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Challenge: 10,000$ revenue in 3 months with web design from zero

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Angler

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Preface: I've been learning how to create websites for about 2 months now. I also got somewhat theory educated on sales and marketing during that time too. Before the 2 months, I didn't have much going for me other than being another 19 year old, about to turn 20, lamenting about how life was the same for the past few years. Same routine, expecting different results. So far I have 1 project under my belt in the home improvement niche, that's was paid and shown some results. The plan is I'm going to leverage the crap out of it. This thread is going to be a result of the application of what I know at the moment both in sales and web design and what I will be learning in the future. So far the idea is to document both my potential mistake and success and what actions resulted in them. For 1) I think it'll be a good reality check as I reflect on this thread and the critiques it'll get 2) anyone who's similar to myself first starting out can avoid the mistakes I make.

That being said, let's set up some numbers-
Our relative constant is: 3 months or 91 days.
Our variables:
Let my closing rate be roughly .01 or 1 out of 100 prospect.
Let my average project price between $750-1,000.
I need to get at least 14 projects at those rates to hit the mark.

To reach my target number, I'd have to do about 1,334 outreaches. At the rate of 750-1000$ for each project, I'll make $10,000~13,340.

On a daily basis, I'd have to do at least 15 outreaches a day to hit 1334 outreaches in 3 months.

However, to buffer any real world problems to the extreme, in case if my closing rate is really bad and is actually lower than 1%, 14 projects out of 1,334 outreaches, I'll do 6.66 times the outreaches on a daily, so it'll be around 100 cold outreaches.

Given the new daily outreach number or 9,100 calls in 3 months, the goal is to hit 10,000$ revenue. If I'm lucky and the closing rate is actually near 1% then the upper bound of this journey is any where between $68,250~91,000, at the rate of $750~1000 a project. If I'm not so lucky but have some success, and my closing rate is only around .0015, 14 projects out of 9100 outreaches, then my revenue with be anywhere from $10,247~13,663.

Lastly, the type of outreaches will be mention in the next update. Currently speaking, I'm sticking to cold calling.

Between the work I have to do and the learning that is to be done, my goal is to update this thread for every 500 outreaches and brain dump what I learned, what I'm learning, and what success/set back I may have then.

Target:
Get 14 paying projects
Outreach # 100 per day
hit 9100 outreaches in 3 months
10,000 Revenue

post-note: I realize that there might be a burn out at some point if it's 100 cold calls everyday for 91 days straight. My plan to counter that is to have the date be something like a pressure to keep me on target. If say I reach 91 days and I've reached 8000 calls, then the goal for this journey is to hit 9,100 cold out reach, close 14 deals, earn 10,000 revenue, and in 91-amount of days +-7(1week)
 
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Miketing

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Where are you at on the sales side of things? Have you done much cold calling before? How do you plan to leverage your example website over the phone?
 

Simon Angel

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Great breakdown of what you need to do - when I started out, I did the same.

However, I definitely did not make 100 cold calls a day. If you can, well, nothing is going to stop you..

Except for one thing. The quality of your leads. It's going to be difficult to get 100 qualified leads per day.

BUT considering you have a niche, it might just be doable.

I look forward to seeing your progress! Good luck!
 

Angler

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Where are you at on the sales side of things? Have you done much cold calling before? How do you plan to leverage your example website over the phone?
Hey, thanks for your questions. If I'm understanding you correctly then this is where I stand at the moment. If you have anything to add or advise me please do! My current sales framework for getting new projects follows 3 steps. 1) look for potential clients with good reviews either by using the google map function or yellow pages 2) after assembling the list, I cold-call those who don't have an email, or cold email those who do not pick up my calls(asking them for a 3-5 min short call to see if it's okay to do the thing I mention after this), to get on the prospect's radar by asking if it makes sense for me to forward over some free info that's valuable to their business(my current script has me mentioning the previous project results here to give the prospect some background info as to what I do). For me it doesn't matter if they have an email or a phone number, it's my target to show them that I value their opinion and have them register me as a non-spammy telephone dude. I think having as much back and forth before the pitch helps individualize the caller. 2) After the first call, send an email with information and insight that are relevant to their business, have the email "write songs"(the numbers/ analytics) and "paint pictures"(what physical changes have happened to client's I've worked with? more free time? More lead?) about the business similar to them in the past, and have it show them what they're missing out on because of xyz function that they do not have. If things make sense for them to learn more or talk to me, then they'll follow through with the CTA for a short 15-30 conversation I attach to at the end of the email 3) well at this point the sales conversation is pretty warm I'd say, I've gotten them to say yes on the phone. Then I got them to say yes in the email. My goal now is to have a heart-to-heart conversation to understand their business from both a customer standpoint as well as the owners'. lots and lots questions about: the pain points, sale system, unique selling point, dreams, goal, potential solutions to these things, customer FAQ, and their budget. If all of those aligns with what I can offer then I think we can begin working after I send in a proposal post-call. Then the project starts from there if they accept it. Again, this is my current framework, if you have any advice or critiques do let me know.

