Andy Black
Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
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Geniusly done. Rep+Let me give you an example that may hit home a bit better...
You are a business owner who is doing ok getting leads for their business at a rate of 3% - someone approaches you and says they have seen clients have success with getting leads via adwords. You think your current method works ok so it's not worth it to go out and spend money on a new way because your way is working ok. Besides you don't even have the time to talk with him about his way and the types of results he sees. So instead you blow him off and continue on your way. (This essentially just happened)
However what if he said, I know this will work for you, I am going to take $100 of my own money and put it into my adwords account and drive clients to you. He does that and you get 12 leads who turn into 2 paying customers at $300 a month each.
Now you're thinking, sh*t this guy knows what he's doing I better pay him to run these ads for me so I can keep getting leads and paying customers. So you sign up with him
This analogy can easily apply to your own situation....
You are calling gate keepers who are doing ok with their current cleaning company - someone approaches them and says they can do their cleaning better. You think your current method works ok, I mean the DM doesn't complain that much but he does complain about all the calls he gets. So it's not worth it to forward him another salesman to try and sell them something thats not needed. Besides last time someone promised awesome cleaning and they just do an ok job and the time before that the same thing happened so why waste time with another lying cleaning company. The DM doesn't have time to talk with another salesman about this. So instead they blow you off and continue on your way.
Anyway, in sales I would encourage you to see the problem through the eyes of the buyer. If you can think of the issues they have in the buying process and recognize it from their eyes you can better adjust your sales process to show them something they haven't seen before and make it impossible for them to say no.
@Crexty. Re-read that. And work out how @1step is "selling" you (on a different way of thinking).
He's essentially doing "Show, don't tell." He's trying to show you how the people you're approaching are thinking.
Given I'm in the lead gen business, if I was to cold-call anyone it wouldn't be with "Hi, I'm Andy. I generate leads for commercial cleaners. What's the name of the business owner so I can tell him how much better I can do than his current AdWords agency/Yellow Pages/cold calling/cold emailing strategies?"
That's me TELLing them of the value I could add.
I'd rather SHOW them the value I have already added.
"Hi Gatekeeper. Do you clean offices? Do you cover <location>? I have an enquiry of someone looking to get their 190 square foot office cleaned every week. I'm trying to find someone who can speak to them in the next hour. Is this something you can help them with? Would you be able to speak to them within the next hour? Do you know someone who might be?"
Saying that, I don't do the above yet. I've tested it and it worked great, but I get enough inbound leads to keep me busy for the moment.
I also do a lot of this:
This story might help you:
More tips for you:
Try not to take every conversation to PM. You'll get more input and help from people if you keep everything in this thread. It will also help others who are in the same boat. Indeed, we'll all learn, and the rising tide will lift all boats.
Consider not asking people how well they think something will do. We're not your target market. Test it on your target market. You don't need permission to do it. Give yourself permission, do it, and report back?
I appreciate you're trying to keep the thread just on cold-calling, but sometimes the best advice can be to do something different instead. The best advice I heard about monetising with Adsense was to not use Adsense. Lol.
Don't ask people what industry they're in. They won't say, and it's irrelevant in some ways. The take-away from @Vigilante's comment is to not have a target of 100 scatter-gun calls a day, but to consider screening prospects better in the first place, and initiating contact with them with a more personalised and more value added approach. That advice is the gold, not what industry he's in.
I'll happy have a chat with you and do some keyword research etc if we can record it and drop it into the forum to help others.
You're biggest competitor is not your competitors - it's apathy and inertia.
"Show, don't tell" your prospects that it's worth the time and risk to switch cleaning service provider.
Good luck!
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