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4 Tips for Successful Cold Calling: Show Notes & Transcript

Post | Sep 13, 2022

Welcome back to Marketing Smarts! From brand-building and marketing veterans Anne Candido and April Martini (that’s us) comes a podcast committed to cutting through all the confusing marketing BS so you can actually understand how to take action and change your business today. We deep-dive into topics most would gloss-over, infusing real-world examples from our combined 35+ years of corporate and agency experience. We tell it how it is so whether you are just starting out or have been in business awhile, you have the Marketing Smarts to immediately impact your business.

This is Episode #114 and we’re talking cold calling in the age of social media and email. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and your other favorite podcast spots – follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re exercising your Marketing Smarts!

  • Episode Summary & Player
  • Show Notes
  • Marketing Smarts Summary
  • Transcript

Marketing Smarts Episode #114: 4 Tips for Successful Cold Calling

There’s certainly an art to cold calling. There’s a big difference between a message that’s perfect for your target customer and one that comes across the wrong way. How do you go about cold calling without appearing spammy, pushy, or too salesy? In this episode, we’re breaking down real cold call messages we’ve received that do and (definitely) don’t work. You’ll learn how to make your message customized, offer immediate value without gating it, be professional in tone and style, and make an irresistible offer. You’ll also discover the cold calls likely to turn people off the most, whether cold calling is even worth it, and the best channel for cold calling. This episode covers everything from spammy messages to having empathy when cold calling. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:

  • How do you cold call successfully?
  • What cold calls turn you off the most?
  • Is cold calling even worth it?
  • What is the best channel for cold calling?
  • How do you leverage your network for lead gen?
  • What’s the deal with bait & switch?
  • How does PR (public relations) play into cold calling?
  • What is fowling?

And as always, if you need help in building your Marketing Smarts, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: ForthRight-People.com.

Check out the episode, show notes, and transcript below:

Show Notes

What is Marketing Smarts?

From brand-building and marketing veterans Anne Candido and April Martini comes a podcast committed to cutting through all the confusing marketing BS so you can actually understand how to take action and change your business today. They deep-dive into topics most would gloss-over, infusing real-world examples from their combined 35+ years of corporate and agency experience. They tell it how it is so whether you are just starting out or have been in business awhile, you have the Marketing Smarts to immediately impact your business.

How do I exercise my Marketing Smarts?

Thanks for listening to Marketing Smarts. Get in touch here to become a savvier marketer. 

Transcript

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Anne Candido 0:02
This is Marketing Smarts – a podcast committed to helping you become a savvier marketing leader, no matter your level. In each episode, we will dive into a relevant topic or challenge that marketing leaders are currently facing. We will also give you practical tools and applications that will help you put what you learn into practice today. And if you missed anything, don’t worry, we put worksheets on our website that summarize the key points. Now, let’s get to it. Welcome to Marketing Smarts. I’m Anne Candido.

April Martini 0:32
And I am April Martini.

Anne Candido 0:33
And today we’re going to talk about the art of cold calling is art. And specifically how to be more successful at it, and we’re going to try not to make this a bitch session. There’s gonna be some of that. And we’re really going to really, really, really try to make this actionable for you guys, but it’s gonna probably be an entertaining episode, just say that, right? So reason why we want to talk about this is because cold calling really made a significant spike during the pandemic, when all of the forms of networking were kind of halted or died. But it doesn’t seem like the amount of cold calling has gone down. But I would say and I think April’s gonna agree with me here that the quality of the cold calling has just gotten worse under percent. It’s really, really bad. And I’m just gonna lay it out here in okay, this is a little bit of my bitching and moaning here, but I don’t like coffee, even in a coffee mug with my name on it, which becomes the new way that our everybody’s cold calling about. Do you like coffee? No, I don’t like coffee. I don’t need phones. We work from our own home. We have phones, right? I don’t need new insurance. I don’t need more wealth management services. I don’t need lead gen software that’s going to give me 100,000 leads in the first week. And I don’t need services our agency actually provides like website optimization. I get that one all the freakin time like we do websites for a living people. So we don’t need website optimization. And I don’t want to spend $2,000 a month to be in your mastermind. I don’t even know who you are. That seems to be recently, right?

April Martini 2:04
Oh, good ones. Recently. For me, I would say my overwhelming frustration is anyone that thinks they can become indignant when they send me multiple emails, and I don’t

Anne Candido 2:15
respond. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep, yep, I

April Martini 2:18
also have this new hatred for all of those incessant follow ups coming into my email in box instead of LinkedIn. I felt like when it was coming through LinkedIn, I could a little more successfully ignore it. And it just feels like an invasion of my space. And if one more person asks me for 30 minutes, 20 minutes, two minutes or 60 seconds, I did get one of those of my time, I’m going to lose my mind. And finally, for whatever reason, the number of free webinar invites and reminders of these free webinars that seemed to be going on, are up in my inbox for some reason, and just irritating me.

