Anyone have experience cold calling local businesses?

MyOwnDemon

MyOwnDemon

Face Rocker
Jan 28, 2007
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Iowa
www.sitestomp.com
I want to start offering design services to local businesses that don't have websites. This is something I've been wanting to do for like 3 years and I'm finally going to be pursuing it.

Of course, the price per site would be fairly high so I could live on only doing 2-3 per month. I am also factoring in the price of getting them set up with domain name and hosting, my time working with them, dealing with their endless questions, etc.

So far, my idea is to simply cold call them and try to make a sale. It just seems like I would get a lot of people hanging up on me, saying they "have to ask their boss"/never getting back to me, etc.

There has to be a better way such as putting out a local ad and letting them contact me, but I don't want to totally write off the cold calling. Has anyone done the cold calling and if so, do you have any advice?
 


I am a local business that gets people calling my business line. Annoying. Some shit head from Merchant Circle said he can call Google and shit. That Google has a relationship with MC.

Anyways, there is a big void in the contractor market. Most of us are arrogant enough to think an Intuit website, because we made it, is the shit, but we are retarded enough to fuck up everything google related without knowing it.

If I could make a website company thats what I would do. Live, eat, and sleep construction until you knew that shit inside and out, more or less.

Contractors who have had a site for 2 years would be flipping out their phone is actually ringing. Word of mouth in the trades is big. I could probably get 5 guys right now to sign up for 2 year site contracts.
 
I used to cold call people offering them no obligation free exposure for a while then gave up. Lots of fuck offs etc. People get hammered by the large companies full of commission based sales people (bloodsuckers that are hard to compete with because of sheer numbers). You can do it but you better be ready for a lot of resistance. Something I noticed is that people that have PPC campaigns and are clearly already doing some sort of SEO are a lost cause. Most of them feel like they are being fucked or over spending. Going for companies that don't have web sites already can be effective but I used to get a lot of "I don't have a web site and I am doing fine". I am not the best salesman so maybe it had to do with that. This was two years ago and of the clients I did land, I ended up ditching all but two because they wasted too much of my time...Good luck.
 
They get calls from Dikshit #1 SEO company all day long plus there are a lot of gatekeepers. If you're really keen about working with local business, find out which times are their non peak periods and go in and talk with them. Don't hit em up with the sales shit straight off the bat.

You can blame companies like fucking hotfrog for burning so many bridges.
 
cold calling = $$. if you really want to try it yourself to see if it works, post an ad on craigslist advertising for a person to work from home, selling your product. get them a pitch, proposal, and some information. if you can get them to close even one deal a week, then it is worth it (for you)

the best seo firms in the world all have outbound call centers. hundreds of new businesses open ever week, so not all businesses are burned out. its also in your approach, if you open all monotone "hello sir may i speak to the business owner" guarantee you will get hung up on.

like affiliate marketing, you need to get creative. if you post a dating ad with a picture of a stock blonde that says "sign up for a great dating site," you will not convert...unless you stand out from the crowd. its also all about rebuttals, you have to have a come back for everything.

i would also make sure you have a wide variety of services to offer including social media, seo, ppc, design, etc. good luck!

ps this realm is what helped me go from working for the man to working from home ...almost coming up on my 1 year anniversary!
 
I've done B2B coldcalling here in Australia for online advertising and banking services and have never EVER had anyone tell me to fuck off, and I don't know how many thousands of calls I made. Maybe it is different in the US. In fact, I don't even remember anyone even hanging up on me.

However, if you call with a script like "Good afternoon, my name is David and I'm calling from XYZ Ltd, we are a major provider of quality widgets..." your mileage may vary.
 
Thanks for the responses so far. It seems I have a bit to think about now. I definitely want to have some kind of unique angle instead of just trying to sell them on a website right off the bat.

As far as the calling itself, I may use my friend. She just graduated college with a degree in marketing and can't find a job. If I give her a % per sale, she could make some coin and I could focus on other things while I build up some clients. I also know that a girl with a nice pleasant voice would convert better than a deep guy's voice.
 
did cold calling most of my sales life. The only advice I offer is that you need to knock on the doors and don't worry about the "no's". It is a numbers games. The more you tell the more you sell!!!
 
Well I can appreciate what you are saying, but keep in mind that there is always competition and it gets worse as time goes by. People do not like to pass up an opportunity if they beleive they can succeed.
 
Great idea but what does she live on before the first couple of sales???? Ready to make an investment?
 
While a nice voice and phone manner are always a plus, there is a LOT of psychology involved in sales. I'd recommend reading some Brian Tracy.

But basically, in telesales you need to interest the prospect very quickly - do a bit of research before you call and ask them a couple of questions - and build trust by providing solutions to problems they may not even realise they have.
 
