Cold Callers: I want your opinion!

[Doug Smith]

I've been cold calling for the last five years. It's been easy for me since I only call a particular niche and our script is proven over the last 19 years.

I would suggest trying different variations of "who handles the office cleaning" or "Who do I talk to about cleaning invoices"

The trick is to get the name, or anything that will help you get closer to the sale. Even if the gatekeeper shuts you down, you know who to ask for next time you call.

I also never take the hangups and "not interested" personally. These people get probably 50 cold calls a day from every industry you can think of. They just want to get back to their work, or instagram, or whatever they are doing.

If you aren't already tracking your calls, I recommend doing so. This will help you to understand predictable numbers (100 calls, 50 contacts, 20 productive conversations, 10 appointments, 4 sales)

Hope it helps.

 

[Get Right]

If it were my business I would scrap the cold calling. Why? Because gatekeepers expect that type of service business to cold call. I would break that process up more like:
1. Find the worst cleaning companies in your area (google reviews to start).
2. Find their customers (trail them, whatever).
3. Identify the "cherry" customers you want to pick. It might only take 1 property management company to get you 30+ jobs.
4. Drop in the gatekeepers office with a flower arrangement.
5. Have a card on the arrangement that says "We can do better".
6. Call them the next day to ask if they liked the flowers and if you could have 2 minutes with the Manager to tell him how you can do better.
7. Show up to the meeting (with your crew waiting in the lobby with mops and buckets).
8. Have your pitch tailored to "solve" the most common of the google complaints against their current company. Then make him tell you no

9 BONUS - If he does say no, try to find out a way to "bump" into him at another event/restaurant/charity event whatever. Call him by his name and ask if they "solved" their cleaning issues. You know, show him you mean business about providing him value.

Good luck man, been there

 

[Vigilante]

I have a cold caller working on a project for me right now. We rented a list, so we know the exact names and positions and contact information of the targets we want to reach. There's not a hard emphasis on the total number of calls per day because we don't want the call to come off like a sales call. It's a discussion, information, and we are offering the call recipient something for free with no strings attached as a hook. It's going extremely well.

 

[Fox]

Take @Vigilante advice and slow down. Higher quality and less quantity.

Since you are keeping this thread really active I am guessing you are highly motivated to learn.
I want to breakdown our recent PMs to see how you can improve your style of communication.
I would never share PMs but these are really generic and its nothing you havent already posted here...










Your style of communication is very one way. You asked me for something, I gave it to you, you asked for more.

I don't know how you are cold calling but if its this same mindset you won't get far.
No business owner wants to be sold to.
They don't care how good you are at cleaning carpets, they don't care how cheap you are.

They only care about themselves. Their problems, their issues, their clients, their business.

Are you really adding value dialling 100 businesses a day.
Do you even know who you are talking to and what is going on with their business?
Are they anything more than a number that either say yes or no?

If they are (and I am sure you really do want to help people) you need to start communicating this.

How?

Slow down and add a LOT more value.

For example:

Compare these two examples:

Random Week One:
You cold call 100 businesses each day with the same pitch and try get a response.

Random Week Two:
You drive down to your business conference centre wait and see what time they open at.
You then note what time their first customers start arriving. You walk in and check the quality of the carpet.
You come back later around noon and check again.
You can see that after the free lunch buffet the carpet looks pretty rough and little bits of food have gotten pushed in.
You notice though that the staff are trained a little in cleaning so by 1pm it is usually back looking okay.
On Thursdays though they always have a very large crowd for a weekly local business meeting of over 500 people after lunch.
The staff usually don't have time to clean it as well as they could since they have to set up the tables and equipment for the meeting.
Basically the carpet is at its worse when the most people are there.

You then call up this business...

"Hey is Tim there (you asked around and got his name), its about the local business meeting on Thurdays"
"Hey Tim its Crexty, I have been down to the centre a few times and noticed on Thursday you guys are really struggling to get things tidy in time for the weekly meet up. Its a shame cause its your busiest time with a lot of business owners and I know that suually it looks amazing. I got a crew who is always in that area around that time and they could pop in and do a quick clean for one hour at a great rate. Ill even do the first week free and see what you think..."

- One week later you do the free cleaning
- Tim hires you
- Month later he is stuck and asks you to do their second location down town. You end up getting the night cleaning contract there also.
- Three months later you start to get referrals cause local businesses have been noticing the carpet is way cleaner before their local meet up. They see your crew looking super professional and a nice clean truck in the carpark with your number on the side.

And so on.

Thats my advice. Start with THEM first thinking and communicating.
It isn't about you and your call %, its about them and their business.

 

[Vigilante]

What are you doing to get around gatekeepers? If you don't mind me asking. What industry are you in and what % of your calls do you connect to a Gatekeeper?