Anne Candido 3:00
So there we go. Yeah. And I love it when they ask for your time. And then they ask you to go on to their schedule to schedule the time through their schedule through their schedules. Yeah, I like that one too. More bitching and moaning to come, I’m not gonna promise it’s not going to be more. But what we do want to focus on is how do you effectively pitch your product or services through cold calling? Because I know that’s probably a question that are a reason why you guys are listening to this episode, in addition to the entertainment, okay, but let’s jump into it. So for the first tip here is you need to make it customized. So all of you who are doing the mass email campaigns like in Hernan mas LinkedIn reach outs, like April was just talking about, and then you kind of bait and switch with the way that you kind of try to get us in. And they might say, awesome, saying the proverbial us. And then you switch it to selling something I’m like, I wonder how much that’s actually truly working? Yep. Based on what we’re hearing from people who are trying it, it doesn’t work. And everybody that we’ve talked to who are social media experts who are managing these channels on an ongoing basis, they are confirming this does not really work. So how much time are you actually wasting in trying to get to this mass amount of leads? And how much of them are actually converting? And I really want you guys to actually think about that. And think about how much time you’re investing in it and put a price value against your time that you’re actually doing this. And then I want you to think about how much energy would actually really take to do a little bit of research on somebody, right? If you’re going to call call reach out to them, in order to see are they really actually good fit for your product or your service that you’re offering. And think about how you might want to actually engage these people in order to be able to form some sort of connection of value at the very beginning. So for example, like if somebody is reaching out to me, again, I’m trying to pitch me some sort of marketing service one Look at our website, we have it taking them two seconds, it was said, Oh, it’s a branding marketing agency, they probably don’t need my service for them. But maybe they might need my service for their clients. Yes. So as somebody, instead of trying to pitch me directly, I’d said, Hey, we’ve seen your website, we know your branding and marketing agency, we’ve seen your list of clients, we think we might be of service to your client, can we have a couple minutes to talk about whether or not we can be on your bench that I might be interested in? Right, because you’ve taken the time to understand us understand our clients understand where you can actually add some value. I might be intrigued by that. But the whole key to this is that you have to have enough understanding of the people that you’re reaching out to, to actually be able to find how you’re going to add that value. What is their business to begin with? What are their motivations? What are they’re trying to do within their business? Are they a small or large business that has that have different connotations for what they need? If you’re looking at us, you’d see it’s me and April, who are forthright people probably don’t have an office. So you’re wasting your time trying to figure out like, do we need phone? Do we need coffee services? Do we need all these other things that purity system security system, like I mean, it goes on and on and on. So I’ll give you a good example of one that happened to me recently. And and I’m going to turn this over to April is there was a person who had listened to a podcast that I had been on, right, and he reached out to me said, I heard you on this podcast, I did some searching. And I didn’t see you come up recently in any podcasts. I see you as came up before, but I haven’t seen you recently. I’m like, he’s right. I haven’t recently been on a lot of podcasts. And so he’s like, can we be of service to you? Can we help pitch you to be on these other podcasts? I’m like, he actually did some research, he actually tried to create a connection. And ironically, all these other agencies, and this is not a it’s not an invite to pitch us. But all these other agencies who pitch us their guests, actually have not ever pitched us as a client. Right? They haven’t asked, Hey, do you guys want to be a podcast? Can we help provide some reciprocity, which I find is like very interesting. So I think that is like one thing to think about in the context of if you really want to break through, find the value that you’re going to add font, use your connections that you already have, as a way to leverage an opportunity to build your business. So April, what do you have to say about this one?

April Martini 7:27
Yeah, I mean, all of that, first of all, but the thing that I think really does drive me the most crazy, is yes, when they pitch us something we already do. But even more so when they’re lazy about the research to your point, right? So what I mean really specifically is we’ve had people cold call us to promote people to be on our podcast, or to promote their services, but what they’re doing is just going and selecting and repeating things that are out there lines of copy, essentially, right, so the podcast looks like, I recently listened to your episode, blah, blah, blah. And then it goes forward to pitch someone. And there’s no connection as to why that person builds off of that episode, right? or has any reason it’s like any idiot can go and see that we have a podcast and select a title, and then plop that into an email to pitch someone

Anne Candido 8:33
except for the people who actually pick the wrong episode, which is also which has happened, which is,

April Martini 8:37
yes. But I’m like, it just turns something on me that’s like, Do you think I’m not much of an idiot or that unsavoury that I believe that you actually looked? And then similarly, on our website, right, I have seen the on demand, branding and marketing picked up so many times and plopped into an email. But again, it’s I’m intrigued by this on your website, and therefore I think I could provide this and it just doesn’t make any sense. And so I continue to sit in this space similar to what you’ve already setting and of how effective could this possibly be and who’s biting, right, but then on the other side, it is a crowded mess right now, you guys. So why wouldn’t you try any different approach from what everybody else is doing? And the simplest thing would be to actually dig in and do some actual research, like you’ve heard and say, that gets you people to turn their heads and say, Oh, that’s different than anything anyone else is doing. And it feels relatively authentic. I just I’m constantly scratching my

Anne Candido 9:41
head. I am too and I think the five minutes of research that that takes has got to be a better ROI. Yeah, all the wasted amount of time and credibility and reputation, frankly, by cold calling a bunch of people who don’t have any need for you or you have a position in the way that they can understand the need. So it feels like a bunch of wasted time. And so that to the point of like things to avoid, and we’re going to state this, all of our points, here’s some particular statements that I that a lot of people use to try to get that familiarity, but totally fall flat all the time. So one is like making generic statements, especially if they’re true. So you said I was just looking at your company, which usually follows with something that demonstrates they didn’t just look at our company, right? The other one is I see we have contacts in common. I get that I have 1,200 contacts on LinkedIn, we probably do. Who do you know, why do you know them? How did you get connected to me through that person? Right? Or I did a full review of your site. Let’s have some time to discuss it. Well, we did a full review of my site, why aren’t you giving me anything that indicates that you actually looked at my site, and you actually have anything of value to add? Yeah, like, I don’t, I might go with you. I’m like, I don’t understand why people think that somebody’s gonna have to such a big leap of faith that they’re like, oh, yeah, I’m really interested in that. I’m going to call you up right now. I don’t know who you are. I don’t even know what your credentials are. So why would you think that I’m going to just say, oh, yeah, I need that. And I’m going to call this one person. It baffles me too. All right. So our second tip, offer immediate value without gaining it. I’m gonna give this one April.

