Cold Calling Problem - The Gatekeeper

"to which I say website design and online promotion" - that's about YOU, not THEM!

You must quickly let them know "what's in it for THEM" and in a manner that sparks their curiosity and sets you apart.

Joel

I do my 20 second spiel no matter who answers.

If it's the owner, great. Then we are talking.

If it is an employee, most times they tell me to hold for so and so (the owner, generally.)

If it is the gatekeeper, they will either put me through, tell me to hold while they check for interest or tell me "not interested."

I don't worry about the gatekeeper. Call, take the shot, score or not, move on to the next one.

Try saying, I know! Every one says they aren't interested until they realize how many new customers they are giving away to (name a competitor in their niche) so if you think the owner is ok with waiting to get to that point to realize this on their own that's fine with me.

2/5? Come back after 100. You don't have any data yet.

Use the Little Unsure technique.

Don't say website & online promotion, say getting more customers.

You don't have a good lead go down the drain in this situation; you have the knee-jerk "not interested" lie people say to protect themselves.

Iv'e only made 20 calls today, no conversions and not much interest but I think that's due to the way I have promoted and the leads. Does anyone have any tips or give me any advice on the 20 second intro I say to people:

"Hi, my name is Tom Buckland, real quick, Im just calling to ask does your business have a website or do you think it would be something you are interested in?"

I know 20 calls is nothing compared to everyone on here, but im not an overly confident guy anyway and I still find it difficult to convert the leads where they say "not interested at the moment" and you know they are you just haven't worded it right.

Any info or tips are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tom.

Are you speaking to the gatekeeper loud and confidently? If they sense that you are a person of importance, they won't even hear the words you say and simply pass you on to the decision-maker.

Underneath your pitch, you have to give a vibe of "I expect you to transfer me".

I also ask if the decision-maker is in the office. If they are not, I ask for a good time to call back. I've found you get an extremely low conversion rate for returned voicemails, especially if it's not a hot lead.

Alright that was good information, Jason knows what hes talking about. Alright this is what I got in terms of my script so far:

"Hi, is this a bad time to talk?"

"Alright, thanks, let me just take a quick minute, Ill tell you why I called and you can decide whether we should get talking or not, does that sound okay?"

The next part is something Im struggling with, past hour I have been having a look around Jason's info and he talks about in one post the Italian restaurant and Monetizing the problem to get maximum value, its at: The Telemarketing Forum*.:.*What Should I Really Expect? Selling Websites over the Phone. I need a closer.

The problem I have is I do not know how to convert that post to a 30-45 second "intro to why Im actually calling." Im promoting website creation but I also can do SEO and understand most online marketing strategies which is what interests me when he goes on to talk about how the $250 website line would not have worked, but the 3,000 increase your customers route was very good and I can see how that would be effective.

So I guess my question is, as I am only a beginner should I go straight into this method or should I play the numbers game with a statement such as: "I'm just calling to ask does your business have a website or do you think it would be something you are interested in?"

Thanks a lot
Tom.

Don't talk about SEO. It's a scary term that turns prospects off.

Talk about getting them more customers. How you do what you do is basically unimportant to your prospect. The results you get are what matters.

Tell them about problems you solve for businesses. If they are experiencing one or more of those problems, they'll want to talk to you.

I just finished a call shadowing session with a client and EVERY SINGLE GATEKEEPER who he asked for help using the Little Unsure technique stopped, paid attention to him, and gave him a straight answer. He either got to speak with the person he wanted, got their email address, or got a better time to call them back.

A real simple thing I never hear anyone talk about is simply asking

Who do i talk to about referrals? Oh, thats BOB,

Great, is Bob a sales rep, or can he actually pay me for a referral.

Then you usually hear, actually you want Jack.

Now you got who you want to talk to, AND you know they are interested in
more customers.

Easy foot in the door.

Alright thanks guys, I got the weekend to finish my script and get a list of potential leads. I think I will try to get around 200 and then I can work out figures and conversions from there after. I will post some updates next week.

Jason what you said in one of your videos was 100% right, you were talking about taking the pressure off yourself and simply talking about people who are interested and those who aren't. I do feel the pressure when Im calling businesses and why I probably don't sound very confident and this is something I am working on changing.

Cheers for the advice.