alternative to cold calling

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

wbinst

2006-11-06 03:28:21 UTC

Hi there

My wife has started a local business directory. Its a small book which
is delivered to 3000 of the local reasidents every month with some info
about our local area...etc...and she charge advertisers to place ads in
it. (and hopefully make a profit)

The problem she is having is she has been using telemarketing to
contact businsses. She cold calls a couple of hours per day from the
yellow pages and then sets up appointments with the business and then
tries to get them to book an ad.

The numbers are terrible. Something like this.

100 calls.
5 appointments.
1 or 2 booked ads.

So you can see its not only time consuming, its expensive and the real
pain in the but part is that she is constantly having to intrude on
businesses with the cold calls and then pushing the ads on them (she
also discounts a lot to get them to sign up) instead of them wanting
to buy them (which is why everyone hates telemarketers so much).

The whole system is terrible but we cant think of a better one as our
marketing/business knowledge is limited at this time.

Does anyone on here have a better solution to contacting and getting
local businesses to sign up.
Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

Wayne

Wayne Sallee

2006-11-08 02:45:15 UTC

Permalink

How many years has the directory been sent out?
What is the reaction from businesses over the directory
that they get?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Post by wbinst
Hi there
My wife has started a local business directory. Its a small book which
is delivered to 3000 of the local reasidents every month with some info
about our local area...etc...and she charge advertisers to place ads in
it. (and hopefully make a profit)
The problem she is having is she has been using telemarketing to
contact businsses. She cold calls a couple of hours per day from the
yellow pages and then sets up appointments with the business and then
tries to get them to book an ad.
The numbers are terrible. Something like this.
100 calls.
5 appointments.
1 or 2 booked ads.
So you can see its not only time consuming, its expensive and the real
pain in the but part is that she is constantly having to intrude on
businesses with the cold calls and then pushing the ads on them (she
also discounts a lot to get them to sign up) instead of them wanting
to buy them (which is why everyone hates telemarketers so much).
The whole system is terrible but we cant think of a better one as our
marketing/business knowledge is limited at this time.
Does anyone on here have a better solution to contacting and getting
local businesses to sign up.
Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks
Wayne

wbinst

2006-11-09 01:36:58 UTC

Permalink

Hi thanks for replying.

She is still trying to get her first one out and finding it a real
struggle with the cold calling.
Do you have a better way to get businsses to sign up. Hopefully a way
where they contact her rather than trying to constantly pursue people
to place an ad.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Post by Wayne Sallee
How many years has the directory been sent out?
What is the reaction from businesses over the directory
that they get?
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Wayne Sallee

2006-11-09 19:12:29 UTC

Permalink

She could also start with a smaller area, and see how that
goes. When you go to a business and tell them that you are
trying it out first in this small area, that can appeal to
the business, that will be in this directory, and the
competitor down a ways won't be in it. But if you did this
you would want to carefully consider where your target
will be.

Also have you asked people that would be getting the
directory if there is a need for this product, and what
they like, and don't like?

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Post by wbinst
Hi thanks for replying.
She is still trying to get her first one out and finding it a real
struggle with the cold calling.
Do you have a better way to get businsses to sign up. Hopefully a way
where they contact her rather than trying to constantly pursue people
to place an ad.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Post by Wayne Sallee
How many years has the directory been sent out?
What is the reaction from businesses over the directory
that they get?
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Wayne Sallee

2006-11-09 19:12:20 UTC

Permalink

Before doing this did she talk to businesses to see if
there was a need for this service? And what the businesses
wanted, and didn't want?

If not, then she could do that now. That will also make it
easier later to get the sales.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Post by Wayne Sallee
How many years has the directory been sent out?
What is the reaction from businesses over the directory
that they get?
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

John

2006-11-12 19:06:12 UTC

Permalink

From the look of things her telemarketing needs to be directed more

towards surveying her potential clients, something like information
gathering.
Every small business owner struggles with marketing, same way she is
right now and that should be her approach when speaking with people.
And remember the 3 reasons why business, any business decide to do
business with you and that is to Increase sales, reduce cost and stay
out of jail.

