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Five THOUSAND Cold Calls a Day

Ask me anything!

AgainstAllOdds

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@458 - I've been following your posts for awhile and love your approach to cold calling and business. For anyone wondering, @458 is the real deal.

I'll start with a few questions:

1) How targeted is your list?
2) What kind of conversion rate can you expect on that list?
3) What kind of calling tools are you using to make the calling process easier?
4) I know you have employees. Do you use any recording tools to record their calls? How do you optimize their performance?
5) Is cold calling still your best ROI? How does the conversion rate compare to direct mail for you?

I have so many questions, but will hold back since I already asked too many. @458 Thanks for doing this!
 

458

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@458 - I've been following your posts for awhile and love your approach to cold calling and business. For anyone wondering, @458 is the real deal.

I'll start with a few questions:

1) How targeted is your list?
2) What kind of conversion rate can you expect on that list?
3) What kind of calling tools are you using to make the calling process easier?
4) I know you have employees. Do you use any recording tools to record their calls? How do you optimize their performance?
5) Is cold calling still your best ROI? How does the conversion rate compare to direct mail for you?

I have so many questions, but will hold back since I already asked too many. @458 Thanks for doing this!


1) How targeted is your list?

Sniper level targeted. We call all across the US to individuals and businesses with an extremely unique need. Lists are never bought, we create them on a weekly basis in house.

2) What kind of conversion rate can you expect on that list?

Here are my room stats for May 2017:

Room Stats
Total Dials 54898
Total Leads 14680
Total Sales 77 (paid with signed contract)
Total Connects 12684
Total Prospects 410
% D/S 0.14%
% C/S 0.61%
% P/S 18.78%
% L/S 0.52%

D/S = Dial to sales
C/S = Connects to sales
P/S = Prospects to sales
L/S = Leads to sales


3) What kind of calling tools are you using to make the calling process easier?

Five9 with Zoho CRM & Zoho Desk integration. We also use local presence so it shows you a local number when we call. I own about 500 phone numbers in various area codes across the US.

4) I know you have employees. Do you use any recording tools to record their calls? How do you optimize their performance?


Five9 records automatically. We have a 100 page training manual and perfected script. For ongoing training my sales manager listens to live calls behind them each day using Five9 supervisor through a windows surface pro.

5) Is cold calling still your best ROI? How does the conversion rate compare to direct mail for you?

There is nothing on this planet that will ever comes close to the ROI you get with cold calling, its the one thing everyone doesn't want to do and that is why it is so amazing and profitable. My CPA through cold calling is around $200, with direct mail its around $1,000.

Ps. Here is Five9 report for Aug so far:

DISPOSITION CALLS CALLS (%grp)

CAMPAIGN: (26,658 records)

01 - Hot Lead 3 2.65%
02 - Warm Lead 8 7.08%
03 - Cold Lead 64 56.64%
06 - Bad Number 3 2.65%
07 - Do Not Call 6 5.31%
08 - Not Available 23 20.35%
09 - Voicemail 3 2.65%
10 - Not Interested 3 2.65%

113 %grp:0.42%
LIST NAME:
01 - Hot Lead 16 0.06%
02 - Warm Lead 43 0.16%
03 - Cold Lead 75 0.28%
04 - Future Follow Up 5 0.02%
05 - Sale 3 0.01%
06 - Bad Number 557 2.10%
07 - Do Not Call 364 1.37%
08 - Not Available 3613 13.61%
09 - Voicemail 2108 7.94%
10 - Not Interested 748 2.82%
Abandon 1233 4.64%
Agent Error 9 0.03%
Answering Machine 2817 10.61%
Busy 143 0.54%
Caller Disconnected 136 0.51%
Dial Error 72 0.27%
Do Not Call 1 0.00%
Fax 2 0.01%
Hangup 87 0.33%
No Answer 13821 52.07%
Operator Intercept 691 2.60%
Recycle 1 0.00%


Total Dials 26,658 %grp:100.00%
 

MakeItHappen

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Great thread, thanks for your offer!

- With so many calls made haven't you called/reached your entire market rather fast? What do you do than? Just keep calling all the businesses that didn't said NO to your offering in the first call as long as conversion rate stays reasonable I guess?
- What would be the maximum amount of cold calls per day you can see your biz make as you scale it? 10k? 20k?
- How many calls does 1 employee make per hour/day?
- Do you hire experienced telemarketers or do you teach employees how to sell? Why?
- How do you pay you employees? Base salary + commission?
- Profit per call made/sell?
- How much profit per sale would you need at least to make cold calling worthwhile? $500 $3k? Any sweetspot?
- With 5k calls per day you obv go for volume but have you tried a low volume approach to cold calling (put more time into prospecting and research to connect with the prospect better on the phone and show you "really care" about there business)?
- Any books/courses recommended for cold calling (both as a cold caller & a manager of a sales team)?
- How big is the difference in terms of conversion rates between good, average and bad cold callers?