When you have the name of the direct contact you are after there are few gatekeeper issues. It's when you are calling without enough information that you relay the fact that you don't know who you are looking for. That's how you hit gatekeepers. Rather than making a hundred calls a day, I would scale it back to 20 calls a day with the balance of the time spent researching your targets.

We are going into very protected Industries but the list we bought from InfoUSA at 1.50/contact was worth every penny.

 

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[jpanarra]

Hey man!

Cold calling is a major challenge but its really necessary for my business. I do websites, and my challenge with cold calling is that I'm deaf and I struggle with cold calls because of the relay service that is in between myself and the prospect.

The most time consuming thing about cold calling is to actually the prospecting step. If you dont prospect well as in researching who they are, their names. Creep a bit on facebook and maybe find something with common ground like a group or so. When you call them be like

"Hey, It's jason. I'm calling mark is he avaliable right now or no?" Make it sound like you're somone that knows him personally. Then when you get in touch, refrence the common ground and thats how you came across him. Its time comsuming and I spend maybe 10 hours a week on it, but it makes my cold calling rate go from like 2-3% close to like 10-15% close.

This being said, I'm actually working on a direct solution for this issue on the inside. Only because I noticed it was a major need for me and I assume that others need it as well..

 

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[1step]

You are speaking to 3% of the DMs that you call and I am of the opinion that no matter how many times you adjust your pitch you percent will only move a tiny bit and that's because your offer is poor. The people you are calling don't know you, don't trust you and in general don't know they need your services.

People have already suggested multiple ways to reach new clients that will overcome these common objections including:

2. Find their customers (trail them, whatever).
3. Identify the "cherry" customers you want to pick. It might only take 1 property management company to get you 30+ jobs.

and

One of my AdWords clients is interested in offering residential cleaning services. We ran a small test this week. He got 10 enquiries for £70.

and even me

If your service is so great and you are so good at closing once you get in front of the right person then offer the business a free cleaning with no strings attached.

You have ignored this advice as well as the advice of someone who was in the cleaning business for many years:

I still don't understand why you gave up the maid business and think you will make as much in the commercial business. It's not even close on the hourly average. I used to hang with hundreds of commercial cleaners in this association I was in many years ago and most of them had money struggles all the time.

and

I've been around a couple of the cleaning blocks and I am actually wearing the t-shirt to prove it. Not near as much money in commercial cleaning as residential and not very much of a profit to be made at all. But we can agree to disagree. Now back to the originally schedule program

I feel like you are blowing off these suggestions but I will try one more time.

Let me give you an example that may hit home a bit better...

You are a business owner who is doing ok getting leads for their business at a rate of 3% - someone approaches you and says they have seen clients have success with getting leads via adwords. You think your current method works ok so it's not worth it to go out and spend money on a new way because your way is working ok. Besides you don't even have the time to talk with him about his way and the types of results he sees. So instead you blow him off and continue on your way. (This essentially just happened)

However what if he said, I know this will work for you, I am going to take $100 of my own money and put it into my adwords account and drive clients to you. He does that and you get 12 leads who turn into 2 paying customers at $300 a month each.

Now you're thinking, shit this guy knows what he's doing I better pay him to run these ads for me so I can keep getting leads and paying customers. So you sign up with him

This analogy can easily apply to your own situation....

You are calling gate keepers who are doing ok with their current cleaning company - someone approaches them and says they can do their cleaning better. You think your current method works ok, I mean the DM doesn't complain that much but he does complain about all the calls he gets. So it's not worth it to forward him another salesman to try and sell them something thats not needed. Besides last time someone promised awesome cleaning and they just do an ok job and the time before that the same thing happened so why waste time with another lying cleaning company. The DM doesn't have time to talk with another salesman about this. So instead they blow you off and continue on your way.

Anyway, in sales I would encourage you to see the problem through the eyes of the buyer. If you can think of the issues they have in the buying process and recognize it from their eyes you can better adjust your sales process to show them something they haven't seen before and make it impossible for them to say no.

 

[Andy Black]

Let me give you an example that may hit home a bit better...

You are a business owner who is doing ok getting leads for their business at a rate of 3% - someone approaches you and says they have seen clients have success with getting leads via adwords. You think your current method works ok so it's not worth it to go out and spend money on a new way because your way is working ok. Besides you don't even have the time to talk with him about his way and the types of results he sees. So instead you blow him off and continue on your way. (This essentially just happened)

However what if he said, I know this will work for you, I am going to take $100 of my own money and put it into my adwords account and drive clients to you. He does that and you get 12 leads who turn into 2 paying customers at $300 a month each.

Now you're thinking, sh*t this guy knows what he's doing I better pay him to run these ads for me so I can keep getting leads and paying customers. So you sign up with him

This analogy can easily apply to your own situation....

