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[Progress Thread] Million+ Revenue by 25

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

458

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Thank you, I'm now in the process of outsourcing on freelancer the 500 businesses to call.

How's this for a script?

Hey, Could I please speak to your director? I'm an entrepreneur in your industry trying to find out how I can help businesses like yours? (get past gate keeper hopefully)

Me: Hi My name's Luke, I'm an entrepreneur trying to find problems to fix in your Industry, I wanted to ask what is your businesses most pressing problem your trying to solve at the moment?

They talk: -

Me: Okay thank you, If I am able to come up with a solution for your problem would you be open to hearing more about it down the line?

They talk-

Ok thank you I'll be in touch.
*hang up*

The businesses your calling for the most part wont have directors. Here is the script:


Him/her - "This is Jessica with XYZ company, how can I help you?"

You - "Yes Jessica, can i speak to one of your managers please." - Not a question, its a statement.

Him/her - "Sure, what is this in regard to?"

You - "It's actually a personal matter"

Him/her - "Ok, can I have your name please?"

You - "Sure, my name is John"

Him/her - "Ok, one second"

Manager - "Hello? This is Tim, who am i speaking with?"

You - "Yes Tim, this is John, the reason for the call today, I work with several consultants and I was reaching out to you to see if we might be able to solve some of your most pressing day to day problems in your business. Do you have a second to speak?"

From there just go into having a conversation about specifics of his issues on a day to day basis.

With the gatekeeper, you don't want to identify yourself too much and you especially don't want to sound like some college drop out entrepreneur.
 
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HoneyBadger

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Him/her - "This is Jessica with XYZ company, how can I help you?"

You - "Yes Jessica, can i speak to one of your managers please." - Not a question, its a statement.

Him/her - "Sure, what is this in regard to?"

You - "It's actually a personal matter"

In my last sales job I used 'it's a personal matter' to get past gate keepers and it worked 9/10 times but it is funny you do it so generically without the managers name. Have you had much success with it? Seems hard to believe that if it was a personal matter you wouldn't have a specific person to speak to. Linkedin and various online business research tools (Hoovers, etc.) usually can get you a good name to drop.
 

458

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In my last sales job I used 'it's a personal matter' to get past gate keepers and it worked 9/10 times but it is funny you do it so generically without the managers name. Have you had much success with it? Seems hard to believe that if it was a personal matter you wouldn't have a specific person to speak to. Linkedin and various online business research tools (Hoovers, etc.) usually can get you a good name to drop.

In the future, you would want to do some background research, but for now, since the person asking is new, he just wants to dial as much as possible to get his feet wet. However, the strategy behind asking for a manager without there name is to seem like a disgruntled customer or vendor. If the gatekeeper feels like you are someone that is asking for a manager because there is a legitimate problem that requires the attention of a manager, they will ask a lot less questions most of the time.
 

HoneyBadger

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In the future, you would want to do some background research, but for now, since the person asking is new, he just wants to dial as much as possible to get his feet wet. However, the strategy behind asking for a manager without there name is to seem like a disgruntled customer or vendor. If the gatekeeper feels like you are someone that is asking for a manager because there is a legitimate problem that requires the attention of a manager, they will ask a lot less questions most of the time.

I see the angle now - thanks. I have also had success with being brief and leaving the gatekeeper in a position of assumption. For instance say you research and the manager is named Jim Smith - instead of calling up and asking for 'Mr.Smith' or 'Jim Smith' - both of which exude solicitation - I would only say 'Jim please'. They would assume you must really know Jim since you are asking by first name. Same goes if they ask for your name - say something like 'Oh yeah tell him it's [your first name] calling - thanks' Bonus points if you have another convo going on at the same time so they hear you are busy/don't want to interrupt.
 
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devine

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You - "Yes Tim, this is John, the reason for the call today, I work with several consultants and I was reaching out to you to see if we might be able to solve some of your most pressing day to day problems in your business. Do you have a second to speak?"
More often than not you're 125235634634st this week and by saying something like this you prove that you need them, not the other way around.
It also means that you don't have a clue how you can help, didn't do any research and just spamming calls.
 

Lukebrisbane

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thank you for the script i'll be using it come sunday. Gosh, i feel slimey using the "it's a personal matter" if someone said that to me as a manager i'd assume it was someone in my family being sick or in danger and i feel uncomfortable using it but i know if im to be succesful maybe its what needs to be done.
 

HoneyBadger

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thank you for the script i'll be using it come sunday. Gosh, i feel slimey using the "it's a personal matter" if someone said that to me as a manager i'd assume it was someone in my family being sick or in danger and i feel uncomfortable using it but i know if im to be succesful maybe its what needs to be done.
Well when I was using it I was a recruiter trying to recruit the manager so it was personal ;).
 
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GuestUser155

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I'm only up to this point in the thread (because I got side-tracked reading through Shark's archives), but thanks a bunch for mentioning solvemygrilproblems.com.

The information is amazing and I recommend anyone who's looking to better understand themselves and the world to read through the website on the Wayback machine.
 

