Why cold calls make me go cold
This week, my wife, Cassie was at home with my baby daughter, Sophie. The phone rang and Cassie answered it. It was a cold caller selling double glazing and started their pitch offering us a “free energy efficiency survey” and a “No Obligation Review of your current windows and doors”.
Cassie was pleasant, but direct and told the cold caller that we do not looking to replace our windows and doors. You’d expect this was clear enough to deter the cold caller….however he continued to talk about how he felt he might be able to help us. That’s fine if we needed his help, however we didn’t!
Cassie told the caller again that we didn’t need his companies services, however the individual in question was determined not to take no for an answer and continued with his patter. Cassie told the caller again that we weren’t interested. The call then ended with the caller using three words, the last two being “Off” and “Then”….you can imagine what the first one was, however suffice to say it wasn’t particularly pleasant.
In my business we are lucky to have built relationships with a number of key introducers who supply us with their clients who we may be able to help. Therefore we don’t advertise, and we absolutely don’t cold call!
This is for two reasons. Firstly, and absolutely rightfully in my opinion, the Financial Services Authority (our regulating body) rules that as a profession we are not allowed to cold call, and therefore we don’t.
Secondly the approach we believe works is all around developing and nurturing long term relationships with both our clients and introducers. I believe it’s pretty tough to start these relationships with a ‘cold call’. I believe they start from meeting people you might want to work with, building relationships and showing you have the knowledge and expertise to help before moving onto eventually acting for that client.
Whilst I appreciate that other businesses rely on these cold calls to connect with new clients or customers, care needs to taken to ensure that the reputation of the company in question is protected by making these calls professionally, and above all always courteously. The call made to Cassie this week has damaged the company in questions reputation….and we now all know that, with the power of the internet, reputation spreads quicker than wildfire.
Needless to say, a letter of complaint to the company in question has been sent. It will be interesting to see if (and how promptly) they respond to this letter, but I’m betting that their service levels leave a lot to be desired….after all, they are reliant on hard pressure cold calls in order to generate new business. Whilst I’m reticent to mention the company on this blog post at this stage without providing them an initial “right to reply”, I may decide to publish this later dependent on the response received.
However, I think I’ve got a solution for companies who only rely solely on the type of “hard pressure” cold calls to generate their business. Just do a better job. If the job you do in relation to both service and quality is high enough, you may feel comfortable asking your existing clients for introductions. Your reputation will also be credible enough to build connections with other businesses which will be happy to introduce your service to their clients. Maybe I’m simplifying this argument, what do you think?
You may also argue that this works in some businesses, but not others. Again, I’d be inclined to disagree. Managed correctly and in combination with other activities, I believe that this approach can work well in any business sector. However, as ever, I’d be interested to hearing your thoughts…
Daniel Evans
June 1, 2012Totally agree Chris. Nobody wants to receive these calls, and, I bet, the caller doesn’t want to be making them either!
Darren Leighfield
June 5, 2012Daniel. “Nobody wants to receive these calls” Is as accurate as saying all French people eat frogs legs. Do you mean, you don’t like receiving these calls?
Darren Leighfield
June 5, 2012This is a typical example of doing something very badly. Cold calling is an excellent tool for generating new business.
ChrisDaems
June 5, 2012Hi Darren,
Thanks for commenting! As I mentioned in my Blog….Cold Calls may be appropriate for certain businesses, however they need to be done politely and courteously to avoid damaging the reputation of the business in question.
Sally Berkeley
June 6, 2012Hello!
I personally support call centers they do a job that many people can’t or wont do.
I also don’t understand how any one these days has any time in their busy schedule to do cold calling or researching, we’re so used to outsourcing and delegating everything else, why not hire an expert!
ChrisDaems
June 6, 2012Hi Sally,
Thanks for your comment….
I agree with outsourcing and delegating specialists tasks to experts, and also agree with the fact that call center staff conduct work which many people wouldn’t or couldn’t do. I also agree that cold calling has it’s place in certain businesses.
However it doesn’t change the fact that, in my experience, many of the calls I’ve received have been conducted particularly badly, with ‘high pressure’ techniques being applied…I’m not sure if this is typical or I’ve just not had a particularly good experience…what do you think?
Also, Cold Calls as a marketing strategy could be appropriate (depending on the business), but could do more damage than good if handled badly.
Sally Berkeley
June 7, 2012Hi Chris,
I think you’ve been extremely unfortunate, I also I feel it depends on what the company is selling or promoting. I believe there are some companies out there which set very high pressure targets with very low pay. I realise how frustrating it must be for the employee, yet I know this no excuse for bad manners. I feel a huge element to this lies with the employer, not enough training, ongoing monitoring and wrong sale technique applied.
I often know that in most call centers if you don’t meet targets you get fired – how stressful is that?!
Saying that, I work for a company that has a call center – an employee would not have a position here if they treated you in the same way. Our staff are monitored frequently.
Realistically, what would you buy from a cold caller?
ChrisDaems
June 7, 2012Hi Sally,
I think you’re right….the employer is ultimately responsible for the training and monitoring together, but as importantly, the culture of the organisation. If the culture is right….these calls may be done more professionally.
But in my experience (and to be fair, with mainly PPI claim firms and double glazing companies which seems to be the most prevalent) the approach has been really shoddy.
However I think it’s a fair point that if the business takes the right approach it may work….however my point in the Blog entry if that if a company relies solely on this strategy…there may be something missing in their business. The right culture may be one of these factors.
I’m not sure I’ve purchased or done business with a cold caller….what does your business do?
Sally Berkeley
June 8, 2012Hi Chris,
Completely agree with you, if only other companies took that on board.
I work for a company in Southampton which one of their specialties is booking quality appointments for IFAs – we have 2 call centers one to call the IFAs and the other to call the business owners. Each call center relies on different techniques, I suppose they adapt to the client, which is why we’re successful.
There should be more regulations and laws in place with call centers in my opinion.
I have admittedly bought from a call center, I believe it was for a new landline phone contract. I don’t think I could ever purchase a product I couldn’t see or touch initially. Plus I got an amazing deal!
Sally