Cold Calling Agents/Telesales marketers

**mother** · 17-Jul-11, 09:17 PM

Is the success rate for cold calling really on average 3% and 7% with a good system? Wow, that is much higher than I would ever have imagined. In all my years at the Edgars group and mr Price group, we would always get real excited about anything over 4% return on ad-spend. I know this is not comparing apples to apples, but I'm just thinking, whether we're talking time or money, the success rate of advertising v cold calling seem pretty much the same. I never knew this.

**Justloadit** · 17-Jul-11, 09:25 PM

The problem with magazine and newspaper advertising is the same as going bird hunting with a pellet gun in a dark room. You shoot to take the bird out which you know is in there, so how much chance have you got?

**Mark Atkinson** · 17-Jul-11, 09:37 PM

If the success rate is between 3 and 7%, I'd venture to say that's a pretty decent return. If I'm making one lead from 25 phone calls, that's still pretty good going.

Seriously speaking, I'd pay around R200 on average for a decent lead. Whether cold calling delivers at R200 or less per lead remains to be seen. Should be interesting, though.

At the moment we're getting too many leads to deal with considering our schedules. It's actually forced me to pause my Adwords campaign for the time being. I'm sure it will slow down at some point, though. I will then be trying out various lead generation methods, including cold calling, and will report back on my findings.

**mother** · 17-Jul-11, 09:38 PM

That's so true Justloadit! And yet thousands of ads still appear daily in print media. In my opinion the only 2 ad-campaigns worth their money are to promote brand awarenes or to advertise a sale. I think the marketing world needs a revolution. I have found in my business as well, any kind of advertising that resembles the norm, is wasted. Consumers today are so well-informed, so pressed for time, so disappointed by most, and so strapped for cash, you need to communicate with them in a way that does not resemble advertising.

**Mark Atkinson** · 17-Jul-11, 09:41 PM

Just as an addition, this is the problem I find with small business marketing.

I want to try everything. The problem with that is that a small business generally doesn't have the marketing budget to effectively test and gather ROI information on a bunch of marketing methods in a reasonable time space. For example an Adwords campaign, if my budget is limited to R100 a day, and a click is costing me R20, it's going to take a lot longer than one would like to gauge the effectiveness of any changes to your campaign. If you could set a budget of, say, R500 a day, it would be a different story. Unfortunately most small businesses can't afford to do this.

**Blurock** · 17-Jul-11, 10:14 PM

Would you call on a CEO or business owner to sell tupperware? If I wanted tupperware I could google it and no doubt come up with a whole list of suppliers. Yes it would be useless information and I would be p***ed off if you tried to sell it to me.

If you did your homework though, you would have known that I am married and maybe, just maybe my wife would be interested. Now how do you get an appointment with my wife? THAT is prospecting. Do your homework first. Select your target market and do not waste my time with cold calling.

There is a distinct difference between COLD calling and prospecting. The one gets results, the other is a shot in the dark.

**Mark Atkinson** · 18-Jul-11, 07:26 AM

Hi Blurock,

I think there is a misunderstanding. I have been using the term "cold calling" as a very general term. I guess I should have said prospecting as you are thinking of cold calling in its very literal sense, but I feel that cold calling has become the name for any sort of telephonic marketing these days.

So to clear that up, yes I'm referring to prospecting. Why on earth would I phone people blindly asking if they wanted design work done? We know who our target market is and market to those people accordingly.

**Perform Computers** · 18-Jul-11, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by Mark Atkinson

Hi Blurock,

I think there is a misunderstanding. I have been using the term "cold calling" as a very general term. I guess I should have said prospecting as you are thinking of cold calling in its very literal sense, but I feel that cold calling has become the name for any sort of telephonic marketing these days.

So to clear that up, yes I'm referring to prospecting. Why on earth would I phone people blindly asking if they wanted design work done? We know who our target market is and market to those people accordingly.

Couldn't agree more.

**Justloadit** · 18-Jul-11, 08:19 AM

Yes I have meant prospecting as opposed to cold calling, it may be that we are misinterpreting the statement. Especially in my line of work, niche user designed specific product.

**Blurock** · 19-Jul-11, 10:05 AM

Now that we understand the difference between prospecting and cold calling (brrr shivers down my spine) how do we prospect effectively? Small businesses do not have excess funds for marketing, so how do we get the best return for our buck?

My advice: YOU are the business. Market yourself and you will be marketing your business. Just make sure that you live up to what you stand for. Appearances count, perceptions count, service is important etc etc.

I like Mark's quote from Socrates: "The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear."