How should I pitch this?

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buy a book on cold calling, Even though this sucks it's very effective and you can make a ton of money if done correctly.

Walk and talk, is walking to businesses on a block in a industrial area or one with a dense business population. Takes a lot of time, much more effective than cold calling but you cover less ground and if you have any problems with confidence it's going to be tough.
 


While starting with high-dollar potential clients like real estate and lawyers makes a certain amount of sense, if you're not used to doing business face-to-face and the idea of even picking up the phone gives you the willies, I would say slow down a little and go at it a little more indirectly and/or casually.

Selling like this really is all about comfort and confidence, and until you've had some practice and can both look and talk the part, it will be so obvious you've never done this before. Shyster personal injury lawyers will totally drink your milkshake.

I understand you have money & time pressure to get things off the ground, but I'd suggest targeting small businesses with whom you can get a conversation purely through existing relationships or casual networking. This way you can really ease in to being a salesman and get a certain amount of leeway if you're still rough around the edges, both in terms of presentation and service delivery.

I'm not trying to discourage you at all, you should ttotally go for it! I'm sure you'll eventually be successful either way since you probably have zero competition. Just considering what you've said about hating the idea of cold-calling people, I think you probably need to ease into the direct selling part.
 
I can just imagine cold calling a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn. They can't even understand my order when I'm talking to them face to face. I'd stay away from attorneys at first. I can't even get my lawyer on the phone most of the time.
 
Lawyers are notoriously cheap, that a tough one to market to unless youve got some results already, and they are already intersted and understand the value of what you are offering. Surprisingly competitive landscape online too, look at the PPC for law related keywords..Ive been there
 
your mail piece will be thrown away - it's a waste of money. you will not get a call back. instead invest in presentation materials. i work closely w/ radio sales and it takes persistence. you need to make contacts, you need to build relationships, you need earn trust. that's b2b peer style selling. good luck.
 
For what it's worth, the easiest sales are going to be with people you've already done business with. Having an ongoing client relationship with you places the business owner in the emotional position of owing reciprocity -- you've bought their service, they should buy yours -- or at the very least consider doing so much more seriously than they'd consider it if you weren't their client.

That means you want to approach your doctor, your dentist, your hairdresser, your insurance agent, your landlord, etc, etc.

Good luck!
 
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Use KW tool for your keywords.
Take the month number of searches and whatever your estimate position is, figure out your estimated monthly clicks based on this:
http://www.redcardinal.ie/search-en...08-2006/clickthrough-analysis-of-aol-datatgz/

then you can test how well CTR is on your site for different spots and sell space based on that projected number.

Obviously after a while you'll have real data to work with.


Also, if you don't feel like cold calling, I'm sure you could find some college kid on craigslist willing to call. Pay him a flat fee for each business he signs up. Set up a paypal account so you can get payments and then pay the guy every week or two.

This will allow you to focus on what your good at and keep improving the site and have someone who is comfortable selling to the dirty work...


alexb said:
Can you suggest a good tool for this?
Click to expand...
 
HarveyJ said:
Oh, totally forgot.
Take a brief case with you, load some important looking documents into it (as well as a few pro-forma contracts if you do land a client) and make sure it has enough room for a laptop, because you can't rely on their computer. Also makes you look way more "tech" pulling a laptop from a specially done briefcase.
Click to expand...

*Tagent*
I met the founder of the Raisin' Cane's chicken finger chain a couple months ago and he told me a story about how he and his partner were still in college when they wrote their business plan and started looking for funding. They went to Office Max and bought brief cases and when they went to meetings their plan was the only think in them. They just knew that it looked a hell of a lot better than walking in with a rolled up piece of paper stuck in their back pockets.

Fake it 'til you make it.
 
I'm just starting this with a buddy of mine. We're in two different locations in the country so for now we have two different local neighborhood directory sites built out. We tested the water today with about 15 cold calls, all we came up with were a few names of owners/marketing directors.

Our next approach is to grab a bunch of large express mail envelopes from the post office (free, go to their website and you can order 600, fuckin legit) which we're going to stuff with a personalized cover letter, detailed listing of our service, pricing sheet, and general graphs and charts and bullshit like that. Then we're going to personally walk them into the places and say "we were going to mail this to you but I wanted to personally come in and meet with you to answer any questions you might have"

I'll report back on how well it works, probably going to try and do a few tomorrow.
 
I should add that we're going to continue to cold call simply because it can at least lead to the person's name we're trying to reach. If we get a sale from it, good for us
 
Do not do fax, email or even just printed sales crap.

You need to talk to people, or meet them face to face.

The last time I worked in an office, I ran it. We got a deluge of that crap, we kept the garbage cans next to the fax and mailbox.

My plan to do this involved not going right out for the heavy hitters. Find 5 local businesses, and give them a free 3 month or 6 month listing with the option to renew. Select these companies carefully. They are your portfolio when you go to the heavy hitters.

Another thing is, think about customer retention. Provide some form of metric (outbound click tracking, etc) that you can use to renegotiate new contracts.

Add value. Always add value. People will pay you for things they didn't know they needed, if you can see the value opportunities for them, that they cannot see for themselves.
 
Call or face to face.

The rest just enhance your presence..

You make your money on the phone or in person. Trust me.
 
Well, since this thread has been bumped, Alex, how have you been doing? I'm from Southeastern Wisconsin so I was wondering how the response has been for businesses in the Mid West?
 
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