Cold Calling and Business Growth

[EvoVII]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried cold calling their web design services to local and regional businesses? I am located in an area of about 300k people, but it seems that a lot of businesses are way behind the curb with their web presence. I am constantly dealing with people saying that are happy with their current site and provider when the website looks like it was done in 1995 by an 8th grader. I am just frustrated because we offer a higher-level of product than our local competitors (real graphically designed interfaces, db driven content, full custom web apps) and it seems that it is hard to get people to understand the value of what we offer compared to joe schmoe selling FP websites for $500. I guess I am just looking for suggestions on what works and what doesnt work for you guys? Any help is appreciated.

EvoVII

[johntabita]

We've tried cold-calling on 2 occassions. The first time, we got 2 decent jobs, but only after many hundreds of calls were made. On the second attempt, we only landed a single client, one like you described (she thought $500 was a major capital investment to make for a web site). Foolishly, we tried to help her out by offering a template design, but when she got too demanding, we gave her her money back.

Our conclusion is that cold-calling is not worth it. (Granted, we did not use a telemarketing firm that knows how to get past the "gatekeeper". We did it ourselves, not being able to afford the $4000-$8000 these companies charge.) I'd be interested in hearing from others who have had success with this method.

I am just frustrated because we offer a higher-level of product than our local competitors (real graphically designed interfaces, db driven content, full custom web apps) and it seems that it is hard to get people to understand the value of what we offer compared to joe schmoe selling FP websites for $500.

We are in the same boat, so I can relate. Instead of trying to "get people to understand the value of what we offer," we try to get in front of the right type of people, ones that do understand the value. This doesn't seem to happen through cold-calling, but through networking and building relationships based on trust, but it takes time.

Consider joining your local Chamber or Commerce, or a business networking organization such as BNI.

[EvoVII]

Yeah, We have been multi-chamber members for a few years now and have gotten clients that way as well. The hard part is that even in our small area and having higher profile clients, there are still a lot of decision-makers who do not know us or our capabilities. I started using the cold calling just to get in front of people and the response has not been too bad. It is just hard to balance running the business, calling, meeting, and managing the projects as well. Have you tried holding informational seminars or anything along those lines? Thanks for your help.

[johntabita]

Funny you should mention informational seminars, because I've considered that. I'm not afraid of public speaking and have taught classes, so I know I could do it. I even contacted the community services department of my city, but lack of time has prevented me from pursuing it further.

I started using the cold calling just to get in front of people and the response has not been too bad.

I've heard that a combination of cold-calling and direct mail works better than each individually. Just something to consider.

It is just hard to balance running the business, calling, meeting, and managing the projects as well.

It sounds like you could use some help. How big is your team? (I'm assuming by saying "we" that it's not just you by yourself.) We're finding that as we grow, we need more members on the team. We have a part-time project manager we sub-contract to on an "as needed" basis, and just last week we found a good candiate for a salesman.

We have been multi-chamber members for a few years now and have gotten clients that way as well.

Do you consider being involved in multiple chambers is a successful way of getting clients. Is it something you recommend?

[Caryn]

I've tried cold calling before and generated heaps of business. That then generated a whole lot more business through word-of-mouth.

My best combo has been calling people I've attended networking functions with, then sending out some general information about our services.

[billiousness]

It is really the approach that you take with cold calling. Cold calling will always have a low success rate. Luke warm calling like Caryn's is a very good strategy. Once someone knows you or at least knows of you they are more open to listening to you sales speil and have the trust in you that you can actually back up your talk with results.

[EvoVII]

Originally Posted by johntabita

Do you consider being involved in multiple chambers is a successful way of getting clients. Is it something you recommend?

I don't think it hurts. From one of the chambers, I have had little to no referrals but others have been more successful. The cash investment to be a member is low, which helps. It is just like anything else, you get back what you put in. If you are not at the events and networking then you will have little to no success. The only real negative to these chamber events is that they are usually saturated with a lot of insurance agents, investment brokers, real estate agents, and loan officers (aka people who are not ideal candidates, but sometimes can help connect you with others).

Luke-warm cold calling has a higher success rate by far. Tossing around names of higher-profile clients helps build validation of your business (make sure you have their permission though to be a reference). I think the cold call would be more valuable to me if I was not the one doing them because my time is very precious.