458

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I'm only up to this point in the thread (because I got side-tracked reading through Shark's archives), but thanks a bunch for mentioning solvemygrilproblems.com.

The information is amazing and I recommend anyone who's looking to better understand themselves and the world to read through the website on the Wayback machine.

Some of the best writing I have ever come across. Changed my life over night.
 

458

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How do you find, convince, and retain the best people?

Pay them better than anyone else and don't micromanage them. If they mess up too much, fire them.

PS. Better is relative. I pay higher than anyone else for my Filipina contractors but it's peanuts to an American.
 
G

GuestUser155

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Pay them better than anyone else and don't micromanage them. If they mess up too much, fire them.

PS. Better is relative. I pay higher than anyone else for my Filipina contractors but it's peanuts to an American.

Got some good info bookmarked in this thread.

Cheers.
 

Bitch

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Irrelevant question but why when I see this name in ever post on the site its censored? z*********
 
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458

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Thought I would update this, its been awhile. Finishing up my books for 2016 and fell a little short of what I wanted but it wasn't too bad. Gross is around 650k for the year with 38K bottom line and grew revenue at 500% from a gross of $130k in 2015. I expect this growth to continue in 2017 which puts my gross at year end around 3.25m. Once we start to reach growth ceiling in a few years, net margins increase to around 15-20% versus the 5% I'm getting while we grow. Cash flow management is extremely important right now. Cheers to 2017!
 

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Very nice, congrats! Nice story!

Do you tell in which niche you are active? What kind of business do you have?
 

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458

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Cruze

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Because I don't have to tell any of you anything. That's what happens when you break free from the system, you get to do whatever the F*ck you want.

Yeah, that´s true. You are right, man! Sorry ;-)
And congrats!!
 

Kingsta

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Have you ever thought of out-sourcing lead generation to a lead gen provider? Essentially what they do for us, they cold call clients that match our requirements (which are pretty specific in finance) and then pass them on for roughly £240. They hit our sales people and then they close the deal.

Now of course it depends on what you make from each client, if this method is worth it for you, since our average client is worth close to £24,000 you can see that £240 is 0.01% of the value so its worth it in our case.

We scaled the business from £1M to £7M just from outsourcing cold calling.

Just something to consider, keep up the good work.
 
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DVU

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Awesome thread!

Quick question.

How many calls on average does one sales guy do a day?

Thanks
 

458

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Have you ever thought of out-sourcing lead generation to a lead gen provider? Essentially what they do for us, they cold call clients that match our requirements (which are pretty specific in finance) and then pass them on for roughly £240. They hit our sales people and then they close the deal.

Now of course it depends on what you make from each client, if this method is worth it for you, since our average client is worth close to £24,000 you can see that £240 is 0.01% of the value so its worth it in our case.

We scaled the business from £1M to £7M just from outsourcing cold calling.

Just something to consider, keep up the good work.

Would be very tough to do in our niche because it is so technical.
 
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GuitarManDan

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Hey 458,

Just read through this whole thread, very inspiring stuff. It's interesting to start picking up patterns of the successful individuals on here.

Seems like a lot of people are successful on here that take advantage of profitable niche industries that others would never guess were so profitable. While everyone else is chasing after the oversaturated more attractive/cool industries, people are flying under the radar and building up fastlane ventures, well done!

What's the biggest takeaway you've had so far from starting up this business and seeing it grow?

Thanks
 

458

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Hey 458,

Just read through this whole thread, very inspiring stuff. It's interesting to start picking up patterns of the successful individuals on here.

Seems like a lot of people are successful on here that take advantage of profitable niche industries that others would never guess were so profitable. While everyone else is chasing after the oversaturated more attractive/cool industries, people are flying under the radar and building up fastlane ventures, well done!

What's the biggest takeaway you've had so far from starting up this business and seeing it grow?

Thanks

There are a lot of takeaways, it's a combination of things that will realign your perception along the way. I will say that once you are operating on a higher level than average you begin to notice that you are no longer competing with everyone else, your simply competing against yourself.
 

Lukebrisbane

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I know there are multiple different ways to make a great living in sales, as an Independant rep or someone like you running a team.

What are the advantages of building a team like yours, hitting lots of consumers versus say being a sales rep for Oracle and selling to businesses.

Also thank you for the advice you gave me that landed me a great B2B salesjob, It didn't work out but it was a great experience. i'm using the same advice to try land myself another. I just feel as though car sales isn't a scalable industry to jump into.
 
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458

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I know there are multiple different ways to make a great living in sales, as an Independant rep or someone like you running a team.

What are the advantages of building a team like yours, hitting lots of consumers versus say being a sales rep for Oracle and selling to businesses.

Also thank you for the advice you gave me that landed me a great B2B salesjob, It didn't work out but it was a great experience. i'm using the same advice to try land myself another. I just feel as though car sales isn't a scalable industry to jump into.

The advantage to running a team is scale, plan and simple. Once you have a system in place, scaling is the next phase, that is where your team comes in. As a single person sales man your going to be tired and probably still broke at the end of the year, plus you can't sell equity in yourself.
 

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