Case breakdown: Movie Pursuit of Happyness
The scene that you saw shows Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) calling people from the list. He is trying to get people to invest in the products offered by the company. He decides to call the CEO of the company who asks him to be at his office in twenty minutes. He wants to grab the opportunity and he runs for the meeting.
In this blog, Learning Perspectives will explore the meaning of Cold-calling.
What is cold calling?
Cold calling is a technique used by salespersons to find clients for the goods and services they are offering or for advertising. Cold calling means calling (telemarketing) a prospect for the first time to see if the individual is interested in purchasing the goods or services offered.
The scene that you saw shows, Chris Gardner talking to different individuals, and most of them turning him down before he calls the top number on the list. Sometimes cold calls result in in-person calls too, similar to the scene you saw. He is asked by the CEO to reach his office in 20 minutes and meet him.
How to be a Successful Salesperson?
To become a successful salesperson, one needs to adopt some qualities to convert the prospect into a sale. Salespeople face a lot of rejection from customers. Many a time individuals might disconnect the phone before even listening or are extremely rude to the salesperson.
A highly successful salesperson is driven, positive and proactive. These qualities are displayed by Chris Gardner in the scene. Even though he is turned down by many clients, he is driven and calls the CEO. He is proactive by asking for a meeting and time with him. When the CEO asks him to be over in 20 minutes, Chris displays traits of positivity and flexibility.
Some more qualities of a Salesperson:
- Dedication
- Passionate
- Sincere
- Attentive
- Efficient
Cold calling in India is a very popular marketing tool. It is used by life insurance, banks, and lenders liberally. Although, now in the digital economy, email and SMS also work. However, many companies still prefer cold calling. India has entire offices devoted to cold calling, these are called the call-centers.
Cold callers have to deal with verbal onslaught from the public. They also have to face many rejections. Yet, many times these calls are converted too into sales. Hence, cold calling still continues.
TRAI or Telecom Regulatory Authority of India governs practices related to unsolicited calls in India. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2007 issued a notice which made it mandatory that all telemarketers had to be registered.
[…] field are called as outside sales. These salespeople work outside the office. They don’t make cold calls to prospects rather visit them directly. Hence, the name of outside sales is […]