Getting Rid of Cold Calling Anxiety Using Brute Force

[Vilox]

Day 8
Things keep running smoothly. There's another holiday coming up, so there won't be another update until Tuesday.

Voicemail
Every now and again I don't reach anyone. I always leave a voicemail, since I count the number of calls made, not the number of people I talked to. Today I left a particularly shitty message. Not on purpose, mind you, but it was just utter garbage. I created a template to save myself the embarrassment in the future:

• Introduction: Hey, my name is Stefan
• Give context: I found your company through the Yellow Pages
• Value proposition: You're missing out on potential customers every day, just because of your website
• Add credibility: We helped numerous companies like yours acquire new customers in the past (not using this line right now since I'm not a fan of white lies, but it should definitely be included once you have some references)
• Contact information: Let's talk. [Phone number]
• Repeat: I'm Stefan. [Phone number] Thank you.

People are terrible at staying quiet. You'll feel uncomfortable staying quiet. But it works.

You're absolutely right. Unfortunately, I'm the guy who tends to break the silence first. But I'll flip it on them in the future. Thanks for the advice!

 

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[Craig Cherlet]

I've got some free time on my hands and decided to get some sales experience. I'll be the doing cold calls, since the mere thought of doing them terrifies me.

Inspired by @Fox's thread, I decided to "sell" websites. That being said, I can't build a site. I don't even know someone who could build one. Then again, that's not the point.

I also don't have any sales experience whatsoever, although I did some reading over the last couple of days. I have thrown a sales script together and used a web data extraction platform to get a few hundred leads from the yellow pages.

I'll start on Monday (5/22) and will stick with it for a month. Setting a baseline of 50 calls per day, that's 250 calls a week or 1000 calls over the whole month.

For accountability purposes I'll post the number of calls I made during weekdays, and a short review of what I learned on the weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Good on you. I always remember this quote when selling.
Some will, some won't, so what, NEXT...

If you manage to get any sales, I could help you deliver a product and we can figure out some for of commission.

I have a team that can deliver.

Let's talk if you are interested.

 

[Vilox]

Day 9
I forgot to look for new leads over the weekend. So I compiled a list earlier this morning. That being said, I wholeheartedly recommend making calls during the day and looking for new leads in the evening. Doing both in the early hours of the day is mind-numbing. At least it was for me. On the bright side, I'm pretty close to making another sale.

"We already have a guy for that"
As mentioned a couple of days ago, this is by far the most common objection I hear. I found two ways to handle this that work well for me:

1. "Looks like things are pretty good. But you don't sound very enthusiastic about it. What would make him amazing at his job by your standards?"
The idea here is to get them thinking. Ideally, they arrive at the conclusion that the guy they currently employ only does the bare minimum. Reasonable enough to assume, considering that I only call companies whose sites are in desperate need of a rework.

At any rate, I can usually initiate a conversation at this point about how a website should be more than just a "thing you have to have".

​

2. "Great! If you don't mind me asking, why do you have such a good relationship with him?"
I use this line when they expand on the original objection (e. g. "we already have a guy, and we're pretty happy with his work"). Usually the guy is an employee, or the decision maker has built the site himself a couple of years ago. Whatever the reason, it's an innocuous question that gives you a better picture of their mindset.

The more you get them to open up, the more issues will present themselves. Your next task is to show them that you have a solution that'll solve those problems and earns them money in the long run. Still struggling with that last part. But I'll write an update as soon as I have a routine that works.

 

[Vilox]

Day 10
Made a conscious effort today to follow @JAJT 's advice and not be the one to break the silence whenever a short pause comes up. You'd think that keeping your mouth shut would be easy, but think again. I screwed up pretty often. I'll keep a close eye on my behavior over the coming days in order to improve on that front.

The second sale went through! That's one sale for every 250 calls made. Still a shitty ratio, but nonetheless an improvement!

Thanks
I'd like to thank everyone for reading the thread. I'm halfway to the finish line (500 out of 1000 calls), and I certainly wouldn't have made it this far without you. Knowing that I'm accountable to people really helps, not to mention all the incredible advice that I've received. I can't really express how grateful I am.

Thank you!

