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My Financials for July ($7404 in Sales)

by payoman
44 replies
So I mentioned in an earlier thread that I would do a 'reveal' of my stats this month.

Truthfully, out of the almost 6 months I have been doing this (since early March), this is the first month I took an interest in recording down as many numbers as I could.

Although there might be some risk in revealing these, I know I always wanted this kind of info for comparison from others, so why not put my hand up and just do it.

So, in a nutshell :

My Targets for July
700 cold dials to 2 niches (electricians and painters)
$5440 in Sales of Website Design, Website Hosting, SEO and Google Places
(4 x Websites for $997 + $360 a year, didn't have GP/SEO specific targets)

My Actual Figures for July
346 cold dials to the 2 niches
$7404 in Sales (4 x Websites+Hosting for $1177, $1357, $450 and $1360. 3 x SEO/GP for 6 and 12 months, $1050, $850 and $800 respectively. Yes, some people got ridiculously cheap SEO/GP deals, but the keywords are low competition so meh. Finally, I got a plumber pay for hosting for 12 months, for $360. He will have the site designed later.)

So, yeah. The unfortunate part of this month was that 2 of these haven't made deposits yet, just verbal confirmation. But I have spoken to each on the phone 5-6 times negotiating the deals and they both ended the negotiations in the last few days with 'yes, let's do it', so I count them as sales.

Also of note :

- 1 sale ($1500) was from previous cold calling, about 2 months back. He contacted me again and wanted to go ahead with a site and Google Places.

- Another sale ($1360) was from a round of emails I sent out at the end of June, but he didn't go ahead until July so I counted it in this month.

- Finally, the last sale I got was TODAY (31st) from a referral from one of my current clients. He referred a plumbing business who paid for 12 months hosting and a domain which they want the site done later in August.

So, just for those of you who are cold calling (and those who aren't but SHOULD BE!!), this month I got :

- 3 Sales from purely cold calling ($1157 + $1357 + $850)
- So out of 346 dials, I made $3364.

Please leave any questions and I will add them as EDITs in the OP. Thanks.
#$7404 #financials #july #sales
  • Profile picture of the author Rearden
    Wow, you're a stud, man. Congrats.

    And a "dial" is equivalent to simply calling someone, and not necessarily speaking to them?
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  • Profile picture of the author payoman
    Yeah, I didn't write 'calls' so as not to cause confusion. Although it already did haha. Yeah dials are just dialling the number, what comes after could be anything, disconnect/answer/wrong number/voicemail etc
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  • Profile picture of the author Rearden
    Thanks Payoman. How much time would you say total you spent on the phone prospecting?

    Also, how often would you say someone picks up the phone when you dial? 50% of the time?

    If that's the case, have you considered using a power-dialer to speed things up?

    Thank again!
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    • Profile picture of the author jimbo13
      Different Companies do it slightly differently, but broadly something like this for sales figures.

      Makes it easy to read and see what to tweak first to improve overall.

      Number of Dials.
      Number of Connects.
      Number of Conversations.
      Number of Appointments. (If applicable)
      Number of Sales.
      Value of Sales.
      Number of Cancellations.

      Increase each area 10% and you double your turnover.(Decrease the cancellations)

      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author payoman
    How much time would you say total you spent on the phone prospecting?

    Probably do about 50 dials an hour? Maybe 40-50 per hour. I use an auto dialler app on my cell phone. Input spreadsheet of numbers = auto dial = $$$. Pretty sweet. It's called MobileCTI.

    I'd say someone picks up 50% of the time, yeah.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Martin
    Nice!

