Incorrect Methods of Cold Calling & Emailing…..
February 24, 2009 4:34 pm General musingsI think cold calls done well can really work well for businesses. But if you’re going to do cold calls, GET IT RIGHT. In today’s environment, there will be more cold calling done and you know what, that’s fine with me.
But if you’re going to try and sell me something, please get my name and my company name right! It’s not rocket science, is it?
I could rant at length about cold calling but I won’t. I’ll just tell you about this bizarre phone call that I have just received. It was a web design company calling to tell me that they have a promotion on. I generally entertain people for a minute or two because you just never know who you could meet or what story you can tell afterwards. So I was patient - believe me! The conversation went like this:
Web Design Caller Lady (WDCL): We are having a promotion on in terms of web design.
Denise Fay (DF): Oh really. Tell me more.
WDCL: Can I get the name of the owner
DF: That’s me, Denise
WDCL: We have a web promotion on at the moment. Do you have a website?
DF: Well yes, but I thought you would have checked that out before you called me
WDCL: Is it the party shop?
DF: Eh no! Who do you think you’re speaking with?
WDCL: The X party shop?
DF: No. Sorry, that’s not me. Anyway, I’m not that interested as I have my own web designer and other companies that I know well.
WDCL: Well we’ll do free web design and it will only cost under 50euros a month.
DF: Still not interested, sorry
WDCL: Can I get your email address please to send you some information?
DF: Sure. It’s on my website.
WDCL: What is your company name?
In the end, I gave it to her because this information will make good case material on how not to cold call. This lady was so un-prepared that she made the most disorganised person look organised. (Can’t think of anyone off hand!)
- She didn’t know my name
- She thought it was a different company
- She stuck to her script regardless of that mistake
- She didn’t engage with me or want to build a relationship.
All she wanted was an email. That was probably her job but whatever the company name, I know I’ll never use it. I know that I’ll never recommend them either because of their sheer unprofessionalism.
Urgh!
So I’ll update you with the progress.
Cold Call Emails too….
I also got an cold call email addressed to ‘To Whom it May Concern’….even though they sent it to my named email address - which has half my name on it - Denise. Is it that difficult to put Denise in the Hello section?
He did the same thing to a friend of mine that has ‘Anne-marie’ in her email address.
It’s not rocket science to apply mass personalisation to your cold call emails.
I was at a PR Seminar at Lunchtime run by the Drogheda Chamber (another post on that later) and presented by Daren Hughes of Drogheda Independent and Ged Nash of McCormick Nash. But Daren made the simplest of points - it’s a policy that they use in the media world….KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid.
Now, I don’t like calling anyone stupid as I have my own moments but when the cap fits and when cold emailing or calling, Keep it Simple, Stupid!
February 25th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Hi Denise,
I liked how you have brought email into this example; and you make clear important points about the practice of cold calling in general.
As you say, taking the time to learn some key points about who you are calling - or emailing - shows that you respect their time. Important! If the cold caller doesn’t doesn’t bother with these finer points, it will and does feel like untargeted spam (both by phone call and by email).
I would go even further in your email example — where you suggest adding in the name of the person receiving the email. The email should establish quickly why the product or service the ‘cold caller’ is writing about is relevant to the person receiving the email.
Bad ‘cold calling’ practices are bad in any communication channel.
February 25th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Hi Denise,
Many thanks for the comment. I appreciate you taking time out to reply. You are right about going the one step further. The email that I got was from a company in the marketing field.
While I welcome emails from fellow marketers - regardless of their discipline - I’d like to be seen as a fellow. And lets face it, what a welcome email it would be then - a little introductory tidbit about marketing in Ireland today…or something like that.
I simply was an email address to that cold emailer. I wasn’t a person!
Ok - rant over again! However, I don’t think this will be the only time that we will talk about cold calls and cold call emails in the coming months.
Denise