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Solid Snake

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Yep, it's another one. Back in February I read the thread by MJ and was slightly discouraged, but I decided to just go for it.

I just got my first deal for a $4,000 web design project.

My sales system right now is networking and using my contacts for referrals. Last month I did some cold calling for 2 weeks (horribly), but I want to focus on developing the skills. So I will continue to use my network of family, family friends, etc, and start pounding the phones as well.

Cold Emailing right now takes up too much to find correct emails for a list of 50-100, and I will allocate resources to create great cold emailing campaigns once I have decent cash flow.

I appreciate this community, the mods, MJ, etc, and a special shoutout to @Fox who's threads and videos are limitless in value, as well as @MrYoshi who's been giving me tons of value on how to structure my sales process.
 
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The Abundant Man

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Fox

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Yep, it's another one. Back in February I read the thread by MJ and was slightly discouraged, but I decided to just go for it.

I just got my first deal for a $4,000 web design project.

My sales system right now is networking and using my contacts for referrals. Last month I did some cold calling for 2 weeks (horribly), but I want to focus on developing the skills. So I will continue to use my network of family, family friends, etc, and start pounding the phones as well.

Cold Emailing right now takes up too much to find correct emails for a list of 50-100, and I will allocate resources to create great cold emailing campaigns once I have decent cash flow.

I appreciate this community, the mods, MJ, etc, and a special shoutout to @Fox who's threads and videos are limitless in value, as well as @MrYoshi who's been giving me tons of value on how to structure my sales process.

First deal for $4,000 is very solid - how did that come about?

Well done - I remember you PMing a while back and you have come a long way since.

Keep us posted and also breakdown the first sale a bit more - it’s useful to analyze what worked, for yourself and others reading your threads.

Congrats
 

Solid Snake

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First deal for $4,000 is very solid - how did that come about?

Well done - I remember you PMing a while back and you have come a long way since.

Keep us posted and also breakdown the first sale a bit more - it’s useful to analyze what worked, for yourself and others reading your threads.

Congrats

Thanks.

For the first sale, I reached out to my uncle for some contacts since has a management position at his company (which has a great website). He’s getting me meetings with some manufacturing companies, but the closed deal came from a local hotel owner.

I watched your videos on questions to ask for sales, as well as how web design can help clients, and I managed to explain to the hotel owner how the website can enhance their current system. They got on board with minimal resistance.
 
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Solid Snake

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Update:

I have 5 clients now from referrals in my network (family friends, peers etc). All deals were above $3k and the highest one being $5.5k

From February to March I half-assed cold emailing before giving up. Then I started digging into my network for clients and got referrals. The referrals are not consistent, and it feels like I have a higher paying jobs than my previous one. I get 1 or 2 deals and then go an entire month with no deals. It's very inconsistent and I don't feel "safe". Definitely get burned out by this, but im not complaining :D

Now I've started tracking and refining my cold email pitches the last 2 months. In the last 3 weeks, I found subject lines that work above industry average open rates: (40-70% opens).

My pitch started getting some responses, especially last week, and I had conversations with some folks in my target niche: construction.

Now, I'm pivoting industries based off the conversations I've had. These companies don't want a better website for leads. These guys are actively turning down clients currently because there's a skilled labor shortage.

Will be continuing my cold email and cold calling refining in other niches.
 

Solid Snake

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Cold email is a nice way to quickstart a service business.
Feel free to read my thread How to build a successful online business, without relying on any third party (Ecommerce)

It applies to service businesses as well. In fact, I built few B2B businesses just with cold email/email marketing.

Best of luck for your project!
Thanks a lot!! Gonna check it out


btw @Monkeycom how much would it hurt me to reach out to industry x and show them case studies from industry A?

2 different industries. Does that still build credibility for making a cold email campaign work? I really want to angle as much to my advantage as I can.
 
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Guest12120

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It applies to service businesses as well. In fact, I built few B2B businesses just with cold email/email marketing.
Would you mind sharing some more information about the methods of contacting businesses via cold email that you find the most effective?

Did you use publicly available business e-mails or get the leads some other way?
 

Monkeycom

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Thanks a lot!! Gonna check it out


btw @Monkeycom how much would it hurt me to reach out to industry x and show them case studies from industry A?