You are calling gate keepers who are doing ok with their current cleaning company - someone approaches them and says they can do their cleaning better. You think your current method works ok, I mean the DM doesn't complain that much but he does complain about all the calls he gets. So it's not worth it to forward him another salesman to try and sell them something thats not needed. Besides last time someone promised awesome cleaning and they just do an ok job and the time before that the same thing happened so why waste time with another lying cleaning company. The DM doesn't have time to talk with another salesman about this. So instead they blow you off and continue on your way.

Anyway, in sales I would encourage you to see the problem through the eyes of the buyer. If you can think of the issues they have in the buying process and recognize it from their eyes you can better adjust your sales process to show them something they haven't seen before and make it impossible for them to say no.

Geniusly done. Rep+


@Crexty. Re-read that. And work out how @1step is "selling" you (on a different way of thinking).

He's essentially doing "Show, don't tell." He's trying to show you how the people you're approaching are thinking.



Given I'm in the lead gen business, if I was to cold-call anyone it wouldn't be with "Hi, I'm Andy. I generate leads for commercial cleaners. What's the name of the business owner so I can tell him how much better I can do than his current AdWords agency/Yellow Pages/cold calling/cold emailing strategies?"

That's me TELLing them of the value I could add.

I'd rather SHOW them the value I have already added.

"Hi Gatekeeper. Do you clean offices? Do you cover <location>? I have an enquiry of someone looking to get their 190 square foot office cleaned every week. I'm trying to find someone who can speak to them in the next hour. Is this something you can help them with? Would you be able to speak to them within the next hour? Do you know someone who might be?"


Saying that, I don't do the above yet. I've tested it and it worked great, but I get enough inbound leads to keep me busy for the moment.

I also do a lot of this:

• "Spend your money on diesel and coffee"

This story might help you:

• Show, don't tell

More tips for you:

Try not to take every conversation to PM. You'll get more input and help from people if you keep everything in this thread. It will also help others who are in the same boat. Indeed, we'll all learn, and the rising tide will lift all boats.

Consider not asking people how well they think something will do. We're not your target market. Test it on your target market. You don't need permission to do it. Give yourself permission, do it, and report back?

I appreciate you're trying to keep the thread just on cold-calling, but sometimes the best advice can be to do something different instead. The best advice I heard about monetising with Adsense was to not use Adsense. Lol.

Don't ask people what industry they're in. They won't say, and it's irrelevant in some ways. The take-away from @Vigilante's comment is to not have a target of 100 scatter-gun calls a day, but to consider screening prospects better in the first place, and initiating contact with them with a more personalised and more value added approach. That advice is the gold, not what industry he's in.

I'll happy have a chat with you and do some keyword research etc if we can record it and drop it into the forum to help others.

You're biggest competitor is not your competitors - it's apathy and inertia.

"Show, don't tell" your prospects that it's worth the time and risk to switch cleaning service provider.

Good luck!

 

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[jpanarra]

If you aren't already tracking your calls, I recommend doing so. This will help you to understand predictable numbers (100 calls, 50 contacts, 20 productive conversations, 10 appointments, 4 sales)

1000x this... the best sales people know their numbers and where they can improve themselves.

 

[minivanman]

After 20 years on the internet I finally asked because usually people get their feelings hurt and start crying when I tell them things and then a year later they tell me I was right and wish they would have listened. lol So I was just asking.....

In your head, you are the best and most different cleaner in the world. You want to offer things that no others usually offer. You want to do this and you want to do that.... But these people deal with people like you calling them every day and promising them the moon..... problem is that they usually don't do a very good job and end up just like the last cleaner. But is it the cleaners fault? In commercial cleaning it is usually a race to the bottom. Most businesses hire the cheapest company.... get what they pay for.... then bitch and complain because they want a million dollar job for $100.

Let's take 1 month of a business like you want. Lots of cold calling, maybe a few bids now you wait for an answer..... you finally have to call them back just to get a NO!

Now let's take a residential cleaning business. Advertise, start getting interested, potential customers within just a few minutes sometimes. You could go on a bid or 2 that same day and if you know what you are doing.... get the job and have it cleaned within 48 hours with money in your pocket. Speaking of money.... in commercial work you have to wait 30-45-60-90-will they ever pay?

But if you just MUST be in the commercial cleaning business, you can do a few different things. Call the Montessori schools in your area. You might get lucky. There are a lot of people that sub-contract from larger companies. It's a start as long as you don't do it too long, just long enough to learn the ropes.

The thing that could set you apart is doing floor work. That is the business you should get in to if you want to be in the cleaning business. No carpet, just strip/wax/buff jobs. That way you could get in with the other commercial cleaners in your area. There is decent money in floor work but nothing to write home to mom about.

Commercial cleaning is a tough business to get in to for a few reasons. If you do get a break and had the opportunity to bid on and get a big job.... then you have to fund it for 60++ days. That's why the big companies have all the big accounts unless some guy just has a boat load of money he wants to fund a commercial cleaning business with.

 

[Crexty]

Wow. Thanks for the input.

