The #1 Way to Generate More Leads and Close More Sales (FAST)

You've probably been told that cold calling is dead. Well, I beg to differ because there are a lot of people right now sitting by their phone waiting to hear from you. So we're going to learn about that and how to romance your customer right here on Ally. And you'd welcome to Allie and you'd the business success and lifestyle show. I am Alison Maslin. My friends call me Ally. And I am a serial entrepreneur and a business growth mentor. And today we are going to talk about connecting with your clients, romancing your clients, but a lot about picking up the telephone. And today I'm super excited because my guest is the CEO of Alliance call Centers. This is Don Williams, who so excited to have you here, Don.

Thank you so much. Excited to be here.

Yeah. He is one of the coolest guys I have ever met, and I have the blessing to have been working with Don. He is in our Pinnacle global network. And what is so cool about you is that you've run your company for over 20 years. Right. So you definitely have longevity. And so can you give us a little background? I mean, how did you get into this business? What do you love about it?

So I've been a serial entrepreneur for over 30 years. And in my previous companies, we always had a call center component where we picked up the phone and called people we wanted to do business with. And so when I sold that company, we went into the outsourced service bureau business, where typically large companies, Fortune 500 companies, international companies, some entrepreneurial companies, contract with us to make or receive phone calls on their behalf.

Right. So that's great. So you and I met, I came and did a speaking engagement and we hit it off. And dawn came to my event last year. And, you know, you're so personable, you're so comfortable picking up the phone. But I feel like today in our marketing, our sales landscape, we've got so many people that are hiding behind the computer, hiding behind email and text and so forth. And what you have to say to that is what?

Pick up the phone.

The damn phone. Okay, that too. You're right. Pick up the damn phone. All right, so let's talk about that a little bit. I mean, why are people so afraid to pick up the phone?

So first off, it's very common to have call reluctance, which is just fear of rejection, of, am I going to be embarrassed? Is somebody going to be harsh with me? You know, there's a hundred other reasons, but it's pretty simple to solve that. But it does involve picking up the phone and making the first call, right? And when you find out nobody dies and there's not an earthquake somewhere in the world, right?

They didn't reach out from the phone and go.

They didn't. And most of the times you won't even get to talk with that person. So you'll have to make more than one phone call to actually do business. But every call you make, like anything else, it will get easier and easier, and then a miracle will happen. I can't tell you which call, but I know it will happen, is you'll pick up the phone, you'll call, someone will answer, they'll be nice, they'll be interested in what you have to say.

Oh, my gosh.

And they'll want to set an appointment for you to come see them face to face.

Because that's the goal, right? You're not trying to make a sale on the phone call.

It depends with the company and what they're doing. But for most solopreneurs and entrepreneurs, they want to go have a face to face meeting. And. And it's much easier to initiate a relationship. And we live in a world where it pays to have a relationship with your customers. It's easier to do that face to face than on the phone.

I agree. Back in the day when I was first building my first company and I was building an ad agency, and so we used to do all of their advertising pr, and as a single mom, it was like, come on, we gotta make this happen. Were no options. And I had a lot of fear of picking up the phone. But I used to play this game with myself where I would open up the phone book. Remember that big fat phone book? Pre Internet? You and I both remember those days, let's be honest. And I would say, this is the game I'd play with myself. It was like pin the tail on the donkey. I would open. So whatever page I opened, that was the industry that I would be calling that day. So sometimes it was hospitals, sometimes it was retail or whatever.

And.

And I would make myself make 10 calls. So I could not get my butt off the chair until I made the 10th call. And I got some of my biggest clients from making those phone calls. And I was far from an expert at doing it well.

But what you did have is you had courage and persistence, and you made enough phone calls to where one day you had the miracle. And somebody said, hmm, maybe I do have some interest in an ad agency. Maybe you should come and see me. And then when you came to see them, you furthered their positive impression and earned Their business. And then knowing you continued to earn their business for a long, long time, which of course is the ultimate goal.

I didn't want to be broke. I mean, that really is what it came down to at that point where I was back then. But yeah, I would just say something like, you know, I would introduce myself and I'd say, you know, I would love to just take 15 minutes of your time and just show you what we can do in case there's a point that you'll have this need. So it wasn't a pressure. They knew it was only 15 minutes. That was an easy decision to make. But tell me, because this is what your team is doing all of the time. You know what happens? You call up, you get the gatekeeper, which is really like, we make them out to be this horrible person, which they're just generally they're not. They're not. So can you give some tips on that? How do you break through? What are some things you should do? Maybe some things like don't do this well.

So the kiss of death would be to call and say, hi, this is Don Williams. I'm calling for so and so. How are you today?

That just really bad right now because.

