Going to cold call 500 businesses tomorrow any tips for success ?

Organic lead generation

Lead generation that is not pay-per-click-dependent

Those are terms I would try out in place of "SEO". Yes, it is a bad word now.

If you want to avoid being seen as a commodity, stop talking about SEO and SEO terms.

I feel quite certain Claude has a good opener here, or at least one I could adapt...something about helping businesses who don't want to spend money on any more paid leads.

I don't feel you are going to get far with what you've got in the original post.

First you need to make sure you're talking to the right person.

Then you have to say something compelling enough to make them want to continue talking to you. This is where knowing your target market is valuable.

I would niche down. Pick two niches and call them on alternate days or alternate half-days. Each will use specific jargon terms to identify themselves and you'll start picking them up if you're listening. Then you can use those jargon terms to demonstrate you know their niche. That will make them even more interested in talking with you. ADDITION: The reason you're doing this dual niche thing is it's likely one will take off and the other will be a dud. You want to build some industry knowledge but you don't want it to be a waste of time.

"Is this for me?" is perhaps the first question anyone asks to a cold inquiry.

If I were doing what you're doing, I'd probably make a pdf report or video series and the "sale" I'd be going for is to get them on that email list to give them this stuff. That would educate them, help me stand out, and bring them around to the point of view of why what I offer is valuable. Then the call to action is to book an appointment with you.

Then the real selling begins. Your turn to find out why THEY value it.

Best Tip: Make Warm Calls

It's not your opener. Your entire selling sequence matters. And I suggest you read everything here about selling over he phone, before you start asking questions.

My best advice? Hire Jason to write a great script for you, and unfailingly follow that script.

I don't mean to be rude, but it's obvious that you are a rank beginner. Every step you are going to take, no matter how much it makes sense to you...will be wrong. Save yourself a few years of wasted effort, and just hire Jason once.

You're going to make 500 calls tomorrow?

Tomorrow, even though I've never done a pushup, I'm going to do 500 pushups. Any tips?

Here...let me give you a freebie.

"Hello. When people go on Google and look up (keyword) you are on page 5. Would you like to be on page one?"
Go from there...

And Hire Jason!

There is no need to be making anywhere near 500 calls a day to make a sale. And you will burn out within a couple of days anyway with that pace.

Look up Grant Cardone's cold calling seminars. They're not cheap, but his training is in my not so humble opinion currently the top in the industry.

You must open with an outrageous claim in order to stand out from all of the other knuckleheads that business owners face everyday. Just make sure you can back up your claim.

Most business owners really don't care about SEO or position in the search engines; they want convertible traffic. And you really are essentially demonstrating your own marketing prowess to them by how you sell.

A 500 to 1 closing ratio does not bode well for you.

"Cold calling is dead, because you suck."
- Grant Cardone

I like the advice Claude gave in his thread about starting where you are. I am doing a cold email campaign for an idea I had right now, just being myself. I've got 4 businesses interested in probably 100 cold emails. I've got some warm leads too and can probably get 10 businesses just from people I know. The most important thing is to start. I hope you're calling today.

Update:
i did a 9-5 shift like i had planned, back to back cold calls.

took an hour and half break to sleep, and got back to calling. Not sure if i called 500, but i still have more for tomorrow. I probably called about 200-350 calls.

I feel proud, because it was the first time that i stuck to my game plan in a while.

I learned some things today.

When starting a call, say your first and last name to build trust quickly.

Speak slowly for people to not only respect you treat with you authority.

Out of the calls i made i didn't get close telling them what i had to offer. I was shut out so quickly.

"we already have a marketing team, my son does that, im not interested".

Organic lead generation works better than saying SEO so thats improvement.

I proved to myself i have to work ethic, but my script has some flaws.

To UMC

I love cold emails, but im doing one call closes, and im not afraid of asking for the sale in the first call. I have a line that works well for me that i used at my vacation sales job, it goes like this.

"If you like what i have to offer, and if it your budget we will get started today, sounds fair ?"

I love it, and it makes me take control of the conversation.

The beginning of my call, is where i need the help at, this is where i need to find a way to control the conversation upfront.

Busuinesses owners can easily take control just by saying

"whats organic lead generation" or you do WHATTTTTT.

I'm going to reach out to jason to see if we can work on a script.

I believe I partially answered that question already. The very fact you are making cold calls for your online marketing service demonstrates to your prospects the level of competence you have in marketing. Nothing can impress prospects more deeply than a well-done marketing presentation from a cold call.

Although I certainly am not in the "Web Design/SEO", or "online marketing" niche, I have become extremely fond of cold calling over the years. You can usually reach prospects faster and get instant feedback more so than any other marketing method, bar none.

Stay away from Grant Cordone.

Try a couple of calls with an 'outrageous claim'. Set a timer.....They're gone before you hit 10 seconds, you'll die with that approach.

There has been one response here (2 if I count Claude's he he) that gave you the answer you're looking for.....you'll spot it because I 'thanked' it. Come back if you want to know how that might work for you.