I agree that commercial cleaning is hard to get into, but I don't see eye to eye with you on business.

There is millions of square feet of commercial property in just one small city. 54% of companies will fire their current cleaning company due to quality issues.

The thing is I am actually adding value to the serivce. I'm not just providing "Over the moon" cleaning. My company has many features that nobody else is doing in my city (too my extensive knowledge) that allow the owners to get amazing cleaning without having to oversee , and a couple other things i'd rather not say here. I have gotten clients from cold calling and always get price objections. But when they see what I'm offering and I carefully go over it when them, they see how we add value and differ from most (if not all) companies.

I'm not having problems with my closing when I get in front of people, my rates for amount of closes to proposals/presentations is very good. I'm just not good with getting in their door (cold calling).

I owned a house cleaning service and sold it. I prefer this service to that honestly.

Thank you so much for that information, I do really appreciate the info

 

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[ButGregSaid]

Thank you for your input and I apologize if it looks like i'm "putting off everyones suggestions". Matter fact, every idea somebody has posted here I have put in my list of ideas and will test each and every one.

This thread for me was and is to see how much I can improve my Lead Gen, through cold calling and cold emailing. If you have read my whole thread, you seen that I have gotten accounts from cold calling. I just believe I can do a better job at it (especially including a email follow up system).

I'm not trying to sound ignorant and I am super appreciative of all feedback i'm receiving (including yours). But like I said, my main goal with this is to see how I can improve my Cold Calling/Emailing process/scripts.

I thought it was Tim Ferris who mentioned something about timing being important but I can't seem to find it in his book - 4 Hour Workweek... If I come across it I'll let you know but if my memory serves me right (and maybe someone else can weigh in if they've read it) - he mentions that admins have a tendency to arrive right on time (whether that's 8am or 9am) and leave right at 5. The people they work for usually arrive early and leave late so you might have better luck getting past them 30 minutes before the scheduled open time or 30 minutes after the close. Have you tried this? If you do, let me know how it works.. I'll be curious.

 

[FlipFlops]

Quit cold calling - Its a waste of time.

Write note cards to your current clients saying, "Thank you for your business... If there is anything you need call me..... " Seriously in todays junk mail environment, how many personal hand written, hand addressed note cards do you get? If you received one, I am 100% certain you would open it.

HAND written, authentic note cards... Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Merry Christmas...
I've made serious $ by just writing note cards, saying Thank you: For your input, your advice, your business relationship, your help....

Give before you receive.
Reap before you sow.

Then follow up with a phone call a week after you mail it, see how they are doing, and ask for a referral. You'll get a 75% referral rate.

Sales is about relationship management. Not fleece 'em and forget 'em. Cold call etc.

If you insist on wasting your time (cold calling):​

Get a burner phone call and say, "This is Joe, down the street, I'm looking for a cleaner for my office, do you have anybody you would recommend?"
They respond with Bla bla bla.
Then ask if they are "TRULY satisfied with your cleaner..." More bla bla bla see what the weaknesses are with the current cleaners. Wait a few weeks and call them back with, "I offer fantastic cleaning services, Bla bla bla" make your strengths the others weaknesses.

 

[Real Deal Denver]

The good thing is that every business owner has an office that needs cleaned. That's a big market.

Wow. That thought alone makes me want to open a sideline gig to get in this business. All I have to do is outmaneuver my competition - which I've been doing since I was nine. It's not hard - more on that later in this post...

It's unusual for a business with employees not to have a cleaning service. What you're doing is trying to take business away from someone else.

The market is already there, and it's proven. How many business' can say that? It's like selling tires. Everyone is going to need them, sooner or later. That's more than half the battle already won!

Are you really adding value dialling 100 businesses a day.
Do you even know who you are talking to and what is going on with their business?
Are they anything more than a number that either say yes or no?

If they are (and I am sure you really do want to help people) you need to start communicating this.

How?

Slow down and add a LOT more value.

I NEVER ask someone a yes or no question. Talk about setting myself up for failure! I always present a CHOICE. Example: would you prefer your present cleaning service to be cheaper or better? Really? I'm surprised to hear that. So you don't have any complaints - or - So you like everything the way they do it right now, except you think the price is a bit high? I'm GLAD to hear that, because...

That is the difference between SELLING and COLD calling. Nobody likes COLD...

This is my experience in cold calling. And I admit that I do things differently to most other people. But that's because I don't like spinning my wheels. And I don't like wasting the time of the people I want to do business with.

EXACTLY. Instead of using a shotgun approach and thinking the more people you contact the better - do this instead - TARGET and TAILOR your approach - in other words, CUSTOMIZE your approach to WIN POINTS with EVERY single contact. We've already established that EVERY office needs your services - and you are not inventing this service, but TAKING existing customers away from your competition - and this can be done EFFECTIVELY with a little selling. Using all of that INFORMATION, and applying it, will result in you NOT spinning your wheels and wasting time. Quit treating gatekeepers like they are just a name on your list - which they are. Nobody likes to deal with such COLD selling. It is irritating AND a waste of time. It's a good thing you have such a NECESSARY service to sell, because there is no way you could ever sell something that is not a necessity. I've sold things people/offices could ABSOLUTELY do without. I can only dream about selling something they need AND are already using. Geeeesh!

