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mfine
10-02-2011, 01:26 AM
Please help me!

My background consists of customer service for several thousand websites and website design. I was also technical support. Previously I worked for other companies and my services were sometimes outsourced to much larger corporations who were website providers for other businesses (complicated relationship, I know, suffice to say, I did a lot of design work and website design and I was a webmaster for a lot of companies). I used to laugh when customers assumed (and lamented) that I was one of possibly dozens of people managing the phones, when it was just me who handled all those thousands of websites all by myself. I couldn't tell them that, of course, but it was always me who answered the phone. Although I was annoyed that I was replacedby one of the companies who was subcontracting, it also made me a little proud because they replaced me with over three dozen people! That's when I realized, one of me is worth three dozen people. Now I want to use my skills to start my own company and work for myself. The problem is that I'm not a salesperson, and I need to learn how to do that if I'm going to profit off my skills instead of making a profit for someone else.

This is my simple idea. My lead list comes from looking at the businesses around me, then looking online to see if they have a website. Many do not, and many of them are poorly done, amateurish. I made a list. It's quite long! In just two hours, I made a list that has over 40 local businesses on it! From that list, I want to talk to the owners personally and show them what I can do for them, show them how I could make their website look through a very quick demo of two or three designs, offering to sell them those or create one from scratch for them. By talking to them personally, I think I can use the skills I gained through all those years as a customer service on business websites. I can ask them why they don't already have a website, is it because they don't believe that they need one? Is it because they don't have the technical expertise? Is it because they got so busy that it fell off the to-do list? Do they believe that the cost would be prohibitively expensive? And from there I believe that I can sell them a website that I design for them. I know that I'm persuasive, based on my experience working for someone else. If I could get my foot in the door and start the dialogue, I believe I could get paying customers.

My question is this, "What is the best way to approach the owners of the businesses on my list? How do I get to the point where I make an appointment with them to show them what I can do for them? What words should I use? What methods would work the best?"

Perhaps I should call and say something like, "I drove by your business the other day and I remembered the name, but when I went home and tried to find your business online, I noticed that you don't have a website, so I couldn't learn anything about what your business has to offer. I design websites and I believe that I can help you solve that problem. Can you spare 15 minutes on Tuesday at 3 PM?" I wrote that generically, of course. If it was a restaurant, for example, I could be more specific and state that I could not read their menu or find their hours, or some other piece of information that would be helpful to know. Of course, that could come off as disingenuous, the "I drove by your business" part, since that part won't necessarily be true. I created the list based on which businesses don't have websites, I didn't just happen to stumble across the fact that they don't have websites.

Surely there's a better sales script I could use, right? Please advise me!

I appreciate all your help. I'm really excited about starting my own business.

nealrm
10-02-2011, 10:01 AM
OK, the more personal the interaction the more likely they will talk with you. A letter is very easy to toss into the trash, a phone call is a little hard and a visit is harder still. However, even the best salesperson will get turned down more times than not.

You may try a less formal approach. Find out who does the marketing for the business on the list. Not only the name but what they look like. Join the local chamber of commerce meeting and see who on the list attends. Start a conversation with them about anything other than your business. Let them ask you about what you do (It's a chamber meeting it will come up). At that point you can explain what you do and ask about their site. Play it by ear as whether to setup a time to meet then or just a call me later in the week.

billbenson
10-02-2011, 01:20 PM
I'd take a different approach. You write web sites. I'd make a short list of your businesses with the top priority how much money a web site from you will generate for them. The second priority is business size. Make a web site for them without telling them. Track clicks and give some kind of a premium for people that went there will come back and give feedback. Get qualified traffic somehow. Adwords, SERPS somehow. When you can show that your website brought them traffic, contact them with your stats and show them ways you can bring them even more business.

Ideally the code you use is transportable to other sites. The first guy might get mad that you did a site that did better than his if he has one. But if you brought him $10K in business in a month he would be stupid not to listen to your pitch. Tell him that with more information about his business and some site tweaking you can bring him even more business. Then say "hire me"!

With one success like this and the word will get around. Rather than you calling them, they will call you. That's what you want. People calling you, not you calling them.

I've never tried anything like this, but it seems like a plausible plan. If you just want to test the idea, you could change your priority list adding sites that would be quick to build to the equation.

Spider
10-02-2011, 06:37 PM
I think Bill's idea is fantastic. I'm a bit worried, though, about creating a website for a company without their knowledge. My first reaction would be, "Well, what the hell did you say about my company? And is it accurate, is it complementary, will it make me look stupid?...." And the attention of the conversation moves away from the direction you want it to go.

