90 Day Cold Calling Challenge

[Crazy GG]

BIG UPDATE

Looks like I made my first sale from cold calling.

Details:

So yesterday I called a carpentry company. The guy told me that he doesn't do carpentry anymore and he has switched to property management and joint ventures (basically buying a house, renovating it and selling it).

We started chatting and he said he has a site but he hasn't done anything with it for a year because a guy from Fiver had messed it up.

I told him my usual spiel about looking for testimonial work and he seemed quite interested and told me to send over the details.

He got back to me the same day by email (usually doesn't happen to me) and I called him back.

I told him what I could do for him and he seemed happy. When it got to the price, I quoted 650 pounds as he would be my first UK website client. He said he was thinking less - 500 pounds - and I agreed instantly as I felt money wasn't the most important thing at this point but the testimonial.

However, I told him I wanted something upfront so I can see he was committed. He said he wasn't comfortable paying me money as I was a random dude on the phone who he met just that day PLUS he had been burned many times before by other developers.

He offered to put money in escrow but I didn't know if you could do it without upwork and quite frankly I wanted him to send money straight to me not an escrow.

So I told him that I understand that trust might be an issue, and said "Listen, I understand where you're coming from but at the same time I don't want to take all the risk by doing the work for free and then you just bounce off - I need some commitment. So transfer me something as a sign of commitment, even 20 pounds will do."

Obviously I was quite desperate (I mean 20 pounds is nothing) but I still thought that if he sends something over, he means business.

And he did. Right now!

So right now I need to do a good job and get that testimonial. Apparently the dude has a Facebook group of over 24K members and I was thinking that if I do a good job he might give me a shout out.

So that's that! Thanks to everyone who has helped me so far - your support means a lot.

P.S. How would you guys handle this situation (now wanting to send over money because he doesn't know me + has been burned before)?

 

[Vilox]

90 days is a tall order if you never picked up the phone before. I only did 30, and had to use brute force to push through.

Here are a few tips to make the most out of the experiment:

• Have an actual product to sell
  Seems like you know how to code a site. But is it a good site? Can you increase their revenues? If you can't, there'll always be a voice in your subconscious telling you that you're wasting people's time. Things get a lot easier when you have a product that’ll offer a ROI. Then you’re actually doing people a favor by ringing them up and presenting your solution.
• Go all in
  Instead of doing 90 days, maybe take two weeks and dedicate yourself full-time to the experiement. When I wasn’t on the phone I was reading, researching new leads or talking to people already in the industry. Working a day job and making two or three calls during your lunch break might help with overcoming anxiety, but you need time to review and think about where to improve.
• Find a solution for lead generation
  Back when I started out, I ended up spending more time finding people to call than I’d actually spend on the phone. As a matter of fact, it become a welcome excuse to not pick up the phone first thing in the morning. Get a list with 100 people to call now, so you don’t have to divert your attention later.
• Record yourself
  I started way too late with this. You’ll pick up nuances you missed during the call. You can judge whether you would have convinced yourself. Listening to your own recordings in a daily review session is beyond incredible.
• Reach out to people in the industry
  I hit up a few people in the industry and asked them to review one of my calls. People are a lot more helpful than you’d think if you approach them with a clearly-defined problem. Best decision of my Sales career.
• Keep your head up
  It took me like three weeks to sell my first site. You’ll stumble. You’ll make a fool of yourself. More than once. And that’s okay. You’re moving ahead. Picking up the phone and not closing the deal is a success. Not making a call in the first place is the real failure.
• Sales is hard, but everything worth doing is
  And whether it's dating, making friends or making money, Sales is one of the most transferable and valuable skills to have. Even if you don’t sell a single site, it’ll still be an immensely helpful experience.

All that being said, let me know if you need anything.

To your success!

 

[Crazy GG]

Hello everyone!

I will be making a 90 Day Cold Calling challenge where I will call local businesses for 3 months straight on working days.

With this, I hope to change my life so stakes are high...

I will be posting updates at the end of each day.

P.S.This is inspired by @Vilox legendary post about cold calling and @Fox original webdesign thread. You both guys are legends.

A bit of background
​

So I started with my business about a year ago before my last year at university.