As far as mailings go, we have never tried them. What kind of mailings are you talking about; post cards, info packets, or brochures? Do you mail to blind lists or people you have had contact with? I am interested in this method. Thanks!

[M. Johansson]

I'd just like to add that this is a great thread.

[johntabita]

As far as mailings go, we have never tried them. What kind of mailings are you talking about; post cards, info packets, or brochures? Do you mail to blind lists or people you have had contact with? I am interested in this method.

It depends. Printing costs go up from postcards (least expensive) to flyers to brochures (most costly, depending on size). The less quailified the list, the cheaper your mail piece should be. You probably don't want to send an expensive 8-1/2" x 11" 4-page brochure out in a blind mailing. On the other hand, if you have a highly-targeted list from network contacts or one that you've purchased, then a higher-quality informational piece may be more effective.

From what I've read and studied, cold calling has about a 5% return and direct mail has 1%, but combining them yields around 8%. It doesn't matter which order you do it in. You can cold-call, then send a follow-up packet; or you can mail first, then call with, "I'm calling for Mr. So-and-so to follow up with the information I sent him." (This may help get past the gatekeeper.)

I designed a humorous (or so I thought) postcard, designed to get the attention of the recipient, which we planned to follow up with a phone call. Unfortunately, we didn't get to try it. One (now former) partner was not the aggressive salesperson we thought him to be, so many of my ideas fell by the wayside. But now that we have a salesperson, we are starting to revisit these ideas.

Check out these SitePoint articles on direct mail and cold calling.

[Brendon S]

Hello EvoVII

You've been given some solid advice there and I'd like to add my 2 cents worth as well.

I hate cold calling. Hate it with a passion. Couple of reasons why.

1. I hate making those cold calls - the vast majority of the time I'll be rejected.

2. There are far, far better ways to attract clients.

I've shared that exact same frustration that you have - your competition provides a less than quality product. That doesn't work for the person so then, in their eyes, "Web sites are a waste of money."

I'd go as far as to say that the poor quality work of our competitors was (and still is) a major limiting factor for our business growth.

Here's a few things that work for us:

1. billiousness's suggestion about lukewarm calling is spot on. Don't cold call people because they don't know you in any way. Send them something first. Maybe a letter introducing your business saying you are just getting your name around and are available should they need web work. then ring them up 2 weeks later with a non-selling call to "....introduce yourself so they can put a voice to the name."

2. A better technique might be (and is by a long shot for us) to do a review of 20 web sites within the local area. Send off the report with a covering letter saying how you could make the site better.

And here's the killer. You talk of struggling to demonstrate the value of what you offer.

You have to quantify the value you provide!

It's not hard. In fact, it's pretty easy. I'll give you a quick example using what I think may be billiousness area of expertise (his tagline says he's "Studying Googologist" ).

I have a site that sells a lot of a cream for a skin condition. My average sale is a tad under $50. For every 100 visitors we get we make 5 sales. The Overture search suggestion tool says there is in excess of 100,000 searches per month in the major engines for the condition my cream treats.

Let's say Google gets 50,000 of those searches. Let's say the site in the number 1 spot for the various search terms gets a 25% click through rate.

That's 12,500 visitors to the site in 1 month from Google alone. Let's say my 5% conversion holds. That's an extra 625 sales per month (over $30,000 per month).

If billiousness comes top me and says "Brendon, nice site. I see it's number 14 in Google. You'll be getting about 40 visitors a month from that. I'm a Google expert and, with quite a bit of hard work, I'm pretty sure I can get your site into the top 5 of Google. The impact that can have is significant. If we get to number 5 you should make about $5,000 extra in sales per month, etc. And here's how......"

Show the prospect how much money they'll make by going with you and they'll go with you every time.

It is a lot easier once you have a few clients of course - then you can show testimonials and really back up your quantified claims.

That's just a coupole of quick points on cold calling and why I hate doing it.

One quick story before I go on a recent campaign we did. Our strategy was a 4 piece direct mail campaign to 52 businesses in a niche market. Like johntabita we developed what we thought would be a humourous mailing - a back to front mailing.

Piece 1 (Day 1): Congratulations on the success of the new site - the sales have been great.

Piece 2 (Day 2): Thanks for your business - the site is now launched.

Piece 3 (Day 3): Thanks for your time at the meeting today to pick us as your web designer.

Piece 4 (Day 4): Introduction letter explaining that we do things differently and that we can grab people attention.

Day 5: A follow up phone call from our Marketing Manager.

