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Cold Calling: the Myth of Cold Calling 2.0 and Other Urban Legends

I receive Google Alerts daily on my favorite subject of conversation, cold calling, and I read them. I’m always on the lookout for an opportunity to contribute to a discussion on cold calling, sales, or any other related subject, especially if I can inject some self-promotion!

In the over four years that I’ve been following this subject, I’ve gotten very good at spotting trends, and there’s one that is popular right now: The idea of “Cold Calling 2.0.”

Whoever coined this term no doubt took the name from Web 2.0. However, the idea that cold calling is any different today than it was in the past is far-fetched and ignorant at best. In my opinion, attempting to dupe salespeople and small business owners that there is anything new or different about cold calling that might work in today’s economy is problematic at best, and downright unethical and dishonest at worst.

Here’s an example: I had a coaching call today with an individual who spent over four figures (yes, four figures!) on a package from one of these “Cold Calling 2.0” gurus. What was he taught for that obscene amount of money? To send e-mails to companies, pretending to ask for help, all with the lowly goal of learning who the contact person is.

Well, that’s a lot of effort – and a bit of lying – just to find out who the contact person is. After all, the sales interaction doesn’t even begin until that contact person is, well, contacted … and I’m guessing the recommended advice is the old, ineffective, obsolete cold call.

Let’s face it: A cold call is a cold call is a cold call. I don’t care if it’s a direct, in-your-face, old-school cold call, or a sneaky, pretend-to-be-someone-I’m-not-to-get-a-contact-name cold call. (And if all you have is a contact name, you still haven’t even made the cold call!)

Here are some key reasons why cold calling – whether it’s “old-school” style, or especially this sneaky “cold calling 2.0,” continues to become less and less effective as time goes on:

1. Cold calling lacks honesty and integrity. I’ve been talking a lot lately about honesty and integrity. They need to be the foundation for everything you do, end of story. Without building on those principles, nothing else you do will last for the long term. Sure, you might get a lead and maybe even a sale now and then by being sneaky and telling little white lies, but what will that do for your reputation and self-esteem in the long term?

I have many clients and students who now receive 100% of their business from referrals. Do you think this could be possible if they didn’t live and do business by the highest, utmost standards of honesty and integrity? No way.

A big part of the “cold calling 2.0” myth is using a new “angle” to cold call. Well, I hate to break it to you, but honest, ethical people don’t have to use “angles” or “gimmicks” to do business.

2. Cold calling provides zero value to others. Another subject that’s coming up a lot in my talks and programs lately is that of giving value first. If you give first, with no expectation of reward, and no strings attached to your giving of value, you will reap rewards like you’ve never dreamed possible. People will look up to you as a trusted business adviser, they will respect you, and they will see you in an entirely different light than your competition.

Here’s the clincher: You can’t give value first if your initial contact with a prospect is through a cold call. Instead of positioning yourself as a generous provider of value, all a cold call does is position you as a hungry salesperson who just wants to get a sale … with no regard to providing any value first. This is precisely why closing rates of leads that come from cold calling are the lowest of all, or as my friend and author Jeffrey Gitomer has said, “Cold calling has the lowest percentage of sales call success.” It’s also why prospects tend to trust cold callers far less than other salespeople – they wonder what’s wrong with you and your company that you have been forced to cold call – the last resort of a desperate salesperson – to drum up business. It doesn’t speak highly of you or of your company’s financial stability.

3. Cold calling strictly limits your income by time. Due to the sheer amount of time required to make enough cold calls to get enough qualified leads, you will never make a high income by cold calling. Think about it – with all the time it takes to run appointments, meet with prospects and customers, handle customer service issues, attend sales meeting, write proposals, prepare reports, attend training (including your own continuing education), and so on, how on earth are there enough hours in every week, day, and month to make all those cold calls? There simply aren’t! Sure, if your product or service is a great offer and you’re good at cold calling, you might manage to eek out 100% of quota and hang on to your job for another month, but do you really want to spend the rest of your life eeking out your quota and starting over again next month? Of course not! I assume if you’re taking the time to read this article, it’s because you’re focused and have high goals for your career and your life and want to make the big bucks!

