[NEWBIE CHALLENGE] Start Calling Tomorrow!

by 40 replies
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If you're like me, you've been reading this thread for a while, but you just won't pick up the phone and dial. You may know that it works, but something in your soul just won't let you do it. Or, maybe you're still working on building your "list". Either way, it's time to pick up the phone and take action.

So, I challenge you to pick up the phone tomorrow and make at least 10 calls. If you can do more, that's great, but stop reading and start calling.

Once you're done, come back here and post your results. That's right, post about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let's see stats:

Total Calls:
Total Pitches:
Total Appointments:
Total Sales:
Total Time (in minutes):

Are YOU game? Let's get it!
#offline marketing #calling #challenge #newbie #start #tomorrow
  • ok here's today:

    Calls: 39
    Pitches(answered phone):6
    Sales:1
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Those are awesome stats. What are you selling?

      Was today your first day? If so, congrats on starting a day early. :-)
      • [1] reply
  • I'll do it if I remember to come back and post about it. I just started cold calling on Friday and I'm one of those that gets all nervous as if I'm back in high school asking the perdy girl to prom again...it's an ugly picture man.

    My goal is to come back here tomorrow and post a big, fat 0 for 10. LETS DO THIIIS


    p.s. I've learned quickly that trying to sell SEO, even the idea of SEO over the phone is ridiculous. Definitely something that's better up-sold later or in person at least, so I'm sticking with the websites thing.

    I talked to a guy on Friday that had no clue. I was pitching him some Adwords management and he's like "why would I pay to advertise when my website sometimes comes up at the bottom of the first page. I can get on the first page for free!" and then me "Well, the term you're talking about and showing up for has zero search traffic...so...."

    Funny.
    • [1] reply
    • You've gotta have more faith in yourself and your own abilities. If you go into it with a positive attitude, your chances of success are greatly improved. Sure, you can be as positive as the day is long and have no results, but that's very unlikely. Attitude is the major factor that can hold many great people back from revealing their true greatness. Believe it and you can achieve it. I know that sounds corny, but it's true. :-)
  • ok so far today (10am to 1pm)

    Calls:137
    Pitched:19
    Sales:2

    For the people in the know...looks like a 19% answer rate and of that 11% close or 2% close overall.

    Is this typical for calling b2b? With the niche im calling and getting the owner is not the problem, Its having someone answer the phone!!

    I think I might be pitching the wrong thing, maybe I should be selling answering services
  • flightrisk-

    Those stats look pretty good to me! Technically, you sold at over 20% conversion. I don't know why your answer rate is so low...could be that they are screening their calls and only returning calls that leave a message, or, they're just busy.

    Are you pitching your services on their voice mail or just hanging up?
  • Ugh. I was supposed to be calling right now, but something in me won't let me pick up the phone. :-(

    Why me?!
    • [1] reply
    • You really have to take the responsibility on your own shoulders.

      If you fail it is entirely your fault. No one elses.

      If you succeed it is you success. No one elses.

      What's the absolute worst that can happen? Someone 'might' tell you to **** off? but on the upside, if you go out and make 100 dials a day (just like flightrisk) it is almost guaranteed you will be making sales.

      The people who climb mount Everest, do you think they look back on that experience and relive all the pain that it took to get to the top? No! All they feel is a huge amount of success and happiness! They literally conquered the world!

      You might get some bad people on the other end of the phone. But after you close a sale do you think you will even remember those people? No you will be to busy counting the money haha

      The world works in pretty simple ways. If you want success you have to grab it by both hand. None of this "why me" bull****. You are in control of your own life. If you bitch out, it is only your own fault.

      After a day of 50 calls you will completely overcome this fear. I swear that after 1 day of calling you will never be scared again.

      Build into it.

      Day1: 15
      Day2: 30
      Day3: 45
      Day4: 60
      Day5: 75

      When you do that, you will have no problem any more at all. The fear will literally disappear.

