Tips on Cold Calling & Cold Emailing to up your income

Debt_Robot

Just wanted to share some tips I have learned/taught myself in the past few months while I have been trying to up my income.

This advice works best for: anyone with a side business such as a website, online shop or a bricks and mortar type of work such as freelancing and consulting.

Cold calls

I can feel the dread from anyone who hates cold calls. We all hate them but sadly this is how all businesses are built. Bill Gates and many successful people all built their brands through cold calling.

I cold-called many businesses this summer and last year. Here are some tips:

*Call and ask for names of exactly who you need to speak to. If you want to sell advertising on your website, call and ask for the Marketing Manager. If they operate on a no-names policy, use LinkedIn to find out the person's name. With over 70 million people on LinkedIn, no-name policies cannot stop cold callers.

*Have a script of some sort but sound natural. Some people hate being asked 'how are you?' by cold callers but other people like having a little conversation. Just remember why you are calling. You want to warm the lead up and get an appointment or get them to call you back. If you are looking for freelance web design work, when you cold call, try and find a flaw or something that can be improved on their current website and suggest that you have a few ideas on how a business can be made more competitive.

When cold calls work: Last year, we had to do some cold calling as part of my postgraduate degree. I landed an advertising deal off several cold calls from one business. The deal was worth £300.

When cold calls do not work: This year, I was calling one lead looking for advertising and while they seemed interested, they were time wasters. If after a few calls and emails you can't seem to get anywhere, cut your losses and move on to your next lead.

Cold emails

These are also very intimidating and many people are scared of doing them because of SPAM laws. First, define SPAM. Spam is essentially bulk, unsolicited marketing messages. Note the key word here is BULK. That is what spam is. You are spamming someone if you get their email address and send an email blast of their email along with 500 ones in a single go.

You are not spamming someone if you send someone an individual unsolicited, personalised email suggesting they try your services.

I have sent many cold emails [note: each individual and personalised] this summer as part of my campaign to up my income on my portfolio of websites and to grow my digital marketing business on the side. Here are my findings:

*If you can't find the person's email address, email the company one but again, make the individual absolutely tailored to that company. If you are a freelance copywriter and you spot many spelling mistakes on a website, it would not hurt to contact the company and let them know in a friendly way.

*Choose a good niche for cold emails. The rate of return on cold emails is very very very low. If you send many individual personalised company emails, you will see a better return as long as you choose the right niche. From my work so far, good niches to sell your services to if you are a freelance writer, designer are things such as property and motoring as these are stalwart businesses that tend to have a consistent need for smooth marketing/image.

*Say you want to get advertisers but you are too worried to do so with a cold call. Send a cold email but make sure you write it in such a way that sells it hard. If you PM me, I can give you an example of one cold email I sent where someone paid me some money to advertise. Not much money but better than nowt and helped me to up my income.

When cold emails work: I sent a sharp email to the advertiser above. From just that one email, they sent me a cheque within a week. I also landed £300+ worth of digital marketing work from sending a cold email to one company, and was then forwarded to a digital agency.

When cold emails don't work: So many rejection emails from many prospective clients. This does hurt but it helps you grow a thick skin.

For every rejection, there is someone out there who will employ you for your services, which in turn will help you crush your debt.

Hope this helps. I am by no means an expert in cold calling or cold emailing but these are some tips I have learned over the past few months!

Let me know if you have thoughts!

savemoney

Here is my advice for no cold calls consumers only



Telephone


sorry this costs £80+ plus but screen cold calling and built-in in answering machine. It can with SD card and software (costs extra) also record calls only for personnel use

Works 100% so far

Door calling
Check in window who is at door if you dont know them dont answer. I can usually spot a cold caller anyway

Or say the house is rented and I am moving shortly

Emails
Most (99%) go in spam filter via gmail those that dont soon get put in and added to filter to block any more

Dont give out details to people will nilly especially those at door or on street

Chuggers
I avoid them by walking other side of street.

Supermarket (N power and a like)

Smile and say no thank you and keep walking

Mail (plus takeaways, catalogues)
straight in log burner or in recycle bin

Debt_Robot

savemoney wrote: »

Here is my advice for no cold calls



Telephone



Works 100% so far

Door calling

Check in window who is at door if you dont know them dont answer. I can usually spot a cold caller anyway

Or say the house is rented and I am moving shortly

Emails

Most (99%) go in spam filter via gmail those that dont soon get put in and added to filter to block any more

Dont give out details to people will nilly especially those at door or on street

Chuggers

I avoid them by walking other side of street.

Supermarket (N power)

Smile and say no thank you and keep walking

LOL well I understand that people hate cold calls and cold emails, they are just a necessary evil in business.

I should say that my advice is geared towards people who want to up their income in a B2B format, not by selling directly to consumers.

Selling products to consumers to up your income is incredibly difficult, more so than selling a service to a business. Cold calling a business will always be easier than cold calling or cold emailing a person.

