A significant portion of my business is generated through cold calling. Well, I do quite a lot of research before

actually dialing a number so it isn’t exactly cold calling, but that’s a story for another day. Today’s post is about what people say when I finally do call them.

 

It is extremely rare that anyone is rude, but most of the time, people have reasons they won’t hire a writer. Sometimes, the reasons are valid but very often they are closer to being excuses. I wanted to share some of them with you, as well as why I call them excuses.

 

1. My niece’s husband does all of the writing for my company. All right. I’ll admit I’ve never heard that one, but I’ve heard just about every variation of it you can imagine. My mom writes our copy. My sister writes our copy. My brother-in-law writes everything we need. One of our employees takes care of all that.

Although I cannot tell the person offering me this excuse, when I make that call, I’ve already looked at their copy and found it wanting. Either it is poorly written or hasn’t been updated. Or perhaps they don’t have a blog but could really benefit from one, or an email newsletter would work well for their business.

What I do instead of insulting their mom/sister/brother-in-law/employee is start asking questions. Do they write professionally or is it a spare-time kind of thing? Have you ever considered a newsletter or blog? Is time an issue?

Most of the time, all those questions serve to get the person to at least think a little more about how a professional writer could help. Depending on their reaction, I either answer questions and talk specifically about my ideas for their business or politely thank them for their time and ask if I can email my contact information in case anything ever changes for them.

 

2. It would take just as long for me to tell you what to write as it would to write it. This one stymied me at first because I couldn’t figure out exactly what they meant. Do people imagine they would need to dictate things to me? Or do they think I couldn’t take a list of bullet points or random thoughts and turn it into a cohesive piece of writing?

As far as I can tell, people do think both of those things. The other thing people mean is that they will have to explain their industry, business or whatever to me in explicit detail so that I will understand it well enough to write about it. They have no idea that good writers are also excellent researchers.

My response in this situation is to offer to do a “test” article at a deeply discounted rate. I say, “Well, why don’t you let me write one article for you so that you have some idea of what I do and can make an informed decision?” I know that there is a huge debate about whether or not writers should discount their work for any reason, but this method has gotten me more work than any other.

The key to making it work is to put an enormous amount of effort into that discounted piece. It is meant to impress. To stun. I want the prospect to read it, say “Wow!” then hire me on retainer to totally revamp their copy or to write their blog posts each week or whatever.

If they aren’t interested in even a “test” article, I thank them for their time, ask if I can email them my contact information and hang up.

 

3. It’s a great idea and all but we just don’t have enough customers to justify it. When someone says this, either they don’t want more customers or don’t understand that good copy brings in more business. Sometimes explaining the whole idea of using content to get more business nudges them in the right direction, but I have yet to get a customer who starts out from this point.

Even if they don’t call it content marketing, most good business people understand the idea. Business owners who are not interested in staying in touch with their customers or who don’t see the value in offering high-quality information that is complementary to whatever they are selling probably won’t ever “have enough customers to justify it.” That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Relationships and good service are beyond important.

Of course, sometimes, this is code for “I really can’t afford any additional expense right now, even though I know it would help.” Either way, my response is a brief explanation of how my services could help them get more customers, followed by a request to email my contact information in case they ever change their mind.

 

4. Our customers aren’t really blog readers. The italics don’t come close to conveying the tone people use when they say “blog readers.” It’s almost like they are saying “the biggest nerds in the world.” Now, you know (obviously because YOU are reading a blog, right?) that blog readers aren’t necessarily nerds, and I know that, too, but you might be surprised by the number of people suffering under that illusion.

You might also be surprised at my response. Instead of trying to convince them that blogs are not exclusively for nerds, I suggest that perhaps an email newsletter would work better for their customers, or ask if they have considered submitting articles to industry print publications. If they become customers later, then I’ll return to the idea of blogging…

The conversation can go a couple of ways at this point: either they are intrigued and start asking questions or they begin to sound impatient. If they are intrigued, I proceed to sell my services and if they are impatient…well, by now you know, I ask if I can email my contact information, thank them, and hang up.

 

The key to making this work, as I mentioned at the very beginning is careful research. Look for the next post for more on that. For now, please share. Do you make cold calls in your business? Do you hear excuses? Have you developed a set of responses?

 

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If you are going to give your customers something – whether it is a thank you gift, a welcome gift, an anniversary gift or whatever other reason a business would give something to its customers – do it wholeheartedly and with as few conditions possible.

I understand that businesses must place some conditions on some offers, but things get ridiculous. Obviously, you don’t want your customers to save up their coupons, rebates and special offers until they never have to pay you at all. But sometimes it is just plain annoying.

