Cold Call Stories

In my small experience with commercial jobs, cold calling seems to be single most effective way to obtain the job. Without a doubt I have to call 100 to get 10 bids to get 1 new client. The crazy thing is that either they already have someone OR they havent had their windows cleaned in years. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of middle ground.

On most jobs it’s all about who you talk to. Joe Minimum wage will just blow you off and say “we already have someone that does it”. While the manager or owner of the facility will be looking to cut costs and be open to bids. On one job in particular I was transferred to 7 different people before finally getting in touch with the one I needed to talk to. Even more to the fact, after I got the job the building behind it was owned by a different company. I inquired to my new contact if he knew who I need to get in touch with to inquire to a bid. He had no idea. After calling and being transferred at least 10 times it got back to the original guy I was just talking to and he made a bid decision in about 15 minutes.

What are some cold call stories or some fights that you all had to make to get that job?

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I’ll give you the reverse, as a business owner the amount of cold calls I get is probably more than actual customer inquiries, honestly I am so sick of it. I get at least 2-3 calls a day from these scumbags honestly I don’t care what they are selling, if they are that desperate they have to bother me to try sell it then I would not even consider buying it even if it were free and they paid me to take it, I honestly don’t even want to hear what they have to offer.

As soon as i hear “Can I speak to the owner of the business?” in an Indian accent, I am rude AF my reply is “WHAT DO YOU WANT!?”, they answer, I reply “REMOVE ME FROM YOUR DATABASE!!” and hang up. Then they call me the next day… WTF!

Maybe I’m the odd one out and other business owners/building managers have nothing better to do than to receive cold calls all day, but i somehow doubt it very much.

I try to keep my calls to a follow-up call after putting in a bid in person.

[quote=“Steve076, post:2, topic:44593”]
honestly I don’t care what they are selling, if they are that desperate they have to bother me
[/quote] is the usual response both to the business owners and for myself

there is a certain seller of pens from arizona that calls me a lot and they always start with “i’ve got 1 bad joke and a special offer” and then proceed to try to sell pens.

one time i asked the lady “do you really think i’m going to do business with a company that i’ve told at least 8 times ‘don’t call me’?” her response was “what are you gonna do, cry?” and hung up. i thought it was hilarious.

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