Operation Cold Call - A Journey To Freedom With John Durham's Methods

HAdrian,

It looks like you figured it out:

"But... please note... if you're only going to come around to tell me about what other methods I should be doing OTHER than calling because it's "useless" "hard" "flawed" or whatever... I don't want to hear it right now. Once I have a financial cushion I plan on doing way more than cold calling."

If what you posted is spot on, calling is the easiest method. You are one of the few who have posted a thorough game plan. You took care of the small, medium and large details b4 you got on the phone.

Your plan should work fine because you are working your plan. Yes, I realize your plan could be flawed but guess what, with your attention to detail you can re-orient as you are dialing.

Good luck and let us know how it is going.

Tom

If you're going for the one call close, you'll need to think about how you can frame the call so they see the benefits (not features) for them. Record your morning's calls. Every single one of them. Then in the 1-2 hour break while you're eating your lunch, listen to every call and ask yourself, "Would I have bought from me?". Even if you've had a success or two, listen to the calls. You'll hear some of your flaws and more importantly you'll hear what was successful for you and what turned the tables on the calls where you made a sale.

Then, take the time to note what was different about the successful calls vs the non-successful calls. There'll be small, but noticeable differences.

Before you start on your calls, listen to your favorite comedian for about 10 minutes. Laugh like a child before you make the first call. It'll help - trust me.

Don't worry, I'm putting more leads in as I type this... I'm just doing it all manually with my scrubbing process, so it's kind of a pain right now. That's the first thing that is going to be outsourced, for sure.

Yep.

Forgot to write. The charity bit is your PR. You in the paper handing over one of those massive mock up cheques to the charity.

Good luck.

Dan

Thanks Dan and John for your input.

The charity I chose for the initial donations when I was coming up with this is pretty well known where I am, as it's headed by a gentleman who was the first person with Cerebral Palsy to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro... a local... who has gone on to establish a series of centers that help developmentally delayed children throughout the state, and is pretty popular... I also do know him personally, and am already working with the foundation, but didn't quite think through this bit in how it would apply to my business and the businesses I work with.

My thinking was, not many can turn down helping disabled/disadvantaged children... that would do their heart good, and set me apart from others too...

I had a second level of this that would allow them to have me make a % donation to a charity of their choice in addition to the finders fee they would get for each referral they bring me... I was thinking that the statewide + their local community option would make businesses feel good.

But... I get your point, and after more consideration... I agree, and will change the way I'm handling this in this regard.

My goal first and foremost is to approach people genuinely, greet them with love in my heart, and open myself up to the positivity (and revenue) that comes from that... everything else can... and will follow.

Yeah! Forgot about you Reardon. We have alot going on here this week huh?

Im trying to make a distinction right now on the WF as to whether group training is more effective than individual training.

Individual training is scary publicly because you never know what the person on the other side is made of or what their motivations are...but we are taking the chance for a couple of weeks and seeing if we can help more people individually.

I think we have a fired up group this week between you two, mav, and CJ!

Ought to be a killer week, and hope to see some people say "I got a sale!"

Hey! Remember that guy that says "I have only been marketing for SIX months and I just made my first 32 cents Today! Im sooooo excited!!!!"

You dont want to be "that guy" do you?

Thats why we do offline!

So it may seem hard for a minute, or not- but its the most secure alternative for most to being "that guy"!

If you look at the income, it isnt even an alternative, it would be your first choice.

I heard payoman when someone said "If I had been told that it took a hundred calls per day I may never have even started..."

Say: " Yeah but if I had been told that I could make $5000 per week from 100 calls per day...I would have started right out of high school!".

Lol

That about sums it up as well as I can imagine!

BTW, good luck this week to you too payoman.

Lol. We arent grumps, but "I" personally like to think we (at leas the seniors who have seasoned a bit) are different from other forums in that, while others just want to sell things under anonymous names and take the money and run- we actually want to see people succeed- and thats why we sell things.

So we dont use kid gloves as much, because nobody succeeds if you feed them those lies. Making money requires enough love for yourself to go through some self development and is worth it...but if anyone try's to sell you a magic bullet they are lying- So people think we are grumpy because we run off magic bullet salesman.

Great Post BTW.

Way to go Hadrian. Despite your relatively low numbers, you are having great results. I only hope for that kind of results.

When pitching, ask a lot of questions. The book referred to by Cash89, I have it and have started reading it. I think it is a really good tool. There is also a very short book called "Go for the no!" that is motivating.

Good luck tomorrow and keep us posted.

John - this is so true - I never connected it with calling and leaving messages but you are right on. When we played live we never worried about mistakes because our feeling was people would remember the show and go home and listen to the record and that's what stuck in their head.

