Do you have any questions regarding phone sales today?

kirbymarketingconcierge

11 years ago

deleted post.

Thanks

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CleanMountainLiving

11 years ago

I'll bite...

What are some good, open-ended, openings when calling local service businesses that you know don't have any web presence.

I'm looking for an opening question that gets them to answer with something more than a yes or no...

Thanks
1 reply

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by CleanMountainLiving

I'll bite...

What are some good, open-ended, openings when calling local service
businesses that you know don't have any web presence.

I'm looking for an opening question that gets them to answer with something more than a yes or no...

I am not sure i understand your question 100% ... So if i am off base with my answer,
clarify it some, and i will try again.

I think the best way is to simply ask them why they don't have one,
that in and off itself is VERY open ended, and will allow you to control
the conversation based on their answers.

- why don't you have a website ?

Here are a few different variations of the same question.

- In this day and age it is impossible for anyone with a business to not have considered using the internet , and yet you don't have a website ... why not?

- Bob, your obviously in business to make money and yet you don't have a website why?

- Bob as you already know, the internet is the fastest growing medium for getting your service branded and to bring you new customers in the door.

Why don't you have a web presence ?

- Have you ever tried having a website or using the internet to generate you
new business ?

- What types of advertising have you tried in the past ? ( listen )
if they mention websites, ask them what went wrong ...

if they don't mention website, then ask them if they ever had one...

if they say no...

if they say yes, find out when and what happened.

--------------
Is that what you were looking for, or did i miss the mark ?

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CleanMountainLiving 11 years ago

Thanks, Ken. That's what I thought, and you confirmed where I'm going. And, yes, that was what I was looking for.

AND, I was also looking forward to your reply to Kirby's post!
- Thanks
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kenmichaels

11 years ago

@ kirby

Where did your post go? i came back to answer your questions.. and they are gone ...

If you thought i was ignoring them i wasn't

Thanks
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kirbymarketingconcierge

11 years ago

you responded to the 2nd post and not mine.

I deleted, on the impression it wasn't constructive and what your doing.

Thanks
1 reply

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by kirbymarketingconcierge

you responded to the 2nd post and not mine.

I deleted, on the impression it wasn't constructive and what your doing.

yours had like 10 questions, that needed thought on how to answer.

His was simple to answer. So i answered it first is all.

I am not doing anything in particular, I will answer anything ....

Thanks
1 reply

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Gatsby

11 years ago

Do you close on the phone? If you do, do you send out a contract at all?

Thanks
1 reply

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Gatsby

Do you close on the phone? If you do, do you send out a contract at all?

Yes, one call closes.

Yes, we do contracts AND work agreements

But they do NOT go out, until after we verify that the charge has been approved.

We send them over night mail, they then get a 10% discount for signing
and faxing them back in 24 hours.

They then get another 10% discount if they snail mail the signed paperwork
back in less then 7 days after they receive it.

Thanks
2 replies

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sandalwood

11 years ago

Ken,

Thanks for putting up the thread. My question isn't on sales calls but a strange happening. I asked at this thread:

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...accessing.html

but when I saw your post I thought I'd ask you. Is there something going on with John and his site that it won't come up? This seems pretty strange to me and if it is who will be attacked next.

Yep, I'm paranoid but some of the posters in this thread have been let's say exuberant about their dislike for cold calling. Hostile might be a good word too.

Appreciate any info.

Tom

Thanks
3 replies

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by sandalwood

Ken,

Thanks for putting up the thread. My question isn't on sales calls but a strange happening. I asked at this thread:

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...accessing.html

but when I saw your post I thought I'd ask you. Is there something going on with John and his site that it won't come up? This seems pretty strange to me and if it is who will be attacked next.

Yep, I'm paranoid but some of the posters in this thread have been let's say exuberant about their dislike for cold calling. Hostile might be a good word too.

Appreciate any info.

Tom

It is definitely NOT pulling up for me.

According to my Service provider, the DNS is not valid.

As far as "Is there something going on with John"

I haven't talked to him for a few days, so i do not know ... He did post
a report in here last night, so i am guessing he is ok.

he mentioned getting on the phones this week... so maybe
that is what he is doing, and is unaware of a problem with his forum

Thanks
1 reply

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sandalwood

11 years ago

Originally Posted by kenmichaels

It is definitely NOT pulling up for me.

