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Kaladyn

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Sep 21, 2011
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So I moved cities, bought this "Business in a Box" solution, but I can't make calls and build rapport for shit. I barely have any business running experience. Mobile Mavericks is what I picked up. I don't have a car. My experience is "Advertising Sales Agent" "Customer Service" and I'm feeling like a pretty useless set of general skills, and I've tried PPC and MLM.

Right now I'm planning to keep trying to learn cold-call, looking for home-based work, hiring sales people pretending I'm a solid consultant and sending them through the companies rep training program, and look for call center work.

Any input? I'm feeling pretty demotivated right now.
 


Kaladyn said:
Right now I'm planning to keep trying to learn cold-call
Click to expand...

If you don't know how to cold call, and you're using real leads to learn, and you have a limited number of leads, or they cost you money, you're actually LOSING money every time you pick up the phone.

Want to learn how to cold call?

Pick up a phone book, and sit down, and spend 2 hours a day calling people trying to sell them something. Pick a product most people want, or could use, maybe vitamins, or carpet cleaning, or something broad and general. Write out a script, and follow it. If you get a sale, say "hold on while I transfer you to my supervisor" and hang up the phone. Then, write down everything about that call that you can remember, who the caller was, what objections you faced, the rebuttals you used, all of it.

Write down every objection you get, and then come up with a handful of rebuttals for each objection, and test them out to see which one works.

When you can get through 10 calls in a row, and you are NEVER at a loss when you encounter an objection, you're ready to sell something real.

Some people can close naturally, some can't. Everybody can develop it as a skill.

The sale starts when you hear "no" for the first time.

Don't forget that.
 
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^^^

Everything above is really good advice. It takes a ton of practice, even for people you might consider "naturals". Regardless, it's an important skill no matter what you end up doing, so it's worth taking the time to get better at it.

Personally, I'm the exact opposite of the typical sales person. I suck at calling people and charming them and pushing my services/products/whatever on them. I have a terrible sense of timing on the phone, meaning that half the time I'm either interrupting people or leaving awkward pauses in the conversation. Sometimes my mind wanders mid-sentence and I forget what I was talking about. I'm even worse at followup...which sucks because something like half of all sales (supposedly) happen after the 4th call.

Nevertheless, I've been successfully self-employed for years with no shortage of clients. I stopped thinking about it as a sales thing and started thinking about it more as a fact-finding mission. I ask a lot of questions and put some effort into genuinely helping them with their problems - even to the point of recommending other people or services in some cases. Instead of a typical followup, I send people articles, call them to mention changes that would affect them, etc. I'm sure I lose some sales because I rarely ask for the sale...but at the same time, I gain a lot of trust and a TON of referrals because people realize I'm not out to screw them over. I haven't actually had to look for clients in years because I can't even work with all the ones who come my way (without going so far as to start a firm, anyway). I still have to close them, but that's a lot easier when they come to you.

There's definitely more than one way to do sales. You just have to figure out a style that works for you. Do what Ice said and start cold calling until you find something that works well for you. You'll get better pretty quickly.
 
Kaladyn said:
So I moved cities, bought this "Business in a Box" solution, but I can't make calls and build rapport for shit. I barely have any business running experience. Mobile Mavericks is what I picked up. I don't have a car. My experience is "Advertising Sales Agent" "Customer Service" and I'm feeling like a pretty useless set of general skills, and I've tried PPC and MLM.

Right now I'm planning to keep trying to learn cold-call, looking for home-based work, hiring sales people pretending I'm a solid consultant and sending them through the companies rep training program, and look for call center work.

Any input? I'm feeling pretty demotivated right now.
Click to expand...

At this point you should stop trying to learn sales and find someone who can.

If you generally can't build rapport with people, you probably never will.

Some people say you can learn sales - I disagree with that. You have it or you don't.

That said, I suck at it too. I'm terrible at it. I tell people all the time to go to my competitors because they have a better product (i care too much sometimes.)

Find someone who you can partner in, give them a %...no matter where you go you can find people like that.
 
I think there may be an age cut off for doing cold calls, professionally. It's easiest to do this at 18-20, hardest when you see yourself as an established person.
Perhaps, if you hit rock bottom, will have nothing to lose, you may become the world's best cold caller.

I agree you should outsource this, find the best cold caller you can.
 
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