Is cold-calling necessary for getting good with Web design sales?

[blakeis1099]

Good day to anyone that might be reading this. I am new here. Its a pleasure to meet you all. I have spent a couple of hours lurking around the Fastlane forum to see if there might be a solution tailored towards the business model that I am pursuing.

I'll try and keep this short. I am a UX/UI designer and amateur WebFlow developer. I am one of those guys that is great at designing very visually attractive website mockups in Figma. I am also beginning to grasp a lot of the technical aspects in WebFlow very quickly.

As you have probably begun to realize, this doesn't equate to sales at all, although it could play a role.
I am considering buying @Fox course on web design and the sales and profit generation aspect of it.

I have done cold-calls in 2020 trying to be a recruiter and it did not go very well at all. I am not too good at sales and have not gotten my first customer for web development yet.

Here is where I am at currently. I am currently working on building my portfolio in Webflow. I already have the first page of the site mocked up in Figma. I understand that I will have to become more competent at WeFlow before I try and get customers and clients.

My goal here is the have an agreed upon plan of action to hit the ground running with once I am competent at building the mock-ups and making it live in WebFlow.

My question to you @Fox is:
1. Do you all specialize in teaching cold-calls? Reason I ask is because I have always found it soul crushing and never became good at it at all.
2. Do you all teach the us the to identify what problem our customer might be having by asking the right question?
3 Do you incorporate the use of sales funnels? I guess what I am trying to ask here is do you teach any effective forms of cold out reach that can be effective in 2023?
4. What reading material do you suggest we digest or get familiar with before diving into your course to help us get started in the right direction?

 

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[The-J]

I'm not Fox.

First 5 Clients Framework

Welcome to Warm Outreach

www.acquisition.com

Cold Outreach Playbook

Welcome to Cold Outreach

www.acquisition.com

All your questions answered in two not-so-short videos

 

[blakeis1099]

I'm not Fox.

First 5 Clients Framework

Welcome to Warm Outreach

www.acquisition.com

Cold Outreach Playbook

Welcome to Cold Outreach

www.acquisition.com

All your questions answered in two not-so-short videos

Appreciate it!! Going over it as I type this response

 

[Fox]

Good day to anyone that might be reading this. I am new here. Its a pleasure to meet you all. I have spent a couple of hours lurking around the Fastlane forum to see if there might be a solution tailored towards the business model that I am pursuing.

I'll try and keep this short. I am a UX/UI designer and amateur WebFlow developer. I am one of those guys that is great at designing very visually attractive website mockups in Figma. I am also beginning to grasp a lot of the technical aspects in WebFlow very quickly.

As you have probably begun to realize, this doesn't equate to sales at all, although it could play a role.
I am considering buying @Fox course on web design and the sales and profit generation aspect of it.

I have done cold-calls in 2020 trying to be a recruiter and it did not go very well at all. I am not too good at sales and have not gotten my first customer for web development yet.

Here is where I am at currently. I am currently working on building my portfolio in Webflow. I already have the first page of the site mocked up in Figma. I understand that I will have to become more competent at WeFlow before I try and get customers and clients.

My goal here is the have an agreed upon plan of action to hit the ground running with once I am competent at building the mock-ups and making it live in WebFlow.

My question to you @Fox is:
1. Do you all specialize in teaching cold-calls? Reason I ask is because I have always found it soul crushing and never became good at it at all.
2. Do you all teach the us the to identify what problem our customer might be having by asking the right question?
3 Do you incorporate the use of sales funnels? I guess what I am trying to ask here is do you teach any effective forms of cold out reach that can be effective in 2023?
4. What reading material do you suggest we digest or get familiar with before diving into your course to help us get started in the right direction?

Is it cool to ask these questions in the program thread.

I don't want to mix forum engagement with questions about joining the program.

It's best to keep all the program stuff in just the one place - thanks!

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

Cold calling is imo not a good way to build a business. It’s not really scaleable, it’s hard to teach and hard to get good at.

Work for free to start with, get amazing at your craft, build a personal brand, and work will come to you over 1-2 years.

The reason you don’t get any business is because your skills of delivering great quality work suck. Yes, I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s the truth.

I have yet to see someone who is a real expert for long and doesn’t get any business, excluding those few cases who are antisocial. But most web designers build crappy websites that you could get built on Fiverr for $200. Why would anyone pay you $5K for that? The only answer possible would be stupidity.

