90 Day Cold Calling Challenge

[Crazy GG]

Is your location of Riga, Latvia incorrect?

Clearly you are part of the club

Dan

I was born in Riga, Latvia. I am currently in United Kingdom for the time being, however!

What club?

 

[Stargazer]

The British one of course.

Anyhow, not to deflect you from your current path but have you thought about selling your services in conjunction with a third party?

eg, Book-Keepers, Accountants (slightly harder for you) Printers, Work Wear Retailers, Equipment retailers to the end user you are trying to target? That sort of thing.

Dan

 

[Crazy GG]

The British one of course.

Anyhow, not to deflect you from your current path but have you thought about selling your services in conjunction with a third party?

eg, Book-Keepers, Accountants (slightly harder for you) Printers, Work Wear Retailers, Equipment retailers to the end user you are trying to target? That sort of thing.

Dan

I haven't but maybe down the road!

 

[SEBASTlAN]

How many leads/sales so far?

 

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[Maxboost]

So far, what have been the top 5 objections? Sticking points?

 

[Crazy GG]

So far, what have been the top 5 objections? Sticking points?

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?

 

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[Maxboost]

Record yourself and ask if you would continue talking to yourself...

It's not what you say but how you say it...

Post on here if you want us to critique it.....

 

[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]

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.

 

[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

 

[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]

Thanks for all the tips - I appreciate the time you put into this.

I wanted to ask you more about 2 specific points...

Another edit:

Don't say your product can "potentially help" - tell them specifics like "generates 5 more leads per week, ranks businesses to the top of google"... etc.

"Differentiating businesses by making businesses stand out" is a weak value prop. The sentence really doesn't say anything or tell me what you're selling.

It would be much better to just say "We offer the best social media branding system in California. Most clients make back $500 for every $100 they spend with us. We do the first month for free because 97% of our customers sign on anyway..."

I know what you are saying but on the flipside if I say to them "I can get you on the top of google" they have heard that pitch 100x times and they know I cannot guarantee them that. Same with getting their business 10 new jobs / month - I cannot really guarantee them that and since most of them have been burned before they need someone who they can trust.

For instance, if I say I can double their business in the next year, that's a huge value-proposition but that will immediately ring their alarm bells, so I have to be realistic.

At the same time, nothing ever is guaranteed in life, so I guess you just have to be bold enough to say you are going to do something and then finding ways on how to do it.

You are right - my product is not that tested ( I don't have many testimonials) so I am not that confident. But I have some so I should have confidence.

But I like your advice about being more specific.

Another edit:

Why do you call and then immediately give them control? You pick up and then say "I assume you're busy, can I call you back later?"

I see that you stop a lot and "ask for their permission" to continue. It comes across as lacking confidence. Just go go go, don't wait for them to give you the green light.

Just go balls deep - you shouldn't care if they want you to continue or not - you have VALUE and you HAVE to let them know.

A lot of times when I call them, they are working so they don't have my full attention so I try to get them to a time where I can have their full attention.

Also, I feel like if I ask for permission, that shows social calibration and they are more likely to listen and I am less likely to sound like a sales person. If I just go and fire away I might lose them - I guess that'a fear I have.

Would be interested to find out your thoughts about this,

Thanks

 

[MaxKhalus]

Update

So I have had a bit of time to reflect on my cold calling challenge and journey itself.

Results

Even though I didn't achieve my main goal which was to have a sustainable business at the end of 3 months, I still achieve goals #1 and #2 which was mostly about taking important action every day.

I feel like my method and execution wasn't the best but I got over stage 1 which holds most people back for most of their lives - fear.

As for the results themselves - even though I got only 1 client, it was the first client ever from cold calling. Also, in total I managed to send out 5 proposals from which I am still awaiting 1 response.

I also received my first ever referral (it was from that 1 cold calling client) and I am also awaiting his response for a proposal.

Mistakes

One mistake I made in the beginning was not being direct enough. I thought if I will be speaking more and general then it will sound less like a cold call which obviously didn't produce many results.

Another mistake was focusing too much on just completing the task, not doing it well. I think it's important to not be a perfectionist but I was too focused on just making the call rather than actually making a GOOD call (and trying to close). Part of it was that I didn't believe in myself.

Future

In the next following weeks, I will test a bit different approach.

@Stargazer has suggested approaching accountants and offering them a free site which I will do.

I will also begin my prospecting by Facebook outreach (warm intro + qualifying the leads since if they have a good FB page they probably care about their online presence) and follow up with a call.

Big thanks to everyone who helped me along the way. I really think my journey has just started.

I might make another execution thread in a while but for now I will disappear into the trenches and try to make something happen.

P.S. Is anyone looking for an accountability partner?

thx for sharing your mistakes. that's the first thing we need to look to get the best results

 

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[MaxKhalus]

Another thing I forgot to say:

When you tell them what you do...

Make it niche specific.

Don't say "I help businesses get more clients"

Say "I help florists get more wedding jobs"

Don't say "I help businesses get more clients"

Say "I help dentists get new patients to walk through their doors"

Don't say "I help businesses get more clients"

Say "I help mechanics get more cars in the shop"

Or in your case with the social media or branding or whatever you're doing, say "I help local florists get more jobs through social media campaigns. Especially more weddings"

That will floor them and their ears will automatically open up. They don't care about "I help businesses get more clients"

is there a way to replace "help" and "get" for something specific? or more compelling.
Don't just get more sales, explode in revenue, for example.

 

[Deleted68316]

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

that's amazing man.

 

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[DW85014]

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!

Curious how many people are still cold-calling regularly today. I'm curious if cold-emailing /Linkedin is more effective (ditching /ducking gatekeepers0?

 

[cikatomo]

Not sure where this conversations is supposed to go. Just tell them what you're about, but frame it in a way that's beneficial to them. Something along the lines of:

I help companies acquire and retain customers through the Internet vs. I build websites

Good job on keeping the streak going!

And after I get 2 plumbers to hire me I would change to: Plumbers usually hire me to help them get more customers etc etc..

 

[cikatomo]

I wanted to ask "do you think your girlfriend will be able to make a site of such a quality you are hoping for?"

This is delicate situation. Does anybody know how to handle this one?

 

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