Need some sales ideas

[justy540]

I do web development, I have sub-contractors I use for design, flash, and when there gets to be more coding than I can do alone. Right now that isn't a problem. Things have been slow, real slow, for a month or so now. I'm about to wrap up my 2nd to last project with nothing locked down. I have a lot of deals that could pop off any minute, but I've followed up on those and done the most I can do witout being annoying or worse, desperate.

I've never done cold-calling, most of my business has come to me through networking or word of mouth. I'm thinking about doing some cold calling now. I just built a menu builder to sell alongside restaurant websites that's essentially a CMS totally geared toward menus for restaurants. I'm working on some stylesheets for different layouts / presentations off of the same generated HTML and should be ready to pitch it in a day or two.

Does anyone have advice for how I might best pitch this on a cold call (or visit)? It's not something I'm entirely comfortable with, but there are a lot of NICE restaurants here in Chicago with TERRIBLE websites, and that has to be a market. Any advice on how I might get this out would be great. I'm already looking into getting an Expo table at the National Restaurant Association's Annual Expo that's being held here in May, but I need to close some deals NOW.

Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers,
Justin

[Usman Sheikh]

I have a couple of friends who use the same model as you do. When their business is a bit slow they usually create mock website's for prospective clients. Let's take the example of some of the eating places you mentioned.

If I am the restaurant owner and I may already know my website sucks, I would ask how would improving it help me. Why should I spent $X? A way around this could be...tell him that you will integrate a newsletter service into his current website and design newsletter to be sent out on a monthly basis to his list (You could help him build lists as well). Once you have your foot in the door you can then sell him the idea of revamping the website as a whole.

Other ideas could be helping the owner to setup a blog. Something where he would see some sort of tangible return on his investment. With the economy the way it is, sales will become tougher. Value will need to be justified. Start thinking in this manner if you have any other questions let me know.

[RLorenzen]

Choose an industry in your local area that you want to focus on (for now)-restaurants, construction, car rental, whatever. Learn the industry- how they market themselves, who their target market is, how the business works, etc. Call up all of these businesses in your areas and get appointments with the owners or managers. Create mockup sites and excellent presentations for each company. Go into the appointment and pitch them.

You'll know more about their specific industry than your competitors which will impress them and you'll truly understand their business which will help you create a better product (and presentation). Secure as many of these companies as clients and eventually the others will follow to keep up with their competitors.

By doing this you're creating clients from people you didn't have in your network before and when these clients are talking to colleagues, clients, etc and the topic of websites comes up, guess who they're going to recommend.

[mthomas]

RLorenzen's advice is excellent. You'll have specific knowledge about a narrower set of businesses, so it will be easier to communicate with them and they'd be more willing to do business with you. Furthermore, you can more easily narrow your call script to better focus on these types of businesses.

What RLornezen also suggested that I agree with is, look to get an appointment, not the sale. It is much easier to get someone to agree to an appointment over the phone, than getting them to agree on a contract for a couple thousand dollars.

Aside from cold calling, are you aware of any other web design industry best practices that perhaps you are under-utilizing? I could say that when I personally was in web design for a few years, I sent out about 500 sales letters, I got an amazing response, netting me a very nice return on investment. So sending out some sales letters to local businesses might not be a bad idea for you to try out.

[horsenaround]

Approach any "sales" job, not as a salesman, but as a "problem solver". Ask them what they need vs what you want to sell them. Your line of work is about creating resolutions.

The other key to marketing you product....Follow-up.


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[ChadFraz]

I run the sales dept. for a web development company. We are currently doing a 100% cold call phone blitz to bring in more business. You will find that not a lot of companies do so in the web development space. Most wait for people to find them or referrals. You will really be setting yourself apart if you make outbound calls.

Currently we do around 100 cold calls per person per day through the Yellowpages. Keep the pitch short, sweet and honest. Ask for 3-5 minutes and if they give it to you, make sure to stop at 3-5.

Currently we are creating "opportunities" around 15% of the time and our close rate is around 15% as well. This means that on a good day you can make 100 cold calls, create 15 "opportunities" to follow up with and close around 2 of them. The goal is to really fill up your pipeline to find the "low hanging fruit".

If you are interested in more information regarding our process, send me a message.

[PseudoMod]

Hi Justy,

I used to live in Chicago and with your new concept, I'm sure you could do HUGE things. I would suggest:

1. Making new business cards with a very short, informative desctription.

2. Buy a database of Chicago restaurants and pubs, send out some informative post cards.

3. Join social forums for restaurant owners

4. Start using review sites like Yelp.com, answer questions, and join discussions. Make sure you're website is in your signature or profile.

5. Networking more. Go to wine tastings, find out where people who work in or own stadiums and convention centers hang out and EXCHANGE your new business cards.

6. This would probably break the bank but do some research on a restaurant. If you feel as though they need your help, become a customer and simply ask to speak to the manager or owner and buy them a drink and get right down to business. If that's too difficult tip your waitress really nice and tell her to put in the word. She or he could be more effective than you. Or do both if you're ballsy.

Good Luck,

Em

[byrneof]

Cold calling is a bad tactic especially in the current economic environment. The chances are that you will annoy prospective clients and this will tarnish your reputation. Do you like it when someone cold calls you?

What about calling your previous clients and asking them if they know anyone who likes the work you have done and may be interested in getting similar work done for themselves.

If you intend on doing the restaurant blitz then try and get someone to make the introduction for you. Are there any restaurant trade groups that you could contact and give a special offer to their members?

Believe me, you will find cold calling a waste of your time.

[PPC Freelancer]

Cold calling its going to be tough given the current economic times as everyone else is doing it a lot. Your best bet will be referrals from people you know in the same industry but offer different services.

[mthomas]

Cold calling is a bad tactic especially in the current economic environment. The chances are that you will annoy prospective clients and this will tarnish your reputation. Do you like it when someone cold calls you?

I don't think the environment makes cold calling any worse of a marketing tactic, and certainly won't annoy prospects any more than it would under normal circumstances.

I'm not disagreeing that cold calling is a bad tactic, but I don't think the economy has much to do with it.

Bottom line, if you have resolved to cold call, work on your delivery and do whatever you can to make the call as warm as possible. If that means sending a mailer first then following up, do so. If that means visiting the site as a customer, do it. But I think trying to warm the prospect up in any way can be very helpful.

[PPC Freelancer]

Defiantly agree that warming up the prospect is the key to cold calling but very few people are great at it. You have to really master that skill in order to take advantage of it.

[Auspreneur]

Cold calling is definitely a great way to drum up sales. But making 100 calls in 1 day is a very bad idea. If you just want to be a telemarketer then 100 calls a day is fine.

But if you actually want to convert more then 2% of your calls I suggest allowing about 10- 15 mins for each call. Find everything out about the customer that you can before calling look for a hook and then when you find that hook use it to get yourself their for an appointment not a sale.

Also remember what time you call up a restaurant, make sure you don’t call them during their busy hours or they won’t care if it’s the president calling them.

[justy540]

Thanks for all of the great advice. It looks like I have some planning to do. I don't WANT to cold call, just reviewing it as an option. The sales letters may be a great start. I've also thought of buying a dtabase, or just parsing yelp or something.

Thanks everyone!