If you love cold calling…no reason you can’t be a millionaire in a few years…

[JoeyF]

The problem with cold calls is not that the “no” that kill you, it is the “yes” that kill you.

Sorry, but you're dead wrong here Kevin88660.

This is certainly not a "cold calling" problem.

It's simply an inability to do quality research ahead of time and then qualify out non suitable prospects quickly.

Everything you describe comes down to lack of skill on the salespersons behalf.

 

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[notorious]

I have no idea how you'd become a millionaire in a few years by JUST cold calling. Strictly only cold calling means that you're not allowed to make a product yourself, only selling is. That means you'll have to become an employee at some company and you won't become a milllionaire in a few years working as an employee. I'd love to know what he's talking about.

 

[JoeyF]

I have no idea how you'd become a millionaire in a few years by JUST cold calling. Strictly only cold calling means that you're not allowed to make a product yourself, only selling is. That means you'll have to become an employee at some company and you won't become a milllionaire in a few years working as an employee. I'd love to know what he's talking about.

He's at it again today the heathen.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1517123713946238976

View: https://twitter.com/realEstateTrent/status/1517123713946238976?s=20&t=FmacpEFwRqMLhsNj8h8FwA

 

[JoeyF]

Interesting post from Reddit from many moons ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/43r36x View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/43r36x/cold_calls_i_went_from_nothing_to_120kyear_solo/

 

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[Kevin88660]

Sorry, but you're dead wrong here Kevin88660.

This is certainly not a "cold calling" problem.

It's simply an inability to do quality research ahead of time and then qualify out non suitable prospects quickly.

Everything you describe comes down to lack of skill on the salespersons behalf.

In some industry the research is not possible when you are selling consumer products to C directly. It was just random dialing on the phone book (numbers exempted from do not call registry).

 

[JoeyF]

In some industry the research is not possible when you are selling consumer products to C directly. It was just random dialing on the phone book (numbers exempted from do not call registry).

Wow

Enough said.

 

[JoeyF]

Interesting post from Reddit from many moons ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/43r36x View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/43r36x/cold_calls_i_went_from_nothing_to_120kyear_solo/

To take months to bring in the first sale must have been so brutal.

That's an iron will to keep going, an absolute refusal to fail.

When I was getting started with my little web services biz in 2010, I took a chance and started cold calling.

I had my first client and payment in the form of a cheque on the first week.

Cold called the lady on the Monday, hired a car and went out to see her at her place of business on the Friday and had a cheque in my hand and then in the bank that afternoon.

I also had 2 other meetings booked that day, one of which I completely botched and the other was a no show.

It was a hell of a day, I was thrilled.

I sorely needed some kind of confirmation that my idea could work and if I hadn't gotten it that day, it would have been hard!

But this guy went at it for months before he got any confirmation that his idea was viable. That's impressive.

 

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[A-sop]

Meanwhile this dude's got a signature that makes me wonder if I have time travelled back to 2005 and landed on the Warrior Forum

Meanwhile this dude's got a signature that makes me wonder if I have time travelled back to 2005 and landed on the Warrior Forum

Hilarious.

Only losers pick up the phone and introduce themselves to business owners they want to begin a relationship with.

Real business people spam the shit out of their inbox instead.

Incredible.

Loving this!

Any advice for a scared shitless dude tired from Telemarketing back in the days in a foreign country where he speaks the language at around 95% native level? (assuming you're back from Napoli)

 

[JoeyF]

Loving this!

Any advice for a scared shitless dude tired from Telemarketing back in the days in a foreign country where he speaks the language at around 95% native level? (assuming you're back from Napoli)

lol, @A-sop , had to be said.

It's been 12+ years since I was in your boat but what I did was as follows...

I selected a product (web design) and started calling businesses in the Yellow Pages etc to arrange a face to face meeting where I'd show them how we could do a better job than what they had at the time.

Because of the unsexy product I was pitching it was quite low %, but simply calling and doing these intros and going to meet face to face was enough to get me my first 20 clients within a few months - from scratch with no track record.

I wasn't making a lot of money but I was making money.

Then I progressed on to selling the real juice which is advertising/leads.

And I have 2 businesses built off the back of that sweat equity today which provide a great income.

The intro that I used to get into the call back at the start was as follows:

I said hello, introduced myself by name (no business mentioned) then explained what I do (web design) and asked if they had given any thought to either having a website or improving an existing one recently?

All very quick, they have no time to get off before I've dropped the info about what I do.

80% of the time would be a no, almost always polite. 20% you got some interest and into the next stage of the sale.

I find, if they're looking for what you're offering, they almost can't help admit it lol... Once they do, they are on the hook.

That still works as recently as the last year or so and I used it in 2019-2020 to reel in some juicy clients that are still with me today for my financial leads.

Those clients started multiplying too via referral and it's gotten to a point where I have more demand than I can supply with those leads - nice problem to have.

So cold calling has been a tool I've used on and off the past 12 years, one of the most valuable and because most people are shit scared to do it, it does give you a certain competitive advantage.

Money <3 speed as they say..

 

[Bramxq]

I really like coldcalling business 2 business to setup appointments and then sell face 2 face. The only downside currently is im selling to much and my boss wont give me more $$$. So I'm looking for a way to abuse my skill and start something for myself....

