Mom's Cold Calling Advice

My mom had many jobs in her life.

She drove a school bus, managed a Pizza Hut, trained horses, and she was a helluva telemarketer.

In fact, she got fired from her job as a telemarketer for a cemetery because she sold all the plots in the place and there was nothing left to sell.

I realize these days no one wants to pick up a phone and call prospects. Even though it is still a way to get to the people you want to meet, it's super scary for most entrepreneurs.

Mom had a way of thinking about cold calls that really helped me when I was a newbie insurance agent and my job was to call people at home... at dinnertime... and ask them about car insurance.

Yeah.

And I did it three nights a week for three years.

What Mom said to get me to make those calls was, "Think of calling as a survey. Your job is to ask people a question and see if they are interested or not. If they aren't, thank them and move on. If they are interested, ask if they'd like to talk more about it."

Imagine I asked you to call a list of 50 strangers and ask them if they like chocolate ice cream. Your only job was to put a check mark in a column of "yes" or "no".

You could do that, right?

Calling for anything is else is the same. "Hey, I'm calling to see if you'd like to see if you'd like to learn more about ....". They will say yes or no.

It's that simple.

Some people will be ready to talk. Others won't. Your job is just to dial enough numbers to find enough people who say "yes".

Is it the most fun thing you can do with your time? No, probably not.

Is it profitable. Yes, yes it is.

If you're struggling to get leads, take a page out of Mom's playbook and do some call surveys. You might just surprise yourself with how many great conversations you have.

Thanks, Mom, for helping me build a million dollar agency that led to a job in sales management which launched Simple Success Plans 24 years ago. I wouldn't be where I am today without that simple strategy.