You can make 100 cold calls and get to speak to just a few people.

Or you can make just a few warm calls. Filled with knowledge about the company so you can engage anyone in a conversation about them and their company. And get a better YES ratio.

I've already stated this, but Carol puts it much milder. Shotgun or bullet approach? I use a very effective "I care" one on one approach, and I get astounding success rates. I should. Like I said earlier - there is a world of difference between selling and cold calling. Since there are numerous books on this, downloadable even, and very cheap - there is no need to beat this topic to death here anymore.

And never end a phone conversation. Or an email. Without giving them some meaningful advice - for free - about how they can get the best results from their current cleaner.

You will be amazed at how memorable that makes you.

That is called "establishing rapport" with customers. And that leads to "customer relationships" which leads to business, which leads to referrals. Take the right direction, and look what can happen!

Then follow up with a phone call a week after you mail it, see how they are doing, and ask for a referral. You'll get a 75% referral rate.

Sales is about relationship management. Not fleece 'em and forget 'em. Cold call etc.

And this sums it all up so nicely! If you understand "sales" as is stated above, you can sell anything. Like MJ entered, and then dominated, the Limo business - a good sales person can enter ANY business and cut out their portion of the market - and that's whether or not the market's saturated or not. Be glad you are not going up against anyone that I've quoted in this post. They would move in and take over.

QUIT cold calling and be a sales warrior. One example - DON'T ask if you can PM someone. That's like asking - can you ask me a question. No. What does that convey? Weakness. Just DO IT. Learn to use lead in phrases like... Really? I'm surprised you say that. I'm glad you said that... and so on. You have to be confident - skilled - and assertive - and MOST of all LISTEN. If you learn HOW to listen, the customer will tell you what they want without saying what they want. Selling is GUIDING your customer to your goal. Good selling is LETTING your customer guide themselves to your goal. I don't see "cold calling" fitting into that very well. I DO see "selling" - even though it may be a NEW call over a phone - working quite well. Worlds of differences.

You should be so grateful to have all this advice here. It's all solid gold, and none of it is difficult to implement. Get some books. And. Then. Just. Do. It.

 

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[minivanman]

Yes, just a part of the reason I never tried to get commercial accounts to go along with my residential accounts. Too time consuming. The only commercial accounts we had were only because a residential customer wanted us to clean for their business or their husband's company.

My friend had a large commercial cleaning business in Michigan. Here is what he always did when he was about to sit down to speak with whom ever was in charge of cleaning.... he would use his hand to act like he was dusting off the seat of the chair. It was just a little mind game he played to make them think their current cleaner wasn't cleaning the chairs.

Do you also do floor work? Carpet/strip/wax/buff?

 

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[minivanman]

Oh yeah, just to add on a little, I once knew a girl that cold called for a large company back about 5 years ago. This company had several franchisee's. They gave her a phone book and she dialed number after number. Most of the meetings she set up were with places like a daycare or a trucking company, maybe a small office that has 2-5 rooms.... but this franchise had to get it's franchisee's work, that was part of the agreement. So these people bought in to a business that got them crap work for little pay. The moral of this story.... it's even hard for bigger businesses to get commercial work so don't think it will be easy for you. I'm not sure how big you wanted your business to be but as far as a big money-maker.... commercial cleaning probably is not even a slow lane way to get to the top.

By the way.... she dialed for roughly 6 hours per day and usually got 3 meetings set up per day.

 

[Scuur]

I cold call for my business a lot


I highly recommend reading Jordan Belfort's new book the way of the wolf. Regardless of what you think of him.
Two things your not trying to turn No's into Yes's
70% of calls are closeable.
Also get rid of the could just tell people what you want.

here's a similar script to what I use I don't know if it would work.
Hey my name is <Name> , Hey Real Quick, Can I speak to whoever in charge of your office? "Use a reasonable tonality like your trying reason with someone." Then they will ask what this for just answer: Regarding cleaning. "Use like a concerning slow tonality like your mom did when you were in trouble."they'll be like oh shit it's not clean

If you know their name.
Hey this (name) can I speak to John regarding cleaning?

If you get objections I usually expect 2 to 3 objections in my industriey so I like to list what ever they say as objects the docs out we have somone else etc
I'll list the first objection not sure if it will work in your industry but it might.
______________________________________
Objection --- There not here right now etc

tell the gatekeeper I’m sorry I didn’t Catch your name?

tell the gatekeeper Ask for whoever's in charges name.

use their Name say thanks and you will call back a different time.

call back in like in a 2 or 3 days

like Hi this in (name) can I speak with (name) please?
____________________________________________________

 

[Scuur]

Hi @Scurr, sounds like you've got a decent handle on the cold call script you've developed. Would love to pick your brain.

