Journey To One Hundred Thousand in 12 Months.

[jockinbox]

You assume too much bud. Why would I go off and offer a service one way, see myself failing and then continue that way? As opposed to doing what I did and change the pricing etc as I mentioned in my reply.
It doesn't matter if you don't believe me, I'm okay with that.

Thanks for clarifying your position, congrats on doing it big

cheers

 

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[Lagron]

Congrats, man. The Kool Aid is real, and so is that Audi R8!

Curious about a couple things:

1) You had a sticking point with sales calls a while back. How many sales calls did you end up making, and do you still make sales calls now that you have 23 salespeople working for you?

2) Why did you choose cold calling for your method of bringing on customers? Most of us stick to options where we don't have to put ourselves out there on the phone, like Internet paid traffic.

3) How did you gather your leads, and did you end up refining your lead-gathering process later on?

Trying to keep my questions as specific as possible as to not waste your time. Good stuff man, I can see GOLD in the works.

Rep+

As for your first question- I quit making sales calls. I'm not good over the phone, my parents say it, my friends say it, my ex even says it. But what I am good at, is the opposite, speaking in person. And that is what I did most of the time, I went to businesses that had a need for my service and I drove hours a day to pitch them. While in the office, yes I made sales calls but usually follow up calls from my employees, so in a sense they were already pitched and had an interest just needed clarifications to what the software actually does and how it benefits them. I rarely make cold calls now, I still do it but more or less concentrating on just sealing the deal with people my employees have already hooked on the service.

I was ALWAYS great at public speaking, and am thinking if I can get my foot in the door to some business conventions for a larger audience, but we'll see.

Your 2nd question- I wanted to do internet paid traffic, the problem is, there aren't many things people would ever type online that would insinuate or lead to finding leads of businesses interested in my companies services. I spent 500$ on Google advertising in a month, and its just a waste of money. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I don't think so. Businesses don't really go out searching for my service, its a niche of a sort. I find most of the business ideas I get, require 1 on 1 conversations or video messaging and demonstrations, especially in this company. Maybe I like how at times, I can take a business owner saying no, to making them say "Oh YES, I want to signup!" Its kind of funny, because I usually end up insulting their business, they get pissed, then after I pitch them they're gold, well, sometimes.

Your 3rd question- As for gathering leads, google is my best friend. There is no bigger directory of select businesses a person has to target than just typing "xyz" on google with the " " on the outside and getting a few million hits. But it was unorganized, so we broke it down. There are just soo many businesses that can use our services, but that number is not unlimited, there is a cap. So what I set up the beginning of this month is groups of salesmen/saleswomen. And divided them and say, "You guys are in charge of clients in this state" and "you are in charge of clients in this state"....and then further subdivided them by assigning a number of counties to a salesperson. This way, no one is calling the same business and it separates them and their districts. At the end of the month we see which group made the most sales and there is a small reward for them, a large cake of their choosing, snacks etc, just a few hours at the end of the months day to show my appreciation for their hard work.

My lead-generating process in the beginning was just a random "okay, call this guy" it was really unorganized. We would have the same employees ending up talking to the same close client, that definitely didn't look good on our part.

I have always been a free guy (somewhat) to the extent that I just like telling you how things can be done, and giving you a goal. As to how you get to the goal, is up to you. I noticed I definitely needed to set more boundaries to things and setup a better working system, I did that in March and it seems to be getting better from then on.

Thanks for the questions

 

[oldscool]

OP are you originally from the US? And did you copy and paste that post from somewhere?

 

[Boo Blizzi]

I have attached a screenshot of the page on my site with the price outline, I and the sales employees push to have the 297.99$ a month plan sold. The other options underneath I erased using paint so that I can still keep away things that would show what service I am offering from other entrepreneurs on this site. There are only 17 sales for the lower plan, and no sales on the other plans whatsoever.

The cost of the service/software sold for that plan is 30.00, not a cent more or less. That is $ 267.99 a month before the commission needed for employees.
View attachment 7918 View attachment 7919

By your description of the numbers and margin, I have a pretty good idea of what biz you are in and I don't think you have to worry about anyone copying you.

There have been many people that have tried and failed in your biz because they dont have the get up and go to pick up the phone or walk into a biz and sell the service day after day in the face of rejection.

I have a buddy that sank 10's of thousands in a fancy Manhattan office, had a secretary, state of the art phone system, cool logo, biz cards, etc and could only get 1 client after being in business for 6 months.

I tip my Yankee cap to you!

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Assuming OP means original poster...what does a troll mean? I can't believe I have to explain myself, regardless...

It's interesting to me that you took some offense to someone questioning you. Not too long ago you commented on a thread and was questioning the legitimacy of someone else's claimed successes...

I have a creative imagination, just as many people do if they had the will to show it off and work it through.

Its been 2 years... I'm all about the proof, you come by make a few posts and offer some good intel and expect everyone to believe what you say. I'm not as easy to convince.