 

[blakeis1099]

I'm not Fox.

First 5 Clients Framework

Welcome to Warm Outreach

www.acquisition.com

Cold Outreach Playbook

Welcome to Cold Outreach

www.acquisition.com

All your questions answered in two not-so-short videos

Cold calling is imo not a good way to build a business. It’s not really scaleable, it’s hard to teach and hard to get good at.

Work for free to start with, get amazing at your craft, build a personal brand, and work will come to you over 1-2 years.

The reason you don’t get any business is because your skills of delivering great quality work suck. Yes, I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s the truth.

I have yet to see someone who is a real expert for long and doesn’t get any business, excluding those few cases who are antisocial. But most web designers build crappy websites that you could get built on Fiverr for $200. Why would anyone pay you $5K for that? The only answer possible would be stupidity.

I actually haven't delivered work at all or tried to get a customer at all. I am still learning webflow and am great at the visual design part so I have been told. I can show examples of my work for further context. The reason why I came to this forum is because after a year of training in Figma and currently training in Webflow I want to make sure I am well prepared for getting my first work and want to flesh out a solid plan for lead generation before i launch my first product.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I actually haven't delivered work at all or tried to get a customer at all. I am still learning webflow and am great at the visual design part so I have been told. I can show examples of my work for further context. The reason why I came to this forum is because after a year of training in Figma and currently training in Webflow I want to make sure I am well prepared for getting my first work and want to flesh out a solid plan for lead generation before i launch my first product.

Your solution is easy. Stop planning, stop preparing, just open an Upwork account, bid low on projects, explain that you’re doing it just because you’re new, and start practicing your damn skill and wow clients while collecting testimonials and massive social proof.

Why would you cold call when there’s already people looking for websites on Upwork?! Especially when your skill isn’t even solid to start with…

You’re taking things a$$ backwards. First you do as much work as possible so you get really really good at it. THEN you start thinking about charging more and scaling.

 

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[blakeis1099]

Your solution is easy. Stop planning, stop preparing, just open an Upwork account, bid low on projects, explain that you’re doing it just because you’re new, and start practicing your damn skill and wow clients while collecting testimonials and massive social proof.

Why would you cold call when there’s already people looking for websites on Upwork?! Especially when your skill isn’t even solid to start with…

You’re taking things a$$ backwards. First you do as much work as possible so you get really really good at it. THEN you start thinking about charging more and scaling.

I like this approach. How much free work do you think I should do first... nah, you'll probably say as long as it takes I guess.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Go for it and test, it doesn't hurt to cold call people when you have no network to sell to. If you are starting from scratch with no network, cold calling is a good way to start to then one day create a referral engine. Don't let the guys on this forum tell you otherwise.

The best way is to test. If you have read MJ's books, the best feedback to get from people is the marketplace. Not your friends or family. The actual public, this way will tell you whether or not your service (hence web design) is worth it. Anything that you do, you must test and act in the marketplace. Only you will be able to find out the truth.

Payment-Prove principle. If someone hands you money, you have given value to the world congratulations

Cool tip for you, and a weeee secret. I got my first $312.50 because of cold calling, so yes it works and is a channel out of many channels to be used for speaking with the market mind. Plus, he's not a friend or family either. I barely even had a portfolio piece (I have one now thanks to an awesome business owner named Jessica)

People with a network (Power connectors or people who socialize) usually get a headstart pretty fast.
People with no network or who stay at home, usually may not have none.

MJ moved to Arizona with only $900 bucks and started cold calling, emailing, and direct mail. Channels that still could be used today and are effective, the end goal is to eventually move away from. Thus, this concludes that we need to get out of the house socialize with our fellow humans, and build a network. GuitarManDan did it when he got tired of his investment firm banking job. And he did a splendid job.

In the end, though, you want people to come to you (Referrals) people to recommend you to others. This is the best way to clients. I had people in the past recommend me to others, creating the productoracy MJ says. It's very powerful when done correctly. I've only had a small taste of it.

Good luck buddy!

P.S. Two books to check out:

1. Fanatical Prospecting.
2. Problem Prospecting.

 

[ChrisStanton]

Cold calling is imo not a good way to build a business. It’s not really scaleable, it’s hard to teach and hard to get good at.

Work for free to start with, get amazing at your craft, build a personal brand, and work will come to you over 1-2 years.

