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Start with cold calling or cold email?

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lincoln84

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Hey there fellow fastlaners!

I will keep this first post short but i would like to hear about your experience with contacting new clients. Is it better to start with a cold email(brochures of your product) or to skip the email stage and go right off to calling the manager or the owner to try do set up a meeting so that you can show off your product? The products in question are Exclusive Wines from Germany and the clients are restaurants and hotels. We already have a couple of regular customers, but would like to scale. I will start a progress thread soon. I am helping out my parents with their wine import company here in Estonia. Nice way to get some experience as an young entrepreneur :)
 
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JAJT

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Call. Call. Call.

Business to business should be done with calling unless there's a very good reason not to.

Call them up, tell them about yourself, see if they are interested, and worst case scenario you can always send them a brochure after talking to them (the old 'well, start by sending me some info' line).
 

lincoln84

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Call. Call. Call.

Business to business should be done with calling unless there's a very good reason not to.

Call them up, tell them about yourself, see if they are interested, and worst case scenario you can always send them a brochure after talking to them (the old 'well, start by sending me some info' line).
Thank you for your response!
I will renew my Skype subscription today, so i can call right from my computer, and send out a email instantly during a call when somebody asks for it :)
Another question, how long should the presentation be and what details should definently be brought out and what not? I am currently working on a sales script.
 

Bourbons

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Hey there fellow fastlaners!

I will keep this first post short but i would like to hear about your experience with contacting new clients. Is it better to start with a cold email(brochures of your product) or to skip the email stage and go right off to calling the manager or the owner to try do set up a meeting so that you can show off your product? The products in question are Exclusive Wines from Germany and the clients are restaurants and hotels. We already have a couple of regular customers, but would like to scale. I will start a progress thread soon. I am helping out my parents with their wine import company here in Estonia. Nice way to get some experience as an young entrepreneur :)

Based on the assumption that you're working off a list and targeting organisations where the decision maker doesn't typically answer the phone (i.e. they have a gatekeeper) my approach is;

Call, find out who deals with it and ask to be put through

If put through - Sell
If not put through - Get email address, send email, call back next day

With a well written email to the right person you can get really good results - especially from people who are not often at their desk. Write a template for your emails and customise as necessary to save time.

:)
 
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lincoln84

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Feb 28, 2014
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Based on the assumption that you're working off a list and targeting organisations where the decision maker doesn't typically answer the phone (i.e. they have a gatekeeper) my approach is;

Call, find out who deals with it and ask to be put through

If put through - Sell
If not put through - Get email address, send email, call back next day

With a well written email to the right person you can get really good results - especially from people who are not often at their desk. Write a template for your emails and customise as necessary to save time.

:)
Yes i am working of a list of places that i gathered from fb and google. The phone numbers seem to be more of the overall business so i guess i will have to deal most of the time with the gatekeepers if i can`t find owners direct contacts from somewhere. We will see.
 

deste

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Sale letters! and then call.
It's a little bit more challeging but according to the best experts it's a better way to have a HOT call and not a Cold call.

My 2 cents.
 

Ubermensch

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Answer: Whatever it takes.

Sometimes, it takes an e-mail.

Sometimes, it takes a phone call.

Sometimes, it takes an in-person visit.

Always, it takes a CLO$ER.
 
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happybhoy

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This would be my strategy.
1. Cold call and find out who would be in charge of buying and get their email address.
2. Email with a little about your product and finish with some thing like "can I call on Friday to discuss further? How's 2pm?" Youll get a better responce from a warm lead.
3.Call at that time whether they reply or not. If they answer discuss a bit about their business and ask to pop in to discuss more.
4. Meet them, listen to them and try and show how your wine could help them.
5. Be sure to follow up.
As you see I'm just trying to have as many points of contact with the prospect to get a relationship going.
P.s listen to "scientific advertising" audio book on YouTube.
 

Alxander

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Wake up and do a cold shower, cold call, cold email.

I don't care it just has to be cold! lel
 

tiagosoares17.22

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Lincoln84, not sure if relevant to you. I am a wine producer and next production year (in a few months) I'll be exporting most of my wine (from Portugal). Just leaving it here because I saw that your family business also works around importing wines.
 
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