I messed around with selling websites and Facebook advertising to local businesses.

Even though I have had a bit of success so far (a few clients here and there), it's no where near being a sustainable business and right now I am actually where I started a year ago - without any clients.

Having thought about it a while, I realized that the reason I am not successful is that I am not prospecting consistently...

I might call businesses for a week and then the next two weeks I waste on following up on dead leads and learning how to run a better offer on Facebook even though I don't have any clients.

In my heart I know that I should be reaching out to new businesses but as you all know, our mind is fantastic at procrastinating and making excuses.

No more - I have had enough.

My goals
​

1. Prove myself that I am worthy of calling myself an entrepreneur by doing something that actually matters.
2. Develop a routing of prospecting consistently.
3. Have a sustainable business at the end of 90 days.

If I can achieve these 3 goals, I will have changed my life. That's the goal.

Challenge Details​

• I will be selling websites.
• I will call a minimum of 20 new businesses every day (100/week) no matter how many follow up calls I need to do.
  • That's a minimum of 1200 new businesses contacted at the end of 90 days
• I give myself 3 days maximum in which, if for some reason I cannot do the daily calls, I can compensate the next day by calling 40 businesses and the challenge is still on.

Okay, that's it for now.

See you all this upcoming Monday!

 

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[Crazy GG]

Day 3 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 9 (45%)
Leads: 1! (14.29%)

Got my first real lead!!!

So I decided to test @Stargazer 's suggested script and it worked quite well!

When I say I want to ask them a quick question and ask if now's a bad time, most of them are quite receptive and say "Go on" which buys me valuable seconds of their attention and I can proceed.

When I did proceed and start talking about websites, most of them dropped the phone, so in the middle of the prospecting session, I switched it to talking about their "online presence" as it doesn't trigger the defense mechanism that much. Overall, I need to improve on this part and make it shorter so they don't drop the phone.

From the plumbers that didn't drop the phone, I learned two things:

1. Most of their business comes from word of mouth (expected)
2. They don't do anything online (which means they don't see value of having a good site)

I know I need to attack the second point and show them that there is value.

This is actually my main thing to improve for tomorrow - when they say "I don't do anything online because most of my customers come from word of mouth", I need to come up with short and specific question that get's them to reconsider that.

Something like "Are you aware that most plumbers lose out on many potential customers online?"

I would be happy for suggestions as well!

About the lead

Funny enough, this was the first call I made today. The guy initially said that he doesn't need websites because there is no point but I stuck through and asked him more questions.

After a while, he asked if I do websites and I said "I am a new designer so I am looking for some portfolio work actually".

He said to call back at 6 so I will do that. Overall, my response wasn't the best because I implied I am cheap but will see what happens. At least I got my first lead

That's it for today!

Also - thank you all for responses. I appreciate them very much!

Till tomorrow

 

[lowtek]

If you can do 50 calls a day instead of 25, you'll get to a sale twice as fast. If not faster.

Make sure you take notes of the call immediately after the call, especially if you're not recording it. If you're not recording, figure out how.

You'll find there's only half a dozen or so rebuttals, and either they hang up immediately or they stay on the line.

You: "Hey this is GG. I help small businesses ball out like there's no tomorrow"
Them: "Not interested" <click>
You: <make a note to call again in a few days>

OR

You: "Hey this is GG. I help small businesses ball out like there's no tomorrow"
Them: "Not interested" <silence>
You: "Of course you're not interested. I haven't given you a reason to be interested." <give them a reason>
Them: <some other rebuttal>

Write down these rebuttals. I'm serious when I say there's only a single digit number of them. Prepare the responses and use them. Gauge reaction, and after some volume of calls using that script, modify it accordingly.

Also, tweak how you think about this. During the initial cold call, it's not an objection it's just a stall. You haven't proposed anything so they can't object. They can only try to get you off the phone. They're not rejecting what you have to offer, they just want to go about their day. It's your job to keep them on for a few minutes and get enough interest for a follow up call.

Some other tips:

Assume that whoever you're talking to makes the decision. Treat them accordingly. Even if they don't sign the checks, they probably have some input in the decision. Don't treat the gatekeeper like an obstacle, treat them like someone you have to win over.

