Cold Calling: Separate Yourself from the Bad Guys

credit: ~*Gillian*~ on Flikr

When people tell me that their freelancing business has been slow, I suggest that they pick up the phone and start making calls. Reason: Since cold calls have worked well for me, I encourage others to try them as well.

Talk about kicking the proverbial hornet’s nest. I’m often treated to a diatribe on how much the person hates being cold called.

And I can’t help but agreeing. Why? Because cold calling has a much-deserved bad reputation.

You’ve probably had a family dinner interrupted by those telemarketers who call households between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. They know you’ll be home. And that you’re probably trying to enjoy a meal with your family. The fact that they’re calling at a bad time just doesn’t seem to register.

While some of these dinner-interrupting calls may be from legitimate organizations, more than a few are from scammers. Just keep an eye on your caller ID for a few days, and try this experiment:

While the phone is ringing, enter the number on your caller ID screen into your favorite search engine. If the call is from a scammer, the search results will point to consumer protection websites like:

http://800notes.com
http://www.callferret.com
http://www.callwiki.com
http://www.numberinvestigator.com
http://whocallsme.com

In just a few days of watching my own caller ID, then checking the numbers on the just-mentioned websites, I found that I was contacted by scammers offering:

1. Free government grants. Ever applied for a government grant? I do business with university faculty members who have. Every one of them says that Uncle Sam is a pretty tough guy. He doesn’t hand out grants like Halloween candy.
2. Help with tax problems. If you find yourself in this unfortunate situation, you’re better off dealing with a tax accountant or attorney you already know, not some stranger calling on the phone.
3. Health insurance. One of my most frequent callers is an outfit that has the same initials as a large U.S. government agency. And this particular agency is not in the business of selling any kind of insurance.
4. Fabulous opportunities to change telephone companies. If you take one of these calls, be very careful what you say. Many people report that their phone service was changed without their consent. You’ll sometimes hear this practice referred to as “slamming.” And, yes, it is illegal for U.S. telephone companies to do this.
5. Lower interest rates on credit cards.

In addition to the scams listed above, have you ever gotten those calls that are nothing more than a series of fax tones? Annoying, aren’t they?

Or how about those phone messages in which the caller just leaves a first name and nothing more? Thinking that it’s from someone you know, you dutifully return the call, only to find that your call goes to a business, and then the person on the other end launches into a sales pitch. To which I say, “Why can’t they leave a proper business message, which includes the first and last name and the company name?” There’s no need to use deception on a business call.

Tip: Spend a few minutes at those consumer protection websites, and you’ll find that the same phone numbers keep cropping up. That’s because scammers keep changing their pitch – last month it was health insurance, this month it’s lowering credit card interest rates, and who knows what it will be next month?

“Do Not Call” and You

With all of this bad behavior, it’s no surprise that the United States Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registry was created. Individuals can add a home or mobile phone number on-line: https://www.donotcall.gov

Please note that there are several Do Not Call exemptions, and one of them applies to you. Here they are:

1. Charitable organizations
2. Politicians
3. Political parties
4. Survey takers
5. Business-to-business sales and marketing. This is where you, the freelancer, fit in. If you’re making prospecting calls to non-consumer entities like businesses, government agencies, and educational institutions, you’re exempt.

Please note that the B2B exemption doesn’t mean you can act like one of those pitch-switching scammers or the high-pressure salespeople who refuse to take “No” for an answer. You know those people – you tell them “No” and they treat it as an objection that must be overcome as they roll down the road to the Closed Sale.

Unlike the scammers and high-pressure folks, we’re not trying to close the sale on the first call. Rather, we’re calling to introduce our services, and, if the person on the other end sounds interested, we may set up an appointment. I say “may” because many of us are able to do business without ever meeting our clients face to face.

How to Separate Yourself from the Bad Guys

Feel better about trying the cold-calling route? Good. You can find some very lucrative clients this way. I know I have.

But you’ll still need to separate yourself from the sleazeballs who are also working the phones. How do you do that?

1. Offer a legitimate product or service. This is by far and away the best thing you can do, whether you’re cold calling or selling from a retail storefront.
2. Be good at what you do. If the people you’re calling ask to see samples of what you do, can you send them to your website, where they’ll see sparkling examples of your graphic design, copywriting, or photography?
3. Don’t keep calling and calling and calling. That’s what the scammers do. . If someone says “no,” take their word for it. Call someone else. If you have a well-defined Ideal Client Profile, you won’t run out of leads anytime soon.

_____
Supercharge your freelance business with the FreelanceSwitch Job Board, the only hand-moderated job board built around the way freelancers find work. Check it out now.

——-
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by ~*Gillian*~