 

[Vilox]

Day 11
Another very good day. That being said, I won't make calls tomorrow to deal with a personal issue. I'll check back in on Monday.

Provide More Value
@LRG came up with the idea of providing some more value up front. If you encounter an issue with a site (that's not related to how it looks), it usually fit's in one of these categories:

• Performance: How long does it take for the page to load?
• Mobile: Is the site responsive?
• SEO: Are the pages titled correctly? Is there a meta description?

There are various websites out there that do the job for you. Just google "website grader" and choose a site that picks your fancy.

In the past, I only focused on how many customers the site attracts. I argued that if your site looked shitty or wasn't optimized for mobile devices, you'd miss out. That's certainly true, but not the whole story. You can have an awesome site, but if it takes 10 seconds to load a lot of people will never see it.

Anyway, whenever I finished a conversation (> 3 minutes) with someone who didn't want to buy I said to them:

"That's okay. But let me tell you again: You really should take care of issue X. You're missing out on potential customers every day. Please don't hesitate to call me again if you change your mind and I'll help you find someone who's a better fit for you"
​

Haven't heard back from anyone yet, but I like the idea. It showcases that you're primarily concerned with helping them.

 

[Vilox]

Day 12
Had a really hard to time to get started today. I may be bad at sales, but I'm world class when it comes to making up reasons as to why I don't have to do anything productive. I'll get some sort of routine going over the weekend. Not making calls for 48 hours really throws me off track. Luckily I managed to collect myself eventually. I even lined up another potential client.

No piece of advice today, because I can't think of anything useful right now. That being said, if you're thinking about improving your sales skills, just start. As with everything else in life, you'll get better the more often you do it. I was absolutely terrible when I started out. I probably still am. But within three weeks I somehow managed to make not only one, but three sales already. Not to mention the number of people who contacted me and offered me a job. Once you got the basics down, this seems like a pretty easy way to make some money. Not because it's hard, but because relatively few people are willing to do it.

 

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[Vilox]

Day 13
Honestly, at this point making the calls isn't nearly as hard as collecting the leads. Gosh, that stuff gets boring. I wonder how real sales people get their leads for cold calls.

A Proper Introduction
I already mentioned that having a sales script helps tremendously. It's not only the content that matters, though. The delivery, the way you convey your message, is even more important. You gotta be a little enthusiastic when you pitch. If you're not excited about what you're selling, why should they be?

The following is working well for me right now.

Hey, this is Stefan [one second pause]
I found your company through the Yellow Pages [one second pause]
In a nutshell, we help companies acquire and retain customers through their website. Does this sound interesting to you?
​

Making the pauses in the beginning is important. They don't know you, and they don't know what you're selling. I found it way more effective to give people a moment to process what they just heard.

Next, regardless of whether they answer the question Does this sound interesting to you? with yes or no, I ask them how they currently go about acquiring customers. From there, a conversation develops quite naturally. At this point, it's more important to ask the right questions and just listen. Once you know about the issues they're having, you can show them how your product solves said problems.

 

[GMSI7D]

A Proper Introduction
I already mentioned that having a sales script helps tremendously. It's not only the content that matters, though. The delivery, the way you convey your message, is even more important. You gotta be a little enthusiastic when you pitch. If you're not excited about what you're selling, why should they be?

.

yes absolutely

this is like dating , social life , politics etc.

it is the way things are delivered that matter

society is a giant free training center. this is the way to approach it

be detached and consider society as your training center. you can do all the test you want without paying for the survey

you can hone your skills with people in social conditions.


you use them, so to speak , to train you by talking to them, experimenting.

they won't say to you " ok, i have given you 5 minutes of my time to train you , yo owe me 15 dollars "

society is your ressource.

 

[Vilox]

Day 14
There's yet another public holiday coming up tomorrow. I'll be travelling with friends over the weekend, so there won't be a new update until next Monday.

