4 ms·

What would you say your hit rate is on your cold calls, and/or what is a realistic hit rate?

nickjj 5y ago
There's so many deciding factors that go into this. There's timing, you, them, the situation, etc.. It could be a specific percent today and a different percent 2 weeks from now. I never really payed attention to quantifying these types of stats because I think as an individual your sample size is going to be too small to get meaningful data out of it. In my mind it's always a numbers game where the only thing that matters is if I land a gig or not. I tweak things based on individual calls and kind of use my gut to guide me. It's not the most scientific thing but I don't think personal sales with a small'ish sample size is going to be purely scientific. So much of it is dependent on reading the other person in real-time and adjusting as you go. When in doubt honesty and less "hard sale" tactics have worked well.
- hackerfromthefu 5y ago
  You mention getting numbers as you walk around town, what kind of rates do you charge if this converts into a gig?
  - nickjj 5y ago
    It's dependent on the business and project / contract. Anywhere from $100 to $200 an hour generally but I don't always stick to that. There's a lot of things to think about. For example having a relationship with a high value trades person (plumber, doctor, lawyer, etc.) has an immense amount of long term value. That doesn't mean you need to drastically cut your rates, but it's something to think about when evaluating how much to charge. For smaller more common local businesses where it's mostly trading time for money (as opposed to raw materials), I don't mind cutting rates by a lot because it's mutually beneficial for both of us. For example, if a haircutter wants a basic site, instead of charging them $500 to throw up a WP site in a day I might offer to do the site for something substantially less (let's say $150). I won't bring it up directly that I'm cutting them a massive deal but if you word it around how you want to help a local business and you generally like the person they'll often offer you a deal on their end like free haircuts for life. To me that's more beneficial than a few hundred bucks up front. Not just from a greedy position of expecting something better later, but I've found having a wider network of friends or contacts proves to be useful time and time again.

There's so many deciding factors that go into this. There's timing, you, them, the situation, etc.. It could be a specific percent today and a different percent 2 weeks from now. I never really payed attention to quantifying these types of stats because I think as an individual your sample size is going to be too small to get meaningful data out of it. In my mind it's always a numbers game where the only thing that matters is if I land a gig or not. I tweak things based on individual calls and kind of use my gut to guide me. It's not the most scientific thing but I don't think personal sales with a small'ish sample size is going to be purely scientific. So much of it is dependent on reading the other person in real-time and adjusting as you go. When in doubt honesty and less "hard sale" tactics have worked well.

hackerfromthefu 5y ago
You mention getting numbers as you walk around town, what kind of rates do you charge if this converts into a gig?
- nickjj 5y ago
  It's dependent on the business and project / contract. Anywhere from $100 to $200 an hour generally but I don't always stick to that. There's a lot of things to think about. For example having a relationship with a high value trades person (plumber, doctor, lawyer, etc.) has an immense amount of long term value. That doesn't mean you need to drastically cut your rates, but it's something to think about when evaluating how much to charge. For smaller more common local businesses where it's mostly trading time for money (as opposed to raw materials), I don't mind cutting rates by a lot because it's mutually beneficial for both of us. For example, if a haircutter wants a basic site, instead of charging them $500 to throw up a WP site in a day I might offer to do the site for something substantially less (let's say $150). I won't bring it up directly that I'm cutting them a massive deal but if you word it around how you want to help a local business and you generally like the person they'll often offer you a deal on their end like free haircuts for life. To me that's more beneficial than a few hundred bucks up front. Not just from a greedy position of expecting something better later, but I've found having a wider network of friends or contacts proves to be useful time and time again.