My Experience in Cold Calling Pt. 1

Over the summer between high school and college, I was offered a job to work as a cold calling agent for a local roofing/siding company. At the time I had no clue what cold-calling was or had any sales experience, I was simply told to go door to door and hand out fliers. I was instructed to canvas neighborhoods that had the worst damage from the recent tornados that had gone through our area and after watching some online basic training videos I was off. Throughout the summer I learned a few important aspects of sales that were reinforced within this class. I was feeling good my first day as I was told I would only get about one or two conversions per day and I reached that goal in the first twenty minutes. This happiness was short-lived as I then realized that you oftentimes have to wade through a sea of “no’s” to find one yes. I quickly realized that following a set script every time made me sound like a robot and was clearly not the best way to go. I adjusted my pitch based on the person, typically going with a “Hi I’m really sorry to bother you…” approach which tended to lend the most conversions. Now traditional B2B & B2C and other sales environments discussed in class differ quite wildly from cold calling, but one constant theme is attuning to the consumer. I could easily pick up that a person may not want to talk to me when their door was plastered with 3 separate No Soliciting signs.