Jan. 6, 2026

Powerful Business Strategies - Cold Calling

Show Notes
Transcript

Cold Calling – When God wanted to punish a sales person he created the cold call, however cold calling is still an effective marketing strategy but there are ways to do it strategically.

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Hi, you have done to hear sensu wow for you your.

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This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures of

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Pipe Man W four c Y Radio and we're here

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with our Positively Pipeman segment and we once again have

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our expert CFO in the house. So let's welcome Michael

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Barbarita from Next Step CFO.

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How are you excellent? Thank you for having me.

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Deane, Hey, my pleasure. So today we're going to talk

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about one of my favorite subjects, cold calling.

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Yes, so I'll start up by saying, when God wanted

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to punish a salesperson, he created the cold call. However,

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the reason why I'm bringing it up is topic is

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because a lot of people like myself started their business

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that way, and it's still a very effective way to

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communicate your product of service and to get business. It's incredible,

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but it is. It sounds awful, but it is. As

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a matter of fact, I even heard Grint Coggone on

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a couple of occasions talk about how co calling is

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one of his most effective methods of getting business. And

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so when I started my business, I didn't have any

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business at all, you know, got on the phone, started calling,

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but I did it differently. What I did is I

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identified a problem that people had, which was cash flow,

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especially at the time because I started my business around

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oh wait, during the big crash, So cash flow is

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a big issue then. So since that was a problem

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that the customer had, I put together a PDF on

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solving cash flow problems. And what I did is I

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made coke calls asking business owners if they want to

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have this free PDF that I have on solving cash

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flow problems. And of course, you know, on five occasions,

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because I got five clients from it, on five occasions,

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they went into deeper details. So what else do you do?

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So what do you do? You know that kind of thing,

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And I got into it and I sold them and

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so they became clients of mind. And believe it or not,

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this was back in eight Four of them are still clients.

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Today, I believe it.

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Yeah. And so I have probably grossed about seven or

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eight hundred thousand dollars of revenue since that time, at

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least by making those coke calls. And so you know,

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it's it. So when great Cardones started talking about how

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effective it it really is, I started thinking back to

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my you know, my situation, and not only that, you

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know clients that I have. The problem is, Dean, is

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that people spend probably twenty percent of their time staring

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at the phone knowing they have to make a coke call.

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That's where I have to stop. You're right now, right.

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I have a story about that. I was in the

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investment business, as you know, and there's more I'm going

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to talk about about that and having to do a

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cold calling from my story. But when I own the

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brokerage firm, you know, you would have in that business,

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the people that work for you are on straight commission. Okay,

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there there's no draw and there's no salary, and they

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can make a ton of money, like they can make

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twenty grand a month and more, you know, and all

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they have to do is pick up the phone. And

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in that business, that's what it is.

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It's you pick up the.

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Phone and you make three, four or five hundred dials

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a day. And so, and I'm going to talk more

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about that a little bit. But I called my dad

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one time and I'm like, man, I just don't get it.

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I have these brokers working for me. I'm giving them

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every opportunity in the world. I tell them I'll close

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the deals for them. All they have to do is

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get people on the phone, and I'll do it all

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for them, you know, to even to help them out

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to make money. And that's how people learn anyway, better

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than telling them showing them. And all they do is

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stare at the wall, and they're not getting paid. They

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could be out doing something else, and they're spending their

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whole day just sitting there staring at the wall. And

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we're talking before we had phones and stuff like that,

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so it's not even like they could be distracted by anything. Okay,

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there was nothing else they could do. They weren't even

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allowed to make personal calls because it was a landline.

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And so I called my dad and I'm like, who

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was a superstar salesperson himself? And I was like, I

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just don't get it. These people can make like twenty

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grand a month and all they have to do is pick

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up the phone and they're staring at the wall. And

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his answer to me was some of the best advice

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he ever gave me. And he said, well, if they

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were you, they would be your competition, not your employees. Yeah,

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And that made a lot of sense because basically, who

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are the people that end up in business for themselves?

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The people that are the top cold callers, not the

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people staring at the wall.

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Right, that's right, It is amazing. And you know, like

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I said, what I did is I put together a

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simple PDF based on a problem that I knew was

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help in the marketplace. And it made it easier for

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me to call because I was giving away something of value.

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And it's just so happen and that on you know,

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enough occasions people you know, people were saying, so what

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is it that you do? And we got into it

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to the point where you know, I got them as

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a client. And you know, it's funny because one of

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my clients that I co called that I still have today,

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always uses me as an example when he's talking to

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his salespeople because he had he never hired anybody off

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of a coke call. And somehow we were able to

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you know, I was, I was able to sell them in.

