Cold Calling is failing me.

10 calls is no where close to enough calls.

Even with direct mail you have to send a lot to get a small response it's all the same.

Only thing you can do is do something and do it A LOT.

When you call this is just the same as every other person that is contacting them. Dont offer them a website, offer them results. Make yourself stand out from the rest.

A few things,
First 10 calls is not very many. If you are going to set appointments on the phone look to make 100 or more in a day, often double that.

Second, if this is your home area try stopping in and seeing a few businesses to set appointments. Go casual, carry a cup of coffee in your hand. An afternoon of this will usually get you a few appointments. I have set as many as 8 appointments in just a couple of hours doing it just this way. Make sure you have developed a decent script so you know exactly what you are going to say and how you will counter objections.

I run into a lot of people each week that have no web presence, no idea how it can benefit them and no interest in learning. Oh well.

Try to set approximately 10 or more appointments per week. If you have 10 presentations a week every week you will write business. Keep calling or seeing people until your appointment book is full.

Also, stick with one thing for a while. If you are cold calling, keep calling or seeing people until your appointment book is full. It is way too easy to let a few negative responses shut you down and have you questioning your methods, which leads to the search for the "holy "grail".

Hope this helps. Remember, this is the hardest part of the business, just getting it started. Once you have a clientele it gets a lot easier both in terms of additional business as well as client acquisition. Most businesses, ours included, find that marketing is the most challenging part of their business.

DTaylor

So if you send out 10 letters and don't get a response..what's your next move? My point is that it's absolutely ridiculous to stop a marketing method after 10 anything..emails, letters, calls, etc..

@P1 / Deidra - I realize 10 isn't much. It's just the response rate I'm getting is terrible. Last week I made about 4 calls and set up two appointments.

@dtaylor - thanks for the response. I've been under the weather since sunday, so I'm not really feeling it to cold call, but will prevail.

@Perestroika - I'm offering them more clients. I do suggest that I do that through websites. Should I change up my conversation?

Direct mail is an option, but it cost money.

Cold calling doesn't.

Can I suggest something?

They usually say yes or no. If they say say yes or no, I respond with..

I wouldn't mention the ad yet, instead I'd strike up a conversation. And by conversation, just ask a few leading questions and let them talk.

I haven't met a business owner yet who doesn't like talking about their business.

Here is where I would say, how's business?

Possible scenarios:

1. Bad. This economy is killing us.

You: I know what you mean. I have heard from several business owners who are struggling. Sure hope things get better soon.

(Note: stay away from political talk. Just trust me with this one.)

2. Pretty good. We did better last year.

You: That's good to hear. Can you tell me a little bit about your business?

If the answer is short, embellish on the business.

Maybe say something like:
"Is your business family owned and operated?
What areas do you service?
What is your best selling product?"


Try to find something common. And be honest here - don't make something up.

For example, if you are calling a plumber and your cousin is a plumber, mention that.

Point: Get them talking!

My rule #3 for this objection is to thank them for their time and tell them to have a good day.

Yikes.
Exactly why I refrain from making calls on Mondays.
Not to say this is to be expected.
Not to say this is the way everyone works, but it's the way I work.
What I'd like to say in response to this.... well, I won't post it.

When the conversation goes smoothly, say:

Well, Mr. Smith I certainly appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today. Would it be okay if I designed a demo site for you and we can meet when you have some time - maybe later this week?

If they ask what your prices are, tell them.
In my past sales jobs, I wouldn't reveal the price until I showed them the product. But I'm finding that when I tell them the price starts at $___ (use your lowest price) and goes up from there, they're okay with it.



EVERYONE has failed days. Don't beat yourself up. Take the positive out of this. YOU MET WITH TWO PEOPLE LAST WEEK.

Keep at it.
Don't give up.

I've managed a call centre in the past and I believe you can increase your conversions immensely if you combine it with some other form of advertising, especially direct mail. The standard advice with cold calling is to build rapport over the phone but that is extremely hard when talking to businesses that get several marketers calling a day.

An advertising campaign that shows empathy to the troubles a business might be having today, so that you have a degree of name-recognition when you call, helps a lot. Sure direct mail and newspaper ads costs a little money but time is money as well and anything that increases conversions even slightly is worth a small investment.

At least in my area there are way too many shady people calling and e-mailing businesses with internet-related offers and unless you've got some other form of advertising to make you look a little more legit (name recognition works wonders) you are going to struggle. Just my thoughts.

I knew right when I read 10 call that you were going to get a talking too. haha It's alright tho because you got to learn from somewhere.

So obviously by now you realize that 10 calls isn't even on the radar for the amount of calls you should be making in order to make some sales. If you decided that you are going to cold call then just sit down and bang out AT LEAST 100 calls. Sounds like a lot, but it really is just a numbers game. The fact is if you call enough ppl you WILL make a sale.

