Cold Call Marketing – Success Rate, Limitations & The Law

Cold Calling and Telemarketing are two different things, this post is on cold calling which is a way to reach out new prospective clients who have had no earlier contact with the salesperson conducting the call.

This marketing technique has been made limited and is controlled by law in many countries so before you start make sure your effort is in compliance with the law of your specific country.

It has a very high rejection rate so it is one great way to lose the passion for what you do. But if you take it positively, it can also be a good way to train yourself to be an expert in sales.

It is up to you whether you want to –

1. Lose hope, change your mentality and make it more difficult to act friendly and complete your calls OR
2. Make yourself perfect by practicing more and becoming better after each call

Sometimes though, cold calling is the best cheapest option you have, especially when you need clients fast. Sale experts who use cold calling once followed specific guidelines to produce more profit.

These guidelines, sometimes believed to be misconceptions by some other experts, were as follows:

1. The more calls a salesperson makes, the more sales will be made.
2. Any number in the phone book is a potential customer.
3. Practice makes perfect.
4. Manipulation is key.
5. Always be closing.

Some salespeople say that they made most of their clients by cold calling and have also developed great business relationships with them. So, cold calling can be useful and that is why –

1. You see big companies spending money on this
2. You get calls from the salesmen every second day
3. You see marketing call blocker apps hitting millions of download

If you are planning to use cold calling to reach up to new prospective clients then be ready to face rejections and don’t take things to your heart –

1. Call the number
2. Introduce yourself, give your offer
3. Move on to the next prospect and repeat

How to make cold calling more effective?

You can make it more effective and less passion killer by working on your prospects and understanding their needs.

This can be done by creating a list of prospects from anywhere like –

• WhoIs data, people who have registered the domain
• Online directories such as JustDial and YellowPages e.g. most event managers look for a portfolio website and businesses would be interested in e-commerce or business website with digital marketing etc
• LinkedIn advanced searches by company, groups etc (some features are limited to premium account users)
• Newspaper and Magazine advertisements, anybody who is spending money on advertisements would be interested in starting a website for digital marketing to reach up to new prospective clients
• There can be many more ways – you can discover them yourself, take help from the Google

Once you make a list of prospective clients, don’t just go like a machine with a generic line “I am so and so, do you need so and so”.

First, take a look at their websites and try to find out –

1. The errors
2. What is wrong
3. What things they lack in
4. How you can make them better

Things you can look for on their websites are –

1. Slow loading
2. Display issues
3. Are not responsive
4. Are not mobile friendly
5. Some SSL HTTPS encryption error
6. Have broken links, links are not fetched on sharing etc
7. Have no Google page rank, bad internet ranking, and less traffic
8. Doesn’t shows up on the first page of search engines like Google

And when you find something, let them know in a personalized email and then call to take things to the next step.

And if they don’t have a website then you can suggest them one with its advantages such as – a website will give them more exposure, boost sales, build better and continuous relationship with customers, open new ways to digital advertising, people searching for products would be able to find them etc.

Law, rules, and regulations on Cold Calling

Many countries have rules that limit and control how, when and whom companies or salesmen can cold call. These rules are often implemented by government bodies that deal with telecommunication laws in their specific country.

For instance – The US, have enacted various “Do Not Call” lists which are based off the national US Do Not Call List so companies are required by law to check the “Do Not Call List” database and remove the registered numbers from their leads lists.

However the “Do Not Call List” has certain limitations which makes a person who is registered for the “Do Not Call List”, certain organisations can still make a call. These may include:

1. Any company with given written permission
2. Telephone surveyors, charities & political organisations
3. Organisations with a business relationship with over 18 months

In India, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has enacted a regulation which bars telecom providers from cold-calling their customers.

You can learn more about rules and regulations, laws of your specific country here, or make use of Google.