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How many of you are marketing consultants?

by moneymagneto
14 replies
I make the majority of my money as a marketing consultant. Most of my clients come through my personal networks, never through the internet or cold calling. Usually I get higher paying clients this way.

How many of you are marketers and get clients through the use of SEO? Would love to know some of your techniques because I am interested in getting more clients who find me on the web.

Do you have a niche market you focus on? Do you just offer general marketing advice? Do you do over 10K per month? Do you rent an office? Do you have a receptionist or personal assistant?
#consultants #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author asamanthinketh
    Hey, I know a guy who could help you get a ton more clients - it's not a free method, but man IT WORKS.

    PM your Skype ID and I'll hook you up.

    PS: Just started some marketing consulting but, mostly for offline stuff though. My strategy is to...let's talk about it on Skype man. Can't have everybody copying my strategies

    If you want a quick synopsis of my method, I find the decision maker in a qualified company and offer a free consulting session. It's the good old IM bribe translated into offline marketing consulting.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    I stopped referring to myself as a consultant a long time ago even if that's what I really am. I have my own company, and I've found that business owners don't really want fancy names and consultants, they relate better, and trust another business owner more than they would any consultant.

    As for niches, I have some of my favorites to target but I would be a fool to share them on here lol. I can recommend that you go the road less traveled and avoid the major ones like Attorneys, doctors, dentists, etc.

    Since starting out, I have grown a LOT, started an office, started an in house sales team, fulfillment team, etc. etc. Paid a ton in taxes..

    Cold calling, and getting leads via different mediums online, are some of the best ways to grow your business. Cold calling sucks... nobody likes it, you're not going to enjoy it and some people despise cold callers but it works. Getting leads online, if you mixed an inbound marketing strategy with some PPC, retargeting, maybe even cold emails, you have a recipe for a very large business.

    Using just one method of lead generation or client acquisition makes it difficult to ever make more than 10k/mo. You have to diversify your marketing channels.
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  • Profile picture of the author moneymagneto
    As far as cold calling goes, would you hire a VA for this or do it yourself? I would prefer someone else make these phone calls because I am too busy to make 100 calls a day.
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    • Profile picture of the author TeKn1qu3z
      Originally Posted by moneymagneto View Post

      As far as cold calling goes, would you hire a VA for this or do it yourself? I would prefer someone else make these phone calls because I am too busy to make 100 calls a day.
      You must do it yourself, or be able to train somebody you know can do the job.

      In my experience, good VA's are really hard to find. Last thing you want is to have an inexperienced VA to ruin your company name. It could prevent you from marketing to those same businesses in the future.
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by moneymagneto View Post

      As far as cold calling goes, would you hire a VA for this or do it yourself? I would prefer someone else make these phone calls because I am too busy to make 100 calls a day.
      I've heard some people having success hiring a VA but when I actually started my office the first thing I did was recruit commission only sales people that came into the office and called.

      I wouldn't ever hire a VA to do it. If you do end up having a sales team, you either have to learn to get good at it yourself so you can train them, or do a lot of hiring to find someone good enough to train others.

      You don't necessarily have to cold call.. you can use other marketing channels and strategies to generate incoming calls and then maybe later down the road integrate cold calling.

      Really, 100 calls a day shouldn't ever take more than 2-2.5 hours.
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      • Profile picture of the author Charles Goodnight
        Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

        Really, 100 calls a day shouldn't ever take more than 2-2.5 hours.
        Gotta disagree with you there. Even if you get 100 voice mails, it's going to take longer than 2-2.5 hours to leave that many voice mails. I used to recruit and cold calling was part of the game (before internet recruiting).

        If you get through to someone (3 in 10 was a good day), unless you want to sound like a recording, you have to give a good pitch. That takes time..2-2.5 hrs doesn't alot for that.