Now for my personal experience: This is my first time trying out step 1) I've never done cold outreaches before so everything I do is experimental. The sending building rapport through email is also new to me, I've never done it before so it's working in progress. Also, I've had sales conversations before so I'm somewhat comfortable with having them, to say the least.
Great breakdown of what you need to do - when I started out, I did the same.

However, I definitely did not make 100 cold calls a day. If you can, well, nothing is going to stop you..

Except for one thing. The quality of your leads. It's going to be difficult to get 100 qualified leads per day.

BUT considering you have a niche, it might just be doable.

I look forward to seeing your progress! Good luck!
Hey Simon thanks for that! The quality of lead is definitely something I can see being an obstacle for someone new like me, but even now I'm thinking of a few ways I can get around it. One of which is the magnitude of outreaches. If the quality of lead sucks, then I'll have to find more "poor quality leads" until one click LOL. That is under the premise that I do learn and adapt to new sales strategies as I go, so I do have some hope!
 
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Miketing

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Hey, thanks for your questions. If I'm understanding you correctly then this is where I stand at the moment. If you have anything to add or advise me please do! My current sales framework for getting new projects follows 3 steps. 1) look for potential clients with good reviews either by using the google map function or yellow pages 2) after assembling the list, I cold-call those who don't have an email, or cold email those who do not pick up my calls(asking them for a 3-5 min short call to see if it's okay to do the thing I mention after this), to get on the prospect's radar by asking if it makes sense for me to forward over some free info that's valuable to their business(my current script has me mentioning the previous project results here to give the prospect some background info as to what I do). For me it doesn't matter if they have an email or a phone number, it's my target to show them that I value their opinion and have them register me as a non-spammy telephone dude. I think having as much back and forth before the pitch helps individualize the caller. 2) After the first call, send an email with information and insight that are relevant to their business, have the email "write songs"(the numbers/ analytics) and "paint pictures"(what physical changes have happened to client's I've worked with? more free time? More lead?) about the business similar to them in the past, and have it show them what they're missing out on because of xyz function that they do not have. If things make sense for them to learn more or talk to me, then they'll follow through with the CTA for a short 15-30 conversation I attach to at the end of the email 3) well at this point the sales conversation is pretty warm I'd say, I've gotten them to say yes on the phone. Then I got them to say yes in the email. My goal now is to have a heart-to-heart conversation to understand their business from both a customer standpoint as well as the owners'. lots and lots questions about: the pain points, sale system, unique selling point, dreams, goal, potential solutions to these things, customer FAQ, and their budget. If all of those aligns with what I can offer then I think we can begin working after I send in a proposal post-call. Then the project starts from there if they accept it. Again, this is my current framework, if you have any advice or critiques do let me know.

Now for my personal experience: This is my first time trying out step 1) I've never done cold outreaches before so everything I do is experimental. The sending building rapport through email is also new to me, I've never done it before so it's working in progress. Also, I've had sales conversations before so I'm somewhat comfortable with having them, to say the least.

Hey Simon thanks for that! The quality of lead is definitely something I can see being an obstacle for someone new like me, but even now I'm thinking of a few ways I can get around it. One of which is the magnitude of outreaches. If the quality of lead sucks, then I'll have to find more "poor quality leads" until one click LOL. That is under the premise that I do learn and adapt to new sales strategies as I go, so I do have some hope!

Sounds like you have a pretty solid framework and process to start with. Awesome.

