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I recorded my Cold Calls - Here's the video

Marketing, social media, advertising

michalo

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Hi Xaviel I'm just wondering why are you calling people at all? Being sales, social media person and so on than it's not like you could get to those people somehow else? It's a little like "hey I have product for your company that will boost your sales using internet but I have to use cellphone myself..." or do I get something wrong? BTW I have thought that we are in 21 century. Calling people it's like 80' right?
 

xaviel

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Hi Xaviel I'm just wondering why are you calling people at all? Being sales, social media person and so on than it's not like you could get to those people somehow else? It's a little like "hey I have product for your company that will boost your sales using internet but I have to use cellphone myself..." or do I get something wrong? BTW I have thought that we are in 21 century. Calling people it's like 80' right?

That's a good question!

These businesses have almost no online presence and are not that tech savvy.

However, their clients are becoming a younger crowd.

When selecting a new roof for example, people look at the online reviews, the comments etc.

If your business has none, and the competition has 20 positive review, guess who wins the business?

My business is brand new, the most direct way to generate money was to reach out directly to the owner via phone and make a sale.

That's how i went from 0 to $1650/month in 3 weeks.

Cold calling sucks, but it still works.
 
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KLaw

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Hi Xaviel I'm just wondering why are you calling people at all? Being sales, social media person and so on than it's not like you could get to those people somehow else? It's a little like "hey I have product for your company that will boost your sales using internet but I have to use cellphone myself..." or do I get something wrong? BTW I have thought that we are in 21 century. Calling people it's like 80' right?
Did you not watch the video? Apparently, it works.
 

michalo

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I'm not quite sure if it wouldn't be to heavy but couldn't you just send them traditional letter with really nice envelope saying

"welcome in 21 century. I would tweet you but couldn't find you presence in internet. Can you imagine that most of the people are looking for companies in internet nowadays - after all we are tech savvy. It's a problem but I have solution for you and so on and so on"

(I'm not sales person but I'm sure that you can write something nice - after that calling would be like "hi, it's me I send this envelope". My opinion of course.... being rude - my thing.
 

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yeah horses are working too but still we prefer cars right?

It's not horses it's cold calls. Sales are the life blood of any business. Going direct like this is highly valuable in the early stages of a business - real connections, realtime feedback, balls on the line, knowing your product inside out.

Sales is at least 60% of a web company. It's the most critical thing you should know if you want to make it on your own. Sending out a letter tells you nothing about why they didn't buy your product if they don't responsed. It ends up with a phone call anyway IF it's successful.

Have you actually done either and gotten successful sales?
 
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LightHouse

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Great job, keep working on that process. It's a numbers game. Once you get up there, you can start asking for referrals and use existing clients as social proof.

Great job though, the video was well done.
 

1step

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Once you get up there, you can start asking for referrals and use existing clients as social proof.

I wonder if you can better hone your pitch by using social proof now? Right now I thought your pitch to schedule a call was pretty good but possibly a bit confusing and possibly a bit offensive (you kinda said their online presence sucked and insinuated they weren't already booked up for the year) - could be a turnoff to some.

You're making $1650 a month right now so I assume you provide an awesome service and have a few clients who are doing quite well themselves. I would use that to make a more powerful, concise and easy to understand pitch. Could you say something like, "last month I helped Bobs roofing in (nearby city) increase their appointments by xx% (or any other impressive metric) harnessing the power of the internet and I wanted to take what I learned from that and help one roofing businesses in (his city) - but first I wanted to call a few local roofers to set up a quick 30 minute call for next week to see how my services could benefit your business, does next tuesday at 2:00 work for you?"

This could be improved (a lot) but I tried to include social proof, you also push at his competitive side which could be better developed to make it seem like if he doesn't schedule with you that you are going to call another roofer in his city (his competition), you might not want to develop that too much but hinting at it could be powerful. Then you put a time cap on the call, which could also be developed better.

Anyway, thanks for showing the calls, keep it up man!
 

xaviel

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I wonder if you can better hone your pitch by using social proof now? Right now I thought your pitch to schedule a call was pretty good but possibly a bit confusing and possibly a bit offensive (you kinda said their online presence sucked and insinuated they weren't already booked up for the year) - could be a turnoff to some.

You're making $1650 a month right now so I assume you provide an awesome service and have a few clients who are doing quite well themselves. I would use that to make a more powerful, concise and easy to understand pitch. Could you say something like, "last month I helped Bobs roofing in (nearby city) increase their appointments by xx% (or any other impressive metric) harnessing the power of the internet and I wanted to take what I learned from that and help one roofing businesses in (his city) - but first I wanted to call a few local roofers to set up a quick 30 minute call for next week to see how my services could benefit your business, does next tuesday at 2:00 work for you?"

This could be improved (a lot) but I tried to include social proof, you also push at his competitive side which could be better developed to make it seem like if he doesn't schedule with you that you are going to call another roofer in his city (his competition), you might not want to develop that too much but hinting at it could be powerful. Then you put a time cap on the call, which could also be developed better.

