The companies are not replying. What do you suggest?

[clophipitu]

I am new to ORM.
Focusing on real estate and financial advisers.
I send my sales package but get no replies.
I am frustrated because I would think they care about ORM. People search reviews of a $50 hotel so why not when spending thousands on investments or homes??

Anyone have any experience with the same matter? How to overcome?

Thank you.

 

[BHopkins]

Are you targeting people in the United States? You might want to pay someone to do a spelling and grammar check on the sales letter. Just a thought if you're not getting any responses, it could be the actual copy.

 

[clophipitu]

Are you targeting people in the United States? You might want to pay someone to do a spelling and grammar check on the sales letter. Just a thought if you're not getting any responses, it could be the actual copy.

I think my spelling, syntax, and diction are fine. I put myself in the shoes of the recipients and customers. Were I to be their customer, I would surely Google their names before handing over any sum of cash. I offer to help but they do not reply. Are they not concerned? Are they all filthy rich and not bothered? I'm so confused....

Thank you.

 

[elfgirl]

Have you reached out to them manually? Maybe contacting them by phone would be a better way to get their attention.

 

[BHopkins]

How many have you contacted?

 

[clophipitu]

How many have you contacted?

About 40. If at least 3-5 had replied I would be satisfied. I tried to sweeten the deal with a "try before you buy" clause where I show them a sample of my work to no avail. Weird....

 

[BHopkins]

3-5 response rate would be 10%. That would be ridiculously high for direct mail. You can typically expect 1-4% depending on how good your list is. Sounds like yours is a cold list (they haven't shown interest yet) so 1% would be what I would expect.

 

[gb]

Have you reached out to them manually? Maybe contacting them by phone would be a better way to get their attention.

Yeah, if you haven't tried giving them a phone call yet definitely do that.

They might think your letters are just junk mail.

 

[InnovativeSEO]

Mail....not going to produce the results you want.

 

[clophipitu]

Gents, thank you for your suggestions.
At the end of the day, what I don't understand is why these companies are not begging for this service? Why does it not have instant appeal? Surely they realize the effects of a bad public online reputation? Surely they want a quick remedy? I know I would were I the subject.

 

[asap1]

Gents, thank you for your suggestions.
At the end of the day, what I don't understand is why these companies are not begging for this service? Why does it not have instant appeal? Surely they realize the effects of a bad public online reputation? Surely they want a quick remedy? I know I would were I the subject.

Who are you contacting? I hope your not going after big companies and popular companies. If you are then you're wasting your time.

You need to go after the medium sized guys and even local business. A big company already has all this taken care of and will surely ignore you.

 

[RTSteam]

Sadly email marketing has become too saturated these days which is why it wouldn't be easy to find a business that would reply. They would usually ignore it or consider it as spam. However, phone marketing still works like a charm. But if you insist in using your strategy, just be patient. It is never easy to get clients so just hang on there.

 

[1337WuLF]

Are you doing email marketing? Or direct mail?

 

[Deleted member 120847]

Make a list of targets, pick up the phone, call everyone, keep doing this until you learn to close a deal.

I built an SEO consultancy without sending a single email or even having a website.

Learn to close a deal.

 

[Alpha.]

At the end of the day, what I don't understand is why these companies are not begging for this service? Why does it not have instant appeal? Surely they realize the effects of a bad public online reputation? Surely they want a quick remedy? I know I would were I the subject.

You've never worked in sales before, have you? Seriously... I've had the CEO of a company with a website that was down for months tell me that they didn't need help and everyone is fine. 99,9% of your potential clients out there have no clue what they need and it's up to you to find the 0.1%!

And IMHO real estate agents and financial advisors are seriously hard to sell to, they sell stuff for a living - why should they buy something off you?

 

[Avid Learner]

Gents, thank you for your suggestions.
At the end of the day, what I don't understand is why these companies are not begging for this service? Why does it not have instant appeal? Surely they realize the effects of a bad public online reputation? Surely they want a quick remedy? I know I would were I the subject.

Your approach and expectations for that approach are wrong. Nothing sells itself.

When was the last time you bought something from a letter you received in the mail, or an email, from somebody you didn't know? When did that happen for anyone you know who received similar?

You didn't answer if it was email or snail mail, nor did you answer if you were doing any follow up calls (you did tell them you would be calling them in your write-up, right?).

Assuming your copy is solid, and you've smartly targeted businesses that have a higher propensity to buy this service, you increase your odds dramatically by making some follow up contact (by phone or in person).

After all, they will want to have some confidence that there is a real person behind this service, and want to get a sense of your "competency" and other soft factors.

 

[clophipitu]

Your approach and expectations for that approach are wrong. Nothing sells itself.

When was the last time you bought something from a letter you received in the mail, or an email, from somebody you didn't know? When did that happen for anyone you know who received similar?

You didn't answer if it was email or snail mail, nor did you answer if you were doing any follow up calls (you did tell them you would be calling them in your write-up, right?).

Assuming your copy is solid, and you've smartly targeted businesses that have a higher propensity to buy this service, you increase your odds dramatically by making some follow up contact (by phone or in person).

After all, they will want to have some confidence that there is a real person behind this service, and want to get a sense of your "competency" and other soft factors.

I send email. I don't understand how someone with a bad reputation can afford to resist my "try before you buy" offer. What have they got to lose?

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

I send email. I don't understand how someone with a bad reputation can afford to resist my "try before you buy" offer. What have they got to lose?

I get all kinds of email that I ignore as does the rest of the world.

A random email just does not cut it in sales... there is a great graphic above that InnovativeSEO posted above that works real well.

Walking into the place of business on a face to face cold call can be effective.

Strong copy in snail mail packaged up properly can get some results.

Random emailing was fine in 2001 but the general population now just ignores, and does not even bother opening up, 99% of it and I'm being real generous with the 99%.

Reboot and Retool and get back at it.

 

[Deleted member 120847]

When you give away a service what do you believe the perceived value to the client to be?

If I sell a service for $100 I know the value needs to be (for me at least) a value of $101, else why would anyone buy it?

not trying to be a dick I am passing on how I started out

 

[clophipitu]

I agree with all the theories proposed here but I'm not understanding why the companies are not freaking out? I focus on realtors and financial advisers. My logic is that before people tie up thousands of their hard earned income, they will do some online research on the agents. Therefore, the agents would want to be squeaky clean or not really care? Sadly, the latter are my findings.

I point out that their would be clients are judging them and probably not wanting to do business with them. This is one month ago and I've done follow ups to no avail. It doesn't seem to phase them.

Any thoughts please?