Transcription
Let's continue that scary story of cold calling. On Friday of last week, I did cold calling part one. It was a video, and this week I'm doing, obviously, a podcast of cold calling part two. So, let's pick it up from where we left off.
So, basically, in part one, we talked about what is it that you're looking for? Do you have the avatar of the perfect prospect? Talked about gatekeepers, talked about how to get through gatekeepers. So, we've done all of those. So, a lot of times, we don't figure that we are not the only person calling these people for a number of reasons. But you want to end up, if you're getting phone calls, they're getting phone calls from people looking to buy their business. You want to separate yourselves from the bots, if you will. And then remember what we talked about in part one about selling to brevity and confidence, tone of voice, those sorts of things. But brevity is super important.
Normally, if you're talking about things like the trades or manufacturing, you're going to be calling early in the morning or after 5. And they are thinking about either what they have to do that day or what they did, and they want to get out of the office at the end of the day. But the gatekeepers are usually gone before 8:00 and after 5:00. So, that's that's a good time to to reach out and and try to get to these people. But you do not want to sound like a salesman. You don't want to sound like a telemarketer, and you want to make yourself, again, different.
So, let me tell tell you a story from way back when. When I was doing a lot of this in the property tax business, I would call manufacturing companies, and we were working to lower their property taxes. And I would call early. I'd call before uh 8:00, so between about 7:15 in the morning and quarter of 8, because usually gatekeepers came in a little before 8:00. And and I called after 5. But most of the time, it was most successful to call early in the morning.
Now, when I called early in the morning, they were getting ready for their day, so they were planning their day. It was they liked getting in early because people weren't bugging them. And so now a phone call comes. And so it's super important that you deliver a message which is different than a sales call and something that that person, you know, that CEO or owner of the business wants to actually hear. And so that was that was my job, and that's what I had to do.
And so what I did was, I would call. They would typically answer the phone, and I'd say, "This is Bruce Whipple, I'm the founder." So that would separate me from from a sales guy of Property Tax Consultants in my case. And I know you're getting ready for your your day. I just had a really quick question about who in your organization I should talk to. And then I would tell him that we've determined you're paying X more than you should in property taxes. I was planning to call the CFO and bring it to his attention, um, because that can be corrected, and uh, wanted to confirm that that was the right person. So that's pretty quick. And figure you're going to have between four and eight seconds when they decide, "Do I want to talk to you or do I not want to talk to you?"
And so most of the time, they would say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You're saying we're paying $100,000 too much in property tax taxes?" "Yes." "The uh, okay, so you can talk to me about that. How do you figure that out?" You know, and now they're testing to see, "Okay, is this real? What are your qualifications?" At that point, I would say, "That, just want to give you a little feel is that, you know, we've successfully done this for uh, I I would mention IBM, so we know what we're doing when it comes to this. But we want through the records, uh, we went through an analysis, and you're paying X in taxes." So I would give them a specific number.
Most of the time, they didn't know that because a property tax bill comes in two pieces: the property tax and the school tax. And then we that says your your property is worth X, which for them, most of the time, they'd say, "There's no way in the world it's worth that." Well, that's what we determined as well. So you're paying, you know, $1,000 more, whatever the number was. So that was good, but that was not a typical call for them. It was an opportunity to save money, and so they would end up usually wanting to have that discussion. So they didn't view it as an interruption, which most of the time it was. If I had started, "Hi, this is Bruce Whipple from Property Tax Consultants, we reduced property taxes," probably right about at that point, I would have heard, "Look, I'm getting ready for meetings of my day, so, um, if you want to send me something, that's okay, but I really don't have time to talk now." So I gave them a reason why they did want to talk.
So, remember who you're calling. Remember the characteristics. If you've done some research, uh, and the the founder, let's say in the case of acquiring businesses, you can again say, "You know, you're the you're the founder of so-and-so. You're calling because we're looking to acquire businesses in your geographical area." Be specific on that. And your business, you know, had several characteristics of what we're looking for, uh, and and I want to certainly share those characteristics with you, but I don't want to waste your time. And I ever wondered if you thought about a transition, uh, to retirement or selling all or part of your business? Uh, you don't have to sell all of it. And also want to point out that we're not private equity.
