Selling an info product/consulting over the phone

by marc.v
21 replies
Hey folks, I'm a copywriter. I also teach copywriting. I have $500-$1000 info products. I also do consulting sessions at $500/hour.

I have a long list (about 50,000 people) that are interested in my products, but never purchased. A good chunk submitted their phone numbers.

Does anyone have any experience selling a product/service similar to mine over the phone? Anyone got any advice for me?
#info #phone #product or consulting #selling
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  • Profile picture of the author SEOptimization@1
    Hey Marc:

    Did you ever try any marketing to these 50,000 folks?

    You can send newsletter if you have their emails.

    You can have somebody to call them, remind them their interest or ask if they are in need of your product.

    Build Linkedin connection and follow up with them and so on.

    Hope, that helps.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Lateef Olajide
    50,000 people? Are they on your mailing list? How did you acquire this list?
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  • Profile picture of the author Claire Koch
    you could hire someone off of fiverr to do some test calls to see if there is any interest
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    • Profile picture of the author OptedIn
      Originally Posted by Claire Koch View Post

      you could hire someone off of fiverr to do some test calls to see if there is any interest
      Or you could hire experienced, professional telemarketers that could give you a more realistic idea of the potential for selling your product by phone.

      Or you could make some calls yourself to get a feel for how your product and pitch are perceived. Knowledge is power.

      Telemarketers from Fiverr. That's just too funny. Some people will go to Fiverr for a heart surgeon and I'm sure there's someone there offering heart surgery, but only if you upgrade to their $25 gig.

      You can't make this stuff up.

      Thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author marc.v
    No ones reading my post.

    My e-mail list is fine. I mail my list regularly.

    I am wondering if I selling to my list over the phone would be smart. I know Russell Brunson and Grant Cardone sell their digital products over the phone.

    Please dont reply if you don't read the post.
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    • Profile picture of the author animal44
      Originally Posted by marc.v View Post

      My e-mail list is fine. I mail my list regularly.
      Really? So why aren't they buying...?

      Originally Posted by marc.v View Post

      I am wondering if I selling to my list over the phone would be smart. I know Russell Brunson and Grant Cardone sell their digital products over the phone.
      You are a copywriter. You teach copywriting. (see I read your post ) But you can't sell "off the page". Do you not see something wrong here...?

      If someone has given up their telephone number, then it is reasonable to assume that they are expecting you to call them. So why not make some calls and see if anyone will buy...

      Phoning is expensive in time. You'll only ever make one sale at a time. Personally I'd spend the time figuring out why they aren't buying from your emails... Once you crack that, it's infinitely scalable.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    hit em up on email and offer value first.

    Then hit them with hard core sales pitch. This is the best way.
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  • Profile picture of the author GordonJ
    Originally Posted by marc.v View Post

    Hey folks, I'm a copywriter. I also teach copywriting. I have $500-$1000 info products. I also do consulting sessions at $500/hour.

    I have a long list (about 50,000 people) that are interested in my products, but never purchased. A good chunk submitted their phone numbers.

    Does anyone have any experience selling a product/service similar to mine over the phone? Anyone got any advice for me?
    I'm sorry. (Not really). But how can you say your list is fine, if they don't buy from you?

    You are saying, 2+2= 5. NO, it isn't...does NOT add up.

    You may have a long list, but they are NOT interested in your products, could it be your copy?

    GordonJ
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    • Profile picture of the author OptedIn
      Originally Posted by GordonJ View Post

      You may have a long list, but they are NOT interested in your products, could it be your copy?
      Or the actual product, itself. Just sayin' . . . . . .
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      • Profile picture of the author GordonJ
        Originally Posted by OptedIn View Post

        Or the actual product, itself. Just sayin' . . . . . .
        Here is why I say NO optedin,

        During years of running RLS (Real Life Simulations) focus groups, we only had the promotions in front of our targeted markets. They ranked and chose them. Then were given various discounts, and could use their pay, the money we gave them to participate in the study, to buy whatever product they wanted.

        It was as close as we could get to being foolproof to find a winner. Which is not easy to do.


        In the case of a product developer, selling KNOWLEDGE and How To info to a list, and we don't know if this guy's list is an opt in list or not, he knows their interest, and reasons for being on the list.

        So he should be able to write a promotion to a TARGETED list of people and get results, even if he didn't have a product. Some well known gurus advise testing your lists with presells, before you go to the trouble of product development.

        The OP just doesn't add up, and we all can see it.

        GordonJ

        PS. Even today, many IM marketers float trial balloons via promotions to determine if there is a willing to buy market before they have a product. This is why I say it shouldn't be about his product, but about his copy.
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        • Profile picture of the author OptedIn
          Originally Posted by GordonJ View Post

          Here is why I say NO optedin,
          Of course, we can only assume as to what the problem is. We have almost nothing to go on.

          Thank you.
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          • Profile picture of the author marc.v
            You're not paying attention to my actual question. If you didn't bother trying to speculate on things I am not asking for advice on, you wouldn't need "more to go on".

