Observations About Starting Offline

Hi All!

My offline business is in the fledgling stages and I thought I'd share some of the observations I've made so far along the way.

First, some background, I'm relatively young (mid-twenties), with a Master's Degree in Engineering. I work full time for an automotive supplier as a design engineer. I'm not satisfied with my career progression, and let's face it, although I do take direction well, I'm trained as a leader, not a follower. Seeing no real way to progress in my current position, I'm developing an offline marketing business that I hope to make my full-time work over the course of the rest of this year.

So without further ado, let's get down to my observations:

Observation the First: Get Over Your Fear and Take Positive Action

Making the transition from IMer to OMer is a tough one. As an IMer, you rarely have to speak with customers, and you really don't interact with any of your prospects. Moving to offline marketing means you're going to, at some point, have to speak to someone about what you are trying to sell them. The idea that you can run an "offline" business without ever talking to your customers either by phone or in person means that you are setting an artificial limit to your potential customers.

If you only contact potential customers by e-Mail, you are painting yourself into a corner. It is a passive way of being "active". Think of the chain of events that has to happen for you to sell offline services by e-Mail:

1) You have to find your prospect's e-Mail address, this means they likely already have some sort of web presence.
2) Your e-Mail has to make it past your prospect's spam filter.
3) Your prospect has to open your e-Mail (meaning the title has to be eye-catching and not be caught and sent to their junk folder)
4) Your prospect has to be interested in your e-Mail (to read to the end)
5) You have to convince your prospect to take action purely through written word, without speaking to them directly. They have to call or reply to you.

Compare and contrast that with "cold calling" or even pavement pounding. In both of those cases you have much more control of how, when and for how long your prospect sees your message.

No matter how self-conscious you are, no matter how poor you think your verbal selling skills are, put yourself out there. Develop a script and stick to it. You will sell your products.

Observation the Second: Your Prospects are NOT on the Internet

When I first started looking for prospects, I looked on the internet. I scoured Facebook, and Google, looking for businesses who had little or ineffective presences on the internet. I came to one conclusion: my prospects are not on the internet.

Most companies (locally) who have a web presence already have a marketing team working for them. If I'm offering the same services (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) then I have no value to offer them. More than likely they are comfortable with their current marketer and they are satisfied with the results. Only when the pages fall into disrepair, or are rarely updated, do you have an opening to bring your new, fresh approach. But be warned: their previous marketer may have done something to make them suspect of ALL "offline" marketers. Tread lightly.

If you're really looking for new business and you want your business to grow, do what the salesmen of old did: pound the pavement. Go out and walk around your local "downtown" and look for businesses. Don't go in right away, don't give them your pitch. Just go out and make a list. There are so many more small businesses in your local area than are represented on Google Maps, or any other online source.

Now that you have a list, go home and do your research, act like an informed salesman. Know as much about your prospect's business as you possibly can. Then develop a marketing plan specifically tailored to their needs. Don't sell them a canned package, you're not adding value to their business and you're not building lasting value for your own business.

More later, I've got work to do.