LanceDollarz profile picture
LanceDollarz profile picture

LanceDollarz

CEO

Opinionated
Fire Starter
Contributor
+1

What is the most difficult industry that you've cold called?

Maybe it's just me but in my opinion it has to be healthcare like doctors offices, hospitals, and clinics.

What made it more difficult was that I only had the general hospital/clinic numbers to work with.

The easiest I've experienced were small blue collar businesses like HVAC, roofers, plumbers, electricians, ect.

Solar was surprisingly easy as well.

What's the most difficult industry you've dialed?

What was the easiest?

📞 Cold Calling
24

28 comments

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WR Officer
9
👑
Doctors and lawyers offices. Fucking impossible to get ahold of them. 
sugardaddy
Politicker
1
🍬
indeed with lawyers. Struggling hard with one now! 🤧 need them to sign that damn paperwork! 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
5
🦊
K-12 Superintendents can be slippery. Don't EVEN get me started on hospital systems. 

Still love em both though 🤷‍♀️
Do.it.for.the.checks
Politicker
4
Account Executive
Tier 1 banks' wealth departments. They are too egotistical to want to talk.

Blue collar industries are 100% the easiest. You can usually catch them off guard with some blunt honesty. "Man i hate cold calling but my VP is demand numbers. Can I chat to you for a few minutes?"
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
3
sales
Most difficult was selling digital ads to b2b businesses. Easiest was selling digital ads to b2c small businesses.
sugardaddy
Politicker
1
🍬
Come again? I'm selling digital ads and most of my clients are b2b. But indeed. b2c are easy, indeed. 
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
1
sales
B2B on Google never worked for me. Was always easier to sell them access and networking events. Digital ads were a waste of money.
RandyMoss
Politicker
3
Account Executive
You are correct about hospitals. Trying to get ahold of decision makers here is a nightmare and even when you do, the process of trying to close a sale takes FOREVER. Private practice offices and clinics are not as bad as hospitals, but still extremely difficult to get ahold of doctors, who are the decision makers. My best bet would be to go on a trip (none of the states in my territory consisted of my home state), visit their office, and sit in their waiting room until they were done with patients. This was usually their lunch break or the lone break they would get in the morning or afternoon, at which point the last thing in the world they wanted to do was to talk to a salesperson, but that was the best way to get in front of them.
Kinonez
Celebrated Contributor
2
War Room Enthusiast
Healthcare and IT, you can never get ahold of a doctor because they are always with a client and if someone hates cold calls it’s the IT person. 
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
2
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
Calling in Logistics departments was a pain in the ass, especially from an innovative tech startup yada yada. They just gave zero fucks. Cheap and get it from a->b
friendlyginge
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Transportation/trucking. Idk, they are just so old school and never see the value in the software I’m selling
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
1
SaaS Eater
Anyone with an office manager because Karen hates her life and is more impenetrable than the great wall of china. 

Restaurants are also brutal especially right now. Operators have gigantic egos and they are so short staffed its currently very hard to reach them. 
GrindingSales
Politicker
0
Account Executive
I actually came from the restaurant industry, the biggest trouble is there is just so much to do every second you are there, especially as a manager or owner.  And that was with a full staff.  Best time to reach a restaurant owner is an hour before lunch prep, 3pm in the afternoon right before dinner rush and ideally coming in for a drink/food.  That is exactly how we got all of our vendors we used.
artofsales
Good Citizen
1
Sr. Director of Enterprise Sales
Restaurant owners were pretty difficult in the early 201-2-13s. Esp when we were trying to sell tech to optimise their ops & cust exp...

Easiest were and always have been tech enabled funded-startups.
GrindingSales
Politicker
1
Account Executive
They are just too stubborn for their own good!  Only way to get through to them is to come in and see them and show them something tangible.  When I was in that scene, that worked exponentially better than phone calls, there is just no time for phone calls in a restaurant. 
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
1
Director Sales and Market Development
Police software, brutal 
LanceDollarz
Opinionated
0
CEO
Oof. Never tried calling Police. I assume that would be tough!
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
1
Rolling 20's all day
#1 would be CIO's, #2 would be doctors in general
Shocker
Politicker
1
Account Executive
#1 worst = Hospital Systems.  Don't get me started.

#1 easiest = blue collar stuff, especially the smaller ones that have Susie admin doing everything - procurement, HR and travel.  You can hustle fast and make deals happen without multi-level approvals.

My general rule of thumb - if you don't get pissed if/when I curse like a sailor then we are definitely doing business together.  It really doesn't matter what I'm selling.
Jbeans
Opinionated
1
Director of Sales
Government. 

the end 
Rallier
Politicker
0
SDR Manager and Consultant
I agree with this. My biggest challenge with government is that whatever I was calling about it was always somebody else's job. A never ending cycle. Nobody there gives a shit about making anything better.
barney2021
Tycoon
0
Account Executive
Construction companies
Justatitle
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
IT. Cold calling to IT managers was the absolute worst.
Jbeans
Opinionated
0
Director of Sales
Lol. They are tough! Once you win them over- best champions! I send geeky engineering t-shirts and such. Never hurts to use some swag 
SaaSJitsu
Personal Narrative
0
Enterprise Account Executive
Bankers. Specifically SBA departments.
milestones
Fire Starter
0
Sr. Named Account Manager
Used to sell tax consulting services so it only applied to the owners of the business (CEO/President). Worst year of my life. Company was toxic as fuck too, so that didn’t help.
GrindingSales
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Worst: Law offices for sure!  The admin/recep that answers the phone is already over the bullshit.  If you get lucky enough to get past her, you get a voicemail. 

Best: Non-Corporate blue collar businesses.  They almost always at least hear you out. 
cw95
Politicker
0
Sales Development Lead
I know you asked what industry but I think this covers most and is an annoyance in which many of us come across. I deal with a lot of people that work as a ecommerce manager or IT head, CTO etc etc. Usually they are normal and chill and will act like a human. But when you come across those tech people that ask you how the back end of your software is coded specifically to integrate into my system that does this and that…like mate, you know I don’t know the answer, ya just showing off. Why do you need to know what line of code my tech team first ever built. I deal with it well but geeezeee I imagine selling into tech companies is the worst giving the experience I have just said!

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