    If this was CPA your EPC would be nearly $10.00 haha. Cold Calling FTW!
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  • Profile picture of the author zackick
    wow it look like you have master your niche, I just wonder how do you approach them into buying?
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  • Profile picture of the author FBN
    Nice job. I had the same question as above. How many hours did you put in?
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  • Profile picture of the author fastviper
    Good for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
    Congrats. Nice to see someone taking action and not giving up after 10 calls.
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  • Profile picture of the author sdentrepreneur
    Cheers to closing those sales. I can't believe you make that many cold calls. My suggestion to you would be do your SEO for yourself and your marketing company, same with GP and then social media, like LinkedIn and Facebook. Doing this correctly, you will have people contacting you and then you can cherry pick your clients.
    I actually suggest this to all Offline Marketers, whether your cold calling or using direct mail. Your potential client will most likely do their due diligence and research/Google your name and company. You need to look like a expert, have references and reviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mav91890
    Sweet man. Was this phone closing or appointments, for the $3,000 in sales?

    Also are you still Using Johns script or did you write your own? Thanks man.
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    • Profile picture of the author payoman
      Originally Posted by Mav91890 View Post

      Sweet man. Was this phone closing or appointments, for the $3,000 in sales?

      Also are you still Using Johns script or did you write your own? Thanks man.
      Out of the 7 sales, 3 were appointments and 4 were phone closes.

      $1357 for website was appointment.

      $850 for Google Places was appointment.

      $1360 for website was also appointment.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacer
    Way to go! It will get easier with each dial. Just keep at it!
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  • Profile picture of the author niketa20
    Wow people pay $360 for whole year. I think I am underselling myself !! I am assuming you are using reseller hosting.


    If you don't mind answering, people who are paying $1000+ websites have a lot of custom work in websites or are they just the standard 5-8 page website ?
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    • Profile picture of the author jtchaschowy
      Originally Posted by niketa20 View Post

      If you don't mind answering, people who are paying $1000+ websites have a lot of custom work in websites or are they just the standard 5-8 page website ?
      It can be whatever you want it to be price doesn't matter it's more about how confident you are on the phone and how convincing you are that it is a good investment for their business.
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      • Profile picture of the author payoman
        Questions answered :

        How many hours did I put in?

        Probably, I would roughly guess, about 8-12 hours of calling total for the month.

        As you can see, I hit it pretty hard for one week, and that ended with about 3.5k in sales. The others were deals from last month, or callbacks from previous cold calling sessions.

        I think the real question you are asking was 'Was this hard, gruelling, draining work?' My answer? Easiest money I have ever made. I used to work in retail, and my god, it's just soooooo much better. Because at the end of the day, you get to sit on your ass 'dialling for dollars' and just take breaks and play video games in between.

        The main 'work' parts of my business are managing the outsourcers, the clients expectations and the cold calling. I might spend 2 hours per day on managing outsourcers, 1-2 hours cold calling and maybe do a couple calls to clients each day.

        Scripts?

        I use what John Durham calls the 'white belt' approach to cold calling. This basically means playing the numbers game, and just spamming out as many calls as possible until I get a bite, with very little scripting. As you can see, it works.

        What I DO make sure I do, is follow up EVERY interested lead. ALWAYS follow up via phone/email at least twice. This builds trust and increases your chances to close.
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        • Profile picture of the author ares04
          Originally Posted by payoman View Post

          Questions answered :

          How many hours did I put in?

          Probably, I would roughly guess, about 8-12 hours of calling total for the month.

          As you can see, I hit it pretty hard for one week, and that ended with about 3.5k in sales. The others were deals from last month, or callbacks from previous cold calling sessions.

          I think the real question you are asking was 'Was this hard, gruelling, draining work?' My answer? Easiest money I have ever made. I used to work in retail, and my god, it's just soooooo much better. Because at the end of the day, you get to sit on your ass 'dialling for dollars' and just take breaks and play video games in between.

          The main 'work' parts of my business are managing the outsourcers, the clients expectations and the cold calling. I might spend 2 hours per day on managing outsourcers, 1-2 hours cold calling and maybe do a couple calls to clients each day.

          Scripts?

          I use what John Durham calls the 'white belt' approach to cold calling. This basically means playing the numbers game, and just spamming out as many calls as possible until I get a bite, with very little scripting. As you can see, it works.