Also, do you have resources that would point me in the direction to get my feet wet with cold calling? I currently work full-time on the East Coast but would love to try my hand in Cold-Calling scripts to get some experience so that I may eventually transition into Sales from my current full-time position.

Thanks in advance!
Andrew

Sure send me a PM, also @Vilox is the one who helped me. His post is definitely worth reading. I made my scripts through trial and error. A big issue was when I had a friend start cold calling. That's when I realized a script may work for me but not for them. Since then I have rebuilt the script one hundred times. I looked for outside sources in books the straight-line method by Jordan Belfort. As well as never split the difference. It mostly came down to just calling people day in and day out. Learn from failures, you will know if a script is going to work within the first 25 phone calls.

 

[Andy Black]

I get calls and inquiries here and then from my website from SEO and yelp.

I've spoken with plenty of people about PPC, yelp ads, etc. Almost all have said its not worth it.

I am in a large networking group for this industry. Most are growing from refferal, cold calls , door to door, and direct mail (don't have that kind of money to test around with direct mail)

Meh to what others say. Test stuff yourself.

One of my AdWords clients is interested in offering residential cleaning services. We ran a small test this week. He got 10 enquiries for £70.

B2B volumes would be lower than B2C, but paid search “fails safe” - if no-one is searching then your ads don’t show, no-one clicks on them, and you have no ad spend.

Just something to think about.

 

[minivanman]

You are speaking to 3% of the DMs that you call and I am of the opinion that no matter how many times you adjust your pitch you percent will only move a tiny bit and that's because your offer is poor. The people you are calling don't know you, don't trust you and in general don't know they need your services.

People have already suggested multiple ways to reach new clients that will overcome these common objections including:

and

and even me


You have ignored this advice as well as the advice of someone who was in the cleaning business for many years:

and


I feel like you are blowing off these suggestions but I will try one more time.

Let me give you an example that may hit home a bit better...

You are a business owner who is doing ok getting leads for their business at a rate of 3% - someone approaches you and says they have seen clients have success with getting leads via adwords. You think your current method works ok so it's not worth it to go out and spend money on a new way because your way is working ok. Besides you don't even have the time to talk with him about his way and the types of results he sees. So instead you blow him off and continue on your way. (This essentially just happened)

However what if he said, I know this will work for you, I am going to take $100 of my own money and put it into my adwords account and drive clients to you. He does that and you get 12 leads who turn into 2 paying customers at $300 a month each.

Now you're thinking, sh*t this guy knows what he's doing I better pay him to run these ads for me so I can keep getting leads and paying customers. So you sign up with him

This analogy can easily apply to your own situation....

You are calling gate keepers who are doing ok with their current cleaning company - someone approaches them and says they can do their cleaning better. You think your current method works ok, I mean the DM doesn't complain that much but he does complain about all the calls he gets. So it's not worth it to forward him another salesman to try and sell them something thats not needed. Besides last time someone promised awesome cleaning and they just do an ok job and the time before that the same thing happened so why waste time with another lying cleaning company. The DM doesn't have time to talk with another salesman about this. So instead they blow you off and continue on your way.

Anyway, in sales I would encourage you to see the problem through the eyes of the buyer. If you can think of the issues they have in the buying process and recognize it from their eyes you can better adjust your sales process to show them something they haven't seen before and make it impossible for them to say no.

Mic drop right here........

 

[ButGregSaid]

Try not to take every conversation to PM. You'll get more input and help from people if you keep everything in this thread. It will also help others who are in the same boat. Indeed, we'll all learn, and the rising tide will lift all boats.

You are absolutely right Andy, I apologize - I should have known that. Crexty, lets keep our chats on this thread!

 

[Crexty]

Take @Vigilante advice and slow down. Higher quality and less quantity.

Since you are keeping this thread really active I am guessing you are highly motivated to learn.
I want to breakdown our recent PMs to see how you can improve your style of communication.
I would never share PMs but these are really generic and its nothing you havent already posted here...


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Your style of communication is very one way. You asked me for something, I gave it to you, you asked for more.

I don't know how you are cold calling but if its this same mindset you won't get far.
No business owner wants to be sold to.
They don't care how good you are at cleaning carpets, they don't care how cheap you are.

They only care about themselves. Their problems, their issues, their clients, their business.

Are you really adding value dialling 100 businesses a day.
Do you even know who you are talking to and what is going on with their business?
Are they anything more than a number that either say yes or no?

If they are (and I am sure you really do want to help people) you need to start communicating this.

How?

Slow down and add a LOT more value.

For example:

Compare these two examples:

Random Week One:
You cold call 100 businesses each day with the same pitch and try get a response.

