Offline Marketers - Learn from my mistakes!!

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Hello Warriors!

I have recently been trying to move into the offline niche, and want to do it properly, by offering the best services I can in my local area.

I was calling a few business owners, mostly from just doing a bit of research and researching into who was advertising using Google adwords in my area.

I also called a few businesses, with ads in the Yellow pages, as they are already paying for advertising, so I can maybe save them some advertising costs!

Now, doing this led me onto a small accountancy business. The owner didn't have a web presence, so i sent her an email introducing myself, and told her what I did.

She was really receptive, and loved some of the ideas I was giving her, and eventually we agreed to move ahead with the websites. I spent quite few hours gong through things with her, getting the right specs and some copy written for her!

This is where the problems started, and basically, it's my fault!

She would have been my first client, but canceled.

Her reasons were that I was too expensive!

So, for 2 websites, I was going to charge her $420. I also offered to get her up an autoresponder for $50 a month.

Now, I know that this is DIRT CHEAP.

So Where did I go Wrong?

  • I didn't close the deal soon enough. In sales, I have been told to follow the ABC rule. Always Be Closing. I got caught up trying to justify why I was taking this woman's hard earned cash. In truth, I was doing her a favor, and she won't find a better deal elsewhere!

  • I invested too much time at the start. I see it as building too strong a foundation with a building that will not grow past one story. What's the point? You need to identify the Tyre kickers early, and move on. We don't owe businesses a thing, what we know will potentially have a massive impact on their business, so respect yourself - and you will command respect.

  • I was too cheap. Yes..that's right! If your price is too low, people will either think it is a con. or that the quality of your work is poor. This is pretty natural...think how you feel when faced with a similar scenario...higher price means higher quality (in people's minds). Charge a fair price for your work, then as demand rises and yous tart to get a reputation, you can then charge a premium. It's only the laws of supply and demand, right!??

I could probably go on...but they are the 3 main mistakes I made, and that I envisage many people will make.

So, if you've experienced what I have, get back on the horse and go and prove to these people that we are worth our weight in GOLD!

Question

Has anybody else had some failures which they learned from? Share them hear - so that we can all learn from them!


Thanks

Dave!
#main internet marketing discussion forum #learn #marketers #mistakes #offline
  • Ouch, painful story. This is one reason why I abhor sales. I hate having to "convince" people my services are worth the price I charge....it's much better when they have sold themselves on the quality they'll receive instead.

    My biggest mistake was back when I launched The Real Estate Pro's Internet Edge back in 2000 or so. It became a product pick from in the Realtors Magazine BUT....back then, realtors were 'way too computer-phobic. I don't even want to think about how much I spent on the binders, the printing, the CDs, etc.etc.etc.

    It was a very expensive lesson. My prior niche (recruiters) were much more tech-savvy...but the realtors were another story entirely.

    The takeaway here - always make certain your customers are capable of APPRECIATING what your product does....and possess the fortitude to put it into practice as well.

    Lesson learned...never made that mistake again.
  • Hey David,
    You've got it all wrong when it comes to where things went wrong.

    1- you can't close a buyer who isn't ready to buy. Your mistake was not helping the buyer develop the motivation to buy based on an outcome she wanted to get.

    2- you didn't invest too little time you invested your time the wrong way. You should have focused on developing a relationship with her that would have helped her see the benefits you could produce for her business.

    3- you weren't too cheap. In her mind you were far too expensive because there was no perceived value. If you had created the perceived value first then the investment would have been perceived as a bargain.

    You're falling into the sales myths mind trap. Get out before you get eaten for lunch over and over again.

    I don't think I can give you a link in this message so if you would like a free copy of the eBook and audio for "The Blueprint for Increased Sales" PM me and I'll send you the link. It will completely change your understanding of how sales really work.

    Best wishes on better outcomes in the real world!
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [3] replies
    • Hi

      I hear what your saying, but maybe I didn't explain myself too well!

      The business I chose was probably the wrong one. I told her the benefits she would receive and she was highly enthusiastic, more so than I was, especially about the autoresponder, and the amount of time it would save her!

      It was all going well until she spoke to her previous designer. He had designed her websites for less, and I could see why. There wasn't much too them, and in terms of looking at them from a consumers perspective, they did nothing!

      The only reason she spoke to him was to get the details of the domain she had purchased.

      I do think my tactics were good. I didn't try to close the deal too early, as I may have made it sound, I waited until she had listed the uses for her new autoresponder, and she was selling it to herself!

      When it came down to avtually taking action, maybe she got a bit uneasy?

