Did I Just Get Offered a Sales Job?

My cold calling hasn't been nearly 10 or 15 calls a day. I've been pretty busy with work. Not as busy as I'd like, so I MUST start calling at least five clients a day. Must. After all, a couple of new clients have been one-offs (as in, they give me just one assignment and then they're off and may or may not contact me for a long time). One new client has become a steady customer. Another liked our work so much (I have two writers on my team), she's already given us another assignment. Meanwhile, a long-time steady client has grown his business, as well.

But I need more. More, I tell you!

So I had every aim of calling 10 prospects today, yet I called just one.

But spoke with him for about 40 minutes.

Turns out I was talking to the company's sales manager. He was so impressed with a) the fact that I called and b) with my presentation and how I "spoke" that after about 20 minutes of chatting he asked me if I'd like to work for him as an account representative. His is a search engine optimization (SEO) company. One that helps businesses get found on the Web via optimization of a company's website, using social media, PPC, and so on. His clients are all over the country, so most of his sales take place over the phone.

Again, a terrific fella. Someone who is delightful to talk to and who will be delightful to work with. But I won't be selling for him; I'll be writing.

A couple of his points:

• "You knew what the purpose of your call was and you said it."
• "You spoke clearly and slowly" (which I find laughable; if you could hear me speak, you'd know why).
• "You didn't ask a 'yes' or 'no' question. Are you sure you're not in sales?"

Well, I suppose I am in sales. After all, I'm calling companies offering my services. That's sales.

I remember reading a book once about sales. I've used this tip ever since and he noticed it above:

Don't ask "yes" or "no" questions.

This is, in part, what I say when I call a prospect:

My name is Jean. I'm a freelance content/copywriter. I'm hoping to speak with your director of marketing  to see if you have a need for blog posts, website content, squeeze/landing pages copy, e-books, SEO articles, and other content for you and your clients.

Then I go quiet. The person on the other end of the line usually then says something like "just a moment while I connect you," or "You need to speak to Mike and he's not in today. Would you like his voice mail?"

Notice what they don't say: They don't say "no."

Notice what I didn't say: "May I speak to..."

Asking "May I" means they can say just one of two things when they reply: yes or no.  Of course they could say yes but why give them the chance to say no?

So don't ask. State what you want. They'll usually give it to you.

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Don't forget to check out my tally. Client numbers are growing at a nice pace with just three weeks of calling. Again, about half have become steady clients and the others have used me just once. That's why I must market every day.

Day 10) And the New Clients, They Just Keep on Coming!

This will be a short post as I'm swamped with work both personal and professional.

My cold calling this week was, frankly, piss poor. A total of...

...drumroll....

12.

I hang my head in shame.

But, of the two calls I made today (I may make more later), both have become HOT prospects. Both individuals with whom I spoke were happy to speak to me and very encouraging.

In addition, one of my cold calls of last week has become a bona fide client.

In fact, I think he has the chance of becoming one of my all-time favorite clients because he told me he thought the fee for my blog post was...

...wait for it....

Too low!

So I will be charging him more (happily so) and he will (I'm assuming happily so because he said he would) pay it.

Have more work to do and possibly some more cold calls. Just wanted to update The Tally and do a teeny bit of crowing.

Day 7) HOT Prospect List Continues to Grow

Well, Friday and yesterday (Monday) were busts as far as cold calling.

I was just exhausted.

I'm finding that the calling and the following up (even when calling "just" 15 prospects a day) takes up at least one-third if not half of my day.

I mentioned last week that I needed to work on my time management. I think I've come up with a "system." I'm located in Pennsylvania and so I call all East Coast prospects starting at 9 a.m. sharp. I'm usually done by 10:30 or 11 and I then work on current client work until about 2 p.m, when I  call prospects in the Midwest and on the West Coast. That seems to have worked, at least for today.

I've always been typing up my call notes immediately after making the call and continue to do so. Waiting until later in the day or until after all calls have been made means I may forget some important information.

I also send a follow-up e-mail immediately after talking to someone or leaving a voice mail message.

