Not sure how I feel after 25 letters

[silenthatter]

So last week I decided to go ahead and try 7878's method. I sent out 25 letters. Each included the letter itself, screenshots of the reviews (written over with a red pen), and a pair of dice.

It's been a week and no phone calls. So I decided to follow-up. Many were simply not interested or their managers weren't there. Others would state that they would relay a message over to their decision-makers. They'd ask me what company I was calling from and because I'm simply a college freshman I stated I work independently.

The first thing I said over the phone during my follow-up:

"Hi my name is _____. I'm calling regarding a package I sent in last week. Is there any way I can speak with (name of person I found on Manta) or a higher-up?"

Do any of you guys still use this method? If you get no phone-calls, what is your approach to the follow-up (what do you say over the phone, etc.)? What works for you guys?

I'm not giving up, just looking at other methods that are more cost-effective. Especially, since it cost me $60 in stamps. Also, yes I do live in a large city in the U.S.

Anyone else in the same boat as me?

 

[tooslim]

in 7878's thread ive noticed a lot of people say your going to need a minimum of 40 sent out to see any response. Even 40 may not be enough. Keep at it though. Its obviously a proven method, just comes down to a numbers game

 

[Wilson Grant Fisk]

So last week I decided to go ahead and try 7878's method. I sent out 25 letters. Each included the letter itself, screenshots of the reviews (written over with a red pen), and a pair of dice.

It's been a week and no phone calls. So I decided to follow-up. Many were simply not interested or their managers weren't there. Others would state that they would relay a message over to their decision-makers. They'd ask me what company I was calling from and because I'm simply a college freshman I stated I work independently.

The first thing I said over the phone during my follow-up:

"Hi my name is _____. I'm calling regarding a package I sent in last week. Is there any way I can speak with (name of person I found on Manta) or a higher-up?"

Do any of you guys still use this method? If you get no phone-calls, what is your approach to the follow-up (what do you say over the phone, etc.)? What works for you guys?

I'm not giving up, just looking at other methods that are more cost-effective. Especially, since it cost me $60 in stamps. Also, yes I do live in a large city in the U.S.

Anyone else in the same boat as me?

It cost $60 to send 25 letters? Wow.
I think you should be sending out a minimum of 25 a week to really give it a shot.
Also, even if you don't have a company, you can use a Trading As/Doing Business As/Operating As name.
Work on some personal branding.

 

[Execute]

Just keep going, it is a numbers game, keep sending them out and perfecting your pitch, then when you get a call, go all in and aim for getting great reviews. Word of mouth is very powerful locally.

 

[netmoney1]

1. You need to send out many more than 25...
2. You copied the method 100% - carbon copy - it's been done a million times. Businesses have seen it over and over.
3. No company = no business is going to take you seriously if you ever get in touch with them. Can you blame them???
4. You need to use the 7878 method as a base and come up with your own unique way of doing it - depending on your market and what kind of businesses you are targeting.
5. Thinking you can just copy something and the $$ will just flow in is insane.

Before you send any other mail you should establish a business, get a website set up and really lay out a plan. Without this you will be wasting your time and money.

 

[nameless7]

If you want to get some feedback you definitely should send more than 25 letters. And as far as I know 7878 method is a bad idea to capture the attention of big companies or corporations

 

[Adrian79]

Like netmoney1 said you definitely need to put your own spin on it but at the same time don't get discouraged.

I guess from my perspective the biggest negative for you is the cost of the letters. You could forgo that and just go to cold calling. Call and try to get the decision maker on the phone (obviously still do the prep work so you can email the negative reviews) but if you can't try to obtain their email address and shoot them an email. I'd recommend getting the gate keeper/secretaries name and putting it in the subject line of the email, "Jenny Smith gave me your information". This subject line sort of forces the person to open it and you can give them some information. I'd keep the information brief in the first email and try to schedule a call based off of that rather than give them everything up front. The goal of the email should be to force a call. 99.9% of business owners aren't going to say 'Ok, sounds good I'll just start sending you $500 a month" because of an email you sent them.

As far as the cold calling goes it sucks BUT the more you do it the better you'll get at it. Try to prepare yourself each day and EXPECT to hear NO. Tell yourself you're going to make 'x' (example 50) calls today and once you here 50 no's you're done for the day. It can become a game of sorts to try to get to 50 no's. SMILE on the phone. If you can get to the point where you make 50 calls a day and even if you suck and your conversion rate is a HALF of 1% you'd acquire 5 clients in a month (20 working days). If they're each paying you $500 that's $2,500 and that's a residual income. If you were able to repeat that for an entire year you're looking at $30k a month residually. Maybe that's unrealistic based on conversions and/or the monthly fee but if you can even hit 25% of that number $7,500 a month in residual income isn't too shabby.

 

[silenthatter]

1. You need to send out many more than 25...
2. You copied the method 100% - carbon copy - it's been done a million times. Businesses have seen it over and over.
3. No company = no business is going to take you seriously if you ever get in touch with them. Can you blame them???
4. You need to use the 7878 method as a base and come up with your own unique way of doing it - depending on your market and what kind of businesses you are targeting.
5. Thinking you can just copy something and the $$ will just flow in is insane.