Even if they're not interested now, they may be interested later. They may be in a bad mood, but are actually interested. They may be interested, but too busy. They may genuinely not be interested. You won't know until you keep calling.

It doesn't hurt to follow up with an email after the call.

I see you've had some other leads. They didn't go anywhere, apparently. Call them and ask why. Or give someone here their number and we'll call them to find out why. Don't waste anything, always be pushing for more data to improve. You can learn more from someone who didn't buy than someone who did.

Go into every cold call believing you can make the sale on that call. No follow ups, no stalls, just a smooth delivery and powerful persuasion leading to an immediate sale.

 

[Crazy GG]

Big update:

Today a lead turned into the first real prospect!!!

So just got of a phone with one of the people I spoke today - he seemed quite interested. He also seemed like a very good prospect since he spoke more about what he wants out of the site (more exposure, better quality leads) rather than specifics and price.

I asked him couple of questions to find out what's most important for him which then I summarized back to him so he knows I listened. I told him I will send couple of sites I have done and we can have a chat next Monday.

Hopefully we can close the sale!

 

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[Crazy GG]

Day 36 Summary

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

Good Monday morning from UK! Just finished my prospecting session before heading up to my part time sales job.

Today I got 3 weak/medium leads

1. A guy who is thinking about reducing workload and retiring in 4-5 years
2. A guy who supposedly has a website (but it's not loading for me)
3. A guy who is looking to grow his business and is already looking to have a website but has someone lined up already.

The best thing that happened, though, was that a lady heard me making cold calls in the library section of my old university, came up to me and said that her husband owns a house plastering business and they can't get their website in order. We chatted a bit, I showed her my latest project and she seemed quite impressed. She told me to send some stuff over to her husbands email. I did not want to be too pushy, so I did not ask for her personal number, but I will send them over some stuff and surely follow up on their business phone.

If I actually get her husband as a client, it would really be another reminded that the more you try - the luckier you get.

Crazy GG

 

[Vilox]

Well done!

Hi, this is Crazy GG,
I found you guys on Yell.

I am young entrepreneur and I saw that (you don't seem to have a website) your site seems a bit outdated, so I wanted to reach out and ask if you have been thinking about (getting) updating it?

["Yes"] Oh I see. Do you have any person in mind or your just looking around?

["No"] Okay. I sense that you don't see much value in a new site...How do you currently get new customers?

You're skipping a step here. For most people a website is 'just a thing' they have. They don't know that they could earn more money by updating it, so why bother? You have to use those precious first seconds to make them realize that it's advantageous for them to talk to you. (new site = consistently higher profits)

Screen your leads a little and look for companies who have clear problems. Even someone who's not tech-savvy will concede that a site that has been built more than 10 years ago probably needs some work. Once you got the basics down you can focus on more advanced issues (landing page, email funnel, call back service). I love bringing in competitors ("We built a new site for a company quite similar to yours [niche, staff size] three months ago, and since then they've made at least 100 additional sales each month"). SMEs are really afraid of falling behind, and rightly so.

Anyway, preparation will take a little longer if you go down this route. But since you don't seem to be overly afraid of making the call I'll just assume that you want to generate sales as soon as possible. Trust me, just a little research makes the entire call A LOT easier and will save you time in the long run.

That being said, playing the numbers game works just as well. Personally I needed the first 1000 calls just to stop letting my feelings be affected by whatever the person on the other end of the line would say to me.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Longinus]

Great progress.

Even after almost 2 years, I still hate cold-calling. But everybody hates cold showers too, right? Once you're under it, you forget about the cold. The fear is just in your head.

You've been repped.

 

[PinPointing]

I've been jumping into a lot of cold calling recently as well. I went to a meetup in my area put up by a sales training company and they told us about pattern interrupting. everyone has an unconscious script they run when someone calls them.

I've been saying this: Hey persons name, I'm going to be honest with you, this is a sales call. Do you want to just hang up right now?

They usually laugh as say what do you have for me.

To make this work you have to make sure your tonality is on point and playful.

 

[Stargazer]

Hi.

Just ask these guys for the sale then and there. They are not going to be getting back to you or you making much headway calling them back in the future.