We heat our home with propane, and last year I got mad at the company we rented our tank from and told them to come get it. I figured we could buy a tank of our own and pay less anyway. Well, it turns out, propane tanks are neither easily obtainable nor cheap, so we ended up using the little 20 pound tanks most normal people use for their grills all winter.

This means we had to visit Ace Hardware to get our tank refilled every two or three days. Ace has a rebate-card program.  You know the type – most grocery stores have something similar – you spend x dollars, get x points on your card and at some nebulous point in the future you get a discount or rebate. I think Ace was offering $5 off for every 1000 points and you got points each time you bought something.

Since we were spending about $12 each time we got the propane tank filled, we figured this would be great, and that we’d save at least $20-30 over the winter.

It wasn’t so easy.

Turns out, you have to have the card to get the points, then they MAIL you a different card to use to get your rebate and there is an expiration date on the rebate card. So now we had to remember to take our card to get points, our card to get the rebate and the propane tank to get filled when we went to Ace.

We used exactly ONE of the rebate cards last winter – out of five or six they sent. At least one time, I even put the rebate card in the car so I couldn’t forget it, but then forgot that it was in the car until after it expired.

Frustrating.

It would have been so much simpler for Ace to automatically give me the rebate when they scanned my card and the appropriate number of points had been reached. I would be a much happier customer and would not be writing this post griping about their tightfisted rebate program.

When companies offer discounts and rebates and then attach all sorts of conditions and hoops to claiming them, it just leaves people feeling duped. I was so happy to think I might save twenty bucks, but so let down that it appears to be outside the realm of my abilities.

Keep your customers happy: make good offers, and make them so easy to claim that even your dumbest (or most disorganized) customer could do it.

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When you go into a store, do you like for a salesperson to immediately approach and offer assistance?  What about if three or four different salespeople offer to help you in the space of, oh, about five minutes?

There is also the opposite problem: you need to ask a question, but can’t find anyone who seems to work there to help you. You stand patiently, waiting for someone to walk by or to notice you, then start wandering around searching for someone.

It’s even more complicated because people vary in what they consider the “right” level of helpfulness. Some people like that immediate greeting, others want to be able to find you instead of ever being approached.  

Both problems happen on web sites, too. You click a link from Twitter or Facebook to read an article, get two sentences in and BAM! a pop-up interrupts. Or, you want to tell a blogger that you have been lurking for a while, reading posts and that you really enjoy the site.  You’d rather send an email leave your compliments inthe comments but you can’t find an email address anywhere.

Striking the perfect balance between helpful and annoying is like performing a magic trick. You want to be available but not in the way.

When I begin approaching prospective clients, I try to make sure we’ve talked about something other than business first. Partly to find out if they already have a source for what I offer, partly to find out if I like them, partly to learn a little about their style or personality.

Later in the relationship, but before the person has become a client, I struggle with staying in touch without being annoying. I try to call, in case the person prefers the phone to the internet, then a week or two later, I send an email so that my contact information will be handy. Sometimes people approach me through Facebook and I will try to communicate with them there, where they seem to be comfortable.

There are as many ways to handle the conundrum as there are people. My question is:

What do you prefer as a consumer? How do you like to be contacted? What forms of marketing are acceptable to you as a prospective purchaser?

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Today, at my 9 to 5, I wrote something that I felt really good about. That is a rare occurence. The more usual pattern is that I write something, read it, think “What a load of crap,” put it aside for a day or two, come back to re-read and edit and think, “Well, that’s not too bad.”

But today, I wrote something that seemed good right away. Of course, it was for other people to use and one of those other people not happy with it. It’s not unusual. When you write for other people, you will encounter criticism – some good and constructive and some painful and probably also constructive.

Regardless of the reason, today, the criticism made me uncomfortable. The sort of uncomfortable that involves a headache, a faster-than-normal-pulse rate and an extreme effort to maintain a neutral facial expression (an effort with questionable results on my part, no doubt).

The point of contention was about style.  I had written an excellent piece of content marketing, and the person requesting changes wanted a call to action. She wanted a more traditional piece of marketing and couldn’t understand how it could be marketing without an overt demand the reader do something, buy something!

Of course, I know that the point of all marketing is to increase sales, but I also understand that people don’t enjoy being exhorted to buy, buy, buy every other sentence. My piece was designed to build trust with potential clients by bringing them useful information.  It was an article for a newsletter that would be delivered by email.

After I calmed down and made the requested changes, I started thinking about how I interact with freelance clients. They come to me for help with newsletters, their blogs, Facebook fan pages, and Twitter accounts. My freelance clients trust my judgment when it comes to marketing through social media. I don’t claim to be a social media guru, an expert or even a maven, but I do help people understand how it works and to decide if it will be useful for them.

In the end, the criticism served as a motivator, because it helped me understand my own strengths and to feel more confident about what I am good at.

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