afraid of bothering people - cold calling

Cold calling is difficult, but can be successful if it is based on creating a relationship first and selling later. The key mantra is: "Know, like, trust"--the potential customer must get to know, like, and trust you before they will buy. Emails can work if they follow the same mantra. Good luck!

The services you have chosen to sell are the most difficult to sell. Your market is saturated with many fly by night scammers and inexperienced people who don't provide any value for their clients. They have ruined most of the market for SEO/SEM for now. It's not that you can't sell these services, it's just that it will be much more difficult for you.

Selling thru email marketing is just one piece of the puzzle, you are going to have to add other lead generation techniques to the mix -- cold calling, direct mail, classified ads, etc.. Sending letters in the mail to prospects, then following up in 2-3 days with a phone call can be extremely effective. Keep in mind, you may have to contact a prospect up to 7 times before they buy.

I strongly suggest you do a search here on the WF for posts by Jason Kanigan, he has an excellent script for calling prospects and finding out if it's a good time to talk with them, so you're not bothering them.

I definitely empathize with you.

Just curious, how did you position your intro when calling?

From my experience making a few calls for others on this forum for web design services, I was almost always shut down at the mere mention of a phrase like, "we design custom websites for (insert niche)". The people were always nice and I was able to complete my intro in most instances, however, these same people could almost complete my intro verbatim as they're constantly bombarded with "these type" of sales calls.

Cold calling is definitely a positive way to present your services, however, the traditional way has many unnecessary challenges.

Fellow Warrior, Jason Kanigan teaches a helpful way of initiating cold calls. I've highlighted a few of his most popular teachings below.

http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...ml#post5396849
http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...beginners.html
http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...ess-tip-3.html

I forgot to mention, Bruce NewMedia here on the WF has an excellent WSO EZmail marketing. It has really well written email templates and shows you how to set up an email campaign. I have it, I've used it, it works.

Since you are doing email marketing, I strongly suggest you check it out.

I have no affiliation with the product, other than I've used it successfully.

You are offering a service that business owners either do not want to do, because they delegate, or cannot do, because they do not have the skill themselves.

Your job is to sort: to find out who needs your help. If they don't need it, no big deal. Move on to the next call.

@mojo1: appreciate the links.

As you pointed out, saying "web design" or "SEO" is the surest path to the call ending quickly. We want to find out whether this prospect is experiencing any problems that we can help solve. WHY would they want SEO help?

I'd love to see you spend a little time around real people to build your confidence before you call people and have to somehow get them to keep listening to you. Surely, there are social events where you can practice talking to people and sliding in what you do.

And better still, see if you can get people to refer you to others as well. Then you instantly are no longer making a truly "cold call" because you can say "Your friend Mark asked me to give you a call and I think I might be able to help you".

You can find some related helpful information (including my take) on this post

BAYO

This might help - I posted it in the copywriting forum a few days ago.



A lot of people are a touch hesitant about picking up the phone and cold calling.

So here's another super secret system that makes it a breeze and very profitable.

Prepare a 30 second "pitch" that goes something like this -

Hi Mr/ Mrs Prospect, my name is ___ and I do (big benefit), (big benefit) and (big benefit) would this be of interest to you?

Now, if the prospect says (and most will) "No!"

Just say "That's fine, I do understand, and I should let you get back to what you were doing. Thanks for the time and for taking my call. Bye. And click.

In other words you don't worry about handling any or endless objections (obviously eloquently answer any questions) but if they say "No!", just thank them and say goodbye.

You'll do stacks of calls, with absolutely no pressure, and get to cherry pick the hot shots.

The people who want your services right now.

It's a lot quicker and easier than hard selling isn't it?


Steve


P.S. Now, some of you are thinking, "Yes, great but you need big lists of people to phone" And it's true, the more the merrier.

But here's the thing, if you phone back the people who said "No!" about 4 - 6 weeks later. You'll be amazed how many say "Yes Ok"

Either they are now in the market.

Or they remembered you...

And you were the one person who didn't ramble on, wasting their time, trying desperately to deal with their objections.

And a surprising number of them say "Ok tell me more..."

In doing cold calling you have to be ready to face a lot of rejection. At times you'll find that you can call all day and still not find anyone that will be interested in what you have to offer.

However, when you do manage to call a prospect that is interested, you get a very rewarding feeling once you put the phone down and know that someone finally said "yes".

Cold calling is an art, I must say. You just need to master your fear of rejection and you won't have that much of a problem when you finally get down to doing it.

...Yes, selling is all about "rejection"

Lets say you make $100.00 a sale.

But you always have to call 20 people to get a sale (you can work out your own average).

In reality everyone you speak to makes you $5.00.

Providing you don't stop...

You're always making money when people say "No!"


Steve

Gave this advice earlier but, if you are afraid to bother people... your competitors wont be.

There are even sales here and there, even for the passive, but only what little is left behind by the aggressive...

If you are worried about bothering people, then dont bother them, make sure that every person you say hello to is given a blessed energy boost... give them something, even if they arent interested and leave them with a happier feeling than before you called. Make them sigh and say "Wow, that was a nice guy/gal!"

If you do that, even if they turn you down, they will not have wanted to, and they will not tell you to "F off", they will rather say "sorry we arent interested but good luck on your next call, if you keep going Im sure someone will say yes", and they will hope the best for you.

That sounds pretty good to me... 400 emails for 3 sales. 400 emails of which you could send out in a day.

When you mention not big at all, how big were they? Selling SEO/SEM I am guessing they would have still been decent sized sales?

Just emailing prospects out of the blue won't generate the results you want... At all. It's something that every off liner figures out eventually. You may get lucky a few times, but as a lead generator, it's a huge waste of time.

