Hi guys, today I'm gonna share with you based on my experience in automotive line more than 7 years now, how to get 1000 contacts in just on day! I learnt a lot throughout the journey from mistakes and wrong decision, trust me it is really bad decisions but you'll grow a lot from it as well. Well long story short.
Namelist
Well of course the most easiest way to get 1000 contacts is by Buying it. I have joined as a property agent/real estate negotiator before and the first most important thing in that position is you need to buy name lists from your company or your boss and soon after you need to start your “Cold Calling”. Of course it don't come at a cheap price but almost RM1 per contact,is not expensive for some people but it is still a lump sum of money.
Of course today I'm not asking you to join as real estate negotiator to buy the name list but it is one of the Easiest way, and probably you may find some source outside to get the name list with different price as well. For example each company have their own set of customer database, maybe you can start from your own company. I was worked with an automotive dealership, and I gather all the past customer database and start to do my follow up one by one. And guess what I got it for free. On the other hand before I work in automotive industry, I actually do venture as water filter service consultant and I got hundreds and hundreds of name list for free. But you know what, free things sometimes doesn't motivate you too much to call one after one, and free comes too easy and people just don’t commit to it. As for me I admit that it is too easy to have it and I’m not interested in doing sales back then and also at that time of my life, I'm still finding out my path of life.
Well, the benefits of you buying a name list you won't waste any time and your hard earn money to start your journey of cold calling, sms, WhatsApp or whichever way you're comfortable doing it, 10 years back cold calling is very common as we always receive some random call from random people offering or try to sell you anything.And then comes to mass SMS which you can write all your details of your advertising, product, prices, promotion and etc. Lastly of course nowadays majority people owned a smart phone and most people have a phone app call WhatsApp, WeChat and etc with 0 cost sending all your advertisement to improve your sales. So, name list is proven you can get your 1000 contacts in just one day, it is just that easy. Now lets move on to next chapter we talk about how to get 1000 contacts for free in other ways.
Networking
The name of Networking sounds not very interesting like direct selling and stuff but it is actually quite a useful tool if you come to understand it. You see I have read and learnt about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, regarding on the 6 degree of separations concept, which posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. Let’s make it easy for you guys, for example, me, my wife and my father-in-law, between me and my father in law is 2 degrees of separation; me, my wife, my father-in-law and my father-in-law friend, between me and my father-in-law friend is 3 degrees of separation and so on.
Don’t confuse, it is actually very easy. Today your own cellphone contacts, your friend or your customer, by there you ask them refer you or recommend you to their friends, that’s second degree, from there another refer to another. That’s how it works. A lot of times in our mind always think that why would new people would like to make friends and do business with stranger? Yes you’re correct, so before everything over here, there’s one main key point that is call Relationship. In today’s business, customers can just buy anything anywhere with so many people offer the same products, so the main question why customer wants to buy from you? Answer is Relationship.
This networking method actually do multiplies your contacts from your cellphone immediately right after you know how to use it from 100 contacts to 200-300 contacts immediately. I often ask my customers, do they satisfy my car delivery services, and if they do please recommend me at least two of your friends who are currently looking for cars as well. At our current society, ask yourself one question, if today you change a new car, how many people may aware and know about and also like about it? With that you’ll know how many people your customer can recommend to you just that whether your customer is close to you enough to share their contact lists. Move on to the next chapter I will talk about community service.
Community Service
Have you know your nearest community service? For example your residential area community group, they will have their own set of community activities, events, AJK members and etc. Do you know all of them and do you know how much it can impact in your business if you’re close with these people? I used to live in a guarded residential area and our community form our own security team due to developer no longer support. In this community we have around 150 house owners and their family members who comes from different race, religion and background, which means you can find your closest mechanic if your car breakdown, closest air conditioner service agent if your air conditioner needs an immediate service, closest plumber if you have piping issues, closest interior design if you need a renovation of your entire house and etc. So, what is your business today? And does your neighbors and your residential community know about you?
Other than residential community, your primary school community, your secondary school community, your college/university community, your lunch break group, your tea time group, your prayer group, your cultural group and etc. Other than this, you may also volunteer in charities, join charity run and get yourself exposed.
Contacts Along The Streets
This is the step that you can get a fresh contact whom is not directly related or know you. Have you ever heard of your business success today is because the support from strangers rather than friends and family? Yes in reality your friends and family might jealous your success and of course it will be great if they are supportive but the greater question will be how much they can support? Is not like friends and family are not a good business supporters but not to depend on them to be your majority sales, get your sales from new channels everyday and every time, strangers and referrals will make best sales.
My personal experiences back then how I get 1000 contacts in a day one of them is I'll be driving around cities and look for 3 things, buntings, banners and signboards. All these contacts ate either salesperson, retails assistant, retail supervisor or business owner. For my automotive line and in my perspective, all of them also need transportation and there is chances for them to purchase a car from me. Well you don’t have to collect your competitors contact number if you don’t want to but as for myself I collect all of them because I able to give them car as well if they don’t have ready stock, so what do you think?