^ Yep. It also helps to create interest prior to getting on the phone. Some will hang up. For some, the timing is simply wrong. But play the #'s and you will succeed if you can build rapport and are genuine.
 
I do b2b sales full time, not selling SEO or websites though.

With this kind of tech stuff you need to remember to sell them the benefits not the features. Why do they need a site - what is the direct benefit for them as a business person?

If you go in there saying "Hi my names Steve I make great websites do you need one? I can also do SEO this means you get lots of traffic, blah blah..." you are not going to get anywhere.

Lead with a strong benefit like "I helped business X get 10 new customers last month through their new website - is reaching more new customers online something your business could use right now?" or "I just got off the phone with Steve Jobs, owner of Steve's Dildos just down the road from you. He said their sales were up 300% last month thanks to the new website I helped him with. Is that kind of sales growth something you would be interested in?"

If yes then book an appointment in person, selling this kind of thing just over the phone is a big ask... its doable but not efficient.

Ask for a specific date and time for the appointment, so if they respond positively to your opener say something like "Great well we should really talk about this in person, how is next Tuesday at two o'clock for you?" If they can't commit to a time in the next few weeks they aren't serious, don't waste any more time on them just move on to the next one.
 
MyOwnDemon said:
As far as the calling itself, I may use my friend. She just graduated college with a degree in marketing and can't find a job. If I give her a % per sale, she could make some coin and I could focus on other things while I build up some clients. I also know that a girl with a nice pleasant voice would convert better than a deep guy's voice.
Click to expand...

Well, if she's willing to do phone sales, she could find a job easy.

How can you train her if you've never done it?

And exactly what do you have that is more important than obtaining new clients?

You've got some very good advice in this thread from seasoned salesmen,
read it over a few times.


Personally, I would use the "if they don't want it, fuck'em" approach.

First, get a list of businesses. Plan on 25 calls/hour for two hours each day.


It's goes something like this:

"Hi, this is Joe from WebBiz.com, we generate new customers, if we could
send you 10 new customers everyday, would you be interested?"

The goal is NOT to find a new client, but to eliminate the not-interested.
Expect about 24 of 25 to brush you off. You still set up one appointment
per hour.

:D
Bompa
 
Bompa said:
First, get a list of businesses. Plan on 25 calls/hour for two hours each day.
Click to expand...

Actually, I would suggest that as the OP is not experienced in cold calling to make a list of businesses in a location that he cannot service and make maybe 50 calls just to get used to it.

You can make a list of objections that come up: "we don't want to sell anything online", "we already have a website" and work out what to say to overcome them.

It will also help you develop a script that doesn't sound like a script. And when I say a script, it can be just a sentence or two you use to open, and a close which is likely in the OP's case to be the booking of an appointment.

But to be effective, there is too much to cover in this thread - I'd recommend reading this (NOT an affiliate link).
 
Bompa said:
And exactly what do you have that is more important than obtaining new clients?
Click to expand...

Well, right now, I still have a lot of design clients that I deal with on a day to day basis. This is what is currently paying my bills so I can't just push it off to the side. Therefore, it's still a main focus of mine - even though I know I can make so much more money by tapping local markets. She would just be helping me with the calls.

I just want to gradually phase out the old and phase in the new, if that makes sense. I would still need to attend to my current clients.

Anyway, I am really liking all these replies and am getting a ton of solid advice, so thanks. :)
 
Somebody mentioned it earlier, but you can get targeted lists of new businesses from several sources.

Those lists are golden.
 
Lots of good advice in this thread. To contribute: Before every call, RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH! I hate sales people calling me and they have no clue what I do or what I want or what I could use. It's your responsibility to know what their company needs from you. Bring up things like, "I notice your local competitors ___ and ___ don't have websites, yet there are over 12,000 local searches for your product a month. You could reach those customers while your competitors couldn't." instead of crap like, "Well with a website, you could get more customers."

If you don't sound knowledgeable, no one is going to believe you are.
 
Instead of cold calling. I would go to local face to face meetings where small and medium sized businesses get together to discuss marketing and networking. meetup202 would be great for this.

get some business cards made up and start introducing your self and your design services.

you could easily get more then 5-10 clients a month this way and you say you only need 2-3 to live off of.

take a lesson from this guy in this thread :http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/132974-client-didnt-pay-work-website-what-should-i-do.html

and make sure to get a written contract with the client before doing any work for a client and get some good lawyers. To make sure you are covered .

good luck
 
What you might find works better is to offer redesign with a conversion overhaul of local companies with a website and proven traffic, but you know they're not capturing leads. From experience it's much easier. If a business isn't on the web yet they're either idiots, have no money, or you got really, really lucky.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
 
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