A sales strategy from a burrito bar [1 of 7]
When someone downloads your free ebook, call them on the phone.
That’s the first strategy in our 7-Day Sales Challenge. And it sounds a little crazy, right?
You might even be thinking that this would never work for your startup…
How do you get people to give your their email address AND a phone number?
And aren’t they going to be annoyed when you call them?
However, remember, your REAL challenge this week is to keep an open mind and think about how you could make it work…
Because over next seven days I’m going to show you seven ways to grow sales. Keep an open mind and do the work, and you’ll get results.
So the first sales strategy comes from James Kennedy, founder of Piehole.tv.
Before James tried this strategy, he kept making the same mistake for almost a decade.
He would work as a contractor for six months, then quit to launch his own product. When he couldn’t get any sales, he’d “build it harder” until he ran out of money.
“You can code the product all you want, but I wasn’t getting people to buy it,” he says.
It wasn’t until he hit rock bottom that he discovered how to get people to buy. He was working at his brother’s burrito bar and would make sales calls for two hours every day.
(Yes, this sales strategy comes from a burrito bar, but there’s a reason it’s important for startups…)
“I would sit in a 6’x6’ storeroom,” says James. “[I’d] pick up the phone and I would start calling, and eventually…I started getting a repeatable sale cycle.”
So with his next startup, Piehole.tv, phone sales played a key role. And the strategy was so successful that he now manages a sales team for Piehole.tv. They average a 20% conversion rate.
So how does he do it?
When people sign up for his free ebook, he asks for their phone number, too.
Then, he calls them right away to see if he can help them.
James says that the time people are most willing to talk to you is right after they download the free giveaway. So he calls them immediately.
“You’re not trying to convince anyone [to buy],” says James. “My first goal is to say, ‘Did you get the ebook?’ You will tell from their tone of voice right away whether it’s a good time or whether they’re really interested. Then you can go from there.”
Your challenge right now: In a notebook or Google doc, make some notes about how you could incorporate phone calls into your sales funnel.
Pretend you absolutely, positively, gun-to-your-head have to do it. Let’s brainstorm for a minute. What could you give do for a free giveaway? Who could make the phone calls? What questions would you ask? What would the follow-up look like? How would this fit in with your existing sales funnels?
Take just a few minutes and do it now, while it’s fresh in your mind.
Remember, today’s the first day of the challenge, and all you have to do is five minutes of homework. Tomorrow we’ll have another off-the-wall (but extremely effective) strategy for you.
-Andrew
Founder, Mixergy