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But you know, it's how I started my business. And

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you know, and I'm so kind of disappointed in myself

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that I stopped cold calling because I was getting referrals

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and generating business with the strategies that we've talked about

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on the show. So you know, I it's it hasn't

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been a key area for me. But I'm really giving

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it some serious thought going back to it, because I

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believe it's very valuable. And the other thing, there is

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such a thing, and this is gonna make everybody like

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gravitate to it. I probably shouldn't say it, but there

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is this thing called ringless voicemail. And it's not as

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good as a code call, but and it's at least

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a telephone communication. And there are several CRMs that have

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ringless voicemail. The phone does not ring, but a voicemail

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is left. And so because it's hot, because I got

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to tell you this, in twenty and eighty I was

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able to reach business owners every fifth dial. Okay, today

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I'm not able to reach business owners until every twelfth

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or thirteenth dial. It's hot to reach people today. So

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that's why ringless voicemail is potentially an option, because first

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of all, it's your voice you'll leave in the voicemail,

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and but you're not using their name, which is a disadvantage.

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But it is a voicemail and it is personal contact,

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and you know, you can follow it up with an email,

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You can follow it up with a LinkedIn message. Uh,

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you can follow it up with a text. So there's ways,

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there's ways to you know, follow up to the point

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where you sound more real instead of some scamming co caller,

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especially when you follow it up with the other methods

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of communication. So that's that's really uh, I found to

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be the most effective. I've always been a believer in multimedia.

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I call it. I don't know if that's really you know,

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but it's using the telephone, using voicemail, using email, using

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LinkedIn messaging, using texting. This all makes you look legitimate.

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When you get scammy phone calls, they don't even leave

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a message. Usually yeah, you know, it's just like it, okay,

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the next dial or whatever.

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I actually get a lot of spammy's that leave me messages,

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and I'm like, that's just dumb. I think it's dumb

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because then you're just telling me you're scam and I'm

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gonna avoid it every time.

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Right, So, anyway that I wanted, I felt compelled to

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talk about probably the most fearful marketing strategy on Earth.

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Well, to me, I just want to say, real quick,

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I think it's one of the best strategies out there.

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And people, you know, once you get used to it,

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you don't hate the cold calling. It's like funny. Once

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I got used to it, I didn't like going back

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because listen in the investments, this perfect example. I used

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to buy these leads that were like two hundred dollars

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a name. Yeah, and then I also used to buy

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this lead book, a very specific lead that was the

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cheapest lead ever in the industry, like the dun and

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Bradstreet leads, and we I had some other ones like

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that ten cents a name. I made way more money

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off the ten cent a name call. And because they

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were cold calls, you were just cold calling people, you know,

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then I did on the two hundred dollars a name

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because the people that are requesting information a or lookie

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lose most of the time B the requesting information from everybody,

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and they're already prepared to say no to you, you know,

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whereas the cold call, if you handle it properly, they're

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not prepared for it.

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You know.

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One of the dumbest things I'm gonna give people advice

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right now, One of the dumbest things you could do

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when you do a cold call is within the first

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ten seconds. It's the most important. That's where you either

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catch your attention or to hang up. Do not spend

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that ten seconds saying I'm not here to sell you anything.

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Right now, you're starting a conversation on a lie. They

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know that's a lie. It's a stupid line. The other

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thing you don't want to start with is how are you?

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They know you don't give a crap how they are,

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and you're just opening up the door for them to

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say crappy And now where do you go with that?

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So that's my two major cold calling advice skills right there.

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You know.

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And you just get on with them and get straight

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to the point and be up front. They appreciate that.

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That's why I did so much business because they were

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so used to salespeople going on and like trying to

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pretend they're not selling anything, or try to pretend this

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or you know, just like you're taught when you go

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in the house to sell, to make a comment on

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somebody's artwork and stuff like that. People are free hip

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to that, and it just makes you look decent and dishonest.

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Just say hey, I'm calling you because of this period,

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and then they might listen because they're like, holy shit,

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excuse my language, but they're like, you know, oh my god,

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this must be something I listen to because he's not

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trying to trick me into it.

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Horse yet that's right, so very good. Yes, no, that's

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that's very good, very good. But I've always found it

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to be a difficult set to talk about because everybody,

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uh gets a squirre machine.

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Oh yeah, no doubt topic is brought up.

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But uh. The way to find out more about what

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we do as fractional CFOs and strategic advisors is to

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go to my website www dot NeXTSTEP CFO dot net

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to hit the contact Go to the contact page at

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the top of the website, hit the contact button, fill

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out the form, and in the message center put the

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words book into view, love to interview business owners get

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their industry perspective for the next edition of my book,

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because I'm always updating my book called Powerful Business Strategies,

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which I give away free on the website as well,

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and I'm always updating it because businesses always changed and

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we want to make sure that our strategies work for

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all different types of industry. So far they have, but

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we want to continue that process and make sure they

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still work. So NEXTTEPCFO dot net, forward slash contact, fill

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out the contact form, and in the message section put

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book interview.

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Well, they definitely need to reach out to you because

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you always have some powerful business strategies. And thank you

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once again for being part of Positively Pipemin segment. And

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thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipeman. You're on

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W four c Y Radio.

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Thanks for having me mean thank you for listening to

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the Adventures of Pipemin. I'm W for CUI Radio.

Powerful Business Strategies - Cold Calling

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