Thanks!
 

458

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- With so many calls made haven't you called/reached your entire market rather fast? What do you do than? Just keep calling all the businesses that didn't said NO to your offering in the first call as long as conversion rate stays reasonable I guess?

More leads, more dials, add night shift, add a aged lead shift, lots and lots of room to grow. Will probably cap out around 20m rev

- What would be the maximum amount of cold calls per day you can see your biz make as you scale it? 10k? 20k?

Impossible to say until you start over dialing, have no hit that yet plus there are more leads to obtain

- How many calls does 1 employee make per hour/day?

200 connected calls, 3,000 dials

- Do you hire experienced telemarketers or do you teach employees how to sell? Why?

Experienced only with zero background or drug problems

- How do you pay you employees? Base salary + commission?

Hourly + commissions + lots and lots of bonuses in various forms.

- Profit per call made/sell?

Gross revenue right now is about $14 per connected call.

- How much profit per sale would you need at least to make cold calling worthwhile? $500 $3k? Any sweetspot?

Depends, you need to figure that out for your own business.


- With 5k calls per day you obv go for volume but have you tried a low volume approach to cold calling (put more time into prospecting and research to connect with the prospect better on the phone and show you "really care" about there business)?

Lol, in this niche, F*ck off is usually 90% of the pick ups. No one gives a F*ck that you "really care".


- Any books/courses recommended for cold calling (both as a cold caller & a manager of a sales team)?

Yes, its called pick up the F*cking phone and dial the number course

- How big is the difference in terms of conversion rates between good, average and bad cold callers?

I have no idea because i fire people within the first 1-2 days of starting
 
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ApparentHorizon

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I have no idea because i fire people within the first 1-2 days of starting

Can you expand on this? (they don't take directions well, they don't perform as well as their initial scripted interview, etc?) Essentially, what ticks you off that you can recognize in just a few hours?
 

458

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Can you expand on this? (they don't take directions well, they don't perform as well as their initial scripted interview, etc?) Essentially, what ticks you off that you can recognize in just a few hours?

Doesn't listen
On there cell phone a lot
Not calling enough
Not reading the script
Has a bad vibe or attitude
Isn't fast on there feet

My core team is all sharks, they come in and work hard, no one has to manage them for the most part.
 
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SquatchMan

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Is the compliance/getting sued part really as bad as everyone thinks it is in B2C cold calling?
 

Amon

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Love your no bullshit approach. @458

Its clear that execution is your entire game. Thanks for the thread

Rep+
 
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focusedlife

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@458 Great stuff.

Can you give any advice on strategies you use to procure your B2C list?

Thank you.
 

AdamMaxum

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Awesome thread/info. Thanks for sharing.

Do you think cold calling can be applied successfully to any type of business selling something? Or does it lend itself better towards certain niches/products/services..

Thanks!
 

MrYoshi

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Wow, 5k calls in a day is insane to me. I have only been able to do 250 a day. I think I have to step up my game, but I wonder how powerful that tool is compared to manually dialing on my cell phone.
 
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458

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Awesome thread/info. Thanks for sharing.

Do you think cold calling can be applied successfully to any type of business selling something? Or does it lend itself better towards certain niches/products/services..

Thanks!

If it can't be sold over the phone inbound or outbound then you probably shouldn't get into it. Even web businesses take phone orders..
 

458

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Wow, 5k calls in a day is insane to me. I have only been able to do 250 a day. I think I have to step up my game, but I wonder how powerful that tool is compared to manually dialing on my cell phone.

If there is someone in your space like me hell wipe you off the map. I purchase all the newest tech for everything to stay above the cheap and lazy.
 
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AdamMaxum

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If it can't be sold over the phone inbound or outbound then you probably shouldn't get into it. Even web businesses take phone orders..

Stupid question, but are you selling your own product/service this way or other people’s? I ask because unless you’re outsourcing the calls entirely it seems time consuming to do yourself while running other parts of the business.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

458

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Stupid question, but are you selling your own product/service this way or other people’s? I ask because unless you’re outsourcing the calls entirely it seems time consuming to do yourself while running other parts of the business.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lolz

Other parts don't exist without a sale.. We sell our own service. 90 percent of everything is handled in house.

PS. I don't make any calls anymore..
 

MrYoshi

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If there is someone in your space like me hell wipe you off the map. I purchase all the newest tech for everything to stay above the cheap and lazy.

Thanks for the information dude, I really appreciate it. Now I just need to build a bigger team and automate the list-building process.
 
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