My year of cold-calling dangerously

Here’s my new year’s resolution: I’m going to cold-call 2,500 business owners in 2020.

That’s 50 owners per week for 50 weeks.

No, I’m not a cold-calling ninja. In fact, I have almost no cold-calling experience. But there are three reasons why I believe a cold-calling rampage is a great idea:

1. It’s the most efficient way to market to new customers
2. It will allow me to do valuable market research
3. It will make me a better communicator

Cold-calling is the most efficient way to market to new customers

My business, Hunter & Scribe, is a content marketing agency for small businesses. I know we provide a great service, because our clients have been kind enough to give us glowing testimonials and refer us to other small businesses.

But if we’re such hot stuff, why aren’t customers beating down our door?

The main reason is that most potential clients have never heard of Hunter & Scribe. That’s why I’ve got this image in my mind:

• Hunter & Scribe is on one side of a field
• All those potential clients are on the other side of the field
• There’s a great big wall in the middle
• So those clients can’t see us; they don’t know we exist
• We can wait for the clients to go to the trouble of scaling the wall and finding us
• Or we can speed up the process by scaling the wall and going straight to them

My plan is to scale the wall, introduce myself to 2,500 business owners who’ve never heard of Hunter & Scribe and explain how we can solve their content problems.

Solving problems is the key to my cold-calling plan.

I’m not going to call business owners at random. Instead, I’m going to visit their website to see if they have a content problem (which might include poorly written landing pages or a blog they’re struggling to maintain).

• If there’s no problem to solve, I won’t call them
• If there is a problem, I’ll call them, alert them to the problem and offer to solve it

My hope is that I’ll generate one sale from every 50 calls – i.e. one sale per week. 

I have no idea if that 2% conversion rate is optimistic, pessimistic or realistic. But here’s what I do know: it will be impossible to call 2,500 people and not win at least some business.

Cold-calling will allow me to do valuable market research

What do small businesses want from a content marketing agency?

No idea.

The reason I say that is because I’ve never asked my clients. I’ve made assumptions, but I’ve never tested them.

Presumably, most of the 2,500 business owners will ask why they should use Hunter & Scribe. I’ll experiment with different responses. Some will resonate; others won’t.

It will be impossible to call 2,500 people and not gain a better understanding of what small businesses want from a content marketing agency. That will help Hunter & Scribe's sales and marketing efforts in the years ahead.

Cold-calling will make me a better communicator

I’m an excellent communicator when the conversation is on my terms. But I can struggle when the conversation is on someone else’s terms.

When I cold-call these 2,500 business owners, the conversation – at least initially – will be on their terms. That will force me to learn:

• How to communicate effectively when someone else controls the conversation
• How to take control of a conversation

It will be impossible to call 2,500 business owners and not become a more skilful and persuasive communicator.

Cold-calling will take Hunter & Scribe to a better place

Some people will be wondering whether calling 50 business owners per week means just dialing 50 phone numbers or actually speaking to 50 people.

The answer is a little of Column A and a little of Column B.

I’ll begin each week with a target list of 50 business owners. I’ll try my best to speak to every one of them. Some I’ll reach on the first attempt; others I’ll reach on the third attempt; others I’ll never reach no matter how many times I try them.

At the end of each week, I’ll email anyone I failed to reach.

So I might discover that calling 50 people actually means speaking to 35 and emailing 15.

I’m going to track all my numbers – how many calls I make, how many conversations I have and how many clients I win. I’ll report my results at the end of the year.

I’m really excited by my year of cold-calling dangerously, because I know Hunter & Scribe will be in a better place at the end of 2020 than the start.