But you could create a ficticous company website that is similar to the target company (and which could serve as the sales pitch to several companies in the same industry - thus saving you work.) "Stubles Office Supply" for presenting to Staples Office Supply, for example. Then collect your traffic and clickthru stats for the presentation.

RMMarketing
10-02-2011, 07:23 PM
I do quite a bit of B2B selling (Janitorial/Cleaning Services). I pretty much do it the traditional way:

1. Phone Call (Try to get the decision makers name atleast)
2. Ask If I can send over some information (emailing it is even better since it's FREE)
3. Call a few days later and ask for the appointment

Thats pretty much it. Now, as a business owner, when I get people who cold call me, I like sales people that are quick and to the point. Dont blab on and on as I am always busy. I usually will take your info and look at it when I have a chance. If Im not thinking about what you have to offer then you will get a "No". But, when I am thinking of something you are selling at a later date, I more then likely will call you since you sent me information.

Bottom line, keep getting your information out to as many owners/decision makers as you can. It's all about building a foundation. It might not yield immediate sales but you are branding your company. For example, I got a call on Friday for a possible $4k per month cleaning account. I send out information to this company way back in April so while it didnt yield an immediate return, 6 months later, I could have a sale.

Rich

vangogh
10-03-2011, 11:10 AM
One thing no one's mentioned yet is you should build your own site. If you plan on developing sites for other people you really need one of your own. Maybe you already have a site, but I didn't see it mentioned and I don't see a signature for you here.

As far as approaching people I think your general script is fine. The opening about remembering their name, but not finding info online is good.

You're probably right about the reasons for people not currently having a website. Keep in mind that for those people who don't believe they need one it's not going to be easy to convince them they do. Those people may not be your market even though it seems like they are on the surface. I've found over the years that it's usually not worth the extra effort to first convince people they need a site. It becomes an extra cost of doing business. Perhaps you'll have more luck than me with these people.

Also be wary of telling people who do have sites that their site isn't good. There's a strong possibility they or a close relative designed the site and so while you tell them meaning to be helpful they take it as a kind of insult.

I agree with Neal that the more personal you can be at first the more likely people will listen.

KristineS
10-03-2011, 12:57 PM
Networking is always a good idea. If you want to work locally, join the local Chamber and work all the opportunities it has available. You might also consider contacting the local newspaper, magazines or television stations and asking if they're looking for an expert in online presences for small businesses. Positioning yourself as a local expert might well bring people to you.

Other than that, I think the ideas already suggested are good. It really depends on your comfort level, and you will get more comfortable the more you pitch yourself and your skills.

mfine
10-03-2011, 03:47 PM
While I know that most of you had reservations about the idea of cold calling or dropping by a business because you feel that another method would be better, could you set that aside for just a moment and try to imagine yourself as the customer: Which words do you believe would be the most effective ones that would convince you to give me a few minutes of your time? Please indulge me in this request, even if you don't think it's the best approach.

While I have a long term goal of networking my way to new business, I'm afraid that if I attempted that method to launch my business that I would end up starving to death before I attained my first customer. It sounds so time consuming. I want to interact with at least 10 new potential customers my first week, minimum. If possible, I would like to drive that number up to 40. My goal is to have a new project every single week, and if I am rejected 20 times for every one acceptance, that means I need to pursue 20 new leads every single week. I don't foresee being able to do that by networking, but I'll certainly try. I intend on asking my current friends and family for recommendations and pursuing those.

I have had some success with networking for my last employer. However, I didn't beat around the bush, mainly because I didn't know what I was doing and I have never been trained in sales. I attended some functions, chatted and interacted with some people, and when I heard someone worked for or knew someone who could use a product that we build or could build, I'd ask them if they could introduce us or introduce me to whomever would be in charge of making that decision right away because I thought my product could improve their business, even though we had just met. No one told me no and a lot of people went out of their way to get me to the decision makers. I never used a hard sell on anyone. I don't think I know how to do that. People just seemed to be naturally helpful. Maybe it's because I was simply being completely honest. Who knows? Perhaps I was doing it wrong. I really don't know what is supposed to be the right way to do it.

