The Cold Calling “Two Step”

A rule I learned from somone along the way that I live by…..

NEVER leave voicemail. Call until you get them live. People just don’t return calls or emails from people they don’t know.

Often I think sales people will use voicemail or email as an excuse or a crutch. They can tell their manager they’ve tried and they’ve left messages, and they can avoid having the awkward, uncomfortable feeling of having that 30-second call that either goes really well, or really badly.

If you really believe in what you are selling and are really convinced you have value to bring, keep calling until you get them.

My $0.02.

Hey, working in sales/ account management and business development for the past 12 years have taught me that without cold calling I wouldn’t be here.

Although I am a fan of calling until you get them live…I have another spin on it. My time is valuable and I always make sure to get the best return on time invested. Once I have taken the time to research a prospect, find the right names get a direct extention by chatting with the gatekeeper I want my return. So no big deal if I don’t get the prospect live today…Why?

Well I am going to put my time towards marketing my brand, ME! A voicemail to me is like a free 30 second spot of an uninterrupted commercial. Marketing is all about repetition. So I always leave a detailed voicemail. I will leave 2,3 even 4 of them. I am building my brand. I am marketing myself and I am getting my return for the time invested.

I always make sure to keep track of touchpoints. 7-11 of any combo of call, voicemail, email, linked In, etc…then I move on to the next one.

@ Ken: Thanks for weighing in on this Ken. While I agree with you 100% on how voicemail can be a crutch for sales reps, my concern is that with call ID we might be doing more to piss off a prospect than we realize. Sometimes we underestimate the power of a compelling voicemail.

@ Kori: Agreed and we should certainly keep trying. I see many reps who blow it on the frequency of contact thing. I think its great that more and more people are embracing a mixed, multi touch approach. My suggestion is to be mindful of how close those touch points are to each other.

Ken & Kori . . . thank you for stopping by!

Respectfully,
Paul Castain

Good food for thought Paul. I will sometimes leave a voice mail and say I will also send an email. I may give it a few hours in between or even up to a week, but I have been known to do both within minutes. I guess I do that because it seems most of my prospects prefer to communicate by email and this way they have the option. But I don’t just do email because I can’t be sure my email gets through. I conclude that because nowadays I get so few return phone calls and I’ve been doing this for a while (20+). In both the voice mail and email I try to be very brief and give a valid business reason for the call. I sometimes even say “I don’t want to be a pest but I wanted to inquire” etc.

I recently blogged about what I like to think of as the “voicemail vortex” that reps can get sucked into. If you call the same guy 10 times in 2 weeks, and he doesn’t call you back, chances are he isn’t really a phone person.

It is important to try different approaches and realize that the “hunt” is going to be different each time. It is all a matter of your personal sense of sales style, but I advocate leaving a brief voicemail and then following up the next day with an email. Be sure that your email ADDS VALUE. Don’t just reiterate what you said in your voice mail.

I like this shorter span of time because it is likely the prospect will remember your call and give them another means of contacting you back. If you wait much longer you risk having the account fall of off their radar AND yours.

I have an email up on my blog that I send out when I just CAN’T get a returned call. It usually has a pretty good rate of return, but you have to be okay with being candid.

Thanks for a great post and getting my week started with some cold-calling-critical thinking Paul!

Paul,
I know I have been trained to call persistantly-sometimes even multiple times a day. But, I would find that annoying so I do not do it. I find that calling, emailing and even sending a package (yep, I still do that) about once a week and mixing it up builds momentum. It is harder to keep track of and I don’t claim to be as consistent in a weekly connect as I would like to be, but it is my goal. When I finally do get the person on the phone I often am thanked for my persistence and not for my rudeness!
Holly

Hi Paul,
Love your style! My question: what’s the ultimate purpose of a “cold call”? If it’s to get their business, then do your homework and it’s no longer a cold call. Due diligence is a two way street. Are you a good fit for the company is a better question than will they hire you. Figure that one out and it gives your call substance rather than chill. Also, does your email offer anything other than business for YOU? Add value first. It’s like people on twitter constantly trying to sell something. They’re the first to get unfollowed. I’d rather pursue value than have to endure outdated selling approaches.
My two cents. Hey, maybe I’d have more than two cents if I did more cold calls! Who knows?!
Cheers,
Jen

I typically leave a VERY brief voicemail message along the lines of “sorry I missed you – I know how busy you are – Just wanted to let you know there has been a new change with XYZ Product. I’ll send you an email with the details” and then follow up with an email including the details.

I find this works for me as I am not leaving a long and boring voicemail message – they get to hear my voice – and I get to send them some information that may be valuable to them.

Great work on your site and blog posts – they are proving to be very useful to me.

Great post, Paul.

Since you already know a little something about me, I think you know that I feel that these days cold calling has zero value. Yes, sales reps (and their management) may convince themselves that they are actually selling by continuing to blindly call people they do not know, but as you so eloquently pointed out, you are likely just pissing people off and wasting your time.

