Cold Calling vs. The Economy (Is It Really Necessary?)

   In my previous post I briefly mentioned that I was required to make cold calls to bring in sales for the company that I worked for. That was not my first job where I was required to make these types of calls. At one point I worked for a wireless company selling phones and plans and every once in a while this meant I had to call customers to update their plans. Don't businesses know cold calling is not economical anymore? Why waste money on something most people have taken measures to avoid? Let's go into detail.


   There are a few differences between these two jobs. With the wireless company I was mostly calling current customers, but every so often I would have to call businesses around town to offer them "great rates on their business phone plans". I think I just gagged a little! With the tractor parts job I sat at a desk and called farms, 75% of whom were not customer's and most had never even heard of the company I was working for.

   At the wireless company, customer's were more open to hearing what I had to say, but with the economy in a tail spin they were less likely to make upgrades on their plans. Instead I would end up subtracting from their plan in some way because they couldn't afford the payment they were currently making. When I would call or visit businesses I would mostly get the "We just renewed our contract, if only you had called me 2 weeks ago" speech. Story of my life! Customer's are not willing to upgrade or renew unless they are getting something for free. Sometimes you could make it seem like they were getting something for free, but in reality they would end up paying extra somewhere else. Which in turn would make them come back and down grade or cancel service altogether.

   Working for a tractor supply company meant selling to farmers. Most of the farms I was dealing with were sod farms. With a falling economy, home owners and builders were resorting to planting seed instead of laying sod because it was more cost effective. With the fall of sales, sod farmers didn't need to produce as much product which meant they needed less supplies. Eventually that trickled back to me so that when I called these farms most did not need a large order. I had an average call time of 2 minutes. In this time I would make my pitch and get shut down by one of two answers. "Sorry, we are just not producing enough to buy more supplies" or "We are getting a better price through your competitors".

   So what does this have to do with you? Well nothing, if you are the consumer. Cold calling is not the way of business anymore. Businesses need to realize that people have put safeguards in place to keep from being bothered by your annoying sales pitches. The government is even participating with their "Do Not Call" lists. So begs the question, why do businesses and corporations still use this technique? They know it doesn't work as well as it used to so why do they continue to waste money and resources in it? I am completely baffled by this notion.

   Let me know why you think companies still make cold calling a top priority.