Random Week Two:
You drive down to your business conference centre wait and see what time they open at.
You then note what time their first customers start arriving. You walk in and check the quality of the carpet.
You come back later around noon and check again.
You can see that after the free lunch buffet the carpet looks pretty rough and little bits of food have gotten pushed in.
You notice though that the staff are trained a little in cleaning so by 1pm it is usually back looking okay.
On Thursdays though they always have a very large crowd for a weekly local business meeting of over 500 people after lunch.
The staff usually don't have time to clean it as well as they could since they have to set up the tables and equipment for the meeting.
Basically the carpet is at its worse when the most people are there.

You then call up this business...

"Hey is Tim there (you asked around and got his name), its about the local business meeting on Thurdays"
"Hey Tim its Crexty, I have been down to the centre a few times and noticed on Thursday you guys are really struggling to get things tidy in time for the weekly meet up. Its a shame cause its your busiest time with a lot of business owners and I know that suually it looks amazing. I got a crew who is always in that area around that time and they could pop in and do a quick clean for one hour at a great rate. Ill even do the first week free and see what you think..."

- One week later you do the free cleaning
- Tim hires you
- Month later he is stuck and asks you to do their second location down town. You end up getting the night cleaning contract there also.
- Three months later you start to get referrals cause local businesses have been noticing the carpet is way cleaner before their local meet up. They see your crew looking super professional and a nice clean truck in the carpark with your number on the side.

And so on.

Thats my advice. Start with THEM first thinking and communicating.
It isn't about you and your call %, its about them and their business.

That makes sense to me. I'll start to become more targeting and do more research. I've been getting a way better response rate by doing things like calling people who have left bad reviews for other cleaning companies, etc. I'm going to get a lot more targeted with my prospecting VS how everyone else is, just shooting a bunch of arrows into the fog.

Thanks for the information, I really do appreciate it and if theres anything else. Please tell me. I want to soak up as much as possible!

 

[Patrickg]

Okay volume good.

Out of 100 calls how many appointments do you get?

Also from my experience most medical facilities for business related task you have to go through the office manager. Then they get the owner( possibly doc) involved. Multi step sales process.

Just had a meeting last week with dentist, but I originally had to meet with office manager and wow her first.

FYI I did a in person drop in for that. That may be some to consider as welll. Phone is obv. Faster and cheaper but you can't beat in person drop ins.

 

[Doug Smith]

So you're saying try something along the lines of..

Good morning. This is ___________, who should I speak with regarding cleaning services?

and yeah I'll start tracking my ratios starting tomorrow.

I would honestly, ask the question first. There is no need to announce who you are to anyone but the decision maker. I ask the question, get a name, ask to be connected to them and when I get them on the phone I say who I am, and the reason for the call.

With cold calling it's very easy to create obstacles for yourself without realizing it. Don't tip your hand to the gatekeeper because they will shut you down now and on future cold calls. I'm not saying to be deceptive, just strategic to get to the decision maker.

I also highly recommend checking out Grant Cardone's cold calling videos on YouTube.

 

[Crexty]

I will call 100 businesses tomorrow and will use my CRM to keep track of:

- How many gatekeepers put me through
- How many messages I leave with a gatekeeper
- How many decision makers i speak with
- How many voicemails I leave for decision makers
- How many estimates I get (IF ANY)


After a month of testing my ratios I am also going to include some sort of door to door selling (Everyones on the phones, gotta differentiate myself)

 

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[1step]

If your service is so great and you are so good at closing once you get in front of the right person then offer the business a free cleaning with no strings attached.

You can even say you only work with businesses that meet certain requirements and you need to talk with the dm first to make sure it's a good fit. For instance if you know your most profitable accounts are within a certain sf size or some other types of questions that can make your initial free offer seem more exclusive and not a scam

 

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[Wolfman]

Wow. Thanks for the input.

I agree that commercial cleaning is hard to get into, but I don't see eye to eye with you on business.

There is millions of square feet of commercial property in just one small city. 54% of companies will fire their current cleaning company due to quality issues.

The thing is I am actually adding value to the serivce. I'm not just providing "Over the moon" cleaning. My company has many features that nobody else is doing in my city (too my extensive knowledge) that allow the owners to get amazing cleaning without having to oversee , and a couple other things i'd rather not say here. I have gotten clients from cold calling and always get price objections. But when they see what I'm offering and I carefully go over it when them, they see how we add value and differ from most (if not all) companies.

I'm not having problems with my closing when I get in front of people, my rates for amount of closes to proposals/presentations is very good. I'm just not good with getting in their door (cold calling).

I owned a house cleaning service and sold it. I prefer this service to that honestly.

