[FUNd]

Correct. I am tired of people being naive (I am not a negative person!) about Cold calling and here is why...you have all over America business owners (and at times employ / agents) who are cold calling all day companies to have them order customized pens merchant services and other services that the payout is 17c per (Logo) pen times 1000 or $75 per month for a signed merchant account and the model seems to work and for some reason in our business circles when a 100K deals pays 5 DIGITS!!! everyone seems to think the cold call model is a HOAX!

You just broke the internet.

[Funder Mark]

mcaguru is many things, a Kardashian he is not

[FUNd]

I mean they would have to know the industry, how deals are underwritten, and have decent lenders. But if that were the case, yes. For example, if a new broker were to come in and was not provided with any leads, but was properly trained - he/she could easily build a pipeline off cold calling alone, it's done all the time...? If you are referring to someone brand new without any industry knowledge hitting the phones, I agree that they would more than likely fail... granted, you have to put in the work, which "burns" many people out (a term I can't really wrap my head around btw. if someone is burned out are they dying? Is that a legitimate health concern, I don't get it?).

I guess I am just so sick of these companies making big promises to people new to the industry that don't know better, getting them in with a tiny base salary, using them to do the dirty work, purposely burning them out, and sweeping the database for the gold when they are inevitably fired for low numbers or quit because they aren't making enough to pay their basic living expenses.

It's an old bait and switch technique in the B2B finance game that makes people disposable and frankly, hurts people. Purposely setting people up to fail is a strategy some companies use to get quality telemarketers in to feed the guys at the top.

[FUNd]

mcaguru is many things, a Kardashian he is not

But that ass..

[anonymous]

It's an old bait and switch technique in the B2B finance game that makes people disposable and frankly, hurts people. Purposely setting people up to fail is a strategy some companies use to get quality telemarketers in to feed the guys at the top.

Have seen it in MCA shops first hand and agree, it's terrible. Not always the case though.

[TStein]

Take a look at your local Craigslist Job section at the amount of "Six Figure Opportunity" ads. The naive applicants still line up every posting. Its rare to find a company that actually wants to grow and develop reps and put money into different lead outlets for them(They are out there though!)

I'll refer to a previous post of mine:

Most broker shops have 2-3 solid closers, several average outbound reps who are happy with their base salary, and a revolving door of people sold a dream of a "MAKE 6 FIGURES A YEAR" craigslist ad.

The latter is considered the best as these employees often quit after 2 months or so and the renewals go to the house which builds the portfolio.

[MCNetwork]

I've been in this industry for seven years now and I've never seen a single person make a decent living off a pipeline that that was built with 100% cold calling. When you break down the dollars earned versus time spent on the phone, he would have been much better off taking a full time job at McDonald's. The reason why many ISO's use the cold calling model is because it works COLLECTIVELY for the firm. The labor is cheap and even with a 1-2% conversion rate, the numbers can make the company profitable especially when renewals kick in. It doesn't work for any one individual and that's why these firms have a revolving door of sales reps. A single person cold calling can't cast a wide enough net to capture interested prospects unless he's a dialing machine that does several hundred calls per day, months on end. But then he'd probably die of a heart attack. That's why the large shops outsource the cold calling component of this job and just work the inbound leads generated by the call centers. It's just a far more efficient (albeit expensive) process.

[anonymous]

A single person cold calling can't cast a wide enough net to capture interested prospects unless he's a dialing machine that does several hundred calls per day, months on end. But then he'd probably die of a heart attack. That's why the large shops outsource the cold calling component of this job and just work the inbound leads generated by call centers. It's just a far more efficient (albeit expensive) process.

What is so hard about talking on the phone, I don't get it? Heart attack from what, talking? You know that people shovel sh*t for a living, 12 hours a day to feed their family and scrape by? Yet someone else will have a heart attack from sitting at their desk talking on the phone???

I've outsourced cold calling and have a small operation overseas (it's not that expensive unless you are paying retail rather than just taking producers and building your own infrastructure). That said, I would trade 10 call center leads for 1 in-house broker lead without a second thought. The notion that someone would make more money at McDonalds than cold calling is absurd. Maybe if they are lazy and have zero ambition, sure although I can't imagine they'd be successful at anything if that were the case... Everyone seems to know everything about cold calling, yet they don't cold call, so how would they have any idea? No offense, don't mean to be aggressive MCNetwork - I agree with the majority of your comments, but come on now...

[MCNetwork]

I'm not saying it's hard to talk on the phone. A teenage girl can do that all day long without breaking a sweat. I'm saying it's hard to make a good living as a cash advance salesperson by 100% cold calling. That's just the way our industry works. We are selling expensive money and clients aren't exactly clamoring at our door. You need to find the merchant that has a special need and is willing to pay a high price for the funds and this is similar to finding a needle in a haystack. The large ISO's and funders realize this fact and that's why they try to own the haystacks by using call centers to do all the heavy lifting instead of having a roomful of guys searching for needles all day long.

If your office is full of very successful cash advance cold callers, then I will humbly apologize.

[anonymous]

If your office is full of very successful cash advance cold callers, then I will humbly apologize.

I really want to just blurt out our approach and how easy it is to turn over clients on a cold call, but am unable to do so in good conscience haha. Not to try sounding cool (after all, I am anon to most on here, so it is irrelevant), but yes - I like to think we do very well cold calling, but then again, numbers are relative. What may be a big volume to one shop is nothing to another, but we will never really know as everyone seems to inflate their figures so dramatically...