So, if they said, "Okay, yeah, I'd like to know how you selected our business," go through, you know, "We looked at your website. We had access to records which indicated your revenues were above this amount, number of employees, whatever it is. You know, we're assuming that it's profitable. I do want to confirm that, but, um, go through that." And that will separate you from the people that don't do any work and just say, "Hey, are you interested in selling your business?" Where I don't know you from Adam. But get inside their head and try to determine, in a perfect world, what are they looking for?
I read recently, and it's it's accurate, every party to every negotiation has a comfort zone. The effective negotiator is the one who can define the boundaries of the other person's comfort zone, then place a deal inside the boundary of that zone nearest his own interest. And again, that's why I say get inside their head. They may not be ready to retire. They may still want to work a few more years, which is really what you want them to do anyway. And so, if you are interested in selling your business, they're thinking, "No, I don't want to sell my business. I want to keep working." So, if you said, "You know, you want to sell all or part," then it opens up that discussion. "How much longer do you want to work?"
So, let's say you go through that. You might want to then use a Chris technique, um, and say, "You know, it would be crazy if I took a minute to just explain the the process that we go through." And that's a, a no answer. You know, "No, it wouldn't be crazy." No answers are easier for people to give than yes answers. So that's the reason for that. The, uh, and what I would say is, "Why don't I send you an executive summary so you know who you're talking to?" Um, then, if there's interest, we would get an NDA, we'd have a simple document request, we could discuss valuation and the ownership structure that works for you, um, and go through that that process.
Now, one of the things, just to think about, is you don't want to go through that process if this is not a prospect. So, you know, "Could I ask you a couple of questions?" And they'll probably say, "Yeah, sure, go ahead." So, "We we see your revenue is great, at least at this amount, $1 million, whatever." You know, "And what we're looking for is profitable businesses. You can define that better than 20% or 30% gross profit. And so, just want to make sure that you fall within that category." "Yes, I do." Or "No, I don't." "No, I don't. Okay, well, let's stay in touch, but right now, we're pretty tight on our criteria, so we wouldn't be a fit right now." Okay, so that's how that process goes.
If this, it is legal where you are. In some places in the US, in some states, it's legal. In some places, it's not legal. Same thing around the world. Is that you can be in a one-party or two-party, uh, recording states? Meaning that if you're in a one-party, as long as you are a party to that conversation, which obviously you are, you can record it. There are some places where it's a two-party state, and so you have to say to the person, "Is said, okay, if I record this conversation?" That's going to turn off an awful lot of people. So, in that case, if it's not legal, I would encourage you to follow the law and just don't record it. That doesn't mean that you can't put a recording where you're recording your side of that, um, but you can't record both sides of that conversation. So you can at least hear what you're doing, uh, when you when you do that. But you don't want to record the other side of the conversation.
Okay, so I hope that's helpful. Uh, think about that. If you're wondering about how to begin these conversations, go over to Bruce Whipple dot com, and you will end up seeing the the, if you put your email in the free course there, that's conversation starters. That's a good example of some of the things we've talked about, in addition to some other things here, some some scripts and templates. And I'm in the process of adding some people to the VIP Mastermind. One of the things we do in the VIP Mastermind is we end up doing a ton of role plays. And what's really important when you do these calls is most people don't listen very well. So take a look at your listening skills. Most people are so worried about a script that they don't pay attention to what the other person is saying, which is a big mistake. You want to listen for buying signals. You want to listen to objections. If you've recorded it, you'll be able to tell, "Oh, I lost them right there," or "Oh, wow, they really showed interest there."
So, I hope that's helpful. That's cold calling part two. There's a whole lot more to it than that, but those two things, I think, will outline a way to go through this process and be more successful if you're having problems with it. So, again, conversation starters over at uh, Bruce Whipple dot com. Just download that. And then, um, think about the VIP Mastermind. You can find those details on my website as well if you want to be part of that. And again, uh, we do training, we do role plays. Uh, that's the best program that I run. So, okay, I'd encourage you to take that and put it into action this week.