      Good luck!
      • [2] replies
  • I made one call and am feeling really discouraged right now. Today was an epic fail.

    That doesn't mean that tomorrow will be bad, but today is a bad one down in the history books... :-(
  • econners-

    EDIT: yeah, tomorrow is another day. Don't sweat it. Don't give up.
  • [DELETED]
  • Well I didn't make it to 10 but I got 6 in today mixed with some email marketing and following up with previous interested leads.

    Calls: 6
    Pitches: 3
    Sales: 0

    Honestly I think I picked a bad vertical to work on today. One was a new business that "didn't have the funds" and wasn't interested in "I see, well we have super affordable options". One literally told me she "doesn't like nor knows anything about computers" and hung up...got a laugh out of that one.

    I don't usually bounce around between ideas but right now I'm strongly looking into switching to straight lead gen/website rental model. I think it would be an easier cold calling sale if I focus on what business owners know, their phone ringing with paying customers on the other end.

    Or out source to a call center for appointment setting...

    Oh well, fun times.
  • OP just call...who are you calling first? what industry?

    2nd half of day for me: 1:00 to 2:30
    Calls:85
    Pitches:19
    Sale:1
    Call back later: 1

    I was there last month...guess what...I jst did it. No one is going to kick your ass over the phone.

    To give you an idea, the worst thing someone said to me taday was "No dont need a web site, I already have one and I get calls everyday of one...Please take me off your call list" THATS IT, no big deal.

    I one called closed $1497 today...tomorrow who knows...but if I dont pickup the phone I know EXACTLY how much I'll make $0!
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • MM-

    Yeah, 10 calls a day isn't going to yield much if you are offering unsolicited SEO. You may get discouraged and quit very quickly at that rate. You should definitely consider outsourcing this part, as you don't seem too keen on doing it yourself. That, or increase the call volume.
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah it's pretty discouraging for sure. I would like to get in the same mindset as flightrisk where it's more of a game of how many nos can I rack up, so I'll be increasing call column before giving up here.

      Speaking of, @flightrisk, how are you busting out that many calls in a short time?

      My process may be too long because first I'm looking up a business in a vertical on yellow pages, then Google to see if they have a website already, then Manta for the owners name, then finally calling. The good part is I'm prequalifying them and very rarely have a problem with gatekeepers. Bad part is too long between calls makes it harder to pickup and call the next one.
      • [1] reply
  • guys, anyone have a good script for selling websites?
  • MM-

    If you are just selling websites, there is no need to pre-qualify them. You can qualify them by calling them. If they say no, move on, they are not your target market. It's so much easier and quicker. Granted, you're going to get a lot more 'no!' responses, but that's okay...because it let's you scratch that business off of your list and gets you closer to the 'yes!' clients. Besides, you may or may not be correct when you are determining which businesses qualify. For example, just because they have a website doesn't mean that they won't be interested in what you have to offer.

    Call them to qualify them.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • I've heard of this program before, but never considered it for this purpose.

    Thanks!
  • Here is a psychological tip that may help some people who are not comfortable/ or intimidated by talking to biz owners.

    First keep in mind that most of the time you will have the superior knowledge regarding internet stuff, in essence you are the teacher, they are the student.

    Then you just have to imagine that you are talking to students. Sometimes students dont want to learn and they can be stubborn or inattentive. Either way, as the possessor of knowledge, you are in the superior position... AND even better than being stuck in a classroom with knuckleheads, if the biz owner student just prefers to remain ignorant you can hang up and call another one.

    All they have to give you is money , what you have is worth much more.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • You know what - you're right. I have a great deal of experience as a consultant -- essentially providing advice to small business owners -- to help them improve their online presence. I think I will play on this with my calls that I make. As a matter of fact, I think a better idea would be to approach this with a "help the business owner with whatever they need and outsource the rest".