Glad I never listened to advice like this!

No offense but I went from 0 clients to having 8 within a month from ONLY cold calls for my dating coaching business. I did that within the first month of starting. Couldn’t imagine having to wait “1 - 2 years” to start making this much money.

 

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[HJP]

Cold calling works for sure, we've made a couple of sales using it.

However like people say it's not massively scaleable, I've had success using email marketing campaigns and SMS which is also easy to scale. You can message 3000 people in one click & provide value to them but to do that on the phone would take hours on end.

 

[ChrisStanton]

Cold calling works for sure, we've made a couple of sales using it.

However like people say it's not massively scaleable, I've had success using email marketing campaigns and SMS which is also easy to scale. You can message 3000 people in one click & provide value to them but to do that on the phone would take hours on end.

Unless you hire a team of salesmen.

 

[Jrjohnny]

It depends on what you’re selling, for web design, sure, it’ll work.

For @ChrisStanton ’s business, he could go onto dating apps, find peoples numbers and give them a call.

What if your selling underwear or something?

Your not going to call random people and be like:

“Hey! It’s bob at Men and Woman’s Underwear Enterprise!”

“Uh, hi?”

“We just wanted to know if you’d like to buy some of our underwear!”

“No”

———


It legit all depends on what your selling, who your selling it to and how you get their numbers.

You’re not going to go onto a RE website to find dog sitting businesses who need a website redesign.


Like here are a few examples of what may work with cold calling:

Popsicles? No
Websites? Yes
Service Based Business? Yes
A special app? Heck no, people will think it’s a virus

So for your business layout, it’ll work to do cold calling.

You could dabble in it whenever you have free time.

It has high potential and legit no downside.

You manage to level up your sales skills,

you might get your first client,

you get your name out there,

you gain confidence,

if they say no, it’s not a negative. You gain a reality check, and more experience

and many more

You’ve got this dude

 

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[HJP]

Unless you hire a team of salesmen.

That is true, if that is available to you

 

[Stargazer]

It depends on what you’re selling, for web design, sure, it’ll work.

For @ChrisStanton ’s business, he could go onto dating apps, find peoples numbers and give them a call.

What if your selling underwear or something?

Your not going to call random people and be like:

“Hey! It’s bob at Men and Woman’s Underwear Enterprise!”

“Uh, hi?”

“We just wanted to know if you’d like to buy some of our underwear!”

“No”

This is not exactly correct.

Spanx lady in America took her samples in a suitcase and went cold calling from shop to shop in order to drum up business. Michelle Mone started Ultimo bras and got her first concession in Selfridges by cold calling buyers.

Tonnes of people in fashion started by door knocking and picking up the phone. Always have and always will as it's fastest way to start.

I also don't know of a single FTSE 100 company in the UK that doesn't cold call. That's why they are huge. They are not hoping that someone might open their letter or email or turn up at the Rugby etc.

They are doing everything until that thing is no longer profit producing.

You are right about one thing though. You have to be calling the right people so your example is correct in that respect. You wouldn't randomly call consumers asking if they wanted a meal or a pair of socks.

By the way I enjoy reading your posts so keep it up.

Dan

 

[cikatomo]

Glad I never listened to advice like this!

No offense but I went from 0 clients to having 8 within a month from ONLY cold calls for my dating coaching business. I did that within the first month of starting. Couldn’t imagine having to wait “1 - 2 years” to start making this much money.

Nice, I have a feeling people like to say cold calling is for 1970s to avoid actually doing because they are anxious doing it.
How did you get your leads?

 

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[JohnyAk]

Go for it and test, it doesn't hurt to cold call people when you have no network to sell to. If you are starting from scratch with no network, cold calling is a good way to start to then one day create a referral engine. Don't let the guys on this forum tell you otherwise.

The best way is to test. If you have read MJ's books, the best feedback to get from people is the marketplace. Not your friends or family. The actual public, this way will tell you whether or not your service (hence web design) is worth it. Anything that you do, you must test and act in the marketplace. Only you will be able to find out the truth.

Payment-Prove principle. If someone hands you money, you have given value to the world congratulations

Cool tip for you, and a weeee secret. I got my first $312.50 because of cold calling, so yes it works and is a channel out of many channels to be used for speaking with the market mind. Plus, he's not a friend or family either. I barely even had a portfolio piece (I have one now thanks to an awesome business owner named Jessica)

People with a network (Power connectors or people who socialize) usually get a headstart pretty fast.
People with no network or who stay at home, usually may not have none.

