Recruiting Clients
Cold Calling to Recruit Clients
One
sure thing about cold calling potential clients is that there will be some
obstacles to overcome. This is a natural thing, so try not to be discouraged by
it. Be persistent without being obnoxious as you make your cold calls. Try to
get one piece of helpful information from the person who usually answers the
phones at the places you call. You may get about sixty seconds to talk when it
comes to cold sales calls, so be prepared to deliver information about your
business and get as much information as you can in this short period of time.
As you make repeated calls to a company, you will get to know the person who is
always answering the phones, and then you will get a little more time. It will
be easier to get information from this person if you remember personal
information about him or her. The most useful information you could get from a
cold call is the name and direct phone number of the person who makes decisions
about the kind of service contracts you want to bid on. You might want to ask
for a construction or project manager if the site is still under construction
or an officer in charge of contracts for a government building or complex to be
discussed in more detail later. Before calling, always try to get a referral,
the name of a person who is working with the decision maker, from someone who
may know these top people on a personal or business level. A little piece of
information is a better starting place than nothing. You must write down
everything you learn about the person you need to be in contact with. This lead
information and the right person may get you another job, even if you don’t get
the one you are calling about. Most managers work together and know other
property managers on a business and personal level. This means any lead could
send you your next opportunity, if a need for your service comes up and your
contact mentions your name to someone else. To make sure your cold calls lead
to more contacts, you need to prepare carefully before you begin making your
calls.
The
initial words you will use should be rehearsed just a bit so you are prepared
when the cold-call clock starts ticking. Typing up a short script is a good
idea. You should plan your calls by gathering information about the person or
the site and putting it on paper or file cards so you can call the person who
answers the phone by name, mention relevant things about their site, and say
everything you want to about your company. You can even set up your cold call
system and store all the information on your computer. If you say you will call
back for updates, make the follow up call on the date and at the time you said
you would call back. This will help take some of the chill out of the second
and third call. Doing cold calls is just another part of this business. Again,
it is not easy for most people, but it is another “must” if you want to fill
your bank account with money each month.
If a
contact cannot be reached, call back at a later date or time, and leave a clear
voicemail message if no one picks up the phone the second time. You always want
to try to speak to a person, so you can gather specific information regarding
the company’s building cleaning needs and
the people in charge of deciding how to meet those needs. Sometimes, however,
you can’t get through to a person. In that case, remember that a voicemail
message can be very effective, especially after you have made a few attempts to
reach someone. Give a lot of details in your message. You usually have more
than 60 seconds with voicemail. A voicemail message will help give the person
the idea that you are serious and that, after a few days, you will continue to
call until you reach them. In some cases, voicemail messages will help more;
they will warm up the client a little because your messages will have already
given the person information about you, your business and what you can offer.
Always
try to be relaxed and remain a business professional at all times. Make sure
that you have a comprehensible message and an understandable speaking voice -
not too slow, not too fast. Have your pen, paper, and calendar on hand so you
are prepared to book appointments and keep good notes. Though you might be
reading a cold call script, it’s imperative that you sound genuine. Keep
accurate documentation of the numbers you have called, when you called, the
people with whom you have spoken, and the information you received. Keep
careful notes with personal, as well as business, information you learn during
your cold calls. Include in your notes information you have about the
properties managed by the companies you call. Also, make sure you keep a
spreadsheet or file of the dates and times of future appointments.
Keeping
good records will enable you to look back and remind yourself of the
conversation you had and anything personal you learned, like the person’s favorite
sport, cars, jobs, kids, birthdays, business partners, jokes, etc. These little
things are important if you can just let them flow into your conversation on a
later call. Do not force them out, or it won’t sound natural. If you don’t keep
good notes, it can be tough to remember someone and all of the person’s details
when you call again. If you can say that you remember speaking with them and a
little bit about what the conversation was about a few weeks later, they will
be impressed. It shows that you are organized and personable; this counts for a
lot in the business world. You should never forget a potential client although,
every so often, if your notes are not fully together, it is bound to happen.
Taking excellent notes can make forgetting less likely and will help you on
your way with new cleaning contacts that can turn to contracts. Remember, you
may have information about a job from walking/driving by a site or reading an
ad, but if you want someone to pick your bid out of the pile, it helps to have
a good personal and business relationship with that person. These personal
relationships will also help when you make put in lots of bids. One good cold
call resource system you could start with is The Black’s Guide. It provides
information about commercial property managers and office/industrial buildings
of all types and size. More information about The Black’s Guide is in the
Resource chapter.
Whether
you are just starting your business or already have a medium-sized contracting
service company that you want to become larger, you need to make a lot of calls
and send out a lot of information about you and your business. Always let the
building owners, managers, project manager and officers in charge of
construction, know what you do, that you have a good, fair pricing and bidding
system, and that you are ready to work for them. You see, in business everyone
wants to know in detail, what you can and will do for them. Always keep this in
mind, and you will go far when you are in negotiations or talking business with
a potential client. You must, for the moment, forget about yourself. You need
to be sincere, truthful, and realistic about all of your soon-to-be customer’s
needs and the abilities of your business. If you walk into your potential
customer’s office with only your desires and needs in mind, the customer will
see you as a business fake almost immediately, and will avoid doing business
with you again. You must keep the business side of you real with good clean
intentions, as you use your communication skills. Always be yourself. Note;
advertising your business for a small fee, in most of the books, magazines, and
publications that I talk about in this book with the other systems you use and
research. It will pay off for your business, just as well as making cold calls.