I wrote earlier but did not want to put you off too much. You are phoning the wrong people.

Out of your 35 days of calling (approx 700 one man maybe two man band carpenters and plumbers) you have 1 sale.

From a guy who is no longer a carpenter but a Property Developer.

So look at your stats again.

699 dials to carpenters & plumbers = 0 sales.

1 inadvertent call to a Property Developer (who probably wants investors and deals in £hundreds of thousands) = 1 sale.

I don't want to say take a break but did you look at that Yell link someone above put in their post? Shocking websites and they are factories with staff, premises, the whole shebang. A small up tick in sales for some of them will translate to a lot of money so your fee is peanuts in comparison.

Think about it. You are obviously a hard worker from what I am reading.

Have a good weekend.

Dan

PS: If you want a chat sometime message me your email or phone. I offered to message you but can't work out how.

 

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[CareCPA]

I would kindly suggest changing tactics.

You've made a lot of calls, you understand the basics of cold calling, and you're not as anxious about actually making the calls.

Now it's time to move on and research your contacts before calling them. If you continue to call people who are one-man operations, you'll get the same reason for not wanting a website (they have all the business they need). They don't care about their reputation or displaying their work, because they don't need more work.

What is your true target market? This market is telling you that it doesn't have a need. Which one does? Start prospecting there. Once you do, you'll find a new list of objections, and these are the ones you truly need to overcome, but you won't find out what they are until you start calling the right people.

 

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[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]

Day 1 Summary

Dials: 20
Reached: 4 (20%)
Leads: 0 (0%)

Just finished my first prospecting session. Hadn't done any cold calls for more than 2 weeks so definitely had some anxiety in the beginning but felt great afterward!

Only managed to reach 4 businesses which is quite low. However, reach rate is usually very low on Mondays so we will have to see in the next couple of days.

The conversations I had weren't that great, either. Two people dropped the phone during my intro while the other two had the following objections (I am calling plumbers, by the way):

• "Don't need one (a website)"
• "You're a young entrepreneur and you're costing us money"

Here is my intro script, by the way:

Hi, this is Crazy GG,​

I found you guys on Yell.

I am young entrepreneur and I saw that (you don't seem to have a website) your site seems a bit outdated, so I wanted to reach out and ask if you have been thinking about (getting) updating it?

["Yes"] Oh I see. Do you have any person in mind or your just looking around?

["No"] Okay. I sense that you don't see much value in a new site...How do you currently get new customers?​

It's a bit early to make any conclusions but I feel like I took too long to get to the point which is why they dropped the phone so early. I am trying to speak relatively slowly and clearly in order not to sound like a typical telemarketer but it seems like it backfired a bit.

That's it for today!

Talk to you tomorrow

 

[Longinus]

Update: I called the guy up and he said he had a chat with his girlfriend yesterday and she said she will do the site for him as she already done one for herself.

I gotta say it's very disappointing as I had prepared for him to say no for various different reasons (price, not enough value etc) and was ready to overcome those objections, but I didn't expect that one so I was kinda taken aback.

I asked him was there anything that made him change up his mind but he said that he liked everything I was offering him and it really was just the fact that the girlfriend offered to do it for him.

I wanted to ask "do you think your girlfriend will be able to make a site of such a quality you are hoping for?" (yesterday he told me he wants a modern Apple style website), but I felt like that would be too aggressive and just gave in.

It sucks, but that's life I guess. I will put a note to check if he has a new site in 2 months and call him if he doesn't but so far it looks like I will need to focus on my other leads

From experience I can say that "no" as an answer, is the second best answer you can get. I had/have many clients who were doubting or couldn't say no. They're very time-consuming and lead to nowhere. Just be grateful he just turned you down so soon.

The fact that you sparked interest means you're on the right track.

Big balls you own. Keep going!

 

[Longinus]

You have a paid client in 30 days, but that's nothing in compared with what you learned in that short period of time. THAT's the big win actually

Congrats!

P.S. How would you guys handle this situation (now wanting to send over money because he doesn't know me + has been burned before)?