You're doing fine. I still get butterflies when I talk to people on the phone at first... doesn't matter if I am cold calling, or just scheduling appointments for my family or calling around for estimates.

I think we think we sound worse than we do, and after a while it all shakes out. I told John this morning that I am fine with the first bit now, but still sound like a stuttery 5 year old in the pitch phase... it's true.. but that will also work itself out.

Just keep calling. I know I have to fight to not make excuses too... but we're doing it. I just got back from my errands, so about to dive into my calls for today.

The "appointments" I had for this morning ended up shifting around to later in the week, so for now I am just going to keep plowing through my leads.

"Alright, so I had posted over at TMF about some minor successes, but all of those people have put me on the back burner until the new fiscal year. I was not very organized then... but now I NEED to be. "

Most of us here hate hear NEED because it reminds us of a time when we "NEEDED TO BE"

"Of course, it could be that I picked a horrid niche, and I have no skillz... but... I don't entertain thought patterns like that. Hahaha! "
The health care niche is an excellent niche. Its the one I make the most amount of money in. The difference between this and other niches is that you have to be more professional. Your web site, sales material, demeanor on the phone...everything has to project the image of success.

Unfortunately,errands, lawyers appointments and emergencies are not going to get the "NEEDED" sales.

I know you are at the starting point of developing your system and would suggest you check out Bayo (screen name) here on the forum. Hes been very successful in the health care niche.

Just because of the niche I would say youre right to ask the gatekeeper the qualifying questions. In most cases I would get rid of the gatekeeper as soon as possible. This is an exception.

Tomorrows hump day already. Get on the phone and slam them

"I believe in myself."

You WILL succeed!

Hey Cash. John has a good dialer as a part of his membership on his forum (I think it's still down though)... but other than that I was looking into PhoneBurner as I like their disposition system.

As for VoIP... I use Toktumi... they have a very liberal "fair usage policy" unlike skype.

Heres hoping this week will be more successful. The odds are with you.

If youre in dire straits , PM me. I hate seeing anyone in need financially.

Keep the positve outlook. ONLY positive wins and you have it!

Indeed. I would have said the same, however; two appointments is to be expected from Hadrian by now.

Show me some closes and I will say Boom.

(I do get the feeling though...)

It takes all kinds... and as you progress so will your "spidey sense"

Off topic: I just lost one of my inhouse copywriters.
I see you were a journalist. I also see your trying to learn sales.

Would you be interested in some long term horse swapping?

It may be discouraging to end the week with no sales but it would be a big help to see what changes you made to your script, if any.

Actually, what I would do is post the script word for word that you have been using and you'll probably get lots of help with modification of it and you can go with what sounds most comfortable for you.

Since you mentioned money in yesterdays post, check out Seohitmen's post on making quick money. its an easy system.

If I was in your shoes, which I was, Id jump on it. Spend 1 hr a day and theres no way you wouldnt make money.

Hope you dont have as many appts next week. I have a dentist appt Mon morning and a physiotherapy appt Tues aft. Luckily, Ive been able to build my business to the point where I have back up.This is the hardest that it gets when you have to shoulder it all.

My biggest piece of advice is to get to the point where it's not just you, as soon as possible. The reason I say this is because a business that is not scalable is worse than a job. No salary.

This cold calling game is not a picnic. Outside appts eat up valuable time. Is there any way you can do a one call close or call, send info, follow up?

At this point, just work on your system until you get it to work so you can have employees working the system. The reason I say this is because it takes a trial and error time period to even find your first peron who will be successful. The sooner you have a good system that works, the sooner you can start building your business.

If you can hire a commissioned salesperson at that point,it will be trial and error until you find one that works your system sucessfully.

My best advice is to look at next week as working on a system, find the niche that works, the script that works.

The harsh truth is that if you were cold calling in a boiler room you would have been fired Wednesday. Thats why were not working in a call center
or for anyone else, so we can work out our own system and have other people replicate our system.

Hope youre taking the weekend to regroup and drive it Monday!

Well done HAdrian,... you've really come a long way in a VERY short time there,... it's only a matter of time before you strike your first gold vein and then things will start to snowball.

In my first telesales training 25 years ago, we were taught S.I.N.A.L.O.A. -

"Safety In Numbers And Law Of Averages"

When you first start dipping your toe into telesales (and sales in general), this is absolutely true, though as you start to get more experienced and grow in confidence and consistency, I feel it stops being a pure numbers game, and begins to come down to your systems and follow up processes that are responsible for maximising your overall conversion rates.

My Mentor Mark Victor Hansen teaches the SECRET to your success in sales, (and this applys even more to telesales), comes down to remembering this FOUR letter word...

... and this word will get you through that rude obnoxious guy on the call.

... will help you realign yourself when a deal you felt certain about fell through.

