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!