MJ moved to Arizona with only $900 bucks and started cold calling, emailing, and direct mail. Channels that still could be used today and are effective, the end goal is to eventually move away from. Thus, this concludes that we need to get out of the house socialize with our fellow humans, and build a network. GuitarManDan did it when he got tired of his investment firm banking job. And he did a splendid job.

In the end, though, you want people to come to you (Referrals) people to recommend you to others. This is the best way to clients. I had people in the past recommend me to others, creating the productoracy MJ says. It's very powerful when done correctly. I've only had a small taste of it.

Good luck buddy!

P.S. Two books to check out:

1. Fanatical Prospecting.
2. Problem Prospecting.

Your advice saved my life. Kinda.

This great book: "Fanatical Prospecting" basically told me what I already knew. That I'm afraid to get rejected. But it also reminded me of what Jim Rohn said about the law of averages (basically that it's just a game of numbers until you get better). And oh my god it works. After cold calling about 200 people I got 4 totally strangers to become clients.
Yeah I know, the numbers suck, but after reading more and more and more I just keep closing more appointments to speak with people, Im learning how to sell and becoming better and better with every call.

And that's the point. Going to appointments and cold calling isn't about closing the sale, it's about becoming a salesman.

Even without having a great portfolio (after having done a few freebies), if you learn how to sell and how to provide value, people will just say yes.

Cold colling works. At least it's a great way to start.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Your advice saved my life. Kinda.

This great book: "Fanatical Prospecting" basically told me what I already knew. That I'm afraid to get rejected. But it also reminded me of what Jim Rohn said about the law of averages (basically that it's just a game of numbers until you get better). And oh my god it works. After cold calling about 200 people I got 4 totally strangers to become clients.
Yeah I know, the numbers suck, but after reading more and more and more I just keep closing more appointments to speak with people, Im learning how to sell and becoming better and better with every call.

And that's the point. Going to appointments and cold calling isn't about closing the sale, it's about becoming a salesman.

Even without having a great portfolio (after having done a few freebies), if you learn how to sell and how to provide value, people will just say yes.

Cold colling works. At least it's a great way to start.

Wow. That's amazing. I'm glad this advice has worked for you.

The point is not to be a salesman, but a problem solver. What is that you can do with the skill Web Design that can move the needle forward.

Don't forget to network as well, if you can go to Networking Events, you can build relationships. Beware though, most will probably try to sell you something. But it can be a gold mine. I hear that if you go to BNI groups, that's another gold mine. BUT you need to have connections, because there is a requirement as apart of joining that says you need to have referrals to give to others as well. There's a step cost to it, i.e. $1,000 I believe when I was checking it out.

I'd say go straight to the market, select a niche, cold call/cold email. Get the engine going so that you can have the person you developed a website for recommend you to others.

Jessica, one of my portfolio pieces, actually started doing this and I would have had another project from a famous Truck Food business in Tyler, Texas.

Find connectors, become friends with them, they could refer you to others as well. I dropped the ball on this last year. I should have continued.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Your advice saved my life. Kinda.

This great book: "Fanatical Prospecting" basically told me what I already knew. That I'm afraid to get rejected. But it also reminded me of what Jim Rohn said about the law of averages (basically that it's just a game of numbers until you get better). And oh my god it works. After cold calling about 200 people I got 4 totally strangers to become clients.
Yeah I know, the numbers suck, but after reading more and more and more I just keep closing more appointments to speak with people, Im learning how to sell and becoming better and better with every call.

And that's the point. Going to appointments and cold calling isn't about closing the sale, it's about becoming a salesman.

Even without having a great portfolio (after having done a few freebies), if you learn how to sell and how to provide value, people will just say yes.

Cold colling works. At least it's a great way to start.

I'll give you another cool tip:

Create Loom videos and send them within your cold emails. Text is great to read, but if you create a video. That's gives you a bit of an advantage in terms of personalization. Don't make the video cookie cutter to send in mass, personalize it to them.

There was a book that I read a few years back that for every 10 videos sent, you will get 1 person interested.

I got an residential electrician from this one tip alone.

The goal is to eventually move away from these intrusive channels, to get to a point where you are getting people coming to you or finding you.

