Cold Calling

[alexcutts]

Hi,

I've been thinking hard about the best way to conduct market research, and to build clients (contacts) up. I've come up with the concept of offering pay as you go IT support (basically ad hoc support renamed :P)

Anyway, I was thinking of putting together a decent website for this and calling a few companies, I won't (I don't imagine) get much in the way of sales, but if I can even sign a few companies up to my service offering, theres potential in the market .

Basically, I want to ring people up and ask them about their IT needs, then lead into the solution we offer (discounted call our rates, no monthly fees) and finally offer them a free IT audit with recommendations.

All that sounds fantastic on paper, but on the phone, it'll sound, and look unprofessional (I guess). I've got a phone purely for business calls (and to test out some VOIP stuff). Whats the best way to come up with a script (or set of closely-linked-but-flexible-questions-and-prompts)?

Also, what do you think the market is for this sort of thing? Estate agents? who else uses computers enough that they may need a support service, but not enough that they dont already have one?

Thanks in advance!

[Sunee]

Voluntary Organisations; because volunteers who are experienced with computers are very hard to come by. So they may be willing to pay for someone to come in as and when a problem occurs.

The organisation I worked for paid for someone to come in like that.

[Encantador]

I think you would fine that `most` small and medium sized businesses need this sort of service and don`t have one.

I know someone who does this but he sells it on the basis of a 1 day visit per week/month (whatever). It`s expensive in my opinion, but he sells it as a preventative measure and then, if they have a sudden problem, he guarantees to get there the same day.

Good Luck

[freeform]

If you decide to do the calls then create a simple structure for the 'script'

intro - hi and who you are (plus something to grab their attention)
presentation - what it is and whay you're doing - the facts
impulse - the why's / benefits
close - getting whatever commitment you need / the call to action
confirm - any housekeeping or point out next steps (will you send them something etc...?)

This outline should have key points and benefits you want to convey but certainly don't read from it - just use it as a prompt to keep you on topic and overcome understanable nerves.

If it really is for market research that's fine but if you're hoping to get people to check the service out, I'd simply say so.

If that's the case you need to have a clear 'goal' in mind for the call and a good offer to make them (i.e. send some free info with a discount if they then decide to take it up)

Another way around would be to do a simple direct mail piece and follow-up on the phone.

I'd give a couple of versions of each method a go, track the results and then decide which works best for you.

Of course, if you need some help, drop me a line.

[RedSofa]

You may like to make yourself aware of the Telephone Preference Service when cold calling.

This covers corporate phone numbers too. Worth checking out as there are hefty fines.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

You can purchase screened lists - but is obviously more expensive that using your local Yellow Pages!

[tomerdir]

you can check out http://www.canadianbusinessdirectories.ca as they have a lot of contact info that you could use. They have names of top executive so your speaking to a decsion maker most of the time. They also have other bits of info such as addresses and websites. Also I believe http://www.canadianbusinessdirectories.ca has some sample scripts that might give some ideas although I am not 100% sure. In any event its worth it to check them out!!!