      I will give my newly-written script a go tomorrow and let you all know how it goes. I'm off to get some shut eye now, though...it's almost 6am, and I'd like to start calling at 11am.

      Toodles! :-)
    • Eddie said some good stuff , i just want to add one thing to it,
      IF you do go this route, don't forget, one of the professors jobs
      is to kick a lazy student in the ass and motivate him.
      Another is to tell them when they are wrong. ( such as expectations )

      So, school them, excite them, reprimand them, and of course, close them.
  • I'm using a predictive dialer app on my phone...its really just a dialer. I scrape the listing with a scraper import the .csv file to the app and start my day. I'll have over 1 k numbers so it will take me a while to get through the numbers but the app remember where you left off.

    I don't check if they have a site its faster just to call and ask, this way you can ask them if there happy with the sites results and maybe I'll get a seo job from it.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Good Work.

      Loved your point of calling and asking is faster, than going online and doing research....

    • Hello, First of all congrats on your success and taking action! Do you mind sharing what dialer app that is? are u using a cell phone to call out on? Thanx! ~Daryn
  • Thanks for the input fellas. Researching a predictive dialer for Android at the moment. I'm sure the reason I've only ever had one issue with gatekeepers is simply from knowing and asking for the owner by name so I'll see how it goes just asking for "the owner" outright today.
  • Ok, I did my 30 calls today. I wanted to throw in the towel a couple of times, but I remained persistent.

    I used a mix of Warrior Ben's spiel here: http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...nge-today.html

    Here's what I said:

    The few people that said they weren't interested hung up on me very abruptly. One guy asked me to email him something - which I will. The gatekeeper I ran into told me they have web design services under contract until after the first of next year. I was calling remodelers. I'm not sure if that's a tough niche or what, but I feel like a lot of the numbers were for residences and some of the numbers were out of date - I was using Manta. I even called one number and was informed the business owner had passed away over a year ago. Those are always awkward conversations.

    Oh, well. Tomorrow's another day...

    Here are my results:


    Total Calls: 30
    Total Pitches: 4 (not including one blocked by the gatekeeper)
    Total Appointments: 0 :-(
    Total Sales: 0 :-(
    Total Time (in minutes): ~90

    I actually started calling at 12:14 pm. I stopped around 12:45 pm because I received a business-related call. Then I started up again at 1:36 pm and dialed until 2:33 pm.
  • Humm...Well Im 2weeks or so in and what im doing is staying away from business that most likly have a gatekeeper. I know that may sound weak to some of the calling vets here but im trying to hedge by bets.

    What I say is..."Hi, do you guys have a web site?" At this point they dont know who i am, could be a customer just wanting to know.

    Then its ether yes or no.

    "Yes we do" then

    "...the reason I ask is, im new web site designer in the area and i specialize in getting YOU more traffic and sales from YOUR site...Is that something you've thought about?"

    "No we dont" then

    "...the reason I ask is, Im a new web site designer in the area and I was calling local businesses, have you thought about getting one to help increase sales?"

    now at this point they can start talking or they say on thanks.

    This is whats working for me.

    Todays Calls

    Calls 92
    pitched:4
    sales:0
    had one guy on the line, and I think I spooked him by trying to close him on the phone, he'll call later...we'll see
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • flightrisk and others-

    Are you guys facing any reluctance/opposition from prospects about paying over the phone? How are you managing?

    Thanks.
  • Just finished up calling

    27 Total

    7- non working phone #'s

    10 - Not interested

    0- sales

    The rest went to voice mail

    99 % were pleasant with a No thanks
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    [NEWBIE CHALLENGE] Start Calling Tomorrow!

    If you're like me, you've been reading this thread for a while, but you just won't pick up the phone and dial. You may know that it works, but something in your soul just won't let you do it. Or, maybe you're still working on building your "list". Either way, it's time to pick up the phone and take action. So, I challenge you to pick up the phone tomorrow and make at least 10 calls. If you can do more, that's great, but stop reading and start calling.