[FUNd]

I am glad that you fine gentlemen have provided this new ISO the lists of top-funded industries. As a matter of fact, those lists are invaluable.

...But you really think those are the best industries to cold call?

I see on one of these lists, physician's offices. Tell me, how many times have you cold-called a physician's office and got a doctor on the phone? Even the best salespeople are rarely going to get past that gatekeeper.

But Zach, you must be wrong. If those are the top-funded lists, then CLEARLY they must be prime cold-calling targets!

Ahem... Aside from pounding UCC's, how do you think people are coming across their leads? There is direct mail, SEO, radio, TV, press 1's, cold-calling, and a myriad of other sources.

Cold-calling needs to be targeted with the proper message and campaign, ideally to a relatively untouched niche. Perhaps calling greeting card stores/novelty shops before the holiday rush. Perhaps calling screen-printing companies during different sports seasons. Imagine calling the guys printing basketball jerseys right before basketball season with a pitch geared SPECIFICALLY for them...

"Mr. Prospect, we provide an influx of cash to businesses that are going into their busy season for inventory, marketing, and payroll. We understand you are about to go into that busy season, and I wanted to ask you flat out: what could you do with an extra $30,000 RIGHT NOW?"


Sure.... cold call the top 25 industries... play that game. Get a powerdialer and dial UCC's. Be another cog in the machine.

Or maybe....just maybe.... you can rise above and get creative with it.

(despite my ramblings, at the end of the day it is all about conversion rates, scalability, and cost-per-acquisition. If you are calling the top 25 and have a great ROI, then hell, more power to you)

Great post Zach. Again, you are talking about sales. Companies like (I'll change names to protect the guilty) Zalboa Zapital and Zapital Zilliance, will hire the hobo on the corner to dial out of the yellow pages as long as he can do 300+ dials and 3+ hours of 'talk time' (aka sitting on an automated voice prompt system) per day. I'll go out on a limb and say 70% of people contacting business owners for this product have no sales skill and even less personality. The tactical plans you lay out are great, but only the small minority will know how to actually put them into play.