According to my Service provider, the DNS is not valid.

As far as "Is there something going on with John"

I haven't talked to him for a few days, so i do not know ... He did post
a report in here last night, so i am guessing he is ok.

he mentioned getting on the phones this week... so maybe
that is what he is doing, and is unaware of a problem with his forum

Thanks for the info. You say he posted a report. Where did he post? I haven't been here in two days.

Tom

Thanks
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kenmichaels 11 years ago

Originally Posted by sandalwood

Thanks for the info. You say he posted a report. Where did he post? I haven't been here in two days.

Tom

Here you go
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- sandalwood 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by kenmichaels
  
  Here you go
  
  Ken,
  
  Thanks again. I found that post and tried downloading the report. It won't download. I thought maybe it was in a different location or in another post.
  
  This is pretty strange. All of his stuff is drawing a blank. WTF...
  
  Tom
  
  P.S. Making $99 a day is easy if you own an insurance agency I wanted to read what he said so I could sell the damn thing...
  
  Thanks
  
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mak25 11 years ago

Hey Ken,

First I love your expertise for prospecting by phone. You've given out a lot of useful information.

Right now, I'm between appointments, but have a few questions I would love to hear your comments on.

I'll post them later today. Hopefully you'll still be gargling and off the phone to be able to answer them.

Thanks for the thread. I just love phone pro's.

Mike

PS - Tom, I'm getting the same problem as you are. Hopefully the answer is not some schmuck f-ing around with his forum.
- Thanks
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Rus Sells

11 years ago

The domain has expired. I tried to tell him via a friend but I guess that didn't happen.

I was up for renewal this month but I guess John didn't renew it.

Hopefully he'll renew the domain as I'm sure the databases are still on his hosting account.

Russ

Originally Posted by sandalwood

Ken,

Thanks for putting up the thread. My question isn't on sales calls but a strange happening. I asked at this thread:

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...accessing.html

but when I saw your post I thought I'd ask you. Is there something going on with John and his site that it won't come up? This seems pretty strange to me and if it is who will be attacked next.

Yep, I'm paranoid but some of the posters in this thread have been let's say exuberant about their dislike for cold calling. Hostile might be a good word too.

Appreciate any info.

Tom

Originally Posted by kenmichaels

It is definitely NOT pulling up for me.

According to my Service provider, the DNS is not valid.

As far as "Is there something going on with John"

I haven't talked to him for a few days, so i do not know ... He did post
a report in here last night, so i am guessing he is ok.

he mentioned getting on the phones this week... so maybe
that is what he is doing, and is unaware of a problem with his forum

Thanks
1 reply

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sandalwood

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Rus Sells

The domain has expired. I tried to tell him via a friend but I guess that didn't happen.

I was up for renewal this month but I guess John didn't renew it.

Hopefully he'll renew the domain as I'm sure the databases are still on his hosting account.

Russ

Russ,

That has to be the funniest situation I've encountered on this forum. The guy selling a WSO on forums lets his expire. JD, "come on man" as they say on ESPN football.

Oh well, ***t happens even in the best of families.

Tom

Thanks

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Gatsby

11 years ago

Originally Posted by kenmichaels

Yes, one call closes.

Yes, we do contracts AND work agreements

But they do NOT go out, until after we verify that the charge has been approved.

We send them over night mail, they then get a 10% discount for signing
and faxing them back in 24 hours.

They then get another 10% discount if they snail mail the signed paperwork
back in less then 7 days after they receive it.

Ok, seriously that is a big help. I have not done anything other than an appointment, and I was planning that totally the other way around (send out a contract then look to collect payments). I'm definitely going to do that on my next round of calls.

Thanks

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TheCG

11 years ago

Here is one for you, Ken. I am running into this one alot lately.

"We have all the business we can handle."

Obviously this isn't true or they wouldn't be returning calls (as some are) or even there answering the phones themselves.

My response to this so far has usually been to congratulate them and move on to the next call but it would be nice to have something that might further engage them.

So how do you handle this response?

Thanks,

CG

Thanks
2 replies

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by TheCG

Here is one for you, Ken. I am running into this one alot lately.

"We have all the business we can handle."

Obviously this isn't true or they wouldn't be returning calls (as some are) or even there answering the phones themselves.