Before doing this did she talk to businesses to see if
there was a need for this service? And what the businesses
wanted, and didn't want?
If not, then she could do that now. That will also make it
easier later to get the sales.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Post by Wayne Sallee
How many years has the directory been sent out?
What is the reaction from businesses over the directory
that they get?
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

John

2006-11-12 19:06:03 UTC

Permalink

Hi Wayne:

Reading your letter is just so much like letters I have read from so
many others.
Congrats to your wife to take the courage to pick up the phone and
speak with complete strangers about her business.
So many business could be more successful if they simple took advantage
of picking up the phone and promotointg their business. Problem is,
most don't understand how to do it effectively.

I can already tell it is your approach to promoting your business that
is the problem.

Post by wbinst
The numbers are terrible. Something like this.
100 calls.
5 appointments.
1 or 2 booked ads.

Actually your numbers are pretty much an industry standard. Tells me
that your approach to promoting your business, is pretty much the
standard hype. Talking and selling.
Cold calling is like baking an apple pie. Funny thing about pies, even
the best chefs of the world need to follow a recipe. Same for Cold
Calling. You need to follow the recipe. We need the ingredients, we
need to follow a process of adding the ingredients and then we offer
our own technigue.

Post by wbinst
So you can see its not only time consuming, its expensive and the real
pain in the but part is that she is constantly having to intrude on
businesses with the cold calls and then pushing the ads on them (she
also discounts a lot to get them to sign up) instead of them wanting
to buy them (which is why everyone hates telemarketers so much).

It is expensive. I ask compared to what? For sure every call she makes
is a pain, but not to the person she is calling. The pain is hers
because she feels that every time she calls she is intruding. Thats
Call Reluctance that is causing that pain.

Post by wbinst
The whole system is terrible but we cant think of a better one as our
marketing/business knowledge is limited at this time.

The system is not terrible, just the operator. We all take this
attitude that by picking up the phone and calling a complete stranger
to promote your business as a bad thing.
Another thing, why is it that just because we can speak we think people
should listen. You want to improve your results, give them a reason to
listen to you.
Realize to that not all are going to need what you got, nontheless many
do if it makes sense to them.

Post by wbinst
Does anyone on here have a better solution to contacting and getting
local businesses to sign up.
Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks
Wayne

Wayne Sallee

2006-11-15 05:18:27 UTC

Permalink

Post by John
It is expensive. I ask compared to what? For sure every call she makes
is a pain, but not to the person she is calling. The pain is hers
because she feels that every time she calls she is intruding. Thats
Call Reluctance that is causing that pain.

Yea everyone just *loves* getting telemarketing calls. hehehe

When I get a telemarketing call, I just put the
telemarketer on hold indefinitely. Then the telemarketer
is left on the line wondering if anyone is going to pick up.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets
***@WaynesPets.com

John

2006-11-16 00:13:48 UTC

Permalink

Telemarketing is one of the most effective, inexpensive ways of
reaching new customers and I know it will continue to be for a long
time
That right wayne, I hate a lousy telemarketer calls just as much as the
next guy, especially when it is from an off shore company reading from
a script, but that is not what I am refering to here.
I have been cold calling to consumers and business both for more years
than I care to remember and have put thousands if not millions of
dollars of business together with out ever meeting the person I am
talking with
As a business owner, I am sure you would like to double your business
and the easist way to achieve that is by picking up the phone. Dollar
for dollar there is no better return on your marketing efforts and the
best part it works for all business, even fishy ones
Thanks

Post by Wayne Sallee

Yea everyone just *loves* getting telemarketing calls. hehehe
When I get a telemarketing call, I just put the
telemarketer on hold indefinitely. Then the telemarketer
is left on the line wondering if anyone is going to pick up.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Premier Phone Messages

2006-11-16 17:22:18 UTC

Permalink

My wife and I used to do something very similar in promoting our home
based business. Like you we hated making cold calls. In fact my wife
would not make them and we had to agree at an early stage that I would
look after the marketing and she would look after other aspects of the
business. A real turnaround for me occurred when a business advisor
suggested that I focus on a local area.

