What's your current conversion rate like when you cold call?

Thanks. I appreciate the support!

Well, you may be right. Though the way Nigerians market I'd be surprised if our cold calling averages don't match the US. We are pretty savvy marketers here and some a very aggressive in the sense that they use whatever methods they like not refraining themselves by our location, economy, life style, traditions and the like. There are go getters here that I'm sure would give a lot of other globally respected marketers a run for their money.

Plus, if not for the way things are run here (government wise etc) I would say you would be shocked to find that Nigeria is far from a third world country these days, in Lagos, our commercial city, almost everyone and their dog owns either an iphone, blackberry, ipad, some smart phone or other or a combo of all them lol. And these guys KNOW what's happening outside our borders faster than news aggregators globally do.

We have our downsides but frankly, I'm very excited every time I wake up these days, the country is moving in leaps and bounds toward the first world in terms of technology especially, and fashion and life style, some things are different here, but largely they are the same to a large degree if not exactly as in any advanced nation. I stand to be corrected but cold calling is unlikely to be an exception.

Having said all that, I think the way and manner in which I approach my calls makes the difference as well. My secret is that I am ALWAYS upbeat, loud (not too loud lol) and clear in my speech and friendly and warm, all that stuff that makes people warm to you even if they are having a bad day so far. Some don't react to it but most seem to take their cue from how I talk from the second I say hello. Hope that helps someone.

Hi payoman, I'm partial to face-to-face prospecting and that brought in my best clients, then I noticed I was getting some business here and there from referrals when I least expected it. So I've decided to add referral marketing full on. I'm currently testing telemarketing right now which is the reason for this thread. Cheers

I'm selling web design but can't say more. I may be able to share more later when I'm good with results. And thanks for the congrats

Lol. Technically Claude they agree to buy or they eagerly book appointments for a follow up discussion over the phone or a face2face meet up so that they can get the full gist and hopefully then buy. These prospects I'm referring to are now very hot leads, some a little hotter than others but generally from cold calls they are now very interested prospects eager to get the full gist of the package before they buy, but they've indicated serious interest.

So yesterday 80% did one of the 2 above (and I'd add it's about evenly distributed at this point). The thing is in Nigeria, getting paid via debit/credit cards isn't so effortless just yet (otherwise I would likely have more cash in hand sales right off of the phone from the reactions I've been getting). You have to go physically to pick up the cheque or have them pay into your bank account or have someone bring a cheque to you. So, the delay in getting the payment would make it that you can't call someone saying "Yes, put me down for one of those" a firm sale till the money is in your hands, but a lot of the prospects have promised to make their payments by the end of the month or they have promised to seriously consider and get back to me by X date. Some of them HAVE called back. One did this AM from a call yesterday and says his cheque is ready for pick up when I am.

The reasons for my high close rates I'm thinking from my 17 years as a hands-on marketer...

1) My phone manner
2) My script (there's something about this I've really perfected now over 30 or so calls but I've used it randomly in years past so it's not totally new, may be able to reveal this later, we'll see)
3) My offer
4) The pool/kind of prospects
5) Some other stuff I've yet to put my finger on with regard to cold calling especially.

To protect my close rate locally I can't say too much more at least for now. But hopefully that's enough to feed your curiousity

I may be able to offer you some tips privately on how you may be able to get a higher close rate for your speaking engagements (no promises you understand but happy to share some tips with you and see if they stick).

I'm a sorta newbie telemarketer but I'm from an older breed of online direct marketers so I know a few simple tricks I think may be helping me with this relatively-new-to-me form of marketing (marketing is usually the same across different media anyway with a few differences here and there).

PS: As was said above a lot will depend on so many factors, but I firmly believe there are parallels that can be taken advantage of and used to measure people's successes across multiple campaigns via multiple media. Just my own view.