Outbound lead generation doesn't work for me

[cliff19]

So to start, I've been in business (officially) starting Jan 1st 2022. Since then I have done just under $13k in sales, with an average of 59.53% profit margin across 9 transactions. As well, I currently have $201 in MRR that runs me at an 88% margin. I find what I do to be incredibly profitable, yet the volume is incredibly low.

I do IT service and support. I strictly do B2B, as residential IT support is generally unreasonable, and going rates are much lower. For example, I charge $150/hr for labor, and closer to $125/hr if >6 hours. The bulk of the $$ comes from one-off jobs such as installations, repairs, etc. The MRR is for support contracts and cloud hosting services.

All but 1 job were referrals from friends, and the 1 that wasn't a referral was a sheer luck inbound call from a google search. All 3 contracts are referrals.

I can not seem to generate any sort of outbound lead. I'm currently doing cold emails, and this number might be extremely low, but for only doing 1 campaign I've done 47 prospects, with 4 emails total. 1 initial, and a follow up every 3 days for a total of 4. This yielded a 0% response rate. I've done a fair share of mailing flyers in the past, leaving business cards/flyers, also 0%. I had considered a prospecting tool such as ZoomInfo/DnB to bump these numbers up extremely high instead of emailing

 

[edk]

@cliff19 IT is really hard. I have done tons of SEO/PPC for MSPs, and that industry is tough. Unfortunately, it's a very commoditized service (everyone has a nephew who is "good with computers" or is just happy using dropbox/google docs). Businesses just don't see the need for it most of the time unless you get into enterprise, 500+ seat contracts. Even then, a lot of them have in-house teams and don't do outsourced IT.

A lot of sales it seems are do e through things like industry events and referrals. Sales cycle could takes months still.

How are you tracking leads?

 

[cliff19]

@edk Well thats the thing, there are none essentially. I get a referral, I call them immediately and set up an in person meeting. They either sign or they dont.

I had one guy promise me a signature if I was able to get his ISP bill lowered. Did that, then an hour later another ISP rep walked in his door and got him to sign with what we were selling (VOIP service).

 

[edk]

@cliff19 Ouch, yeah that is rough. And VOIP seems like one of the hardest things to sell.

You need to start tracking and following up with leads. Get a CRM and set reminders to call or email until you get a definitive answer either way. And even then it's good to check back every so often to keep you top of mind in case their situation changes. Just one meeting isn't nearly enough to close most deals.

And how are you selling? Like I mentioned before, this industry is highly commoditized so trying to compete strictly on rates is a losing battle. What's your USP or UVP?

 

[cliff19]

@edk So its literally all been referral. All 3 contracts are VOIP, 2 are cloud service and the 3rd is just basic support.

USP/UVP is the cloud platform. We host our PBX in a cloud provider and the PBX software we use plays well, in the sense that businesses with multiple locations can port all their numbers to one bill, and pay only on use basis, in terms of concurrent calls. Each site connects to the cloud system instead of having a PBX onsite. And the PBX software also allows users to make and receive calls on their office line from an app on their phone.

I use siptrunk.com for phone service and r/3CX as the software, both of which im a reseller for.

 

[edk]

@cliff19 Ok, so there are a lot of features there that businesses aren't going to care about or understand. When I'm teaching my staff to write copy, I always tell them to ask themselves "Who cares?" Asking that question will eventually get you to the root of what your USP/UVP is.

We host our PBX in a cloud provider and the PBX software we use plays well

Each site connects to the cloud system instead of having a PBX onsite. And the PBX software also allows users to make and receive calls on their office line from an app on their phone.

These are features, not benefits.

an port all their numbers to one bill, and pay only on use basis, in terms of concurrent calls.

also allows users to make and receive calls on their office line from an app on their phone.

Getting closer, but still ambiguous. Don't make users try to figure out exactly how it will benefit their business.

The USP seems like what it could be is "simplify your business and lower costs by turning a dozen monthly phone bills into one pay as you go app"

But I've also worked with VOIP and 3cx resellers, and they all say the same, so you might want to come with some extra ammo.

What else sets you apart? Are you an industry expert? Faster response times than your competition? Brand recognition?