            My question was: "Does anyone have any experience selling a product/service similar to mine over the phone? Anyone got any advice for me?".

            What I do not need.. and what people in this thread seem intent on giving me.. is advice on how to e-mail my list. I'm good in that department. Never asked for advice on that.

            Even worse, I have people trying to play detective and speculating as to whether or not my e-mail list is opt-in.. which of ridiculously off topic and somewhat offensive.
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        • Profile picture of the author marc.v
          Of course they're opted in. Don't make stupid assumptions.
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          • Profile picture of the author eccj
            Originally Posted by marc.v View Post

            Of course they're opted in. Don't make stupid assumptions.
            He said "NO" to Optedin. You may want to try reading the post before getting your panties in a wad.
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  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    Originally Posted by marc.v View Post

    Hey folks, I'm a copywriter. I also teach copywriting. I have $500-$1000 info products. I also do consulting sessions at $500/hour.

    I have a long list (about 50,000 people) that are interested in my products, but never purchased. A good chunk submitted their phone numbers.

    Does anyone have any experience selling a product/service similar to mine over the phone? Anyone got any advice for me?
    I have a little experience with this, and I have talked to people with a lot of experience.
    Don't start calling your list of non-buyers. You may have 100-200 actual buyers in that whole list, and anyone calling every name will quickly find that out.

    Call your list of people that have already bought from you. There is almost no more profitable use of your time.

    With the 50,000 names of non-buyers? Send them a 'trip wire offer"....something that is such a great deal that anyone with any interest at all will buy...offer it for a ridiculous $7. (or anything under $10).

    The people that respond with a credit card? Those are the people you can call with your higher end offers. And the others that didn't buy your $7 offer? Either they aren't reading your e-mails any longer, or they are seriously committed to not buying from you.

    With the rest of the names? I guess keep sending them e-mails until a few more bite. But calling them on the phone is a complete waste of time.
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    • Profile picture of the author marc.v
      THANK YOU CLAUDE.

      Great advice.
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      • Profile picture of the author animal44
        Originally Posted by marc.v View Post

        Great advice.
        Are you sure of that...?

        Let me ask you... How did you build your 50k list?
        I lay odds you heard the sage advice from gooroos to offer up a freebie in exchange for their email...

        And what do you now have?
        A 50k bunch of freebie seekers who aren't buying and are costing you money...

        What do you think will happen if you offer up a $7 tripwire offer...?
        Do you honestly think that many people will transition from a $7 offer to a $500 offer...?
        Any more than they'll transition from your freebie offer...?

        Here's a suggestion:
        Split your list in two, 50/50.
        One half, try out Claude's tripwire suggestion.

        The other half, try this...
        Offer a $500 course for $500. Offer a second $500 course for free, as a bonus. Choose two courses that compliment each other.

        See which one gives you more $500 buyers and is more profitable...

        Maybe even better.
        Find someone who is selling $500 courses.
        Offer a profit split for offering your courses to their list.
        See which one gives you more $500 buyers and is more profitable...
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        • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
          Originally Posted by animal44 View Post

          What do you think will happen if you offer up a $7 tripwire offer...?
          Do you honestly think that many people will transition from a $7 offer to a $500 offer...?
          Any more than they'll transition from your freebie offer...?
          .
          I actually have experience with this.

          Yes, some of the $7 buyers will transition to a $500 offer.

          i sold a book on local advertising online for $5.95 shipping, and converted 12% to a $550 course on advertising over the phone.

          An online marketer I know sold a book for (I think) $5 and made a phone call immediately to upsell to a $5,000 seminar. He claimed a 30% conversion. But that conversion involved some extremely loose financing deals-delayed payment-partial payments... lots of follow up.....and I doubt that he collected most of it.

          The single most important factor was to call fast, within a week of when they got the book (I'm talking about my own efforts). It was also important that I was the one calling.

          There is a "My God! A personal call from the author" factor going on. About 12% bought easily, and I made no further efforts after the call. It was only about a ten minute call selling a $550 program. I was only going for the low hanging fruit. Maybe 20-30% would have bought if I made repeated efforts, discounted, or allowed for payments. This is about 7-8 years ago.

          I also tried a free download of the book to get the phone number, and those people didn't convert at all. I don't think I got a single sale, and gave up after a few dozen calls. I kept e-mailing them, but almost no conversions. (in fact, I don't remember any at all)

          Yes, the $7 trip wire purchase made a huge difference. My theory is that it wasn't the $7 as much as it was the fact that they bought something...anything...and used a credit card. That was a low hurtle, but it was far better than no hurtle at all.

          And to a completely different set of customers....
          For four years I wrote a physical newsletter for $39 a month. Between 120-250 subscribers over the four years. I also had about 3,000 "subscribers" to a free online abbreviated version of the newsletter...designed to sell the paid subscription.

          It was like these people were two different species. I'd come up with a high end program and sell 20-25 with one mention in the newsletter, and a direct mail piece. These people were subscribers as a tail to a bigger purchase, sold by speaking to groups. In other words, buy my $800 course and you automatically get subscribed to my $39 a month newsletter. So these were people used to giving me money.