My response to this so far has usually been to congratulate them and move on to the next call but it would be nice to have something that might further engage them.

So how do you handle this response?

Thanks,

CG

If they are inbound calls, and they are saying that to you, then something
in your sales process is turning them off.

You are correct, they would NOT be calling if they did not want new business
( unless your inbound method isn't clear on why they should call you )

I guess that would be step one. Check your advert, make sure its crystal clear

Step 2 -- don't change anything you say yet, but the next time you pitch
some one, listen to the subtle nuances of there tone, you should be able
to immediately tell when they go south.

Then look at your script , and see if it can be reworded better.
( it can be a single word, a phrase, even a whole section )

I haven't heard that question in a REALLY long time.

but when i did hear it, i would say, "then why are you talking to me "

One of two things would happen.

They would tell me why, or they would hang up....

either way worked for me.

[ 1 ] Thanks
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Gatsby

11 years ago

Regardless of any consultants pricing plan here; have you noticed numbers that just seem to work well on the phone. For instance, rather than say the total is $3600; do you drop a down payment and monthly on them like "1500 and 350 a month"?

Thanks
1 reply

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Gatsby

Regardless of any consultants pricing plan here; have you noticed numbers that just seem to work well on the phone. For instance, rather than say the total is $3600; do you drop a down payment and monthly on them like "1500 and 350 a month"?

man i hate to do this to you, but the answer to that question is a YES and a NO

Lets start with the NO first.

In 20+ years, i have seen no direct coloration between price and sales.

So $5.00 or $500. or $5000. or basically ANY price its almost always the
same.

Now the YES.

I have personally noticed, that people don't bat an eyelash
with the price tags of

1995.00
2995.00
3995.00

between 4 and 6 there is a smidge of hesitation
not too much, and fairly easy to over come if you did a good presentation

for some reason

6995 and
7995

Seams to have a really good response too. ( the same as 1 thru 3k )

Now, with that said, FOR ME, and this may not be true for anyone else
because it may be something that I am doing subconsciously

for anything less the 8k its not a hard sale, i can do it pretty much
on auto pilot, giving it maybe 20% of my effort.

More then 8k ... I actually have to "work" that *hit ...

For me, 8k and above requires my undivided attention, and a whole lot
more understanding of what the potential client wants / needs.

Check this thread out, there are a bunch of REALLY good posts in it,
including one where i give an example of breaking price down for
the sale ... that one is post # 64, but i recommend you read the whole
thread, as some real heavy hitters posted in there.

And one of the best on this board started the thread ( David Miller )
if you have any questions while reading that, post it in that thread.
If it was bumped it would prob help some people out.

[ 4 ] Thanks
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Gatsby

11 years ago

Outstanding information...and no worries, I don't have a problem with prices - I just have never gone for a close on the phone and let alone over $500 (1099 issues come up). Pretty cool with rejection/failure and self learning; but these guys are bringing up $99 webs and possibly going all the way up to a whopping $250! Seriously, the phone call alone is costing me more than that. Thanks for the information, its a big help.

Thanks
1 reply

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Gatsby

Outstanding information...and no worries, I don't have a problem with prices - I just have never gone for a close on the phone and let alone over $500 (1099 issues come up). Pretty cool with rejection/failure and self learning; but these guys are bringing up $99 webs and possibly going all the way up to a whopping $250! Seriously, the phone call alone is costing me more than that. Thanks for the information, its a big help.

"I just have never gone for a close on the phone"

Well when you do AND you have success, you will find it rather liberating.

"Thanks for the information, its a big help"

any time

I love sales, and I love talking about sales.

Thanks
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sandalwood

11 years ago

Ken:

In part you said:

For me, 8k and above requires my undivided attention, and a whole lot
more understanding of what the potential client wants / needs.

When I first started as a stock broker, the sales trainer said enyone in here that doesn't have 25K in the bank won't be able to ask for 25K. You are limited by what you have in the bank because that is what your mind knows.

Well when I heard that I asked myself how limited do I want to be. Not very I answered so I made up my mind never to ask for anything less than 25k. It got so easy I would tell prospects to bring in all their money so we could "manage" it.

I went from nowhere to top 10% producer in three short months with that mindset. People will laugh or scoff at that but believe me the money is in your head. If you believe you have it, you do.