Prepare your papers and pens, while driving from one city to another. Copy the mobile number with slow driving, stop on traffic light and car park. As you can see Buntings and Banners majority hang on busy street poles, traffic lights, and congested city while signboard of course right above the shop lots. With these activities I did last time and I can generate about 200 contacts per hour depending on the city and the updated buntings and banners from time to time.
Newspaper Advertisements
Have you ever saw an advertisement sections in the newspaper, and do you know how much contacts you can get from one newspaper? Generally 50 contacts per newspaper regardless of English newspapers, Bahasa Malaysia newspapers and other language newspaper. My experience I used to read The Stars newspaper and the middle section advertisement is my favourite section while others may either tossed it, wrapped vegetables, wipe windows and wasted it. Trust me, part of your fortune are not from the economy sections you read and update from newspaper but the person who is going to support your business is inside the newspaper advertisement content.
Yellow Pages
If your business mainly focus on Business to Business (B2B), yellow pages are best suited for you as all contacts inside is majority office contacts. When I was working in a telecommunication company, my first job I have to start cold calling all these companies and get sales from it and that's how I know about yellow pages.
Benefits of this yellow pages are they categorized each types of business together so you won’t have a hard to time find out which company is what business and narrow down your target market instantly. For example if you're supplying hardware you may direct contact developers, construction company, renovation company, interior design and etc. However like I was in automotive industry, my customers are all above, I can either do company registered vehicle or individual vehicle. With my experience I able to met the director of the company and all the staff vehicle are purchased from us.
Forums
Have you joined any forums before? In Malaysia the most common and famous forum is lowyat.net forum In which they discuss almost everything in the forum and you can get most relevant contact in this forum. Forum is not a place that you can get contact number directly but is a place where you can get potential customer instead of rolling a dice. I have been in forum until today, it is just like an online community where people communicate through words instead of talking in real life.
Technology take over the world now so we must keep ourselves updated and maintain good relationship whether online or offline world. Both business are equally important towards your sales goal at the end of the day. Forums personal profile if you’re lucky enough you either can get customer direct contact number or email address.
However even though its a forum, sometimes these forums do have a marketplace for people like us who running business or sales to post your advertisement. Of course in this book I will only talk about how you get contacts from several channels, sales and marketing will be listed in other book. As I mentioned since there is a marketplace which means there are a lot of people listed their contact numbers within their advertisement.
Websites And Online Marketplace
Do you notice when you go to any websites there are always a link to contact us. This is where you get all the contact numbers, emails and addresses that you need especially if you are running a B2B business. Other than that certain websites if you would Google it, it actually have quite a number of emails given for free.
Online marketplace which is very famous in Malaysia definitely comes to your mind is Mudah.my, Carlist.my (if you are selling anything related to car), Carousell.com, Majalah.com and etc. Above all websites are very active and you can find million of users per day. Still have doubt of getting 1000 contact a day up to here? Let’s talk about Mudah.my for example, it has more than 2.3 million users like their social media pages, more than 10 million downloads for their mobile apps and at least 1.2 million items selling via their online marketplace. You will get the number of contacts you want in your own set of time. You can find out in mudah.my are direct users, business owners, salesperson, and all types of customers. Who are your customer today, you will have to set yourself as for me, everyone can be my customer because everyone needs a transport at the end of the day.
Chat Apps And Social Media
I would call these second most powerful tools invented for business. Chat Apps like WhatsApp for example is free to use to not just communication but also advertisement instead of SMS and of course we talk about this next time too. You can find and join various advertisement group And get the contacts from within like myself i maintain to have 4 advertisement group of myself and I join other member advertisement group and from there I expand my contacts. Chat Apps nowadays its just like social media, you may find out who you may know among your friends and get them invited to your contact lists.
Yes, social media, the most powerful tools being invented after all. I believe a very little number of people in this world live without social media but majority of you probably have more than 1 social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and etc. All these platform consist not just Malaysia contacts but also foreign contacts, benefits if you're doing business with foreign customers and you can get their contact by just follow their page and direct message them. You have more than 2.4 billion Facebook users for example and Malaysia itself have 22.7 million users. Don’t mention about 1000 contacts in a day after this.
Summary
All the tools above based on my own experience using it and I share with you guys how I use it for my automotive business. I find it best for me is after I get about 10,000 contacts, I start to filter them and make relationship with customers and from there I do a lot of follow up and services. Through all these services you provided you will retain your customer loyalty and word of mouth started to spread and your journey of genuine and quality customers start to come to you one after one.
I’m not sure what kind of business you’re running today, but I can guaranteed with the same method you use above and you use it wisely after it expanded, you’ll eventually reach you expected goal. Finding new customers are always the most easiest thing to do, keeping them will be your next challenge.
Whatever your business is, it is always a number game. Sales Approach x Closing Rate = Profits. So what is your expected Sales Approach for today?
With this article I guaranteed you'll find your expected amount of customer, and if you don't just email me at carauto2u@gmail.com.
CarAuto2u
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