All Forum Posts by: Chris Moriarty

For J Scott,

I actually beg to differ with you once again...

Most of the people I reach out to by telephone leave the conversation with a pleasant attitude, most thanking me for my kindness and professionalism. Again, I stress, as I have attempted to earlier in these posts, that the creativity and approach of the professional making the call is critical to the outcome but it is truly rare that I experience someone who is very nasty as I imagine, due to the nature of these exchanges we've had and the passion in your responses, that you would be when you receive a call from someone you don't know. How one chooses to treat people, no matter who they are or what they do is an individual choice, one's own prerogative and it speaks volumes about one's character. Some people I've encountered over the phone and elsewhere, perhaps agitated at having to wait in line at the supermarket, have this bloated idea of self-importance that obscures their thinking, deluding them into believing that they are something other than a human among other humans; no better, no worse, no greater nor less than. Furthermore, I don't know that I'd choose to do business with someone I knew to be deliberately disrespectful or had a penchant for treating others in a undignified manner no matter what the circumstances were.

You spoke about people here being in agreement with you and while I don't need the endorsement of others to make my point, nor am I looking for the support of others to validate my position, it seems to me, from the comments that were made about this subject of cold-calling here, outside of your rather contentious and at times, somewhat hostile rants against cold-calling and my opinions of course, that the majority of people who have commented here believe in the success of cold-calling!

All of life it seems to me is about perspective...and it seems that's where you and I are different at the very core, and that's fine. That's why there are Democrats and Republicans. I hope we can disagree and still be respectful of each others opinions without being accusatory and hostile.

For clarity, my "sales pitch" doesn't come from a place of being a nuisance or an inconvenience or a bother. That's not the underlying theme running through my head before I pick up the phone for a cold-call, perhaps I'm giving away my trade secrets and allowing a look at the playbook, but my calls are offering the person that receives that call an opportunity and that's what makes it so different. There is the potential for something quite good for the recipient and I actually believe in that which makes a very large difference in the assumptive nature of the call. I hope this perspective is helpful to those just about to pick up that phone! Good luck!

For J Scott...Hope you had a wonderful weekend with family and friends and a joyous time free from the misery of enduring those cold-calls! But really, on a more serious note.. I'm sorry you felt that I was being condescending, you are entitled to your perception, but that "something deeper" I was referring to is fear and fear of insufficiency as I see it. Fear is a very powerful emotion that wears many different masks and often leads to aggressive, sometimes irrational and anti-social behavior.

You mentioned empathy and said...

- "What if I knocked on your door during dinner or showed up to your work in the middle of the day in order to sell you something? How would you feel? How would your family feel? How would your boss feel?" -

In answer to your question, I'd have empathy...empathy for the person who is attempting to make an honest living. As I proposed in one of my articles, some agents, who know full well what it's like to make cold-calls because they have done it themselves, usually take these calls with grace, tolerance, and kindness, much like the ex-waiter or waitress becomes some of the best of future tippers. These types of human interaction help promote dignity and are empathetic in their very nature. That is actually walking with empathy, not simply talking about it.

These things really speak to our society as a whole and I often wonder...is the person holding out their hand for a quarter or a morsel of food or the one outside of Home Depot looking for a daily wage for a hard day's work an annoyance/bothersome/distracting/intrusive too? What if the knock on your door was to hand you a Publisher's Clearing House check? Would you treat the person knocking with dignity and respect or would they too be a bothersome intrusion?

In answer to your question...if you knocked on my door during dinner, I'd answer the door and treat you with dignity and respect, I'd see if you were hungry or thirsty or in need of any assistance, I'd offer assistance if needed, and if it was a sales call, and was something I was not interested in, I'd tell you I wasn't interested and then I'd resume my dinner a few moments later.

Hi Dev....I noticed your number at the bottom of the post! I'm thinking of cold-calling you to demonstrate how effective and persuasive I can be by recruiting you to one of my clients!! LOL!! Just kidding....Thanks for the advice on how to get the most and give the most during my experience with BP. As I said in previous posts, I write about things I know and things I'm passionate about and my articles live on my company's website as I write for their concern and these reflections must have a home somewhere.

Question for you as I'm still very green here...this piece attached to the end of your comments with your email address, telephone number and website domain address is attached to your posts because you are a "pro" subscriber?

Dev Horn, We Buy Houses®
E-Mail:[email protected]
Telephone: 877-932-8946
Website:http://join.webuyhouses.com/it-works/

To continue the dialogue around the effectiveness of the cold-call...Why such the aversion to the prospect of receiving a cold-call? What is it that gets at the core of why it is so repulsive to some people? I'm convinced it speaks to something deeper that people don't wish to agknowledge...