I understand what you are saying when you say you have a number divide. We all do. I don't even ask for 8K anymore. I've slid down to 8¢ and it ain't pretty

I think I've helped out with my answer because I know changing MY thinking put more dollars in MY pocket. It worked for me so I thought it might work for someone else.

BTW, I have a real estate investment that requires a minimum of 10K and makes a double digit return. When I show it to the moneyed here in town, they don't even bat an eye. In fact one guy said if I had talked about anything less he wouldn't be interested. What I've just added is there is money out there. Ask for it.

Tom

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by sandalwood

Ken:

In part you said:

For me, 8k and above requires my undivided attention, and a whole lot
more understanding of what the potential client wants / needs.

When I first started as a stock broker, the sales trainer said enyone in here that doesn't have 25K in the bank won't be able to ask for 25K. You are limited by what you have in the bank because that is what your mind knows.

Well when I heard that I asked myself how limited do I want to be. Not very I answered so I made up my mind never to ask for anything less than 25k. It got so easy I would tell prospects to bring in all their money so we could "manage" it.

I went from nowhere to top 10% producer in three short months with that mindset. People will laugh or scoff at that but believe me the money is in your head. If you believe you have it, you do.

I understand what you are saying when you say you have a number divide. We all do. I don't even ask for 8K anymore. I've slid down to 8¢ and it ain't pretty

I think I've helped out with my answer because I know changing MY thinking put more dollars in MY pocket. It worked for me so I thought it might work for someone else.

BTW, I have a real estate investment that requires a minimum of 10K and makes a double digit return. When I show it to the moneyed here in town, they don't even bat an eye. In fact one guy said if I had talked about anything less he wouldn't be interested. What I've just added is there is money out there. Ask for it.

Tom

25k.... funny you should mention that number.

that is our magic number.

Through all the trials and tribulations... 25k is "the" ticket ( aka sweet spot ) for us.

also, i had a similar experience with an epiphany on the misguided "ceiling"
I know i mentioned it some where, i will see if i can find it and paste it here.

--edit
Found it , here it is

Thanks

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David Miller

11 years ago

Originally Posted by TheCG

Here is one for you, Ken. I am running into this one alot lately.

"We have all the business we can handle."

Obviously this isn't true or they wouldn't be returning calls (as some are) or even there answering the phones themselves.

My response to this so far has usually been to congratulate them and move on to the next call but it would be nice to have something that might further engage them.

So how do you handle this response?

Thanks,

CG

"You know Bob, in this economy and with no lack of competition in your particular field, that's a great testament to your business and your marketing. Would you mind sharing with me how you managed to get where you are?"

My favorite way to call BS on these guys....if you're in ad sales for a day you'll hear it at least 10 times....assuming you are prospecting!

[ 5 ] Thanks
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socialentry

11 years ago

Ok, I realise I kinda missed the saturday windows, but here goes nothing...
I found a job at a call center. The training lasted a couple of days I've been on the phone for two days now so most of the questions are related to how this place operates and how I can benefit from it:

What do you think of the "broken record" technique of sales? E.g.
-Our company deals with blah blah blah
-I'm too busy can you make this quick
-I'm getting to this.As I was saying... Our company deals with blah blah blah
It seems like a dummy-proof way to maintain control, but I find it extremely repetitive... The manager told me there was no rebuttals, and effectively, I am forbidden to argue with the prospects.

What is the value of saying something like:"This is an urgent call, I need to speak with the person in charge of X" to get past the gatekeeper?

How do you rep a startup ? At the place where I found work, the script calls for a lot of mentioning a companies who are big fishes in the specific industry. Can I simply say "well, while they're not my clients, BIG ORGANISATION #1, Big org #2, Big org #3 are using the technology" ... so why aren't you? or something along this line?

As you go for bigger targets (big corporations,etc), do you nescessarily need to add more steps to the selling process? I get the gist they don't trust me to one-call close, because the leads are limited and they want to have the highest success rate, and even the experienced guys don't attempt it unless they feel it is a slam dunk. Is this really nescessary?

I was told not to pitch the secretary, is this good or bad?

