Have you done "cold calling"???

[HappyMommy2]

Please tell me it gets easier and that I should stick with this!!!!!

A former boss of mine is starting his own business, and is willing to give me 2-10 hours per week, from my home. Small money, but would be so helpful to add to the budget. Kind of an ideal mom situation!

The problem is that cold calling basically sucks. Even though it is anonymous! I don't have phone anxiety or anything. At my old job, I spoke with executives on a daily basis.

Maybe the difference is that I was a total expert in what I was telling them all about, and I knew the answer to every possible question..... I'm not sure. Or maybe I have just been out of the workforce for too long (2 years). Or maybe it is because I have always hated "sales", and everything related to it.

Help me mamas!

[lolar2]

Yes, I have, but if you hate sales I'm not sure what to tell you! Have you read any books about sales? Do you have a script?

[MoOnFiReGlOw]

Yep! I've done it. We had a script to go off of at first to make it easier for those who hadn't done it in a while or it was their first time doing cold calling. After you were comfortable with the script they'd highlight the point that were crucial to hit in the phone call and let you go from there.

I was the lady who asked you to renew your magazines! I made GOOD money. I worked about 6 hours a day and brought in $600/week. It was all strictly commission and I was doing magazines that were only $20 or so for the year. My husband worked at the same place and got the 'money' magazines that were $60/year and would make $1k a week only working 6 hours a day as well

I was super shy on the phone and totally not comfortable, but found that the script was really the key. After the first month I had it down and started to have fun with it! I'd even throw in an accent or two when I was bored just b/c it was fun and got the ppl to laugh and talk which is half the sale.

[madskye]

I think it depends on the quality of the leads. PP was calling to renew magazine subscriptions and had a good experience. She was calling to sell them something they were already familiar with/signed up for. I've done cold calls where I was calling companies out of the blue to sell something they've never heard of or thought of before--and that was a waste of my time!

But I don't think all phone sales are bad by a long shot. I've done a lot of fundraising over the phone and that was profitable for me and fun to boot.

[beebalmmama]

I hated it! I did cold calling to business's that typically were not interested in the product and didn't appreciate the distraction during their business hours. We also had a script which helped. But frankly I hated having a job where I was bothering people.

So like a pp said, it may depend on what your calling about and the quality of the leads. I don't know the businesses I called already had our products and we were calling to upgrade. I still felt like they hated our calling..... I'd never do cold calling again.