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Attention Cold Calling Experts, I Need Your Help :)

by coloma21
7 replies
Hey guys,

This question is for those of you who are experienced in B2B Cold Calling.

If the gatekeeper redirects your call to the decision maker's voicemail, is it a good or bad idea to leave one?

My strategy for cold calling is to build value first, and then sell later.

I'm currently offering to rank them Page #1 for an easy keyword for FREE, and once they allow me to do this, I'm able to build trust & proof with them. Keep in mind, most business don't know which keyword is considered competitive, etc. After that process, and following up days later, that's when I aim for the pitch to rank for harder keywords.

With that being said, if I offer a FREE keyword ranking in hopes to build a relationship, would it be wise to still leave a voicemail?

I think if i offer value in the voicemail instead of selling, at least when i followup the next couple of days, i'd kind of be considered warm to them? lol

I could be wrong, please help? haha
#attention #calling #cold #experts #seo #telemarketing
  • Profile picture of the author mattbau43
    Two thoughts come to mind.

    1- Free always feels like a scam. I would not waste my time leaving a VM with the word free in it.

    2- I would leave the VM. Introduce yourself quickly. If nothing else you already made the call and have nothing to lose by using those extra 10 seconds to "warm up" the customer for your next call.
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    • Profile picture of the author coloma21
      Well pretty much, i'm using a specific strategy that won't make it sound like a scam.

      I currently run a private blog with a few members, so i tell the gatekeeper that "im a teacher for online marketing, and i'm looking to do a case study, and if they were interested in a Free Page #1 Rankings for their business in exchange for us using their site for the case study". It's a method i learned from one of Becker's teachings...

      I think i might leave a voicemail after all, I just feel like it will warm them up at least.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
        Originally Posted by coloma21 View Post

        Well pretty much, i'm using a specific strategy that won't make it sound like a scam.

        I currently run a private blog with a few members, so i tell the gatekeeper that "im a teacher for online marketing, and i'm looking to do a case study, and if they were interested in a Free Page #1 Rankings for their business in exchange for us using their site for the case study". It's a method i learned from one of Becker's teachings...

        I think i might leave a voicemail after all, I just feel like it will warm them up at least.
        You are not "being directed to the DM's voicemail" so much as the decision maker is just plain busy. 3 out of 4 dials on average will not reach a DM who can talk to you today.

        If you leave a long message, it allows the prospect to screen you out without having a dialogue with you. What you really want is that conversation. Leave a message designed to get that conversation. Say you have a quick question for them (absolutely true), and leave your name, number and a time range to call you back. Then when they call, you know it will be a good time for them to talk. Their first question will be, "What's this about?", so you had better have a good response for that ready to go.
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        • Profile picture of the author winebaer
          Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

          You are not "being directed to the DM's voicemail" so much as the decision maker is just plain busy. 3 out of 4 dials on average will not reach a DM who can talk to you today.

          If you leave a long message, it allows the prospect to screen you out without having a dialogue with you. What you really want is that conversation. Leave a message designed to get that conversation. Say you have a quick question for them (absolutely true), and leave your name, number and a time range to call you back. Then when they call, you know it will be a good time for them to talk. Their first question will be, "What's this about?", so you had better have a good response for that ready to go.
          This is just the advice that I would offer. You need to prompt the decision maker's curiousity, and give them a reason the WANT to respond. I always like to have my sales team use phrases like "I wonder if you can help me out?" when we contact people... and when we leave messages, we tell them what, in general, we do: "help small businesses blah blah blah," and if they were struggling with this issue, we'd love to arrange a time to talk and see if our solution might be a fit for them.

          It shows them that we are not hiding anything, and also gives us a chance to incorporate our recognition of their "pain" into the message we leave.
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        • Profile picture of the author kirbymarketingconcierge
          Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

          You are not "being directed to the DM's voicemail" so much as the decision maker is just plain busy. 3 out of 4 dials on average will not reach a DM who can talk to you today.

          If you leave a long message, it allows the prospect to screen you out without having a dialogue with you. What you really want is that conversation. Leave a message designed to get that conversation. Say you have a quick question for them (absolutely true), and leave your name, number and a time range to call you back. Then when they call, you know it will be a good time for them to talk. Their first question will be, "What's this about?", so you had better have a good response for that ready to go.
          I would take Jason's advice. It is actionable. And, it's testable.

          He talks about a process, and I think he advises on having a script.

          What I do is write out the voice mail "pitch", and knowing they will ask what it's about, I have a standard response (and Process).

          I track results. If you leave 30 VM's per day and get 3-5 call backs, with 1-2 willing to move forward, then that can be a sales funnel.

          test, test, test.
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      • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
        Originally Posted by coloma21 View Post

        Well pretty much, i'm using a specific strategy that won't make it sound like a scam.
        You may think it won't sound like a scam, but someone cold calling anyone in regards to SEO comes off as a scam. Mix that in with the word free, and ranking, and google, then its in one ear and out the other.

        If you're still selling SEO over the phone, you're light years behind. SEO sales are dead... SEO is a scam itself... SEO is also dead... My suggestion is to change your approach and stop offering anything for free, and definitely not free rankings of certain keywords when half the businesses out there don't even have a website. Instead, if you're wanting to offer SEO, disguise it, change the word and conversation from SEO to internet marketing, internet presence optimization, online visibility optimization, etc.

        Most business owners, tech savvy or not, know what SEO is and the emotion they get from the word certainly isn't a pleasant one.

        When I stopped calling Local SEO, local seo, and switched it up to Google Local and Bing Local Optimization, my sales went up.
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