Anyway, thanks for showing the calls, keep it up man!

Great insight, thank you! I can definitely improve my pitch. Ill try including social proof in the next calls (Ill record them too). Ya, i use that scarcity element "Im only working with 1 roofer in your city, im looking to build a partnership"

Thank you guys for the feedback, I appreciate it!
 
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Goldman snacks

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I can't knock it, it's much easier for someone to procrastinate or talk themselves out of making an appointment when it's via letter or passively through most adverts. All he needs from the call is to close them to clear their schedule so he can get infront of them and deal with their concerns and close.

You can relate this to when you join a gym, it's easy to put it off till next week until you 'find the right time', but if your buddy comes round and says get your a$$ in the car we're hitting the gym, your far more likely to go to the gym that day.
 

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Andy Black

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3 calls, 1 appointment (yay!)

The calls start at the 2 min mark.

Thanks for sharing. Great idea for a video. I think it will help a lot of people to just pick up the phone and talk to people instead of try and do everything by shuffling electrons around.

Rep+



Calls 1 and 3 were with the gate-keepers. You can hear them going into guard mode immediately. What's your plan there? Keep ringing to try and get the business owner to pick up?

It's almost like you're not trying to engage with the gate-keeper at all. Is that intentional?



I don't do these types of cold calls (so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt). I was wondering about your first line of "<business owner name> please".

I presume you're trying to get them to automatically route you through without thinking. You sound (to me) like a B2B call and that you're expecting to be routed through (I guess intentionally).

They say "sorry?" almost as if they didn't hear the first word.

Just wondering if you've tried a cheerful "Morning! can I speak to <business owner name> please?". As if you're a friend of theirs, and putting the owner name a few words later into the sentence in case they didn't hear the first few words. Would that work differently?


Gosh, but you have me thinking I should do something like this as it looked like fun!
 
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throttleforward

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Thanks for sharing. Great idea for a video.

Haha... Calls 1 and 3 were with the gate-keepers. You can hear them going into guard mode immediately. What's your plan there? Keep ringing to try and get the business owner on the line?



I don't do these types of cold calls (so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt). I was wondering about your first line of "<business owner name> please".

I presume you're trying to get them to automatically route you through without thinking. You sound (to me) like a B2B call and that you're expecting to be routed through (I guess intentionally).

They say "sorry?" almost as if they didn't hear the first word.

Just wondering if you've tried a cheerful "Morning! can I speak to <business owner name> please?". As if you're a friend of theirs. Would that work differently?

Tip: Do everything you can to get the first name of the person you're trying to reach before calling (e.g. look on Linkedin, their website, etc). Whenever I've done cold calling, saying "Hi, can I talk to Jim" has worked 90%+ of the time (as opposed to "Hi, I'm looking for someone in marketing...")
 

Carnage

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Great share! Hope all goes well, doesnt sound scripted at all.
 

xaviel

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Nice work @xaviel!

I'm launching a similar business next week and currently preparing my sales strategy.

Came across this video from Chet Holmes today that I think you may find useful:


Very useful video, thank you!
 
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xaviel

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Tip: Do everything you can to get the first name of the person you're trying to reach before calling (e.g. look on Linkedin, their website, etc). Whenever I've done cold calling, saying "Hi, can I talk to Jim" has worked 90%+ of the time (as opposed to "Hi, I'm looking for someone in marketing...")

Ya good call. I though i had the name already (Vasil), turns out they were either closing down or changing ownership lol.
 

xaviel

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Thanks for sharing. Great idea for a video. I think it will help a lot of people to just pick up the phone and talk to people instead of try and do everything by shuffling electrons around.

Rep+



Calls 1 and 3 were with the gate-keepers. You can hear them going into guard mode immediately. What's your plan there? Keep ringing to try and get the business owner to pick up?

It's almost like you're not trying to engage with the gate-keeper at all. Is that intentional?



I don't do these types of cold calls (so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt). I was wondering about your first line of "<business owner name> please".

I presume you're trying to get them to automatically route you through without thinking. You sound (to me) like a B2B call and that you're expecting to be routed through (I guess intentionally).

They say "sorry?" almost as if they didn't hear the first word.

Just wondering if you've tried a cheerful "Morning! can I speak to <business owner name> please?". As if you're a friend of theirs, and putting the owner name a few words later into the sentence in case they didn't hear the first few words. Would that work differently?


Gosh, but you have me thinking I should do something like this as it looked like fun!

Thank you Andy!

If i can't get the boss right away, i try to get as much info as I can. This makes the call back the next day easier ("Hi Sue, is David there")

Yes, I expect to get routed to the boss directly. (Intentionally)

You never want to pitch the gatekeeper (which i kinda did in the first call).

They will dilute your message.

Chet Holmes has an entire video on bypassing the gatekeeper, I got some clues from there.
 

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