Cold calling doesn't have to be scary - just don't approach it as you're selling them. Have a reason to call and talk to the owner. Target the businesses you want and request an interview for your online marketing blog. Call up and just tell them that you're interviewing businesses in the ____ area and would like to know if they would like to be featured? Boom... You're in! He realizes you're NOT just another a$$hole marketer that wants to "increase his presence online" The trust factor begins...

I'm more afraid of mediocrity than asking someone if they think my product/service could improve their business or their personal life.

So much of salesmanship is taught and practiced as a sort of macho ego exercise, that it is no wonder we call it "cold calling", and most decent people have to overcome huge fears to do it; they have an aversion to dehumanizing other people and themselves.

We've all dealt with rude strangers trying to pressure us into buying their thing, and we don't want to be like that. It's not something to be overcome, the sales disease is what ought to be overcome; the desperation to force the other person to do what you want.

I stumbled across a youtube video of a sales training called something like "how to close every deal", and as you'd expect, it was a lot of chest thumping and disgusting talk revealing utter contempt for the "mark".

The jerk described how he'd approach working a car lot, and a customer said right off the bat that they weren't going to buy a car today. He told the audience he would first agree with something like "yes, most people don't buy the first day they look", while silently thinking "well it's not up to you", like the poor schmuck didn't realize he was about to be dominated by the alpha wolf.

Then he said if the customer said they couldn't pay over $300 something a month, how he would agree, but then have them walk out with a contract $200 higher, falling all over themselves to thank him. The audience was eating it up; another generation of a-holes just chomping at the bit to keep everyone on the defense.

This is the type of thing you have to overcome when you emit any hint of the stink of typical sales talk.

Even calling and saying "Hello, I am blank, I do blank, and we offer blank, just calling to see if I can interest you in...", puts pressure on them and you; no wonder you have to get all macho and pumped in order to dial.

Why not call with a completely different attitude and goal; to honestly explore possible ways you might be able to help them, without any presumption that you know what's best and just need to "overcome" objections and resistance so they will take the medicine you know they need if they were only smart enough to realize it?

I'm here because I decided to make another stab at calling for business, but it isn't cold calling, and it isn't pressure, and so far it feels about 1000% better than my last ham-fisted attempt at calling when I really was going in cold and salesy; starting each call with the goal of making a sale, unawarely putting huge pressure on myself and my victim.

Seth Godin sums this one up - "Talk about things that matter to people who care." Take a read of Permission Marketing and Purple Cow, both will show you the flaws in the way you are doing business right now.

If you absolutely insist on cold calling you better be thick skinned and ready to be in battle, giving up after just 400 emails (which in fact resulted in sales? That's a win) is a quitters attitude, if you think cold calling is hard, expect it to be 1000 times harder than it is right now, then double it. That's the expectations you should approach cold calling with. At the end of the day, how much you choose to persist on anything is down to you.

Test your email to make sure that your message is right. Send half the list one message, and half the list another message, to see which produces the best responses. Then scrap the bad one, add another to the test. Use direct mail marketing principles.

Most likely your email sucks!

Made an article/blog post about this the other day.

Are you scared of picking up the phone? Your competition isn't. | LinkedIn

Why the Fu@k would you care about them ?
think about it as a primal caveman thing that is not relevant anymore. Thats it.

Have you considered purchasing warm, qualified leads?

Yes cold calling works..I still set 3-4 appointments a day with local business owners.Don't worry about interrupting them just state why your calling if they like what you have to say they'll stay on the phone with you if not they'll hang up...If you want to learn more about cold calling theirs a book called Cold Calling Techniques: That Really Work by Stephan Schiffman its really good...

Interesting.

Was there any identifiable pattern with the type of businesses
who hired you or the process you got there.

Can you take that information and narrow down the type of
prospects you're targeting so your response rate goes up.


Did you escalate the conversation from email to telephone when
a prospect responded to your emails.

Have you considered simply asking for more money. In other words
if you could get 2 or 3 or 5 times the money for the same service
would it make your efforts worthwhile?

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Yes, there is cold calling in the past. Do you know why it has lasted so long? Because it works. Yes, Linked In and Facebook help build relationships...with people you have never actually met or talked to...but talking to another person, in your own voice is actually selling.

Selling SEO services? Maybe not the first call. But selling SEO services (and related services) is making me a small fortune.

I love it. I don't know you at all. But I can guarantee one thing, you have never cold called successfully. If you did, you wouldn't have posted this.

I always have and still do enjoy learning about those of you who choose to inform business owners about the plethora of services which are available to them through your skilled and time consuming use of social media and email. It's that much less time that those of us who pick up the phone need to explain before we get their credit card number.

David Miller is back ...who knows for how long... laying the cold call smack down!

I love all the new options of making contact with biz owners, but nothing beats just picking up the phone and calling them, for goodness sakes what are you afraid of?

Silmads - But how do you build a relationship with business owners on Facebook? Facebook is just filled with people wanting to catch up on the latest gossip, youtube clips, etc.....

Linkedin is more for business owners but even that is difficult as they are fed up with all the spam messages they get, also it can take time to build relationships.
Have you really got clients by these methods?

If that is the nature of your business and you have good intentions then why afraid of making cold calls. If you're afraid to do it then don't do business.

What actually works in cold calling is the element of the surprise itself. Telemarketing interjects an element of surprise that person-to-person sales calls do not. When you arrange a meeting with a prospect, the latter expects you and reserves time to discuss matters with you. However, this doesn't work in cold calling, wherein the prospect is totally surprised with your presence on the other line and has not reserved any time to talk to you. So basically, you're uninvited, unexpected, and unwelcome. But still, you need to hang on for you'll never know what will happen next; this stuff is just full of uncertainties that in some way will give you that twinge of excitement.