Cold Calling can Connect You (Finding Prospects to Call)

Customer Service & Relations

Most in business know that 80% of your current business comes from 20% of your existing customers.

This is why it is so important to call and connect with your existing network of customers.  Having a customer care call program for this is just that, caring about your existing customers and calling them regularly to keep that personal connection going, even after a sale has been made. 

A referral or lead from an existing client is ideal as you come highly recommended already and business is usually there. But how do we keep filling our pipeline with new business or clients (i.e. prospects) other than from constantly going to existing customers or our existing network?  

Most people dislike cold calling but think about this for a minute. If everyone in your business cold called 10 people per day or week, and they each connected with 4 of those people, how big could your business grow? 

But whom do you cold call?  How do you generate leads from a cold call? How can you grow your network? 

Here are seven ideas to consider for getting prospects to call: 

1. Know exactly who you want to target, e.g. if you are a bookkeeper who loves doing bookwork for Tradies search online for a list of trades by classification one at a time (such as concreting) and record a list of all those contractors in your database. 
2. Join a networking group that has members who deal with a similar customer to you, e.g. an Account Manager and a Financial Planner. They usually have the same market, like a hairdresser or a Women’s or Mum’s group. 
3. Attend trade shows or expos and offer a raffle prize so that everyone who passes puts their card in your raffle box. 
4. Sponsor or donate a prize to local events and receive a copy of all attendee’s names and contact numbers from cards collected from a business card draw. 
5. Think of your suppliers and see if they can join you for a joint venture of cross-referrals to each other, e.g. your printer. 
6. Put an article in another business’ newsletter or regular communication with their clients (those who share your same target market). Ask them to contribute to your newsletter in return. 
7. Create a sign-up list and link on your website or social media, by offering a FREE gift such as a Free Report, or Free Tips, when they subscribe.  

What do you do to generate leads? 

Do you have the luxury of only having to rely on referrals received from your existing connections and clients?  Getting some new clients will give you a real buzz if you know you have got them from sourcing with your own prospecting. This is a great way too to connect outside your usual network and form varied collaborations.