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Sell Web Design without Cold Calling!

by PanteraIM
10 replies
Hi everyone,

As much as I enjoy the hunt in prospecting cold leads for new business, there comes a time when using someone else's leads starts to make more sense.

I've recently started working with a company which sells corporate identity products such as business cards, branded pens, flyers etc to small businesses. They contacted me thru an advertisement I placed on Gumtree offering my sales skills in return of using their company's database to sell web design services.

The parent company is responsible for all customer service, accounts, billing etc with my business doing the prospecting and fulfilment. The BO I spoke has agreed to a 60/40% split, leaving them with 40% of revenue from all sales.

As a white label supplier I get to leverage their existing relationship and brand whilst create them a completely new revenue stream overnight without any supervision at all.

I chose to let the most serious companies come to me, but it shouldn't be hard for you to call print/design companies that don't offer web services and pitch them the same arrangement.

I know someone is going to ask this so here we go..

1.) Find a company which sells complimentary products to web design
2.) Pitch them a revenue % split just for using their database and brand
3.) Use their warm leads to sell your services and cross-sell SEO/SEM under your brand on the back end
4.) Repeat

If you are uncomfortable with cold calling but can thrash F2F or warm calling then I highly suggest you try this out! You can use a much softer touch and bang out sales faster than you could normally.

Please tell me how it goes!
#calling #cold #design #sell #web
  • Profile picture of the author Jon Martin
    Collaboration is a powerful tool and I can definitely see this being a successful strategy for implementation. Thanks for sharing.
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    • Profile picture of the author PanteraIM
      Originally Posted by Jon Martin View Post

      Collaboration is a powerful tool and I can definitely see this being a successful strategy for implementation. Thanks for sharing.
      Thank you

      To err on the side of these numbers, 60% split was basically my final offer and I almost walked away from the deal at that amount.

      The client is big though so there's a lot of money to make indirectly. My company doesn't necessarily need the extra cashflow because I'm still working on solving some internal processes before I can really scale this up.

      In my individual case this was more of a strategic move to get access to some of the bigger fish in the market: banking, finance, telco firms etc. I hope to land my first whale at the end of this year and make a proper 'company', instead of me sitting in my home office selling web design.

      Pantera
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      you cant hold no groove if you ain't got no pocket.

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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by Jon Martin View Post

      Collaboration is a powerful tool and I can definitely see this being a successful strategy for implementation. Thanks for sharing.
      Absolutely, I like this strategy too! I did it once for a modeling company who was already a client, and called their whole database of models using their company's credibility and ended up getting sales out the ying yang. Never thought of doing it by placing ads though....

      I actually have alot of ideas for modeling companies... a spin on this idea could really be a breakthrough in that arena.
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  • Profile picture of the author kebertt
    Great way to get your foot in the door with some new companies, but you're leaving a lot of money on the table.

    I could see how this is beneficial for you because you have other channels of bringing in prospects, but there are many people out there who focus most of their efforts with partnering with companies and get the short end of the stick; all because they don't know how to generate their own leads.

    There are so many ways to avoid cold calling and still receive warm leads on a daily basis.

    It will be interesting to hear how your venture goes. Have you had any sales thus far? Do you think your partner is fully earning their 40%?
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    • Profile picture of the author PanteraIM
      Originally Posted by kebertt View Post

      Great way to get your foot in the door with some new companies, but you're leaving a lot of money on the table.

      I could see how this is beneficial for you because you have other channels of bringing in prospects, but there are many people out there who focus most of their efforts with partnering with companies and get the short end of the stick; all because they don't know how to generate their own leads.

      There are so many ways to avoid cold calling and still receive warm leads on a daily basis.

      It will be interesting to hear how your venture goes. Have you had any sales thus far? Do you think your partner is fully earning their 40%?
      Ha ha ha ha ha.. this post was amusing on so many levels.. actually, ALL of my business up until now has come thru cold calling.

      Every other man or dog who know hows to throw up a Wordpress site for $97 is using PPC, SEO, Article writing.. why would I want to compete with that when I can slam down at least 2 sales a day cold calling?

      Where's the strategy in that?

      I spoke with 3 business owners today that did not have a website, they told me that they have had maybe 2 or 3(!) calls offering website proposals in the entire length of time they've been in business

      I want you to think about that for a second...