"This is not important to us right now"
Every now and again I have a good conversation, but after 20 minutes they say

"That's nice, but it's just not a priority for us right now"
​

I thought this was really weird at first. You just spend all this time making sure you're a good fit, and then they chicken out at the last minute. One reason might be that you're pitch just didn't hit the mark. But they might also be avoiding the real issue. I read something online that has been working well for me:

"You know what? I'm struggling with this, and I need your help. How come it's not a priority, since you mentioned that increasing revenue in the next quarter is your number one goal? And I think I've demonstrated that an improved website could help you accomplish that in a pretty powerful way. What am I missing here?"
​

Don't be aggressive about it, just ask in an open and honest way and see where it goes from there. Some won't budge. In that case, just ask what would need to happen for it to become a priority. The fact that they're still talking to you means that they're at least somewhat interested, after all.

 

[Vilox]

Day 15
750 calls. Six sales so far. This may not be much for the experienced sales people out there, but it sure as hell is a success to me.

"The price is too high"
I don't negotiate on price. That was my policy from the beginning, since I didn't know how low the designer was willing to go. The policy still stands, but the reasons have changed. I want their main concern to be the value I provide, not the price I ask of them.

A lot of people appear to hide their true objections behind the price issue. To solve their problem, first ask a few questions to get to the bottom of this:

• Do you have budget constraints?
• Is this not the right time? Do you have a contract with another IT guy?
• Honestly, are there other reasons?

You'd be surprised how often price is not the real issue. Remember, the solution you're offering will earn them money in the long run. If they don't see that, then you didn't push the right buttons in the first place.

 

[NewYorkCity]

Day 15
750 calls. Six sales so far. This may not be much for the experienced sales people out there, but it sure as hell is a success to me.

"The price is too high"
I don't negotiate on price. That was my policy from the beginning, since I didn't know how low the designer was willing to go. The policy still stands, but the reasons have changed. I want their main concern to be the value I provide, not the price I ask of them.

A lot of people appear to hide their true objections behind the price issue. To solve their problem, first ask a few questions to get to the bottom of this:

• Do you have budget constraints?
• Is this not the right time? Do you have a contract with another IT guy?
• Honestly, are there other reasons?

You'd be surprised how often price is not the real issue. Remember, the solution you're offering will earn them money in the long run. If they don't see that, then you didn't push the right buttons in the first place.

What's the price point? At this point of the sales are consistent 1/100 calls or so you can consider hiring a sales person if it financially makes sense.

 

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[MakeItHappen]

What's your hourly rate? Do you have tracked your time? I guess it shouldn't be to bad depending on how much you charge.

 

[Vilox]

Day 16
I realize that it's easy to put blame on others, but I feel like one of my designers is unable to close the deal. I sent him two very warm leads in the past, yet he somehow managed to scare them away. I'll follow up with said prospects to see what's going on. I'll determine afterwards whether I didn't communicate the issue clearly enough.

What's your hourly rate? Do you have tracked your time? I guess it shouldn't be to bad depending on how much you charge.

On average, I spend 2 - 3 hours making calls, one hour collecting leads and another hour with sales-related reading. In the beginning my calls were a lot shorter, but I did a lot more reading. I don't have exact numbers, but the hourly rate should be pretty decent already, even though I butchered the first 200 calls.

 

[Vilox]

Day 17
Temperatures are going through the roof around here. Just listened to a few recording I made today, and I sound just how I feel: tired. In hindsight the last few hours have been a waste of time. I just wanted to get the calls done as quickly as possible, and it shows in the results I've gotten.

"Your company is too small"
Sometimes people feel uncomfortable when they realize that I'm a single guy who wants to refer them to a single designer. I haven't managed to convince those people yet, but it's important to remember that you deserve a place at the table. Everyone started out small, and you have a solution that can help them acquire new customers. That's all that matters. I read something online that helps me deal with this issue:

"I understand why you’re asking, but there are risks with any vendor—large or small. Here's what we offer that you won't find with a larger competitor: the undivided attention of an industry expert, and direct influence over our product and the way we do business. Together, we can create a mutually beneficial partnership that’s ready for the future. What do you think?"
​

Make sure they understand the benefits outlined above. Once they hook, as a few more questions to determine whether you are a good fit:

“What characteristics do you value in a vendor?”
“What were some challenges when you worked with other companies?”
​

Again, this routine hasn't worked so far, but I was unable to come up with something better.