You’re not going to make the big bucks cold calling. Even if you’re some kind of cold calling genius who can make it work, you’re going to severely limit yourself by time and never reach the six-figure and higher income brackets. The only way, and I really mean the only way, to achieve that is through leverage. You need to have lead-generation systems in place that work exponentially, and simultaneously, to generate the quality and quantity of leads you’ll need to have to make the big bucks. That’s what will open the doors to promotions to upper management, consulting opportunities, or my own path – becoming a bestselling author and speaker.

If you’re out in the ocean, you have two choices: Swim back to shore and live on, or tread water until you die. Cold calling, including the new, so-called “cold calling 2.0” tactics, are treading water. Do you want to break through and move to the next level and beyond, or do you want to continue treading water?

Hopefully those points clear up this idea of “cold calling 2.0” and expose that urban legend as just that – a legend. I’m tired of hearing from struggling salespeople who have spent hundreds, or in some cases, over a thousand dollars on these “new cold calling” courses, only to have them fail, spend a mere on my system, and find out it was the answer to their prayers. Save your money, use your brains, and think for yourself … and stop treading water with those ineffective and time-consuming cold calls!

Music video by Cold performing Stupid Girl. (C) 2003 Geffen Records

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High Probability Selling and Telephone Prospecting: Turn Cold Calling Into Warm Sales Leads

Like most sales lead consultants, I do not advocate cold calling . However, I acknowledge that cold calling is necessary at times.

You need prospective clients and customers: If you don’t have a customer list from which to solicit referrals, and you also lack an advertising/marketing budget, cold-calling to a highly targeted list is the fastest route to finding high probability prospects.

A High Probability Prospect is one who wants, needs, can afford, and is ready to buy your product or service- now. Those who only want, need, and can afford- but are not ready to buy now- are prospects that you will not meet with now. But, you will continue to contact in the future, until they are ready to buy.

How does Cold Calling fit into High Probability Prospecting?

Before picking up the phone, you need to define your target market. Your target market iare consumers and/or companies who are likely to want your product or service. If you haven’t gone through the exercise of defining your target market, start by making a list of your best customers: What characteristics do they share? Are they in similar industries? Are they companies of about the same size, or in the same vertical markets? In B2C sales, look for similar socio-economic factors.

Your prospect list, whether you’ve created it yourself or purchased it, is the basis of your prospecting campaign. Contact each person on the list repeatedly, each time with a different offer. In High Probability Prospecting, an offer is a succinct distillation of two features of your product or service. Every time you re-contact a prospect, present a different offer.

When call your list, only first-time calls are cold calls in High Probability Prospecting. A truly effective prospecting campaign requires that you call the same list every 3 to 4 weeks, so after a short period of time, most of your calls will be ‘warm’ calls. A higher percentage of the people on your list will say “Yes” to your prospecting offer with each successive call.

5 Simple rules for maximum effectiveness and maximum efficiency:

Don’t repeat the same prospecting offer more frequently than every third call.
Your offer must be no longer than 45 words, describing your product/service and mentioning two if its features.
Your prospecting offer must clearly request a “Yes” or “No” answer.
When prospects say “No,” you say, “Okay, good-bye.”
When prospects say “Yes,” you say, “Why?”

With practice, you should be able to make at least 50 dials per hour. You’ll find an increasing number of High Probability Prospects- people who respond with ‘Yes’ to your offer- with each pass through your list. You’ll be on your way to making appointments with people who are ready to buy what you’re selling- right now.

High Probability Prospecting doesn’t eliminate cold-calling entirely. You will, however, make successively fewer Cold Calls and far more “Warm Calls”. That will eliminate most of the Rejection associated with cold-calling. Thus, you will turn telephone prospecting into an efficient and enjoyable activity.

Fools Garden single from the album “Go and ask Peggy for the Principal thing”
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Cold Sores – a Pandemic?

Cold sores virus infects an incredible 89% of the world population, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) estimates.

YES – and 67% of those infected with the cold sores virus will have at least one cold sore event in the next 12 months.

