Cold Calls: The Basic Approach to Generating Leads

There are 2 reasons for you to make cold calls:

1. They generate leads

2. They help you learn

Like it or not, cold calls are a fact of life in generating leads.

Just Do It…
It’s Not So Bad Once You Get Used To It

If you were so totally put off by the cold water, you might have found another way to refresh or cleanse yourself.

If however you really wanted to go swimming, you had two options. One would have been to gradually get into the water. As you gingerly entered the water step-by-step, you might have splashed water over your body until you were used to the temperature. The second approach would have been to jump right in, forcing a sudden and dramatic adjustment to the temperature.

Regardless of whether you entered gradually or suddenly, the result was the same. The water temperature wasn’t so bad once you were used to it.

Making cold calls is like swimming in cold water. If you are totally put off by the drawbacks of doing these things, you will have to find another way to generate leads. Alternatives include advertising, direct mail, working open houses and networking.

Just Do It…It’s Really Not That Bad

One option is to ease your way into making them them. This approach would involve planning to complete a small but achievable number of calls—10-15 for example--on the first day. The next day increase by 50% the number of calls you will complete, raising the example to 15-25.

And the next day, increase that number by another 50%, making your new goal 25-40. (No I didn’t miscalculate the increased numbers; being an eternal optimist, I rounded the numbers up to nearest multiple of 5).

Jump-Start Your Prospecting

On Day 1, with a supply of business cards in hand, go to a major intersection in your niche market. Heading in one direction, introduce yourself and hand out business cards to the first 100 people you meet. If possible, engage these people in conversation; if not thank them for their time and move on.

On subsequent days repeat what you did on Day 1, heading in a different direction.

After 4 days, you will have had contact with 400 people. Some of these people, perhaps as many as 40 of them, can be expected to be prospective clients.

Obviously this approach can be repeated at different times of day at the intersection you chose and also at different intersections

Track Your Activities, Improve Your Results

• how much total time was required to
  
  • plan your calls
  • make your calls
  • follow-up on your calls
• how many people you actually spoke to
• how many leads you generated from 10 calls

With this information you can start to plan your cold calls.

Specifically you can project how much time you need to make the number of calls to generate 1 lead.

Most of us can think of a gazillion reasons for not cold-calling. Whatever the reason, they are little more than excuses.

Forget the excuses. Just like swimming in cold water, cold calling is not so bad once you get used to it.

Benefits of Cold Calls

• Personal contact with potential clients
  • potential to connect with prospective clients
  • can lead to client relationships.

• Understanding of properties and surrounding neighborhoods
  • door-to-door canvassing allows agents to understand individual properties and surrounding neighborhoods.

Drawbacks of Cold Calls

• Time-consuming
  • very time-intensive activities

• Small response rate
  • canvassing 100% of the market to identify the few prospective clients
  • large number of other agents are pursing this same small prospects

• Competition
  • other canvassers also knocking on doors
  • other telemarketers are also phoning them results in increased resistance from home owners

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