 

[Vilox]

Day 18
Life's like a rollercoaster. After a terrible performance yesterday, I somehow managed to close two deals earlier. Within the span of minutes. Lucky me! On average, that's one sale for every 113 calls. Not too shabby considering how I started.

I'm getting to the point where a Customer Relationship System of some sort would be nice to have. I already called two companies twice, because they were listed within different categories of the Yellow Pages. They have all been fairly cool about it, though.

 

[Denim Chicken]

Day 18
Life's like a rollercoaster. After a terrible performance yesterday, I somehow managed to close two deals earlier. Within the span of minutes. Lucky me! On average, that's one sale for every 113 calls. Not too shabby considering how I started.

I'm getting to the point where a Customer Relationship System of some sort would be nice to have. I already called two companies twice, because they were listed within different categories of the Yellow Pages. They have all been fairly cool about it, though.

If you want a CRM, I test a bunch. Regular enterprise salesforce is best but will be too expensive and bloated.

Free CRM, Streak for Gmail is good. Also tracks emails
Paid CRM, Base CRM for $25/mo/user is great. Has mail merge

Hubspot is good but to get any integration for mail you need to pay for their $200/mo
+ marketing package. Insightly, Zoho, Apptivo, all suck.

 

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[cini]

Man... i just wanted to say this thread is inspiring as F*ck. You just picked up the phone and figuring it out as you go.
Also what you said about taking in too much information can be detrimental, that is very true and many of us especially me are guilty of that.
keep going!

 

[Vilox]

Day 19
Another day in the bag. And we're getting pretty close to my 1000th call. That's really strange to think about if I'm being honest.

Follow-up
One thing you should do once you get started is follow-up with people. And not just once, but as many times as is necessary to get a clear answer.

I get it. Truly, I do. You're already afraid of being rejected, so the last thing you want to be is annoying. But I wouldn't have gotten half of my sales if I had only contacted people once and waited for them to get back to me.

If someone tells me they're busy, I ask them what would be a good time to contact them. If someone tells me they need three days to think it over, I mark it down in my calendar and call them three days later. If someone doesn't give a clear 'yes' or 'no', I keep pinging them until I do.

I can't really overstate the importance of this. You already made the initial contact. Don't drop the ball now.

 

[Denim Chicken]

Day 19
Another day in the bag. And we're getting pretty close to my 1000th call. That's really strange to think about if I'm being honest.

Follow-up
One thing you should do once you get started is follow-up with people. And not just once, but as many times as is necessary to get a clear answer.

I get it. Truly, I do. You're already afraid of being rejected, so the last thing you want to be is annoying. But I wouldn't have gotten half of my sales if I had only contacted people once and waited for them to get back to me.

If someone tells me they're busy, I ask them what would be a good time to contact them. If someone tells me they need three days to think it over, I mark it down in my calendar and call them three days later. If someone doesn't give a clear 'yes' or 'no', I keep pinging them until I do.

I can't really overstate the importance of this. You already made the initial contact. Don't drop the ball now.

The follow-up is the close! So many people warm up their cold prospects only to never get back to them. So essentially they are starting a new thread every single time instead of following existing ones to see where it ends up.

 

[Vilox]

Day 20
This is it. I am done. It took a little more than a month, but today I made my 1000th call! Didn't get another sale unfortunately, but I'm still fairly ecstatic about how things turned out.

In short, the whole experiment has been a resounding success. I'm still a little hesitant before making my first call each day, but it's nothing compared to how things looked when I started out.

If you're thinking about getting into sales yourself, do it! It's actually really fun once you get the hang of it. I'd like to point out that the quality of my first few calls was atrocious. Even now I'm light years away from being on a decent level. Yet I managed to get nine sales within a month. I said it before, but if I can do it, so can you!

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone who generously provided their expertise and read the thread. Knowing that I was accountable to people really helped, and I can't thank you enough.

A heartfelt "thank you" (in alphabetical order) to:
@axjjj, @broswoodwork, @cini, @Denim Chicken , @Era, @Fid, @Fox, @FREEWOLF, @GMSI7D, @guitmg, @JAJT, @jilla82, @LRG, @MakeItHappen, @NewYorkCity, @OldFaithful, @Ravens_Shadow, @Roli, @SindbadtheSailor, @sparechange, @SquatchMan, @The-J, @TheKing, @Thiago Machado, @Van Halen, @Waspy, @ZF Lee

 

[LRG]

Day 20
This is it. I am done. It took a little more than a month, but today I made my 1000th call! Didn't get another sale unfortunately, but I'm still fairly ecstatic about how things turned out.