2 different industries. Does that still build credibility for making a cold email campaign work? I really want to angle as much to my advantage as I can.

It's better than nothing.

Would you mind sharing some more information about the methods of contacting businesses via cold email that you find the most effective?

Did you use publicly available business e-mails or get the leads some other way?

I guess you already read my other thread.
It's the exact same process, but instead of targeting B2C prospects, you target B2B ones.
 

Solid Snake

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Update:

Seems like I've stumbled across an unusual situation here. The industry I pivoted to with my prospecting efforts, wants to see results and case studies.

So I reach into the 1 client that I have that is from this industry, and I know this guy has seen actual performance benefits, so it would be a great testimonial for web design.

What happens now is that very recently, this guy had a board room meeting which resulted in a decision to terminate the website for a short period of time because his distributors were complaining how end users were going around the supply chain due to the website.

This client is in a different country. I have no idea wtf to do with this situation. Can I still leverage this guy as a testimonial? He said he will sign off and write a letter for me if that's what I need. Problem is if the prospect go to his website and see that its offline it will look shady.

ughhhhh
 
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Solid Snake

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Most likely pivoting industries again based off my campaign data. I simply do not have the resources to market to these old school industries currently.

Either that or I simply do not know how to convert them.

ill try for another 3-4 business days until i exhaust all my tests before officially switching.
 

Solid Snake

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feeling really burned out lately.

looks like my referrals have stopped.

can't figure this outbound stuff out for months. i made a decision to google search how to sell web design and read some nightmare posts of people complaining.

:(

not sure what's going to happen next tbh, might have to get a job soon before i run out of cash (running low).
 

Ethan S

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Hey Solid! I have an Online Marketing Agency as well doing about $4k/Month.

Here is something I recently stumbled across.. Might help you!

I live in Canada and found a grant that the government gives to local towns to help their businesses get setup online.. Basically they give the town $15k to hire someone like me to help their small businesses.

So what I did was sign up for the grant on behalf of the town and offer to be the one helping the businesses.

Basically I'm going to be getting paid to give value to these owners and build my network.


I wonder if there might be something like that in your local area.. Or maybe you could do it free just to build a bigger network?

Obviously I haven't seen the results yet but it might be something to think about.. Having a network of goodwill that you get paid or endorsed to build seems like a great opportunity.
 
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Solid Snake

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Hey Solid! I have an Online Marketing Agency as well doing about $4k/Month.

Here is something I recently stumbled across.. Might help you!

I live in Canada and found a grant that the government gives to local towns to help their businesses get setup online.. Basically they give the town $15k to hire someone like me to help their small businesses.

So what I did was sign up for the grant on behalf of the town and offer to be the one helping the businesses.

Basically I'm going to be getting paid to give value to these owners and build my network.


I wonder if there might be something like that in your local area.. Or maybe you could do it free just to build a bigger network?

Obviously I haven't seen the results yet but it might be something to think about.. Having a network of goodwill that you get paid or endorsed to build seems like a great opportunity.

thanks, ill try to see if there's something like this
 

Ethan S

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thanks, ill try to see if there's something like this
Right on! Now that I see it I would try and do it even if there isn't a grant..

Go to the local chamber or town and say I want to give away $10k in websites to struggling local businesses.. Pick some businesses that would never have paid you anyways (set some criteria so you don't just get cheap people).

Get it written up in the paper.. Have a huge portfolio and ethically force those owners to give you referrals to the people they know most likely to buy a real website.

It's not 'niching' so I don't know if everyone would tell you to do this or not.. Maybe I'm wrong!

But putting out that much value in the world can't hurt.
 

Solid Snake

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Update:

It's time to end this thread.

I made enough from referrals in my close network to pay off my debt which feels really good, but i failed to get anything going from cold outreach.

ive done research and have moved onto another product/service in digital marketing. I see a lot of comments on how it's saturated, but there are so many different services and products in the agency business, and some of them are not saturated (yet).

going forward I will be testing industries and the service/product. i will be conducting quick tests using cold email to get feedback out of a 100 target sample.

biggest mistake i made this year was sticking around in a niche too long. i feel embarrassed to say but i spent 70% of the year clinging around in places where i shouldn't have been staying in much.

I plan to make another execution thread after thanksgiving sometime as soon as i figure out what to do and where.
 
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