Cold Calling & Follow-up
The 2 Basic Food Groups of Freelance Success: Possibly Boring, Always Reliable

By Peter Bowerman

Just got off the phone with a dear friend of mine (and fellow commercial writer) out in Colorado. Frankly, it was a lot rosier conversation than the one we’d had a few weeks prior. Back then, she was whining about how slow it had been and how clients were putting projects on the back burner, and generally not being the cooperative employers she’d come to expect. Waah.  

At the time, I told her what I tell anybody in that situation: hit the phones and make more calls. Of course, she didn’t love hearing this, but she knew I was right. Not that I need to be right all the time (although I do enjoy it…), but I just know from many years of experience that cold calling always gets the phones ringing. And three weeks later, after a surprisingly short and sweet round of calling, she was in the clover again. She’d called many of the “usual suspects,” and, in the last week, had picked up three or four new jobs in addition to receiving a call from one of her “regulars” about an upcoming project.

Most of the new jobs didn’t come from the people she’d called, a borderline “cosmic” phenomenon: Generate new activity, and you attract activity and your momentum builds. And once established, a bunch of new calls WILL stir up business, but the work won’t necessarily come from those calls. It’s almost eerie how it works, but it works, and that’s good enough for me.

She also shared this: “Every time you hear about possible work, follow up immediately.” She’d gone to a Chamber of Commerce event where she’d picked up several business cards from several conversations. In those chats, once they’d established their respective lines of work, she simply asked, point-blank, if they had any ongoing, occasional or upcoming writing projects. When someone responded affirmatively, she asked if she could follow up the following week. When they said sure, she asked what day and time would be most convenient for them to hear from her. She wrote it all down and on the appointed day and time, she called.

In one of those conversations, she recalled, chuckling, the gentleman was genuinely surprised – and pleased – as he noticed it was 10:01 a.m. on the day she promised to call at 10:00 a.m. Clearly, he was not used to this level of diligence and professionalism. But you can bet that it made an impression and gave him a clue as to what it would be like to work with her (hint: a very positive experience).

Her take? “Doing what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it pretty much freaks many people out. They’re simply not used to the fulfillment of stated intentions.” How true. People get accustomed to empty promises, casual commitments, and loose intentions. Maybe because they know they do the same thing?

I discuss this in the book, but it’s worth mentioning again: Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you are going to do it, and you will set yourself apart from roughly 90 percent of the population AND most of your competition. This is a very easy thing to do. It doesn’t take any special skill, talents, or superhuman effort. Bottom line? Doing this will make it easier to stand out in the crowd. Ergo, there’s no excuse not to. And it will mean all the difference in the world to your business.

Recently got this upbeat note from a reader (and reluctant cold-caller): “I'm the shyest person on the planet and never thought I could pull it off, but all of your insights are on the money. Our upcoming client meetings are the result of a 50-call burst I made 

Monday and Tuesday, with follow-up e-mail directing folks to our web site. The e-mail and phone calls coming back at us were stunning! It's a new year and lots of firms have ambitious projects for the 1st quarter, and they need lots of help! Who knew? (I guess you did).”

© Copyright 2005 Peter Bowerman. All rights reserved.