5% to turn into sales.

Leads – are like bananas…the older they are the faster they rot!  Leads are defined as a prospect that you might know something about but they don’t know you and are not expecting your call.  You may have a tip that they are in the market for your ‘stuff’. But they do not know you or your company.  History shows that if you made 100 attempts to develop business relationships with your leads, you might be lucky and take 10-25% to the bank.

Referrals – They know of you and you know of them and they are in the market for your stuff and they are primed and ready to take your call.  These referrals are one of the best places to work.  All of our surveys show that referrals have about a 50-75% chance of turning into business.

Introductions – The king of prospecting!  Introductions are the same as referrals except the referral is executed face to face. Work with our clients tells us that introductions generally have a 75% or better chance of turning into business.

So, what’s the bottom line?  You need cold calls to get some new clients, but you cannot depend on them alone.  You can use your new … and your older clients to give you leads that they might know through their networking and trade associations.  Then, of course, there are referrals from your existing customers AND from the contacts you have made through your networking and attending trade association meetings.  And, finally, there is the old Introduction!  Whether you walk up and introduce yourself or have an associate introduce you, you will have a great chance of turning that introduction into business.

Next blog, we’ll spend some time on improving your self presentation skills and with some networking techniques that are sure to improve your bottom line!

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