So far these are the methods suggested:
1. Cold calling for appointment, using RMM Marketing's suggestion
2. The in-person drop by, no previous introduction, which is a method suggested by another web designer
3. Initial email campaign, phone call, appointment, which is a method suggested based upon research that found that people who emailed someone first were more successful at cold calling, even if the person never read the email. It has to do with confidence and feeling like you've been introduced, sort of tricking yourself into being a more effective cold caller.
4. Utilizing recommendations from my own family and friends and business associates, which spider recommended in the other thread about cold calling rejection.
5. Networking via The Chamber of Commerce and other local business associations, using those connections to get appointments after we've gotten to know one another. This is more of a long term strategy, I think.
6. Create a fictional demo website to show how much traffic I can generate to it, to show customers. Unfortunately I can't utilize this suggestion until I can get face to face with a customer, or convince them to visit the site over the phone, which would come after I've done one of the previous things to get an appointment. I like it, though. It's a good idea. I was already planning on creating some demo sites for each customer, show them a "dry cleaning site" if they do dry cleaning for example, but I wasn't actually planning on making it live. Bill's idea could be compelling and convincing, but I would also be concerned that I had wasted all that effort and time and the customer would end up bothered by the fact that I had not consulted them regarding their brand and identity before I put something on the internet representing them. Of course, I can always use my own website as a demonstration website, too.

I appreciate all of your suggestions, and if you have any more suggestions, I would love to hear them. I intend on trying as many of them as I can, including the website idea, to see how effective they are. I'm open to any and all ideas. Who knows where a suggestion could take me? I'll share with you how well they worked for me, too.

I literally am just starting out. As soon as I have a business name, I would like to change my username to it, like everyone else, but I don't have one yet. It's been three days since I decided to start a business , which is when I created my first list of cold leads, so over the weekend I was brainstorming a name, looking at domain names, and considering logo concepts. I have a short list of possibilities already. It is my intention to have a website showcasing some of my designs as well as describing the various services I have experience doing. Since I already have almost everything that I need to start my business, such as Adobe Master Collection CS4, camera and video equipment and software, I think I can get up and running very soon. My next step will be to get my EIN, incorporate, choose and install CRM software, design my business card and order it, buy a domain name, design my website, and design a few examples of my work to demo. I'm hoping that I'll be ready to go in a few weeks. I've even picked out some promo items to emblazen with my logo, when I design it.

Van Gogh, you are so right again. I'll be sure to tiptoe when it comes to critiquing existing websites. A lot of the work that I did was with non-technical people who sometimes chose unattractive website designs, and many of them liked those ugly sites and did not want to change, even though those designs were extremely dated. I suspect that is some sort of fear of change at the root of that behavior, or a fear that change will create additional work, such as needing to learn to do something something new on the computer, which makes them feel uncomfortable. I have worked with many business owners who fall into that category. There are definitely some of those that I would have preferred to not have worked with at all because they can be very difficult, petulant and uncomfortable about technology and cranky because of it, but since I worked for someone else, I could not make that choice. Now I can!

Thank you all for your help! I'll write more later.

billbenson
10-03-2011, 04:11 PM
Van Gogh, you are so right again. I'll be sure to tiptoe when it comes to critiquing existing websites. A lot of the work that I did was with non-technical people who sometimes chose unattractive website designs, and many of them liked those ugly sites and did not want to change, even though those designs were extremely dated. I suspect that is some sort of fear of change at the root of that behavior, or a fear that change will create additional work, such as needing to learn to do something something new on the computer, which makes them feel uncomfortable. I have worked with many business owners who fall into that category. There are definitely some of those that I would have preferred to not have worked with at all because they can be very difficult, petulant and uncomfortable about technology and cranky because of it, but since I worked for someone else, I could not make that choice. Now I can!

One thing you haven't mentioned for either your site or a customers is web marketing. In most cases this is far more important than aesthetics like being outdated or unattractive. That should be the very first part of your pitch. And if you are going face to face with a customer it should be the first thing you mention. You should know everything you can about his site and why its not performing well. He's interested in making money. There are a lot of outdated ugly sites out there that make money or achieve the customers goal.

vangogh
10-03-2011, 04:46 PM
I think people are expressing reservations about cold calling because we know it's probably not going to be as effective as you might hope. Not that you can't get any business from it, but rather there are better ways to generate business.

For example you asked what words would work on me as a customer and I can honestly say none. I have a simple rule that says if you approach me to sell me something the answer is no. As soon as you started talking I'd start working on ending the conversation. If I do have any interest at all I'd ask for a business card or web address, but I wouldn't talk to you for long or agree to anything. The more you kept talking after I requested a card or web address the less likely I would be to ever do business with you.

That's me and not necessarily everyone else, but most people don't want to be interrupted at work with sales pitches. They're busy at work and usually have other things to do when you call. An old boss of mine would put someone like yourself on hold and then never pick up the phone again.

