| Cold calling is a selling method wherein the | | | | people who aren't your target market and has no |
| salesperson makes unsolicited calls - with the help of | | | | interest whatsoever in whatever you're selling or |
| a phone in most cases - to prospective clients. The | | | | offering. |
| adjective "cold" is used because of the initial | | | | Remember that one of the basic lessons in sales and |
| treatment of recipients towards the callers. Although | | | | marketing is to have a target market in mind and to |
| it's extremely difficult for sales people to attain their | | | | identify specific characteristics that make the target |
| objectives through cold calling, most of them still | | | | market respond positively towards your product. |
| persist in using this topic. | | | | When you're giving your sales pitch to the wrong |
| There should, however, come a point of accepting | | | | target market, there's very little possibility that you'll |
| that some methods just don't work - ie. cold calling - | | | | succeed in attaining your objective. |
| and it's time to move to greener pastures. | | | | Insignificance - Other individuals don't mean to neglect |
| Other Areas Where Cold Calling is Used | | | | your calls, but the mere fact that your call is not |
| Cold calling is not exclusively used in sales although it | | | | expected or scheduled automatically places it on the |
| is its primary application. Cold calling however can also | | | | bottom of the person's priority list. As such, your call |
| be used - and more effectively in some cases - in | | | | will be labeled insignificant, and it's very possible that |
| other industries such as recruitment and labor | | | | you won't even be given access to the person |
| placement for instance. Head hunters make | | | | you're intending to talk to. |
| unsolicited or cold calls to people whom they wish to | | | | Hard on the Nerves - At times, the problem isn't with |
| pirate for another job opportunity. | | | | the recipient of the call but with the recipient himself. |
| Reasons Why Cold Calling is an Ineffective Sales | | | | People can feel inordinately nervous whenever |
| Method | | | | they're required to talk to strangers who may not |
| Time Eater - People tend to think of cold calls as | | | | even welcome the idea of having to spend minutes |
| time eaters because they're forced to dedicate a | | | | listening to a sales pitch made by an anonymous |
| portion of their busy schedules just to entertain cold | | | | caller. |
| calls. This is doubly resentful since these calls weren't | | | | If you're the type to imagine all sorts of horror |
| scheduled and solicited in the first place. Cold calls can | | | | happening to you even though there's no present |
| cause people to ruin their schedules when they're too | | | | indication to say that the recipient of your caller will |
| polite to cut the caller short. | | | | react that way, this could destroy your concentration |
| Act of Rudeness - Some people tend to view cold | | | | and make you unable to deliver your sales pitch the |
| calls as a simple act of rudeness merely because | | | | way it should be. |
| they weren't solicited. As such, these people feel | | | | Although cold calling has its benefits, affordability |
| they're very much in their rights to reject this type | | | | being one of them, it is however still not a method |
| of call and treat rudeness with rudeness as well. | | | | that you should apply to every, if any, customer. The |
| Wrong Target - It would be better, of course, if | | | | potential harms of cold calling far outweighs its |
| prospects used for cold calls were carefully selected, | | | | benefits so if you don't want to risk alienating a |
| but in most cases, they aren't. For that reason, you | | | | prospective client, stay away from cold calling! |
| could be making cold calls to the wrong people: | | | | |