John Durham, Anybody Please Help Me Build This From Scratch. . .

18 replies
Hello everyone. Its been a long walk away from here.

Currently I have a target to make $20,000(it could be more) between now and next year and I need the money for schooling in Canada since I have made up my mind to leave Nigeria before I next year ends.

However, I have chosen hostgator affiliate + free website set up(I learnt about it here) model for offline businesses but I don't how to how to get clients. I know some people may suggest cold calling; this is Nigeria. People are suspicious!

So, my options are flyers at banks, classified ads in Newspapers (the classified ads would be for later use due to finance) and letter(I need templates for the letter) schools,churches and other businesses.

Would the above listed options/methods work? If you had only those options in mind how would you do it effectively step by step?

I would like any suggestion that could help me get the clients to call me and I am willing to take massive action. I really need this money. Thanks in advance for your time.
#build #durham #john #scratch
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Bucker
    And why have you attached John Durham to your title?
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    • Profile picture of the author David Miller
      Originally Posted by Michael Bucker View Post

      And why have you attached John Durham to your title?
      Because no one would pay attention otherwise I suppose.

      Here's a method I found helpful:

      Trial and Error
      Signature
      The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.
      -- FRANK SINATRA, quoted in The Way You Wear Your Hat
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      • Profile picture of the author John Durham
        Originally Posted by David Miller View Post

        Because no one would pay attention otherwise I suppose.

        Here's a method I found helpful:

        Trial and Error
        More than likely its because my advice has actually consistently made people alot of money instead of just being a blow hard like many..., regardless of any recent set backs.

        I have a verifiable track record of helping people produce real cash that stretches way beyond the warrior forum, but thanks Dave. ( )


        Lol.

        Lemme re read the OP and see what can be said here...

        Okay,

        The only way to get around cold calling is outside advertising or affiliates obviously.

        I preach cold calling but also have done classified advertising, online advertising... The issue with "teaching it" is that its easier to teach someone to cold call than to teach them all the nuances of advertising.

        It can take ALOT of trial and error and money to create a good ad or incoming call generating system.

        Its also easier to cold call or house your own telemarketers than to find a good outsourcing company for it.

        Why?

        You can get a sale your first day on the phone or at least an "appointment" even if you are a relative novice, just through taking action alone.

        It may take awhile to develop a knack for "attracting customers" through other forms of advertising, but in the mean time cold calling is a way to just go take them by force.

        In answer to your question:

        The first thing to do is break it down.

        20 k is

        A: 4 5k sales
        B: 20 1k sales
        C: 40 $500. sales.
        D: 80 $250 sales
        E: 2 10k sales.

        So, based on what you offer and how much value you feel you can deliver, pick a money formula for breaking down the goal.

        There are nine months left in the year... you could make 20k by only doing 2 or 3 sales per month at $1,000 at the point of sale... not counting backend.

        Assuming that you are just a newby who only offers real basic static websites...Even if you broke it down to 80 sales at $250, thats less than ten sales per month or 3 per week. At a price of $250 thats doable even if its just you on the phone. Even 2 sales per week is $18,000, count your residual backend income and it should be around 20k if you are charging anything for monthly maintenance.

        As for suspicion...

        I dont care WHERE YOU ARE... People are suspicious of salesman. You have to deal with it, and work the numbers until you can get better at gaining trust.

        "Working the Numbers" is the formula for learning through trial and error.

        With each call you get a little, slightly better.

        If you tie a note around a Dogs neck and send him to enough doors someone will say yes.


        What you have to do, even if you totally SUCK on the phone is to get on it for a few hours and figure out how many people you have to send that dog to to get a "lay down sale".

        Then make a formula out of it until you can increase your conversions.

        Just like DM's above, you probably arent going to like this answer, because in ANY event, you have to work through discomfort to get good at sales.

        Lets look at the very worse case scenario (probably the worse you can do after a couple of days of practice).

        Lets say you find that, even in your "I suck at telemarketing" state, you can land 3 appointments out of 400 calls, or roughly 6 hours of calling, and your appointment closing ratio also sucks and you only close 25% of your qualified appointments.

        Thats really sucky BUT, now you have a numbers formula, even if you have no skills, and that formula will work for you.

        Trust me, if you have nothing else you can ALWAYS find it in the numbers... you just have to determine what number that has to be, given your level of skills or technique/strategy/offer...

