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Cold Callers: I want your opinion!

Scuur

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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.


Your making progress. Maybe try and go like Hey is Eric there, this is Mack
 
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ajmassaro

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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

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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!

Hmmmmm.... so would you say between 4-10% contact rate on the first call is decent?

Maybe i'll make my first call an objective to try and talk to DM but mainly grab an email and leave a message.

Then I can follow up , with email stating ill call back, 2nd call might be better...

I cant tell them that he should be expecting my call on the first because i've had no prior contact and i hate lying or trying sneaky ways to get past
 
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Get Right

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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 :)
 

Andy Black

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I’m curious...

Have you tried paid search?

Get in front of people *already* looking for:
  • office cleaners/cleaning <location>
  • commercial cleaners/cleaning <location>
  • Etc?
 

Crexty

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I’m curious...

Have you tried paid search?

Get in front of people *already* looking for:
  • office cleaners/cleaning <location>
  • commercial cleaners/cleaning <location>
  • Etc?

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)
 
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Andy Black

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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.
 

Crexty

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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.


Can I beam you real fast?
 

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Andy Black

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Yes I meant PM, sorry. Autocorrect :)
Sure... but if it's not confidential then please consider posting in your thread so others can benefit. If it's confidential then fire away.
 

Crexty

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Sure... but if it's not confidential then please consider posting in your thread so others can benefit. If it's confidential then fire away.

I'll just post it here then.

Do you think this would be worth trying:

First Cold Call : (5-10% chance of talking with DM, but I collect an email for the DM)

First Email: Send out email saying i've called and miss them, i'll ask for a 5 minute phone call and note that i'll call back in a few days if I don't here from you.

Second Call (couple days later): Same as first call except I could note he should be "expecting" my call (because i've emailed him).

Second email (maybe 4 days later): Some sort of follow up email..

Third Call (maybe a week later): Same as 2nd call

Third Email (Week later): Same as 2nd email

and so on until I create contact with DM?

It seems like there would really be no real "tactic" that will improve my reach to decision maker rate on the first call, but maybe persistence like this will get me more contact?
 
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Andy Black

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I'll just post it here then.

Do you think this would be worth trying:

First Cold Call : (5-10% chance of talking with DM, but I collect an email for the DM)

First Email: Send out email saying i've called and miss them, i'll ask for a 5 minute phone call and note that i'll call back in a few days if I don't here from you.

Second Call (couple days later): Same as first call except I could note he should be "expecting" my call (because i've emailed him).

Second email (maybe 4 days later): Some sort of follow up email..

Third Call (maybe a week later): Same as 2nd call

Third Email (Week later): Same as 2nd email

and so on until I create contact with DM?

It seems like there would really be no real "tactic" that will improve my reach to decision maker rate on the first call, but maybe persistence like this will get me more contact?
Lol. I'm totally the wrong guy to ask. I don't do cold emailing or cold calling.

I run AdWords paid search campaigns for clients, teach people how to do the same for themselves, and generate leads for myself by helping people (online, on calls, and in person).


To answer your question though... test it?
 

1step

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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.
 

Crexty

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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

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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.
 

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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.
 

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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.

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

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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.

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?
 

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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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ButGregSaid

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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.
 

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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?


What about something along the lines of "Hi. Maybe you can help me out. Could you tell me who oversees your X (Marketing, Facilities, etc) department? I'd like to mail them a letter."

With luck, they'll give you a name, a job title, and that'll be plenty for you to call back with later and as casually as you can (as if you know the person you're trying to reach) say "Hello, I need to get in touch with Tony. Can I speak with him briefly?"

It's an art form, I know - as Vigilante says.. pays to do the research. The more you can act like an old college buddy, the better.
 

Crexty

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What about something along the lines of "Hi. Maybe you can help me out. Could you tell me who oversees your X (Marketing, Facilities, etc) department? I'd like to mail them a letter."

With luck, they'll give you a name, a job title, and that'll be plenty for you to call back with later and as casually as you can (as if you know the person you're trying to reach) say "Hello, I need to get in touch with Tony. Can I speak with him briefly?"

It's an art form, I know - as Vigilante says.. pays to do the research. The more you can act like an old college buddy, the better.

Can I PM you real fast?
 
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minivanman

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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........
 

Andy Black

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