Cold Calling is Hot Stuff
by Lola Gillebaard

Tuesday Morning: 9:00am: (My one day a week for marketing calls begins.)

"Hello. My name is Lola Gillebaard and I’m a motivational speaker who makes people laugh."

"Oh. We never use comedians at our conference. We are very, very serious."

So start my Tuesday morning cold calls for my business of Laugh And Learn With Lola…I am learning! I hate Tuesdays. I hate cold calling…which is exactly why I delegate every Tuesday morning to making them. At least I don’t have to hate what I do more than one day a week!

But a few Tuesdays ago I hit the jackpot (or so I thought). I talked to a meeting planner who said, "You sound like exactly what we are looking for. Please send me your package."

I was excited. I sent her my press kit and my demo video with a cover letter full of encouraging words, plus a list of 500 satisfied clients. Then for the next several weeks I waited eagerly for her reply. It never came.

Finally, I could stand it no longer. I called her. I said, "Hi. This is Lola Gillebaard. I’m the professional speaker you were so excited about a month ago."

She said, "Oh Hi. We got your stuff. It looks good, but we haven’t been able to watch the demo-video. Our VCR is broken."

I said, "Well, let me send you an audio." Which I did. Two weeks later I called again. She said, "We loved the audio. You are exactly what we need. We laughed and laughed. Could you please send your demo-video?" I said, "You have it." She said, "Oh, we can’t find it."

I sent the second demo. Then two weeks later I called. She said, "Good News! They’re coming to fix the VCR tomorrow. We haven’t seen your demo video yet, but we are very curious. Please call back next week.

I did. She said, "Oh Lola, we love the demo video. You are exactly what we need. I will contact the Government person in charge and we will send you a contract. But the contract never came.

I called again. I finally got her and not her Voice Mail. She said, "You’re not gonna believe what happened." I said, "Try me." She said, "I turned in your stuff with my recommendation to our office in Sacramento, and they said, ‘We loved Lola and she is a hoot, but this is a government job and we must put it out for bids.’ We must place an ad in the newspaper for ten days to see if we can get someone for a lower fee."

So now I’m just a supplier competing for the lowest cost!

I lost the competition. Someone answered the ad and offered to do the presentation for $375. He got the job. He specializes in aromatherapy, burning eucalyptus candles while playing the guitar and analyzes your handwriting as you go into hysterics.

How can I compete with that, when all I do is just make people laugh? Go figure.

Tuesday Morning of the following week at 9:00am "Hello. My name is Lola Gillebaard and I’m a motivational speaker who makes people laugh."

Lesson Learned: It’s all in a day’s work. Live with it!