From the Trenches

Since we make hundreds of cold-calls every day, we get to participate in some interesting conversations. Some are bizarre, and some are instructive.

• One of our folks had been trying to get an appointment with a large retailer on behalf of a client in the janitorial business. It took three months just to find out who the decision maker was. By the time she finally got to his secretary, the guy had retired! (Needless to say, we just asked for his replacement, and got the appointment.)
  
  
• We were calling a large sports equipment manufacturer to get an appointment for a client who created fancy e-marketing campaigns. After getting blown off by the VP of Marketing several times, we decided to try another tack: Going after the other CXOs. We told them that we (i.e. our client,) could increase their sales by 20% (amounting to around $5M,) for an investment of around $100K, the same thing we told the VP of Marketing who had refused to see us. Next thing we know, we got a meeting with the CFO, and the VP of Marketing had been fired.
  
  
• Not every prospect shows up for the appointment. Unexpected things happen. But a retailer we booked for a salesrep in the electronics business takes the cake. When our client's rep showed up for the appointment, he was told that the owner wasn't in – even though he could be seen hiding behind the counter!
  
  
• It's really common these days for a receptionist to refuse to put you through unless you have a specific name. The problem comes when you can't really know ahead of time who the buyer would be, so you might have to ask "Who's responsible for purchasing 'X'?" and then get routed to them. One receptionist nevertheless refused to divulge the information, so our resourceful cold-caller simply went to the company's Web site (while she was on the phone with the receptionist,) navigated to the Management page, and started reading names until she got to someone who was in. And the receptionist put her through!
  
  
• Another common trend is for the receptionist to make you fax information before she'll put you through. But you know that it's just going to get round-filed. So you ask for an email address, which she refuses to give you. One clever bird-dog decided to point out that faxing information was just going to use up the ink cartridge on their fax machine, so the receptionist relented and gave the decision-maker's email address. (But isn't that going to use up the ink on his printer? Classify this as "weird.")
  
  
• Companies like to send direct mail because it's easy, and perceived to be inexpensive. One client incorporated it into a multi-channel promotion program that included PR, advertising, and B2B telemarketing. Come the launch date, the ads are out, the PR is running, and we start making calls – only to discover that the letters never went out! Telemarketing to the rescue: We simply faxed a copy when we got a decision-maker on the phone, and saved the campaign. Of course, it wasn't the letters that save the campaign... It was the phone calls. (They didn't need the letters at all.)

If you know what you're doing, cold-calling can be fun. Entertaining, even. And if you want to learn how to do it from the people who know what they're doing, simply order "The Most Powerful Weapon in Your Marketing Arsenal."

And you can have fun, too!