Hiring Nightmare and Cold Calling to Success
Last week I built an automated hiring funnel but failed to account for 1 critical aspect. Also, the numbers behind cold calling can potentially shift your perspective on this marketing channel.
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(5 minute read)
Current monthly revenue: $0
Interview Scheduling Nightmare
This past week I feel like the house cleaning business stagnated and it was completely my fault.
In last week’s issue, I raved about being able to schedule interviews with qualified candidates on autopilot. Little did I know, I was making a grave, subtle mistake.
I added 15 minutes of padding between each interview and allowed applicants to book anytime between 12-5pm.
I thought this would give applicants plenty of interview time slot choices and prevent interviews from going over into each other.
Instead, this resulted in 3 days of seemingly non-stop interviews where I would work on other tasks for a max of 15-30 minutes before the next interview.
Each and every time I would just be getting into the groove of a task when I then realized I had another interview. No momentum was created during these days with lots of interviews.
That is why going forward, I have strict interview time slot schedules.
Applicants can only book between 1 - 3pm, Monday - Wednesday and there is no buffer between interviews.
I have learned that I simply cannot get any meaningful work done in between interviews.
Plus, interviews rarely go over time.
I’m excited to get more productive work done this week!
Cold Calling to Get Business
I somehow managed to get my door hangers into new resident move-in packets in 3 separate apartment buildings.
This was all done through cold calling.
A year ago, I used to be terrified of cold calling. Like most people, the thought of soliciting strangers over the phone seemed repulsive.
It wasn’t until I started cold calling for real estate leads that I learned the value of selling over the phone.
I now consider cold calling to be a cheap, reliable source of leads.
Let me show you the numbers behind cold calling and how to use it to scale:
The Numbers Behind Cold Calling
In the real estate world, talking to people is how deals get done.
More conversations = more opportunity = more deals. Therefore, cold callers are typically on a 3 line dialer to dial as many numbers as possible in a single day.
With each answer, a script is followed that’s along the lines of: “do you want to sell your property?”
No? Hang up.
Yes! Ask them questions about the property.
Here’s how this works in real life:
A virtual assistant on a 3 line dialer will dial 800 numbers / day.
This will result in 80 people (10%) answering the phone. The rest will go to voicemail.
Out of those 80 people, 40 (50%) will be the wrong person.
Out of the final 40, 2 (5%) will say yes to wanting to sell their property.
For the real estate wholesaling niche, 1 in 50 leads will convert into a closed deal. This means 20,000 dials gets us 1 closed deal with the percentages outlined above.
For this niche, one closed deal can net $10k+ so the high marketing costs are worth it.
However, there’s one thing I forgot to mention:
Wholesaling real estate is a B2C industry. This contributes significantly to the high volume required to be successful.
House cleaning is both B2C and B2B.
After cold calling apartments this past week, I can confidently say cold calling B2B is much, much easier.
Let’s take a look at the numbers:
I did 13 total dials on my personal phone (I should have done much more).
Of those 13, 7 (54%) leasing agents/property managers picked up.
Of those 7, 3 (43%) said yes to adding my door hangers into their resident’s move in packets.
Based on these numbers, it takes around 5 dials to get my door hangers into an apartment’s move in packet.
In both real estate wholesaling and house cleaning, cold calling can generate consistent business. More dials = more conversations = more opportunity = more deals.
While the specific numbers and conversion rates vary industry by industry, I’m certain almost all businesses that have a B2B aspect can find some success with cold calls.
Cleaning business next steps
I might be on the verge of getting my first customer!
Regardless, this week I am going to go heavy with organic marketing and cold calling.
This is going to include continuing cold calling apartments and starting to do warm outreach to some of my real estate investor friends.
I’m excited to see what lies ahead this week and I am almost certain I’ll be able to book my first clean by next week.