Having said that I think your best bet is to just give someone a call, do your best to make the appointment, and see what happens. Learn what you can from the call and use what you learn for the next call. I think you'll have your best success if you figure out something that works for you. I think your opening about not being able to find a website for the business is good. Most of what I think you'll need to do is listen to what each person you're talking to is saying. Quickly identify those people who aren't interested so you can move on to the next and learn to overcome the objections of those showing some interest.

KristineS
10-03-2011, 04:56 PM
First, start out with what is called an elevator speech. That's two or three sentences that tell the customer what you can do for them and why that matters. It's basically like the core of your pitch. If you only get to say three sentences, what are the most important things you want that potential client to know?

Second, be sensitive. You generally can tell when someone is rushed, not interested, likes straight and to the point answers, or is humoring you. Pick up on the cues, both verbal and body language that are given. What you want to do is reduce the time you spend with people who are clearly not interested to almost nothing. If they're giving you a clear no signal, say thanks and move on. You have nothing to gain by wasting someone's time. By the same token, if someone is interested, you want to be aware enough to allow the information to be presented in a way that works best for them.

Third, If there is evidence of interest, have a kit you can give them. Include not only what you can do, but some information that supports why having a website is useful and what a good website can do for you. Make sure all your points are made simply, but put together a compelling case for why having a site matters beyond the fact that everyone has one.

Fourth, do some rehearsing and come up with a list of potential objections and have your responses in place before you go. You don't want your responses to sound too rehearsed, but make sure you have a general idea of what you'll say if someone brings up a common objection.

Fifth, do try to scare up references and referrals. People like to work with people they can trust, and a reference from a friend or colleague can go a long way.

Hopefully this addresses your original question.

Spider
10-03-2011, 05:46 PM
... try to imagine yourself as the customer: Which words do you believe would be the most effective ones that would convince you to give me a few minutes of your time? ...The words that would appeal to me to spend some time with you are going to sound like you want to hire me (buy my product.) As soon as I realised that continuing the conversation was not going to lead in that direction, I would end the conversation and wish you goodbye. I - and I believe most other business owners - are in buying-mode when we decide to be in buying mode. That means we will move into buying mode before we talk to a salesperson. Any time a stranger approaches us to talk business, that stranger is presumed to be in buying mode because we are in selling mode.

IOW, any time you approach a business owner you will find them in the wrong mode for your purposes. For them to be in buying mode, you have to wait for them to approach you.

If you cannot do that because you would starve, you say, then I must advise you not to start your business yet - you are not ready. You will be ready to start your business when you have sufficient reserve to feed yourself until the methods already suggested have had enough time to produce for you.

If you cannot afford to ride the turtle, don't expect to ride the hare. You know which got to the finish line first, don't you?!

mfine
10-03-2011, 09:22 PM
One thing you haven't mentioned for either your site or a customers is web marketing. In most cases this is far more important than aesthetics like being outdated or unattractive. That should be the very first part of your pitch. And if you are going face to face with a customer it should be the first thing you mention. You should know everything you can about his site and why its not performing well. He's interested in making money. There are a lot of outdated ugly sites out there that make money or achieve the customers goal.

I didn't include it, but I intend to offer web marketing, which I have also done. And you right, some of those unattractive sites were definitely being actively used and updated, and used by the customers, so they served their purpose. That's a great suggestion to get right to the heart of the issue, "Is the site helping your business make more money?"

Van Gogh, I understand that and that's a valid answer. Many people respond like you do.


Having said that I think your best bet is to just give someone a call, do your best to make the appointment, and see what happens. Learn what you can from the call and use what you learn for the next call. I think you'll have your best success if you figure out something that works for you. I think your opening about not being able to find a website for the business is good. Most of what I think you'll need to do is listen to what each person you're talking to is saying. Quickly identify those people who aren't interested so you can move on to the next and learn to overcome the objections of those showing some interest.

I think that's great advice. I went and read some articles from some sales forums on cold calling and qualifying leads. According to the posts I read, cold calling has a 1 out of 25-30 calls success rate. I can accept that. From my experience, reject calls take less than a minute. I read one piece of advice that I thought was excellent. I think that this week I'm going to do a market research technique that was recommended in an article I read to help me develop my sales plan. I'll be happy to share my results.