I mean I used to sell accidental death and dismemberment insurance. How many ppl do you think want to buy that from a telemarketer? Well, I made a few sales every single night. That was because I must have made hundreds of calls each shift. The second I hung up there was someone else on the line.

Keep with it, bud. Make enough calls and you'll make some sales. If cold calling was easy, there wouldn't be 20 threads on here talking about how much ppl hate it. haha

Sean

Great responses from everyone. I'm really learning a lot just from this post.

I've conjured up a more tailored script, let me know if you guys think I need to change anything:

"Hello, may I speak with "name" please.

Hello [name]. How are you today?

I'm great. So I was on Google today, and typed in "city + niche" and your guys' information came up. Can you tell me a little bit about what you guys do?

That's awesome. I actually have a cousin who's into [niche], so I only know a little bit of what you [niche]. What areas do you service?

Really eh. Ever thought about expanding to other areas?

So just to give you a little background, my name is jRad. I own and operate my own marketing business. What I would do for you is basically market your company to get you more clients, which in turn, gets you more money into your pocket. There's a couple ways I could do that - through designing websites, youtube videos and other graphic materials.

(they'll usually either say yes or no. if they say yes, they'll start asking questions. either way, I'd go into this)..

If you don't mind me taking just a few minutes of your time, I'd love to sit down with you over a coffee, show you some past websites I've done for customers and show you how having your own website can bring you business and more money.. which is whawt we all want, right? I have some free time thursday or friday afternoon. Which works best for you?"

Maybe instead of asking "Ever thought about expanding to other areas" you could lead the conversation towards what type of marketing they already participate in and how it's working for them. If they admit to failing to keep up with marketing trends you could request a meeting to discuss solutions. Most businesses seem to be overwhelmed by marketing options and if you can get them to admit they're a bit lost a meeting might come easier.

So you just cold call without doing any research apart from seeing if the prospect has a website?

NO NO NO NO NO

Please do a little more research than that, find out who the business owner is, find out why they are advertising, where they are advertising and who they are advertising with.

Make an educated guess as to how much they currently spend advertising.

Send out your letter, I always send a KitKat in my letter, and ask the business owner to "make a cup of coffee" and "take a 5 minute break" and really think about what their current marketing is doing for them, and are they getting value for money from their current marketing? Let them know in the letter you will be calling soon to discuss ways of getting better value from their current marketing efforts.

After a few days follow up your letter with a "cold call" (really a warm call). Then set your appointment.

A few steps of preparation before your phone call will DRAMATICALLY INCREASE your appointment rate, after a week of high value sales results you will wonder why you did it any other way.

Good luck, and hit some home runs!

Jeez there's a new one every day.

Here's how to do it fast and easy.

just keep pushing, I was in and out of the game but I've been doing great the last year! Continue to push, keep making calls, try new strategies, you got it!!!

Lori Kelly hits the nail on it's head. Great advice!

jRad I would say don't go into how your services can help them at the stage they're at... first let them tell you something about their business before you offer them a solution... they should feel like you have understood their particular problem and so are giving a unique solution based on that.

Hope to hear a success story from your cold calling soon!

Cold calling is never easy, as rejection is inevitable and can be very debilitating. Therefor, what you should do before contacting a company is find out what the company is about and who the decision maker is (due dilligence). Then, when (if) you're put through you need to tell him/her your name and your company name. Then state a benefit...using "If I could show you how to...would you be interested?" If you get a 'yes' or a 'may be' set an appointment there and tell him / her it'll only be for 10 minutes. Even if they're busy, they can always find 10 minutes (If you go over the time in the meeting, just ask their permission to carry on)
One tip I learned about rejection...Think of yourself as a waiter offering coffee to your guests after dinner. If they say 'no' they're rejecting the coffee NOT YOU!!!

Being very, very bad at "cold calling" and have been down that path when I first started out, I just want to ask if jRad has looked into those "Call Centers".
As I understand it, you write the script and they do the calling.

Maybe it would be better for him, and all he would need to do is make a follow up visit in person if he would like to do that.

try not to sound robotic, paraphrase your lines and always try to build good rapport with your customer

Jrad mate i have got same experience
Now i am getting customers or sales through email marketing and its little bit working

I didnt read the whole thread so if someone said this forgive....

This statement is COMPLETELY unbelievable to a typical business owner:

""The reason I'm calling is that since you're advertising in the paper, you want more business. I can get you that business through the internet."

The reason is they know their business WAY better than you do and something is working for them (without a website) or they would not be in business.

A better approach would be to maybe pull the method that is working for them and enhance it.

An even better option is to locate the people WITH websites and when they say they have a site say, "Well hows that working for you? You must get a ton of customers from it". Then they are either going to blow you off or tell you about the webdesign kid that never updates their site or their site is not producing them customers.