        Even if you have NONE (skills), and all you can say is "Im just calling to see if you want a website"...you can do better than a dog with a note around its neck, and, again, even THAT will get a yes eventually.

        So those sound like really unattractive odds right?

        Not really, lets look at it:

        "I use to work 6 hours per day for $60.00, with 'someone else' disciplining me, and now I make $250 for every six hours that I discipline myself to keep prospecting".

        6 hours per day of prospecting = $1,000 per 4 day week at $250 per sale.

        Eventually you will get better and be able to make twice the money in only 3 hours, but honestly, starting off.... 24-30 hours per week for $1,000 isnt bad for most people, and its much better than an average "JOB", and alot less hours of working.

        Now if you want to advertise an create incoming calls... You need to to have a "Hook".

        Yes you can create incoming calls with the right hook, and targeting the right prospects, but it may take weeks of advertising to find your hook and demographics, and you may lose money before you make it.

        A good hook might be " Professional Affordable Web Design Only $99".

        That gives off alot of perceived value and generates curiosity.

        If you can only

        A: Generate 5-10 inquires per week.
        B: Close 50%
        C: Tell them when they call in "Its a one page website" but list a bunch of features and benefits that blow the value sky high, making it worth way more than $99
        D: Now tell them that if they buy a "5" page site they can get it for only $50 per page....

        You will close 70%v of your $99 call ins on a $250 site.

        (You just got what could have been stretched out into $27 report on selling $99 websites and "upselling" for free BTW).

        The key is the "hook", you have to have one that makes them want to call in the first place, then blow them away with 10 times more perceived value than they anticipated when they inquired.

        Lots of angles...

        You can convert with an excellent presentation, hook...

        But even if you have nothing but the numbers themselves and a willingness to go 6 hours per day, you can make money (even in the worse case scenario)...

        As far as geographic s, you will have better luck selling to your own country men than anyone else probably, and if you were American in America... you would face proportionately just about the same amount of skepticism as a sales person.

        The key to overcoming that is development, which only comes from taking that 6 hours ( or whatever your number is) everyday, and just jumping in as DM mentioned.

        I dont do good off the cuff mathmatics... and didnt sit and think this all out, just typed frantically, so the numbers may not add up after I go back through this... but you get the point.

        As long as you get the "point" we are good. As long as you are working the numbers you will get to the "point" of selling.

        Hope this helps.

        PS. If you can design a website, then you could also do a WSO for offliners and offer to be an outsourcer... at a cheap price you could make some sales there too... cold calling is the quickest way to get to a "predictable" system though that isnt hit an miss... to do that with advertising you need to do alot of testing, but regardless you can still get sales that way, just maybe not predictable numbers at first.
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  • Profile picture of the author junioreality
    You can also try having non competing services like flyer distributors refer your web design service for you with the incentive of earning a commission.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbo13
    Originally Posted by jideofor View Post

    I know some people may suggest cold calling; this is Nigeria. People are suspicious!
    Wonder why that would be?

    Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author mojo1
    Thanks John! I went to school in this post and enjoyed every minute of it.

    To the OP, Seek and ye shall find..Knock and the door shall be opened...
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  • Profile picture of the author milodigital
    Thanks John. How would you answer the possible question "why do I need additional pages"?
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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by milodigital View Post

      Thanks John. How would you answer the possible question "why do I need additional pages"?
      1: More pages allows for more linking within the site which gives it more search engine authority.

      2: They may want to add things like "Staff pages" or "forms" or sales pages.

      3: Eventually they may want to add alot to their site... and grow it.

      So how do you ask?

      You just tell them, that ultimately they will want to grow down the road, and you can grow with them at $99 per page on a normal basis, but if they take the "OTO" (Today Only) they can take advantage of the deal and get extra pages for 50 bucks, whereas otherwise it would cost them $500 for 5 pages. They can go from one at $99 page to "A full fledged 5 Page optimized Small Business Package" for only $150 bucks extra, if they act now.

      You may even want to act like the $99 per page is a sale in and of itself and that normally you charge $799 for 5 pages.

      Sam Walton always said, and I love to repeat it because its been so valuable to me "You can sell a comb for 10 cents, or you can sell the same comb and call it a 'super detangler comb' and for a dollar instead".


