[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!

[Franklin]

calling my inbound leads now. Later! :d

lol

[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

[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.

[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?

[MCNetwork]

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

[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.

[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

[KTK]

The problem is that technology has made the sales rooms of today lazy. Everyone wants "hot leads" handed to them without putting in the work to hustle and grow a book of business.

If you were to time warp a sales floor from 20 years ago who cold called all day and throw them up against a sales floor of 2016 these guys would run circles around the new school.

I remember when I had to make 300/400+ calls a day, without sitting down or I was asked to leave. It was hard work, but I earned and it gave me the work ethic that allows me to earn. So I kind of chuckle when guys complain about the long day they put in dialing 100 calls.

You can 100% make a living cold calling merchants. It's just really hard work and no one wants to put in the time. I see it in my own office, unfortunately. That said, my guys who hammer the phones all day without complaining are the ones who have deals in underwriting right now. The guys who are complaining, they are struggling.

I love whoever brought up Cardone. I love that guy, he is a producer and he knows how to pick up the phone and EARN. His videos pump me up.

I'm not saying an inbound strategy isn't ideal, I'm just saying that what I have seen over the years is that today's average sales guy could never compare to the animals that were breed before Google took over the scene. Of course there are exceptions to both sides.

[FUNd]

The problem is that technology has made the sales rooms of today lazy. Everyone wants "hot leads" handed to them without putting in the work to hustle and grow a book of business.

If you were to time warp a sales floor from 20 years ago who cold called all day and throw them up against a sales floor of 2016 these guys would run circles around the new school.

I remember when I had to make 300/400+ calls a day, without sitting down or I was asked to leave. It was hard work, but I earned and it gave me the work ethic that allows me to earn. So I kind of chuckle when guys complain about the long day they put in dialing 100 calls.

You can 100% make a living cold calling merchants. It's just really hard work and no one wants to put in the time. I see it in my own office, unfortunately. That said, my guys who hammer the phones all day without complaining are the ones who have deals in underwriting right now. The guys who are complaining, they are struggling.

I love whoever brought up Cardone. I love that guy, he is a producer and he knows how to pick up the phone and EARN. His videos pump me up.

I'm not saying an inbound strategy isn't ideal, I'm just saying that what I have seen over the years is that today's average sales guy could never compare to the animals that were breed before Google took over the scene. Of course there are exceptions to both sides.

You could make that argument for any industry or discipline. Technology makes life and business less labor intensive in all facets, but calling people lazy because they want to use it to their advantage is going a little too far. Just because I choose not to hand dial 400 strangers off of index cards everyday doesn't make me any less of a skilled salesperson.

[Chambo]

No...they're lazy...and afraid if the phone

[FUNd]

No...they're lazy...and afraid if the phone

The next construction worker I see using a backhoe to dig a ditch I'm going to heckle as I drive by for not using a shovel.

[HFS]

No...they're lazy...and afraid if the phone

amen

[KTK]

Listen, I don't dial 400 calls a day either anymore. I'm just saying it can be done.

I'm just making a general statement on what I see in a sales team now VS what I have seen. People nowadays are lazier than they were. And if you are new in this business and coming up, you better go out and get yours or someone else will.