Cold emails do work, provided you pick the right niche.

spring_chicken

personally I wont deal with any cold contacts, emails, phone calls, personal callers

Debt_Robot

I think while you both make good points (cold calling consumers is so hard to execute properly), cold calling is and will always be a means to an end for businesses
and for anyone who wants to start a business.

It is a good way to up your income on the side as well. For example, there is a new trend of young people who are very good with social media getting paid by
businesses to do their Facebook pages and increase Twitter followers. You can charge a £200+ for a social media campaign if you know how to get Twitter
and Facebook followers. Cold calling and cold emailing businesses will help you grow your income on the side because it is the only way to get business, besides networking.

I understand many people hate cold callers and I should stress that my target market for my side income businesses are not general consumers, but again
if you work in a B2B environment or you want to sell to businesses to up your income, most people know that cold calls are the way to go.

They are brutal and painful, but just part of business life one way or the other.

Debt_Robot

Anyway, I just put up these tips to help anyone who wants to increase their income by starting a side business through cold calling. If you want more tips, PM me.

incensicle

I have started a business from scratch, and have used cold calling to tell shops about my product. At the end of the day, how else are you going to let potential businesses know about you if you don't bite the bullet and say hello!.

I research all of my calls very carefully to make sure the shop I am contacting could actually be interested and benefit from my call. I also genuinely believe in what I am selling, and this helps my approach. I introduce myself, and ask if its a good time to talk. If they say no I ask if I can send them a catalogue and free sample, they generally say yes to something free! I can then ring back, and chat about the catalogue and find out if they like it.

The thing is I have worked the other side in retail, and shops are always looking for something new. If someone rings my shop, I will listen to what they are selling, and if it sounds interesting will take it further. The shop I work at has some lovely ranges of goods we would never have heard of if the seller hadn't got in contact.

Debt_Robot

incensicle wrote: »

I have started a business from scratch, and have used cold calling to tell shops about my product. At the end of the day, how else are you going to let potential businesses know about you if you don't bite the bullet and say hello!.

I research all of my calls very carefully to make sure the shop I am contacting could actually be interested and benefit from my call. I also genuinely believe in what I am selling, and this helps my approach. I introduce myself, and ask if its a good time to talk. If they say no I ask if I can send them a catalogue and free sample, they generally say yes to something free! I can then ring back, and chat about the catalogue and find out if they like it.

The thing is I have worked the other side in retail, and shops are always looking for something new. If someone rings my shop, I will listen to what they are selling, and if it sounds interesting will take it further. The shop I work at has some lovely ranges of goods we would never have heard of if the seller hadn't got in contact.

Really great to hear a retailing viewpoint of cold calling.

I agree, in a B2B field, cold calling is key.

At the end of the day, if you want to make it in business, you have to make cold calls and while they are very annoying, I always just remind myself I will never have to meet the person in the flesh if they reject me so just carry on!

Would love to hear more about your business if you want to share.

Sammyantha

Agreed. Without cold calling, you cannot build a business. All word of mouth and referrals come from business gained most likely from a cold call somewhere along the line.

You may not like cold calls at home (does anybody?), but you may just be chucking away money, since that new pizza place, or that new electricity company, could well be cheaper than the one you currently use

In terms of business, cold calls are invaluable. They are the quickest and easiest way to get into a new business relationship.

Thanks for the tips Debt Robot!!

I'd also add, the single most important thing about cold calling... always call back/ visit/ email when you say you will. What people hate more than a cold call, is a cold caller who lies! Sometimes people are genuinely interested, but have a valid reason for not being able to talk there and then. If they ask you, or agree to you contacting them again, then DO IT! I have had clients, both in freelance work, and when working for Yell, that became clients finally after MONTHS of calling them. Treat everyone as a warm lead until proven otherwise

Debt_Robot

Sammyantha wrote: »

Agreed. Without cold calling, you cannot build a business. All word of mouth and referrals come from business gained most likely from a cold call somewhere along the line.

You may not like cold calls at home (does anybody?), but you may just be chucking away money, since that new pizza place, or that new electricity company, could well be cheaper than the one you currently use

In terms of business, cold calls are invaluable. They are the quickest and easiest way to get into a new business relationship.

Thanks for the tips Debt Robot!!

I'd also add, the single most important thing about cold calling... always call back/ visit/ email when you say you will. What people hate more than a cold call, is a cold caller who lies! Sometimes people are genuinely interested, but have a valid reason for not being able to talk there and then. If they ask you, or agree to you contacting them again, then DO IT! I have had clients, both in freelance work, and when working for Yell, that became clients finally after MONTHS of calling them. Treat everyone as a warm lead until proven otherwise

Glad you liked the tips

Totally agree that you said call back when you say you will. That is very important.

I have to do a whole new cold campaign this week and dreading it but I know I need it for the business.

Sammyantha

I'm sadistic. I like cold calling ROFL. Used to get through 150 - 200+ cold calls per day when working for a large well-known company. Have done some telesales as a favour for a friend recently, and the pace was so slow I almost fell over. She asked... are you ok making about 20 calls per day?!!!!!!!!