Everybody hates cold calls. This is for obvious reasons – who wants to sit around and waste their time calling number after number and being shut down constantly?
It’s demoralizing for the person making the call, and often infuriating for the people who receive calls. Maybe the era of the telemarketer has largely died, but there was a reason why the No Call List was such a bonanza and everybody flinched when the telephone used to ring at dinner. The telemarketer who managed to call just as soon as the family sat down to dinner was a paradigm for years.
A recent article from Reuters News revealed something that we all already knew in the first place – nobody likes to do cold calls. In fact, according to the survey a majority of people would rather go without sex for a month than do a week’s worth of cold calling!
Even less shocking, out of the entire list of unsavory situations that were presented in the list, the only activity that was consistently rated as less appealing than a week’s worth of cold calls was getting a root canal. That’s some serious stuff when dental procedures are the only thing worse than picking up that phone and calling a person unsolicited.
With all of this in mind, what’s the best solution for cold calling customers? Is there really any way to make the process more appealing?
The answer: probably not.
The fact of the matter is that the era of the cold call has started to wane along with the time of the telemarketer. The advent of cell phones makes it much harder for companies to get lists of people to make the cold calls to. Many people are on Do Not Call lists these days, which could land you in trouble if you elect to just pick up the phone and start dialing any number that happens to be in your area code.
Even worse, cold calling usually isn’t very effective. Why would somebody who was going about their business not thinking about insurance at all suddenly decide to purchase from a person who randomly called over the phone? In addition, there has been a considerable amount of scamming going on regarding unsolicited services, so most consumers are rightfully wary of the process.
The better solution? Buying targeted leads. This will send you on the fast track to the right customers, those who have expressed an interest in purchasing insurance and are more likely to be receptive to your pitches. This is not to say that a targeted lead will definitely pan out, but it’s much more likely that you’ll find success than simply dialing down a list of numbers. In the modern era, cold calling just wastes both your time and the time of the customer, and that’s just something that nobody can afford to do.