Do it right and you'll be finding a customer by about call 10.

500 calls to guarantee a customer you say?

no needs for hundreds of call really (unless you need that many clients), i just cold call with this line:

Hi, i`m yvon and i do technical marketing (accepted growth hacking synonyms..) to provide high quality leads to local business owners. Could you handle more clients now? (or this question) is it something you are interested to know more about ?

that`s as easy as that...

Ask for a specific person and when they ask what you are calling about say it's personal. That is how sales people get to me at my day job and get past the office staff;

Otherwise the person answering the call likely will tell you Mr. X is unavailable.

Most of my sales are warm ones to one degree or another. However the primary sector of my business, CRO ( which is worse than SEO ) I sell with cold calling. Just to give you an idea of how worse CRO is... Show me an SEO firm that provides promised results with in a time frame and escrows payment in full contingent apon meeting said promised results with in said time frame.

In the ever evolving world of SEO there are primarily 3 types of service.

1. There is SEO that provides traffic IE getting listed on the first page or better yet ranked #1 for x amount of keywords
2. There is SEO that provides leads IE a filled out form, a phone call or some other method of trackable contact.
3. The last SEO service, is providing conversions.

I think we can all agree that all traffic is not created equal. we can all agree that leads are generally a 3 in 100 proposition, and usually create more work for the client than its probably worth. the flip side becomes Conversions. #1 they are trackable. #2 is worth the effort. #3 easy to sell.

The moment you discuss rank, position, or leads.. you have shot yourself in the foot. Discuss paying customers... the tone of the discussion quickly changes.

My opening line falls somewhere between Claudes " I provide customers and high quality leads to business owners who already have a website. Would you like to know more? " ( this line identifies and qualifies - very strong ) and Yvons " i do technical marketing to provide high quality leads to local business owners. Could you handle more clients now? "

Obviously one of the variables you have selected in creating your list is they have a website. so Claudes " to business owners who already have a website " is a valid line. I personally, stay away for " leads " like the plague. Yvon's " i do technical marketing " is pretty clever.

My line would be something like " Hi my name is Savidge4 with X we provide conversion development services for business owners that already have a website, is this something you would like to know more about? "

Be prepared to answer " What is conversion development services? " with something like " WE optimize existing web properties to attract customers that are looking for the services you provide "

The line does a couple things for you... It seperates you in the marketspace.. everyone else is calling and saying google this or SEO that.. no one says "conversion development services" in much the same way no one ever gets a call from a CRO firm. ( The question that I have to answer is " CRwhat?!?! " more often than not )

It is a quick yes they are interested or " I appreciate your time, I am sorry to have bothered you " and off to the next dial.

in regards to:
If the response is anticipated.. its YOU that is control, and not the other way around. I use this very method to get beyond the my brother does this or we have a marketing department or what ever other objection they may throw. If they are asking a question... you have already gone past a number of hurdles.... if it is a question you are looking to get... you are still in control.

Great to hear another cold calling success story... :-)

why would you bother cold calling when you can email or do paid advertising?

Pretty tired of commenters who believe because YOU haven't figured out how to make it work no one else has or can. Take it to your own thread.

The OP asked for help in how to do phone prospecting.

If you have another suggestion, start your own thread and explain your method there. Interesting how I never, ever see someone who's good at phone sales come on one of your threads and say your thing won't work.

500 calls in one day is something. I don't' even think people who do serious telemarketing make that many sales a day. I think the main thing for you is going to be figuring out a way to not get discouraged when you get rejections. If you can find a way to look at what you're doing from a different mindset then this might be easy. However I remember when I tried doing over the phone sales.My problem was being too uncomfortable. You have to be able to perform when on the phone, almost go into character mode. For some this is easy, but for others it's not. Take a cue from this guy in the below video clip. He went into performance mode and the other sellers were spellbound by him.

Think about this... ask yourself this. Would rather cold call a specific group of people who have a specific problem all day? Or, would you rather cold call people and hope to get a sale out of someone who is not having a specific problem?

A lot of great responses here but we are bombarded with requests of our time and money from all angles. E-mails, social media, phone calls.

I'll be cold calling as a means to get some systems / training in place for future hires in service of my next venture. I'm making sure my lists are chocked full of folks who have a PROBLEM I may be able to offer a solution to.

Additionally, while it is quite possible that you can one call close people on any number of things, if you get them on the phone - and they don't have a PROBLEM, consider it an opportunity to build a RELATIONSHIP. Treat it like IM where you offer an ethical bribe in exchange for an e-mail address.

The upshot to this is that you can retarget these folks all over the internet using their contact info which keeps you top of mind for when they are ready to move.

I'll give you a tip, when you make the call and you get the decision owner, set a "contract". This contract is to ensure he will give you some time and be open minded. You say:

"Can I share 30 seconds of time to tell you what I do and who I've helped. Then after that, you can tell me if we should continue speaking. Is that ok?"

Most will say yes. Now pitch and ask for interest or a qualifying question.

If he says no, get ready to move on.