April Martini 11:14
Yeah. So all right, broken record here, this assumes you’ve done your homework, and your target would be interested in the value that you are providing here. Okay, first and foremost, the effectiveness of this is totally contingent on the setup. And this definitely takes some savvy. So the way we do this is by sending podcast episodes that we think may help this is our cold calling, calling cards. So like that, the target gets immediate value, which we hope then on our side builds credibility, and then encourages them to engage with us further. And you don’t have to have a podcast to be able to do this, you can pick any piece of content you’ve created, and that is hosted somewhere that is legitimate, where people can go and look at it. I will say, you know, it was a little bit of a warmer one today. But this podcast thing, I mean, you know, someone reached out about a speaking engagement and said, which of the podcasts would you recommend that I can propose for you? Right, so whatever that currency is, you know that and the whole point we do this podcast, right is to be chock full of value. So I get that, it may be it may sound like we’re asking a lot, that’s not what we’re saying it has to be, it just has to be something that has informed point of view, and then your connection as to why this is relevant to that person, and then not making them jump through hoops to get to it. You can also do this in the body of the email. So if you’ve really reviewed the site, give them specifics on what you found. We will say early on, we were guilty of probably giving away too much right giving away the solution. We’re not saying to go and do that. We’ve stopped doing that entirely. But what we will say is prove out that you actually looked at the site beyond the headline on the homepage. Right, right. I was on the page with your worksheets, and I noticed that this wasn’t loading properly, even right, like something where I’m gonna be like, Wow, they actually kind of dug in to see right. Yeah, it’s a teaser. Alright, and another one immediate value wise that can tend to work is if you’re interested with people that have good networks that you may want to engage in, especially locally, right now we do this when we focus on our business and the credibility in reputation in our back yard. If you have a network that you think you can connect people that are again, relevant to us, then tell us why write an example of we have people in common Well, so what I mean, I’ve gotten so lazy on LinkedIn that I feel like I need to go through and cut out people that I don’t actually know that I accepted just because it was the path of least resistance. Now I can’t get rid of him in most cases. But just because we quote unquote, know similar people doesn’t mean we even actually know them in common, right. So if there are people that you think, Oh, they should meet so and so then tell me why I should meet them. And definitely to the point I made previously, please avoid asking for time right off the bat. I mean, in mentioned the word about going into their scheduling tool. I also hate that, but I think it just automatically disrespects people, even if you’re saying only whatever amount of time because especially when it’s on LinkedIn, and in my email inbox, for whatever reason, that’s gonna be my soapbox today. But why do you assume that I even have any free time during any given day? And then why would I give it to you of all people, especially if you’re not doing the point of this one, which is offering me any sort of value that piques my interest?

Anne Candido 14:46
Today that is exactly right on and I think there’s so many ways that you can help facilitate that because I know what the 15 minutes is going to be about is going to be your sales pitch, which has no consideration for what my business to us or who I am as a person or how that’s going to help me, you might as well put that in a video. Yeah, and have that on some a site and allow them to link into it right. I hesitate say sending any documents or videos through email or LinkedIn because people are finding that very scammy. So they’re afraid that they’re getting scammed and click on it, and they won’t click on it. But if you allow them to actually have access to something, and they can check out the site, see those silences legit, kind of similar to the format of the podcast when we send out the podcast, right, is that they can go to a legit site and see it’s a legit thing before they actually click on it. Be a little bit savvier here, guys, I mean, be lazy. Don’t be lazy, like you said. And that that comes back to the Customize outreach, let people know that you actually care. But I will say that I am a sucker for local outreaches. Because I find it is important to be able to be connected with people locally. So I will tend to accept those even if I know it’s gonna probably be more of a salesy kind of thing, because I just have an inclination to be connected locally. Now, just so you guys know, Cincinnati, Greater Cincinnati, we’re talking about, like, you know, a 30 mile radius pick wha is not local. So please don’t tell me you’re local to me. And you’re like two and a half hours away. I’m like, It’s not local. The state of Ohio is not local. Okay, so have some respect for that, too.

April Martini 16:22
I got one recently that was like, I have to offer an aside before I jump in. I’m going to be in Cincinnati. Oh, yeah. And in the town of whatever I’m like, well, we don’t call them towns and that’s nowhere near actually Cincinnati proper. So okay,

Anne Candido 16:35
yeah, I’ve seen that too. I’m gonna be in such and such in your area, I’d love to set up some time to talk to you. I mean, it might really be really okay. I don’t know, warm them up. First people, you have to have some sort of engagement that warms some up. Alright, so the third tip Be professional in tone and style. As April said, many of the cold calls can actually get quite aggressive. And that aggressiveness can show up in as April state. And I’ve seen it too, which is like, Oh, I’m assuming that you actually want to respond to me, and you just haven’t had time to respond. That’s one of my favorites. Or like, Oh, you must be very, very busy person. So let me continue to email you to bring this to the top of your email inbox or your LinkedIn feed in order for you to not to forget about me. That is like a harassment. If I really it is, if I wanted to connect with you, I would connect with you. So no, you should not assume that I’m just busy. And I haven’t had a chance to reach out yet, especially on your third reach out. Okay. Now, table stakes are good grammar, punctuation and correct spelling, consistent font. Yeah, I can snip out in one word, it looks like the cut and paste because the fonts different Emily at least take the two seconds and make the font the same so that people can see that you actually are not cutting and pasting. But a respectful non pushy tone is actually extremely important to. So I thought a really fun thing for me to do is to actually read one of the ones that I’ve gotten recently I want to Okay, on the Read Write

April Martini 18:08
has a different one and one came in today that made me so mad that I changed it

Anne Candido 18:11
out. Oh, yeah, that’s gonna be interesting. Yeah, I can go on and on about this, but I’ll just pick up Pick the one because it violates a lot of these things. And actually, the tone is actually respectful. So they get a star for that. But you’re gonna see what I mean here. Okay. So this was started on August 10. And we’re not going to use names, because that would just be me. Hope your day is going well so far. And does your team use LinkedIn for lead gen? Again? Yes, we do. But we are a marketing agency. Right. So you should like say something about maybe connecting like, Oh, I see that you’re a marketing agency. What is your you know, what is your thoughts on lead, like using LinkedIn for lead gen, you know, something to the effect that they drives as some sort of familiarity or connection point. I own a marketing agency that specializes in lead gen on Instagram and Facebook. But over the past year, I’ve moved our process over LinkedIn, because a platform generates much higher quality leads. Okay, da, I was thinking of putting together a webinar to show the exact method I’m using to fill not only my pipeline, but all my clients pipelines. If I did, would you be interested in attending? Why don’t you just do the webinar? Like why does it matter if I attend or not? It would this would be such a much more powerful thing to say, Hey, I’ve recorded webinars and you can have a you know, here’s the link to it on my site, in case you’re interested on LinkedIn lead gen, right? No, they’re trying to bait me. Okay. Three days later, and do you like coffee and the pictures, again, the coffee with my mug with my name on right? I was taking a look into your company and have some cool ideas for how we can leverage LinkedIn to get you talking to your ideal audience based on what I mean. So I there’s no blade reference there to what they looked at how they think that they could be able to use LinkedIn in order to generate these leads. It’s basically just a form statement that They’re probably stunning to everybody. I’d love to be able to share them with you and learn more about your role. Would you be up for a quick conversation? I’ve even got one here with your name on it, which is the coffee mug? No, I didn’t respond to you the first time. So why would I spend the second time? Alright, so this was then maybe a day later. If you’re ever explained LinkedIn for lead gen, don’t hesitate to reach out, I’d love to be able to be a resource for you. And they we could find a great synergy between our companies and

April Martini 20:23
our business partners. And I got the same three communications.

