I receive e-mails on a regular basis from people who state that
cold calling is working perfectly well for them and that they've
become quite successful by it. 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 from cold calling,
or who simply do not enjoy it and do not want to do it anymore.
If you feel that cold calling is working just fine for you, this
chapter is for you. The problem with being satisfied with the
results of cold calling is that you fail to see cold calling's
biggest flaw and why it imposes strict limitations on your sales
production.
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.
Here's the pattern I typically see – and that I experienced
myself – with people who rely on cold calling for generating
business, and who feel that it's working for them:
Month 1: Sales are down. Most free time is spent cold calling.
Leads are generated and plenty of first appointments take place
but the salesperson falls short of quota for the month.
Month 2: Numerous second appointments take place and proposals
are presented. The salesperson spends lots of time working to
close sales and is successful. Quota achievement is far in
excess of 100% this month.
Month 3: The salesperson spends plenty of time on customer
service issues this month, and following up with all the
customers who bought last month. After all, it's normal to be
busy with these issues after a huge month. By the end of the
month, everything is taken care of, but sales are in the gutter
and far below quota this month because most time was spent taking
care of all those issues, and to make matters worse, the pipeline
is now empty and there are no more prospects to work on. The
cycle starts all over again with month 1.
As you can see, this cycle of cold-hot-cold guarantees failure
and is one of the key reasons why cold calling rarely, if ever,
results in success. If anything, it allows salespeople to make
quota every third month, barely avoid probation, and therefore
keep their jobs.
By contrast, 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
generated 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 – you won't have time for it anymore with so
many people calling you, ready to buy!
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