I only have met my clients in real life and they never made a problem of a down payment. Except one, he was ok to do a down payment but no 50%. (Proposed 25% and still waiting for his agreement.)

 

[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]

Haven't been here in a while but wanted to post an update.

For the last 6 months I have been doing a lot more networking and a lot less cold calling. From June 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 I closed in total € 18,101 business with an actual € 11,483 coming into my company's bank account!

Still a long way to go but remembering where I was last year it feels a great place to be. Your messages mean a lot

 

[Vilox]

About recording - I have recorded myself in the past and done the daily review sessions but I wasn't sure about what I needed to look for...What is it that you look for when you review your call?

That's not a good question. If you didn't notice anything you're either a natural-born salesman or socially retarded.

Ask yourself: Were you satisfied with what you heard? Would you have been interested if you were the prospect? Personally, I had a lot of 'uhms' and 'ahs' in there. Another problem was delivery. I was too quiet, too fast, and too timid. It's not only what you say, but how you say it. Conviction goes a long way.

But those are issues you should notice yourself. If you find someone to help you, ONLY send them what you think is your best call. And for the love of god, show that you put some effort in. What do you think went well, what didn't? If you're running against a wall, what have you tried to get over it?

Case in point, it's been more than a year since I started my thread, and to this day I get dozens of messages like:

"sup, i'm afraid of picking up the phone, what should i do?".

Why on earth would I even dignify that with a response? I'm always happy to help you climb the ladder, but I'm not going to climb it for you. Here's a good message for comparison:

"I've been making 20 calls a day for the past two weeks. 48 calls ended with the secretary shooing me off. I tried to refer to their boss on a first-name basis to imply friendship, I pitched them directly, I asked to get connected to a decision maker. I even feigned anger once ("How dare you not connect me?!") to imply status, but all to no avail. Here's a recording that paints a good picture of the situation. I'm friendly, enthusiastic and accommodating, yet I get told in no uncertain terms that their boss is not interested. I was wondering if I could get you on a 10 minute call to discuss the matter."

 

[Stargazer]

(Not tested at all so take with pinch of salt. But am not a million miles from this.)

Hi. I'm not a customer but I just have a real quick question for you. I've been asking local plumbers why they don't upgrade their websites. After all you upgrade your phones, your tools and your vehicles on a regular basis. Heck, my mate upgrades his wife every 3 years. So what is your reason?'

And then deal with it.

So basically I am getting right to it. You don't know me and I am not enquiring about any work so want that switched off in their head immediately. Quickly move from their to yours to get them thinking they do upgrade. Reason I use upgrade is look at your TV. Upgraded right? Chuck a cheeky line in as I am talking to males and then waiting.

This would be for one man band types. An office would have a different lead in. More professional if you like.

Not saying use the above as I don't call plumber type people. Just want you to know how I kind of adapt what I learned about this Thomas Watson line years ago.

Dan

 

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[Crazy GG]

Day 26 Summary

Dials: 24
Reached: 9 (37.50%)
Leads: 1 (14.29%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Okay, so I really want to start recording my calls since a lot of people suggested it. I couldn't find a call recording software for the particular app I am using to call people, so I decided to just call myself with the computer. I can't hear the other person but I think it might be even better as I can focus 100% on what I say in isolation.

I edited out a couple bits of my opening pitch so please take a look and share honestly what you think. Please be as honest as possible!

This week I am calling carpenters. What I plan to do today is make a short video (slideshow) of explaining why a website might be useful to you. This is because I feel that a lot of people don't really trust me enough just from phone conversations to pull the trigger and buy, so if they could see me on a video at least, I think it would help in the sales process.

Crazy GG

 

[ManlyMansNegator]

Day 26 Summary

Dials: 24
Reached: 9 (37.50%)
Leads: 1 (14.29%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Okay, so I really want to start recording my calls since a lot of people suggested it. I couldn't find a call recording software for the particular app I am using to call people, so I decided to just call myself with the computer. I can't hear the other person but I think it might be even better as I can focus 100% on what I say in isolation.

I edited out a couple bits of my opening pitch so please take a look and share honestly what you think. Please be as honest as possible!