Anne Candido 20:27
So there you go. So didn’t even think about that. Would you be up for talking more about this? No. Where are you getting the fact that I want to talk more about it? You obviously have not done any of your homework. You’ve violated all the rules with regards to actually reaching out and cold calling. You didn’t even try. So no. And you got the same one. Yeah,

April Martini 20:47
exactly. All three the same communications. Yeah. Okay. So like I said, I had a different one, which that one was actually on my list, too. But this is one that came in today. So this says LinkedIn intro to this person. Hey, April, I sent you a LinkedIn connection a few days ago. No, didn’t get a LinkedIn connection a few days ago. My apologies for reaching out directly like this, but thought it might be a smart way to connect easier in my email inbox, which I already said how much I love that. Oh, jeez, I’m eager to chat with you about an opportunity I see for forthright people in financial services, can we get together for 15 minutes next week? This person’s in financial services. So with the bait and switch, I already can see what’s going to happen here, right, it’s not actually an opportunity for our business in any way, shape, or form. It’s an opportunity for this person in the financial investment sector to try to get me to switch to their service. So again, never got the LinkedIn thing. I went back and checked just because I was curious, because I was already like annoyed. If I didn’t respond there, why would I? Well, I don’t even have an invite. And then thinking that the emails easier way to go, and then the bait and switch, and then asking for my time.

Anne Candido 21:52
So there you go. Yeah. So I think you guys are seeing a bit of a trend here that being repetitive in your ask, can we set up a call? Can we set up a call? Who is your district disrespecting the personal space of somebody else? And is starting to feel like harassment? I love so love the one just let me know if you don’t want to hear from me. Okay, yeah. Why would I engage until you I don’t want to hear from you. You’re the one who came into my space? Well, then that’s just gonna give you a reason to respond, right? I mean, and it just, it doesn’t make any sense at all. So the moral of this one is you have to structure the conversation in a way that shows again, that you have some interest in the other person, this is not all about you. And you have to do it in a way that uses good sentence structure, good formatting, and have to be very respectful of the person’s time overall. Yes. All right. So then our fourth tip is make them an irresistible offer. I’m gonna give this one to April.

April Martini 22:52
Yes. So this turns what’s going badly on its head, right. So remember, you’re cold calling them like and just said, so you want to engage them, but also make that make it easy for them to say yes, which would be whitespace in the category of what happened. So ways you can do this, give them a special trial offer, offer a free audit or console to get them in the door, offer a money back guarantee. Give them a gift card to compensate them for your time and listening to you. I actually had this happen last week, and Anne was gone. So I was in a little bit of purgatory because she was out of the office. So I didn’t respond. But I will say that this one really did give me pause this person was offering to send me a gift card to pay for my lunch to give them time to speak with me. So standing out I mean, I did I stopped and I was like, oh, and then I never got back to it. But that that was stop right? It caused me to stop Yeah, exactly. Give them exposure offer to promote them on LinkedIn to your network, invite them to be a guest on your podcast offer. Let them come in and speak to your team about the services or products they sell. Make it about them not you offer to connect them or refer them to legit potential clients, please don’t do the bait and switch that I just talked about. Limited Time offers which build urgency and immediacy. This is just like, to me, this is where offering true help is the most important thing when people feel seen or heard, especially given the mess that this has become. Sometimes that’s really all they need to move forward with you. And I think you can hear the frustration with us of just the inauthenticity, the laziness and the disrespect that’s living in this space. If you come from a place of really wanting the business, wanting to help wanting the connection, wanting whatever it is, but you’re offering something in turn that benefits them in that moment more than you that’s where I think the win really comes.

Anne Candido 24:50
I agree and I think it’s really about trying to quantify that value. So a lot of people will do it in a way that feels very salesy. You were like Can I can I, you spend $2,000 I get you 100,000 leads in your first month like it? No, no. But if you said, Hey, we specialize in doing lead gen for small businesses, we’ve had a ton of success on small businesses, here’s a couple. And we’ve been able to help them increase their business. Now you started to get my ears perked up, because I can see how the relationship of what you do what you specialize in could benefit us. But you haven’t gone and done the work to actually show why you’re credible. Why you have some, you know, any reason to reach out to me and why I have should believe you at all, because I don’t even know who you are. Now, I’m not saying you should give a laundry list of like your resume, because that’s not helpful either. But you do should have a few highlights that you’re going to pinpoint to say, why should somebody choose you? It’s the branding exercise we talked about all the time, right? Who am I? Why am I different? Why do you want me those should be reflected in your cold call very succinctly because nobody wants to read like pages and pages of your soliloquy about why you’re so awesome. But it does help to differentiate you. And that is what is going to be useful, because then it could potentially have a stopping power that other things have not in the past. So when will you say you know, offer a free auditor console to get him in the door? That’s not just again, your Can we talk to you for 30 minutes, I know what that 30 minutes is going to be about. But if you were to lead in with like, hey, we took a look at your website. And we noticed that on your, like you said on your worksheet page listing isn’t loading quite right in on this site that this thing is like, you know, could be optimized. And we think we can actually have some SEO keywords that might help. And I’m like, I might give you 30 minutes, then in order to hear what you have to say. That is your 30 Minute console. It’s not just saying, come talk to me for 30 minutes, because we all know what that being a switch is about. So, again, the irresistible offer has to be in a way that’s quantifying the value that you’d be able to bring and not in a salesy way that like feels like a screaming some sort of TV ad to everybody, which everybody gets going to get right.

