[0:00]What's up, guys? I sold about $1,000 in ad slots today just walking the beach, cold, rainy day, it's fine, whatever. A lot of you guys have been asking for my cold call scripts lately, so I'm just going to kind of put the phone in my pocket and just run through some of the common scenarios that usually happen. I'm just going to kind of role play for you guys, so let's get at it. Guys, I'll be real with you. Cold calling sucks. And it's not for the reasons that you guys might think. It's not necessarily because the business owner is going to tell you to f off or anything like that. Honestly, cold calling sucks because it's almost as much of a numbers game as email. You're going to get on the phone with so many people, and you know who those people will be? 99% of the time, it's a gatekeeper.
[0:46]It's literally somebody that's trained to get you to go away. You're a marketer, you're trying to sell something. They don't want to talk to you because they get so many calls from people like you every single day. So, you're going to deal with that a lot and they're highly trained. It's going to be a receptionist who has to literally deal with this for her full-time position. So, you guys aren't special, and you just have to understand that like it's their job to tell you to f off, okay? So, that's number one. And what you need to understand is they are not your enemy. They might think you're the enemy, but you can't treat them the same way, okay? You have to treat them like they're your friend, like they are your ally. That's the only way you're going to get through them because they know you're trying to sell something. If you say, "Hey, what's up? I'm looking to talk to boss man." Maybe they'll let you through, but 99% of the time, they won't. You just got to make sure that they're going to put in a good word with the boss man when it comes time for boss man to call you back. Just arguing back and forth with the gatekeeper is not going to get you anywhere. If they say, "Oh, boss man's busy in the garage right now, can I take your message?" You shouldn't be replying back, "Well, I just got to say one quick thing. Let me let me talk to him really quick. Why can't I talk to him now?" That's just not going to work. You need to go with their flow. So when a gatekeeper tells you the boss man's not around, accept it and say, "Okay, where's the next best place for me to reach them?" Do they have a personal number? Ask for their personal number. Do they have a personal email? Ask for their personal email. The goal is to hit the boss man from every possible angle that you can. And when you hit the boss man, make sure you let him know that you talked to Sweet Amy, the front desk lady, and that she did a great job telling you to f off. That's a joke, don't tell boss man that she told you to f off, okay? You want to sound like it was a good conversation. But anyways, you want to leave that phone call if you didn't get to talk to the boss man. You want to leave that phone call at least with another way to reach the boss man. The last thing you want is for the receptionist just to take your message because reality is she's probably not going to pass your message on to the boss man. Best case, if you don't end up talking to the receptionist, maybe you called an electrician, it's a one-man show, you're lucky, you get to talk to the boss man right away. But this is usually how I start a phone call when the the director of first impressions, of the receptionist, answers the phone. Ring, ring, ring. Hello? Hey, this is Mitch, I'm looking for the boss man. And you say boss man if you don't know the boss's name. And I say that casually because it sounds like you might actually know the boss man personally when you call them the boss man. I mean, that's just something that I do. You can do it another way. But a lot of people will say, "Hey, I'm looking for who's responsible for marketing in your company." And you will never get through because they just know you're trying to sell something. So, good luck with that. Um, if you do know the boss's name, just say, "Hey, I'm looking for Tim." Hey, this is Mitch, I'm looking for Tim. Don't give your last name, just a first name, so it sounds like you're on the first name basis with the boss man. If you get lucky, they'll let you through right away, all right? That's why cold calling sucks, because most of cold calling is that. But in the few scenarios where you do talk to the boss man, this is how the scenarios usually go. So I'm going to put you in my pocket. Okay, so I'm going to go over three common scenarios in cold calling when you get to actually talk to the big boss. And don't get all mad at me because I didn't mention a particular scenario that you happen to go through. There's literally a million possible scenarios, but these are the three most common that I've dealt with. So the first scenario I'd call the chill guy, and it's basically just when the prospect is immediately interested once you break down all the info for them, they're in. It literally can't get better than this. So this is how it goes. Ring ring. Hello. Hey, Bob. Yes, this is Bob. This is Mitchell. I'm a Miami local and a fellow business owner. Do you have a second? Uh, sure, what's up? Great, listen, I know this might not be for everyone, but I'm putting together a huge community postcard featuring non-competing businesses right here in New York. It's going to 5,000 doors in town, and we're just really trying to split the cost of marketing. Is that something you'd be opposed to joining? I mean, I'm not opposed, but what's the cost? Yeah, so like I said, the goal is to split the cost of advertising among all the