This week I am calling carpenters. What I plan to do today is make a short video (slideshow) of explaining why a website might be useful to you. This is because I feel that a lot of people don't really trust me enough just from phone conversations to pull the trigger and buy, so if they could see me on a video at least, I think it would help in the sales process.

Crazy GG

Not an expert but i feel as if you seem to almost "ramble" on the pitch.

The incessant uses of "yeahs" would make me cautious due to lack of professionalism. Speak with a level voice without too many "buzz words"(yea , you know etc). Words like umm, yea etc change a person mindset from being enchanted by your pitch to being bored. If you don't believe me, watch the Martin Luther speech with a yeah or an umm after every 10 seconds.

I am no marketing expert nor have I read much on sales, however, i have been told i am persuasive. Initially, after introducing yourself, you mustn't focus on yourself, you do not matter until you both meet or its an "About page" on your website. The only time you speak of yourself in depth is if the person is interested or you are using it acutely as a MARKETING SPIN. This might be arguably dependant on a scale but either way the introduction "...A young entrepreneur.... a shot in the dark .... i wasn't really sure... have you thought about getting one" is all about your shortcomings. Not everyone cares where you found them, nor about how many shots in the dark you have taken etc and DEFINITELY no one cares about your shortcomings everyone wants the sweet lie. Furthermore, would you trust your website with a failure?

Once again I am no expert so feel free to criticise me as well but this is how you could go about it.

"Hello. <name>, this is GG incorporated specializing in custom website design for small businesses. We recently found out that your website design doesn't seem to be up to date, is there a reason for that"

See how I end off with a question? he must answer and it leads to open-ended conversations.Do not ramble from there, just meet him/her with utter silence.

possible response:

"blah blah blah ... we have had no need for a website as we are catered in the area"

"That is understandably so. however, it seems many of your competitors have been using advanced website design to feign better prospects. They do less work for better pay, is that not a better outcome?"

Never attack the ego, to insult the ego of a small businessman is detrimental (personal experience).In fact, you should always support his ego in your own way. A slight supportive remark should suffice , once you do that create an us vs them atmosphere. Always push to competitor measuring, think of it as a keeping up with Joneses like. In the second part, you expose the tricks those tricky Joneses are using against your business. You show how they are inferior to a hard working gentleman such as him yet alas its an unjust world. The latter reaffirmed in "They do less work for better pay" finally finish off with an open ending question which they will definitely answer.

Unfortunately, this is how much information I can really confidently give, the rest is simply adaptive.Pushing for your credibility should come next and then a quick close.


A general method you can try to either support my claim or refute it is:

Extremely straightforward and brief intro ending with a lead question.

Support ego fuelled remarks in a positive light.

Create us vs them the system and/or create a world where people without your product are "less"(COVERTLY OFC)

Build short credibility


Close(i always fail here)

tips:

stop destroying your credibility, no ramblings, no ums or oohs, you are a story teller.

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 40 Summary - 2/3 Challenge Done

Dials: 20
Reached: 8 (40%)
Leads: 2 (25%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

My most interesting conversation today was with a decorator's wife.

Apparently this guy is super well-known for his work and he even received a medallion from the Queen made by her personal jeweller.

When I heard this, I obviously switched gears and said I would do the site for him pretty much for free just to get his testimonials and recommendations.

Unfortunately for me, the wife didn't see much value as the guy "didn't need to advertise" - the same old objection I still have trouble to overcome.

I tried to explain that I am not looking to advertise him but just put out his best work for the world to see online so when people want to check him out, they can.

She remained skeptical but friendly, so she gave me his email and said that even though he probably wouldn't be interested, maybe he can recommend me to someone who would be.

Gotta say - his wife was a pretty good saleswomen as I don't know if he is actually that good but she convinced me he was

 

[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

 

[Stargazer]

Sounds like a plan.

Do you have an ideal client type you are looking for?

And do you have an outline of what you are going to say when connected?

This might sound weird but have two pictures on your desk.

An average type of man and woman.

If a man answers talk to the male picture and if a woman vice versa.

Might just be me though. I like to 'see' who I am talking to.

Dan

 

[Crexty]

I'm happy to see this post. Not many people are willing to pickup the phone these days.

