90 Day Cold Calling Challenge

[Jack Hammer]

Biggest objection/brush off by far is "we are not looking to advertise as we have enough referrals/work coming in".

However, website is more than just advertising - people will want to see your work and check you out even if they are referrals. I have been trying to come up with a good rebuttal for this but it doesn't seem to be working, so I keep testing different strategies.

Granted, some of the businesses indeed might be too small for a website but that doesn't change the fact that I cannot overcome the objection as bigger companies have sometimes said the same thing. Somehow people associate website with advertising, but I need to quickly convince them otherwise.

Any ideas?

Perhaps you could ask them how they fared in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. If they struggled, point out that having a good website could help them get through the next recession much more easily.

 

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[Seth G.]

@Crazy GG

A family member of mine who owns a large 100M+ business avidly recommended "The Sales Playbook".

I'm only a couple of chapters in so far, but I can tell it's been useful already. Might be worth picking up a copy and seeing if anything in there will boost.

 

[Crazy GG]

@Crazy GG

A family member of mine who owns a large 100M+ business avidly recommended "The Sales Playbook".

I'm only a couple of chapters in so far, but I can tell it's been useful already. Might be worth picking up a copy and seeing if anything in there will boost.

Added to my to-read list. Thanks!

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 47 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 4 (20%)
Leads: 3 (75%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Had an extremely low reach rate to day but continued with the direct script and was quite successful.

The only thing is that the conversations don't last too long, so I am not sure how the follow ups will go.

But I have learned that being direct helps a lot. Not only for conversations, but for your confidence as well.

 

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[Seth G.]

It's one of those get a hard-copy and mark it up kind of books. Kind of like a textbook, so can be read piecemeal style. Let me know how it goes and good luck!

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 48 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 6 (30%)
Leads: 1 (16.67%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Still going with the direct script.

My problem at the moment is to come up with a decent answer to their "So what is this about?"

Since I don't want to talk about websites, I say it's about their first impression online, how they are perceived online etc.

On one hand, I don't want to talk about websites because that is presenting solutions before they have told me their problems but on the other hand if I just mention the "big-picture" stuff, they won't know what I am actually about.

Crazy GG

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 49 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 6 (30%)
Leads: 3 (50%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Another day in the office.

After my cold calls, had two follow up calls. One person said he is quite happy with everything so couldn't add much value there.

The second guy was resistant in the beginning (I have lots of work, don't need anything) but later admitted he has been thinking about having better visibility online (BINGO), just hasn't had time to do anything about it.

Sent him my past work and have a follow up call tomorrow.

Crazy GG

 

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[Stargazer]

The second guy was resistant in the beginning (I have lots of work, don't need anything) but later admitted he has been thinking about having better visibility online (BINGO), just hasn't had time to do anything about it.

So you maximise online results for owners too busy to allocate the time they know they should put in?

Might want to play around with this theme.

Dan

 

[Crazy GG]

So you maximise online results for owners too busy to allocate the time they know they should put in?

Might want to play around with this theme.

Dan

That's a great idea! Will try it next week.

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 50 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 3 (15%)
Leads: 1 (33%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Not much happened today as I had a terrible reach rate.

I got one person's email who might be interested in the future but nothing much as for new leads.

I have many follow up calls to do, both from recent leads and the ones that haven't picked up the phone in a while.

What do you guys think - if a person hasn't picked up 3 times in a row - do you just delete him from your "lead sheet" or just make a note to follow up in a couple of months?

It''s just that I have quite many leads from my cold calling challenge but a lot of them don't seem to be going anywhere and I end up spinning my wheels.

Crazy GG

 

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[Crazy GG]

Promised to give you a recording this week. Today obviously wasn't the best day to do it as I didn't talk to many people but promise is a promise November 16 Prospecting Calls

 

[Stargazer]

What do you guys think - if a person hasn't picked up 3 times in a row - do you just delete him from your "lead sheet" or just make a note to follow up in a couple of months?

If they know it is you they are not interested and avoiding.

But think about this. Most don't know you, they are just not answering the calls. You could be a potential customer asking about work.

So why are they not answering or calling back?

It is because they are not thinking like you. They think 'I have a job so will ignore calls until I need another one.'

And this is not who you want as a customer. Can you imagine the constant chasing you will be doing to get paid.

On the other hand, pretty much any company with a receptionist and a landline number is thinking differently.

They don't want to miss calls otherwise they would not pay £15k (minimum including expenses above salary) to someone to be a receptionist.