April Martini 26:59
Yeah, well, that yes, that’s

Anne Candido 27:01
a good way of putting it because I think that is the intelligence piece. Like I feel like you’re trying to already offer that. So you’re smarter than me like you’re trying to trick me into something instead of really trying to conduct respectful business between the parties, I think that is a really good way of putting in. Alright, so just to recap our four tips for successful cold calling. Make it customized the art of the cold call requires you to do some research, you need to understand their business motivations, current frustrations, and use that as a way in show that the person means enough that you actually did your homework. Second is offer immediate value without getting it give them a teaser for the potential value you will bring. Third is be professional and tone and style table stakes. There’s good grammar, punctuation, and correct spelling and respectful, non pushy tone. Finally, make them an irresistible offer. Remember, you are cold calling them. So make it easier for them to say yes. Alright, so our next segment the interventions, we’re going to take this and we’re gonna probably go a little a little bit deeper here. But hopefully you guys can take these and put them into practice and action today. Alright, so the first is what cold calls turn you off the most. Alright, so we’ve already talked about this a little bit, but we’re gonna open it. But let’s just kind of put it like a little bit of a finer point and maybe talk about some of the ones that we haven’t talked about so far. And I’ll go first and April, a definitely want you to jump in on this. And you alluded to this, but it’s the bait and switch. And I see this a lot, again, with the email that you said, where it’s like you’re professing to be interested in somebody else’s business. But yet you really want to sell your own. Now, this irritates me more than anything, and it shuts down immediately. But people think that this is a way of being able to get in. And this is where I would say you need to warm up the person a little bit more or the business a little bit more. By that I mean, if you’re going to engage with them on LinkedIn, and you sent them an invite to to connect, fine connect with them, start liking some of the stuff that you put out, right, start asking some questions or putting some comments out there show that you’re interested that you’re following, then you’re engaged, then you might have a an opportunity to kind of like boost their ego a little bit by saying, Hey, I saw that you’re putting out this kind of content, this and that. And the other, we might have a service that we think might be able to make this more efficient, or we think you know, what was something you said here is something that we’re seeing the same issue on so we think that maybe we could have some way of then that the synergy of being able to you know, help each other out, be smarter and savvier about how you actually warm up the person before you kind of go in for the the quick sell and don’t need but the generic openings that we that we said before actually be more authentic about that. And I’ve done that where I’ve like LinkedIn was somebody that I thought was, you know, kind of cool and I just said hey, if you have any need for any marketing Your printing services, I hope you’ll keep us in mind. Otherwise, I’ll be watching you guys with interest, you know, you know, so it’s something that just kind of shows that it reminds them that, hey, that was a kind of a cool way of engaging me. And it kind of keeps you kind of Top of Mind without having to go through some sneaky bait and switch in order to like, try to get them to say, Oh, they want me they really want me. No, they don’t really want me they want to sell their stuff. I mean, people now understand that and they can read into it. April, what’s yours?

April Martini 30:28
Yeah, so I thought a lot on this one. And I went back and forth, because I was like, Is this technically cold calling, but I decided that it is. And that is when someone that you have never worked with directly, but you worked at the same company, or you haven’t talked to in many years, or you do kind of know may have met at something before pops up. And however they they come in, I was thinking about the whole, we used to call it warm the door at the agency, but how to initiate these types of conversations. And so I’ve decided it does go into the cold call bucket because it checks the boxes of we don’t really know each other, you’re only reaching out because you want something from me. And the kicker is not really doing it in a way that tries to build any sort of relationship with me, right. So I just feel like, to your point, an if you’re going to take the time to initiate contact, and you’re looking for something from me, at the very least give me the courtesy of saying, you know, we haven’t talked in a really long time. I know we work together at the same company, but we never really worked together before. You know, I see you guys are doing some interesting things, do your homework again, you know, I can’t believe you have a podcast with 100 episodes. That’s amazing, like anything to spark my interest or desire to want to get back to you. Because I can tell you right now, what happens to me in these moments is I’m frustrated by the reach out, I’m put off by it. But then I kind of go into this mode of, well, we kind of know each other should I respond with anything, you know, and it just it’s a really tricky situation to put people in. And I think that it is it could just be avoided really easily as could a lot of these things on this episode, right. But I think just giving a different lens to cold calling, I’ve decided that goes in the exact same bucket. Because if we never had a relationship ever before, even if we have commonalities, like living in the same city, like we said before, that doesn’t mean that I should give you anything or feel compelled to give you anything. So for those of you out there trying this and I get it, you know what the pandemic a lot of stuff happen. People shifted positions, they lost jobs and loved opportunities. They want to do their own thing. There’s a million reasons why I’ve received these before. But I just want to make the point. And this is why networking authentically is such a huge thing for me is because I never want to put anyone into that position myself, which is probably why it’s such a hot button for me. Yeah, I

Anne Candido 33:19
think that’s a really, really good point. I would call that cold calling. And I think the key to this one is just to be authentic. Yeah. And I think if you’re calling a per specific reason, especially if you’re in dire straits, I mean, don’t lay on the guilt trip and you know, the poor me, but you can say very clearly Hey, I know we haven’t talked for a very long time. I apologize. This is coming right out of the blue is Dan diagnostica. Jay Yeah, this could be really awkward for you. But you know, I’m just getting my new business off the ground. I know you’re really good at marketing and branding. I recall that from when at the time we worked together. Do you have any tips for me? Do you have any access points or suggestions for where I could go get more connections and don’t make it all about the fact that you want something specific from them but like offer some way for them to be able to help in a way that doesn’t feel as like a like a give and take kind of thing that you’re like just calling because you want an access point or you’re just calling because you want you know this I mean don’t shrouded in like a bunch of fluffy either. But try to be respectful that again, yes, you’re asking somebody for something that you haven’t talked to you in a very long time and you don’t even have any understanding of where they are in their career or in their life at that point in time. So you have to be again like you said warm the door which I don’t understand that analogy but I don’t even why would you warm the door if you don’t like cold doors? I don’t understand.

April Martini 34:51
i It’s just like stuck in my head kind of for the same reason because I was always like, warm the door because you don’t go soliciting because you the way you used to solicit was knock on people’s door without knowing them. And that door was cool. In the end, it was a cold, like cold calling, it was, I don’t know, right now, that’s where it went in my head and how it made sense. But that just was like the phrase that popped up when I was thinking about this example. So

Anne Candido 35:14
that’s a good, that’s a good one. I do like that one, as an example, for sure.

