Script for prospecting to local businesses face to face

Just because it is a "Cold Walk In" does not mean that both you and the person you will be walking in on have to be "Cold"

If you are walking door to door to door in search of clients.. well.. you will be walking a lot. You are a nobody... you don't have experience to fall back on.. you need at the very least some type of edge.

Start with the local news paper. Select a handful of business' that advertise there. find their website, find their social media, figure out if they are advertising any where else.

Hi, my name is Paul and I live in name of town and I am a local business marketing consultant. ( if you have recently moved there I would say that ) Maybe not the exact words but the sentiment is very important. GEOGRAPHY is a very powerful tool. You want to convey the concept that you are specializing in this market and only this market. You live locally and you have a firm understanding of what the minor nuances in advertising as it pertains to this area.

I personally for years ran with a $99 advertising consultancy meeting. I would ask them to bring together all of their materials. Be it old ads, new ads, letter head, business cards, printed material, web materials, social media etc. I would also gather as much of this as possible.

You are then looking for gaps in message and over all branding. "Branding" is a term that everyone knows, but very few understand. It becomes a great segway into the services you offer, and lays the path that you would follow to correct the issues.

So if I was going to go at this with cold walk ins.. I would have the newspaper ad, I would have a printout of their website, I would ask to see a business card ( I would have actually been in the store 1 time before I presented a pitch to gather any printed materials) Social media etc.

Hi my name is Paul. I happened to notice when I was doing research for a client, you have a lot of advertising collateral. I took a few moments to gather some of this information. would you have a few minutes to discuss your advertising and branding? If they say yes that's great. you set down and run over what you have and SET a further appointment, where as described above you would have access to all of their materials and you would create a presentation. $99 thank you very much.

If they say No.. I would have all of the printed ads and web page stuff business card etc and have a quick 1 page letter describing some of the hiccups in their efforts and the importance of consistent message and branding. Down at the bottom of the letter would be the $99 offer and a number to call to set an appointment. Sorry to consume your time have a great day.

At the very least this package needs to look good. this is a representation of the work that you do. The research, The methodology at identifying and correcting issues, and the overall professionalism in the presentation itself. A folder would be nice. Quality paper is a must. and the layout of the whole thing should not look like screen captures.. but a bit more refined.

This creates a separation between YOU, and every other person that walks through their door 4 times a day.

Why not set appointments with them via the phone first so your only sitting with interested potential customers?

OP, if you're offering services as a marketing consultant, why would you use such and untargeted and time consuming method of getting prospects?

Do some research as per Savage4's suggestion. Narrow down to more likely prospects and approach them via letter, email, telephone... whatever you're more comfortable with. You research should tell you which would be more effective.

In addition to Savage4's suggestions, I'd be on the lookout for clients with JV potential. Get a printer as a client and offer an exchange of marketing services for access to his customer list. Make his customer list an exclusive offer and you'll get a flood of clients approaching you. No need to wear out your shoe leather! :-)

their own services. OK. give me a sec to stop giggling.

Now then. I'm going to give you what you want. BUT, part one can be found in post 2 by savidge4. He's a pro, and has given you the foundation to build on.

I'm about to give you the exact how to.

But first, the silliness of your approach. Imagine walking into a company and asking what they do, then asking for a job.

Questions like "How's business?" are ridiculous and belong in an Adam Sandler gagger movie. Even more absurd would be; "Do you have a web site?"

Pure amateur, you'll last less than a week with this approach.

So, if you do what savidge4 suggested, get your local paper and as many local advertising vehicles as you can, and IF you use google maps, and get the locations of the business, this is a tested and proven way.

You will have POSTCARDS made up, on the front, the MAP of their area, where most of their customers come from (perhaps), this comes from your research, if they do remote business, you need to know that.

On the back of the card is a survey. You are a MARKETING APPRAISER, and you are offering a FREE (99-150 dollar value) marketing appraisal to a select few business for the next 14 days.

Now, armed with your postcards, you go to a business area. There are advanced techniques, where you offer the FREE deal to only one type of business and you have a REASON you are giving their business the chance...but, cold calling in this manor works too.

Instead of walking in asking silly questions, you get in front of the owner, decision maker manager and hand them their card.

"Our recent research shows your business is not tapping into the potential of this area. We are offering a limited number of FREE Appraisals as part of our on going research. We can only do this for a limited number who respond in the next 14 days."

On the back of the card, you have about a 10 question survey, which is designed to show them they are NOT currently maximized for profits.

IF you get immediate questions, close them on the spot for a follow up appointment, which will take about 20 minutes. The other approach is to show them your working map for the day, say, "I've got to get these cards out today to other local businesses, but, I'll give you a day to think about this, and get back to you, although, once we have reached our research numbers, you may have to pay the 150 for the appraisal, which is still a great deal if you want to know if your current marketing is maximized."

This works IF

You are a PRO, and have done your homework and research...

IF you are a true marketing consultant who can help them get more business.

IF you give them a good reason for being in their store, a good REASON why they should spend their valuable time...and IF you can deliver on the promise a marketing consultant makes...MORE and/or Better business.

Now, between this thread, savidge4's advice, and the thread by Rocket Media, Holiday Giveaway, which you responded to...

YOU have a complete course, with answers to your questions and a plan of action if you choose to follow, you could do very well with...

IF you know anything at all about marketing and just haven't bought into the hype about making money with off line consultancy...then, the next thing we should hear from you is how much business you have done, by HELPING other businesses get more and/or better customers.