You called and everybody's like, oh, I know that I don't really want to talk with you if you're asking. And I don't know if there's necessarily tricks of the trade. Maybe it's better to learn the trade than the tricks of the trade. The biggest thing I can recommend is that you're totally you and that you put your personality into it and that you're authentic and that you're vulnerable. It's as simple as this. My name is Don Williams, I'm with this company. Here's what I'd like to do. Can I do that? And people will respond, yeah, you know, I like that. And if you did a hundred of those a week, every week, I don't know how many weeks you'd have to go. But at a certain point in time, you would not need to prospect anymore.

That's 20 calls a day. It's really, I mean, and you can do that like within an hour to two hours.

I'd say an hour. Just realizing that if you do 20 dials a day, 10 are going to be answering machines or voicemails.

Right.

And save your breath, don't leave a message, no one will call you back unless your message is, have a thousand dollar check for you, please call me back.

Right, yeah, exactly. So you're so good at making the connection, building the relationships, really. And you've got this book now that I think I just love this topic. Romancing your customer. How to passionately attract, retain, and win back customers for unbelievable loyalty and. And profitability. So, first of all, congratulations on the book.

Thank you so much.

This is a huge accomplishment. So tell us about the book and how do you romance your customers?

So in the last 20 years, we've worked for some of the biggest names in the business, and we've seen some really good examples of companies that romance their customer and passionately pursue their customer. And then we've seen some examples of companies who maybe didn't do that so well.

Okay, can you give me an example?

Sure. So here's one from personal experience. Get on an Emirates airplane to fly international.

Okay.

Businesser. First, they hand you the wine list, and the red is a 2004 Bordeaux.

Okay.

So it wasn't bottled last week.

Right.

It's been around a while.

It's not that fancy box stuff.

It's not. The box stuff doesn't have a screw cap.

Okay, okay.

And your response is, wow. And then when you're ready to turn in for the evening, they bring you a memory foam mattress and 800 thread count sheets.

Nice.

At this point you're like, wow, okay. And then they tell you the dinner for tonight is the tenderloin or the chile sea bass. And when you're ready, let us know and we'll prepare it.

Right.

And at that point you're like, wow.

Right.

And so you're on wow.

Overload.

You are. Okay, you are.

And so what happens from that? I mean, not everybody is able to wine and dine their clients like that all of the time. Right, True.

But I don't think romance has to do with 2004 Bordeaux or 800 thread count sheets or. Or dinner on demand. Romance has to do with intent. And it doesn't have to be expensive. It can be very inexpensive. It's really more of thoughtfulness, consideration. And there's certainly some element of surprise in romance. Ask any girl. I'm sure she, oh, you know what?

I am big on the surprise, and I'm total romantic. So, you know, I get it. And I think that is it. It's like people, your customers, you want them to stay, you want them to stay for a long time. So it's building that connection. When people feel loved, they feel connected, they feel respected and honored. And then you do. You drop in those surprises every once in a while and they're going to. They're like, wow. Exactly. You got that wow factor.

You got that wow. And so you make it very easy to attract that customer and then very easy to stay around and to feel something for. You know, people don't have relationship with companies, but people have relationships with people in companies. And so the great customer service companies, they're frontline people. You know, think Zappos, Toms, American Express.

And Zappos do a great job. Frontline and their customer service, I mean, Zappos is known to, they've been on the phone with people for two hours. Like they've even ordered pizza for people. I mean, and that's really what they stand for is let's just go over the top with our customer service. That's what their marketing is. I mean, that's their marketing dollar. So how can you step it up some notches with, you know, romancing your customers? You spend so much on going out and getting new customers and really taking care of the ones that you have. But also pick up the darn phone. Right?

Well, I think even in romance, a well placed phone call can be a benefit and certainly in attracting customers. Thanking customers after a transaction where they get a phone call, not a cross sell or an upsell, but just, hey, Alison, you bought this the other day. Hope you loved it. Thank you. We love having you as a customer. I guarantee when you hang up the phone, they'll go, wow.

Yeah, it's those extra touches. Think about, you know, even if you've gone to the doctor and then they check up on you in a day or so to see how you're doing, like, wow, someone actually thought about you and cares. And in this climate, this busy, noisy climate, you've got to stand out and.

It will certainly help you stand out from your competition.

Yeah, definitely. It doesn't cost anything to pick up the darn phone. So you've got to get this book from Dawn Williams. And romancing your customer, you can get it on Amazon. And dawn, this is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your time.

Thank you so much for having me today.

Yeah, this is great. And so you're. You might be watching this live right now, but you can also listen to the podcast by going to allisonmaslin.com audio. It'll take you right to itunes and many other platforms. Otherwise, we will see you back here every Wednesday, 4 o' clock Pacific. And until next time, get out there and elevate yourself because you are worth it. Bye, everybody.