And if they don't want to miss calls it is because they want as many inquiries as possible which puts them in a position to filter the calls. (Sales is filtering by the way. I will explain if you want me to.)

I know it is harder to get started with the latter but can you see the difference in mentality the business person has between the two?

You wanting to help them get more business is congruent with their thinking. You don't have to start from scratch just trying to convince them of something you think should be obvious.

Dan

 

[Maxboost]

Day 48 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 6 (30%)
Leads: 1 (16.67%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Still going with the direct script.

My problem at the moment is to come up with a decent answer to their "So what is this about?"

Since I don't want to talk about websites, I say it's about their first impression online, how they are perceived online etc.

On one hand, I don't want to talk about websites because that is presenting solutions before they have told me their problems but on the other hand if I just mention the "big-picture" stuff, they won't know what I am actually about.

Crazy GG

Make

Promised to give you a recording this week. Today obviously wasn't the best day to do it as I didn't talk to many people but promise is a promise November 16 Prospecting Calls

Pros: You sound energetic, positive, conversational (does not sound like you are reading a script), enthusiastic

Cons: You don't sound like an expert, don't mention that you are a young entrepreneur (sounds like you are inexperienced, not gonna trust my money to you), you sound deflated when they say they are not interested (shows lack of confidence in your service/product), there's some confusion on why you are calling them (throw them some numbers from previous jobs),

Feedback: Hi my name is crazyGG, and I help xxxx company achieve $$$xxxx. Let's set up an appointment, are you free at .....

If they object: That's what my last customer said, which is why we should talk......

 

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[Crazy GG]

Day 51 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 6 (30%)
Leads: 1 (16%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Monday mornings are really hard for motivation

Anyways, did my calls and got 1 lead (to which I didn't manage to talk that long)

In another call, I spoke to what seemed to be a receptionist of a well established interior decorating company but she quickly gave me a rebuttal and hung up. I later looked up their website again and it was quite bad for an "established decorating company", so I tried to look up decision makers and try contacting them directly but I can't find anything. Only thing is I can find is a FB page which is probably controlled by receptionist as well, so I think I will wait a month for receptionist to forget about me and call again to ask for the best person to speak to.

I have good news as well - one of the people who initially hung up on me - I called him again after 2 weeks and after chatting for a while he invited me to his local pub to have a quick chat about his website. I am sure he didn't even remember me when I called him the second time haha

Crazy GG

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 52 Summary (recorded)

Dials: 20
Reached: 6 (30%)
Leads: 4 (66.67%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Today was a good prospecting day (and I recorded it, too!).

I actually slept through my alarm today (woke up at 10 instead of 7), and I was in a good mood, so had lot more energy during my calls.

My main goal with the goal was to remain positive after objections (as @Maxboost and others had mentioned to me previously). This has been sticking point for me in the past, and I know I need to work on it.

Also, I am not qualifying during these calls anymore but just selling the follow up phone call.

Here is the recording

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Longinus]

@Vigilante @Fox @AllenCrawley @Andy Black

Somebody makes this notable at least?

Amazing progress in a very short time, really helpful.

 

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[Crazy GG]

Day 53 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 4 (20%)
Leads: 2 (50%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

My main problem now seems to be structuring the prospecting phone calls, so they actually pick up the phone on the follow up calls.

For example, none of the two people (leads from Day 50 and 51) picked up the phone yesterday which is when I agreed that I will call them.

What I did today with one of the people, I said "Before you go, I just want to ask you for one thing. I always appreciate brutal honesty, so if at any point you decide that you don't find my ideas valuable, just let me know straight up. Because what happens a lot of times that people try to be polite and either act too busy or not pick up the phone when I do call them. So please, no matter what, let me know your thoughts instead of politely rejecting me. Does that sound fair?"

By doing that I want to let them know that it's okay to say NO as I feel like sometimes they don't pick up because they think when they say no, I will not let them go or something.

One another way I could try is to really set a hard time and get their email and send them a calendar invitation but that hasn't worked in the past (they don't accept the invitation)

Finally, another solution might be keeping them on the phone for a little longer and get them more interested, so they actually want to pick up the phone next time. The problem with this is that a lot of times the business owners are very busy when I call them and so asking too many questions might actually do the opposite.

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 54 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 5 (20%)
Leads: 4 (80%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

I started using the line that I wrote about yesterday (see above post) and it really helps!

Business owners are like "Sure man, I don't like to waste my time either. I will be straight with you."

It seems like saying that really increases trust, so hopefully it will help when I call them again and they will actually pick up the phone and "have time" to chat.

My main goal right now really is to get them on a follow up call because I feel like at this point I am good at getting their attention by being confident and direct.

