Cold calling potential users when just starting?

Cold calling potential users can be a great way to generate leads and learn more about your target market. However, it can also be time-consuming and challenging. Here are some steps you can take to make the most of your cold calling efforts:

Develop a clear and concise script that explains who you are and what you do.

Research your target market and identify potential users who would be interested in your product or service.

Create a list of contact information for the people you want to reach out to.

Set aside a dedicated time each day to make your calls.

Start by introducing yourself and explaining the purpose of your call.

Ask if the person is interested in learning more about your product or service.

If they are interested, direct them to your landing page or schedule a follow-up call to discuss further.

If they are not interested, thank them for their time and move on to the next person on your list.

Remember to be persistent but polite, and don't be discouraged if you don't get a lot of positive responses at first. Cold calling can be a powerful tool for generating leads, but it takes time and effort to be successful.

Have open office hours on Vibehut.io, give away gift cards if you need to

Join other peoples calls and pitch your idea

I have a pretty good hack for this that I found through cold call experimentation.

Hack: use your location to your advantage by calling leads as close to your location as possible. Start with city, then state, then region. I'm based in the USA but this probably works for other areas.

This has been my number one differentiator between yes's and no's.

So my typical script is something like:

"Hey [lead], it's [your name] - I'm based out of [shared location].

I'm working on [business] and I'm looking to get some feedback on what I'm building.

Would you be open to finding some time to give me feedback. I'm happy to send you a Starbucks gift card in return."

You can also offer to buy leads a coffee in person, which typically increases the rate of landing a meeting.

What is the nature of your business? I think this matters a lot for how well cold calls work.

I had experience in this line when I had a web design business. My primary customer was auto repair shops.

Usually, I would peruse google and look for auto repair shops in my city, and then branching out to other cities once I ran out.

Then, I would build a google sheet full of numbers and prepare to call them, with some notes regarding the location and what they were missing from the website.

Usually, I would do 25+ calls every day, and if they picked up, I just opened up with a transparent line about web design.

It was usually a "no", and then I would say "have a nice day" and hang up.

But whenever I did get someone interested, I would set up a different time for another call and grab their email since I usually called during their work hours and didn't want to burden them.

I would usually follow up with an email and send a link to my website before the warm lead call.

During the second call, since I already had a warm lead, I would do my typical pitch explaining the benefits of a good website, along with a demo version of their site, just spruced up a bit.

Overall, I think cold call success is dependent on numbers and correct customer targeting. There's little you can do to make someone interested if they're busy and are called out of the blue.

Speaking of process, I'd love to hear your feedback on a current project I'm working on once I release. It's an AI API for developers to connect AI to their apps: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/evoke

I also post a lot about it on twitter, so you can take a look there too: https://twitter.com/TheRealEtch

Good luck on whatever you're pursuing!