Sales calls (cold calls)

This has NEVER been a strong point of mine and now I am required to do it for a WAH job I have and I need help!

The calls are to generate meetings which then lead to agreements being signed and then I provide a consultancy service and fill their vacant job etc.

I have had one client so far and that company contacted us so I didn't have to do these calls. I finished that vacancy and have not had any leads since then. I don't feel confident in the calls because I have made so many now and keep getting rejected.

Does anyone have any tips for managing the cold call... how can I generate interest in this recruitment service? Lots of businesses around me utilise agencies and would be paying much more than our fees... but they do not seem interested when I am speaking with them

No advice sorry, but hugs, I know how demoralising this can be.
The only thing I can think of is your opening... how does it sound from the start? If it sounds like a sales pitch from the beginning some people will be inclined to 'switch off' immediately.
It's a really tough thing to do IMO, all the best :hug:

I have just started working in market research, so although I am not selling anything, I still have to cold call, sometimes it is asking for a named respondant but most of the time it's random samples from the white pages. I agree with the PP on having your opening line perfected. In my case, we hav no choice what we say, whoever has hired us to conduct the survey stipulates the script for the calls, but if your opener is flexible try starting with that. It's hard when people are rude and reject you, but in an area where cold calling is prevelant, it is bound to happen, and often. Try googling rejection conversion for sales calls. We have a great rejection conversion sheet with all the rejections we recieve, and ways around them :)

I also used to hate outbound calls, and oh gosh, cold calling was even worse. (Mobile phone sales to massive organisations).

Not sure who you initially speak to when you dial, but I really found it helpful to be REALLY nice to the 'gatekeeper' (aka secretary, receptionist, PA) until I got to the person who I really needed to speak to. That worked well for me as then that gatekeeper would be putting in a good word for me in the event I needed to call back or make further contact.

The only other advice I have is to really believe that you have a great product / service to offer, and when you do get to speak to the 'decision maker' keep to the point and be succinct as they're usually really busy and don't want to be on the phone too long. So steering anything towards a 'time saving' / 'increasing efficiency' tag was usually a win for me.

Keep us posted how you go hun! Good luck!

what sort of companies are you targetting tk? small to medium? because i'm thinking that big companies are tough because they'll already have signed agreements with the big recruiters. small to med companies though often don't like to use agencies (IME) because they baulk at the fees. but you do have the advantage of doing the hard yards in filling the vancancies for them. small to med companies use things like seek but then you have to do all the screening of applicants themselves, which can be timeconsuming & frustrating because you get so many unqualified applicants.

personal attention is also a selling point - i've had people from the big agencies come to a meeting & then just leave me hanging without any further contact because our company just obviously wasn't big enough. really understanding the business they're in is also a selling point. so many times recruiters just don't do their homework on your business & end up sending you the wrong person for your vacancy.

when receiving a cold call, i always liked someone who wasn't overly pushy & obviously trying to meet meeting quotas or similar. i agree that a good opening line is great but don't make it too rehearsed. cold calling is tough though, i've never been good at it.
not sure if any of this helps - is this the sort of stuff you're looking for?