I'm feeling less tired at the end of today than I felt all of last week.

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A cold call from my first day of cold calling is now a prospect. This is a more "interesting" prospect in the company is asking me to take a writing test, unpaid. 

When my contact e-mailed me about the test, I told her I was OK with not being paid for the test, but needed to know if her firm could meet my rates (which I gave in the e-mail). She e-mailed back that my rates were fine. 

Normally, I don't write without being paid. But the company will meet my rates and I'm curious about what a two-hour writing test entails. I'm not worried about doing well, so I'm hopeful I'll have a new client soon!

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Today was a day of 15 calls, plus work for a regular client. Of the 15 calls, I have another three hot prospects. Again, it appears that quality for me is beating quantity. I'll take a look at how many new clients I have at the end of April to see if I can go down to five cold calls a day. I believe I'll call a minimum of five clients every day (as possible) in order to keep momentum up. I know some folks call just once a week once they feel they are established, but I  believe I need to do more than that. We'll see.

I read a blog post last summer (sadly, I don't remember the name of the writer) by a free-lancer who did an informal survey of her readers, the vast majority of whom are free-lance writers or wannabees. Her survey asked if they were busy during the all-too-often deader-than-dead summer months.

Of those surveyed, those who said they stayed busy during the summer also reported that they marketed in some form or another "consistently." As for the whiners -- the ones who kept saying "There's no work" or "No one wants to pay me a decent fee" -- the survey giver found that they didn't market consistently.

So, consistency is key. Key, KEY!

I had a very bad summer business-wise last year. Mostly because of my parents' health issues. My marketing was haphazard and I earned very little.

Lesson learned!

Day 4) 30 Percent Return on Cold Calls!

I made just 10 calls yesterday (Thursday), but of the 10, three have become hot prospects! Therefore, I consider the day a huge success.

In addition, the universe-answers-she-who-hustles prospect of Monday, Day 1, is now a client! (Contract received and signed!)

Tally so far:

• Number of Days Cold Called: 4
• Cold Calls Made: 80
• New Clients Procured as a Direct Result of Cold Calling: 1
• Clients Procured as an In-Direct Result of Cold Calling: 2
• Hot Prospects from Cold Calling: 4*
• Hot Prospects Indirectly from Cold Calling: 0 (moved prospect to client tally).*

*These numbers will go up and down as I prospects become clients.

So, after just four days of cold calling, I have three -- count 'em! -- new clients!

I'm going to have to cut back on the number of cold calls I make each day. I need to make them all at once, without doing anything else. If I don't, they don't get made. But the quality of my calls is improving, so much so that, well: I HAVE THREE HOT PROSPECTS JUST FROM YESTERDAY!

These quality calls take time. So does the follow up: sending samples and links to my website. E-mail correspondence. And so on. Yet I still have to complete work from current clients (which also seems to be increasing...). So 25 calls a day won't be doable, I believe. I'm going to aim for 10-15, depending on how they go, as well as for the amount of client work on my plate.

The main reason I believe the three out of 10 calls yesterday became clients: because as we chat I make it a point to:

1. Ask questions.
2. Find something in common and bring it up. (For example, a prospect's phone number yesterday was in my old home town's area code, so I bring up the connection and go from there: Why did I move? How long have they been there? Have they ever been to such and such place? And isn't traffic just unbearable?)
3. Keep it professional, but not serious. Tease them about something. Compliment something about their website. Commiserate about how busy they must be. 

In other words, make a connection.

So much marketing today is about "relationship building." Twitter, Facebook, blogging. Which is fine. But they can take a damn long time when it comes to building something even remotely resembling something of a "relationship."

But I think many people today are starved for actual, real-time conversation.

Hence why I think cold calling  is a great and quick way to make a connection and speed up the relationship-building process.

Of course, you have to get a sense if the prospect is in anything near a talkative mood. You'll learn to sense this very quickly as you call because as you ask questions, not only will the prospect answer your query, her or she will add on to the conversation.

For example:

Me: Do you ever need landing pages or squeeze pages for your clients' websites?
Prospect: Occasionally.

