ATTN: New to offline or thinking of jumping over - Read this FIRST!

@Joshyy
I completely agree. I am sick and tired of people wanting to venture into this field with no experience, wanting others to drop what they are doing to teach this newbie everything. Except not all at one, they try to find out one question at a time...I think they have a one question/day rule.
Thank you for starting this post.
Like you said... go look in the WSO thread, and buy the info they need

This is the classic newbie mistake when it comes to offline marketing. Do not under any circumstances offer everything under the sun (or anything resembling a 'well rounded plan') when starting out unless you're truly familiar with all the services you're offering. By doing this, you are essentially promising the sky, and chances are very high if you're just starting out that you will not be able to deliver the goods.

It's better to start out offering just a few, well-defined and simple services that you know inside and out. If you want to offer additional services that you're not quite familiar with, perhaps you could work out a referral plan where you get a fee/percentage for referring someone else's services (for example, video production) to your client.

You don't have to do either.

Understand that in your conversations with business owners you can gather information and make suggestions to help them based on the skills you have (what you see you can do that is likely to bring them in real sales and profits).

As long as you help a business make more profits than they pay you in fees you've provided them a high value service.

The key is to be focused on helping a business make real sales and profits.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Precisely. If you want to offer a service, learn the service first. If you don't know how to provide the service, do not offer it.

Seems a little like common sense, but, well, you know...

That right there is some of the best advice on the forum. Sell what you know...and I'll add, do what you are good at.

I've thought that to myself many times.

lol definately not referring to you

All you need is a solid base of knowledge of the theories... I like to simplify it by saying you should know why you're doing something not just how to do it... so you can twist and tweak methods to get a perfect fit for your clients.

Oh don't get me wrong - I want a lambo haha I just will get it by putting in the work and providing quality services and products that I know contain 100% of what I claim them to have and not just offer a compilation of 10 or so WSO's that I paid $7 a pop for wrapped in a pretty new cover.

Everyone should have goals - just acheive those goals with an ethical method and always remember it takes many years to build up a solid reputation and only one silly mistake to ruin it all.

It's also important for some of these 'youngsters' and newbies to understand that the average brick and mortar business owners are set in their ways, they often don't take business development advice from people they consider (rightly or wrongly) 'inexperienced'.

There are certain inalienable perception within the offline niche that makes it more challenging than meets the eye. It usually has nothing to do with what you're offering but more to do with your method of approach, how 'matured' your business language is, how knowledgeable you are in the overall business climate. Psychologically, the average offline business owner sees the entirety of their business operation as an inseparable unit, so they tie their business reputation and outlook to the prospective consultant's; it's not fair but such is a fact of life offline.

Most newbies in my experience are so caught up in making the money so much so that they skip the 'building a business' part, and assume that as long as they focus on the bells and whistles to offer, selling to the offline business folks will be easy. The other misconception is thinking they will get good response from their crafty offline email marketing campaign, the truth of the matter is offline businesses are even more infuriated by spam (unsolicited emails). Just like in every endeavor, apprenticeship or a mentor will alleviate some of the pitfalls. Just my two cents.

Great thread!!

John, please don't be so modest; you know that even a simple post from you goes a long way to 'mentor' people here to some extent. There are folks whose business systems and approach could be categorized as mentoring and you're one of those rare breed. I'm just reiterating the idea here for the 'youngsters' and newbies to ponder. Cheers

Fred

Lol, good to know it's not just me who can't fathom buying a new car no matter how much money I make. Thought it had something to do with my Finance degree, now I see the sentiment's universal.

Anyways, good read. Andrew & Workson have given me plenty to think about.

Two thoughts to add.

1. In regards to minding the competition, why is it that some are so quick to think about the increasing competition in their field (because of new comers in the biz)... but then about face and act as though clients are finite in number. Like really? You think new business is unique to your profession?

2. While I'm a big time planner, I'm with Louie and John that at some point you've just got to do something. Only then do you really start learning and, more importantly, realize what you didn't know, you didn't know... or at the very least need to. That's why I'm about to get started soon and just figure some things out as I go.

* Please note, the following seemed much better in my head than written. But since I spent the time typing it out, it stays, lol.*

I liken it to swimming. Marketing/Sales/Consulting is a sink or swim profession. And a swim instructor (book) can teach you all the strokes in the world, and you could be the next Michael Phelps in the kiddie section of your local pool (to your Mom & Dad), but you can't call yourself a swimmer until you can hold your own in the deep end (deal with a client)-- you know, rely on your swimming skills to stay above water cause you can no longer touch the floor (show results cause you're not dealing w/ppl who have to love you)? Until then, you can't really say you know how to swim (Market et al.).

At the same time, you can't get to that point solely by practicing in the shallow end (helping friends & fam.). At some point, you just gotta dive in (get an actual client). And once you do, you learn a lot more than you would have if you continued playing in the kiddie's section.

Before you didn't notice you needed to work on your breathing or your stamina (project pacing & turn around time), because you were so used to standing up when you needed a moment to catch your breath or take a break (putting things off, they're your friends, not a client right?)... But you notice real quick when you have to haul ass and push through so you don't drown (when you have to deliver or get dropped by your client). Before, it never dawned on you why your instructor was always on your case about keeping your fingers together and not kicking the water like you're Jet Li in Mortal Kombat (everyone tells you use Wordpress or have templates for xyz). Now that you're swimming some 150+ feet (now that you have umpteen projects due), it all makes sense. And, not too long after biting the bullet and getting in the deep end (taking your 1st client), everyone's calling you Flipper and you're somewhere in the Mediterranean having a grand ole time amongst the breaking waves (you're "That Guy" and hold your own in every environment).

At some point, you gotta say "I may not be an expert, but I'm not clueless either. And if I want to be an expert, I need to get in the game."

^^^ Ok, my brain hurts and I'm tired now. But someway, somehow, that all makes sense.

Very well said!

What it comes down to is you have to treat this offline gold as a REAL BUSINESS.

This business is NOT hard. The problem is you have these newbie cowboys out there selling offline this or that with NOTHING to back it up. Now, that's what's holding people back. You need the social proof. WHAT have you done to show the client (your future customer)? What the hell you going to talk about? What's your STORY?

What you need to do is move the FREE line. Start a blog/local portal. Then populate it with categories (automotive, dental, restaurants, etc.). Next step is to get CPA approved like Commission Junction, etc. Then, put a banner ad up of a major franchise like Blockbuster, Subway, Netflix, whatver.

Next, get the portal ranked for a few main LOCAL keywords. NOW, you can go in and offer a FREE listing in this local portal and claim you have a big advertiser (Blockbuster, etc) which adds credibility.

NOW you've built trust with this free listing. Now you can get someone to not only talk to you but will give you LOTS OF TIME to sell to them. If they don't buy your upsell right away, that's OK. Get them in your autoresponder (you do have one of those right?) sequence. Too lazy to write? Heck, buy all offline gold PLR and push it out there! Just do something!

Here's the challenge. If you're too damn lazy to get this far then how in the hell do you expect to win any business or be taken seriously? Everyone has a story (your local portal) so get out there and tell it!

Any other offliners that have a REAL business still with me? If so, raise your hand.

Merry Christmas to all

Dennis