it sucks...but - it taught me (no surprise) - how to talk on the phone. I work with colleagues who arch up in fright when their phone rings...and this is an internal call from a colleague.
It takes time to learn to do it well. The most effective cold calling is done once your product, its market fit, its ideal customer and general understanding of the competition, as well as your value proposition is well understood.
In the best place i worked which i saw successful cold calling - the CEO's had the script incredibly fine tuned. Yes - scripts. You learn it like the back of your hand. Every sales rep who had a dip in numbers did so because they veered off the script.
For consulting - you're ideally looking to simply meet with a decision maker. I'd probably start small, pick up the phone and ask if you can visit and have a chat, shout the decision maker lunch.
Unrelated to cold-calling - but related to phones. I've been cold calling businesses lately asking about trainee opportunities, and have been blown away at the response. I've had the owners of small companies call me back and spend 30-40 minutes of the phone discussing my situation. Sounding good, and being confident on the phone opens doors.
If you cant do it well yourself - hire someone who can speak well. There's a reason why engineering sales often times have a sales person, and an engineer in every meeting with a client...one does the shmoozing, one does the correcting :)
Comments
ex-cold caller here:
it sucks...but - it taught me (no surprise) - how to talk on the phone. I work with colleagues who arch up in fright when their phone rings...and this is an internal call from a colleague.
It takes time to learn to do it well. The most effective cold calling is done once your product, its market fit, its ideal customer and general understanding of the competition, as well as your value proposition is well understood.
In the best place i worked which i saw successful cold calling - the CEO's had the script incredibly fine tuned. Yes - scripts. You learn it like the back of your hand. Every sales rep who had a dip in numbers did so because they veered off the script.
For consulting - you're ideally looking to simply meet with a decision maker. I'd probably start small, pick up the phone and ask if you can visit and have a chat, shout the decision maker lunch.
Unrelated to cold-calling - but related to phones. I've been cold calling businesses lately asking about trainee opportunities, and have been blown away at the response. I've had the owners of small companies call me back and spend 30-40 minutes of the phone discussing my situation. Sounding good, and being confident on the phone opens doors.
If you cant do it well yourself - hire someone who can speak well. There's a reason why engineering sales often times have a sales person, and an engineer in every meeting with a client...one does the shmoozing, one does the correcting :)