Thanks
1 reply

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by socialentry

Ok, I realise I kinda missed the saturday windows, but here goes nothing...
I found a job at a call center. The training lasted a couple of days I've been on the phone for two days now so most of the questions are related to how this place operates and how I can benefit from it:

What do you think of the "broken record" technique of sales? E.g.
-Our company deals with blah blah blah
-I'm too busy can you make this quick
-I'm getting to this.As I was saying... Our company deals with blah blah blah
It seems like a dummy-proof way to maintain control, but I find it extremely repetitive... The manager told me there was no rebuttals, and effectively, I am forbidden to argue with the prospects.

What is the value of saying something like:"This is an urgent call, I need to speak with the person in charge of X" to get past the gatekeeper?

How do you rep a startup ? At the place where I found work, the script calls for a lot of mentioning a companies who are big fishes in the specific industry. Can I simply say "well, while they're not my clients, BIG ORGANISATION #1, Big org #2, Big org #3 are using the technology" ... so why aren't you? or something along this line?

As you go for bigger targets (big corporations,etc), do you nescessarily need to add more steps to the selling process? I get the gist they don't trust me to one-call close, because the leads are limited and they want to have the highest success rate, and even the experienced guys don't attempt it unless they feel it is a slam dunk. Is this really nescessary?

I was told not to pitch the secretary, is this good or bad?

I see you opened another thread with these same questions AND people
responded.

did you get what you needed?

if you need any clarification on anything specific, let me know

Thanks
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socialentry

11 years ago

Originally Posted by kenmichaels

I see you opened another thread with these same questions AND people
responded.

did you get what you needed?

if you need any clarification on anything specific, let me know

I think grosso modo, yeah... But I do have another one:

when the gatekeeper or prospect does a brushoff (she gets excited and say something like "I am really busy here! Can you please hurry this up"), is it better to keep your cool and keep a super calm tone, or is it better to pace and lead (change tone to match hers and quickly come back)?

@ work they told me that no matter what, I was to keep the same calm, authorithy tone. Even if the guy is rude or whatever.

Hope I explained the idea right...

Thanks

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TheCG

11 years ago

Originally Posted by David Miller

"You know Bob, in this economy and with no lack of competition in your particular field, that's a great testament to your business and your marketing. Would you mind sharing with me how you managed to get where you are?"

My favorite way to call BS on these guys....if you're in ad sales for a day you'll hear it at least 10 times....assuming you are prospecting!

Great to see you back, David. I always look for your posts on here and learn alot from them.

[ 1 ] Thanks

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LEIVA

11 years ago

Hey Ken what's the phone type you have or phone system you have setup (skype, local line, Gvoice, 800 number or).

Whats the difference between my "house phone number" to another setup and as well what can be a good setup im starting on the cold calling.

Thanks in advance very appreciate

Thanks
1 reply

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by LEIVA

Hey Ken what's the phone type you have or phone system you have setup (skype, local line, Gvoice, 800 number or).

Whats the difference between my "house phone number" to another setup and as well what can be a good setup im starting on the cold calling.

Thanks in advance very appreciate

We have t1's. So i cannot answer , i am very sorry.

I hear good things about google voice. HOWEVER
we could never make it work decent.

and believe me, we want too, bad. It would seriously save us some money
on phone costs.

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Gatsby 11 years ago

I love using all types of SIPs and VoiP systems; play with them all the time other than using them directly for sales. All I have for Google voice is about 2 cents worth. Their system looks promising, but every-time I use it I get insane delays. It really sets up the conversation as if we are interrupting each other. Its not terribly bad, just enough to make a conversation slightly awkward.

When I figured out what was happening, I used about three guinea pigs to try and figure out what could happen to fix it. One guy is a total google and android nut said he had no problems with delay - he was one of the FIRST I noticed the "awkwardness" from talking with him google voice to google voice. So I bumped my google number down the list as an online answering machine so to speak.

I use Skype with a USB Logitech headphone/mic and it works great even if my Internet is crappy; like if I were at a starbucks with my old laptop. I've been using voip since about 2000 and over the years I guess I am a skype fan because it cost me less than $5 a month to keep a number going and I can create a business system of several numbers.

I am still looking to start playing around with twillio more in the future, that one looks very beneficial - just have not had the capital to start any projects with it yet.