I also wonder if my success rate wouldn't be higher if I came in person and introduced myself, instead of calling. There's a reason why I chose businesses near me. I wanted to make it clear that I'm a local small business person in the same community. It's so easy to reject someone right off the bat over the phone because it's so impersonal, but I think that when someone looks at you and smiles and introduces themselves, it's much harder to be short with them in person or reject them, and the desire to reject them is lessened, I think. Of course, if they're busy, I'll make a quick exit and return another time, that doesn't need to be said, but I wonder if it would make me stand out. So few people actually go around personally to visit potential customers, I wonder if it could make a big difference. That technique worked for someone else, so I wonder if I should try it. I could carry a tablet with me, to make showing them my work take less of their time (although that has the disadvantage of showing them design on a small screen, something to consider). If I call first and someone hangs up or is rude, then it would be awkward to introduce myself after that, so I wonder if the strategy of calling first would actually disqualify leads that would be more receptive in person. There's no way to know for sure. I can devise a few strategies and try them all at once, keeping track of each type of strategy in my CRM, then track which technique yields the most success.


First, start out with what is called an elevator speech. That's two or three sentences that tell the customer what you can do for them and why that matters. It's basically like the core of your pitch. If you only get to say three sentences, what are the most important things you want that potential client to know?

Good idea. I did some reading on elevator speeches. People say that I'm persuasive, so even though I've never written an elevator speech down, I'm just now realizing that I've always given elevator speeches, they just haven't been formally generated. It would probably be much better if I gave it much more thought.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to do that. The wording will change as I create my brand's identity. I'm still kicking around my ideas. Here's a few goes at it:


Caffienated Marketing Solutions will create a website for you that will advertise your business 24 hours a day, bringing you fresh new business and more robust profits. It never goes to sleep. Our marketing solutions can give your business the jolt it needs, and our SEM solutions can create the buzz that you're looking for.

Blue Skies Web Design is the perfect solution for business owners too busy to manage a complicated website solution. You want an attractive and intuitive site that will draw new customers, which will open up more ways to make your business money. We provide that. And our content management system will make it easy to maintain and update your website. Leave it up to us, Blue Skies Web Design.

Evolve Web Design will make your business more competitive by making your business available when your doors are closed, on your own website. We provide SEO and SEM solutions to ensure that your website is seen. This harsh economic environment requires adapting to thrive, and our compelling content and beautiful designs will make customers select you over your competitors.

I realize that those are pun-tastic, but I read that it should be fun and interesting, so I just went with the puns and imagery.


Second, be sensitive. You generally can tell when someone is rushed, not interested, likes straight and to the point answers, or is humoring you. Pick up on the cues, both verbal and body language that are given. What you want to do is reduce the time you spend with people who are clearly not interested to almost nothing. If they're giving you a clear no signal, say thanks and move on. You have nothing to gain by wasting someone's time. By the same token, if someone is interested, you want to be aware enough to allow the information to be presented in a way that works best for them.

Oh, of course! I would ask, "When would be a better time for me to call or return?" if an owner appeared to be at all in a hurry or harried and I wouldn't bother them. Someone who is in the middle of doing something else won't be listening to me any way and it would be a waste of time.


Third, If there is evidence of interest, have a kit you can give them. Include not only what you can do, but some information that supports why having a website is useful and what a good website can do for you. Make sure all your points are made simply, but put together a compelling case for why having a site matters beyond the fact that everyone has one.

I was hoping that I could express this while qualifying them by asking them about why they don't have a website, or how they feel about their current website. I think there are four basic reasons why someone doesn't have a website, and knowing those answers will also help me with pricing and tell me how I should approach the customer. If the reason is that the customer doesn't think that he needs one, as Vangogh stated earlier, I may not be able to convince him at all, because I'll be trying to get him to purchase something that he doesn't think he needs. Then I'll know that he's not interested at all, so I'll leave him my card and thank him for talking to me. If he says that he wants one but he doesn't have the ability or he's afraid of the cost, I can work with both those problems. If he says that he meant to put one up but ran out of time, that's the best customer I can get, I think. It means that he's already motivated, he doesn't need persuading about why he should go ahead and get one, and he knows that he needs my services.

I hadn't thought of the kit. Do you mean like a brochure? Like a folder with various sheets of information for them? Can you elaborate on the kit idea?


Fourth, do some rehearsing and come up with a list of potential objections and have your responses in place before you go. You don't want your responses to sound too rehearsed, but make sure you have a general idea of what you'll say if someone brings up a common objection.

I'm hoping to discover some of this through market research this week and I've been mulling that over in my head. If you can think of any common objections that I might not have thought of, please don't hesitate to bring them up. I'm sure that as I get more experience, though, the most common objections will become clearer.


Fifth, do try to scare up references and referrals. People like to work with people they can trust, and a reference from a friend or colleague can go a long way.

Oh, I agree. Part of the problem is the "limited" nature of my network. There are already too many people in the same field in it, but it doesn't hurt to ask, right?


Hopefully this addresses your original question.

I really appreciate you taking the time to write all that out.


