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What's up guys! I originally shared this post in the Make Money with Web Design group (that spawned from Fox's web design thread). It was written with web design jobs in mind, but any business-to-business side hustle could easily implement these ideas and make sales happen.
When I started out developing websites and starting what would eventually become my advertising agency, I still had a day job that didn't provide much air cover for personal calls. I had to make do with the time I had available to me, which was pretty much my lunch hour. I broke down my day with the following schedule, which allowed me to keep everything flowing nicely.
I will start by saying that when I'm hammering out sales myself, I don't mix the parts of the process. I find and research leads, then at a different time I send emails to those leads, and at a different time I dial the phones. I don't recommend finding a lead and contacting and finding a lead and contacting... Breaking things down into "action blocks" helps keep you focused and will lead to you ultimately achieving more. Here are the three main action blocks to work with.
1. Your day starts at 9pm. Take an hour from 9-10pm to hunt down 5-10 good leads. Niche down and get picky. Find 5-10 roofers with bad websites one night, then the next night find 5-10 dentists with bad websites (these are just examples). Manta and Hubspot both provide data for estimated yearly revenue for businesses, so use that data to your advantage. Create a list of the leads you find, their emails, phone numbers, and contact names and positions. Every line of your list should look like this:
John Smith, President - j.smith@winkleheightssystems.com - 555-5555
I promise you, it's possible to find all that info. A quick Google search can find the name of the owner/president, as well as a phone number. You can often make an assumption as to the owner's email based on other emails in the organization. If the sales teams emails look like k.jones@ and b.wade@, you can assume the owner is j.smith@. As Sherlock Holmes would advise, deduction is visual interpretation of that which you cannot see. If you can't find it - figure it out. This ends the first action block.
2. After you've gotten some well deserved rest, rise and shine at 6-6:30am. You're contacting business owners. They'll be rising around this time as well. This starts your second action block; the email block. A common misconception is that you have to make contact during business hours. That's BS and will limit you more than help you. Business hours are when owners get work done, NOT when they pay attention to salespeople. You're not interrupting their day if you're contacting them when there's nothing to interrupt (except maybe the morning bathroom trip).
It's at this early hour that you'll fire off whichever cold email you're most comfortable with. Build some initial value, catch their interest, and make it clear that when you speak, it will be about them, not about your service. The first email-check of the day is usually when business owners open less-than-important correspondence. Once they're in the office, they'll only want to deal with things pertaining to business. Done sending emails? Good. Go to your job. Conclude action block #2.
3. Half your day is gone and it's time to eat lunch. What should you do? Fire up action block #3 - the followup call block. Around Noon, dial the exact contacts you emailed earlier this morning. That's right: make a followup call the same day you send the first email. This call should absolutely be brief.
"Hi Mr. Prospect, my name is Tate. I sent an email over this morning, did you receive it? You did, Great. I know you're busy and probably eating lunch right now, would you be free for a 5 minute phone call tomorrow at [time]? Perfect, thanks. I'll talk to you then."
Do this for each of your prospects. You'll set a meeting with each one of them and close all of your deals.
Conclude action block 3.
Just kidding, you won't close all of your deals or set meetings with every client, but let's break this down. I laid out 1.5-3 hours of work per day. Let's assume you get 10 leads a day. After 10 days, you'll have made 100 touches. If you have even a 1% closing rate, then within 10 days you'll have made a touch with a soon-to-be client. Odds are, it could even be a few clients.
The bottom line is that it takes ACTION to produce results. Each and every person in this group has a choice: complain that it's just not doable, or just go do it. You can't vision-board your way, or will your way, or wish your way, or nap your way. You've gotta work your way.
When I started out developing websites and starting what would eventually become my advertising agency, I still had a day job that didn't provide much air cover for personal calls. I had to make do with the time I had available to me, which was pretty much my lunch hour. I broke down my day with the following schedule, which allowed me to keep everything flowing nicely.
I will start by saying that when I'm hammering out sales myself, I don't mix the parts of the process. I find and research leads, then at a different time I send emails to those leads, and at a different time I dial the phones. I don't recommend finding a lead and contacting and finding a lead and contacting... Breaking things down into "action blocks" helps keep you focused and will lead to you ultimately achieving more. Here are the three main action blocks to work with.
1. Your day starts at 9pm. Take an hour from 9-10pm to hunt down 5-10 good leads. Niche down and get picky. Find 5-10 roofers with bad websites one night, then the next night find 5-10 dentists with bad websites (these are just examples). Manta and Hubspot both provide data for estimated yearly revenue for businesses, so use that data to your advantage. Create a list of the leads you find, their emails, phone numbers, and contact names and positions. Every line of your list should look like this:
John Smith, President - j.smith@winkleheightssystems.com - 555-5555
I promise you, it's possible to find all that info. A quick Google search can find the name of the owner/president, as well as a phone number. You can often make an assumption as to the owner's email based on other emails in the organization. If the sales teams emails look like k.jones@ and b.wade@, you can assume the owner is j.smith@. As Sherlock Holmes would advise, deduction is visual interpretation of that which you cannot see. If you can't find it - figure it out. This ends the first action block.
2. After you've gotten some well deserved rest, rise and shine at 6-6:30am. You're contacting business owners. They'll be rising around this time as well. This starts your second action block; the email block. A common misconception is that you have to make contact during business hours. That's BS and will limit you more than help you. Business hours are when owners get work done, NOT when they pay attention to salespeople. You're not interrupting their day if you're contacting them when there's nothing to interrupt (except maybe the morning bathroom trip).
It's at this early hour that you'll fire off whichever cold email you're most comfortable with. Build some initial value, catch their interest, and make it clear that when you speak, it will be about them, not about your service. The first email-check of the day is usually when business owners open less-than-important correspondence. Once they're in the office, they'll only want to deal with things pertaining to business. Done sending emails? Good. Go to your job. Conclude action block #2.
3. Half your day is gone and it's time to eat lunch. What should you do? Fire up action block #3 - the followup call block. Around Noon, dial the exact contacts you emailed earlier this morning. That's right: make a followup call the same day you send the first email. This call should absolutely be brief.
"Hi Mr. Prospect, my name is Tate. I sent an email over this morning, did you receive it? You did, Great. I know you're busy and probably eating lunch right now, would you be free for a 5 minute phone call tomorrow at [time]? Perfect, thanks. I'll talk to you then."
Do this for each of your prospects. You'll set a meeting with each one of them and close all of your deals.
Just kidding, you won't close all of your deals or set meetings with every client, but let's break this down. I laid out 1.5-3 hours of work per day. Let's assume you get 10 leads a day. After 10 days, you'll have made 100 touches. If you have even a 1% closing rate, then within 10 days you'll have made a touch with a soon-to-be client. Odds are, it could even be a few clients.
The bottom line is that it takes ACTION to produce results. Each and every person in this group has a choice: complain that it's just not doable, or just go do it. You can't vision-board your way, or will your way, or wish your way, or nap your way. You've gotta work your way.
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