Thank you so much for that information, I do really appreciate the info

Hi Crexty, I admire your determination. I'll soon be facing similar challenges and I'm certainly no expert on sales but I know a little bit about people--they like to talk about themselves.
Add a simple question to your script (to a real person), before searching for the decision-maker: "How are you doing today?"
Repeat that question in the mirror until you can do it w/ sincerity and curiousity. Then actively listen.
Possible answers: "Oh really, tell me more?" "How did that happen?" "That's too bad, I feel for you." (You get the idea.)
At that point you can even ask them for their name.
If they give you their name, I'd estimate that you've just improved your over-all odds by 100%.
This is not rocket science. People like to feel important--especially a gate-keeper. Another thing to throw in is a sincere compliment.
Examples: "You have a nice voice." "I looked at your company online and I was really impressed." "I saw a picture of your facility/building. It looks like a nice place to work." ...
Even in B2B you are dealing w/ PEOPLE.
Personally I wouldn't bother dealing w/ rude people or machines.
Good luck, Greg

 

[ajmassaro]

Okay.. Today I tried with this script:

Gatekeeper: Hello, thank you for calling XYZ Company, this is Mary.

CSR: Hello, is Eric available?

They usually ask me what its regarding and I get shut down when i tell them Janitorial Services...

Ugh.. I might speak with 3-4 DM's? out of 100 Calls... No way thats a good rate.

Maybe alluding to the fact that you've established contact already and that "Eric should be expecting my call" may open up a few more doors. Currently working as a Senior Administrative Assistant and that's usually one of my first questions "Should he be expecting your call/know what this call is regarding?" 9/10 I just patch them through if the answer is yes.

Let me know your thoughts!

 

[Crexty]

You are speaking to 3% of the DMs that you call and I am of the opinion that no matter how many times you adjust your pitch you percent will only move a tiny bit and that's because your offer is poor. The people you are calling don't know you, don't trust you and in general don't know they need your services.

People have already suggested multiple ways to reach new clients that will overcome these common objections including:

and

and even me


You have ignored this advice as well as the advice of someone who was in the cleaning business for many years:

and


I feel like you are blowing off these suggestions but I will try one more time.

Let me give you an example that may hit home a bit better...

You are a business owner who is doing ok getting leads for their business at a rate of 3% - someone approaches you and says they have seen clients have success with getting leads via adwords. You think your current method works ok so it's not worth it to go out and spend money on a new way because your way is working ok. Besides you don't even have the time to talk with him about his way and the types of results he sees. So instead you blow him off and continue on your way. (This essentially just happened)

However what if he said, I know this will work for you, I am going to take $100 of my own money and put it into my adwords account and drive clients to you. He does that and you get 12 leads who turn into 2 paying customers at $300 a month each.

Now you're thinking, sh*t this guy knows what he's doing I better pay him to run these ads for me so I can keep getting leads and paying customers. So you sign up with him

This analogy can easily apply to your own situation....

You are calling gate keepers who are doing ok with their current cleaning company - someone approaches them and says they can do their cleaning better. You think your current method works ok, I mean the DM doesn't complain that much but he does complain about all the calls he gets. So it's not worth it to forward him another salesman to try and sell them something thats not needed. Besides last time someone promised awesome cleaning and they just do an ok job and the time before that the same thing happened so why waste time with another lying cleaning company. The DM doesn't have time to talk with another salesman about this. So instead they blow you off and continue on your way.

Anyway, in sales I would encourage you to see the problem through the eyes of the buyer. If you can think of the issues they have in the buying process and recognize it from their eyes you can better adjust your sales process to show them something they haven't seen before and make it impossible for them to say no.

Thank you for your input and I apologize if it looks like i'm "putting off everyones suggestions". Matter fact, every idea somebody has posted here I have put in my list of ideas and will test each and every one.

This thread for me was and is to see how much I can improve my Lead Gen, through cold calling and cold emailing. If you have read my whole thread, you seen that I have gotten accounts from cold calling. I just believe I can do a better job at it (especially including a email follow up system).

I'm not trying to sound ignorant and I am super appreciative of all feedback i'm receiving (including yours). But like I said, my main goal with this is to see how I can improve my Cold Calling/Emailing process/scripts.

 

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[ButGregSaid]

I'll give this a shot! Maybe maybe monday or tuesday!

Found it! Let me paraphrase a bit here...

In The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss talks about the best time to make cold calls. One of the biggest obstacles Ferriss originally ran into when making cold calls was that he was being blocked by the receptionists or "gatekeepers." He avoided them by calling between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. (before the gatekeeper arrives) and between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. at night (after the gatekeeper leaves). Ferriss says he got twice as much done in 1/8th the time.

If you do get the receptionist or your contact's assistant on the phone, make every effort to create a good relationship with them. Ask them for their help. Explain what you're trying to do and ask them for advice on the best time to call. Always remember that receptionists and assistants are just doing their job. If you're up front with them and ask for their help or a favor, they will (usually) do whatever they can to assist you.

Hope that helps.. I knew I remembered something worth remembering in there.