All Forum Posts by: James Danchus

"Plan your work and work your plan but don't plan the results." 

I've lived by these words and made (and kept) several fortunes by following them.

Can one predict ANY marketing effort? Sure, it's possible. After testing and tweaking, adding data points, capture methods, integrating with reliable Intel, appending data, improving call scripts for call agents, constant metrics analysis and relentless testing. 

So many variables. 

A friend in my mastermind group tells a great story about how Craftmatic beds used to be sold. Incredible story of phone and in-person selling and conversion. It worked too well until FTC stepped in (probably a good thing). 

As to predicting results before you've started, I don't have any idea how you will assign any meaningful number until you DO test.

In direct response marketing there is always a control constant to use as a baseline. It's the tried-and-true methods that, if this formula is used, based on past history, this result will likely occur. Copywriter are challenged to "beat the control."

A great list is better than a great script. Rent the movie Glengarry Glen Ross ;again) and refresh your thoughts about outbound telemarketing and what is most important.

Start with a number, if you must, randomly assigned, as a realistic conversion goal. Run campaigns against that metric and test, test, test. 

 My challenge: just do something now and ramp up as you get better.

I must second the thoughts of @David Dachtera.  I recently read this in How to Win Friends and Influence People, and it re-emphasized to me the incredible importance of the dialogue with our potential clients: "Thousands of salespeople are pounding the pavements today, tired, discouraged and underpaid. Why? Because they are always thinking only of what they want. They don’t realise that neither you nor I want to buy anything. If we did, we would go out and buy it. But both of us are eternally interested in solving our problems. And if salespeople can show us how their services or merchandise will help us solve our problems, they won’t need to sell us. We’ll buy. And customers like to feel that they are buying –not being sold."

You need to generate leads, you need to spend money to generate leads, but boiling it down to "how many letters do you need to get a deal" I'm not sure is making sense.  I can tell you, we generate a probate deal for every 3,000 ($2,400) letters.  We generate a out-of-state absentee deal about 12,000 postcards ($6,000).  I have some other smaller campaigns that have never generated a deal to date.  Our last 4 deals netted $15,000-60,000.

In April-March 2016, we had the sense we needed more volume.  That was true.  I think though our knee-jerk reaction was along your thought process: "how many letters do I need to send to generate XYZ amount of leads." In reality, we mailed harder but not smarter.

There is an excellent podcast, I believe BP Podcast 176 with Tom Krol , where he discusses these topics in detail.  After listening to that podcast, I made major changes to my direct mail postcard campaign that are going into effect with August 1st mailing (fingers crossed!).  Re-focusing half of my campaign on high equity in-state owners to avoid competition, and beginning a tax delinquent test.  This also allowed me to get more strict on my out-of-state list.  I also made other changes based on feedback received on these forums.

@James Danchus Beginning of the year? With that sense of urgency, it'll never happen. 

Why not start in the next few days! Yes, you'll make mistakes. So what? 

Start with a piece of paper and physical write down notes.

To organize your thoughts, I like to use a lead sheet. It has gone thru countless changes and evolved over the last (30) years. I now have pre-printed a few more good questions to ask on back side of sheet, in case I forget, so that the nuance is achieved.

Putting this off means perfectionism. You are not going to get it perfect, so don't use that as an excuse.

You don't have to get it perfect, you just have to get it going!

@James Danchus,

Then, it's up to YOU to learn how to make your communication sufficiently effective that you get the ROI you seem to be looking for.

There's no magic in the numbers. It's not about statistics, either. It's about how effectively you communicate with people so they will do business with YOU instead of the guy they just hung up on.

Comprende?

@James Danchus,

This is going to sound kinda smart-***, but "How many Calls (Does It Take) to Get a Deal?"

As many as it takes.

Learn how to have effective conversations focusing on identifying and solving the other person's problem - it's NOT about you! The more effective your communication the more results you get for your efforts.

My $0.02...

It's a very difficult question to answer because deals come months if not years after calls.  Not only that, some investors have different margin objectives.  You can churn out 30 deals for $5,000 each, or 10 deals for $15,000 and net the same amount.  We often ask the question: is it worth it to get involved in this deal for $5,000-$10,000?  Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no.