If you cannot do that because you would starve, you say, then I must advise you not to start your business yet - you are not ready. You will be ready to start your business when you have sufficient reserve to feed yourself until the methods already suggested have had enough time to produce for you.

I respect your opinion, but I disagree. Call me stubborn, but I believe I will succeed and that the best time for me to start is right now.

billbenson
10-03-2011, 09:44 PM
One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is one of the first rules of sales - get the customer talking. You never tell the customer whet he needs. Get him telling you what he wants and then play off of that. The best salesman know when to keep their mouth shut.

vangogh
10-04-2011, 01:15 AM
One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is one of the first rules of sales - get the customer talking.

Good point. Kind of what I was getting at by suggesting listening to the customer. It's better to play off what the customer is saying or asking than pushing too hard on a script. Training yourself with a script is good so you have some answers at the ready if a tough question is thrown at you, but I think it's best to have the conversation be more organic. Let the customer express his or her concerns and try to direct the conversation toward the points you want to make.


I also wonder if my success rate wouldn't be higher if I came in person and introduced myself, instead of calling.

I think it's a good idea. When I started my first business with a partner we walked into some shops in town and struck up conversations with people behind the registers, usually the owner of the store. We directed the conversation toward websites and tried selling ourselves a bit. Neither of us really likes so sales and I can't say we followed through as much as we could or should have, but we did get some talks started with one or two store owners. Had we kept trying I think we could have made some sales, but again it wasn't anything either of us wanted to do and we moved into marketing our business in other ways.

greenoak
10-04-2011, 07:07 AM
i have a brick and mortar... i dont take cold calls... i do read some of the mail.... if someone came in a nd said what they offered and gave me a brochure that would be ok...i would look later....but if they tried to take any time i wouldnt like that....im super busy out there..
.i like talk not email... so a phone number would be nice....also seeing what you did for someone else tells a lot,,,good general info about the cost would be nice too....and rare!! .
there is a big need but lots of overpriced bad jobs out there....bad buzz about what you are offering.and there area an awful LOT OF YOU OUT THERe trying t o sell to businesses..if you could actually see a problem and slightly mention that, it might be good.... the hard thing is that you and the small business owner probably dont speak the same language...
and dont slow the owner out of it....after 10 minutes if we dont have a hint of what you charge it gets pretty useless.... be upfront about your prices.... try and generalize a bit....we can take it...lol...we spend a lot all the time....but if you are talking to someone making under 50$$ and hour and you charge 300 $$ an hour that just might not work...we have to hear some real numbers ...
the good thing is everyone wants a good website......and being local would be good too...also slightly knowing about my business would be good too.... can you focus on one nice big group? and get a little insight before you call on them? like is there a business realm you know about? truckers or dog groomers? that would be different and nice...

Spider
10-04-2011, 09:26 AM
One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is one of the first rules of sales - get the customer talking. You never tell the customer whet he needs. Get him telling you what he wants and then play off of that. The best salesman know when to keep their mouth shut.The basic sales instruction manuals all tell you to sell the benefits and not the features. I always did the opposite, in the line of Bill's advice - getting the customer to talk. In my practical, engineering fashion, I would list the features and then ask the prospect which of those features would benefit his business. Once he starts talking, the prospect is, in fact, selling himself.

But this is stuff for the interview, not a cold call - whether that cold call is on the telephone or in person.

Spider
10-04-2011, 09:29 AM
... I respect your opinion, but I disagree. Call me stubborn, but I believe I will succeed and that the best time for me to start is right now.Then I wish you luck. I hope you prove me wrong.

KristineS
10-04-2011, 11:35 AM
Good idea. I did some reading on elevator speeches. People say that I'm persuasive, so even though I've never written an elevator speech down, I'm just now realizing that I've always given elevator speeches, they just haven't been formally generated. It would probably be much better if I gave it much more thought.

I suppose this is as good a time as any to do that. The wording will change as I create my brand's identity. I'm still kicking around my ideas. Here's a few goes at it:

Caffienated Marketing Solutions will create a website for you that will advertise your business 24 hours a day, bringing you fresh new business and more robust profits. It never goes to sleep. Our marketing solutions can give your business the jolt it needs, and our SEM solutions can create the buzz that you're looking for.

Blue Skies Web Design is the perfect solution for business owners too busy to manage a complicated website solution. You want an attractive and intuitive site that will draw new customers, which will open up more ways to make your business money. We provide that. And our content management system will make it easy to maintain and update your website. Leave it up to us, Blue Skies Web Design.