When you have no circle of friends, family, or business owners that you know off. Could be because you are introvert or haven't networked in awhile. It's hard to find prospects to work for/with.

Hope this helps.

 

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[ZackerySprague]

Your advice saved my life. Kinda.

This great book: "Fanatical Prospecting" basically told me what I already knew. That I'm afraid to get rejected. But it also reminded me of what Jim Rohn said about the law of averages (basically that it's just a game of numbers until you get better). And oh my god it works. After cold calling about 200 people I got 4 totally strangers to become clients.
Yeah I know, the numbers suck, but after reading more and more and more I just keep closing more appointments to speak with people, Im learning how to sell and becoming better and better with every call.

And that's the point. Going to appointments and cold calling isn't about closing the sale, it's about becoming a salesman.

Even without having a great portfolio (after having done a few freebies), if you learn how to sell and how to provide value, people will just say yes.

Cold colling works. At least it's a great way to start.

Another good resource:

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/?ref_source=embed&ref=share

 

[ZackerySprague]

Your advice saved my life. Kinda.

This great book: "Fanatical Prospecting" basically told me what I already knew. That I'm afraid to get rejected. But it also reminded me of what Jim Rohn said about the law of averages (basically that it's just a game of numbers until you get better). And oh my god it works. After cold calling about 200 people I got 4 totally strangers to become clients.
Yeah I know, the numbers suck, but after reading more and more and more I just keep closing more appointments to speak with people, Im learning how to sell and becoming better and better with every call.

And that's the point. Going to appointments and cold calling isn't about closing the sale, it's about becoming a salesman.

Even without having a great portfolio (after having done a few freebies), if you learn how to sell and how to provide value, people will just say yes.

Cold colling works. At least it's a great way to start.

The numbers, though as you say may suck. I don't even think that it sucks anyway if your making 50 cold calls a day. The cool thing is it's a start and you moved the needle. Your strategy or process will most likely improve after more iterations, thus improving your numbers. It's a Win dude nonetheless. Good job!

Cool fact: Michia Rohrssen (Creator of Prodigy Software) started out this way. He created a sales team. Most software companies have sales teams that drives potential prospects into clients. Big software companies like Alkami Technology though have long sales cycles compared to Web Design projects. And they host in-person events in hopes to connect with others and maybe sign on some clients. Updates on the software/industry, etc. They usually have larger ACV (Average Contract Values) in terms of how much it cost per company. Prodigy Software costed $30,000 dollars per year with a market that he was in was about 60,000. Of course you won't be able to capture 100% of the market so, but his potential was $2bn. Eventually they changed the structure and charged a small percentage per loan processed when a consumer purchased a car from a dealer. 1.5% or 2% of every deal size.

 

[EMH]

Good day to anyone that might be reading this. I am new here. Its a pleasure to meet you all. I have spent a couple of hours lurking around the Fastlane forum to see if there might be a solution tailored towards the business model that I am pursuing.

I'll try and keep this short. I am a UX/UI designer and amateur WebFlow developer. I am one of those guys that is great at designing very visually attractive website mockups in Figma. I am also beginning to grasp a lot of the technical aspects in WebFlow very quickly.

As you have probably begun to realize, this doesn't equate to sales at all, although it could play a role.
I am considering buying @Fox course on web design and the sales and profit generation aspect of it.

I have done cold-calls in 2020 trying to be a recruiter and it did not go very well at all. I am not too good at sales and have not gotten my first customer for web development yet.

Here is where I am at currently. I am currently working on building my portfolio in Webflow. I already have the first page of the site mocked up in Figma. I understand that I will have to become more competent at WeFlow before I try and get customers and clients.

My goal here is the have an agreed upon plan of action to hit the ground running with once I am competent at building the mock-ups and making it live in WebFlow.

My question to you @Fox is:
1. Do you all specialize in teaching cold-calls? Reason I ask is because I have always found it soul crushing and never became good at it at all.
2. Do you all teach the us the to identify what problem our customer might be having by asking the right question?
3 Do you incorporate the use of sales funnels? I guess what I am trying to ask here is do you teach any effective forms of cold out reach that can be effective in 2023?
4. What reading material do you suggest we digest or get familiar with before diving into your course to help us get started in the right direction?

Hey blakeis1099 - been working on the cold email approach first and mentally gearing up for the cold calling portion so I know your pain. Will certainly share any good breakthroughs and tips when appropriate.

 

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