Out of 5-6 leads I had a one decent follow up yesterday (the rest didn't pick up OR said to call back at a different day), and for me that's pretty good because I usually can't get any. But I will learn with time, hopefully!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I don't mean to sound discouraging, but there has to be a better way than this.

Your conversion rate is nearly zero and it's been going on for months.

You deserve praise for your effort and you've clearly overcome any fear from cold-calling. From that perspective, it's mission accomplished and you should give yourself a pat on the back.

But from the other perspective, the only perspective that matters-- GAINING SALES-- this isn't working as an approach.

Only one sale indicates that the Channel or the Approach (or both) aren't working.

@Fox - what do you see here from your perspective of working with your design group?

 

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[Crazy GG]

I don't mean to sound discouraging, but there has to be a better way than this.

Your conversion rate is nearly zero and it's been going on for months.

You deserve praise for your effort and you've clearly overcome any fear from cold-calling. From that perspective, it's mission accomplished and you should give yourself a pat on the back.

But from the other perspective, the only perspective that matters-- GAINING SALES-- this isn't working as an approach.

Only one sale indicates that the Channel or the Approach (or both) aren't working.

@Fox - what do you see here from your perspective of working with your design group?

Thanks for commenting on the post, MJ. I really loved your books!

I think it's a bit of everything.

I have definitely worked on my approach. When I started, I couldn't even get a decent lead - everyone would hang up on me. Now I have switched to a lot more direct approach and I am getting leads almost every day but my problem is getting them on solid follow up calls.

I have only 1 sale which is not very good, but that doesn't tell the whole story. In these 90 days I have accumulated 90 leads out of which 9 have indicated that they would be interested in a new site (i.e. prospects). However, a lot of these prospects seem to "ghost" and not pick up the phone when I call them back. I even had another agreed sale with a decorator and I sent him an invoice, and I never heard back from him since.

So even though I have had only 1 sale, I have had some traction along the way but as you said, in the end the only thing that counts is the sale and I have nothing to show for it there.

I have heard that a lot of times in business your progress is not visible - i.e. you are making progress but you don't have much to show for it and when you make it - everyone seems that you got rich quick even though you were making progress all the time. So I try to think that that's what's happening to me.

As most people have already mentioned, I am calling smaller businesses who a lot of times don't see any value in a new site because they don't want to grow. But with the bigger type of businesses that I used to approach in the past I couldn't even get to the decision maker and I was wasting my time with gatekeepers. So by calling smaller types of businesses I can at least get a chance at pitching.

However, I have started reaching out to bigger prospects on LinkedIn.

Obviously there are 100 things that I am doing wrong but in the end cold calling has worked for people so I don't think that it's the method which is wrong - just my approach.

I just don't want to keep jumping from method to method and trying different things (like jumping from business to business) and not end up anywhere.

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 55 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 5 (20%)
Leads: 2 (20%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Today's leads weren't really solid but I was taken aback by a guy whom I spoke and who said that hes taking some time off for now off work.

I asked why and he said to help his wife with the disease.

I said "That's fine, I will just get back to you when you get back to work and I wish your wife speedy recovery."

He said that she is not recovering...

That was brutal.

P.S. Next week is the last week of my challenge. I haven't decided yet what I will do after but hopefully I can at least make 1 more sale

 

[Maxboost]

Thanks for commenting on the post, MJ. I really loved your books!

I think it's a bit of everything.

I have definitely worked on my approach. When I started, I couldn't even get a decent lead - everyone would hang up on me. Now I have switched to a lot more direct approach and I am getting leads almost every day but my problem is getting them on solid follow up calls.

I have only 1 sale which is not very good, but that doesn't tell the whole story. In these 90 days I have accumulated 90 leads out of which 9 have indicated that they would be interested in a new site (i.e. prospects). However, a lot of these prospects seem to "ghost" and not pick up the phone when I call them back. I even had another agreed sale with a decorator and I sent him an invoice, and I never heard back from him since.

So even though I have had only 1 sale, I have had some traction along the way but as you said, in the end the only thing that counts is the sale and I have nothing to show for it there.

I have heard that a lot of times in business your progress is not visible - i.e. you are making progress but you don't have much to show for it and when you make it - everyone seems that you got rich quick even though you were making progress all the time. So I try to think that that's what's happening to me.

As most people have already mentioned, I am calling smaller businesses who a lot of times don't see any value in a new site because they don't want to grow. But with the bigger type of businesses that I used to approach in the past I couldn't even get to the decision maker and I was wasting my time with gatekeepers. So by calling smaller types of businesses I can at least get a chance at pitching.