          What I DO make sure I do, is follow up EVERY interested lead. ALWAYS follow up via phone/email at least twice. This builds trust and increases your chances to close.
          Where do you find your outsourcers? How do you know which ones to pick and how much they cost?
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    • Profile picture of the author payoman
      Originally Posted by niketa20 View Post

      Wow people pay $360 for whole year. I think I am underselling myself !! I am assuming you are using reseller hosting.


      If you don't mind answering, people who are paying $1000+ websites have a lot of custom work in websites or are they just the standard 5-8 page website ?
      These are all 5 page standard sites. Actually, one site was like 10 pages but it was a redesign and I only charged him $1360. This turned out to be a massive fail, because the client ended up to be very picky too, which resulted in a lot of time wasted changing the design over and over. I have probably done the equivalent of $2000-$2500 worth of work for this client!!

      But yeah, stop charging $500-$600 and start charging $1000 + hosting. You will get it!
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    • Profile picture of the author Prince Vegeta
      Originally Posted by niketa20 View Post

      Wow people pay $360 for whole year. I think I am underselling myself !! I am assuming you are using reseller hosting.


      If you don't mind answering, people who are paying $1000+ websites have a lot of custom work in websites or are they just the standard 5-8 page website ?
      Lol no, I've sold Wordpress websites for well over $1000 and they didn't take me more than a couple hours to finish, it's all about confidence in your pricing.
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      • Profile picture of the author rajat2k2k
        Originally Posted by Prince Vegeta View Post

        Lol no, I've sold Wordpress websites for well over $1000 and they didn't take me more than a couple hours to finish, it's all about confidence in your pricing.

        Prince,

        Where are you located where you're selling like this? I mean which country.
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  • Profile picture of the author BacklinksWiz
    Wow congrats man! Looks like you were calling and just basically picking there brain and seeing what they needed or areas they were lacking and just provided them an according service! Job well done!
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  • Profile picture of the author focusedlife
    @Payoman - Very very cool! I am thankful for the share and inspired. I'll have more to report shortly.
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  • Profile picture of the author payoman
    Outsourcers

    From oDesk, I work with Filipino's because they are close to my timezone (Aus) and have a great grasp on the English language.

    The web designers work for between $4 - $11 an hour.

    Although I have been having mixed results, you just have to keep trying with different people until you find the right match. A big thing I have been looking at recently is availability. Sometimes my designers don't even come online until 8 or 9pm at night, which can leave me twiddling my thumbs throughout the day.
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  • Profile picture of the author neeralt
    Thanks for sharing this info. This really give me a boost of spirit as I myself am starting my wed design business. Right now I am still in the process of planning and researching.
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  • Profile picture of the author kvnkane
    good job payoman, just sent you a private mail.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jmoola
    @Payoman, Are you just scraping any leads in those niches whether they have a site or not?
    What are you using for a scrapper?

    Great job BTW
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  • Profile picture of the author rajat2k2k
    Payomen, You said you are in Australia so you must be selling websites locally?

    Also do you display pricing on your own websites ? Or something like websites starting from $499 ?
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    • Profile picture of the author payoman
      Leads

      My leads are scraped from Google Places searches. I tell my outsourcers to target all the Google Places results for 'painters city' bar the top 6 or 7 and scrape their phone number and business name.

      The scraper is a VA from the Phillipines. I used to use Power Lead Snatcher, until it started bugging out and leaving white spaces where it used to show listings.

      Pricing

      I have a 'websites starting from $600 + hosting' on my site, but that was my old quote, now I start at $997 minimum, and am trying $1497 this month, because I am already way ahead from last month. I want to test the differences, apparently testing different price points is good.
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      • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
        @ payoman


        Watching you grow has been pretty awesome.

        You are so close ... so very close ... to becoming "one of the greats"

        Now is the time for you to start testing and tweaking.