Also, I have a program called dialectic on a macintosh, that auto dials skype using the numbers from my CRM. I really liked how another program phone amego worked in tracking phone calls and keeping logs - but it would "break" and stop connecting with skype (I'm using marketcircle daylite CRM). I just go down a list inside my CRM and hit F1 and it dials the number - then when I hang up it asks me if I want to schedule a callback or some other activity. Not the speed of an auto dialer system, but I can still get my calls up into more than 300 dials at least per day. I've used autodialers before in a boiler room - so that got me over 700 calls a day, but hell of a number of hardware needed to support that.
- [ 1 ] Thanks
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- alrealestate 11 years ago
  
  Stay away from predictive dialers, the caller ID will kill you when the system makes the 3rd 4th attempt and the prospect has been hung up 3 or 4 times already. If you are buying your data, predictive dialers just eat up your datat
  
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John Durham

11 years ago

Sites back up yall. Overisght on my part knocked us out for a day... I was on the interstate all friday and couldnt get to it...but we are back. Sorry about the down time.

Lesson for newbs: (may as well)

Sometimes doing business is part damage control. This weekend for instance cost me a few hundred dollars I wasnt expecting to spend... plus I spent half the weekend, not making money , but doing damage control... you have to be that sometimes to be in business. You are really on call 24/7.

So instead of spending friday night sleeping, and saturday morning chilling this weekend.... I spent Friday driving 11 hours for a call from family out of town, then Friday night up working late till 4 am, and the whole day Saturday doing damage control and trying to get my site back online.

I will spend half of Sunday doing any more damage control that resulted from the downtime. Then monday, back to business as usual. This weekend was a wash. It happens.

So being in business for yourself requires alot of dedication. Please take note.

The benefit is that sometimes you can sleep late while others are scraping ice off their car windows getting ready for work! Lol.

-JD

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Rus Sells

11 years ago

Hey John,

Glad you got the site back up! Hope it was in time so you didn't have to pay extra to renew the domain!

You had me a little worried that something happened to you!

Now, if you'd be so kind as to update me I'd really appreciate it! LOL :p:p:p

Originally Posted by John Durham

Sites back up yall. Overisght on my part knocked us out for a day... I was on the interstate all friday and couldnt get to it...but we are back. Sorry about the down time.

Lesson for newbs: (may as well)

Sometimes doing business is part damage control. This weekend for instance cost me a few hundred dollars I wasnt expecting to spend... plus I spent half the weekend, not making money , but doing damage control... you have to be that sometimes to be in business. You are really on call 24/7.

So instead of spending friday night sleeping, and saturday morning chilling this weekend.... I spent Friday driving 11 hours for a call from family out of town, then Friday night up working late till 4 am, and the whole day Saturday doing damage control and trying to get my site back online.

I will spend half of Sunday doing any more damage control that resulted from the downtime. Then monday, back to business as usual. This weekend was a wash. It happens.

So being in business for yourself requires alot of dedication. Please take note.

The benefit is that sometimes you can sleep late while others are scraping ice off their car windows getting ready for work! Lol.

-JD

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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Rus Sells

Now, if you'd be so kind as to update me I'd really appreciate it! LOL :p:p:p

Speaking of update....

Sorry about missing that meeting. I got stuck on the boat.... literally

Wasn't my boat, got talked into going on a friends "new" boat...

new my ass. damn thing broke... took around 7 hours for the emergency boat service to come get us and haul us back in....

worst part of that situation .....

my wife made me leave the fishing equip at home... so we could spend quality
time together...

second worst part.... out of range for the internet .

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Rus Sells

11 years ago

Hey it happens. I wasn't to worried about it and figured it was your special day.

We can connect later today or this evening if you like, and if you hear from John I'd appreciate you letting him know I need to hear from him. lol

Russ

Originally Posted by kenmichaels

Speaking of update....

Sorry about missing that meeting. I got stuck on the boat.... literally

Wasn't my boat, got talked into going on a friends "new" boat...

new my ass. damn thing broke... took around 7 hours for the emergency boat service to come get us and haul us back in....

worst part of that situation .....

my wife made me leave the fishing equip at home... so we could spend quality
time together...

second worst part.... out of range for the internet .

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John Durham

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Rus Sells

Hey it happens. I wasn't to worried about it and figured it was your special day.