However, I have started reaching out to bigger prospects on LinkedIn.

Obviously there are 100 things that I am doing wrong but in the end cold calling has worked for people so I don't think that it's the method which is wrong - just my approach.

I just don't want to keep jumping from method to method and trying different things (like jumping from business to business) and not end up anywhere.

Have you read spin selling as mentioned in previous threads? You're not creating enough pain which is why they are ghosting you.

 

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[Crazy GG]

Have you read spin selling as mentioned in previous threads? You're not creating enough pain which is why they are ghosting you.

Yes, I have! I am trying to use the SPIN method when I get them on the follow up calls

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 56 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 9 (45%)
Leads: 1 (11%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

I cannot believe it's the last week of the challenge - time passes really quickly...

I took a little time this weekend to think and I realized that I don't have a clear sales process i.e. I don't know where I want each call to go. So I took the time and broke down my sales process down to 4 steps:

1. Obtain lead (cold call)
2. Investigation stage (follow up call)
3. Proposal stage (send a proposal)
4. Close the sale (final call)

Now at least I have a clear map of how I picture the sale to go. So now I know that every time I cold call, my goal is to get to the investigation stage which I then want to take to the proposal stage and finally close.

I will also take time now to write down 3-5 key reasons why someone would want a website (apart from getting more customers), so I know clearly what to say to someone in each situation.

P.S. This Saturday I sent a proposal to one of my prospects and hopefully we can get at least 1 more sale this week.

 

[458]

Day 56 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 9 (45%)
Leads: 1 (11%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

I cannot believe it's the last week of the challenge - time passes really quickly...

I took a little time this weekend to think and I realized that I don't have a clear sales process i.e. I don't know where I want each call to go. So I took the time and broke down my sales process down to 4 steps:

1. Obtain lead (cold call)
2. Investigation stage (follow up call)
3. Proposal stage (send a proposal)
4. Close the sale (final call)

Now at least I have a clear map of how I picture the sale to go. So now I know that every time I cold call, my goal is to get to the investigation stage which I then want to take to the proposal stage and finally close.

I will also take time now to write down 3-5 key reasons why someone would want a website (apart from getting more customers), so I know clearly what to say to someone in each situation.

P.S. This Saturday I sent a proposal to one of my prospects and hopefully we can get at least 1 more sale this week.

Your not going to get anywhere making 20 calls a day. Try 500.. your an amateur and there's only one way to improve, make more dials.
Good father? I don't give a shit.. go home and play with your kids

 

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[Crazy GG]

Day 57 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 14 (70%)
Leads: 6 (42%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Reached 70% of people today - that's quite a lot.

Will see how many I actually get a solid follow ups from.

Crazy GG

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 58 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 5 (25%)
Leads: 1 (20%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Just did my calls 8AM in the morning before my job.

Felt a bit discouraged after looks like yesterday's proposal might be a flake, so wasn't in my best shape although cold calls in the morning is just as good as cold showers to wake you up.

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 59 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 5 (25%)
Leads: 1 (20%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Same stats as yesterday.

Today I tried to imagine I am on the stage (performing) as I heard it's a good thing to imagine when you are doing cold calls (or sales in general).

It was funny as one guy even replied: "Who is that calling with so much energy?"

That was the highlight of my calls

Other than that, today is the last day of my challenge, so I will try to go all out on my last day!

 

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[Everyman]

Your not going to get anywhere making 20 calls a day. Try 500.. your an amateur and there's only one way to improve, make more dials.
Good father? I don't give a sh*t.. go home and play with your kids

Why do you think he needs to do more calls?

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 60 Summary (Recording Included) - Challenge Complete

Dials: 20
Reached: 6 (30%)
Leads: 4 (67%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Today started out with 2 rejections but ended up getting 4 nice leads, with one guy even considering my services right on the initial call.

I have noticed business owners respond quite well when I tell them that I don't want to get them more work (as they are busy anyways) but that I want to save them time and actually filter out the bad work.

Here is the recording of today's calls - let me know your feedback.

Other than that, my challenge is complete, so thank you everyone who has helped along the way.

I will take the next week to step away from prospecting calls to think over of what I think worked, what I need to improve and how I think I should proceed as well as finish following up on all the weaker leads (because right now I am a bit behind my CRM). I will be going home on December 10, so it would be good to have a clear idea in mind of how I want to proceed with my prospecting.

I will also write a good summary here of those lessons.

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragements as well as constructive criticism along the way

Crazy GG