When did you get your first Offline Client?

I don't think you should give up on cold-calling. However, you may want to rethink your target market and focus on industries that do not have gatekeepers.

100 calls is not a lot. Some warriors do more than that in one day. Even still, it may take them several days before they land a client.

Is it worth it? YES.

Even if I landed only 1 client per week...I would have a full-time, recurring income within my first year. I could retire in SE Asia if I wanted to (assuming my retention rates were acceptable).

What else can you legally do that provides that kind of opportunity and requires little to no start-up capital?

Don't give up.

Bump: Anybody else?

If anything is recommended to me, I plan on taking action tomorrow so I want to have everything drawn out by tonight.

A few years ago I called an orthodontist with the intent of offering web design. They got me to do some thorough SEO for them, so it was a pretty good client, and it took me only a single call... very lucky

It certainly made me optimistic from that point on.

In my first month of offline business, before I even knew this forum existed, I made £4500 in residuals.

I would make 100 calls per day, to a different type of business each week.

My first sale came on my first day, very early on, probably about 10-15 calls in, I didn't know it would be my first sale at the time as I was only setting appointments, I'm pretty crap on the phone but I will sell anything to anybody in person.

I didn't even have a contract or anything, I literally just decided one day when i was bored of writing dating advice and wanted some cash for a spontaneous trip to New York to try and call local businesses to offer them seo. Rocked up to their offices, said my spiel and asked for a cheque, it's crazy how many people just handed over a cheque to me, I could have been anybody.

Anyways I found businesses on the 2nd and 3rd page of google for local keywords, called them, set an appointment, offered them guaranteed first page for 3 keywords of my choosing for £500 a month and told them I wouldn't cash their cheque for 30 days so they could cancel it if they weren't happy.

I kinda miss the simple (if slightly naive and probably illegal) days. Actually really thinking about simplifying my current process as its taking up much more of my time than I'd like it to.

Just a few pointers for a newbie.

The worst markets you can start with are doctors and lawyers, if you have never done telemarketing before. Stick with service businesses( tree service, plumbers, roofers, electricians, etc.) until you are comfortable with your script and answering questions about your services.

You may want to offer web design services or Google Places Listings or something other than SEO to start. Many businesses have been burnt by SEO guys or they just don't understand the value of SEO. If you really just want to offer SEO then find away of marketing your services with out calling it SEO. ex. "I help businesses increase their customers and revenue by showing them how to use the internet to get new customers consistently."

Most business owners don't understand how SEO will help their business, so you end up having to educate them, as well as try to sell them -- doing this is like trying to swim upstream against the current. There are easier ways to get started.

Take a few hours and use the search feature on WF and look up all of the posts by John Durham, kaniganj, david Miller, russ sell. They have all given cold calling training infomation, worth thousands of dollars if you had to pay for it, FOR FREE. They have also given information on great scripts for you to use.

You DO NEED A GOOD SCRIPT. They key is to make it sound natural to your personality. The more you do it the more natural it will sound.

Review your script, your problem could be in your delivery. Download the bower formula in John Durham's signature. You can rework the script he gives in it to suit what ever service you are selling. I recommend you also join thetelemarketingforum.com, there is great information about SEO, web design, etc. cold calling scripts.

Remember, business owners only want to know about how you can help them make more money, not how they can get to page one of google.

You will find that if you choose a market(ex. plumbers), then work it,and call each and everyone of them on your list regardless of how many hang ups you get, in most cases you will get at least one sale. After you complete that market move on to the next one, roofers( or whatever) and don't stop until you've called each and every one of them. Service people are best to call early in the mornings or in the late afternoon, otherwise they are under a sink or fixing a roof and won't have time to talk. Some retail locations are good to call just before opening in the morning or in the late afternoon 2p-4p. Restaurants are usually good to call 9a-10a or 2p-4p; never call them during the dinner hours or during lunchtime, if they serve it. Other types of businesses it's hit and miss, just keep dialing.

Use Manta.com to find out business owners names if you can't afford to buy a lead list. It will make your calling go a bit slower, but sometimes having the business owners name can help you get past the gate keepers. Personally, in most cases,I just like to dial. I don't like to be slowed down.

Remember, the same people who were rude and hung up on you today can be called back 2 or 3 weeks from now again. In most cases, they won't even remember you called and they may even buy from you this time. They may have just been having an extremely bad day the last time you called and just decided to take it out on you at the time.

Don't take any of it personally, just keep dialing until you get to a "Yes", then start dialing again for more sales.

Although your situation may be dire, you can't let them hear the desperation in your voice. You have to approach it with confidence and a smile. Yes, even though they can't see you physically, they can hear your smile! You will be surprised by how far that smile in you voice will get you, if it is genuine.

I can tell a whole lot about a person just by talking to them for a few seconds on the phone, I know lots of gate keepers are the same way, it's their job. So yeah, that smile and politeness are very important.

Finally, don't give up. Just keep going, choose your markets wisely after you have some experience and some references to back you up, then go for the doctors and lawyers. They too can be sold, it's just that they can be a little more difficult to sell to.

Take some time to get your script together, then go make lots of money. I'm cheering for you.

hope you have kept at it trying to gain clients! Have you had any breakthroughs yet?