From here, the main way you're going to improve results is by:
  1. Experience through practice (the obvious part)
  2. Tracking results of each stage of the process and identifying mistakes. How many calls made etc. Also ideally record your calls and listen back to them later
  3. Correcting those mistakes by tweaking the relevant step of the process. Just look up the part you need to improve on google/youtube and there's probably some good info on it. Otherwise I'm sure someone here can help with your specific problem.
I'm not sure if you have any kind of software or platforms in mind already, but there several types that may help you. These are mostly all free or at least have some kind of a trial:
  1. A lead database or scraping tool to automate the contact-info finding part. Examples for local businesses are Klean Leads/Icy Leads (both do the same thing) and D7 lead finder
  2. A CRM to track the number of calls you make and what contact you've made to each lead. Even a simple Sheets file is enough to get started, then worry about something more complex once you need it
  3. Email tracking tool such as gmass or hunter extension.
Another good one is apollo.io which basically does all of the above in one tool. I'm not sure how good their database is for local businesses you'd find on yelp is though, it's mostly bigger ones from linkedin.

You have more than enough to get started though. I'm sure you'll get plenty of leads with the process and actions you have planned already. All of this stuff is just to think about in your after work hours - to help you review your actions after making them and then improve specific parts of your process to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
 

woken

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If I understood correctly:

You’ve had one paying client.

Plan to do that 10x?



Lots of people put effort into breaking their goals down. Follow up with that same energy and 10x will come sooner than expected.
 

Simon Angel

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Hey Simon thanks for that! The quality of lead is definitely something I can see being an obstacle for someone new like me, but even now I'm thinking of a few ways I can get around it. One of which is the magnitude of outreaches. If the quality of lead sucks, then I'll have to find more "poor quality leads" until one click LOL. That is under the premise that I do learn and adapt to new sales strategies as I go, so I do have some hope!

Personally, I'd go for quality over quantity. Try getting 10-20 qualified leads per day and try to give them as much value as you can in as few words as possible over the phone.

I'd just tell them you've got something that will help them increase their revenue through their online sales channel, ask them if they're free for a quick call that week, and leave them wanting to know more for when you meet (either in person or on a video call).
 
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Odysseus M Jones

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I searched for web designers near me. Look at this.

10 pages of results in my area.

Web design is a game of finding customers, basically nothing else.

View attachment 39617

If I was going to market a web design firm I would do a few things.

1. I would make some craigslist ads and run them to my website which has a form. This helped me get leads that I could call back at any time and it was profitable. A CL ad is $5 and I would post them in every major city in the country. I'd spend like $25 a day in ads and did a few grand a month in sales all WHILE ON VACATION in Thailand for 2 months.

2. I would buy a list of business phone numbers, or use software to scrape the phone numbers for companies in industries likes construction/home services. I would then use the service 'slybroadcast' to send ringless voicemails for $0.06 a delivered message. I would say "Hey my name is Johnny boy and I was having trouble with your website and I wanted to let you know, give me a call" and send it to a google voice number. When they call back on a google voice number I would put them on speaker, check out their company online and start finding reasons why they should hire me to fix their online presence (assuming they didn't already have a perfect online presence already).

Stop wasting your time doing things in such a manual, non-scalable way. You can go dig a hole in the ground and spend all day doing it but nobody will pay you. There are many actions new business owners take that are the equivalent of just digging a hole for no one. Some of you are trying to do it with a spoon too and are really wasting your time. Do not be one of those people.

You simple cannot write enough emails, dial enough phone numbers, knock on enough doors, etc. to compete with how I can reach people. I use facebook ads, ranking results high for organic search, ringless voicemails, etc.
Some ideas for prospecting.
 

Fox

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To reach my target number, I'd have to do about 1,334 outreaches. At the rate of 750-1000$ for each project, I'll make $10,000~13,340.

On a daily basis, I'd have to do at least 15 outreaches a day to hit 1334 outreaches in 3 months.

However, to buffer any real world problems to the extreme, in case if my closing rate is really bad and is actually lower than 1%, 14 projects out of 1,334 outreaches, I'll do 6.66 times the outreaches on a daily, so it'll be around 100 cold outreaches.

You shouldn't approach this with a set work rate.

Aim to get started with one website for below $1k. Then aim for 1-2k. Then 3-5k. And so on.

Doing 10 websites at $750 each time means you are only focusing on volume.
And seeing "calls made" as your main growth factor.

Instead, look at value created, growing experience, and connections made/social proof created.
Each project should (ideally) be helping you to sell easier and at a higher price.

The progress should be compounding, not just dialling for smaller projects for 10 weeks.

With a good approach, you could complete this challenge in just 3-4 deals.
 