[anonymous]

Hopping on the dialer, talk to you guys later lol

[MCNetwork]

Hopping on the dialer, talk to you guys later lol

Calling my inbound leads now. Later!

[FUNd]

I like you Anonymous, and maybe you have something special that works, but I think we are talking about what generally works and what doesn't. You have to admit that inbound marketing is the new landscape with the technology we have now. Cold calling, on an individual basis, and making a comfortable living in the B2B finance space is largely dead. These big cold calling firms are just full of empty promises.

[anonymous]

I like you Anonymous

thanks, you're alright too lol

I think we are talking about what generally works and what doesn't

will start by saying that I am not discounting inbound marketing in any way possible. what i am saying, not generally – but for a fact is that a well-trained broker can pick up the phone and make money, period.

what do you do while you are waiting for inbounds? how long does each one of those inbound calls take, how many hours in a day does one work, and what’s the balance? The beauty of this industry is that you DON’T have to sit and wait for business, you can go out there and get it, from 9am to close in Hawaii if you want it that bad – dialer has plenty of numbers (speech courtesy of JF @ nulook).

These big cold calling firms are just full of empty promises.

sure, but what does that have to do with the viability of cold-calling?

[MCNetwork]

what do you do while you are waiting for inbounds? how long does each one of those inbound calls take, how many hours in a day does one work, and what’s the balance?

Well I can certainly answer that one. I typically get 3-5 inbounds per day which breaks down to 80 leads per month. Right now I have about 75 active leads in my pipeline that I'm constantly working through emails, follow up phone calls, etc. Believe me, I'm plenty busy and not exactly waiting around with my mouth open for a lead to drop into it. The great thing about the inbound leads is that each merchant expressed interest in working capital so I can spend my time very efficiently and not have to chase dead wood. I personally fund 20-50 deals per month (all new business) so I know this system works.

[bsmith]

"Hey this is Grant Cardone, Google me, do you need money?"

It's not that hard guys

[MCNetwork]

Lol I actually like Grant Cardone. His podcast Young Hustlers is a blast!

[anonymous]

Well I can certainly answer that one. I typically get 3-5 inbounds per day which breaks down to 80 leads per month. Right now I have about 75 active leads in my pipeline that I'm constantly working through emails, follow up phone calls, etc. Believe me, I'm plenty busy and not exactly waiting around with my mouth open for a lead to drop into it. The great thing about the inbound leads is that each merchant expressed interest in working capital so I can spend my time very efficiently and not have to chase dead wood. I personally fund 20-50 deals per month (all new business) so I know this system works.

again, not discounting the power of inbound. but how much time could you possibly spend following up on 3-5 daily leads, honestly? 20-50 could be huge depending on deal size, whether or not other brokers are involved, and how much each deal is ultimately costing. so congrats on that end. doesn't really have much to do with the core topic though... with that being said, it is clearly a system that works for you which is great. however, the question is whether or not (in today's market) one can pick up the phone and build a pipeline off of cold calling alone. the answer is yes, period, I know this to be an absolute fact. you're welcome to steer the thread however you'd like from here...

note: coupling low end lead count with low end deal count puts you at 32% close ratio. coupling high end the same, yields a 48% close rate. when we are talking overall closing ratios on a mixed bag of deals, that is a very very very impressive? figure. that’s also assuming the marketing yields max amount of leads every single day, which probably isn’t the case given the fluctuation in figures provided, putting you well over 50% in many cases and making you the best closer on this board. keep in mind that is not an approval to close ratio, that is an inbound lead to close ratio. if you're that good, you should def start cold calling.

[MCNetwork]

Actually my inbound leads are actually full submissions (application, bank statements, etc.). Without going into my company's trade secrets, our model is very different from the majority of companies out there.

[anonymous]

Wait wait wait.... Don't tell me this is Jay Ballentine...

[MCNetwork]

Lol. I don't think Jay ever closed a cash advance deal in his life!

[anonymous]

just let out a huge sigh of relief, this would have gotten very interesting, fast hahahaha. to wrap it up, many ways to make money in this industry - made for a good post.

[FUNd]

again, not discounting the power of inbound. but how much time could you possibly spend following up on 3-5 daily leads, honestly? 20-50 could be huge depending on deal size, whether or not other brokers are involved, and how much each deal is ultimately costing. so congrats on that end. doesn't really have much to do with the core topic though... with that being said, it is clearly a system that works for you which is great. however, the question is whether or not (in today's market) one can pick up the phone and build a pipeline off of cold calling alone. the answer is yes, period, I know this to be an absolute fact. you're welcome to steer the thread however you'd like from here...

note: coupling low end lead count with low end deal count puts you at 32% close ratio. coupling high end the same, yields a 48% close rate. when we are talking overall closing ratios on a mixed bag of deals, that is a very very very impressive? figure. that’s also assuming the marketing yields max amount of leads every single day, which probably isn’t the case given the fluctuation in figures provided, putting you well over 50% in many cases and making you the best closer on this board. keep in mind that is not an approval to close ratio, that is an inbound lead to close ratio. if you're that good, you should def start cold calling.

I have to find time to fit in my 20 posts on DF each day. How am I supposed to make cold calls and do that at the same time?

[anonymous]

outsource the df work, pretty sure yulia has a guy in Malawi who will do it on the cheap.

[AlexSMF]

outsource the df work, pretty sure yulia has a guy in Malawi who will do it on the cheap.

YEEZY Money LOL