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1st cold calling campaign

by merchantservices
8 replies
Ive been lurking these forums for a few weeks. Reading a ton in the offline Marketing forum. Ill give you a little background of myself and what my goal with this is. Ive been a real estate investor for 9 years and over the last few years have become extremely burnt out with tenant issues and the headaches that come with it.I was also a Realtor for a short time in Ohio. I just recently moved and have no network here. I am also starting a job selling credit card processing. I love the idea of the residuals very similar to real estate hopefully with less headaches.

Ok so with knowing no business owners in this area my only options are to cold walk into a business and try to sell the service or cold call. Im going to start with cold calling because I think it is more scale-able in the long run I could just hire someone to set the appointments for me.

My only goal in the cold call is to introduce myself and try to land an appointment. I will be using a very short and to the point script. I have also signed up for a dialer online and spent the last few days getting everything set up. I will start calling on a list of new businesses that I paid for but I also downloaded a large list of local businesses that I am sure I will have to tap into as the new business list only has around 500 numbers. Im unsure of the quality of either list. My goal is to call for at least 2 hrs a day but ideally I will be on the phone unless I have an appointment to go to.

On a side note I have never done anything like this. I have also heard it is very hard to cold call for merchant services because they supposedly get cold called all of the time. Anyways I will post my numbers daily.

Goal
Appointments- 2
Calls -Whatever it takes
#1st #calling #campaign #cold
  • Profile picture of the author RealCasher
    I'd love to see your numbers as i'm concerned about cold calling too.

    And remember Cold calling is a numbers game, so don't stop til you get your appointment.

    Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
    Originally Posted by merchantservices View Post

    I have also heard it is very hard to cold call for merchant services because they supposedly get cold called all of the time.
    Won't most businesses already have a way to process credit cards? I'd think that's your bigger problem, not that they get cold-called.
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  • Profile picture of the author longrobnc
    If you are going to cold call for merchant services, you better have a USP. I get called for this service at least once or twice a day. I also get merchant service people walking in to my business. It all sounds the same. They all offer the lowest rates.

    Personally, I use Intuit. They are expensive, but they also post my merchant fees in quickbooks automatically. Not to mention the fact that I can run cards right in my Quickbooks. Their web portal is also tops for doing reconciliations.

    You see, that's a USP, and if you have that you don't have to use the cheapest guy pitch like everyone else.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeremiah Walsh
    It doesn't matter if these people are getting cold called every single day. Almost every business is getting cold called in some form every single day.

    What you need to do is stand out from the crowd. You need to adopt a "why you, why you now" approach. In your script you need to let them know why you are calling them specifically and why now is the right time.

    You will also find that almost every one of these competitors that cold call will only do it once and never call back. On average it takes 4-7 touches for a cold calling program to be successful. I get 80% of my success rate from the 4-7 range.

    Here is an explanation. First touch you are the same as everyone else, second touch you provide a tidbit of value, third touch you are recognized, fourth touch you are familiar, fifth touch you have their attention, and so on.

    What you need to do is to set up a cadence for your cold calling routine and follow though with it.

    You also need to remember to always call with a purpose and always provide value. Rate isn't the only thing to set you apart from your competition. People buy from people, not from companies. Be friendly, offer value, and genuinely be interested in their business.

    I used to do something called "Arlene's game". I have no idea who named it or why. IT basically goes like this. I use a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. One side is "yes" the other side is "no". Every time I get a "no" I would give myself a point in that section. The same would go for each "yes" I got. I would do this until I got 50 "no" points. I wouldn't purposely try to get rejections, I would just keep score. Once I got 50 I would go get a coffee/lunch/smoke/whatever I wanted for the small victory of getting 50 rejections. I would do this each day and each day it would be harder and harder to win at getting rejections because something strange would happen. all of those "no" points would start migrating over to the "yes" side.