So I ask, show me the money? Bank account screenshot entailing earnings to "prove" you have done it. I don't want just a snippet, I want the url, browser and so on entire screen, just black out the account numbers.
There are liars out there, ppl who get some fake gain and satisfaction of making garbage up on forums like this.

So since you are successful in this venture, prove it? I, just like anyone else can create posts of "showoffyness" any day...but its rare to actually prove what you claim. For all we know you made the entire post up.

Just wanted to point out the irony. Also, thanks for a detailed explanation.

 

[NoLackey]

OP are you originally from the US? And did you copy and paste that post from somewhere?

I was wondering the same. On your subscription page you have the dollar sign behind the amount. That's more of a European style.

 

[oldscool]

I wanted him to answer before I gave away why I asked because he could easy come back and counter which he likely will now. I guess my next question is where is his office. If I can i'd like to come see it. Sorry if I am a skeptic but the internet got me jaded.

 

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[NoLackey]

I wanted him to answer before I gave away why I asked because he could easy come back and counter which he likely will now. I guess my next question is where is his office. If I can i'd like to come see it. Sorry if I am a skeptic but the internet got me jaded.

My bad. I was also skeptical while reading the update post and when I saw that it was a glaring sign.

 

[vinylawesome]

Redacted post due to OP request.

 

[Lagron]

You have a good point there, surprised I acted that way, but good to see things are always being questioned. Smart guy for remembering.

It's interesting to me that you took some offense to someone questioning you. Not too long ago you commented on a thread and was questioning the legitimacy of someone else's claimed successes...



Just wanted to point out the irony. Also, thanks for a detailed explanation.

 

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[Lagron]

OP are you originally from the US? And did you copy and paste that post from somewhere?

Copy and paste my post onto google and tell me if you find it anywhere else, if you see it word for word, that'll be dam weird because I didn't copy and paste it

 

[Lagron]

I was wondering the same. On your subscription page you have the dollar sign behind the amount. That's more of a European style.

I obtained the theme online/did not develop it from scratch. I naturally just type the number 100$ with the dollar sign after the amount for some reason. I have been in the USA since kindergarten, but since born in Europe, I guess I'm not from the USA? lol

 

[Lagron]

I wanted him to answer before I gave away why I asked because he could easy come back and counter which he likely will now. I guess my next question is where is his office. If I can i'd like to come see it. Sorry if I am a skeptic but the internet got me jaded.

No reason to counter, you were spot on about not being from the USA, born in Europe, Struga- Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia, and been in the USA since kindergarten.

 

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[oldscool]

Where is your office/ company name?

 

[Lagron]

Mack-Cali building Paramus NJ. You in New Jersey?

 

[pro]

Congratulations and keep it up
I suggest working on the accounting part or find someone else you are comfortable with. If you wait last minute, it will be worse.

 

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[Lagron]

I have a year left and I can take my CPA exam haha. The reason I don't want to see the accountant is because we keep getting into arguments as to how I should be keeping track of expenses and profits etc. At the moment, I just use my business debit card for personal transactions alongside for other things. But she says after I reach a certain employee count there's a lot of regulations and things I need to comply with, that I don't like.

Yes, I need to change some of my practices...

 

[biophase]

At the moment, I just use my business debit card for personal transactions alongside for other things. But she says after I reach a certain employee count there's a lot of regulations and things I need to comply with, that I don't like.

The employees are "independent employees" for the purpose of not having to offer health insurance to employees thanks to Obama's healthcare plan.

Yeah Ummm, you should not being doing that. It doesn't matter how many employees you have, even though you don't have any.

What you have are independent contractors (unless you got them through a employment agency) and I hope you don't make them come into work every day and you don't provide them a phone line or computer, because you may have alot of stuff to pay for if you are caught.

 

[Joe Cassandra]

Yeah Ummm, you should not being doing that. It doesn't matter how many employees you have, even though you don't have any.

What you have are independent contractors (unless you got them through a employment agency) and I hope you don't make them come into work every day and you don't provide them a phone line or computer, because you may have alot of stuff to pay for if you are caught.

Agree with Bio, I work as an accountant at a CPA firm, we have many clients wanting to do what you're trying to do. Trust me. If there's a "hot spot" the IRS is targeting, it's businesses trying to skirt "employee" status for "1099 status." The fines and back taxes & interest you will owe could add up fast.

If your "independent employees" have set times to come in, use many of your supplies to do their job etc. they are an employee. If you're not sure, the IRS will err on the side of 'it's an employee.'

If it looks like a duck and acts like a duck, it's a duck.

I don't know your situation, but your post in itself is incriminating in the IRS' eyes. If you ever mention, "trying to avoid paying health insurance or Obamacare" it's a red flag, and even worse you put it on a public forum that's searchable in Google...........

Also, running personal transactions through a business card is never a good idea, you don't seem to understand taxes very well, and yes, paying for an accountant can be a pain, but clearing a 100k+ a month, you're going to need some tax advice. If you plan on taking the CPA exam, you should already know this....

 

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[Lagron]

You Joe, and Biophase bring up good points. I will look into it.