Do You Cold Call or 7878's Method for ORM?

I had a PM earlier from someone asking if I cold call or do the 7878 method. While I believe both can be successful, I do neither. My goal has always been to get customers to come to me. To that end I do a lot of SEO and marketing to put myself out there where the people who need my services are likely to be.

How about you, do you cold call or use 7878's method of outbound marketing?

Actually, a combination of all 3 you mentioned...

1. 7878 method makes the business owner realize "wow...shit....we have a serious problem here" - so many times they have NO idea. They have no idea people are slamming them online. They aren't aware of all the different review platforms.

2. Calling - (not cold) - after sending the information a quick follow up call. "Did you get the info I sent? What are your thoughts? Do you want to fix this problem?" - speak little and let the potential customer talk...talk...and talk some more. They will often talk so much they convince themselves to move forward with very little selling needed.

3. SEO/Marketing - you have to have an online presence. The majority of people will search for your business online after they get your package. That is why it baffles me when I see ORM threads about people wanting to start to pursue this without a business or without a website and online presence. If you don't have a STRONG online presence how confident is a potential client going to feel in your ability to help them clean up/improve theirs?

Anyway, nice to see this section live. i know you were pushing for it. It was long overdue.

Great post netmoney1.

This is a business in a box if someone is looking for a way to make money online.

When it comes to sales I'm a firm believer in picking up the phone.

That's not to say 7878's method isn't a good one. Far from it - it's a very good one. It's creative, it's ingenious and it's memorable - in fact I bet more dentists now have a set of red dice than any other profession in the US (not from 7878, but from the copiers who couldn't even be bothered targeting a different profession).

I'm not in ORM, but if I were, I would still definitely call clients directly.

I'd do my research, build a list of target clients, work out what my 'hook' is going to be and then get on the phone.

The beauty of speaking to clients directly is you learn something from every call you make (both the good ones and the bad) and can make immediate changes to how you structure your calls, so every call is a little better than the last - you can't do that as quickly, or as cheaply with mail outs.

And a hook for ORM calls would be easy. I guarantee if you ask the client what they thought of the (shitty review/bad press/scathing article) that just appeared online, you will have their undivided attention.

And you'll have more success selling your ORM service to them at the exact moment they are shitting their pants, than on a follow-up call 3 days after your letter arrived.

I found one client. A very, very high-dollar guy. Three year contract with monthly payments and plenty of bonuses. Make more than my day job working five hours a week on this guy's reputation.

Made a deal with him that if he refers me to two paying clients, I'll cut his rate by 25%. He did so within the first few months. I plan on repeating the process.

As I said in my introduction post yesterday: Referrals, referrals, referrals.

upperminds said:

I found one client. A very, very high-dollar guy. Three year contract with monthly payments and plenty of bonuses. Make more than my day job working five hours a week on this guy's reputation.

Made a deal with him that if he refers me to two paying clients, I'll cut his rate by 25%. He did so within the first few months. I plan on repeating the process.

As I said in my introduction post yesterday: Referrals, referrals, referrals.

Click to expand...

Great move man! referrals are the key. I've seen shit works done for long and highpriced just because "my friend told me that..." keep it growing!