Step 1
What I do now whenever we want new leads is to go to a nearby business
park and make cold calls at their office. What is the difference you
ask between this and ringing them? Firstly I speak to whoever is at
the front desk and do not try to reach the real decision makers who are
usually too busy and determined not to deal with casual callers. I
present my business card at the front desk with the line," Hi, My
name is David Falcon, I'm from a local business and I was wondering
if it might be worthwhile sending you some information about the
service we offer ." As soon as I mention sending some information,
the barriers come down because the person no longer feels I am going to
take up their time with a sales pitch. The first thing they ask is
what the service is. In our case, I ask them whether they are already
playing messages to their telephone callers on hold. If they reply
anything other than yes they are, I ask them whether I can send some
information about what we do. They always say yes even if they seem
convinced that their boss will not be interested anyway, because they
are anxious to get rid of me. At that point I ask for a business card
which I nearly always get.

Step 2. My wife enters all of the information from the business card
into our data base and sends a specially designed letter to the person
named on the card. She then flags it for my attention in four or five
days.

Step3. Four or five days later I ring the person concerned. I feel
better about making this phone call because it is not completely cold.
My pitch is usually that I was at their office the other day and had
since sent along a letter of introduction and was it of interest to
them. If they say yes then I offer them an appointment or will
actually give them a quotation over the phone if that is what they
prefer.

We no longer need to do as much of this as we used to, because we have
built up a good client base of subscription clients. This is something
else that I would recommend to you. That you design a package where
for example their advertising will be in your directory a certain
number of times per year, or perhaps with updates a certain number of
times per year. The aim is to get the clients to enter into a two or
three year agreement which often becomes an ongoing one.

The ratio of sales to initial calls improved dramatically when we took
this approach. We are much more confident in doing it and while these
particular clients are not the only source of new sales, we feel that
we have gained a lot of leverage by presenting ourselves to them as the
local experts in our field.

Hope gives you some ideas you can adapt,
David

Wayne Sallee

2006-11-17 04:21:48 UTC

Permalink

Yep that's a better way of doing it.
You are putting more leg work into, and the business will
be more accepting. You are not wasting their time as much.
you are not being as pushy. They can read the info at
their leisure.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Post by Premier Phone Messages
My wife and I used to do something very similar in promoting our home
based business. Like you we hated making cold calls. In fact my wife
would not make them and we had to agree at an early stage that I would
look after the marketing and she would look after other aspects of the
business. A real turnaround for me occurred when a business advisor
suggested that I focus on a local area.
Step 1
What I do now whenever we want new leads is to go to a nearby business
park and make cold calls at their office. What is the difference you
ask between this and ringing them? Firstly I speak to whoever is at
the front desk and do not try to reach the real decision makers who are
usually too busy and determined not to deal with casual callers. I
present my business card at the front desk with the line," Hi, My
name is David Falcon, I'm from a local business and I was wondering
if it might be worthwhile sending you some information about the
service we offer ." As soon as I mention sending some information,
the barriers come down because the person no longer feels I am going to
take up their time with a sales pitch. The first thing they ask is
what the service is. In our case, I ask them whether they are already
playing messages to their telephone callers on hold. If they reply
anything other than yes they are, I ask them whether I can send some
information about what we do. They always say yes even if they seem
convinced that their boss will not be interested anyway, because they
are anxious to get rid of me. At that point I ask for a business card
which I nearly always get.
Step 2. My wife enters all of the information from the business card
into our data base and sends a specially designed letter to the person
named on the card. She then flags it for my attention in four or five
days.
Step3. Four or five days later I ring the person concerned. I feel
better about making this phone call because it is not completely cold.
My pitch is usually that I was at their office the other day and had
since sent along a letter of introduction and was it of interest to
them. If they say yes then I offer them an appointment or will
actually give them a quotation over the phone if that is what they
prefer.
We no longer need to do as much of this as we used to, because we have
built up a good client base of subscription clients. This is something
else that I would recommend to you. That you design a package where
for example their advertising will be in your directory a certain
number of times per year, or perhaps with updates a certain number of
times per year. The aim is to get the clients to enter into a two or
three year agreement which often becomes an ongoing one.
The ratio of sales to initial calls improved dramatically when we took
this approach. We are much more confident in doing it and while these
particular clients are not the only source of new sales, we feel that
we have gained a lot of leverage by presenting ourselves to them as the
local experts in our field.
Hope gives you some ideas you can adapt,
David