Warming up to cold calls

Why it's time to rethink one of the most derided marketing tactics.

Most marketing pros would say that Samantha Ettus is going about it all wrong. That's because the CEO of Ettus Media Management, a New York City public relations and branding agency, spends a big chunk of her time working the phones, pitching herself and her clients to people she's never met.

According to the conventional wisdom, that's a big waste of time. Cold calling, the experts agree, is annoying and irritating, an unwanted imposition on busy people. What's more, they say, it's inefficient and doesn't bring in much business. Far better to work through word of mouth, networking, and established customer contacts. It's the mantra of selling: Spend time building relationships and the deals will follow.

Ettus begs to differ. She's been a cold caller ever since she started her business three years ago. Far from being a waste of time, the tactic has helped her six-person firm land some of its biggest clients, including the popular New York City restaurant Ida Mae Kitchen-n-Lounge and the gift and home products catalog Lillian Vernon. Sure, Ettus spends plenty of time networking with current customers and attending events to prospect new ones. But, she says, she wouldn't be where she is today without cold calling. "So many people give up on cold calling because they say it doesn't work," Ettus says. "But it only doesn't work if you are reaching the wrong person."

Cold calling may be the sales tactic that gets no respect. But it really can work -- if you do it right. At a time when people are bombarded by pitches via e-mail, direct mail, and even instant messaging, a phone call is an extremely personal and effective way of making contact. "You need to develop a system and stick to it," says Keith Rosen, CEO of Profit Builders, a New York City sales consultancy that specializes in training people in the art of cold calling.

A good first step, Rosen says, is to stop thinking of such calls as "cold" in the first place. "Lukewarm" would probably be a more accurate description. Ettus, for example, does plenty of legwork before reaching for the phone. "I consider it my job to read everything I can and educate myself on the brands that would be right for our firm," she says. "A bad day for me is one in which I read about an expert or an interesting company that I don't know about." Once Ettus has a potential client in her sights, she hunts down all the information she can find -- career history, memberships and professional affiliations, any awards the person may have won. As soon as she understands who she's dealing with, she crafts, but does not send, a personalized e-mail outlining what her firm has to offer. Then she makes the call. She keeps her pitches as brief and precise as possible -- generally less than a few minutes. Then immediately upon hanging up, she sends the e-mail. "Within minutes of talking to me, the person gets the e-mail," Ettus says.

Obviously, it takes a certain amount of guts to do what Ettus does. And not every call is a success. People sometimes hang up on her. But Ettus doesn't get discouraged. The hang-up is just a sign that she's reached the wrong person and needs to find an alternative contact -- a personal assistant, publicist, parent, or even webmaster (all of whom have helped Ettus connect with an otherwise unreachable prospect).

Fear of rejection is the main reason so many cold callers fail so miserably, says Rosen. A cold call, Rosen argues, is nothing more than a way to introduce yourself and your business to a prospect. Yet even seasoned salespeople are intimidated by the tactic. "You hear things like, 'I don't want to say or do the wrong thing. I don't want to impose. I don't want to be rejected,'" Rosen says. "The essential theme is 'I.' Making the process about yourself is the No. 1 roadblock." Instead, before picking up the phone, salespeople need to ask themselves, "What value can I deliver to the other person?" Rosen says. (Obviously, if you can't answer that question, you probably don't belong in sales in the first place.) You can't ramble. "You have to be very concise with the language you're using -- there is no time for a second impression," says Rosen, who has developed a script for his trainees to follow (see "Handholding for Cold Callers").

During calls, sales reps take notes, looking for anything that can help them refine their pitch.

Still, not everyone is convinced. Anthony Parinello, the bestselling author of Stop Cold Calling Forever, has built a career on the idea that cold calls are a total waste of time -- no matter how much research you do. "People are not just sitting around waiting for you to call them," he says. "They are thinking about other things." It's far better, he says, to spend time improving your relationships with current customers, as they'll likely refer you to others. "My goal is to get my phone to ring as much as I can," Parinello says. "That means I have to stay off the phone as much as I can."

But don't expect Todd Eberhardt, CEO of Comm-works, a Minneapolis-based telecom services firm, to put down his phone. His 85-person company was practically built on cold calling, he says. In 2003, Comm-works got 52 new customers thanks to cold calling; in the first six months of this year, the company added 77 new clients.