How I got 3 Clients Referred to Me

Before publishing this I realized it had been written three months ago so I added in some parentheses showing what happened currently as well.

"So what's the product?" he asked. "Well..." I took a deep breath "We have just recently started this...but so far so good by using our marketing methods we can give you more business"..."What's the price?" he asked..."We need to discuss that when we meet"..."Ok, lets make a meeting time and we can talk about it next week".

Just like that I was in! I met this guy from a friend at a business event who was doubtful as a client, however here was the opportunity! As Gurbaksh Chahal says "risk is your best friend" so I took it. My co-founders were ecstatic that this could be our second client! (Our first ended up leaving us interestingly enough). That week during the meeting I was completely honest with him. I told him we're in the early stages of the company and don't even know if people want what we're offering; "Ok he replied lets see what you have and if I like it I'll refer more people". That same day we negotiated on the price and off we went! A few months later I asked him if he liked the service, new features, received feedback on the price, how to pitch people, what he sees as the ROI and what he thinks about where we're going. I was completely transparent putting myself on the line as a result so was he.

He referred 5 people! Yes I know I wrote 3 in the title because those were the ones who have converted so far aka paid us (now all 5 have paid), but two just got started on our trial. If I do well here (knock on wood) I can get more clients as referrals and I won't have to cold call anymore (now I learned cold calling is inevitable and actually like it). I'm a pessimistic person, so even if this business fails it's ok because I'm learning a lot and this is the first time I've been referred clients. (In retrospect I actually need to learn a lot more, it's amazing how much I don't know).

So how did I do it? How did I get clients referred? Well simple, it was being HONEST from the start and thereby easily building trust (If you're honest and really like your product selling to clients isn't hard at all). After a few months of business with this guy we are now on good terms (still on good terms). I'm ecstatic that my intuition about being honest and working hard has been proven correct! I can't disclose everything, yet and we're a baby company (still a baby company, looking to finally explode in the next few weeks), but I finally have a valid looking business model. Whenever I doubted something I told him, whenever I didn't know if we could deliver I told him and by doing that I am now in an amazing relationship with someone who truly likes our service.

I know it may sound too good to be true to you, but it took a lot of hard work and as I stated earlier about 4 months of business. In the end I have to say it's definitely worth it. From now on I will be completely honest with everyone on every cold call and am very happy to have things starting to look up. What's our conversion rate? Well 1/100, but that is real world numbers (still is). I think if you want to succeed that's the effort you gotta be willing to put in and slowly I'm learning how to work hard daily.

As always thanks for reading and feel free to ask me any questions.

How I got over my Cold Calling Fears

My hands used to shake, I used to sweat profusely when dealing with negative potential clients, I'd sit in front of the phone blankly staring at the wall thinking about the call...THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN ANYMORE! 

How did I get over my cold calling fears? Well in multiple ways...I had TONS of issues, but they all mainly dealt with the fear of rejection or the fear of failure once I really thought about them. After realizing what the fear was I figured out how to confront it, interesting how you need to mature your character to succeed in business, something I rarely hear people discuss. So how did I get rid of my fear of failure? Multiple ways.

1) Reduced the volume of cold calls I make.

I used to make 30+ cold calls a day. Cold calling takes energy no matter who you are and I've figured out its like a muscle you build so start low if you can. Perhaps do 1 cold call tomorrow, then 2 the next day and slowly increase as you get more comfortable. You'll find your fear of rejection slips away as you gain experience with your product, build up your sales skills and cold calling starts taking less energy; the cycle will only become more positive the more you do it. 

2) Create the fear of regret in your life.

This sounds bad, but if you fear losing out on something it'll prompt you to take action in your life, which will most likely lead to success. Whenever I want skip a day of calling I always think about how bad I'll regret it.  I think about how all my progress will go down the drain if I don't put in any effort today and that gets me enough energy for the first call (which is the hardest). As each day goes by and I spend more time on the phone I grow more and more comfortable and I have to use the fear of regret less. Warm up by calling current clients, that can help as well if you can't even make the first call.

3) I keep in contact with people who have turned me down or laugh past them.

Keeping in contact with PLEASURABLE people who have turned you down does a couple of things. A) It tells you its ok to be rejected and helps your mind find peace with that. B) It shows you that people who have rejected or will reject you aren't scary. C) It gets you valuable feedback that can lead to future business with that person.

Laugh past cruel people. You can't get along with everyone, I'm sure you've had a bad day and said something you regret once in a while too so give them the benefit of the doubt. You should also know that cruel people are VERY RARE and make hilarious stories. Remember rejection gives you more power. There's really nothing a potential client can do to hurt you, worst case scenario they hang up and you move on.

*Bonus Tip

Take notes after every cold call good or bad and review them. Leave nothing to chance in business get the most juice out of each call. If you're not keeping notes on what you can do better next time then you won't know how much you're improving everyday.