One phone call can eliminate all your cold-calling obstacles

You could find your prospects list; think about what to say if you manage to reach someone; make a phone call or two; get shunted to voice mail or stopped by the gatekeeper; and decide to try again tomorrow.

Or you could call Sybil Ege.

Ege makes phone calls for people who don't like to make phone calls. Ege, a knowledgeable business phone caller, draws upon 15 years of experience to provide the phone-based prospecting and customer-care campaigns she thinks smaller businesses need -- and which happen to be among the core services at her Clear Guide Consulting, Elburn.

Ege probably is correct when she says most of us falter on the phone because we take a negative response -- or no response at all -- personally. "You have to be very detached," she says. "It's not because (the prospect) you're calling doesn't like you."

Regardless, more of us hang up than hang in. Ege, though, is willing to call your list multiple times -- whatever number of tries you agree on -- before giving up, and she bases part of her fee on results.

Ege's approach works for Jane Welter. Welter, who's trying to rent empty space in her Woodstock medical building, hired Ege to supplement the efforts of a local Realtor. Ege is not a real estate agent and doesn't rent the space; her assignment is to find prospects.

There's no list. Ege is on her own, researching the medical sector to develop her own leads.

"Cold calling is tough," Welter says. "But (Ege) isn't just a call processor; she's a thinker. She has gotten me some very interesting leads."

Leads come because Ege is willing to burrow in and "understand what you want to sell." Armed with that knowledge, she can ask open-ended questions that have a chance to turn cold calls into conversations.

"I want to start a dialogue, get (the prospect) to talk, so the conversation might go someplace," Ege explains.

Shelly Walsh is hoping Ege's dialogues will tell her why people don't come back more often to Come & Dish LLC, a 3-year old Algonquin entree preparation kitchen Walsh co-owns. Come & Dish caters to people who want to make-and-take up to a dozen entrees in a two-hour session, or who pick up either six or 12 already prepared meals.

Walsh has given Ege a list of customers to call. "I want to find out how people feel about the quality of service and the quality of the food," Walsh says.

Walsh's willingness to go outside for help is a good management step. "It's difficult to get a useful answer to the 'How am I doing?' question" when you ask the question yourself, Ege says. "Customers often won't be honest. They don't want to deal with the confrontation" if they tell you your business isn't doing a good job.

© 2008, 121 Marketing Resources Inc.