Hi everyone. This is my first post on this forum, I've been reading through it for the past few days and I couldn't help but sign up. The value I've gained from threads here in just the past few days beats all my college classes...combined. I've been active on various other money making and some marketing forums.
Background
So, since I was 14 (19 now) I've tried to start several companies, ecom sites, etc, all miserably failed. I even taught myself to code at 14 to make my own online game and make money off (it had really good traction...but my flaw which I point out in the next sentence happened lol). I have a tendency to overthink things, get emotional, and give up halfway through a new venture.
Although, the past year I've made incredible strides in my entrepreneurial ventures, from having a decent sized success, to getting my hands on critical courses and countless books. I've learned SO much, especially about sales and marketing.
I've learned so much from my previous failures, and I now understand that whenever I get emotional and overwhelmed it means I'm heading in the right direction and to stick to the plan instead of panicking. Anyways, recently, I've been reading a ton about customer acquisition, mainly cold calling and emailing.
Previously, my overthinking led me to believe you had to be trained by Jordan Belfort or a master copywriter to succeed in either. But, I've been reading a guy named 458's posts and stats about cold calling and his company and their results, and it's really inspired me.
I'm in college, so I have time and money constraints, but I'm determined to prove to myself that I'm capable of actually building an effective and successful business... I'm tired of all these half a** attempts and my failures. Money at this point is just a byproduct of what my goal is.
I plan to go in depth completely, step by step so if I manage to pull this off, someone like me can learn everything I did, even the little nuances, and if I fail, well here's an example of what not to do!
The Niche
First, I need an industry and a niche within that industry. In order to create a successful company, you need a product people will ACTUALLY buy and that's not a bs piece of crap that you're just trying to make money off of... made that mistake way too much. So, I'm going to pick an a decently sized industry (I eventually want to take a company to IPO level, and hopefully do hundreds of millions in revenue, I know this sounds ridiculous, but I like to dream big!) and the industry HAS to be possible to sell over the phone/over email (now that I think about it, are there any where you can't?)
To find the industry, I will do as the user 458 suggested in one of his threads:
"Start with finding all of the industry leaders in the Inc 500/5,000 list. Next put together a list of all the companies you can find in your specific niche along with there corresponding employee head count. Use the revenue and employee count from the companies reported in the Inc 500/5,000 list to determine average revenue brought in per employee. Next multiple this number times the total employee count you were able to determine. Next multiple this number by 2 and you now have a conservative estimate of market cap for a non publicly reported industry."
This will determine the industry I want to sell to. Next, (another idea 458 had, dude gives out straight GOLD) I will cold call 500 companies in this industry and find out what their most crucial problem is that they're currently experiencing. I have a decent idea of what I'll say to get owners on the phone, I'll supply that later.
The Product
Now, once I get this amount of feedback, I can then analyze all the different answers, and find commonalities. This commonality will be the problem I will solve to sell. This will most likely be one of the most difficult part. It will NOT be easy. Thankfully, I have really good connections I can leverage at any time for assistance.
Sales (The Lifeblood)
VOLUME, IT'S A NUMBERS GAME
For sales, I plan on leveraging cold email to start. I will compliment this later with cold calling as well as meet up groups and networking events. I've cold emailed before and have gotten subpar results. I sent 500 emails pitching companies on lead gen earlier this year, got 4 meetings, blew them all because I'd never been on a sales call, and got so nervous I completely forgot all of Jordan Belfort's Straight Line system and abandoned the script...
First, I plan on calling back the companies who gave me feedback about their biggest problems, and seeing if they're interested in the solution I've come up with. Next, I will conduct cold email campaigns.
It takes me about one hour to complete a list of 50 email leads. I plan on sending 150-200 emails every day to cold prospects.
I'm a numbers guy, and so many gurus act like they're gods at sales and teach people strategies, but never disclose REAL numbers and stats.
458 and his company had between a .08-.14% dial to sale ratio for cold calling. These guys are professional and are trained. I'm not. I also read a reddit thread where a guy who owned a company trained his cousin at a VERY basic level on the phone to cold call for him, apparently, he had roughly a .07% dial to sale ratio. So as far as cold calling, I will account for a .04% dial to sale ratio, because stuff always goes wrong and it's better to be conservative.
As far as my cold emailing campaigns, since my lead gen one got a .8% meeting rate, with an average of 175 cold emails a day (22 days a month because of weekends), that's 3850 emails each month. I should get roughly 23 meetings (.6% meeting rate to be conservative). If I can close 10%, that's 2 accounts a month. I'm thinking of charging 1k a month (on retainers for monthly income!) for the service I'll be offering, but that could change depending on what it ends up being.
For sales, my uncle (not to brag) owns a $200 million company that's entirely sales based, he's greatat guy and I plan on seeking his advice throughout this process for refining sales process and methods, as well as operations. My dad has also been successful in the data storage industry, and has done 2 startups, one sold for very big chunk of change so I plan on leveraging his thoughts and advice as well (he's a product guy, not so much sales).
End Goal
Build a really well oiled company that can run without me, but not so that I don't have to work. So that . I can spend my time expanding rapidly, it's my dream to make a 9 figure company and get an IPO. I will not give up this time, and this post will keep me accountable. Let's get it. I don't care if I have to put in 18 hours with this and school, I'll do it, I have nothing else that's better to do!