And 47.5% of those folks will have multiple cold sores episodes during that period.

Cold sores are one of our most contagious viruses – and one of our oldest. Even in ancient Rome, an epidemic of cold sores caused Emperor Tiberius to outlaw kissing in public ceremonies.

As a global epidemic, or “pandemic”, there is no better example than cold sores.

NO – cold sores, unlike bird flu, aren’t life threatening. But, let’s be frank, cold sores are hideous – and they’re painful. On top of that, cold sores cause flu like symptoms such as fever and swollen lymph glands in a lot of people.

Cold sores last 3 to 4 weeks on average – a long time for you to be socially sidelined! They shout “I HAVE HERPES” to the entire world.

And cold sores cost us money in lost days at work and constant purchase of medications. Always hoping to finally find something – ANYTHING – to stop our cold sores curse.

Check out these little known facts about cold sores – and what you can do right now to get rid of your cold sores problem.

Cold sores are caused by the reproductive cycle of a herpes virus. There are currently 8 known human herpes viruses. Of these, only 2 are a major cause of cold sores.

Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV1) is responsible for about 80% of facial cold sores – and about 20% of genital herpes lesions. Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV2) causes about 20% of cold sores and 80% of genital herpes blisters.

HSV1 is most often referred to as the “cold sores virus”, “fever blister virus” and “oral herpes” – and some others that I can’t mention in a public article.

Cold sores virus may be latent (asleep) for weeks or years in the nerve ganglia near the back of the jaw close to the brain stem.

More specifically, the cold sores virus hides inside your cells – making it very difficult for your body defenses to locate and deal with them.

When your body’s defenses weaken, due to physical or emotional stress, the cold sores virus leaves these cells, travel down the nerve fibers, like a super-highway to the lip or nose surface – to create cold sores.

There are 8 cold sore stages. The first is the latent inactive stage. The next 7 cold sore stages are the ACTIVE stages. From the first tingle to the last red spot, your cold sores are extremely contagious.

Cold sores are most often spread by physical contact – but can even be transmitted by coughing or sneezing during the active stages of your cold sores.

Medical science is working around-the-clock to find a cure for common cold sores. They’ve had a few minor breakthroughs that may lead to some real solutions in the next couple of years.

Basically medical scientists are approaching the cold sores virus on 2 levels.

1. A VACCINE preventing you from actually contracting the cold sores virus in the first place. One such vaccine is currently being moved into human testing. Downside is – it only works on people who have never been exposed to cold sores virus. Since nearly everyone on the planet has been exposed, it seems of very little value even if approved. But it’s an encouraging move forward.

2. AN ANTI-VIRAL to kill the cold sore virus already in our body. This is difficult since it has to find and kill the virus without damaging the nerve cells they are hiding in. The prescription anti-viral medications scientists have come up with so far have not worked very well at all – at least on cold sores virus.

Acyclovir, for example, is an anti-viral that’s being promoted as a cold sores wonder drug. In real life studies, however, a course of acyclovir only reduced cold sores by 2 days. And it only worked for 47.8% in the trials. No big deal here.

Acyclovir topical cream came in even worse – no noticeable help at all. Medical scientists agree and have publicly stated that the actives in acyclovir don’t get through the skin to the infection. Don’t waste your money on this.

COLD SORES NATURAL SCIENCE TO THE RESCUE!

Did you know – medical knowledge has more than doubled in the past 5 years alone? Worldwide internet communication has made it possible.

More important – natural home remedies, such as effective cold sores treatments, are coming in from all corners of the globe.

In fact, many doctors are now advising their patients to check out these natural remedies for cold sores.

Data studies have shown these natural remedies to reduce suffering time of cold sores by an incredible 79% – plus actually PREVENTING future cold sores from happening altogether (they don’t kill the cold sores virus – but they do keep it inactive indefinitely).

If you’re a cold sores victim, your best choice – fact is, your ONLY choice today – is to buy and apply one of these excellent natural remedies.

There are several solidly proven remedies for you to look into on this site or other sites – and the best news is they’re available right now for your cold sores.

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