The result was interesting. We had a few phone calls on the 2nd day from people wondering what was going on. Some people were rather irate. We stopped the Day 3 mailing going out. Instead we sent a letter explaining what we were trying to do and that we had stopped the promotion.

Day 4 we followed everyone up with a phone call explaining it all again.

Then we moved to mop up the damage a little better.

We made 4 sales from that promotion. Some people thought we had deliberately stopped our own promotion just to attract attention.

The bottom line is that it work like a charm (after it looked like being a complete and utter disaster).

I wouldn't recommend it, but offer it as an example of something that goes horribly wrong can still be okay. After all, any publicity is good publicity.

And doing something sure beats doing nothing.

If you want to check out the full details of the mail out, I've put the actual letters used (and not used) in a pdf file: www.tailored.com.au/maceg.PDF - it has most of the details.

Hope it is of interest.

Cheers.

[M. Johansson]

The SitePoint Chronicles
Entry #252 - 2003-06-25
Once every few weeks, a thread of a specific type is by chance posted in the business forums. Then, by as an act of divine intervention, a man logs onto the forums, and makes one post, and one post only. The post is of such quality and value that every other member stands in awe of it, and they all have to go comb their hairdos into place again after reading it. His name is Brendon Sinclair, and he is currently writing a book for SitePoint. I shiver in anticipation.

[beley]

Cold-call selling is actually one of the best ways to attract new business... it just takes a real salesperson to do it. Most people will get very discouraged when getting constant "no's" from potential customers... and will give up before getting a "yes." It's true, it takes a lot of cold calls to even get a meeting, much less a job. However, if done right, you can increase your odds.

Check out Successful Cold Call Selling by Lee Boyan
It's a good book on cold call selling, I own it and highly reccomend it.

Note: You can get the book used from $3.00 - not a bad investment!

[johntabita]

Brendon,

It's great to hear from you again. Probably 80 percent of what I know about the business side of things has come from reading your posts and articles.

I understand that demonstrating ROI is an important selling point, but how do you do this when your client is not selling a product online and there is no direct revenue stream from his web site?

In my thinking, this type of web site would be another tool in their marketing arsenal, just as a business card is. Now, nobody ever asks what the ROI on business cards are; but nobody would dream of doing business without one.

I can tell the client that people expect you to have a web site just like they expect you to have a business card, but I can't attach any hard number to it. So how do you quantify the value in this case?

[beley]

Well, ROI is a difficult subject when just talking about a static website. If you get into E-Commerce it's a different story.

I have always used the argument that it reduces costs as opposed to making money. The thing is... if you have your web address on your business card then 90% of people (and you can test with a survey if you like hard data) will visit the website before calling and asking questions.

This can reduce customer service costs dramatically, and also give more information than could ever be available over the phone or even through a fax. You can have color diagrams and pictures, videos, even 3D diagrams available on the website with detailed product / service information. If you had to send a salesman out for a 1 on 1 interview with printed brochure materials for every inquiry, you can see how expensive that can become. After you add up the printing costs (easily more than web site development) and the cost of the salesperson's salary, you've easily got a good argument.

All in all, you have to believe it though... if you don't think they can benefit from having a website, you'll have a hard time convincing them they do need one. (Unless of course, you have no ethics or conscience)

[EvoVII]

Wow! I am AWED by the greatness of a lot of these posts. All of the information provided has been very very very helpful. It has given me some priceless advice as well as some inspiration. I am so glad that I found this site and posted that message. Brendon, very clever idea and great advice. John, you asked a lot of the questions that I meant to but didnt have the time, thanks! Everyone else who helped, thanks SOOO much! I am trying a combination of approaches at once to see what happens. I will be sure to post my results to all in hopes that they may assist someone else.

If anyone else has some ideas, post them.

This thread should never die because I feel we are never going to stop looking for ways to find new business. At least Im not.

[Ravedesigns]

Hey guys - great thread going here, and it's great to see you around again Brendon (hey-when's that SP book coming out?)

EvoVII - I'm curious to know how you're presenting yourself when you call these people - how do you even begin to approach them? As someone who's cold called before - and who gets plenty of calls in the office where I work now - I have to tell you that they just plain suck, and I think there are better more productive ways to get new business.

I've always believed that you have to give before you can get, so let me ask you - what are you offering to your potential clients to encourage them to do business with you? They way I see it, it's all about relationships - and cold calling someone and asking for their business is like me calling a really cute girl and asking her to marry me - it's just not gonna happen! Not like that anyhow.