Thanks for all of your tutelage as I'm learning how to navigate and appreciate your patience and guidance with me. I'm going to share the idea of going pro with the marketing department here, as it seems, after looking around a bit, that it might be money well spent!

you said - "Ahhhh...so I'm welcome to post comments on your blog posts... :-)"

(yes! and feel free to attach your link too!) ;)

For Richard,

Just so you know, entering your email address is not mandatory to post, although entering your name is. I'm sure you can understand, some people entertain themselves and find joy in being aggressive or even malicious behind a curtain of anonymity.

J Scott...Just for clarity, I am in fact the "recruitment specialist" at my company AND a staff "writer", and rather than being sarcastic but honestly taken aback just a bit at the suggestion of being disingenuous, I'll simply respond by saying that I wear many hats for my employer. I certainly hope this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone here but writers write about what they know. As far as any suggestion that my posts are suspect, or lacking transparency, I'm in the business of cold-calling, it's what I do, it's what I know about, it's what I'm passionate about and frankly, it's the reason I began this blog strand in the first place; naturally the subject matter is going to reflect my personal experience. More precisely, the reason I started this strand subject was in reaction to the advertisement for a book that heads the page for this blog spot touting cold-calling's demise! My hope was to ignite a discussion on this and share data regarding the validity of that claim.

Any suggestion that brings into question the ethics or integrity of my company I find to be offensive. I stand by who we are and what we do and the quality of our product is reflected in the testimonials of current customers which can also be found on our site.

Here's some further instructions on how to post to our blog. Go to the link provided earlier, click on any story, might I suggest the one I wrote titled "Effective Recruitment Practices" and then scroll down to the end of the story (after reading the article of course!). Enter your name in the space provided and enter your comments in the box provided including any links you might want to add!. Once you've done this, that information you submit, much like how you moderate the contents submitted through your blog, will be "moderated" by our staff and your post should then appear.

Rick's comments make very good sense...and now that this whole marketing conversation is behind us, the most significant aspect of the cold-call is the personality with which one brings to the call. When you bring the passion and the intensity, the person on the other end buys into the experience, if you lack the excitement, there's nothing for the person on the other end to get excited about. This comes with practice and can be optimized when handled by professionals. Some facets of this can be taught, some are a natural talent but the craft itself is one that needs to be practiced towards mastery.

It's common knowledge that nobody likes to do it and I feel sometimes this piece is what causes so many people's almost violent revulsion to all things cold-call. I too find myself in situations saying how much I revile something simply because it's touched on a chord that points out my own insufficiency.

For J Scott and Richard C...Please feel free to come and post your promotional links or anything you feel to be relevant on our blog any time you like, we are happy to facilitate the exchange of information! For my url send me a private message.

With all due respect, my reactive comment was based on my dismay for how it was acceptable to share a story from Inman News but not one authored by myself residing on my company's website. Forgive me for not understanding this difference...Also, I'm sorry if you think this is shameless self-promotion and can see how you would view it that way, but perhaps you're zeal to prevent marketing can sometimes interfere with informational exchanges and my thought is that it is perhaps a touch overly sensitive, but I will certainly keep that in mind on further posts, thank you for the advise.

We use marketing dollars for marketing and perhaps at some time in the future we will consider moving some of those funds to Bigger Pockets for those purposes. My effort was to disseminate helpful information, the location is coincidental; it has to live somewhere. The fact of the matter is that we are ALL in business, my only curiosity surrounds the acceptability of an Inman staff writer as opposed to an Elite Connect staff writer...My hope is if an Inman News staff writer posted a comment here and shared a link to my company's site where my article could be found to further share concerns, that this would be acceptable, and if not, I would find that to be troublesome.

I had written a reaction explaining my thoughts on cold-calling further referring to how a carpenter uses his hammer though not everyone who swings a hammer hits their nails squarely every time, it takes practice and expertise. I pointed readers toward an article I'd written about my experience with cold-calling and the link was removed. I'm the staff writer for my company, The Elite Connect, not at all different from a staff writer for Inman News, yet the administrator of this forum removed the link for the article authored by me that resides on my company website, thereby interfering with the free exchange of helpful information. The Inman News article link remains but the location of where my article can be found is not available for readers seeking information as my comment is hidden.

Upon joining up with Bigger Pockets, I logged on to see an advertisement that said "cold calling is dead" that was advertising a book. While it looks attractive, the data simply doesn't support this proposal. In a recent article in Inman News, one of the largest real estate publications in the nation, it contends that those who utilize cold-calling make an exceptional return on their time invested. The article can be found here: Agents, There's Gold in Cold Calling