Sorry if you already mentioned it but what CRM are you using to keep track of all your prospects/customers/projects/etc?
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.What are you doing to get so many referrals? Referral program/discounts or just straight word of mouth / asking / networking?
As someone who's an introvert at heart, it wasn't easy at first but I've just been consistently working on it.
Sounds like your making massive progress. Have you thought about outsourcing some of the work? e.g. Focusing on building the websites and then outsourcing SEO etc.?
Well, ok today has taken a weird turn...
So that nightmare potential client - I sent them a very respectable email, something like "After reviewing your project requirements, I unfortunately won't think this is a good fit because of my current capacity limits"...
They responded with this (I definitely dodged a bullet here but how do I handle this?):
THEIR RESPONSE: "
Wow...So disappointed in the business person you told us you were..and now we find out you are not ...do not feel you have been professional
In how you handled this.
We will be sure to provide feedback to the business group on how you conducted yourself
Feel free to call me if you need further explanation"
This is fun haha.. trying to think of how to / if I should respond now.
Don't get drawn into it. Any response will just fan the flames. If you recognised that they were trouble I'm sure others will and the words will have very little weight. Kind of like that friend you have who's always complaining so you know never to take his word when he says a restaurant was awful.
At least you know your judgement was right.
It worked perfectly - the guy just called me up and said he completely understands and he just misinterpreted my other email.
Can you recite how you diffused it? What did you say?
Without guessing, I would have said something like, "We really wanted to work with your business but feared we didn't have the capacity and human resources to complete it in a fashion that would work for your company, much less satisfy our own standards."
Hey MJ,
I can’t take credit for this one - it was all @Fox he recognized this guy has a huge ego so he drafted up this that I sent over:
“Hey David,
Seems like I messed up that email so that is on me. What I was trying to get across was that I don’t feel like my experience is right for what you need at this point. The last thing I would want is to not over deliver on what you need.
I take feedback like this really serious so I would love to learn how I could have written that better and any other way to improve. I joined the networking group to learn so any insight into this would be of great value.
Apologies for the misunderstanding - let me know your thoughts and happy to jump on a call if needed.
Dan”
Yeah, well done @FoxHey MJ,
I can’t take credit for this one - it was all @Fox he recognized this guy has a huge ego so he drafted up this that I sent over:
“Hey David,
Seems like I messed up that email so that is on me. What I was trying to get across was that I don’t feel like my experience is right for what you need at this point. The last thing I would want is to not over deliver on what you need.
I take feedback like this really serious so I would love to learn how I could have written that better and any other way to improve. I joined the networking group to learn so any insight into this would be of great value.
Apologies for the misunderstanding - let me know your thoughts and happy to jump on a call if needed.
Dan”
My best friend’s bachelor party is this weekend so I’m back in the NYC area so that’ll be a fun time.
Oh boy, love to hear the "how's the thing going in AZ? Sad you quit Goldman yet?" comments...
Let me guess... jealous but not going to do anything about it?Haha here’s a rundown I can think of - there will be friends at this bachelor party who work for:
Morgan Stanley, Goldman, JPmorgan Chase, Citigroup... it’s like an investment banking conference, we’re just missing Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank.
I still have a long way to go but the people who at first said “you’re throwing your life away” keep saying how jealous they are when they hear my schedule and the AZ lifestyle haha
"if you screw us over, we'll destroy your business and reputation".
Jesus. How did you manage not to tell them to f*ck off? Reading how you handled the situation and the advice you got, I've realised I'd be terrible at dealing with clients like that. Very sad that 2 morons try to get advantage from a guy who just wants to do a great job.
Hey Dan, didn't know you had a progress thread here - it's truly an amazing read. I had 2 questions:
1) What has been your prospecting plan? You mentioned cold emails didn't work as well, so you said to stick to cold calls - can you share a bit more how you would approach this if your pipeline dried up again? (# of calls/day, what kind of companies, how you would find them etc.)
I am trying to refine my prospecting strategy - in the past I just did 20 calls/day with not great results, so I am trying to learn what you personally are doing. Also 20 calls doesn't take that much time so I am not sure what do I do for the rest of the day? Did you have a prospecting plan?
2) Do you meet most of your clients in person? I don't live in U.S. and I want to start approaching clients there but I feel like it might be a bit tough to sell huge projects if they never meet me. What has been your experience?
Thanks man!
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