Cold-Calling: Does it Work?
Here’s my straight-up advice on cold-calling: if you have a way of generating enough revenue some other way, don’t do it.
Did you get what you came here for? Great! Thanks for visiting.
But, wait … you say you’re not generating enough revenue and need a way to find clients or customers immediately? Then cold-calling just might fit the bill.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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Please Help Us Find Clients!
In a recent SitePoint article, I painted a hypothetical scenario about how to make a living in the web industry. I said if you need to earn $50,000 a year and your average project is $2,000, you must land a minimum of two clients a month … to which one commenter pleaded:
“Really interesting, but please help us find clients!”
That plead reflects a recent study, in which 76 percent of small businesses owners said attracting new customers is their “top concern.” And 69 percent said it’s the #1 challenge they face.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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How to Write an Effective Cold-Call Script
Ring, Ring!
“Good afternoon, Affordable Insurance. May I help you?”
“Hello, this is Joe Schmo from Joe Schmo Consulting Firm. Is this a good time to talk?”
“Yes.”
“With whom may I ask I am speaking?”
“Mike.”
“I am an expert in the web design field. You might have seen some of my work: xyz.com, 123.com, and blahblahblah.com. I could design a site for your business at the lowest rate around. If you are interested, I could give you a free 1-hour consultation.”
Would you say yes?
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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How to Cold-Call
If you’re a freelancer, independent contractor, or own a service business, sooner or later you may find it necessary to make cold calls.
The debate over whether or not cold-calling is an effective way to obtain new customers continues to be debated online. Many of those proclaiming its demise seem to have an agenda—to sell you their particular marketing program.
With no such agenda in mind, here’s my expert advice on cold-calling: it works. The company I’m employed with has thousands of B2B clients, all of whom we’ve obtained through cold-calling and cold-canvassing. For the past five years, I’ve trained hundreds of sales reps and dozens of lead generators to do both.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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Free Webinar: 27.5 Must Ask Questions for Consultative Selling
If you missed the live webinar based on my free guide, 27.5 Must Ask Questions for Consultative Selling, you can watch it here. We had a great time. Check it out!
And don’t forget to check out the other great webinars on FreeWebinarWednesdays, held every Wednesday at 1 pm Eastern.
If you still haven’t got a hold of 27.5 Must Ask Questions for Consultative Selling, just follow me on Twitter and I’ll send you the link.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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How to Fire an Abusive Client
Let’s face it—some people are just bullies. Maybe it’s because none of the other kids on the playground were big enough to stand up to them. Or perhaps their mom and dad took Dr. Spock’s permissive parenting advice to heart. Some people never really grow up. Instead, they learn just enough manners to get by in life … until they can’t get what they want, and resort to grade-school style bullying.
It’s easier to be choosy once you have an established clientèle. But when you’re new and desperate for business, the temptation to take on any client with a pulse is difficult to resist. Once you find yourself in an abusive client relationship, however, you have but one option:fire the client.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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Transactional vs. Consultative Selling: Knowing the Difference Makes All the Difference
Unlike many “natural-born salespeople,” I never had the childhood epiphany of, after selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door, gloriously realizing that I loved to sell things. I never imagined myself in a position that would require selling, much less that I’d be blogging about it and teaching others how to do it.
I learned to sell out of necessity; because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to do what I truly loved—developing websites and helping clients market. Oh, and I wouldn’t make any money … did I mention that?
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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3 More Reasons You’re Going to Lose that Sale
In my last article, I talked about five reasons why you lose a sale. Each of those can be avoided by asking a few simple questions. But these last three reasons are a bit more complex. For starters, what do you do if the prospect refuses to answer your questions?
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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5 Reasons Why You’re About to Lose that Sale
They say there are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. If you’ve ever lost a big sale and wondered, “What happened?” then, in no particular order, here are the top five reasons why.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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How to Sell the “Next Big Thing”
Depending on who’s talking, the hottest item that should be a top marketing priority for businesses in 2012 is … [drumroll, please]
Social media
Mobile marketing
QR codes
Video marketing
Location-based services (LBS) marketing
Did I miss anything?
When I quit my web business in 2005, none of these existed. What will the next five or so years bring? Like traditional advertising, web marketing is becoming more and more fragmented, and businesses are becoming increasingly selective about how they spend their marketing dollars. What’s more, many small business owners regard advertising and marketing as an expensive, rather than an investment in their business. With this mindset, it’s difficult to convince them that “the next big thing” you’re proposing isn’t just another expense that’s going to take more money out of their pocket.
John Tabita
Marketing Evangelist and Blogger at SitePoint.com. Digital Strategy Director at HainesLocalSearch.com. Passionate about helping people and businesses reach their fullest potential and become wildly successful.
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Get Web Design Clients!
If you’re struggling to get clients, then Web Design Clients Galore could make the biggest difference in your web design business this year.
Learn how to get a constant supply of high-paying clients, and all the web design projects you want.
About Me
Thanks for visiting. I’m a Marketing Evangelist, Blogger and Sales Trainer.
I get excited about geek stuff. But I’m also passionate about helping people and companies reach their fullest potential and becoming wildly successful.
That’s why I love helping businesses figure out how to market (especially web marketing) and why I train sales people to be the best they can be at what they do.