(sound of crickets).

Conversely:

Me: Do you ever need landing pages or squeeze pages for your clients' websites?
Prospect. Occasionally. In fact, is that something you offer? How long have you been writing landing pages? Could you send me a sample?
Me: I'd be happy to. What's your e-mail address?
Prospect: It's so hard to find a good landing page writer. What type of clients have you written pages for?"

THAT prospect is someone with whom to converse. To josh with. To offer solutions for. Keep 'em talking! You'll soon enough learn when he or she is "talked out" and it's time to wrap up the conversation.

So quality trumps quantity of cold calls in my book. So I'm scaling back: 10-15 calls a day!

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I've considerable client work to perform today and I doubt I'll get many cold calls in. It's also Good Friday and many folks are off today.

 Next post I think I'll write a bit about time management when it comes to cold calling, something I'm finding I need to improve....

Day 3) Cold Call Yesterday; HOT Prospect Today!

First, a confession: I made only 20 cold calls today. Between doing work for current clients and follow up with hot prospects (more on this later), there just wasn't enough time. I'm aiming to make up for it tomorrow (and make 30 calls), but it's going to be a short day as I have a meeting at 3 p.m.

But the big news is that an SEO company I cold called yesterday contacted me today and is now a designated HOT prospect! The firm needs a ton of writing done, including a revamp of its own website, a multi-hour and multi-day (if not multi-week) potential project.

My cold calling "system" goes something like this:

• I get names and phone numbers from websites (names at SEO companies can be somewhat hard to find, but having no name to call specifically doesn't stop me).
• I call the company and ask to speak with the director of marketing or director of search engine marketing. 
• If possible I speak to the person.
• If not, I aim to get the e-mail address of the person (if I don't already have it) and I ask if I could leave a message in the individual's voice mail.
• I leave a message, stating briefly who I am and what I do. 
• I also say I'm going to e-mail the individual a short message with a link to my website.
• I send the e-mail.

What happened was that the person I called/e-mailed yesterday forwarded my e-mail to another person in the company, who then called me this morning. We chatted a good long time, discussing the type of writing my firm offers, his needs, our fees, and potential projects.

Important marketing note: As we were saying our goodbyes he mentioned that he'd get in touch with me in a couple of weeks. I then said "If it's OK with you, if by chance I don't hear from you then, I'll give you around April 17." He said that would be more than fine.

This is a great thing to do, because the client has just "given you permission" to follow up. It also brands you as a professional.

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I've added a Tally page to this blog. I'll update it every day after my calls. Please note that the numbers for Prospects will change as I move companies from the Prospect tally to the Client tally. Check back often!

Day 2) I Got a Gig!

That's right, called a total of 50 folks between yesterday and today and today's call 5 resulted in a trial!

Granted, it's for one article. But the story gets better.

I called SEO companies today. Many are small shops and so in regards to call number 5 I was able to speak to the company's president himself. A long and fruitful conversation in so very many ways. Let's just say we hit if off on the phone!

He said he has two great writers who can bang out great content of 350 words for $5. That's right. 5. Dollars.

We chatted more. A lot more. He asked me to send him my website address right then. He looked at it. Loved the content. We chatted more. He gave me some terrific marketing tips. I truly do mean terrific; I'll probably implement at least one of them.

He asked me about copywriting and e-book writing and editing and my rates (which seemed reasonable to him).

And then. Oh, and THEN...he asked for a "trial" of a 500-word article at my usual rate!

Take THAT $5 for content!

Now, granted, I doubt he'll use me for article writing too much. But he was interested in e-book writing/editing at my standard rate.

We chatted for about an hour. I know I'm going to be in touch with him again. And possibly again and again. A truly delightful individual.

So while it's not a ton of work by any means, cold calling just 30 prospects did land me a new client. One that could well become a good friend, mentor and possible e-book client.

Not bad for two days of cold calling. Not bad at all.

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I mentioned yesterday that I was going to discuss my "worst" cold calling experience. If this is as bad as they can be, cold calling is a walk in the park holding hands with my sweetie while sharing a gelato.