businesses, so that you can come across as a community spotlight instead of just junk mail that gets thrown away. So the buy-in is $500, so just a dime per door. That actually sounds reasonable. What do you need from me? And by the way, if you're new here and you're looking to make 5,000 a month from just having conversations like this with local business owners, join our free school community. It comes with a free course attached to it, and we have over 2,000 people in the community. I guarantee if you just follow the course, you'll make thousands of dollars in sales, just like people in our community are doing. The link is in the description if you're interested in joining. All right, so as you can see, that scenario was really awesome. I mean, you've probably had that same scenario over email where there's just a totally chill person that doesn't ask many questions and it's the easiest sale in the world. But that's not what happens every time. So this is scenario number two, which I call the cost skeptic. We all have run into these. So here's how it goes. Ring ring. Hello. Hey, Bob. Yes, this is Bob. Bob, this is Mitchell, a local business owner from York. Do you have a minute? Sure, what's up? I'm coordinating a community spotlight card that'll go out to 5,000 doors here in New York, featuring respected local businesses. Just curious if this is something you may be interested in being a part of. Maybe, what's the cost? We've already spent a ton of our marketing budget this month. Yeah, totally understand. The goal is to split the cost of advertising among all the businesses, so that you come across as a community spotlight rather than just junk mail, and that way it's much cheaper for everybody. So the buy-in is only $500, so it's literally just a dime per door, whereas typically, if you do this yourself, that would be about a dollar per door. Well, yeah, 500 is a pretty big investment for me right now. Yeah, totally understand. 500 is no small chunk of change to send to a stranger on the internet. But before I let you go, let me ask you, what is your typical profit when you sell a new roof to a customer? Uh, usually around 2,000 on a new roof. It depends on the size of the roof. Well, I mean, the typical conversion rate for direct mail is between a half a percent and 2%, which doesn't sound great, but if we just assumed the lower end of that at half a percent, those 5,000 households that it gets sent to, that's 25 warm leads. So, let me ask you a rhetorical question, how much do you think you'd have to spend on Google ads, Facebook ads, or any other lead generation service for 25 qualified leads in your industry? I'm guessing a whole lot more than 500 bucks, right? So, do you think it could be worth a try for this month at least? I mean, when you put it like that, it makes sense. I guess I'll give it a try. What do you need from me? And guys, again, I'm oversimplifying so that you guys can really understand potential objections you might run into. But there's a billion different combinations and conversations that could possibly happen. And then the third one, which I'm sure you guys have run into over the phone or email is the effectiveness skeptic. So it's basically when the prospect doubts that traditional mail can even work in today's digital age. They probably tell you, "Ah, we get all our business from social media." So, here's how it goes. Ring ring. Hello. Hey, Bob. Yes, this is Bob. This is Mitchell. I'm a local business owner in York. Do you have a minute? Sure, what's up? I'm putting together a little community postcard. It's going to be mailed to 5,000 doors in York, featuring a bunch of non-competing businesses. Is this something you'd be potentially interested in? Oh, I'm all good. People just throw their mail away anyway. Last year, I literally paid for a thousand postcards to go out, and we got like two responses. I actually agree with you, Bob, and a lot of the people who join our postcards actually had the same problem. And I throw away my junk mail all the time, so I don't blame you for saying that. But this is very different from junk mail that we both throw away. This is a huge 9x12 postcard, 9x12 inches, the biggest thing people receive in the mail. It features respected local businesses. And Bob, you sell roofs, right? Uh huh. Well, let's be real. Most people won't need a roof from you right now. So yes, that postcard you sent them, obviously they threw it away, and that's why you didn't get many responses. But you know what, Bob, they might really want to save that 15% coupon on a furnace servicing that another business is offering, or the buy a popcorn and get a popcorn free at the local movie theater. So they'll save that card in their home. They may not have wanted a roof right away, but your brand is literally magnetized to their fridge for months now. And let's be real. A new roof is not an impulse buy. You just want brand recognition, am I wrong? I guess that makes sense, but what's the cost to send it to 5,000 doors because I spent like two grand on my postcards last year. Yeah, great question. And because you're splitting the cost with a bunch of non-competing businesses in town, the buy-in is only $500. I can imagine just converting one out of these 5,000 households would make this profitable for you, am I wrong? Yeah, I guess that's true. I'll try it this month, and if it works, if I get any business, I'll think about renewing. So guys, there you have it. There's the three most common scenarios that I usually go through in cold calling. If there's another scenario you could think of that you experience a lot, just drop it in the comments and I'll make another video on it. Thanks.