Background
So, since I was 14 (19 now) I've tried to start several companies, ecom sites, etc, all miserably failed. I even taught myself to code at 14 to make my own online game and make money off (it had really good traction...but my flaw which I point out in the next sentence happened lol). I have a tendency to overthink things, get emotional, and give up halfway through a new venture.
Although, the past year I've made incredible strides in my entrepreneurial ventures, from having a decent sized success, to getting my hands on critical courses and countless books. I've learned SO much, especially about sales and marketing.
I've learned so much from my previous failures, and I now understand that whenever I get emotional and overwhelmed it means I'm heading in the right direction and to stick to the plan instead of panicking. Anyways, recently, I've been reading a ton about customer acquisition, mainly cold calling and emailing.
Previously, my overthinking led me to believe you had to be trained by Jordan Belfort or a master copywriter to succeed in either. But, I've been reading a guy named 458's posts and stats about cold calling and his company and their results, and it's really inspired me.
I'm in college, so I have time and money constraints, but I'm determined to prove to myself that I'm capable of actually building an effective and successful business... I'm tired of all these half a** attempts and my failures. Money at this point is just a byproduct of what my goal is.
I plan to go in depth completely, step by step so if I manage to pull this off, someone like me can learn everything I did, even the little nuances, and if I fail, well here's an example of what not to do!
The Niche
First, I need an industry and a niche within that industry. In order to create a successful company, you need a product people will ACTUALLY buy and that's not a bs piece of crap that you're just trying to make money off of... made that mistake way too much. So, I'm going to pick an a decently sized industry (I eventually want to take a company to IPO level, and hopefully do hundreds of millions in revenue, I know this sounds ridiculous, but I like to dream big!) and the industry HAS to be possible to sell over the phone/over email (now that I think about it, are there any where you can't?)
To find the industry, I will do as the user 458 suggested in one of his threads:
"Start with finding all of the industry leaders in the Inc 500/5,000 list. Next put together a list of all the companies you can find in your specific niche along with there corresponding employee head count. Use the revenue and employee count from the companies reported in the Inc 500/5,000 list to determine average revenue brought in per employee. Next multiple this number times the total employee count you were able to determine. Next multiple this number by 2 and you now have a conservative estimate of market cap for a non publicly reported industry."
This will determine the industry I want to sell to. Next, (another idea 458 had, dude gives out straight GOLD) I will cold call 500 companies in this industry and find out what their most crucial problem is that they're currently experiencing. I have a decent idea of what I'll say to get owners on the phone, I'll supply that later.
The Product
Now, once I get this amount of feedback, I can then analyze all the different answers, and find commonalities. This commonality will be the problem I will solve to sell. This will most likely be one of the most difficult part. It will NOT be easy. Thankfully, I have really good connections I can leverage at any time for assistance.
Sales (The Lifeblood)
VOLUME, IT'S A NUMBERS GAME
For sales, I plan on leveraging cold email to start. I will compliment this later with cold calling as well as meet up groups and networking events. I've cold emailed before and have gotten subpar results. I sent 500 emails pitching companies on lead gen earlier this year, got 4 meetings, blew them all because I'd never been on a sales call, and got so nervous I completely forgot all of Jordan Belfort's Straight Line system and abandoned the script...
First, I plan on calling back the companies who gave me feedback about their biggest problems, and seeing if they're interested in the solution I've come up with. Next, I will conduct cold email campaigns.
It takes me about one hour to complete a list of 50 email leads. I plan on sending 150-200 emails every day to cold prospects.
I'm a numbers guy, and so many gurus act like they're gods at sales and teach people strategies, but never disclose REAL numbers and stats.
458 and his company had between a .08-.14% dial to sale ratio for cold calling. These guys are professional and are trained. I'm not. I also read a reddit thread where a guy who owned a company trained his cousin at a VERY basic level on the phone to cold call for him, apparently, he had roughly a .07% dial to sale ratio. So as far as cold calling, I will account for a .04% dial to sale ratio, because stuff always goes wrong and it's better to be conservative.
As far as my cold emailing campaigns, since my lead gen one got a .8% meeting rate, with an average of 175 cold emails a day (22 days a month because of weekends), that's 3850 emails each month. I should get roughly 23 meetings (.6% meeting rate to be conservative). If I can close 10%, that's 2 accounts a month. I'm thinking of charging 1k a month (on retainers for monthly income!) for the service I'll be offering, but that could change depending on what it ends up being.
For sales, my uncle (not to brag) owns a $200 million company that's entirely sales based, he's greatat guy and I plan on seeking his advice throughout this process for refining sales process and methods, as well as operations. My dad has also been successful in the data storage industry, and has done 2 startups, one sold for very big chunk of change so I plan on leveraging his thoughts and advice as well (he's a product guy, not so much sales).
End Goal
Build a really well oiled company that can run without me, but not so that I don't have to work. So that . I can spend my time expanding rapidly, it's my dream to make a 9 figure company and get an IPO. I will not give up this time, and this post will keep me accountable. Let's get it. I don't care if I have to put in 18 hours with this and school, I'll do it, I have nothing else that's better to do!
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