        -CG
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        • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
          Originally Posted by Charles Goodnight View Post

          Gotta disagree with you there. Even if you get 100 voice mails, it's going to take longer than 2-2.5 hours to leave that many voice mails. I used to recruit and cold calling was part of the game (before internet recruiting).

          If you get through to someone (3 in 10 was a good day), unless you want to sound like a recording, you have to give a good pitch. That takes time..2-2.5 hrs doesn't alot for that.

          -CG
          100 voice mails = 100 minutes, but if you're cold calling statistically it makes sense to NOT leave a voicemail on the first call. Big time waster.

          Half of your calls are not going to be answered. The other half, a mix of not interested, hang ups, disconnected numbers, and call back laters and the very rare actual conversation with a business owner.

          If you can't make 100 calls in 2-2.5 hours then you shouldn't be exploring cold calling as an option.

          When I have had a sales person start and they don't make 100 calls in 2 hours, they're gone, unless the reason was they were making sales in the period of 2 hours where their call volume was not 100. Honestly, you can make 100 calls an hour easily especially when using an auto dialer. Mix that in with a voice mail drop and you're touching 200+ prospects an hour.

          Cold calling is a numbers game, like everything else in marketing. It depends overall on your strategy, but I like to find people already interested in what is being offered instead of dragging out the sales process trying to convert not interested's into interested.
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    • Profile picture of the author asamanthinketh
      Originally Posted by moneymagneto View Post

      As far as cold calling goes, would you hire a VA for this or do it yourself? I would prefer someone else make these phone calls because I am too busy to make 100 calls a day.
      Before you hire a VA, I recommend you develop a telemarketing that converts & outline step-by-step your exact sales process.

      Test, optimize & sytemize your telemarketing script & sales process. That way any noob can pick up your system & start making you money right away.

      If you need any extra help let me know in the PMs. Actually, there's another option - door to door selling in areas well populated with qualified businesses.

      The rush is amazing. But once you have a bunch of clients, it will be difficult do sell door to door - no time, like in your case.

      Nonetheless, door to door selling remains my first - however enstranged she is.

      Regards,
      George.
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  • Profile picture of the author TeKn1qu3z
    Always try to capture emails over the phone so you can send them more information. A lot of people do not like talking on the phone so if you can convince them to give you their email, you can really optimizing how you convert them into a potential customer. And plus you build your email list and can spam them in the future for free!
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  • Profile picture of the author quadagon
    So more and more we target a very specific niche with whom we want to work with and who benefit from our expertise. I would say that referrals are now our no 1 source of new business, followed by LinkedIn and then people who read my book (there tends to be overlap).

    Despite being on page one of the serps not a lot of business is generated through the website directly.

    A lot of people come to us from social media where they've read an article to continue reading but as we are really out of most peoples price range we try and just provide info online.

    We have a different number on the site to help us track the online business and monitor clicks for the mobile aspect of the site.
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    I've got 99 problems but a niche ain't one
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  • Profile picture of the author moneymagneto
    It seems like the old fashioned way of marketing is still cold calling. Emotion, a real voice, tonality, delivery, enthusiasm, etc. This e-mail stuff you need hundreds of thousands of e-mails to get anyones attention, even super interesting content in written format makes people fall asleep. I experimented getting business "cold e-mailing" and converted about 2 of 50 or so e-mails. But then ran out of companies to pitch and then started e-mailing me "we received your e-mails and no longer wish to receive them so please stop". (In this particular niche). So I reverted back to in person networking at events and doing verbal face to face sales pitches. I was able to get higher net worth individuals willing to pay for my services as opposed to penny pinchers on Craigslist and elsewhere.
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  • Profile picture of the author asamanthinketh
    I definitely agree that referrals are among the most effective client-getting techniques - that, customer education (esp to your database) and bribes.

    Unfortunately I havent got to point where I am getting a lot of referrals because I am not 100% focused on marketing consulting yet. I look forward to that once I'm done building my online business to a point of systemized, self-sustained profitability.
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