Cold calling (Elvan)

In Pipedrive, record the person's first/last name and LinkedIn profile address.

Why do you do this before even sending the initial connection request? Couldn't you save yourself some time by only entering accepting people into Pipedrive? Yes, but I want to be able to track my conversion rate for the stage "initial connection request to acceptance/ignoring of initial connection request."

If they're not already a 1st degree contact on LinkedIn:

Dear XXX,

Some of us Toastmasters in Europe and New York recently started an online-only advanced Toastmasters club dedicated to helping people practice their online presentation skills.

Would you be interested? If so, message me back and we'll send you more info about the club.

--Matt

If they are already a 1st degree contact on LinkedIn:

Dear XXX,

Some of us Toastmasters in Europe and New York recently started an online-only advanced Toastmasters club dedicated to helping people practice their online presentation skills (being comfortable on video, familiar with the popular webinar tools, etc).

Since it's an advanced club, members must have at least finished their Competent Communicator certificate. The club focuses on online communication, and the meetings are held online only. There are almost 16,000 TM clubs worldwide, but only about 7 of them are online-only, so it's kind of a new concept for Toastmasters.

Would you be interested in joining? If so, message me back and we'll send you more info. If you're not interested, sorry for the interruption!

Matt Krause

This is so you can track your conversion rate at each step, including the initial "do they respond to my cold call outreach?"

If they are interested:

Dear XXX,

Thanks for accepting my LinkedIn connection request, here’s some more info about the online-only advanced Toastmasters club:

The club is called Elvan Toastmasters. It exists to help people practice their online presentation skills (being comfortable on video, familiar with the popular webinar tools, etc).

The club is not an attempt to replace a face-to-face Toastmasters club or replicate the Toastmasters experience online. We are just here to learn how to communicate better online, and to spread what we learn to others.

We held our first club meeting in early June. We haven't chartered yet, we are still building our membership to the required 20 charter members.

Some of the online-only clubs I visited in my research met at a couple different times, in a couple different groups, to get around the time zone challenge…

So our first group (the one we started out with) meets on the 1st and 3rd Sundays at 5pm London time. Those members have been joining us from New York, Hannover, Bordeaux, Athens, Budapest, and Istanbul.

But we're thinking of organizing a second, more weekday-friendly group too. For example, a group that meets on Tuesdays at 6pm London time, or on Thursdays, or something like that.

The meetings are held exclusively online. We use Zoom.us, an online meeting tool I've been using for my own business for the past year or so. The meetings are held at:

http://elvantoastmasters.org/meeting

Also in my research and visiting, I noticed that some of the clubs are advanced, and some of the clubs are open to all. We plan to make the club advanced, so it stays focused on delivering on one narrow mission (help people with their online presentation skills), rather than diluting to a broader mission (Toastmasters’ broader mission of creating public speakers) that the online-only format probably wouldn't be good at.

There are almost 16,000 TM clubs worldwide, but only about 10 online-only clubs at this point. So this is relatively uncharted territory in the TM world.

+++++++++++++++++

Suggested next step if you're interested: Join the Google Group we use for club meeting announcements, agendas, etc. If you decide later the club is not for you, just unsubscribe from the group; don't worry, you won't hurt our feelings. 😉

Signup for the Google Group is on our homepage at:

http://www.elvantoastmasters.org/

+++++++++++++++++

Matt

Email: [email protected]
Web: http://mattkrause.com

If they are not interested (they are too busy, or for whatever reason):

1. Message them:

Dear XXX,

Thanks for the LinkedIn connection. Noted that it's not a good fit for you at this point. If you run into anyone who is interested, please send them our way...

http://elvantoastmasters.org/

Best regards,

Matt

2. Mark the deal as "lost" in Pipedrive