Do you hate cold calling? I get asked all the time if there are ways around it. I have found that there are three types of people in business who hate cold calling.
Those who don’t mind cold calling. Yes, they do exist! They are motivated and driven and think cold-calling is a must to increase business.
Those who hate cold calling with a passion and prefer to pay a virtual assistant or scheduling assistant to do it for them so they can focus on selling! Selling is what they love best and by eliminating cold calling, they can maximize their time in front of clients.
Those who hate cold calling and don’t want to hire an assistant yet want to figure out another way to avoid it.
The good news is, there is a way around cold calling! If you utilize social media, word-of-mouth marketing, or networking, you will be able to eliminate cold calling in your business. Now, this will take time and effort, but if you love social media and networking, then you’ll do great! If you don’t want cold calling, don’t want to hire a cold caller, and don’t want to do your own social media and networking, then you can hire a virtual assistant to do your social media and networking for you.
So, how do you use social media and networking specifically to eliminate cold calling? You do the following:
Create an awesome platform and establish yourself as an expert! Utilize your website, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever social media is pertinent to your business. You only want to spend time on the social media that your target market is using! For example, don’t spend a ton of time on LinkedIn if your target market is retirees. Chances are they aren’t on LinkedIn. But if your target market is small business owners, then yes, chances are they are on LinkedIn!
Create a social media calendar. Once you have some great content and prove that you are an expert on your social media, create a calendar to post consistently. Everyone wants free advice and tips. Write engaging blog posts and tag them on all of your social media. Encourage your readers to share your content. If you offer a free newsletter, post about it on social media.
Capture email addresses on your website! Whenever someone visits your website, have them sign up for a free e-newsletter or emails about tips, tricks, or whatever your business may be, and send them free advice. These people will turn into customers and they will come to you.
Book speaking engagements. Depending on your target market, you may get in front of more people by speaking. If you are a financial advisor, speak at a local professional organization or group, be a guest speaker at a college, speak at a local conference, or teach your local adult education courses—everyone wants to learn more about saving and investing their money!
Write articles! Many communities have local papers, magazines, and other blogs that their target market reads. Try to write articles and guest blog posts on the subject you are an expert in. If your expertise is in Building Wealth with Real Estate, then write about it and get the info out there!
Network with professionals so that you can help grow their businesses and they can help you grow yours. For instance, many times, financial advisors, CPAs, and attorneys build networks and refer business to each other. If you have 100 clients and your attorney has 100 clients, suddenly, you both have 200 clients! Talk about growth!
Offer an online course! Many people these days are taking online courses to learn more about subjects that interest them. Many people are also making a lot of money on these online courses! Develop a course teaching others what you know. Promote your course online and not only are you now suddenly making more money – you are maximizing your reach, your earning potential, and the growth of your business.
Ask your current clients to refer business to you. It can be as simple as saying: “If you know anyone interested in maximizing their income, please have them contact me,” or something like that.
Invest in yourself! Continue to take courses, hire additional help, and increase your technology; it will allow you to continue to grow your business the way you want to. And, when you do those things correctly the return on your investment will be great!
Ask questions. Engage others on social media, your current clients, and your network connections by asking: “What do you want to know more about?" What is the most commonly asked question you get? Take the answer to that question and run with it!
So, what would you like to know more about? I’d like to know! Please leave a comment or email me at dbranson@eliteschedulingservices.com.
There is a lot of business out there and it’s yours for the taking! Just reach out and grab it!
-Danae Branson
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