Contacting Businesses

[bernieshawn]

I'm at the stage where I need to contact businesses in order to develop partnerships with them.

I'm going to be starting a service where people interested in a certain service can submit details about their needs and then companies who offer those services can respond and submit a quote.

It's like lead-gen but I'm charging a % when the company receives a new client, not per lead.

So, now I need to contact businesses and invite them to be a part of my service (because I can't do it without them). They'll have to respond to the prospects that submit their information into my system.

I have made a list of the top 20 businesses in this niche and their contact information. I'm just not sure what's the best way of doing this.

What's the best way to contact them?

Standard mail, email, or phone?

- Standard mail is what I'm leaning toward right now. It's a little more professional than email but it will take the longest.

- Email is quicker but it's slightly less professional than standard mail and emails are easily deleted or ignored.

- Phone would be the quickest, but my phone skills are awful.

If I do mail or email, who do I address it to? I can't find any publicly available contact names for most of the businesses so I'm thinking to just address it to the business name?

If I do standard email, I don't have a business address. What return address should I use? Can I just use my residential address?

Also, a lot of these businesses offer affiliate programs. I'm anticipating that the ones that do have affiliate programs are going to say "Just join our affiliate program and if you send us some sales, great. If not, piss off." How do I respond to that? What I'm doing is technically similar to an affiliate relationship (get paid a % of sale) but I still need an employee of their business to respond to the prospects and submit quotes. Plus, I'll be invoicing these businesses instead of receiving commissions like a traditional affiliate program.

Thanks for any input!

 

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[TadMoore]

Have you thought about just signing them up, without contacting them. The worst thing that could happen is someone contacts you and asks to be removed, but if you're trying to generate business for them I doubt anyone would care.

I'm guesing your trying to automate this entire process with leads going directly to the business, and commission being charged some how automatically, which is great as a long term plan. To start just sign the business up, and when you have a lead contact them by phone and say something to the effect of.

"Hello, ABC company I have a "client/customer" who is interested in your services" then pitch your business and give them the first lead free?

 

[royemunson]

I agree with the above. Create your own "affiliate program" so to speak. There is a site called seniorhomes.com that does something like this.

you simply put in all contact information to come to you then you send a friendly email to the businesses stating,

Mr. Owner,

provide a little background and I have been receiving numerous inquiries/leads about the service/product you offer. I am looking for a place to send them to.

Would you be interested?

Sincerley,

Something along those lines. Offer a few for free and then talk to them about doing a listing if your site incorporates that type of feature.

Now if your business model is a little different you might want to sign them up then make necessary changes to collect your revenues based on your model. But like you said the key is getting the businesses signed up so you may have to go about this on a couple different levels with modifications.

Joe

 

[bernieshawn]

I didn't think about signing them up first and then contacting them with some prospect info. I'm not sure about it in this case though, I want them to be sure about partnering with me and not just doing it because of 1 free lead.

Right now I'm leaning toward email. Send an email and say that I won't charge until 2012.

I might be overthinking this, I mean, it costs them nothing until they get a new client. Shouldn't be too hard to get them to work with me. All they have to do is have someone to respond to each prospect and submit quotes.

Gonna get to writing my first email draft...

 

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[JEdwards]

You would be very surprised at how many people will not take you up on your FREE offer.

I believe it is easier to just charge. You either have something of value or you don't.

 

[bernieshawn]

You would be very surprised at how many people will not take you up on your FREE offer.

I believe it is easier to just charge. You either have something of value or you don't.

Hmm so don't offer to not charge until 2012? Just mention the % that I'll charge and move on?

It's counter-intuitive but coming from someone who definitely knows what he's doing so I have to strongly consider it!

 

[Brander]

You would be very surprised at how many people will not take you up on your FREE offer.

I believe it is easier to just charge. You either have something of value or you don't.

I would nod in agreement with this. In my experience it is better to just charge from the beginning. Now, I do have a free offer, but only LATER when the concept is proven, the marketing is refined AND I want to prevent anyone from undercutting me - how can you undercut FREE ?

You could of course combine the two concepts and just start accumulating leads for them.

Then contact them however you want (beware of gatekeepers) and show them your screenshot of all the leads you have for them, offer a limited number of the leads to them as a "sample" and IF any of the leads prove profitable to them, then make an agreement to start charging.

 

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[bernieshawn]

Got it guys, thanks.

Got my email written but have a quick timing question:

Since Thanksgiving is next week and most of the companies are based in the US, should I send out the emails next Monday or should I wait until the following week?

I'm just thinking that maybe these businesses will be more relaxed next week and might not want to do much decision making until the week after - giving my email a higher chance of being ignored or forgotten.

 

[deepestblue]

Because the response rate may be something like .05% on the first attempt, sending a bunch out next week can give you some data on what you need to improve (subject lines, the message content, etc.) then you could come back the week after Thanksgiving with a new pitch. Time is a limited resource. Act now. IMO.

You said you made a list of the 20 top businesses in the niche. Maybe drill down to the next set of 20 and mail them next week. If good response, can send that email to the main group the next week. If not good response, can send to the third set of 20 and on and on until you get your working pitch then can send that to the main group.

 

[bernieshawn]

Quick update:

Contacted about 40-50 businesses. Results: not good.

1 business signed up. One said they might be interested, but too busy right now. One wanted to discuss it over the phone - we did, but they didn't sign up.

Any advice on what to do now?

I'm in a bit of a bad situation - I need at least 3 businesses to launch successfully. I've already contacted all the businesses that I had in my original list plus 20-30 others. There's a possibility that I might hear back from a some in the next few days, but I doubt it, based on the response rate so far.

 

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[Brander]

No one wants to be the first. It's the usual human pack behaviour and social proof hurdle. As some famous banker once said: "Assume the appearance of power and you shall be given that power.". I think you get the hint.

 

[bernieshawn]

No one wants to be the first. It's the usual human pack behaviour and social proof hurdle. As some famous banker once said: "Assume the appearance of power and you shall be given that power.". I think you get the hint.

I take it you mean act as if I already have enough businesses signed up? In other words, act like I really don't care if they sign up or not?

 

[JEdwards]

Any advice on what to do now?

I'm in a bit of a bad situation - I need at least 3 businesses to launch successfully. I've already contacted all the businesses that I had in my original list plus 20-30 others. There's a possibility that I might hear back from a some in the next few days, but I doubt it, based on the response rate so far.

PM me your website and your script and explain where you are getting stopped at in your pitch and I will look it over for you if you wish and give you some pointers...

 

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[bernieshawn]

PM me your website and your script and explain where you are getting stopped at in your pitch and I will look it over for you if you wish and give you some pointers...

Awesome, thanks! Pming you now...

 

[Brander]

I take it you mean act as if I already have enough businesses signed up? In other words, act like I really don't care if they sign up or not?

Well, yes and no. You are talking to x,y and z and you already have x amount of people signed up. You just don't disclose who those are (your friends and acquaintances businesses). Think of the opening of a restaurant where the owners invite all the family, friends, their friends friends, etc to pack it in, so it looks busy and that sways others to try it.