Anyone used cold calling either b2b or b2c

[G. Lasagne]

Any tradesman used this method of advertising?
And if so to what affect, i would do it myself if i was going to do it.
Worried about my reputation more than anything(b2c).
But still think it has potential for us tradesman.

Any thoughts

 

[GreatSEO]

Many times :')

Dave

 

[G. Lasagne]

Ever had any tradesman as clients Dave?
And if so did any of them have success, more interested in peoples experiences with b2c as everyone knows it works b2b.

 

[GreatSEO]

I have had a few. It takes time to build the momentum but once we got going we had some good success.

It is very much dependant on what your costs etc are

Happy to have a chat sometime if that would help?

Cheers

Dave

 

[MH1]

Used to cold call every day for 10 odd years on B2C, very good method of gaining and controlling sales. I used to use professional door knockers rather than telephone canvassing, but both can produce good results done correctly.

 

[G. Lasagne]

Used to cold call every day for 10 odd years on B2C, very good method of gaining and controlling sales. I used to use professional door knockers rather than telephone canvassing, but both can produce good results done correctly.

Can i ask what business your in mate?

 

[fed-up]

Ive door knocked for many years with fantastic results. For me when ever i need a boost in customer numbers i go out with a short non pushy script and always achieve results.If done corectly this could be your best way of achieving your goals especially in the current climate.If i can help just let me know.


Mark

 

[G. Lasagne]

Thanks everyone, but it seems the people with the cold calling success are businesses who typically use these methods, and therefore consumers would not be surprised when getting a call or a knock on the door.

 

[fed-up]

Gas angel, print yourself a cheap flyer and take it with you. Politely introduce yourself and if they are responsive give them a bit about your company and leave them with your flyer,offer them some kind of reward if they refer a job to you.If they are not keen then leave them with your flyer anyway.What have you got to lose?

Mark

 

[estwig]

Who would you cold call??

If you are looking for boiler installs, then you need a target market, I don't see just phoning people as working, you know the type of people most likely to be your clients, this can be expressed in demographics and using the A,B,C thingy (yes that is a technical marketing term). Buy a list of people who you think are worth a punt and give it to a good telesales expert, to come up with a script.

 

[maxine]

Hiya

We've spoken a little bit about this before and it has worked well for us. You can use the surprise element to your advantage and just be honest and say you are a local trader looking at ways to improve and increase your business. It has worked well for us where we have wrapped it up in a market research exercise too. You can ask people if they were to search for a plumber where would they search, would they look in yell.com or yellow pages, if they googled would they use ppc or only go on organic listings on first page. You can ask how they would search ie from home or work, or what terms would they search under. Some of this you will already know from analytics but it is useful to ask people locally as sometimes they will use words or phrases or locations that you hadn't thought of. You can also ask them what would make them click on one company rather than another and this might be important if local as you get to hear a bit about first impressions about your competitors too.

You can ask them if they already have a local plumber, what would persuade them to try someone different, when their boiler is due for a service, what they currently pay for callouts, obtain email addresses so they can keep your details to hand, follow it up with a business card in the post etc.

When I have done it the results have been pretty much instance in terms of "glad you called, I have a leaking tap in the cloakroom and haven't got round to phoning anyone yet"... etc. It's rules of probability and we usually get around 1 in 50 but more importantly you get to build up a database of local consumer customers with what projects they might have coming up in the future, what heating system they have etc. This is great as when they do get around to doing their project or need to call someone they will come straight to you as they liked the sound of you on the phone and perhaps went on your website then called you

The other thing that worked well for us was using a promotional code to give out on the phone to give people £25 off a callout as a thank you for taking part in the market research.

 

[CKG]

I did a bit of cold door knocking by mistake the other day.

Stupid me forgot to make a note of what number house my customer lived at.

3 houses later I found her.

But just by pure fluke the second house I tried were having boiler trouble too.

The bloke invited me in to fix it thinking his Mrs had called me - and I though he was my existing customers husband (who i'd never met before).

It was quite funny when the penny eventually dropped.

I got the work anyway though!

The only other time I tried it for real was one time I though it would be a good idea to door knock the street i'd just done an install on and offer them a free safety check.

I thought this would be a good strategy as they could check my credentials with their neighbour.

I might as well have kicked the back door in and nicked the telly for all the abuse I got!

 

[MH1]

Can i ask what business your in mate?

Been in many over the years, but the industry doesn't really matter.

Many years ago I used to sell burglar alarms, any sale would automatically mean I door knocked the rest of the row of houses, after all, five houses in a row, one with an alarm, commonsense dictates a burglar would see the other four houses as the ones too attack.

Driveways, once a sale was made the neighbours can be canvassed with a save 10% if your job is done whilst we are in the area anyway, cost savings for everyone.

Same with parcel delivery services, call on a client and simply knock the surrounding five buildings before moving on, some you win, some you lose.

Cold calling can work for anything if applied right, it's just in some industries there are much more productive methods, but for B2C cold calling consistently works, one reason why de-regulated gas, electric, telephones, cable tv, sky tv etc have all relied on door knocking as their primary sales method.

Done correctly you do not get a bad response with people swearing at you etc, in 10yrs I only had 2 bad experiences.

 

[stevemcqueen]

all depends on the type of product and service that you are selling

 

[G. Lasagne]

Hiya

We've spoken a little bit about this before and it has worked well for us. You can use the surprise element to your advantage and just be honest and say you are a local trader looking at ways to improve and increase your business. It has worked well for us where we have wrapped it up in a market research exercise too. You can ask people if they were to search for a plumber where would they search, would they look in yell.com or yellow pages, if they googled would they use ppc or only go on organic listings on first page. You can ask how they would search ie from home or work, or what terms would they search under. Some of this you will already know from analytics but it is useful to ask people locally as sometimes they will use words or phrases or locations that you hadn't thought of. You can also ask them what would make them click on one company rather than another and this might be important if local as you get to hear a bit about first impressions about your competitors too.

You can ask them if they already have a local plumber, what would persuade them to try someone different, when their boiler is due for a service, what they currently pay for callouts, obtain email addresses so they can keep your details to hand, follow it up with a business card in the post etc.

When I have done it the results have been pretty much instance in terms of "glad you called, I have a leaking tap in the cloakroom and haven't got round to phoning anyone yet"... etc. It's rules of probability and we usually get around 1 in 50 but more importantly you get to build up a database of local consumer customers with what projects they might have coming up in the future, what heating system they have etc. This is great as when they do get around to doing their project or need to call someone they will come straight to you as they liked the sound of you on the phone and perhaps went on your website then called you

The other thing that worked well for us was using a promotional code to give out on the phone to give people £25 off a callout as a thank you for taking part in the market research.

Great advice maxine

 

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Lexington