Angler

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  1. A lead database or scraping tool to automate the contact-info finding part. Examples for local businesses are Klean Leads/Icy Leads (both do the same thing) and D7 lead finder
  2. A CRM to track the number of calls you make and what contact you've made to each lead. Even a simple Sheets file is enough to get started, then worry about something more complex once you need it
  3. Email tracking tool such as gmass or hunter extension.
Thanks for this. With this and a comment below you, both quoting scrapers and how to utilize it, I'm definitely going to look more into it. Right now my lead list is coming from google map, yellow page, and yelp reviews. Like you said, the bigger clients that could really use a website might be from LinkedIn. The one small problem here is that I have zero to no presence on Linkedin right now, so I'm marking it down as something to work on.

Some ideas for prospecting.
Thank you, it was a valuable read! I made quite a few notes as I read through this.

Personally, I'd go for quality over quantity. Try getting 10-20 qualified leads per day and try to give them as much value as you can in as few words as possible over the phone.

I'd just tell them you've got something that will help them increase their revenue through their online sales channel, ask them if they're free for a quick call that week, and leave them wanting to know more for when you meet (either in person or on a video call).

Aim to get started with one website for below $1k. Then aim for 1-2k. Then 3-5k. And so on.

Doing 10 websites at $750 each time means you are only focusing on volume.
And seeing "calls made" as your main growth factor.


Simon thank you again! After yesterday dialing, I see why you brought up quality of leads. Many of them hang up midway when I though they were interestedd. Even though my current plan of delivering value in a short amount of time as possible over cold call, looking at what you wrote: my script is still damn long. I'm fixing it up as I write this.

Fox thank you for coming over. I've looked at your progress thread maybe 4 or 5 times before jumping head in. You were on the dot with all of that. The numbers I set can be my container that stunt my growth. And exactly as you said, if call/outreaches were to be an incremental for growth, and not value created via website, I'll be burnt out before this challenge completes. The original idea as I wrote this all out is that the cold outreaches daily target will be something I can hit everyday because it's "measurable". I knew if I did not set something measurable, I'll be action faking until I don't know when. I'll be watching your videos or reading books and diligently noting them as I don't do anything. Second being, I'm irrationally scared of reaching out to people over the phone, and because of that I'm making it a priority to call people until I can convince myself that it's okay to cold call. Price point wise, it really seems like I have set price in mind doesn't it. I didn't mean to as I wrote it down, but revisiting it, it appears to be the case. I'm very much still in the portfolio stage that's why my "current set price" is the way it is. I had 2 clients beforehand, 1) was a bad experience and he cold-turkey after I built the website 2) was a paying client in the home service niche. Speaking of price point, I'm even willing to do it for free depending on the right client, to remove all risks from them. As much as I want to make the 10,000$ in 10 weeks, I want to provide actual value to these businesses. For me it's just as cool as making money when I ask someone a few months from now that I did a website for free and they respond "ya, i'd be happy to pay a few grands because it brough me xyz amount of clients"! That being said, like you said I'm going to scale up the price point with each project when it makes sense to do so. I remember one your video saying a few hundred dollar website vs a few grand matters not in the way it's made but the value it brings. I don't plan on delivering just 750$ of value each time aha, if anything I hope to increase the value with each project(learning and practicing copy/seo/adobe apps etc..). Thank you for leaving this here Fox, it oiled my brain screws quite a bit
 
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Angler

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If I understood correctly:

You’ve had one paying client.

Plan to do that 10x?



Lots of people put effort into breaking their goals down. Follow up with that same energy and 10x will come sooner than expected.
That's the plan!
 

Miketing

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Right now my lead list is coming from google map, yellow page, and yelp reviews. Like you said, the bigger clients that could really use a website might be from LinkedIn. The one small problem here is that I have zero to no presence on Linkedin right now, so I'm marking it down as something to work on.

This is not a problem at all.

The bigger clients are probably on LinkedIn, but that doesn't mean you have to reach out to them via LinkedIn. You can get the email address, phone number, or other social media page of pretty much any business on there, then just reach out that way.
 

Angler

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This is not a problem at all.

The bigger clients are probably on LinkedIn, but that doesn't mean you have to reach out to them via LinkedIn. You can get the email address, phone number, or other social media page of pretty much any business on there, then just reach out that way.

I did not know that, will mark it down!
 
