In this, the second in a series on Network Marketing approaches, we discuss the cold call, and it's modern equivalent, the cold IM. These two approches fall under the category of Personal Marketing, as defined in my introduction to this series. Remember, your experience counts in this hub-series! Please add your personal experience with cold calling and cold IMming (is that a word?).

Before I get into the cold call, it may help to understand my entry to networking. It may not help, but I want to get it off my chest anyway! I think the historical perspective is useful, especially when so much is done on the Internet today that was done "off line" when I got started.

My experience in networking started back around 1984, when a friend called and invited me to a "business meeting." "What's it about," I asked. "I can't really explain it over the phone..." was the reply. Short version: I went to her friend's house, it was the A*way plan, and I took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. I wasn't nearly mature enough at 24 to begin to build the business, so that only lasted a few months. But I had caught the MLM bug, right there in that first meeting.

The bug lie dormant until 1999, when a different friend called, and asked if she could stop by and show me a "business idea." "What's it about," I asked, and suddenly that deja-vu thing happened. "I can't really explain it over the phone..." was the reply. I held my hand over the receiver, and told my wife, "She wants us to look at the A*way plan." Her reply was, "No way, tell her we're busy." To which I replied, "Yes way, I'm inviting her over!" This time I was ready, or so I thought. We'll leave the rest of that story for another hub.

Both calls above are example of warm calls. You're calling a freind, who already trusts you. Most of the time your friend complies with your initial request. If they don't, at least they're usually polite when they tell you "no."

A cold call is a very, very different thing. In this case you're calling a complete stranger. Best-case is you got the name and number from a list of pre-qualified business leads. Worst-case is you opened the telephone book at random. Either way, you're probably working from a script, and the lead has absolutely nothing motivating them to be polite, besides their upbringing.

For me, cold calls are a horror show. I tried them, using a good script and a good list of qualified leads. I hated every minute, but I stuck it out for many one-hour sessions. My results were dreadful. People who didn't hang up on me were mostly rude to me. In the end I think I showed one plan, after countless calls, and never made a sale or signed a distributor. My upline told me it must be me, they could hear doubt in my voice. Maybe so. Although cold calling never worked for me, I know it must work for somebody. If you have had different results, please share them in the comments.

Instant messenger (IM) software offers a whole new way to reach a cold list, and I call it the cold IM. My personal experience with this has been excellent, and I want to share it with you so you can finally reach your cold list with a personal contact, and with a lot less angst than the cold call.

Once again, you want to start with a list of pre-qualified business leads. You can purchase these for anywhere from pennies to dollars per lead. Many people buy these lists to load into their autoresponders, and we'll cover that in a future hub in this series. If you believe that personal contact beats automation, or if you want to make multiple attempts to reach the same people, then the cold IM is a great alternative, or addition, to the autoresponder.

It works like this. First, sort out all the leads by email address domain. For example, one list gets everything "@yahoo," another gets everything "@aol," another gets everything "@hotmail," etc. Do this for every instant messenger you use. I wrote macros in Excell that do this for me quickly (more on that later).

Then open your IM software for one of these domains, and start entering the leads into your contact list, buddy list, or whatever it's called. In Yahoo Messenger you have to request to be added as a contact, and you can do your own pre-qualification by providing the message, "Information you requested - earning income online." Anyone who accepts your contact is already interested! In AIM, you can just put them on your buddy list, no questions asked, and you can also fill-in their real name from your leads list very efficiently. Take a little time out, on a regular basis, to add more names to each messenger. Once the contacts are in there, all you have to do is wait.

One day you'll be at your computer, and a little popup will appear saying "Joe Prospect just came online." This is already way better than a cold call -- your leads are coming to you!

You wait another minute, then you begin, "Joe?" Then you wait. At this point one of two things will happen. First possiblity: nothing. Joe ignores you. Now, you know Joe is there, he just came online a minute ago. Maybe he's busy. No problem, let him go. Try him again the next time you see him come online. My rule is, if I get ignored three times, I delete the contact. My upline says never delete the contact. You'll have to decide for yourself what makes sense.