In short, the whole experiment has been a resounding success.

Congrats on succeeding the challenge! Nice progress and motivating. Keep pushing!

 

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[CareCPA]

I followed this thread from the sidelines. I just wanted to say how inspiring it was to see you actually achieve your goal of cold calling 1,000 people, especially to sell a product you didn't have and weren't an expert in.
This should prove that no one has an excuse not to pick up the phone and make some sales. Great job @Vilox .

 

[The-J]

Rep+++

This should be marked #notable in my opinion.

I can't stand cold calling. I'm willing to do it, but I don't like it. It scares me. But you've proven that cold calling isn't just for people who 'get off' on it; it's also an excellent way to generate leads without paying a dime. Not only that, you've proven that it's worth it.

Is it more efficient to pay for traffic? Most likely. But what you've done is stumbled onto a proven system, of your own, for selling a service... without needing to spend money.

You're a hustler now. That's to be applauded.

 

[Andy Black]

GOLD

Well done just going for it.

There were well meaning naysayers at the start, and you didn't even bother to argue. You just did it anyway.

You got uncomfortable, did something new, made sales, and left breadcrumbs... all in just over a month.

 

[Ubermensch]

@Vilox

Invest $150 per month in an automatic dialer.

The dialer will make you ten times more effective. Manually, you can make 300 calls per day. With a dialer, you can make 3,000.

Check out www.mojosells.com for an easy dialer you can set up quickly.

 

[Vilox]

My friends, I took the plunge and decided to make a business out of the whole thing. I created a new progress thread here. Updates won't be nearly as frequent, but I'll keep sharing something valuable with each new post.

I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have, based on what little knowledge I managed to acquire so far.

Thanks for keeping me company!

 

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[broswoodwork]

My friends, I took the plunge and decided to make a business out of the whole thing. I created a new progress thread here. Updates won't be nearly as frequent, but I'll keep sharing something valuable with each new post.

I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have, based on what little knowledge I managed to acquire so far.

Thanks for keeping me company!

The magic of "just F*cking doing it"!

God bless bro! Hopefully you inspire tons of young folks stuck in "finding the perfect idea" mode.

 

[Scuur]

I'd love thread going to reread it again today. I am starting to cold call soon. I've realized you are right finding potential leads sucks. It's time-consuming as shit. I saw another post where someone was hiring a virtual assistant to build his spread sheets of potential clients. He created a couple of videos of exactly what he wanted to be done. His System and method for finding his leads. He got someone for around $5 an hour from India 'may have been more'. This led him to just being able to focus on selling. I'm going to use a similar method when I start with a mix of cold calling and emails. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again for all the info!

Cheers

 

[Vilox]

I'm going to use a similar method when I start with a mix of cold calling and emails.

Not sure how people make cold emails work. I got myself a fancy CRM last week, one of the features being the ability to send out bulk emails. Out of curiosity I sent a message to every potential lead I had at the time. And the results were horrendous. Here's the report:

It's important to note that I only got a single (negative) reply from a human. All the others were delivery failure notifications.

Granted, I didn't spent one minute researching how to write proper cold emails. But I decided for myself to stick with calls for now. Once I feel like my skills have matured enough, I'll commit more time to mastering other areas of sales.

I've realized you are right finding potential leads sucks. It's time-consuming as shit.

I actually semi-automated the process of finding suitable leads. It's not an elegant solution, mind you, but it allows me to pre-qualify around 700 leads within a single hour. That's usually enough for a week or two. I'll write a more detailed post describing my method over the coming days.

 

[Scuur]

Thank you!

A couple of questions

What CRM are you using? I was looking at Base. Salesforce Is too much for what I need.

Would you recommend the CRM you are using?

For the cold emails: Do you know if there the personal or work email?

If not I use whois lookup and generally, I am able to find their personal email. If that does not work I use LinkedIn. Have you tested to see if your crm is not sending your emails to spam?