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Angler

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Let us know how this week goes - you got some deals ready to close?
Hey Fox, I'll be sure to! Right now, I have 2 prospect due for a follow up call sometime this week and perhaps another one that came from a cold email. I'm definitely taking your and @Simon Angel advice on spending more time on clients that truly matter(after I run through my list of cold call today, I'm planning on making a few videos that diagnose what each company is missing out for the ones that have lots of review but no GMB or website(somewhat like an SEO audit with SEMrush). Planning on either calling them and telling them that I have a youtube video made from them or an email with such details!
 

Angler

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9/13 Update 1:

I have somewhat good news, a few changes, and a few lesson I've learned in the past 3 days. I'll start off with the good news and lessons.
1) I feel more comfortable with cold calling. If given a numeric scale I'd say 7/10 from what was 2-3/10 on Friday. Going in to this I was pretty nervous because I found out I didn't truly value what I had to offer. And when you're ambiguous with what kind of value you can provide when it means money into your pocket, you'll rely on techniques and sound like an annoying telemarketer. That's why I really dig deep inside of me for the past 2 days asking WHY was I calling all these business. The answer is simple now: to help to get MORE revenue for them, put in systems that saves them time, and have perhaps have them rank on page 1 of google(half-way through and SEO course!) if we form a continual partnership.

side note: I cringed listening to myself for nearly 2 hours on Saturday.. But hey it was a pretty good laugh when I asked myself If I'd hang up when a person sounded like me rings the phone. It was almost an instantaneous ye- you guessed it.. On Sunday it wasn't that much better either as I ran into some not so happy business owners. I remember this clearly because it was my first time hearing such a harsh rejection :"I hate telemarketers, F*king remove me from your list". I knew it was nothing personal but it got to me for a few minutes until I told myself that it's always a bad call if they don't NEED your service. But if you want to know who NEEDs your service, than you just gotta joke about these calls, move on, and contact more. Anyone who needs your service, at anytime you call them, will be a good time. Unless it's during the wee hours or an hour designated for love making anyways..

Today I dropped most of the script and joked around before saying that I was just there to help and to see if the prospect was a good fit for my service. Worked better than yesterday, managed to get 2 business schedule, i'll mention more about it below.

2) So far I've gotten 2 prospect due for a sales meeting(both in the floor business), I'm feeling confident about one of them as they were very receptive and was thanking me before the call ended. But hey I know to keep my expectation low because words over the phone is like thin ice. Also and perhaps another one(gutter business) through cold emailing if they get back to me on what time will work best for a sales meeting.

3) I'm starting to see the value of a "qualified" or the "right" prospect that you KNOW could realllly use a website, because it'll take their ball game to the next level. I'm talking about ones with 50-200 reviews on yelp/angie, no website, and sometime has no GMB. Like it's free real estate for them if they had a website to leverage these reviews and pictures! Going through my list of to-calls, I'm deciding to make a short video 4-10 minute for these type of big prospects. I'm stealing this idea straight from @GuitarManDan so I hope he doesn't mind it too mucch aha. I will be showing what they currently have to leverage(usually lots of review, and photos), how much volume of searcher there is for their niche locally for xyz keyword, what I've done in the past that could help them, and lastly what it means to them in terms of revenue if they get a x% of conversion on their website for each local keywords.
-->that being said, this is still theories. My plan is to do this first and I'll report back here :)

Changes:
1)Although I set the target of 100 calls a day for the next 10 weeks, I'm starting to see different ways to outreach that might be a better use of my time, in terms of improving the quality of the lead(video outreach or in person visits/networking).
<!quick rant-- I gotta say I hate sounding like a salesman and "trying" to get somewhere like I did on sunday/saturday. Anytime I "try" something, it ends up not going well at all, unless I "am" actually there to help then that's a different story. I rather have a conversation and get to know if they're a good fit and be rejected than to have to pitch the idea, only to come off as a douche, so early on too. But hey that might just be what sales is and I gotta mow through the emotions, so I have much learn either way -->.

Anyways, that's just my personal feelings. I'll scale down the number of calls I make after today and make a it a priority to focus on high quality leads like a few advices given already. That is to say, I will still cold call but will probably scale it down to 20-30. and the rest of the prospect times spent on video audits.
-->cross out the plan I made earlier, the plan is now get comfortable with cold calling little by little(can probably get to 10/10 in the next few months), do video audits for higher ticket clients and show them you're there to actually help them, join network events(one coming up in 2 days and the other one the day after!), chamber of commerce/BNI once I have more portfolio and revenue to list myself as an LLC and well lastly.. have fun on this ride.
 