Second possibility: Joe replies! The typical response is, "who is this?" or, "do I know you?" Now you start your script. Mine goes like this: "Hi, my name is Sam. Some time ago you requested info about earning income online. I'm just following-up to see if you are still interested." Then you wait.

Joe may "hang up" on you. In IM land, that means that Joe suddenly appears to go offline. Wow, that was painless. I delete Joe from my contacts. My upline doesn't.

Joe may be rude to you. "You are a leach! Never contact me again." Gee, that stung a bit, but not too bad. I delete Joe from my contacts. I have no idea what my upline does in real life, but I bet he deletes Joe, too.

Final possibility: Joe is curious. You can take it from here. My general recommendation is don't just toss out a URL, and don't agree to just send them an email. Start by asking questions! You're not done qualifying them, and you want to make this cold IM count for something.

To show you how easy this is, I'm including a transcript of a real cold IM I conducted, just a couple of days ago. You'll see that I violated one of my own guidelines, tossing out a URL too soon. But in this case I had started the chat at a bad time, and I really had to leave the room. And I also had a feeling about this one. Anyway, the names have been changed, but otherwise this is the real deal.

Sam (10:32:51 PM) : Mary?

Mary (10:34:13 PM) : yes who is this please?

Sam (10:34:53 PM) : My name is Sam. Some time ago you requested info about earning income online, and I'm checking to see if you are still interested.

Mary (10:35:54 PM) : i've requested a lot of info recently

Sam (10:36:23 PM) : Tell me, what are your goals? Just want to make some extra money, or are you looking for income to replace a job?

Mary (10:37:21 PM) : i dont have a job so i would like to make some money

Sam (10:37:57 PM) : Ok, we can work on that together. Do you have a few minutes to view a video? Then we can talk about it when you know more of the info.

Mary (10:38:28 PM) : ok

Sam (10:39:37 PM) : Go to www.Freedom.ws/YourOrganizationWins and watch the movie there. Then contact me at my Yahoo email, you_have_to_guess@yahoo.com with any questions. If I'm still online here you can always IM, but I need to step away for a few minutes. So send me an email if you don't see me.

Mary (10:40:17 PM) : ok then

Sam (10:40:25 PM) : Mary, I'll talk to you soon. -- Sam

Mary went idle at 11:01:23 PM.

Mary returned at 11:08:35 PM.

Mary signed off at 11:09:31 PM.

Mary is offline and will receive your IMs when signing back in.

Mary signed on at 11:10:05 PM.

Mary (11:13:45 PM) : just in case i leave before you get back, what exactly do i have to do to get started and is there any fee that i have to pay?

Auto Response from Sam (11:13:34 PM) : I am away from my computer right now.

Sam (11:15:33 PM) : Hi, I'm back.

Sam (11:15:41 PM) : Are you still around?

Sam (11:16:27 PM) : Well, I'll leave you info for when you return, but do email me at you_have_to_guess@yahoo.com and we can pick up from there.

Sam (11:17:45 PM) : To get started, just go back to www.freedom.ws/YourOrganizationWins and click the link that says Get Started for Free Now.

Sam (11:18:22 PM) : It's free for 7 days. During that time I will show you exactly how to generate business. Make sure we stay in touch, so you get the most from your free week.

Sam (11:18:54 PM) : After that it's only $10 a month, but we can get you earning pretty quickly if you work with my team and follow our lead.

Sam (11:20:57 PM) : I will send you this in an email, so you have it there, too.

Mary (11:21:35 PM) : ok

Sam (11:21:52 PM) : Oh, hi, you are here.

Sam (11:22:00 PM) : What did you think of the video?

Mary (11:23:52 PM) : i couldn't hear it i was reading all the other stuff that was on the site

Sam (11:24:28 PM) : Did you have other questions? What would hold you back from starting this?

Mary (11:25:44 PM) : nothings holding me back its just that i don't jump at things quickly

Mary (11:26:49 PM) : most of the work at home programs that ive tried i have to pay a start up fee and sometimes its a lot...

Sam (11:27:33 PM) : Not this. Like I said, try it free for 1 week. Then only $10 a month is all. You can pay more for advertising if you want, but it is not required, and we can show you how to find leads for free.

