"I was dying a little bit more each day..."

Gotta disagree with you this time, Chris.

Why should you have to call 6 hours a day?

Why rely on one source of leads?

I don't think either of those is a good idea.

Most people start with a terrible list, then proceed to begin their calls so poorly that they are over in 10 seconds. That's like someone trying to swim by leaping into the deep end of the pool, thrashing around a bit, and then wondering why they aren't going anywhere as they sink.

The calling option also requires a sales funnel: it's called a consistent sales process. Steps and stages.

It's the same amount of work to get any system going. I didn't do well with my facebook ads this spring--they released the advanced targeting options with the UIDs right after I spent my money. THAT was soul-numbing.

Telling people they can put up ads and wait for the calls to come in sounds good, but then you see comments from folks like Tim Castleman who got tons of leads from fb ads posted by affiliates...none of whom bought. All they did was mess up his numbers. I'm sure many of you leapt on Don Wilson's course lately. This is the result. Just because you have a guidebook (and even I have an earlier version of his training, and appreciate it) doesn't mean you are instantly going to set up a profitable ad with funnel.

There is a learning curve in every setup. I have fb tools and training and haven't been able to make that work yet. It's been depressing for me. So the "magic solution", which Warriors seem to always be looking for, isn't "set up ads with a funnel and watch the sales roll in."

It's more like "learn a system, roll with the punches, stick with it, develop your abilities and results, and then maybe it'll work for you." Or get a proven mentor (which again costs money). And get several of these leadgen methods up.

Hey Jason,

You bring up some good points, but let me just state that I didn't say rely on one source of leads. In fact, in the examples I listed, I listed three examples of lead sources and I only stopped there because I didn't want to list five more.

Yes, those three sources for online related, but that's because most offliners here tend to want online methods. Nothing wrong with that. I'm more of a "offline" offline marketer myself, but I use anything that works.

Also, I would personally feel more comfortable with 743 sources of incoming leads, but in actuality, I'm currently only getting leads from about 7 sources.

Nor was my point to say that you MUST cold call for six hours a day.

If you could cold call for one hour or thirty minutes and hit your desired goals, then you are truly a special person and let me know where to send my payment to hire you. I don't know anybody who's doing that.

However, it could be possible if you're calling warm leads, but then that's not really cold calling. So, it doesn't apply. I know you (rightly and accurately) teach that list selection is a huge part of successfully generating leads thru cold-calling, so I do know where you're coming from there.

A warm lead is as close as I personally get to cold calling. Nothing against cold calling because as you and I both know, if you need to get some deals by this time tomorrow, you're best bet is to get a good list together and then get on the phone.

Plain and simple.

However, thank God I don't live in that world anymore. I can afford to go for more of the long game. Once again, nothing against cold calling, but that's not the type of business I want.

Also, the facebook advertising game is a tough nut to crack. Mostly because it takes an entirely different approach to get leads for us offline marketers than it does for the market to the mass niches.

The most popular courses teach it from a market to the masses perspective. I went wrong several times by buying courses that did that, but they didn't teach the nuances or differences between market to the masses and marketing to b2b like we need to know.

Most just threw in a little training call or few slides about getting clients for us offliners, but it didn't work for me or for you, from the sounds of what you shared.

So I feel you there.

That's why I'm a big believer in hiring a conversion expert when it comes to any type of ppc campaigns. Anybody can set up an account on any of those networks, but it takes a completely different set of skills to make it convert.

And in my experience, that knowledge can only be gained thru experience. So, when I don't have that experience, I hire that experience.

And while I gave a simplified breakdown of a online funnel, the core components are the same in every funnel. Qualified Traffic, Lead Capture, Follow-Up & Compelling Offer.

Lastly, there is definitely a learning curve with FB, LI or even selling by phone, but what's a more worthy goal than working towards getting more leads and clients in a consistent, predictable manner?

Just my thoughts,

Chris

P.S. Just so nobody gets the wrong impression, Jason is one of only three warriors that I would trust enough to personally hire to coach myself and sales team when it comes to sales psychology. Especially in the area of phone selling. He's a true pro.

I think both... why limit yourself?

I think a lot of people here get caught up in having to decide whether to do A, B, C or X, Y, Z instead of doing it all. Also, ads can become expensive and isn't for the average boot strap start up in this industry.

Ideally, as a business owner, I think everyone would prefer incoming leads, but as far as ROI goes and how cheap it is to do door to door or cold calling, it isn't something to ignore.

Currently, my office generates leads from 3 sources that account for 95% of business. Cold calling, email marketing, and direct mailing. I have ads running in various spots but those 3 things account for almost everything at the current moment.

You bring up a good point though that I think will sadly go unrealized because of the either/or option you made in your post. It was an automated conversion funnel... not many people here even know what a sales funnel is, let alone any kind of automation. That is key in scaling up.

Good researched cold calls in a three step process qualifies and advances each lead in the funnel. You don't advance the call to the next until they are qualified from the previous.

Of course if you use traditional cold calling techniques and ascribe to the 1950s style of the hard close it's going to be very frustrating and it will SEEM like an inefficient waste of time. This is a matter of technique and mindset however, and not the form of media.

I don't like the dichotomy between just inbound leads or outbound leads. In reality an established business has both. To be honest, I prefer outbound leads because you can control the sales cycle from the first point of contact. You don't need to reset their buying criteria on a cold call because you are the only business that has been able to bring a set or advantages or benefits to their awareness.

This is just my personal opinion, but for the single person business I would advise that they choose one prospecting method and stick with it. I actually see the reverse problem that IAN has pointed out; that too many people try to do too many things at once. The result is that you have a dispersed focus trying to get several channels converting at once, instead of concentrating on one funnel at time.

Once you have established contact and interest, then I use content/videos/presentations only after they are qualified to establish authority. The inbound content does bring in some traffic, but it is not highly optimised.

I mean think what every online marketing company is going to be doing? Articles, videos, SEO, SEM. Good cold calls position your brand instantly as different from the thousand other agencies in your area because no one sells like this.
It's a good thing that cold calling has such a bad misconception and execution because it makes it easier for those salespeople and companies that DO get it.



Matthew.