My advice for you would be to just get in there and start. I was once told this and it was the best advice ever given to me.

You're going to mess up on some of the calls.
You're going to get hung up on a lot.
You're going to annoy lots of people.
You're going to want to quit.

But just keep going, every no / negative reaction you get is 1 call closer to a yes.

People have made millions on the phone, you can too. Go get it

 

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[Crazy GG]

Day 2 Summary

Dials: 21
Reached: 10 (47.62%)
Leads: 0 (0%)

Okay, today was a big improvement in people reached as I actually got to talk to more businesses.

I kept my script similar to yesterday's because I wanted to call more people before I jumped to conclusions (I just made it a bit shorter).

Hi, this is Crazy GG. I was calling because I saw that (you don't seem to have a website) your site seems a bit outdated, so I wanted to reach out and ask if you have been thinking about (getting) updating it?
​

All of the people respond with NO to the first line (which I expect), so I try to ask them more about why they feel like a new website is not useful for them - some of them actually took the time to tell me why which is great because I got some info out of them!

My biggest thing to improve is to stay in the calls when they say NO and throw out the objections because I feel like I kind of give up when they say NO which is actually when the real sales begins (according to sales experts I have read).

So my goal for tomorrow is to stay in the calls no matter what as I am not allowed to drop the phone myself.

Till tomorrow, hustlers!

P.S. One guy asked me if the website I was offering was for free which was a bit funny. But I guess I wasn't really coming off as important, so I need to sound more assertive.

​

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 9 Summary

Dials: 25
Reached: 10 (40%)
Leads: 3 (30%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Still no solid prospects but got a couple of weak/medium leads.

I definitely feel more confident on the phone each day which by itself is a big win. However, I still lack confidence to go for the pitch and hence it comes out a bit "pushy".

I am still going in the conversations indirectly just asking the plumbers about their experience with Yellow pages and when they start talking, I find it difficult to transition to websites and hence when I try to transition to my services, it's not smooth at all.

Overall, next week I am planning to try a different niche as most of the plumbers seem one-man-traders and I want to see what the results would be in a different niche.

Crazy GG

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 13 & Day 14 Summary

Dials: 40
Reached: 13 (32.50%)
Leads: 4 (13%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Since I am travelling tomorrow the whole day and cannot make calls, I decided to make calls for both of the days today.

It was a great challenge as it was the first time I did 40 dials. I remember last year this time around I had so much anxiety that I couldn't even do more than 5 dials (no matter they picked up or not), so I feel like that itself is a small victory.

I started calling 8.30 AM local time and had an okay reach rate which got better towards 9.30 AM.

It was a little bit of everything today - 2 people said they were retiring, 2 people dropped the phone and I got 4 leads out of which 1-2 might be solid (follow ups will tell).

A big theme I hear is that many landscapers say "they have enough work and are not looking for more work", and what I say to that is that I am not necessarily looking to get them more work but to make them stand out from competition since everyone looks the same online in their niche. That gets their attention.

After I tell them I will send some of the sites I have done and tell them to just give it a thought - maybe their interest will spark. Maybe I should be doing qualifying but I don't want to irritate them too much since it's the first call and they don't know me.

Will see how the follow ups go but today was a good day I felt!

Crazy GG

 

[Crazy GG]

Day 21 Summary

Dials: 40
Reached: 11 (27.5%)
Leads: 2 (18%)
Prospects: 0 (0%)

Monday morning at I'm back at it.

Gotta admit - I procrastinated about 40 minutes today before starting to call as I really had low motivation/anxiety. But I knew I would have to call the people anyways so just picked up the phone and did it.

I called all the landscapers in my city last week so this week I am calling roofing companies. Their jobs are quite expensive so I think they are a good industry to try.

I got 2 leads that told me to email them. At this point I am completely expecting NOT INTERESTED when I first pitch, and I focus on the second pitch to get their interest. You will rarely find a person be interested right away (after all I am a stranger selling websites), and I find that when you anticipate initial resistance, it's easier to overcome it later.

I have a ton of follow up calls to do this afternoon, and I am really hoping any of those can turn into a sales call or a sale.

Other than that, I am not trying to re-invent the wheel and just trust the process.

Crazy GG