Before you send any other mail you should establish a business, get a website set up and really lay out a plan. Without this you will be wasting your time and money.

Netmoney1,
After reading some of the people's responses on here, I do understand that by simply copying the 7878 method doesn't do one justice. So I thank you for your input. It's interesting because many people I used to find on craigslist, that wanted website work done, didn't want a company calling them and preferred a one-man team. However, I guess these preferences vary from person to person and business to business. I do agree that it would look a lot more professional if I had everything set up.

 

[silenthatter]

Like netmoney1 said you definitely need to put your own spin on it but at the same time don't get discouraged.

I guess from my perspective the biggest negative for you is the cost of the letters. You could forgo that and just go to cold calling. Call and try to get the decision maker on the phone (obviously still do the prep work so you can email the negative reviews) but if you can't try to obtain their email address and shoot them an email. I'd recommend getting the gate keeper/secretaries name and putting it in the subject line of the email, "Jenny Smith gave me your information". This subject line sort of forces the person to open it and you can give them some information. I'd keep the information brief in the first email and try to schedule a call based off of that rather than give them everything up front. The goal of the email should be to force a call. 99.9% of business owners aren't going to say 'Ok, sounds good I'll just start sending you $500 a month" because of an email you sent them.

As far as the cold calling goes it sucks BUT the more you do it the better you'll get at it. Try to prepare yourself each day and EXPECT to hear NO. Tell yourself you're going to make 'x' (example 50) calls today and once you here 50 no's you're done for the day. It can become a game of sorts to try to get to 50 no's. SMILE on the phone. If you can get to the point where you make 50 calls a day and even if you suck and your conversion rate is a HALF of 1% you'd acquire 5 clients in a month (20 working days). If they're each paying you $500 that's $2,500 and that's a residual income. If you were able to repeat that for an entire year you're looking at $30k a month residually. Maybe that's unrealistic based on conversions and/or the monthly fee but if you can even hit 25% of that number $7,500 a month in residual income isn't too shabby.

Very motivating response, thank you so much Adrian79! I definitely want to see if there is any other way I can somehow reduce the price of mailing, but I find that very difficult at the moment. I could possibly go and deliver a few of the letters in person, while mail out the ones that are a bit farther from my location.

To get the gate keeper's name, should I initially call the business, ask for the operator's name, and ask if I can have a good email for a general manager or owner to which I can send some information regarding their business to? I do like your method of putting the name of the employee in the subject, very clever! haha

I'll be honest, its very tough to keep a smile or be positive, when you get 25 "no's" in one sitting. Immediately after, I went to go blow steam with some outdoor basketball. But I guess, it really all does come down to numbers and how much of an opportunity you give yourself.

 

[Adrian79]

Very motivating response, thank you so much Adrian79! I definitely want to see if there is any other way I can somehow reduce the price of mailing, but I find that very difficult at the moment. I could possibly go and deliver a few of the letters in person, while mail out the ones that are a bit farther from my location.

To get the gate keeper's name, should I initially call the business, ask for the operator's name, and ask if I can have a good email for a general manager or owner to which I can send some information regarding their business to? I do like your method of putting the name of the employee in the subject, very clever! haha

I'll be honest, its very tough to keep a smile or be positive, when you get 25 "no's" in one sitting. Immediately after, I went to go blow steam with some outdoor basketball. But I guess, it really all does come down to numbers and how much of an opportunity you give yourself.

I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. A lot of it is just going to be trial and error. You're obviously intelligent (I mean you joined BHW) but sometimes that's a negative. Intelligent people tend of analyze the heck out of things looking for the perfect solution before starting when the only real way to find it out is to try and fail multiple times... I know this because I've been guilty and I'm still guilty of it from time to time.

If you have some free time I'd recommend listening to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soWwY1eRcH0

It's really long but it's a GOLD MINE of information on selling.

 

[Reyone]

Rule number one when trying to get passed a gatekeeper:

"Hi my name is _____. I'm calling regarding a package I sent in last week. Is there any way I can speak with (name of person I found on Manta) or a higher-up?"

Don't do this, instead, do this (lets imagine the director's name is Joe Montana):

"Hello is Joe there?" Dot
-Who's this
"He is expecting my call"

Done, talk to Joe, heat the lead and set a meeting to close it.

 

[IMTopgun]

In order for local businesses to take you seriously you first may take yourself seriously. Set up your business, even if just operating under your own name, and a website. You don't need an office. Print some business caords. Attend local chamber of commerce meet and greets so people start to recognize you. Find a business owner that is respected and offer to show him what you can do for him before expecting payment. He then becomes your reference

 

[freddyflint]

In order for local businesses to take you seriously you first may take yourself seriously. Set up your business, even if just operating under your own name, and a website. You don't need an office. Print some business caords. Attend local chamber of commerce meet and greets so people start to recognize you. Find a business owner that is respected and offer to show him what you can do for him before expecting payment. He then becomes your reference

Yeah, make yourself believable and get some good references for your website. That`s the way.