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Angler

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10/9 Update 2:

I'm still getting used to doing these write-ups so here goes. it's been almost a month since the last update so these are some of the lessons I learned so far, setbacks, and any updates moving forward.

I'll try to keep it so that it has more value than personal fluffs.

As stated in the previous post, I had a few sales call in the pipeline(2 in the flooring businesses and 1 gutter to be exact... and I failed to close all 3 but more on that). Between then and now I've sent out around 30 carefully crafted videos outreaches to businesses(from insurance agents to hairdressers to home remodelers). I've gone to 1 networking event 3 weeks back and trade contacts with a few people but haven't gotten around to attending more since(working progress!).

Why?
I made it a priority to play it for long term and position myself with these outreaches, as I can leverage these projects in the future(thanks to the previous advices). Also, networking in person seems fun and I like talking to people face to face rather than on a phone aha.
I've gotten 4 sales to call from those quality video outreaches and a pretty good response rate of 12/30 or 40%. Most of them were just thankful that I put time into their business, some flatly said no thank you, while others said to keep them under the radar-- to contact them in a few weeks/months.

That being said, I do spend quite some time with these videos... they're each roughly 5-10 minutes depending on the niche and breakdown of keywords/competitors/potential rewards from having a website. Each probably take 20-30 minute to plan/execute and sometimes even more. Scaling is not in my view at the moment, so this will be a problem I'll think about when it comes.

anyhow, of the 7 sales call, the ones I was able to close were the ones I made from sending videos... and here's the catch.

I got flaked on all of the calls I quoted "free of charge". Remember the guy thanking me after the phone call previously? He ghosted after a sale call. I was in denial for a good hour LOL.
That's not it, I closed 2 paid deals! 1 site for $550 and the other one for $750 both in the home improvement niche!

The ones I failed to close were the ones I did at the beginning when I was offering to give my service for free. I think apart from removing risk, I did it as a way to compensate for any rejection I may face if I bring up money. I gave off the vibe "I'd do anything to help, for free" as I listen to these call recordings. I still think I did nothing wrong because I had good intentions(value first than money), except I probably went about it in the wrong way and push the wrong type of energy. The type of people that has no value in themselves. Instead of "i'm willing to do anything to help for free" which puts me in a position of disadvantage, I should be framing "I'd be willing to help, and even though the price is not a problem, it should be discussed after we're a good fit". Bringing up money is not a bad thing I learned, as money is correlated with perceived value.

How much would you value something you got for free vs something you invested xyz figure?

I would like to open it up here by saying: There are ongoing fears I sense within myself for the last couple of days and it has to do with a few self-limiting beliefs. I feel like I might as well put it out there for anyone reading in the future. 1)I'm not an expert yet and I'm just a salesman 2)what now? What if this ends up in a sham and that I'm just lucky so far with these 2 projects?

Many of the things I'm learning as I go so that can explain fear #1. I've gotten "some" results, but that some result is still far from "businesses changing" results. Think 100-200 page visit a month and 1-2 phone calls. So that puts some doubt in me. As I'm writing this, I realize my expectations are causing me to beat myself up but than again without high expectations where would my dreams be. ugh... dilemmas. That being said, I'm also working on overcoming this fear through education(learning and improving copywriting/sales skill/and SEO) and implementing them on these two projects.

I'm still overcoming #2 reasoning that the process is what counts and that this whole 3-month journey will be a learning experience even if the monetary goal isn't met. I've been a full-time polygamous opportunist action faker in the past so that has given me some trauma to feed this fear. Sh*t's scary... but what's scarier is letting this fear consume me and dwell and be stopped by it. And see the same person in the mirror I'm not proud of next year.

Anyhow, to sum it up it's been a ride the past couple of weeks. I'm still waiting on a couple of pictures from one of the businesses owner and some extra about page info from the other. In the meantime, I'll be catching up on some content for SEO and practicing/learning copywriting every day as I build up these two sites. I'm still sending out cold outreaches and mixing between cold call, mail, and videos whenever it's appropriate. I'd say most of my time is spent on crafting these videos for now. And about cold calls... I'm still tad bit nervous on my first 2-3 calls :)...