April Martini 35:17
But I will say that I did have one on the other side, to the point of not being totally negative in this way that I thought really did a nice job. We had worked together, it has been every bit of 1011 12 years, we have someone in common, I had just seen that person, that person went back and said, I saw APR, you know, and they must have had a What is she up to? So this person connected the dots for me, right? I know, you just had coffee with so and so. I don’t know if you know this, but I’ve started my own photography business. You know, if you ever have the need, like you said, we’d love to hear from you. I’m just putting it out there because I know it’s a service that you use, right. And I got back and said, you know, right now we have, we don’t have any we didn’t have any projects at that point in time. And I even said, I think we have someone in the short term for like that kind of stuff. But feel free to check back in. And this person came back like three months later and said, hey, just checking in again. And I said, I’m gonna be really honest, you’re so senior. And I remember a specialty in this particular area. So that together doesn’t really suit me when we’re doing this. It’s such an add on that we have folks that just will do it more economically tell me if I’m wrong. Also, we’re doing so much more video than photography, and it came back of, you know, a perspective that understand, you know, the business need. Also, I’m now doing video too, I have extended my services. Here’s an example of something I’ve done recently keep me in mind, it was great. It would have a totally different perception of that person. And we worked together a handful of times all those years ago. And now I’m now that person’s in my head in a different way than all these other folks.

Anne Candido 37:01
Yeah, I think that’s a really good example, too. All right, our second in the trenches question based on everything you’ve been saying is cool calling even worth it? And I think this is actually a very good question. And my fair one, yeah, it is a very fair one. And my honest answer, and I’m gonna ask April to provide her thoughts here, too, is that it actually should be at the very bottom of the list when you’re thinking about lead gen and connecting with people. And the reason why is because as we’ve been talking, the ROI is probably the worst of all the tactics. So you might say then, okay, fine, what do you guys suggest, instead of cold calling? How do I get this, like this networking thing going. So first, we would say marketing to establish a presence, this helps to create value, it helps to be able to establish the exposure you might be able to offer, if you have a very solid social channel, then again, that’s a value that you can add for somebody where it can be a little bit more of a quid pro quo, which is like, I’ll help you if you help me. The other thing, which is, you know, will advertise you are well, we’ll, we’ll say something nice about you on our social channels to our 2000 followers. So you get that much more exposure. So has established a good marketing presence. And it also helps to people to check your credibility and your reputation, right. So it has that that branding aspect of it. So people can actually know who you are, especially since they probably don’t sense your cold calling, right. The second is good old fashioned networking. So I mean, we’re back a little bit into the swing of things, I know that everything is back up and working and operating and the way that it used to, but there is now more professional and social gatherings that are happening. April and I belong to Northern Kentucky chamber where you’re starting to go to those meetings, every time we go, we meet one or two people that we think are going to be a value to our business. And we try to be a value to others at the same time. But use connections respectfully. So again, if you want intros to somebody, you know, don’t just use this as a mechanism for just like getting to know this one person so you can get an intro to another person, you know, so make sure you’re honoring the whole network ecosystem to make sure that you’re not done violating some of those rules that will get you basically banished from that network. Be anywhere that your target is so events and expos are back on you guys like this is a really great way in a very target rich environment to find where your consumer or your target is, and go and be with them. Right when that time when they’re actually looking and receptive to that right. So yes, you’re gonna generate a lot of leads, but at least now you have a way of being able to connect with them by just saying, well I met with you are connected to you at this event, you know, and I’m just following up to see how we can be a benefit, right? It gives you a way in that gives you that connection that allows you to customize a bit of the the call. Next is do some consulting or training. This is a really easy way to April’s point earlier about the webinars to provide some Education and get your self in on that matter. So, like we have our code, train, do model, right. And those are different ways of getting aging our clients that allows it to be a little bit more on their terms with regards to where they are on their project lifecycle, their business lifecycle, but also where they are on their costs. So we have seen some of our coaching is turned into bigger projects, right? Some of our training, our keynotes have turned on bigger projects don’t go all in for like, the biggest thing that you can offer, you might be other ways of being able to tear your offerings into more of a coaching, education, training and keynoting kind of way that allows you to have more of a weigh in. So now there are times when cold calling is needed. And that’s the things that you have to consider in your business lifecycle. So one of the biggest things that cold calling usually comes up in is when you’re pitching any kind of influencer or any kind of publications some sort of PR way. But if you listen to our PR episode, he was here that we still suggest you actually use an agency that actually has relationships to give you an easier way in, a lot of people won’t do that, because they don’t want to spend the money, you know, or they’re like trying to be very scrappy. But again, a lot of that is wasted effort, because a lot of those people on the other end, if you consider what they’re they’re living right now is a very lean lean publications, right, they have multiple beats, now they’re pulling in, they’re listening to those folks that they hear from on a regular basis that know they’re going to add value. If they don’t know you’re going to add value, you’re not going to be part of those ticket through the system. Right? So use the people hire the right people that aren’t gonna give you the value.

April Martini 41:38
Yeah, I hate to say, but I really think it goes at the bottom too. I agree with this one. And I agree with all the other options. And I think, for me, it goes back to the laziness. And I also have to say, though, that I do understand the behavior, given the results of COVID. So I think that people are now in this sort of knee jerk de facto, I can do it over screen, I can do it in personally, I can do it over email, I can, you know, I can just put it out there and something will come back. And I feel like more than ever, the relationship piece can be such a differentiator, because everybody has been starved for it for a while. And I guess I’m just left scratching my head, it’s probably because you and I have had so many situations on the opposite side, right, like being in front of clients recently, and comments like, Oh, it’s so good to be with people again, or man, we got so much accomplished during that or being able to hug someone again and not worry about it or you know, just all of the human factors that I think are novel again. And so I’m sort of left at a good how this became a behavior, I get why it’s as crazy as it is, I just don’t understand the inability maybe to not add some level of humanity in which I think is what you’re hearing us say here, right? Treat me as a person first. And maybe I’ll give a little bit but treat me like a number or treat me aggressively or act like I have all the time in the world, all the bad habits that come through, I just I don’t know why this would be the de facto anymore, is where I landed on this one. And then I also just think that, given the saturation of this now, even if you did it before, effectively, I can’t believe that it’s the same level of effectiveness, because I think people are just tired of it, which is what you’ve heard us say, throughout this entire episode. So if you’re gonna give it a shot, I would love to see you follow the tips in this episode to try to at least stand out if you’re going to invest in this or any level of this. But I too, would just recommend trying some of these other things and focusing in one or two of these other areas that I think will come across more human and relational than anything you can do in the cold calling space.