I called an SEO company back in March and spoke with the woman who answered the phone, explaining that I offer free-lance content and copywriting services.

"No, we only hire in-house writers," she said as if with pinky extended while sniffing the air around me and finding me lacking.

Yup. That's the worst.

Most people are at the very least polite. Most will speak with me. More than you would expect are happy to speak with me. And a few are extremely glad to speak with me! It's as if I've made their day.

So, if you're a writer and have been thinking of trying cold calling, there's no excuse not to. It helps alleviate the feeling of being isolated. At worst, you'll learn that there are some people you wouldn't want to meet in person anyway (see sniffing receptionist, above). At best, you'll find jobs quickly. At the very best, you'll find jobs quickly and meet a new mentor.

Can't complain. Can't complain at all.

Day 1 (Or Does the Universe Love a Hustler? Yes, She Does!)

I called 25 prospects today. All of them the public relations/media relations/advancement departments university/colleges in the Philadelphia area.

Why these folks? Because one of my last jobs working for an employer had me working as a public information officer/marketer/recruiter for a university. Or, as Diana Schneidman, states in her e-book on cold calling, "go with what you know." That is, target prospects in the industry of your last position.

I've been working with SEO and Web marketing companies for the past three years, but figured I'd head back "to the fold" for my first heavy cold calling efforts.

Everyone I spoke to -- and I mean everyone -- was pleasant. Exceedingly pleasant. And while I received no jobs today, everyone with whom I spoke asked me to send my information along because, basically, "you  never know."

In fact one woman chatted with me at length. Swamped as she was, her boss pretty much put the kibosh on hiring contractors, preferring that all work be performed with in-house staff. However, she "knows" folks and will be happy to keep my information and pass it along.

As time goes on and I call my  525 prospects this month (25 prospects per day times 21 business days in April), I imagine this will happen at least a few times. In fact, there's a very good chance I'll end up with several clients that I never ever cold called!
 
How can this be? I don't know what to call it, but I hear it's quite common. Let's just dub it "The Universe: She Loves Her the Hustlers."

What this means is that consistent marketing brings results. It's as if the universe sees that you mean business, that you're serious, that you're no dilettante, and that you're hustling your tushy and she rewards you with work!

This has happened to me before and it may have happened to me today. Just before calling Prospect 21 this afternoon, I received a phone call from a referral I'd just called 15 minutes before.

My sister had told me she had given my information to someone she knew and he would be contacting me.

Important marketing note: When someone tells you she's given your info to someone else and the prospect will contact you -- don't wait for the call. Ask for the prospect's contact info and contact the prospect yourself. Why? Because the prospect is busy. The prospect has other priorities. Yes, he really may need your work and he really may call you....in two weeks or a month or maybe never.

But you can call or e-mail and say "So and so told me she gave you my information because you may have some marketing or writing needs. How can I help?"

I'd left a message for the prospect and just 15 minutes later a colleague of his called me wanting more information on my services. We had a long and pleasant conversation and I -- knock on wood -- feel they truly could be come a large-ish customer.

Sure, my sister sent me the referral. But she's sent me referrals before. I've called the referrals before.

But my mojo was weak back then. I wasn't in true hustler mode. Our parents' illnesses were overwhelming. We were losing our mother and we had some major decisions to make about her end-of-life care and our father's care for after she was gone.

But things are different today. I am focused. I am committed! There is no going back! I WILL succeed! (Cue the trumpets.)

The universe has heard me. She believes in me, believes that I mean it this time.

What's that take on the old saying? "All will come to she who hustles while she waits"?

I don't expect to get a client each day that I cold call. I know some days will be bleak. Others will be great, as today was, but it could be days before I receive one job from any of the many prospects I'll be calling. Or from any of their referrals. Or from, well, anyone.

But I do know that consistent cold calls work. Google it. See for yourself. Just give it a try!

Tomorrow, I'll discuss the one "bad" reaction I received from my cold calling efforts (and how, in the scheme of things, it wasn't bad at all!).