Beginning in the fall of 2025 the number of cold calls, mostly on the phone and a growing number “at my door” have been increasing. Many are prospecting for home services such as window replacement, roofing, landscaping, painting and security systems. Half of the face to face sales people handed me a specialty item. Several in the telemarketing bunch made an offer of a free gift if they gave me a quote.
While I was not a good prospect for what they were selling, they were a great source of information regarding their B2C (business to consumer) marketing. When I asked why they were making direct to consumer cold calls, the surprising answers were all about the same.
Digital Fatigue was mentioned by just about everyone I talked to. The ad clutter online is making it impossible for these businesses to break through. The sales people that gave me the specialty items said they get requests for more information and quotes far more often than before they started using the branded items. Great news, but not the focus of this article!
Maybe, for many of the same reasons, it is time for you to market your business not with new or better websites but rather with some B2B direct cold calls. Another comment was that people are more willing to engage than when it is just a voice on the phone.
The last time B2B cold calling helped build businesses was in the late 1980s. At least that was true for my printing and specialty advertising company. I looked for opportunities where I could make several calls in the same building. I was armed with a receptionist (gate keeper) gift and a second one for the “boss” if they were not available when I stopped by. My results were averaging 1 new account for every 5 cold calls. Once I delivered the first project for one of my new clients, I then would revisit other businesses informing them that I was doing business in their building and would like to include them on my client list.
Obviously there is no way to know if a new cold call plan would work for you. All you risk is some of your time and attention. When you consider that at least for a while, you would have no competition showing up at the prospect’s office rather than the hundreds that are all over the internet, you certainly would stand out from the rest.
It has always been a satisfying reality that in the promotional products media industry, everything you do and use to promote your distributorship is also a demonstration that your prospect is experiencing. Many (with a little help from you) can imagine similar methods to build their businesses.
With the continuing acquisition of distributors and consolidation of near billions in sales, using a different plan may be the better way to maintain and grow your business. The efficiency of scale makes it impossible for the average distributor to compete with the mega operations.
Referrals are another good reason to make a few cold calls. New accounts you develop through cold calls will generally have a completely new (to you) group of other business associates that you may gain access to through referrals.
What I consider most important is to promote yourself, your skills as a marketer and how you will apply them to their business. Discussing products simply puts you right back in the clutter of hundreds of promotional products sellers online.
Let me know if you beat my record of 1 in 5!
Gregg Emmer managed Kaeser & Blair’s marketing, catalog publishing and vendor relations for more than 30 years. Prior to arriving at K&B in 1991 he owned and operated a graphic communication company featuring promotional products and full service printing. Today Emmer’s consulting work provides marketing, public relations and business planning consulting to a wide range of businesses including promotional industry suppliers, venture capital and market research companies. If you are interested in growing your business (or privately commenting on articles) contact Gregg at gregg.promopro@gmail.com.