Evolve Web Design will make your business more competitive by making your business available when your doors are closed, on your own website. We provide SEO and SEM solutions to ensure that your website is seen. This harsh economic environment requires adapting to thrive, and our compelling content and beautiful designs will make customers select you over your competitors.

I realize that those are pun-tastic, but I read that it should be fun and interesting, so I just went with the puns and imagery.

I like the second or third better than the first, but I'm not sure any of them are there yet. I think it's too soon to being SEO or SEM into the discussion, as many people still don't know what SEO or SEM are or mean. I like the bit about making a business more competitive and bringing in more money. I think you've got some good ideas there, you just need to figure out how to combine them. Market research may help you with that. If you can find out what the top worries of small business owners are when it comes to websites, you can address those things in your elevator speech.



I hadn't thought of the kit. Do you mean like a brochure? Like a folder with various sheets of information for them? Can you elaborate on the kit idea?

A kit doesn't have to be elaborate. Although it would be a good thing if the design was nice and cohesive. Mostly I was thinking of a folder, which you could buy at an office supply store, as long as you get a linen look folder and not the cheap shiny ones. On the front would be a label with your company name, logo and information. Inside would be a business card, a sheet of information about your company, including who you've worked for or what you've done in the past, a list of the services you offer, and some information, maybe a page that educates potential customers on the benefits of a website. Really a kit doesn't have to be more than 3 or 4 pages. Just make sure it's well written and looks businesslike and cohesive. You want the most professional appearance you can possibly have.

A brochure might be another option, but those tend to be more run of the mill, and I think they're more easily dismissed. Of course, that's a personal opinion, and I'm sure there are people who would disagree with me.

mfine
10-05-2011, 10:34 PM
Whoa. A lot to think about. I'm going to mull all this over and give a longer reply when I can sit down and put more thought into it.

billbenson
10-05-2011, 11:31 PM
The basic sales instruction manuals all tell you to sell the benefits and not the features. I always did the opposite, in the line of Bill's advice - getting the customer to talk. In my practical, engineering fashion, I would list the features and then ask the prospect which of those features would benefit his business. Once he starts talking, the prospect is, in fact, selling himself.

But this is stuff for the interview, not a cold call - whether that cold call is on the telephone or in person.

Mas opuesto Frederick. yes you sell benefits before features, but you don't sell anything until you know what the customer wants. Don't shove stuff down your prospects throat. You can see that his site is lousy and you could make him money by changing his site. But don't go barginging into the meeting saying " idiot, your site sucks".

The first words out of your mouth for this thread anyway is "is you're website bringing you business"?

Probe don't tell. You start telling a prospect what they need and they will show you the door.

Spider
10-06-2011, 12:05 AM
Absolutely!

mfine
10-06-2011, 01:47 AM
Oh, please don't worry. I'm not going to barge into someone's personal space, stepping right in front of customers that he was helping, bark out a sales script at them nonstop while they look annoyed at me while hi spaying customers look incredulously at me, slap him across the face and tell him that his website is ugly and how he needs to change it if he doesn't want to look like an idiot, then thrust out a brochure and march away, having ruined that relationship with that person forever. Although it's funny to imagine doing that. :D

Honestly, I'm really not that hopeless when it comes to interacting with people in real life. Of course I would never tell a customer that his website looked like crap. That sort of thing would have gotten me fired. I definitely wouldn't do it while representing my own company. Don't worry, I'm a professional.


I appreciate all the tips about it and the time that you've taken to give it to me, but I feel that I must bring up that I don't need quite so much basic guidance regarding how to read people and how I shouldn't say offensive things to them because I do have a lot of experience with working with business owners on their websites. As I said before, I worked in customer service and I did it so successfully that the product I did customer service on launched a massive company. That company was built on our happy customers, which included in part my ability to keep those customers happy with our product. Honestly, you're really describing my job. While my job description included doing a lot of technical tasks, my actual job was being able to keep customers happy, so I had to be able to read them and know how to listen. People tell me all the time that I'm charismatic and persuasive, and I'm not pushy or non-receptive to signals. I'm quite skilled at doing things like asking probing questions to get at the heart of their issue, which takes experience when that person isn't computer savvy (most weren't), understanding their business problems and what they want solved and why (such as "How can I use my website to get more customers"), and knowing what to say to make them happy based upon the clues that they've given me. It's part of the reason why I am confident about my ability to start my own business. I know that I know how to do it. I did everything a website design business owner does except for payroll, paying taxes, and sales (and I did a little bit of that too).

