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How to Land a Big Gig in 10 Days (even when you have a 9-5 job)

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

TCMorgan

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What's up guys! I originally shared this post in the Make Money with Web Design group (that spawned from Fox's web design thread). It was written with web design jobs in mind, but any business-to-business side hustle could easily implement these ideas and make sales happen.

When I started out developing websites and starting what would eventually become my advertising agency, I still had a day job that didn't provide much air cover for personal calls. I had to make do with the time I had available to me, which was pretty much my lunch hour. I broke down my day with the following schedule, which allowed me to keep everything flowing nicely.

I will start by saying that when I'm hammering out sales myself, I don't mix the parts of the process. I find and research leads, then at a different time I send emails to those leads, and at a different time I dial the phones. I don't recommend finding a lead and contacting and finding a lead and contacting... Breaking things down into "action blocks" helps keep you focused and will lead to you ultimately achieving more. Here are the three main action blocks to work with.

1. Your day starts at 9pm. Take an hour from 9-10pm to hunt down 5-10 good leads. Niche down and get picky. Find 5-10 roofers with bad websites one night, then the next night find 5-10 dentists with bad websites (these are just examples). Manta and Hubspot both provide data for estimated yearly revenue for businesses, so use that data to your advantage. Create a list of the leads you find, their emails, phone numbers, and contact names and positions. Every line of your list should look like this:

John Smith, President - j.smith@winkleheightssystems.com - 555-5555

I promise you, it's possible to find all that info. A quick Google search can find the name of the owner/president, as well as a phone number. You can often make an assumption as to the owner's email based on other emails in the organization. If the sales teams emails look like k.jones@ and b.wade@, you can assume the owner is j.smith@. As Sherlock Holmes would advise, deduction is visual interpretation of that which you cannot see. If you can't find it - figure it out. This ends the first action block.

2. After you've gotten some well deserved rest, rise and shine at 6-6:30am. You're contacting business owners. They'll be rising around this time as well. This starts your second action block; the email block. A common misconception is that you have to make contact during business hours. That's BS and will limit you more than help you. Business hours are when owners get work done, NOT when they pay attention to salespeople. You're not interrupting their day if you're contacting them when there's nothing to interrupt (except maybe the morning bathroom trip).

It's at this early hour that you'll fire off whichever cold email you're most comfortable with. Build some initial value, catch their interest, and make it clear that when you speak, it will be about them, not about your service. The first email-check of the day is usually when business owners open less-than-important correspondence. Once they're in the office, they'll only want to deal with things pertaining to business. Done sending emails? Good. Go to your job. Conclude action block #2.

3. Half your day is gone and it's time to eat lunch. What should you do? Fire up action block #3 - the followup call block. Around Noon, dial the exact contacts you emailed earlier this morning. That's right: make a followup call the same day you send the first email. This call should absolutely be brief.

"Hi Mr. Prospect, my name is Tate. I sent an email over this morning, did you receive it? You did, Great. I know you're busy and probably eating lunch right now, would you be free for a 5 minute phone call tomorrow at [time]? Perfect, thanks. I'll talk to you then."

Do this for each of your prospects. You'll set a meeting with each one of them and close all of your deals.
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Conclude action block 3.

Just kidding, you won't close all of your deals or set meetings with every client, but let's break this down. I laid out 1.5-3 hours of work per day. Let's assume you get 10 leads a day. After 10 days, you'll have made 100 touches. If you have even a 1% closing rate, then within 10 days you'll have made a touch with a soon-to-be client. Odds are, it could even be a few clients.

The bottom line is that it takes ACTION to produce results. Each and every person in this group has a choice: complain that it's just not doable, or just go do it. You can't vision-board your way, or will your way, or wish your way, or nap your way. You've gotta work your way.
 
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BD64

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Awesome post! I'm just starting out with web design and just started to make cold calls. Balancing calling with my job and school has been tough, this should certainly help.

Some quick questions for ya.

When you call these owners during lunch hours do you often get to a secretary or reception? If so how would you go about getting to the boss considering your running on a tight schedule and often times you will be deferred to an email (which you already have) or told to call back another time, etc.

Speaking to these bosses for the first time are they typically more receptive after having read the email? Would you say that having them warmed up with an email helps to close the deal?

Thanks again for the post.
 

TCMorgan

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Awesome post! I'm just starting out with web design and just started to make cold calls. Balancing calling with my job and school has been tough, this should certainly help.

Some quick questions for ya.

When you call these owners during lunch hours do you often get to a secretary or reception? If so how would you go about getting to the boss considering your running on a tight schedule and often times you will be deferred to an email (which you already have) or told to call back another time, etc.

Speaking to these bosses for the first time are they typically more receptive after having read the email? Would you say that having them warmed up with an email helps to close the deal?

Thanks again for the post.
Thanks for reading!

It's pretty common to get a gatekeeper in any cold-calling situation. Getting past them is an art in itself. What I've found is that asking for the business owner by their first name only is a good start, then the email just gives you leverage. Questions like "What is this in reference to?" or "Is he expecting your call?" can be address with "Well, I sent him an email earlier and hadn't heard back so I was checking in."

I find if they've read the email and STILL take my call, that I've got a damn good shot at landing a meeting. They're interested and willing to talk already, so there has to be a reason. They wouldn't waste their time just to waste time.
 

focusedlife

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As far as cold outreach goes, I'm working on a digital or VIRTUAL plan that does not require, but instead, is enhanced by a personal touch.

When people need you, often times, they are MORE apt to making decisions sooner than later, but only if they're not losing face or exposed to something that could jeopardize their reputation.

If getting a client in 10 days is important to you, the truth is it is SIMPLE.

All you have to do is make sure your solution solves THEIR problem and that you communicate it in a meaningful way.
 
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Ian O'Bryant

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Awesome post! What has your experience been contacting bigger companies? Do you also use LinkedIn to contact prospects?
 

Filippos

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Awesome post! What has your experience been contacting bigger companies? Do you also use LinkedIn to contact prospects?
I've contacted about 200 big and huge companies through LinkedIn. To name a few examples: Ford, Toyota, GE, Tesla. I searched in LinkedIn for a high-level manager with a title like CTO or Head of Production or similar. In my case, it's about a retrofit mechatronic system that can increase the quality and productivity of their manufacturing. I got answers only from those who are in the same country as me (~10%). About 50% of them have never looked at my message or at my profile in LinkedIn. The rest looked at both the message and my profile and never replied. From those who replied, a couple of them said no thank you. So I got 17 leads that gave me their number or e-mail address. From those, only 10 actually answered to my calls/e-mails. 5 of them got to a meeting and asked for a proposal.
 

becks22

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2. After you've gotten some well deserved rest, rise and shine at 6-6:30am. You're contacting business owners. They'll be rising around this time as well. This starts your second action block; the email block. A common misconception is that you have to make contact during business hours. That's BS and will limit you more than help you. Business hours are when owners get work done, NOT when they pay attention to salespeople. You're not interrupting their day if you're contacting them when there's nothing to interrupt (except maybe the morning bathroom trip).

Nice write up. About the above, I work from home on my business and a few weeks ago I got a call from a sales person around 7am. I had already been working for ~ 90 minutes and was just in the kitchen grabbing some coffee. I wasn't busy or overwhelmed so I actually listened to his pitch and had him send me some more info. Chances are if he had called at 10am, I would have just asked told him I wasn't interested.
 
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