Anne Candido 44:13
Yeah, Jordan Harbinger who is another podcaster. He says, You can’t build a well when you’re already thirsty. Right. So I think that’s actually a very, very good, good, like summary of everything that we just said. And the fact that if you feel like you’re going to need these connections, you need to be building them as you’re going not just waiting until all of a sudden the earth is falling and then you need so and so or your business is like not generating enough leads and all of a sudden you’re just desperate for however you’re going to be able to generate the leads, right? So be more intentional, and it’s going to pay back and more dividends, which leads to our third and final in the trenches question which is what is the best channel for cold calling? And again, I think we’re both give our suggestions here, but I would think we’re probably gonna agree that there is no silver bullet here. What we can say is that all channels can be effective if you actually use them appropriately. So I was gonna say that the misuse is the issue. And then Miss Chansey issue, you are totally right, that you said the most, most people do not use them appropriately. Most people are using these channels as a way of using them. Yeah, trying to just mass email, mass outreach, everybody. Now I’ve personally seen the most success with LinkedIn when I follow these tips. And I’ve given you some example. Now the platform is built for networking. So use it in that context, that it is a networking tool, it’s fine to start to like pine for business and stuff like that, if you do, and you follow these things out, like what you said, and especially requires a little bit of a warming up period. But the good thing about LinkedIn is that if somebody is like somewhat interested, they can check your credentials very, very easily. And they can see if you’re legit or not, i It’s the first thing I do when somebody is trying to connect with me, I look and I see what they’re selling. And I see that it’s going to be a hard pitch. It’s a hard no for me, I do not connect with anybody that I feel is going to be like just turning around and pitching something. And just as a spoiler alert, you guys, your header is like the biggest giveaway ever. Right? So make sure your LinkedIn profile actually speaks to the type of business that you have. Again, going back to all those branding things, not just your pitch. Yes. So you’re so this is a really important nuance. And I think we probably gonna do a episode on LinkedIn profiles, I think it’s really, really important. And then I would say then that the least effective, I would say appears to be DMing. So whether it’s Instagram or your messenger, and Facebook, it’s because those things are kind of off platform. They’re just not in everybody’s purview. And so I would say like some of the even like, the very irresistible offers we’ve offered to influencers is to say, hey, you know, we have an opportunity to actually potentially be a business partner with you with this company. And, you know, we think you’d be a good fit and no response back whatsoever. Now, maybe they just chose to opt out in my DM, but for some of the ones that we were like offering like now, they probably should have responded, they’re probably just not there. Right? So you have to kind of consider the actual channel itself and how conducive it is for that engagement. DMing is one that I feel just isn’t that good for that?

April Martini 47:25
Yeah, I agree on both fronts. I think LinkedIn is the platform, because I think this is what it’s built to do when you follow the best practices. And it’s a professional network. So I think that’s why it feels better to me than someone reaching out on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, it just feels removed from the business situation. Oh, a bit more. I also think that there is a lot of spamming going on not just people that are actual people, but bots and other things that are popping up aggressive behavior, etc. In those channels. I mean, I just had one the other day where someone mirrored a woman’s profile that I used to work with, and sent me a friend request, which I thought was weird. I was like, Are you friends, and then I accepted it. And then they started messaging me and was clear, it wasn’t her. And so I just blocked it immediately. Right. But just to the point, there’s a lot of that going on. But I do think it goes back to how you’re going to use it, I still would recommend against these mass email cold called DM things, even if you are using LinkedIn. Back to my example before about reaching out to people that you haven’t talked to in a while I’ve done that with success, or followed people that I admire or whatever without really an agenda, or I’m offering them something. So for example, when we first started this podcast, and when I didn’t necessarily have people’s cell phone numbers from a while ago, but I wanted them to be a guest. And I didn’t know how else to get in touch, I would Facebook message or LinkedIn message. But I would say I realized this is like a really impersonal and weird way for me to reach out. Just hear me out. We were looking through all of our contacts. And I think you’d be great for our podcast to be a guest. Feel free to shoot me another way to get in touch. And sorry that this is the way I reached out. Right. But that again, that’s a very human way to do it and apologetic way, and I was offering them something. So you’re hearing again, the tips of again, I just think it’s not the channel. It’s the approach.

Anne Candido 49:21
Yeah, I think that’s totally right. Yeah, I’ve had some success on email as well. But the tips that you need to really think about for emails, one, your subject needs to be highly compelling. And again, a value without sounding like you’re, again, mass emailing, or you’re basically scamming them, right? So are selling and then you have two sentences that basically hook them so you need to lead with your value. When you’re doing that. Once you’ve looked with your value, then you can say a little bit more about who you are and why you’re a credible person and what you think you can offer them, but you need to lead with the headline. So don’t bury the lead but we say in the PR world don’t bury the lead, make your lead at the very, very top. And it has to be the first two senses and it needs to be sharp and you need to be quick. It needs to be that person needs to be able to say, Oh yes, I need that or I want that. Yep. All right. So our third and final segment is a marketing smarts moment, which is a person or business we’ve seen recently using or not using the marketing smarts. And it may or may not have anything to do with today’s episode, and this one has absolutely nothing to do but I always try to see if I can find some sort of funny, secondary way to back

April Martini 50:30
well, and especially because this is maybe been one of our more beatdown on the topic episodes. So this is a good one. Okay. Yeah, that’s good.

Anne Candido 50:39
That’s a that’s a really good yeah. All right, so my marking sparse moment is about the Fowling Warehouse, which has nothing to do with chickens.

April Martini 50:50
Well, that’s what I thought when I first saw this in there. I was like, what? Yeah, I didn’t know about this.