        Don't let anything deter you, and if you ever want any help
        i am just a PM away.
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        • Profile picture of the author payoman
          Haha, thanks Ken, will definitely keep you in mind. I am a bit annoyed today actually, I tried my new '$1497+$360' price point on a referral from a friend, but haven't heard back yet. Just a little bit nerve wracking when you send a quote to a hot lead and you don't hear back haha

          Also, to the above question about calling locally, I call both locally and around the country. So far, most clients are local, but I have picked up more than a couple nationally.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ashwin83
    Hey Payoman, thanks for the details. I think details can be very inspiring and also give direction to people like me who are just getting into this.
    One question, you said you closed 3 deals in appointments. So I am assuming these are local. Are you calling other areas/cities as well?
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  • Profile picture of the author mirin
    im looking to oursource to oDesk / freelancer as well.
    How much on average are you paying per 5-6 page WP website?
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    • Profile picture of the author Mekanism
      Originally Posted by mirin View Post

      im looking to oursource to oDesk / freelancer as well.
      How much on average are you paying per 5-6 page WP website?
      setting up a WP so easy. why would you outsource it? I have a russian designer i pay $15 per hour to for fixing up some coding issues when I have them. usually he doesn't have to do more than 5 or 6 hours of work
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      • Profile picture of the author Carl Fridsjö
        Originally Posted by Mekanism View Post

        setting up a WP so easy. why would you outsource it? I have a russian designer i pay $15 per hour to for fixing up some coding issues when I have them. usually he doesn't have to do more than 5 or 6 hours of work
        Maybe his goal isn't to be a self employed webdesigner but rather a business-owner?

        Perhaps he'd like to sell more websites and work on marketing, perhaps he just prefers chilling on the beach with his friends. That's three reasons, I can probably think of another thousand. lol..

        /CF
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        • Profile picture of the author Mekanism
          Originally Posted by Carl Fridsjö View Post

          Maybe his goal isn't to be a self employed webdesigner but rather a business-owner?

          Perhaps he'd like to sell more websites and work on marketing, perhaps he just prefers chilling on the beach with his friends. That's three reasons, I can probably think of another thousand. lol..

          /CF
          to make that really happen the sales should be outsourced as well
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    • Profile picture of the author Carl Fridsjö
      Originally Posted by mirin View Post

      im looking to oursource to oDesk / freelancer as well.
      How much on average are you paying per 5-6 page WP website?
      I have designers from my country which is a bit more expensive so I can't help you with the pricing question. However I can offer some advice: find great people. Good people and quality work is so huge, can't emphasize it enough. Get people who can over-deliver every single time, it's well worth the extra money you have to spend.

      On topic: I love this thread, maybe people who do cold calling should have a thread each month where they write their stats and all. Good motivation and good to count your results so you can analyze.
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  • Profile picture of the author azurews
    payoman, I know you were leery about making your results public. But I just want to say thank you for the inspiration you have provided. I have printed out your results and I am going to keep them nearby for when I start to get discouraged!
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  • Profile picture of the author itzpaul
    Sick! Congrats on the success. I hope to see you posting again for August, but double your earnings!!

    What are your prices for web design? Are they full custom websites? What are you charging for Google Places, are you also charging a monthly maintenance? what are your prices for SEO?
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    • Profile picture of the author payoman
      What are your prices for web design?

      Between $997 and $1497, testing $1497 this month.

      Are they full custom websites?

      They are all modified templates, some more heavily modified than others.

      What are you charging for Google Places, are you also charging a monthly maintenance?

      I am charging between $0-$250 for setup and between $100-$200 per month, usually paid upfront. The reason for price differences is the amount of traffic the keywords get. I don't feel comfortable charging alot for keywords that get less than 50 exact matches a month.

      what are your prices for SEO?

      Roughly the same as Google Places, sometimes cheaper depending on the keywords.

      EDIT : Am I not charging enough? Probably, but I am still in the early stages of business and August is a big test month of new price points.
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  • Profile picture of the author AussieT
    Great to hear about your success Payoman. Where abouts in Australia are you?
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