We can connect later today or this evening if you like, and if you hear from John I'd appreciate you letting him know I need to hear from him. lol

Russ

He's here Russ, no worries, just handling situations in the order received. Also doing a bunch of damage control atm from site going down this weekend. Your "package" is coming. When I call you then just walk to the location behind the big garbage cans at the alley by fifth and main.... dont bring anyone with you...and you will see a brown bag... the pitch will be in it, dont worry, it's pure... make sure nobody sees you. If you get caught, I dont know you and you dont know me....kapeesh? .

Seriously, workin on it...

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sandalwood

11 years ago

Originally Posted by John Durham

Sites back up yall. Overisght on my part knocked us out for a day... I was on the interstate all friday and couldnt get to it...but we are back. Sorry about the down time.

Lesson for newbs: (may as well)

Sometimes doing business is part damage control. This weekend for instance cost me a few hundred dollars I wasnt expecting to spend... plus I spent half the weekend, not making money , but doing damage control... you have to be that sometimes to be in business. You are really on call 24/7.

So instead of spending friday night sleeping, and saturday morning chilling this weekend.... I spent Friday driving 11 hours for a call from family out of town, then Friday night up working late till 4 am, and the whole day Saturday doing damage control and trying to get my site back online.

I will spend half of Sunday doing any more damage control that resulted from the downtime. Then monday, back to business as usual. This weekend was a wash. It happens.

So being in business for yourself requires alot of dedication. Please take note.

The benefit is that sometimes you can sleep late while others are scraping ice off their car windows getting ready for work! Lol.

-JD

John,

Mission complete as we used to say when I was at the Cape. Anytime that rocket went into the air and made orbit, our end of the show was over.

Looks like yours is almost over too. Good job and thanks for being on top of it. I was actually worried one of the trolls did a big nasty no-no to the site.

Tom

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kenmichaels 11 years ago

Originally Posted by sandalwood

Mission complete as we used to say when I was at the Cape. Anytime that rocket went into the air and made orbit, our end of the show was over.

Tom, can you clarify that ?

Did you work there ?

I am asking because I have, so did my uncle, he actually was responsible for
something ( programming wise ) for the monkey in space, and then the first
ship to the moon.

I am am now wondering if you and i have ever met before,
or maybe you know my uncle
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kenmichaels

11 years ago

Originally Posted by John Durham

Sites back up yall. Overisght on my part knocked us out for a day...
-JD

Guess what .... I have done that same thing.. a few times....

Last year as a matter of fact, i forgot to renew one, and locked over 3k
people out of some expensive software....

it took me two wks of apologies to un-ruffle all the the feathers.

Shit happens bro. and if they don't understand that... well then you
really don't want them around anyway.

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Rus Sells

11 years ago

I learned my lesson as well. So now I ensure all the most important customer centric domains are set to auto renew. = )

Russ

Originally Posted by kenmichaels

Guess what .... I have done that same thing.. a few times....

Last year as a matter of fact, i forgot to renew it, and locked over 3k
people out of some expensive software....

it took me two wks of apologies to un-ruffle all the the feathers.

Shit happens bro. and if they don't understand that... well then you
really don't want them around anyway.

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kenmichaels 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Rus Sells

I learned my lesson as well. So now I ensure all the most important customer centric domains are set to auto renew. = )

Russ

..... DITTO .....

did you see post # 37?
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Defacto

11 years ago

There is a definite trend toward business owners not even caring to talk to you on the phone, assuming they respond to an online ad like Craigslist. But I have also noticed that those leads that you do not talk to are far less likely to buy, or to string you along. I have never done cold calling but I do know you have to talk to your prospects to create rapport so will arrange phone appointments or have them call me. Or I will call them if they ask. Otherwise you're nothing but another faceless email to them. This is especially true when much of your competition is in third world counties and you can talk to them and say hey its Trevor here in _____.

And one of the first things I will ask them is "so what kind of budget are we working with here..." Asking about their budget can add thousands to the sale.

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Applejus

11 years ago

Hi Ken, thanks for your thread. I am fitness trainer, and I am trying to expand health, weight-loss, fitness supplement I became a distributor of. I am trying to use cold calling as well to drum up some more business. What are a few opened questions to get people on the other line to answer as few questions and maybe get them to say yes to atleast visitm y website and follow-up. The company I am a distributor for is a marketing machine, the name is well known. The odds are that some have heard of it or know someone doing it. So in that respect it is easy, but getting them sold on trying it is what I am after. Thanks

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