 

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[Simon Angel]

I love this, I started out by doing web design + cold calling 2 years ago. I actually documented almost every call that went somewhere in my thread: EXECUTION - My Odyssey - Finding Meaning And Achieving Financial Freedom

I was also scared shitless before every phone call but usually, the anticipation was 10x worse than the actual call. Once I realized I was adding value, however, I wasn't as anxious anymore.

 

[JoeyF]

I love this, I started out by doing web design + cold calling 2 years ago. I actually documented almost every call that went somewhere in my thread: EXECUTION - My Odyssey - Finding Meaning And Achieving Financial Freedom

I was also scared shitless before every phone call but usually, the anticipation was 10x worse than the actual call. Once I realized I was adding value, however, I wasn't as anxious anymore.

Well this is it, isn't it?! Once you start doing it you realise that people aren't mad that you called and the very small number who are, you can still be very polite, friendly and feel more sorry for them than yourself because they're having a tough day/life to be going off at a stranger who just called to do an intro.

One of the best things I learned from a mentor of sorts when I first started was that you can provide value to people even if they have no use for what you are offering simply by being so positive and friendly that they gain some energy just from speaking with you.

I realised that I could leave the people I was calling feeling better than they did before I called more often than not and that also gave me more energy for the next call.

Just being super friendly/positive/upbeat gets you a LONG way when it comes to pitching via cold calls

 

[peddletothemetal]

My experience: (a) cold calling is roughly on par with going to the dentist, (b) it doesn't feel too bad after a few of your favorite beers.

Disclaimer: I don't recommend alcoholism as a path to easy cold calling.

 

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[Simon Angel]

Well this is it, isn't it?! Once you start doing it you realise that people aren't mad that you called and the very small number who are, you can still be very polite, friendly and feel more sorry for them than yourself because they're having a tough day/life to be going off at a stranger who just called to do an intro.

One of the best things I learned from a mentor of sorts when I first started was that you can provide value to people even if they have no use for what you are offering simply by being so positive and friendly that they gain some energy just from speaking with you.

I realised that I could leave the people I was calling feeling better than they did before I called more often than not and that also gave me more energy for the next call.

Just being super friendly/positive/upbeat gets you a LONG way when it comes to pitching via cold calls

Yep, absolutely, though if I were to do it now I'd just call a few highly-qualified leads per day rather than spray and pray.

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

So I go back to my office at 3:00 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, do the Google search again, and start calling people that are on the second page to show them my "business coach" client is outranking them for "football coaching services".

Two phone calls later I have an appointment set with a "football coach" for next Friday.

If you consistently get business with this approach, you could use the SpyFu - Competitor Keyword Research Tools for Google Ads PPC & SEO or Semrush - Online Marketing Can Be Easy APIs to automate this for you. Basically, you could have this process dumped into an Excel spreadsheet for you.

They give you a website's estimated ranking for certain terms / phrases, along with their estimated PPC and SEO spend per keyword.

You could also use hunter.io 's API to get emails for those websites (though they are usually emails listed on the site, like sales@website or contact@website or info@website).

 

[BizyDad]

If you consistently get business with this approach, you could use the SpyFu - Competitor Keyword Research Tools for Google Ads PPC & SEO or Semrush - Online Marketing Can Be Easy APIs to automate this for you. Basically, you could have this process dumped into an Excel spreadsheet for you.

They give you a website's estimated ranking for certain terms / phrases, along with their estimated PPC and SEO spend per keyword.

You could also use hunter.io 's API to get emails for those websites (though they are usually emails listed on the site, like sales@website or contact@website or info@website).

I'm only just starting to explore myriad API uses for growing my agency. TBH, I don't want to grow it all that fast or all that big, but this applies to so many different businesses that others should take note too.

 

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[Akil]

I read the whole thing and I am now convinced that cold calling is the way to go.
Thanks everyone especially @JoeyF
Cold Calling + Meeting in person

 

[TheJon]

I used to literally go door to door to sell paper to businesses, then AT&T to residences. I didn't hate it, also didn't love it. It was just another thing you do after a while. It did give me a degree of confidence life that 1. if things got tough I could always do that and 2. if I could do that I can talk to anyone, anywhere, and at the very least convince them not to hate me

 

[Itizn]

To me a solid cold calling session (a few hours straight) is a feeling equivalent to going to the gym to lift weights.

Before you start, not terribly enthusiastic, but once you start your rounds/sets, a flow develops.

Also once you start approaching the halfway point or slightly beyond you start looking forward to wrapping it all up.

 

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[Mathuin]

I can imagine this working pretty well

 

[TheJon]

I can imagine this working pretty well

Yeah thats not bad. I wonder what group of people this disqualifies though. I think you might miss busy people, which may not be the best subset to lose right from jump

 

[JackMakesMovies]

He might as well have said "if you're a unicorn, you have a huge gift." LOL is there a single person in the entire world who genuinely loves cold calling? This has to be the #1 most hated job in the world.

I love cold calling and Im really good at selling stuff at my job. Since im 16, I work at McDonalds but I hold the record for most number of socks sold on Mchappy day. Influencing people is one of the funnest things out there

 

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