Can you do that?

gjabiz

Although the replies here outline some interesting advice and great ways of prospecting for clients, I don't agree that face to face prospecting is inefficient and I don't agree that my script is that bad.

Andrew Cavanagh, who wrote 'Offline Gold', has made lots of money as a marketing consultant to local businesses, and he does cold walk on face to face, following a script similar to what I outlined in this post.

My question to the posters here, if face to face prospecting with my script is so bad, why is Andrew Cavanagh teaching this way and why has it worked so effectively for him?

Before you all reply, please read the following post by him then get back to me:

http://www.offlinebiz.com/public/Off...orumThread.pdf

You could have had about 30 business owners asking about your offer in the time it takes to get rejected 1 time acting like it is 1980 trying to sell amway door to door. It's called bulk email. And facebook ads targeting trade publications and organizations certain types of business owners like or use.

He,

I know your problem as i had similar issue when i started doing offline marketing.
Let me tell you that you can play a completly different game, you can be on top of it, being an authority, having complete control over your niche and more client than you can handle... How that sound to you ?

You need to start by finding a niche that you are ready to invest yourself deeply in it.
it's all about being the tribe leader in a niche, that's the best position, the top banana

Going with a small niche help a lot to start and after you just take more space.

Niches can be Horizontal(country,geographic) or Vertical(speciality, products)

With internet it's very easy to create a positionning in a couples of hours, it's a VERY powerful tool.
1- Get a domain name for your niche, example YourcityWebStudio.com
2- Design a business card or pay someone on odesk to do it for you
3- Create a gift, a free ebook or a business directory website or...
4- Contact people in your niche and offer them a gift,
5- Ask them what they do, check IF the prospect is a GREAT match for your services
6- Charge a lot, stop the bottom marketing strategy, it's a tough one ..
7- Make it possible for them to pay you as you charge so much, do monthly payments etc...
8- Focus on relation, helping, before and after the sales, giving, giving, giving
9- Give the best WOW factor, Awesome products and ask for TESTIMONIALS

You know there's a bigger, fuller life waiting for you and NOW is the time to own it !!!
Let me know if i can help more by msg...

I'll just stick with #1.

No...No, No, No, No!

"How's business"? I own a business. Every day, I get cold callers, and every few days, a cold walk in. My very first instinct is, "Is this a customer/client or not?". Within that same second, I think, "What does he want? I need to get back to work" All small talk is aggravating.

Asking what marketing are we doing, and how it's working for me?

Why should I tell you? Who are you? How have you earned my attention? Why is talking to you more important than what I was doing when you came in?

Be quick, be precise, give obvious value.

For a short time, I trained advertising salespeople.

Do you want to get my attention, if I'm busy?

Walk in, with a competitor's ad in your hand. Say, "I'm an advertising copywriter. This is your competitor's ad. Would you like to know the results he's getting? would you like to know what works in the ad, and the big problem the ad has that kills response?"

If I'm in the middle of heart surgery, you have my attention now. Every business owner wants more business. But they also want to know what their competitor is doing. And they want his marketing to fail.

But you better know what you are talking about, because attention wanes very fast.

Better yet, walk in with one of my ads. "Hi. I'm a marketing expert. I saw your ad here. There are three things about your ad that bring in buyers, and two things that kill response. Would you like to know what they are?"

The answer to those questions is "Yes".

Why use ads as an entry point? Because business owners that already pay for marketing, are far far more likely to listen to you, and buy your service...than business owners that aren't used to spending money on marketing. Why marketing reps try to sell people that have never spent money on marketing, is beyond me.


"I think I can make your ad bring in twice as many new customers, and no additional cost. Are you interested in knowing how?".

Use "Marketing" instead of "advertising" if you like.

Memorize this line, "I create quality leads and buyers for business owners that already have a website"

That's what I say when I introduce myself to business owners. And sometimes, they ask, "Why do I have to already have a website?" or "How do you do that?"

And I have a sequence I go through that gets me into an interested prospect that will probably buy.

If I were going to do cold walk ins, without an ad in my hand..truly cold calling....I would introduce myself to the owner, and say "I create quality leads and buyers for business owners that already have a website...for pennies on the dollar. Would you like to know more?".

All I want is a fast, "yes" or "No". You should substitute the type of business they have, for "business owners". Like "Retail store owners" or "Gift shop owners".

Pretty much any question I get after that will be replied with, "Do you ever get buyers come in (or "contact you" or "call you"), that say they found you online?"

"Sure".

"Would you like more of them?"



Nowadays I just cold call to test an approach, or to show someone how to do it. But I have had several long term valuable business relationships that started with a cold call.

But, truth be told, If you don't enjoy true cold calling, you can get attention with just "information a business owners wants, NOW". And information on a competitor is juicy stuff. If you want to use e-mails, letters, phone calls..fine. But if I needed a check today (which describes my first few years in business), I'd go in cold to talk to the business owners. If you move quickly, you'll have a paying client by the end of the day.

Of course, if you are targeting large corporations, and you are seeing employees...all my advice here goes out the window.

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By the way, do you practice what you preach? In the last week, I've had one new coaching client, and two high end retail sales.......contact me because of my online marketing. They called, ready to buy. Effortless selling.

I'm always amazed that advertising sales reps don't advertise for clients in their own media. It's nearly free, and these are clients ready to buy.