... can pick you up when you want to throw the towel in and get a J.O.B. instead...

and that four letter word is.... NEXT!

You've got to have a NEXT person to follow up on, you've got to have a NEXT appointment to attend, you've got to have a NEXT invoice to send out,... so building your 'Prospecting Pipeline' is key.

One thing, HAdrian, relating to your initial goal of make calls of 400 per day, (at the start of this thread), I've run floors of call centres in the UK on automated dialers and we would rarely even expect 200 calls per day in that environment, so with manual dialing, I'd honestly say 100 - 200 calls per day will DEFINITELY help you hit your target, and help you to achieve your daily targets, which in itself is a huge motivator in the early days.

Sorry to go on as much as I have, but I felt your efforts so far warranted a well deserved pat on the back, 'cos remember...

"We get what we DESERVE in life,... NOT what we need!"

Keep up the good work! :0)

Here is how I will answer that Daniel

No some people never succeed at it and it isnt because they cant.

Hadrian for instance isnt even getting Started most days till after 3-4 in the afternoon. That makes sense. Not that you cant get calls in the evening, but anyone I have ever seen who really rocks this gets up fired up, and they arent casual, they are intending to get a sale.

When a person really wants a sale bad enough "Stuff dont get in their way".

I think with Hadrian,

This person still has their toe in the water and they arent deadset on a "sale", just a "result" ....and so thats whats happening here. The entire approach is too casual , not in the sense of the pitching but in the approach itself...

You gotta be wanting to close someone.

Thats my take. I have said that to 500 telemarketers over time and not a single one agreed with me. They either got the fire under their behind or got mad at me and quit.

There are two posts that stand out to me this week on the forum and here is one of them, in response to someone saying telemarketing was dumb:

Now that is generally true. This quote is from a fulltime telemarketer who is in the booth day in and day out and has seen many co workers pass over ten years...

As far as my normal training routine...

A person is generally in the booth making calls within 2 hours of being hired and handed a pitch.

What I tend to do is give a person about 2-3 days of attention, and if they havent got it by then I let them sink or swim.

Im pretty convinced that Hadrian is not pulling our leg, but Im also convinced that Hadrian is not doing this with 100% deliberate intention to close someone.

I say that having experienced one on one counseling across the desk with a thousand telemarketers.

So in my own way of doing this, this thread is already past the sink or swim stage... Either this person is going to nail it or not. If they nail it, the encouragemenbt will continue, and if they DONT nail it, then no encouragement I give is going to change it until they find the fire to close someone inside...

So I need to approach these accountability threads differently, after two years. The basic teaching is here.

I will always be a tried and true warrior who participates here, because the Warrior forum is the greatest marketing forum on the planet BUT....Hence I will be responding to cold call accountability threads only at my own forum, and there is a reason.

The reason is because this place is too attractive for spammers and people with ill intentions like this guy calling it sleazy in another thread...

If I see that at my own forum then I can just boot them out...plus its not big enough to really be attractive to spammers much, only people who want to learn.

This isnt a plug, I have posted here so much that everyonje knows Im not soliciting for my own forum. I have consistently over YEARS been a supporter of the offline forum here...

Hope this helps, Its just to say that if someone wants to get DIRECT training on a cold call accountability thread...then Im doing it at TMF only from now on.

I will still participate in other ways here.

In short:

I can see devoting a couple of days of personal attention to a person who wants to succeed, they are worth that, even though I dont get paid for my time, it sets another person free... But I wont play for weeks on end if they arent getting it...it will be just like a call center, you get the same training and attention as everyone else, and you have to sink or swim just like everyone else if you havent gotten it in a couple of days, or are showing major progress.

I have been on this thread for a week, and well...if you were on fire and really needed money you would be pushing those appointments for the next day and running five of them within 48 - 72 hours, coming back with a check.

Thats my experience.

As far as the crazy Lady, you knew inside she was a flake and set yourself the appointment anyway, so thats to be expected. We call it "wood", sometimes appointment setter write "wood" just to get something down on the pad... You wrote yourself a wood appointment.

Hadrain, I applaud your effort, but if you were in my room I would say at this point after a week..."YOU have two days to produce cash or Im gonna have to let you go."

And some quit, but nine times out of ten, even after a week of not popping one, most will go back to their desk and pop a sale within two hours after a talk like that.

JD

John

We were taught ABC in school.

Accuracy, Brevity & Clarity.

Dan

PS: I wouldn't bother with that other thread.

It's OK John. I know you're not trying to suck me out of here... but I like being at your hub too for various reasons. I'd rather work out the kinks in what I am doing over there I think, and then be ABLE to come back in a week and be a source of encouragement for people like Daniel!

May the force be with you on your appointment. Good luck! Break a leg, as we say!

Can't wait to read an update...

Good job Hadrian.