Mary (11:28:05 PM) : but by you contacting me by email, its a first so now this really interests me more than it does for you, laughs

Sam (11:28:37 PM) : Oh, and the $10 gets you your own website. You can do anything you want with that site, or I can show you how to get more traffic with it.

Mary (11:30:06 PM) : i would surely love to receive more info, i want to know every little detail so i can understand what i' ll be doing

Sam (11:30:31 PM) : Ok. Is Mary@aol.com the best email to use, or do you have another?

Mary (11:31:01 PM) : this one is the best for me

Sam (11:32:09 PM) : Ok. One more thing before I go and put together that email. May I have a friend from our team contact you? He has done this longer than I have, in fact he's replaced his job with it so he is "retired" from work. He'll do better than me at answering questions. His name is John. Can he IM you?

Mary (11:32:52 PM) : oh sure

Sam (11:33:42 PM) : Thanks. I'll go put the starter stuff in an email, and John will contact you soon. Send questions to my Yahoo email, and we'll make sure you get everything answered. Good talking with you. Oh... I have a couple more questions if you have a few minutes.

Mary (11:35:02 PM) : sure go ahead

Sam (11:35:42 PM) : You said you are out of work and I was wondering, are you looking for work, and what kind of job do you want (besides online work )

Mary (11:39:58 PM) : i was always interested in working at home, i' ve never had a job and now it feels weird to go out and look for one now at my age. i' ve always wanted to be my own boss but not knowing how to start and what exactly to do. I'm pretty much searching for something that won't hassle me...

Sam (11:40:19 PM) : At your age? May I ask?

Mary (11:40:30 PM) : something that i can have fun with i guess or just be happy with what i'm doing

Mary (11:40:50 PM) : ILL be 25 in august

Sam (11:41:02 PM) : Oh, you're a youngster! Sorry, I'm an old man at 47. Where do you live?

Mary (11:41:35 PM) : i have no interest in being at an office sorting out papers or at a cash register

Sam (11:41:33 PM) : Amen to that.

Mary (11:41:51 PM) : i live in (a big city)...lol

Sam (11:41:51 PM) : Got family in the area?

Mary (11:42:26 PM) : yes i live with my mom and brothers and also my 1 yr old

Mary (11:42:41 PM) : daughter

Sam (11:43:00 PM) : I'm in Pennsylvania, about 1 hour north of Philadelphia, wife and 10 year old girl at home, 21 year old daughter off in Texas.

Sam (11:43:33 PM) : Is this getting to personal? I'm just trying to make friends, hope it's OK.

Mary (11:43:52 PM) : oh no im fine

Mary (11:44:08 PM) : its ok...lol

Sam (11:44:36 PM) : I know chat's not new, but it's still kinda strange to me. I never know what's OK and what's not.

Mary (11:45:12 PM) : thats true

Mary (11:45:27 PM) : i don't mind at all

Sam (11:46:15 PM) : That's great, thanks. Ok, I'll take a few minutes and send out and email, and we'll talk again soon. Look for my friend John to contact you. I know you'll like this business, definitely not an office job, and if you like to meet people online, this is fantastic.

Mary (11:47:18 PM) : and i'll be looking forward for that email

Sam (11:47:15 PM) : ok, bye for now

Mary (11:47:36 PM) : bye

Will Mary become a top producer? Time will tell. I do know that we connected at a personal level, and I know some things about her that will help me work with her, things I would never learn using an autoresponder. And somehow that keyboard weighs so much than a telephone receiver!

There you have it, the old and the new. Cold calls... the mere mention of them leaves me shivering. Cold IMs... they're HOT! What do you think?

For a copy of my Excell spreadsheet macros to sort out Yahoo and AOL emails, join the Yahoo group Follow Our Lead. You'll find the macros in the Files area. When you join, you'll be able to see how our team operates on a daily basis, through our group communication. You'll also find instructions to attend our online training, as a guest. Just remember, Sam invited you! To learn more about Follow Our Lead, visit my team member site at http://www.JustFollowOurLead.com/YourOrganizationWins

All the best,

Sam Reichgott