@ken: I agree with Paul. Even if you are not leaving a message, your phone number is showing up. Call multiple times and that simply annoys the person on the receiving end. I know – it’s happening to me right now. A sales rep that I’ve already said no thank you too, keeps calling but he isn’t leaving a message. Basically, it feels like I’m being stalked:)

@kory: I can certainly appreciate why you feel using a 30-second voicemail to “market” yourself is an opportunity to leave an “uninterrupted commercial”, but I wonder, are you harming your professional brand more than helping it? As a busines owner, I receive lots of voicemail message like what you are suggesting. Nothing bugs me more than to listen to a sales pitch on my voicemail. Guaranteed never to receive a call back from me:) And, frankly, that just feels like it’s about the salesperson and their agenda. Again, it would not compell me to call back. Just another perspective to consider.

The reason I feel cold calling fails is because, well, it’s cold. As in, I don’t know you. I advocate the use of social tools like LinkedIn to help pave the way for a relationship with a prospect that ultimately leads to a meeting opportunity. Given that you have precious few seconds to connect with someone in a way that advances the sale, why would you want to waste it with a cold call?

Great topic Paul! I agree with Barbara though, the days of cold calling are really limited as a sales tool at least for outside sales people. It will always be a sales tool, but the ROI has been dropping the past few years. There are plenty of reasons, but if people are not picking up the phone (think caller I.D.) then you are wasting valuable time.

Leaving a voicemail is fine to start building “your brand” as someone mentioned, but again, if they don’t know you then why is it there responsibility to call you back?

I agree with most people who say the key to reaching a “C” level contact is relationships. Tools like LinkedIn make it much easier to figure out which of your contacts might now the “C” level person you are trying to reach. I return all voicemails when someone mentions a contact of mine who referred them to me, its simple network courtesy.

I realize if you are just starting out in sales or you job is inside sales you may not have that many relationships so cold calling is something you have to use more of, but for those outside sales folks, relationships are going to be more important than ever to reach the time crunched executive.

Best of luck to everyone!
Kevin

@ Tom Plain: I can only say what has worked for me and those I train and have found that we really need to give it some space before the next contact. We don’t have to wait 3 years, but later that day might be a bit much.

@ Tara Wagner: We really have to be willing to try something different when we aren’t getting a response. Sometimes it just means creating messaging thats more compelling, other times its the wrong communication venue for the prospect.

@ Holly: I really see things differently now that I am on the receiving end of many an over anxious attempt to do business.

@ Jen: You could be right

@ Carl: Thank you for the kind words!

@ Barb: A few short years ago, I was one of those dreadful managers who had his reps on the phones, smiling and dialing and even had the software installed to make sure they did their 300 dials. I’ll spare everyone a lengthy soapbox moment but will say that as good as my teams did under a “smile and dial” regime, I’m seeing better results with a mixed approach. Actually, one last thing before I step down. Personally, there is no viable reason to call someone cold when we have so many tools available to us to call warm. My story and I’m stickin to it

@ Kevin: I believe AMEN captures the moment perfectly!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to stop by and weigh in on this. This is one of those discussions where the real value was in the comments!

Rock on!

Paul Castain

Hey wait for me- I’ve been writing about the Dynamic Duo= vm+em=higher response. These two have a happy marriage- they work together but can no longer stand on their own. They happen together and if well coreographred with the multiple-touch process. Salespeople must get creative and stop thinking about what’s in/out and include an assortment of mediums in their outreach efforts. It more about the right combination that wins. I completely agree the tools are out there so let’s use them.

Like anything, a sound process is Key.
I have many managers that tell me they never pick up their voice mail anymore. They say anyone that knows them or needs to reach them use their cell phone.
That does not get away from deviating from your process/system.
Paul likes the ‘playbook’ metaphor so your play book needs to have runs up the middle, pitches outside, short passes, long passes, etc…
In sales terms, a few emails may set up a call which sets up the pass, a visit, followed up by something creative, the long bomb.
If you don’t have a system, sit down with other sales people or trainers and develop a 5-7 stage process that others have seen work.

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Angie Sallese, Marcus Sheridan. Marcus Sheridan said: The Cold Calling “Two Step” http://bit.ly/9Y6hk5 …Sometimes I really wish Uncle P had been my sales manager 10 years ago! [...]

I can honestly say that often, if I’m in the middle of something, I check my caller ID. If I don’t recognize the number (i.e. one that flags it as an emergency “answer this call even if you’re bleeding on the floor” call) I’ll let it roll over to voicemail with a mental memo to check my messages as soon as possible.

If you don’t leave a message, I’m not going to call you back.

That said, I also dislike persistant sales calls because if I’m not answering, I’m busy. If I haven’t called you back, I’m busy. And calling over and over again isn’t going to change that. Instead, wait about 24 hours, then send me a well framed email introducing your proposal, mentioning your previous attempt at contact and asking to schedule a call.

At this point, you’ve told me a great deal about yourself and your company. You’ve told me you’re professional enough to paint your company in the most professional light possible. You’re courteous enough to understand that my time is valuable, and the best way to get a piece of it is to set up an established point at which you will have my undivided attention rather than trying to sell your pitch while I’m doing other office tasks in the background. And you believe in your product enough to know that by telling me what you’re selling and how I personally can use it, you’ll interest me enough to schedule that call in the first place.