      You couldnt sell a pair of leg warmers for more than 10 cents in 1998, but you could buy them for ten cents per pair and sell them at 5 pairs for a dollar all day long.

      Its all about how you structure your offers and the perceived value you can create by the way you present things.

      Over the course of ten plus years, and thousands of sales both direct and via subordinates, I have tried all these ways... Learning to build perceived value is a style of selling that becomes second nature after awhile, once you realize how key it is. It can make something sell like hotcakes that wouldnt sell at ALL before.

      Hope this helps.
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      • Profile picture of the author milodigital
        That's fantastic. Many thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author jideofor
    John, thank you for your time. I hadn't been free to comment because I am currently writing my exam. Thank you and I will definitely give a try.

    To the guy who asked why Included your name, I guess you have answered him in the best possible way I couldn't. John has touched more live than most people here and thus, the name John Durham is an authority.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by jideofor View Post

      John, thank you for your time. I hadn't been free to comment because I am currently writing my exam. Thank you and I will definitely give a try.

      To the guy who asked why Included your name, I guess you have answered him in the best possible way I couldn't. John has touched more live than most people here and thus, the name John Durham is an authority.
      Thanks my friend. DM was just being fecesious ... We say all kinds of kinds things all working together online like a big office, just to get through the day and make time pass... Lol.

      Your words are more than humbling. If I can offer more advice let me know. And really, thanks alot.

      I cant believe some of the kind words and encouragement shared in a place like this thats supposedly just another marketing forum...by giving people like yourself.

      Our care for each other is what makes us all a big family!

      Sure we fight too... and dogmatically run off predators to protect our vibe...I certainly do from time to time, we are all so idealistic, but underneath there is a great love for all things Warrior, and all other true Warriors ( We hate predators though and like to destroy them... sometimes that aint pretty! Thus "Warrior". lol).

      I hope your willingness to share love and sincerity comes back to you a thousand times, and I hope the advice helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author WriterWahm
    Originally Posted by jideofor View Post

    I know some people may suggest cold calling; this is Nigeria. People are suspicious!
    I tried cold calling in 2009 - designing and managing blogs for people. And it worked. In Nigeria. Of course it helped that I was a practicing lawyer at the time and I targeted law firms and lawyers with huge egos...they loved the thought of putting their wisdom out there and people paying homage in the comments section.

    What I'm trying to say Jideofor, is that cold calling does work, even in Nigeria. However if you are serious about doing business in the motherland, you should pick a niche and focus on that. If you choose to work with Churches, then build a reputation as the guy who does websites for Churches. Then you get mentioned and your business spreads by word of mouth, which by the way is still the most effective way of advertising your business - anywhere.

    Don't use Nigeria as an excuse. Like John has rightly said, people are suspicious everywhere. It was harder for me in 2009 because a lot of people didn't even know what a blog was and I had to convince them they needed one

    Now it is cool for everyone to own a website and every body and their cousins want to be on the internet. So don't worry about cold calling. Just pick a niche (Churches, Schools, a profession) and go with it.
    Signature

    PM me if you want a romantic fiction ghostwriter.

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  • Profile picture of the author jideofor
    Writerwahm or Sharon, are you a Nigerian in Nigeria?
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    • Profile picture of the author WriterWahm
      I am a Nigerian who was living in Nigeria until 2010. Feel free to PM me if you need any advice about doing business there.

      Originally Posted by jideofor View Post

      Writerwahm or Sharon, are you a Nigerian in Nigeria?
      Signature

      PM me if you want a romantic fiction ghostwriter.

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  • Profile picture of the author shwalsh
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by shwalsh View Post

      Why provide John Durham if you're asking for help from all the Warriors?
      Why make a useless post like this that contributes nothing to the real point of the thread?
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  • Profile picture of the author jideofor
    Thanks, I would definitely do that. I am currently writing exam and I would send you a PM immediately after my last paper,which is on the coming friday. I could have done so now but I would prefer to put a constructive and thoughtful piece together and that would require time--Friday.

    Got to go now, heading for the school library. Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author jideofor
    Thanks, I would definitely do that. I am currently writing exam and I would send you a PM immediately after my last paper,which is on the coming friday. I could have done so now but I would prefer to put a constructive and thoughtful piece together and that would require time--Friday.

    Got to go now, heading for the school library. Thanks.
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