      These business are paying $400pm to be listed in a paid directory..

      And I literally just pick up the phone and talk to these people and bag the sales while most of my competitors are producing content, building links, guest blogging, wasting their money with PPC..

      Don't get me wrong, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying.. all those strategies work for producing leads for companies IF their competition isn't already thrashing them to death.

      You simply won't be competitive, especially if you're the small fish like most warriors are.

      People come to this forum as a web developer, SEO consultant or whatever and ask how they can generate leads. The response will always involve to some extent that they be on the front page, make content, social media yada yada.. this all sounds good and logical in theory, but it's completely divorced from any kind of competitive analysis or broader strategy which would create their bleeding edge to succeed.

      Selling by definition is positioning. You want your business to be chosen as 'The solution' you gotta do the things other people aren't. You don't need to be even 10% unique in your approach, products, services.. at the end of the day we're all selling basically the same sh$% to the same people. But it's YOU that they'll end up buying at the end of the sale and it's YOU that you need to sell them on first, not your copy, not your website, not your portfolio or experience or any kind of circus-faire ego-protection mechanism some people put up because they can't handle a 'no'.

      Anyway...... the point of this post was to let people that are new or struggling with their cold calling that there's easier ways to close sales over the phone than doing it old school.

      I'd recommend anyone to test their ROI after doing this and see how it compares to your current campaigns.

      Respectfully,

      Pantera
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxwellB
    Awesome idea, kind of a spin off co-branding.

    I am very surprised they tried to get more than 40%. Well I guess since they are doing customer service, billing etc.

    Another spin for people like me who like to own the clients and not just do the work would be more in line with co-branding. That would be to approach them in the fashion that they do nothing but allow you to co-brand your marketing with theirs to market to their current customers. You do sales, fulfillment, customer service, billing etc, and go brand the marketing as both ABC Printing and (your company name), using their current clients as prospects.

    That way you have access to their clients, and make them your own for your services by using their name to help you. In this case you could get a 70/30 to 90/10 split because all they are doing is letting you use their list and market using both brands.

    What I mean by using both brands is this:

    The relationship is set up that you will market to their customers using a co-branded approach, you handle all sales, billing, fulfillment etc and the client becomes yours for your services.

    How I would do it is call their clients up and begin the process with their brand...."Hi John this is Max at ABC printing how are you?"

    Then you introduce the second brand (yours):

    John we noticed you didn't have a website and we just recently started a great relationship with a digital media firm in the area to offer all of our loyal customers a web design and internet marketing package. The two of us are running a few webinars this week discussing how to build your company's online presence to grow sales and we'd like to register you for one and at the end we are giving away some amazing bonuses to all the attendees, we have some open slots both in the mornings and afternoons, what works better for you tomorrow or Friday.

    The webinar can be anything not just a webinar...it can be we'd like to have them give you a call it can be a face to face.."we'd like to have them drop by for a consultation". Just use their brand and their name to get your company in the door.

    Anyway that's how I would do it because my favorite part is having the clients, communicating with them, selling them other solutions and helping them grow their business not just doing the work.
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    • Profile picture of the author PanteraIM
      awesome stuff man. you could have saved me some serious $$ had i posted this idea first haha . Oh well next time. hopefully this will help some people
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      you cant hold no groove if you ain't got no pocket.

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  • Profile picture of the author mojo1
    Pantera,

    Your posts are such a breath of fresh air and your thoughtful posts are quickly becoming a must read here on the forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author Newrichgraphics
    tHANK YOU Pantera! Loved this valuable post!

    Could you give us more details about this model of working with a related company? Do they just provide you with the phone numbers and you make the calls? How do they know you're not cheating them e.g. selling a package without letting them know and stealing their 40%? Also, what is the advantage of using your method over using sites like Manta?
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  • Profile picture of the author GregtheWriter
    Definitely a cool idea.

    You said earlier you can get 2 sales a day simply by cold calling? I would love to hear what kind of script you use/how you find the businesses.

    I actually work with a web design company now and again, and it could be mutually beneficial for the two of us haha.

    You can PM or just answer me here, I'll try to check back. Sorry if you already answered this question!
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