Anne Candido 50:54
You didn’t see this as my point. Yeah. You’re bringing something to the forefront? Yes. All right. So um, it’s located in Blue Ash, which is in around Cincinnati. So if you’re locally in Blue Ash, yes. You can say that you’re local to Cincinnati. It is one of the Cincinnati suburbs. So fowling is this cross between football and bowling. Okay, so imagine this warehouse with just a, like, nets everywhere, and you’ll see why there’s nets everywhere. But these like lanes look like bowling lanes. Okay, but it’s not really a bowling lane. It’s that you have an either side, the 10 pins of a tie at the end of the bowling lane. On the ground on the ground. Okay. Okay. And there are probably a good I mean, the length of of like a bowling lane. It’s like, you know, a good like 20 feet long, okay. And there’s a girls line is a boys line, but still, you’re given a football, okay. And you’re expected to throw the football and knock down the pins on the other side. Okay, bowling pins, like real real bowling pins with a nice and heavy, which are nice and heavy with this like kind of like it’s a little bit like a deflated so like a DeflateGate ball. Okay. All right, and you have team so you kind of go in order. Now if you hit the red pin down before any other pins, you automatically win, but you’re the objective is a hit be the first like,

April Martini 52:10
where’s the red pin in the mix? It’s in the middle in the middle. Okay, okay.

Anne Candido 52:14
Now what the, you’re close enough, like you’re only about 10 feet from the person beside you. So their ball ricochets and knocks down the pins in your lane in your lane that counts. So not only do you have to play offense, you have to play defense from person to ball, okay, in the middle of a warehouse, which is not air conditioned. Okay, so we did this in July, we went for our friend’s birthday. Okay, it is some effort. All right. So I’m making this cute little dress my little sandals. I’m like, we were all sweating by the time was done. Now luckily, there’s a nice bar. So that helps.

April Martini 52:48
But we’re not it isn’t on accuracy.

Anne Candido 52:52
I only got hit in the head twice, with a ball that I wasn’t paying attention. And it’s not good to have your drinks in the actual to your hand and you’re wearing it. Yeah, so you had to kind of put your drink down on the outside just to make sure. But you know, it’s kind of funny. So my husband Tony is like a savant when it comes to these kinds of games, like anything that you can drink and play at the same time. He just is like, disproportionately good at but it starts pool croquet for him as a drinking game. I mean, any of these, he could not master this game at all. So that says something about it. But I killed it. Like I was like, really, really good at this game.

April Martini 53:27
Therefore you’re self promoting while you’re promoting this.

Anne Candido 53:30
I am. But the funny thing is, and I’m getting to the marketing part here in a second, but I feel like it just needs a little bit of setup. The funny part is, is this was a game that these two guys developed to be like more of a tailgating game, which I cannot understand in any like, like how this was how I do have no idea. So that being said, the idea was to kind of take this and kind of mass produce it obviously put in new cities. So that being said, Cincinnati is a city that loves these kinds of games like loves, like all kinds of different interesting kind of games, especially if you can have a drink and you can do it at the same time. I think we’re probably the cornhole like city of whole entire country. And I think our city could be renamed something like fun drinking game city. I mean, that’s just kind of what we do. I have not heard of this place and had been open for a while now. Except for through of the person that we were going to go to their birthday party. They’re an adult, not a kid. Although kids can do this to really

April Martini 54:30
Yes, they have kids sections are everywhere. Wow.

Anne Candido 54:34
No. So here’s it’s a mass chaos thing. Yeah, we’re having big birthday parties. Yeah, benches out. You can bring him food, all kinds of stuff. Yeah. So and they and he had heard about it because his daughter actually works in the Kevin Bacon thing. Yeah, so I’m like, How did I not know about this like it maybe they are advertising and doing some more local marketing. But generally these things kind of come to like the four Front very, very quickly, either through like the cincinnati.com, or any kind of this Cincinnati, like what’s hot. And since no idea what to do in Cincinnati, or some sort of social like you see a come through because you’re live in Cincinnati, so I’m so localized geotargeted marketing. I mean nothing. I had not heard of this at all, and neither had any of the other people that went with this. So I would say they’re not exercising their marketing smarts, as much as I think they should be, especially for the propensity that Cincinnati has for these kinds of things. And just to trying and doing something different, but they do, I think, need to optimize the experience, a tablet, like it was hot. I mean, it was really, really hot air conditioning in that part of the warehouse. I’m sure it’d be hard to had fans going. But it’s like, you have to be ready to go do this. Yeah, like, it has to be something you’re like, alright, we got it, we’re gonna go do this like kind of thing. It’s a little bit more of a workout. So I see all that just to say like, it needs the right story, for sure. And then it needs some better, I think direct local marketing, especially since it’s in the back, like, you have to go behind all this warehouses all the way back to the back. There’s like, no, like signage out front that you can see the sign on a main street in that way. Yeah. So there’s no use just no way of knowing what’s going on there. So

April Martini 56:24
plus, you wouldn’t know to your point what falling warehouse was? Yeah. Sign place.

Anne Candido 56:29
Yeah. So I mean, I think it needs more promotion, more local ads, more Cincinnati site stuff, more influencers, local influencers, talking about it, all of that marketing strategy in order to elevate it. That’s my marketing smarts moment.

April Martini 56:45
I mean, I think all of that makes sense. And you’re right, Cincinnati loves their games. So even if it’s a flash in the pan type thing at first, you’ll get some people who will fall in love with it and come back. I mean, it’s the whole funnel thing again, but if you’re not filling it, then nobody knows you’re there.

Anne Candido 56:59
Yep, that’s definitely moral of the story. Thank you. Alright, so just to recap our four tips for successful cold calling. Make a customized the art of the cold caller requires you to do some research you need to understand their business motivations, current frustrations, and use that as a way in show that the person meets enough that you did your homework. Second is offer immediate value without getting it give them a teaser for the potential value of brain. Third, be professional in tone and style. table stakes is good grammar, punctuation, correct spelling and respectful, non pushy tone. And finally, make them an irresistible offer. Remember, you are cold calling them so make it easier for them to say yes and that will say go and exercise your Marketing Smarts! Still need

April Martini 57:41
help in growing your Marketing Smarts? Contact us through our website: ForthRight-People.com. We can help you become a savvy marketer through coaching or training you and your team or doing the work on your behalf. Please also help us grow the podcast by rating and reviewing on your player of choice and sharing with at least one person. Now go show off your Marketing Smarts!