Alright - courting a client is a bit different from courting a woman, but the underlying principle is the same. If you plan to be in business for the long haul (as opposed to just looking to make a quick buck) you need to take your time to get new prospects to trust you, and I think one of the best ways is to offer them something for free in order so you can at least get their contact information to follow up with them again in the future.

For example, I'm about to complete a local business directory where I'll offer free listings to businesses in my county (with more info than the yellow pages would offer) for the primary purpose of establishing a relationship with them and showing them the benefits of using my web design services. My initial plan is to mail postcards out a few hundred at a time, and also stop in to visit local business owners and offer them a free listing on my site.

Other things that would work well would be a free report, say something like "Ten secrets to increasing your business with a website of your own" that you could offer as an ebook, or you could also print copies and mail them out too. Postcards would also be an excellent way to get the news out about a free giveaway too.

How about a free trial offer of some sort? Come to think of it, I just said yes to a trial newsletter subscription this morning because they promised I could review two trial issues for free and could cancel at anytime if I wasn't happy with them.

Conducting a seminar like mentioned earlier is also a good idea. I just attened one sponsored by a local Chamber of Commerce, and while I didn't gain much from it myself, there were about two dozen people there and I'm sure at least some leads were generated for the few people who spoke.

Above all else - whether you call or write or visit these potential clients - please don't talk all about yourself and your qualifications. You need to let them know the most important BENEFITS about doing business with you as soon as possible! Nothing puts me asleep faster than getting a letter or a phone call that goes something like..."We're so and so, your total solutions provider, and we've been in business for 40 years offering our service to the area and our mission is to ensure your compete satisfaction blah blah blah blah blah..." Hit them with your biggest guns first and ask "Mr. so and so, if I can show you how to save money and increase your business (insert your biggest benefits here) with a website of your own, would you take 5 minutes to talk with me today, or would tomorrow be better for you?"

Well - time to go before I really start rambling, but thanks for starting a good post and thanks to all who have posted. Have a great weekend!

Steve

P.S. If you're serious about finding great ways to market your business, make an investment in the following books. I've read them all and they're really excellent resources!

Permission Marketing by Seth godin and available anywhere

Make Your Site Sell (or anything) by Ken Envoy available at http://myss.sitesell.com

The Marketing Bible available at http://www.themarketingbible.com

Give to Get Marketing available at http://www.givetogetmarketing.com/

[beley]

Great post! I have never been working on a SP book... you may be thinking of someone else??

[Ravedesigns]

lol - Sorry Brandon, I was referring to Brendon S. who developed the "freelance starters kit" http://www.sitepoint.com/books/freelance1/download.php and I believe is working on a book as well.

[M. Johansson]

Originally Posted by Ravedesigns

lol - Sorry Brandon, I was referring to Brendon S. who developed the "freelance starters kit" http://www.sitepoint.com/books/freelance1/download.php and I believe is working on a book as well.

He has actually finished writing it, according to his blog. I'm expecting it to pop up in the books section any day now.

[Ravedesigns]

Whoa - Brendon's got a blog?? Could you please share the address with me? Pretty please?

[M. Johansson]

Originally Posted by Ravedesigns

Whoa - Brendon's got a blog?? Could you please share the address with me? Pretty please?

http://www.tailored.com.au/

[beley]

He he he... yeah, guess I should've looked at the name a little closer, eh

[Ravedesigns]

Originally Posted by M. Johansson

http://www.tailored.com.au/

Thanks Mattias - I've been to the site before but must have missed the announcement when he started his blog.

Steve

[hurtdidit]

Great post, Rave! I absolutely LOVE threads like this! Even if I don't glean any new ideas (which is rare), it's still fun to learn what other freelancers have tried, and what level of success they have discovered.

I too am looking forward to Brendon's book.. Have been for months and months now, in fact!

[sharky]

This is one of the best threads I have ever read on this board.

From a rare poster, Thank you!

:-)

Does anyone else have experience with different marketing methods for their web design/promotion business?

I've gone through 4 sales people.. each have worked fo me at least 3 months without producing 1 sale.. or even a solid lead where I thought we were going to get the job.

I've relied on word of mouth business for too long now...
Times are tough lately with the economy, I need to get the word out about my business!

:-)

Any advice?