I don't literally have no experience with selling, I just don't having any training in it, but I have sold a few things. Sometimes that did entail telling customers what they needed, or rather, persuading them that they needed things. Take this one time I thought that new customer, the company that bought the product I did support on, could use some upgrades on the product we built and were already doing other upgrades to. This was during the interim while I was still doing support for them because they were putting together their own support and sales center. I told my boss my ideas and he liked them and told me to write a proposal. I didn't know how to do that, so I just made a two page Word document where I wrote down the ideas, put in some charts and a few graphics, included links to articles about how desirable those upgrades are and he priced it at about $100k. When the customer came for a meeting, he brought me in to tell them about it. I just discussed the benefits, talked about the evidence that it was a good idea, and they bought it, no hard sell at all. Now, maybe you don't think that's a lot of money for a big corporation, but they were stingy with their money with us, so I did good and it was evident that they trusted my judgment enough to invest in everything I put into my proposal. I just persuaded them that their customers would want those benefits and that would increase their sales. I sure that selling for my own business won't be that easy, because it doesn't get any easier than that, but I also don't think I'm completely backwards when it comes to sales.

While I have a lot of experience asking customers what they want and what they need from their websites, they almost always called me. It's the reason why in my first post I said that I really only need help with getting that dialogue started. As soon as they start talking, I'm sure that I can sell websites, but having never been trained in sales, I don't know how to get my foot in the door or what are the words that would work to strike up that conversation when so many people have such high sales resistance. I have some ideas about that now and I can refine them using the market research technique I learned about. Thank you for also helping by answering those same questions. I suppose asking all of you these questions also counts as market research, don't you think?

KristineS
10-06-2011, 12:48 PM
It's hard to know what sort of experience a person might have, so a lot of times we start with the basics and then work up. Everyone also has different comfort levels with selling. In your case, you are looking more at your opening gambit, so to speak, and hopefully we've supplied some ideas for that.

And yes, asking all the questions does count as market research.

greenoak
10-06-2011, 01:03 PM
i think a great starter...would be what do you want your website to do?. is it a selling site or a billboard site?..... who is it aimed at
?.and what other sites do you like?..and what were your problems with earlier sites?
questions are so important...its hard to tell where someone is coming from.... and .we really do speak in different languages..AS IN .i thought page rank dealt with where your page ranked..duh
and now.with dh we are buying a car..to me navigation meant the parking itself ability and that the towing package meant towing inusurance..totally wrong.....and he will drop things in like just go to the universal icon for ?????? few of his/our machines have anything obvious on them...like off or on!!!
its bad enough when near and dear use their obscure language when trying to communicate,,....but people selling or trying to should try and get thru to the buyers understanding and try and hear what the buyer is all about...i always figure they came in for something......and if i can just keep them talking i might find out what it is....imho

mfine
10-07-2011, 07:47 PM
It's hard to know what sort of experience a person might have, so a lot of times we start with the basics and then work up. Everyone also has different comfort levels with selling. In your case, you are looking more at your opening gambit, so to speak, and hopefully we've supplied some ideas for that.

And yes, asking all the questions does count as market research.

Oh, I completely understand that you don't know me. I was just beginning to feel like I needed to do a little course correction because I got a funny feeling that the image being painted of me here in this thread was a cross between Steve Urkel and the boss on The Office, and I felt that I should probably clear things up a little. :p

That and I look less like either of them and more like Michelle Yeoh.

Yes, your answers have been very helpful and I appreciate it so much. :)

Ann, I understand exactly what you're talking about. The product I did support on was a content management system specifically designed for people who aren't very computer savvy, so I am practiced at communicating in a way that is understandable to technophobes. I have explained Page Rank to many many people. In fact, I ended up writing some articles on it in non-technical language, to help educate our customers who were unfamiliar with how search engines work, and another one for the better educated skeptics who went to Ivy League schools, the ones who talk in a condescending voice and don't trust you until you provide them with papers that include references to actual university research and you beat them over the head with the evidence that you're better informed on this topic than they are. I've worked will all kinds of personality types, and different people need a different kind of approach. I personally prefer working with people who trust me right off the bat and who like it when I put everything into layman's terms. They're can be really nice to work with. (There is a variation, the cranky technophobe, but they're rarer.)

vangogh
10-10-2011, 11:43 AM
Have you approached any of the business owners yet? I'm curious about how successful you can be.

I do think you'll be approaching a group of people who for the most part won't be too interested. At least that's what I found when I tried to do the same a few years ago. On the other hand you're coming into this much more prepared than I was and probably a lot more enthusiastic that you can be successful. I think if you give a few a try and after each refine your approach some you'll be able to generate some leads and sales. I'm guessing you won't see a high rate of conversion, but I'm also guessing you can see some.