 

[edk]

I'm not even really happy with this. I would be even more exact and sell it as something like "Save 20 hours and 60% off your phone bill with VOIP services"

 

[cliff19]

@edk So thats been our main go to. The phone service is often cheaper than local ISPs, and our promise is “we’ll cut $100 off your internet bill”, which has been mostly true unless they were on a promo plan to begin with.

Cut $100 off their internet bill, then new phone bill is $24.95/unlimited sip channel but we charge $88/mo for the cloud PBX and support.

So in some use cases its the same or more $$ in the end.

My next go to UVP is automation, but I think I need to sit down today and seriously answer this question for you, and myself.

 

[cliff19]

@edk Here was what I was going with in my cold e-mails:

https://pastebin.com/XFf7dG8A

I thought a little more about a UVP and re-wrote with this, if you think it's any better.

https://pastebin.com/JcycsA8N

Thank you for your help

 

[gabbyrose4]

@cliff19 why don't you do inbound? try google search ads, so people in need search for your services. Seems a no-brainer.

Outbound it's like putting a tv ad in front of someone that may not even have a problem. Inbound, via Google search ads, it's having them search for the service, when they need it. Isn't that your ideal customer?

DM me if you need help.

 

[cliff19]

@gabbyrose4 Thanks, any resources you recommend I look into for Google ads and such? Or should I leave this to a pro marketer

 

[gabbyrose4]

@cliff19 well, if you want to do it yourself, Google has a lot of training materials on it, here: https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/ . Read carefully, so you won't end up more expensive than hiring someone.

Most businesses rely on a pro marketer, if you need one, I am here.

 

[peacefulocean]

@cliff19 Switch to inbound

 

[stevenmt33]

@cliff19 You made me extremely curious. You said the norm for the lost leads was that you were too intimidating? I guess this is worth exploring.

What exactly do you mean by too intimidating?

 

[cliff19]

@stevenmt33 This is where I got confused as well. I’ll call up my friend in a little while and ask him to elaborate and report back.

I generally will talk confidently in a meeting, enthusiastically and along the lines of “when you sign” etc etc. But I do always leave it open ended, along the lines of “this is what we offer and ultimately you can decide if it makes the most amount of sense for you and your business” and when going over T&C, I explain that if they want to leave its as simple as saying “@cliff19, it’s not working out and I think we need to move on”

So honestly speaking, I’m as curious as you but I’ll try to pull some examples for you

 

[stevenmt33]

@cliff19 Try to troubleshoot this, in your place I would get in touch with some other friends that are not familiar with the services you provide, and ask them to do a 30 minutes roleplay where they are the client and you're selling them your service. Then ask for feedback, and start finding things to fine tune from there.

This is the biggest roadblock from where I'm standing. Even if you super optimize everything in your funnel, if you fuck up when it's time to present your services and close the client, you'll never accomplish anything.

 

[cliff19]

@stevenmt33 Honestly thats a great idea. They used to have me do this when I was doing real estate, I should incorporate that here.

 

[stevenmt33]

@cliff19 Awesome. You can even go a little step further and prepare some kind of feedback sheet. Put down some categories like "how clear was the information", "how well did I address your concerns", stuff like that. Maybe have some checkboxes like "how was the meeting general feeling - friendly, authoritative, intimidating, overwhelming etc (add more positives here to counterbalance) and leave them some space where they can add or expand on anything. Then you can discuss their feedback to get more detail, if they checked "unclear" maybe you use too many technical terms and so on.

Also you could record all these and review them with the feedback sheet in hand.

At least that's how I would do it

 

[cliff19]

@stevenmt33 Honestly don't think there's a better way to do it. I'll write something up and start giving it a go.

I've always been told the most expensive thing is to practice on customers. Seems I don't listen very well sometimes.

 

[r025]

@cliff19 I'd suggest that once you hone your pitch a bit more, look for BNI groups in your area. Visit them - it costs nothing but your time at that stage. BNI is just a group of business professionals generating referrals for each other. If you find a nice group with the right mix of businesses, sign up and you're likely to hit a gold mine for your business, I'd think (based on my experience). You've already said referrals are a great source of business for you, so I say double down on that. Just make sure you've got your pitch smooth so that people WANT to do and refer business your way.