    Its a game that you win by losing and it becomes harder and harder to win. Try it out!
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    • Profile picture of the author Freebiequeen1999
      Never heard of Arlene but know that "game" and variations....called usually "get the no's out of the way"...or "get my no's"...or "every no brings you closer to a yes"

      Another way I taught calling was with this idea...

      imagine a parking lot full of 100 cars...some are rolls royce, ferrari, etc..some are mom's suv....some are Toyota camry...some are a pickup truck, some are an old clunker

      There are 3 prizes in the trunck of 3 cars..but you do not know where ....you much open every trunk to find them

      Now...if you rush around and only open luxury car trunks you could miss it...if you decide to low ball and only open clunkers you may miss the prize...if you magically decide it is in the soccer mom trunk you could lose ....if you rush around from row to row aimlessly you will waste time...overthinking wastes time

      so...YOU START AT ROW ONE AND OPEN EVERY TRUNK AND KEEP GOING AND BY THE END OF 100 YOU WILL FIND THE PRIZES

      people who overthink and pick and choose will lose

      the point is : don't overthink your calls...don't look at a list and decide that based on the name of the business or whatever you will call it first...just go right down the line and do it

      Start at top of list and go right down...don't skip...don't overthink...don't guess...don't prejudge...just dial. Smile and dial.

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      • Profile picture of the author Jeremiah Walsh
        Originally Posted by Freebiequeen1999 View Post



        people who overthink and pick and choose will lose

        the point is : don't overthink your calls...don't look at a list and decide that based on the name of the business or whatever you will call it first...just go right down the line and do it

        Start at top of list and go right down...don't skip...don't over think...don't guess...don't prejudge...just dial. Smile and dial.

        This is very true. I have had salespeople go against the grain and try to do things their own way... and I would let them for a short amount of time. Once they got it out of their system I would then ask them if they were ready to do it properly... and by doing it properly I mean to just do it.

        No need to over think and try to do it some fancy way.

        The best way to accomplish something is by doing it.
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        • Profile picture of the author 512 Designs
          Two quick questions for you.

          For businesses already taking credit cards....

          What problems do you think they have with their current merchant service and how can you solve them?

          For new businesses that don't take credit cards yet.....

          What's going to make you different from the other merchant service companies out there?
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          • Profile picture of the author Mark68
            There are plenty of merchants who want to change credit card processors, it is the same process as the web design guys who are trying to get business. Combine both calls and walk ins, make your dials and then walk in the businesses around your appointments.

            Merchants who don't take credit are not a worry, mostly small restaurants who can run on cash and checks. Or the one man van plumbing, painting etc type companies. Even those folks are going to the simple swipe on the smartphone app. And like web design, you may be better off working with businesses are looking to upgrade (reprice) their existing website (card service) than convincing those that don't have a site at all.

            Brand new businesses usually go open a bank account and the banks have reps who are on them like white on rice. If you pass a new business in your walk ins definitely go in and try to see the owner but don't spend money on the lists of "new business filings".

            Ask merchants if they are processing their cards under the Durbin Debit law. Are they getting the regulated rates in these categories- Signature Debit, PIN Debit and Signature Credit. You can set up their rates to be lower than the Square/intuit/papypal flate rates-even when a customer presents a corporate card or the 5% cash back rewards card.

            But don't talk rates lowest price stuff, ask the questions. What happens if a customer presents the new embedded computer chip credit card (which are inserted) and their old style swipe down the side machine can't do that? Who takes the risk when the card is fraudulent. A lot of reps leave the business and the merchant just isn't getting the information like this that they need. If they need to upgrade their machine anyway that is the mostly likely time they would price their rates.

            Whether it is commercial insurance,paper towels, or pizza dough, all businesses have to reprice periodically.

            Find out what systems your company has in place to automatically send credit (and cash) sales to Quickbooks and other online accounting systems every night. What else is integrated to your company's systems-tracking employee hourly clock-ins so payroll is one click spread sheet every two weeks to email to the accountant or payroll company. Sales taxes- one click calculation at the month end. These should be available in the newer integrated systems most merchant services processors provide nowadays.

            Read the cold call threads for web design here, the effort is similar- and like web design anyone can jump into the business. Credit card companies will raise rates over time and add fees over time. Some merchants out there will be tired of their current company and be looking for a change.


            Good luck!

            "Arlene's Game" sounds like the philosophy of the "Go For No" book on Amazon, a quick read
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