Faxing Flyers
and Brochures to Recruit Clients
When
you have handed out flyers and business cards all around your town or
tri-states, you might decide to fax your introductory information out to companies
further away. You might do this using the thousands of contact fax numbers you
can get from resources like self research, The Blue Book, Black Guide and CDC
publications. There are two approaches to faxing out your information. You can
either fax out your messages yourself or you can have Professional Company do
it for you.
To
do lots of faxing yourself, you should know that there are phone companies that
have plans with unlimited calling for around ninety dollars per month. If you
sign up with one of these phone companies, you will be able to make unlimited
phone calls and send unlimited faxes yourself. Another way to make it easier to
send out a lot of faxes is to buy automatic phone number dialing software and
hook a fax machine up to your computer. One good dialing program is Winfax Pro
Message, but there are other good programs at your local office supply store
also. These programs make it easy to fax out information about your company to
potential clients. When you are away from your office, this system will
continue to send out your flyers and brochures. Please note, however, that
there are laws in some states about unsolicited faxing, so you have to check
out these laws first. Be sure to study state laws before you start faxing
thousands of flyers all over the country.
Faxing out large
numbers of flyers can be very time consuming if you do not have a good
automatic fax system, and it can take a toll on your office equipment even if
you do have a good automatic fax system. I found that one of the best ways to
do large numbers of faxes is to use a fax service like Business Link,
800-929-1643Support Systems. Fax services will quickly fax about 10,000 flyers
all over the country using a list of fax numbers you provide. Today, the cost
is about $300 for every 10,000 letters or flyers. It takes Business Link only
about three minutes to send out a full 10,000 faxes. Your work is done that
easily! How much you fax out is up to you when you use a fax service. The cost
will vary according to how many faxes you have sent out each time. Companies
like Business Link can save you a lot of headaches, time, and money.
Ten
thousand flyers or introduction letters faxed out in about three minutes will
remind your old customers of your services and bring some new business from
them. It will also bring in some new customers. In time, you will make your $
300 back, plus a large profit from most large fax send- outs. One return call
from a new customer could bring you thousands of dollars. Yes, it will take
time to put a fax list together, but it is worth it. You can save yourself some
time by hiring a local high school student to help put the list together.
You’ll see the value of the faxes once the list of fax numbers is completed and
you send out your first or second large fax list job. One way to develop a fax
list is to buy one from companies that sell them like, Power Business Leads
(877-56LEADS). The problem with this approach is that you won’t know what you
are getting or how many other companies like yours are using the same list. It
may take a little time, over the course of a couple of months, to develop your
own fax list, but it’s worth it because businesspeople and companies will start
calling you soon. Once they see your business flyer in their fax machine a few
times, your phone will ring and keep ringing.
Always allow some time between faxes, about two
months for each different 10,000 fax number list. You don’t want to use your
future business customers’ fax ink all up before they get a chance to use your
service. Also, you don’t want to become a pain in the “fax” by over-faxing the
same companies too often.
While
you are waiting for the people you just faxed to call you, start building your
next list of 10,000 new numbers and call it “part two faxing.” Then, start
parts three…until you have a list of 60,000 or more fax numbers to work for you
as you rotate them. You will fax your information to the companies at different
times over the course of the year. For example, in January you might send out
the first 10,000 faxes to one group of companies; in March you’ll send out the
second 10,000; in May, the third 10,000; and so on until it is time to start
over at the top of the new year. If you have six fax lists, you will send out a
fax to one list every two months, or about 60,000 flyers per year. If a fax
number changes or does not work, Business Link will not charge you
for faxing to that number until you correct that number on the next fax-out job
with the same list. Just for the record, you could fax out all 60,000 flyers at
once.
Remember, though, that you would
have to be ready to handle all the phone calls at one time, rather than a
spread out over the year.
Clearly,
I suggest using a fax service when faxing out a large number of flyers or introduction
letters to businesses you want as customers. In addition to freeing up your
phones and computers, a fax service will save your equipment from wear and
tear. Finally, they will know all laws concerning faxing in each state, since
this is their area of expertise.
Always
ask questions before you start something new like faxing. If you want to fax
out your own information from your own fax and computer system, you should have
a toll- free number or your office number on the bottom or top of the flyer
sheet so that companies can call you to be removed from your fax list if they
do not want any more faxes from you at this time. Again, your company name and
fax number must be across the top or bottom of any fax sent by your machine.
When companies do not want your information faxed to them again and again, they
can fax you back or call you to have their business and number removed from
your list. This will keep everyone happy. Also once again, before you start
faxing, you must check the laws in each state to which you will send a fax.
A
newer way of sending out information is to use email. The same companies that
sell fax lists can also provide you with lists of companies’ emails, or you can
develop your own email lists. One difficulty with email is that your email is
likely to end up sometimes in the spam folder unless the company already knows
about you.
By
aggressively promoting your business, you will capitalize on the many
properties that need to be cleaned. Again, you’re going to be surprised by just
how much money you can make in the building contracting, repair, cleaning and
maintenance industry. If you make good contacts with the property managers,
project managers, building owners, or other potential clients who need your
work, you will maximize your income by maximizing your opportunities for future
work.
Every business needs to have procedures they follow to get the job done, done right, and done in a cost effective way. Standard Daily Procedures will help you get the job done right, come up with your bid prices, train your employees, and make sure you are making money on your contracts. So let’s see how Standard Daily procedures are set up and used.
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