          The free newsletter subscribers? Never. And they almost never converted to the paid subscription. Eventually I just stopped putting out the free e-mail version.

          I also tried selling just the newsletter from the stage...$5.95 now and two free months, followed by a $39 a month subscription (all auto charged).
          Sure, I sold twice as many as the $800 course....but they usually didn't buy anything else, and they cancelled their subscription much earlier. I didn't do any phone selling to this group.

          Ryan Deiss has done extensive testing on trip wire offers VS free offers. It's been a few years since I read the results, but I remember that the $7 first purchase made a huge difference in response to subsequent offers.

          Added later; To the OP...

          I've sold programs over the phone to my list of buyers, but never consulting. My $500 an hour consulting clients all came from them calling me, from reading my physical books or watching me speak in person. None come from e-mail subscribers (only) or from kindle book buyers.I also have a hundred or so videos on Youtube that are sales training videos....Although they generate phone calls, never a client......They are there to boost book sales.
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          • Profile picture of the author animal44
            Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

            Yes, some of the $7 buyers will transition to a $500 offer.
            I don't doubt it... I'm familiar with Diess's work.

            However...

            My focus is strategic. Getting the best buyers. The raving fan club who will buy over and over. Making you more money over their lifetime.

            In my experience, getting people to pay full price by offering a big value sweetener gets you a better class of buyer. It gives you a higher transaction value. And they're much more likely to come back and buy again. Which, of course, makes you more money.

            Of course, it's not just the offer, it's the whole package. How they're treated post purchase. How they're nurtured. The response they get when things go wrong...

            You'll note I suggested the OP split test. We can argue all day, but really it's only the response that the OP gets that matters...

            So where's your trip wire offer in your vacuum cleaner shop...?
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            • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
              Originally Posted by animal44 View Post


              So where's your trip wire offer in your vacuum cleaner shop...?
              I don't use one anymore. I used to advertise an "$8 vacuum cleaner tune-up", and it brought in lots of people. About a third just got the tune-up. About a third got a more extensive/expensive repair, and about a third bought a new vacuum that day.

              The difference with local retail is that there aren't many new people to mail offers to. I'm in a small town. I've learned that advertising my high end products get the real buyers to come in to buy...and the ads are always profitable that way. Of course we also send offers to our list of buyers (over $379). After testing,we found what was profitable, and what wasn't.

              If we opened in a new location/town...I'd use a trip wire offer to jump start the business.

              Originally Posted by animal44 View Post


              My focus is strategic. Getting the best buyers. The raving fan club who will buy over and over. Making you more money over their lifetime.

              In my experience, getting people to pay full price by offering a big value sweetener gets you a better class of buyer.
              Absolutely agree and that's my experience as well. The Op was talking about his "non buyer list"..

              A full offer (by mail, not over the phone) would be more profitable than a trip wire offer, I'm pretty sure. But a trip wire offer sent by e-mail would allow him to now ignore the vast majority of the list that will never buy from him. And it can be done quickly and cheaply.

              And it shouldn't be one of his high end offers just discounted, that would ruin the list. It would be a separate offer made just as a trip wire offer. Maybe a webinar. And of course at the end of the webinar, a full priced offer.

              He was asking about calling over the phone. Very time consuming. If he could get a quick list of 100 trip wire buyers, he could experiment by calling them, with at least a chance at a sale.

              But calling his list of non-buyers? These people have proven that they aren't going to buy, even after they have seen several of his offers (I'm assuming). The only thing he has going with these people is name recognition. Perhaps the lowest level lead.

              Frankly, my best advice for him is to ignore the list of non-buyers and call his buyer list. My guess is that a third of his buyers would buy another high end offer if he gave them a call....without even having to make repeated efforts or give a big discount.

              And of course joint venture to send his offers to other buyer lists.

              A good friend of mine has a list of 300,000 e-mail subscribers and about (If I remember correctly) 3,000 buyers. Once a year he culls the big list by offering a trip wire offer. If they bite, they go in the "buyer list".

              And you are right. The real answer is always to test.
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  • Profile picture of the author theleadsguy
    There's a saying that "80% of your sales will come from 20% of your customers." With that in mind, I'd filter the list that you currently have and first grab the names of customers who have purchased from you in the past. Contact those customers yourself and make the pitch as these are very hot leads and you're much more likely to generate some good sales over the phone with them.

    For the rest of the contacts on the list, it'd be pretty time-consuming to call them yourself so I would outsource it to a professional offshore telemarketing call center with agents well-versed in U.S. English (e.g. Philippines, Nicaragua, etc.). It's a good idea provide them with the sales script that you use.

    50,000 contacts makes a pretty big list but they'll likely be able to go through it a lot faster as they have auto-dialers, multiples agents, etc. A lot of these call centers also have very affordable rates and you should be able to find one that's handled a campaign similar to yours in the past.

    Good luck!
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