If anyone has any advice on networking, learning copy(I know there are dedicated copywriting threads here so I'll be going through them too but feel free to add anything!), or anything along the line of what I mention please feel free to share, I'll gladly read through them!

Influential resources I read:
Win Without Pitching Manifesto
Never Split The Difference
a crap ton of gold threads... literally I'm going to have to reread them

Changes/goals:
1) finish up the 2 projects with onpage SEO+copy
2) get more comfortable(by doing more and calibrating with each) and tune out the cold outreaches strategies.
3) NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK!
4) lift weights again, for the right reasons

Revenue: $1,300

thanks for reading!
 

Odysseus M Jones

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That being said, I do spend quite some time with these videos... they're each roughly 5-10 minutes depending on the niche and breakdown of keywords/competitors/potential rewards from having a website. Each probably take 20-30 minute to plan/execute and sometimes even more. Scaling is not in my view at the moment, so this will be a problem I'll think about when it comes.
Then only make the video once prospects get back to you to ask to see the video.

Of course you gonna have to think of a way to interest them enough to take action to request the video.

But for the prospects that do take action, you'll get to qualify them even further and you decide if they're worth your time to make the video.

You won't have a 40% response rate, but it's scalable.
 

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Then only make the video once prospects get back to you to ask to see the video.

Of course you gonna have to think of a way to interest them enough to take action to request the video.

But for the prospects that do take action, you'll get to qualify them even further and you decide if they're worth your time to make the video.

You won't have a 40% response rate, but it's scalable.
Any time I get a message from someone saying they've created a video of my site, and then they don't include the video, I automatically know they're lying.

And if they're willing to lead off a cold contact to me with a lie, then that's not someone I'm going to do business with.

PS: no one has ever actually included a video.

PPS: don't take this as an invitation to create a video for my site. I already know I need a new one, but getting sales isn't the issue. (This isn't some weird brag, it's to mention that you don't actually know what the client's pain point is until you talk to them. The video is a shot in the dark)
 
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Odysseus M Jones

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Any time I get a message from someone saying they've created a video of my site, and then they don't include the video, I automatically know they're lying.

And if they're willing to lead off a cold contact to me with a lie, then that's not someone I'm going to do business with.

PS: no one has ever actually included a video.

PPS: don't take this as an invitation to create a video for my site. I already know I need a new one, but getting sales isn't the issue. (This isn't some weird brag, it's to mention that you don't actually know what the client's pain point is until you talk to them. The video is a shot in the dark)
Who said he had to lie?
 
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Angler

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Then only make the video once prospects get back to you to ask to see the video.

Of course you gonna have to think of a way to interest them enough to take action to request the video.

But for the prospects that do take action, you'll get to qualify them even further and you decide if they're worth your time to make the video.

You won't have a 40% response rate, but it's scalable.
This is a really good point in terms of scalability. I'll definitely have to test the water with this as my projects and result stack up.
And if they're willing to lead off a cold contact to me with a lie, then that's not someone I'm going to do business with.

PS: no one has ever actually included a video.

PPS: don't take this as an invitation to create a video for my site. I already know I need a new one, but getting sales isn't the issue. (This isn't some weird brag, it's to mention that you don't actually know what the client's pain point is until you talk to them. The video is a shot in the dark)
I agree with it being a shot in the dark 100%, and that's why I think it's just another way to get on top of the noise when you put a lot of effort in helping someone(even if they don't need it, they'd appreciate the effort and perhaps know someone that do need help!).
 
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AppMan

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That being said, I do spend quite some time with these videos... they're each roughly 5-10 minutes depending on the niche and breakdown of keywords/competitors/potential rewards from having a website. Each probably take 20-30 minute to plan/execute and sometimes even more. Scaling is not in my view at the moment, so this will be a problem I'll think about when it comes.
Good idea, this remind me in my old web design business, too much marketing and sales and and few people interested .
my advise to you only target businesses with 4 employees and up , many smaller businesses already using wix and if they hire company they want it dirt cheap .
 

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Who said he had to lie?
Ah, I read more into it than you said, based on my experiences.

I've gotten a bunch of emails that have said "I made a video detailing what you can improve on your site - let me know if you want me to send it to you."
This is an obvious lie, and they're only going to make the video if I respond.

Looks like you were alluding to offering some other useful info in the initial contact, then telling them that you can make a video to help them out. That would be a completely different approach than what I've gotten.
 
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