      Oh well, I'm by no means an expert, but I don't think all this was down to my poor tactics, but down to my poor choice of client!
      • [1] reply
      • I didn't close the deal soon enough. In sales, I have been told to follow the ABC rule. Always Be Closing. I got caught up trying to justify why I was taking this woman's hard earned cash. In truth, I was doing her a favor, and she won't find a better deal elsewhere!




      • I invested too much time at the start. I see it as building too strong a foundation with a building that will not grow past one story. What's the point? You need to identify the Tyre kickers early, and move on. We don't owe businesses a thing, what we know will potentially have a massive impact on their business, so respect yourself - and you will command respect.






      • I was too cheap. Yes..that's right! If your price is too low, people will either think it is a con. or that the quality of your work is poor. This is pretty natural...think how you feel when faced with a similar scenario...higher price means higher quality (in people's minds). Charge a fair price for your work, then as demand rises and yous tart to get a reputation, you can then charge a premium. It's only the laws of supply and demand, right!??
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • Salespeople have this problem all the time. This is where using lead generation marketing comes into play.

      I'd highly recommend getting some of Dan Kennedy's stuff to help you, specifically his Magnetic Marketing kit. I think you can a copy on eBay for around $60. If that's still too much, at least get a copy of his $10 book "No B.S. Sales Success." In that book, he outlines his "no prospecting" method of sales.

      Basically, he uses what he calls "lead generation magnets" -- special reports, audios, etc. to generate qualified prospects. You see the "free report" offer all the time on Web sites, but I think we IMers get a little too caught up with IM and can't see the forest for the trees. You can use the same process offline too.

      Create a special report about how offline marketers can increase business through online marketing. The important point though is not to leave your prospect hanging at the end of the report. Give them a special offer and a deadline.

      Create online marketing packages that they can choose from. Remember, services are intangible and people like to "see" what they're getting. The way to do this when selling intangible services is to create packages of services. You could create a Basic and a Deluxe package. Or create three packages of services: A, B, & C for three different budget levels. Your description of your packages should flow naturally in your report.

      Creating packages of services allows people to choose services which fit their budget. And presenting it in a special report allows the special report to do the selling for you (while it both educates and informs at the same time). This frees up a tremendous amount of your time. You then spend your time just answering questions instead of doing entire presentations.

      I'd see what you can do to shift the bulk of the selling to your special report. Politely answer any questions they have, but don't waste a lot of time showing them how to do XYZ or explaining it to them. And of course, sales is a numbers game. So get an interested prospect, get your lead generation info to them (report, audio, etc.) and then move on. That should allow you to maximize your time.

      "No B.S. Sales Success" has an entire chapter on positioning which is worth waaay more than the cost of the book. Kennedy also details what should go into a lead generation package and how to present it (and yourself and your services) to your prospect. VERY valuable stuff.

      Hope that helps!

      Michelle
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • I am someone who moved from Offline to online and use both to help each other in unity. I think not bridging the two would be the first mistake to make. Social networking and the power of referral is needed on or offline, so putting focus on your relationships is key in my opinion.

    I agree with the cheap aspect. I believe in "velvet rope marketing" and utilize in my personal strategy.

    I think my biggest "failure" in general is thinking people know what I know or that things are made easy enough. Things are never easy enough. Removing friction is key.
  • What has worked well for me is this...

    First I introduce myself and my service and how it would benefit the person/company specifically. I put in numbers, percentages...business people like that. If you justify every one of your numbers, then customers are likely to buy in. They are making a financial decision in the end..they dont give two craps about you or what you do, they just want to see more money then they otherwise would have.

    Now the important part is that once you justify everything, dont seem too salesy like you need the client...you want them to think they need YOU. So be smart about pushing, after you made the pitch. Let them sit on it, remind them if they havent gotten back to you, but you want to make it seem like you are bigger and more important than you really are. I know somebody who will send an email to a prospect and then set an auto-responder saying they are on a business trip in Chicago and it may take a day for him or his assistant to get back to them. (there was never any such trip or assistant)

    The whole point is that this makes the clients NEED you and not that you need them.

    Hope this helps

    To your success

    Ken
  • Hey David,

    I think some of the other comments have been hitting the right spot.

    The reason she didn't buy was because she had been talking to you about the details and not the benefits and pain of not moving forward.

    This is the classic problem that IMers have when trying to go offline - they've had their heads filled with IM details and SEO stuff.

    Offline business owners do not have a lot of the fluff in their heads that IMers have, they tend to focus very much on cashflow and ROI.

    If you were able to show that woman where she was wasting/losing money, and/or how your help could increase her revenue - she would have bought.

    In a way it's like the discussions people have about PPC - it costs money and if you do it wrong you're throwing your money into an endless pit. If you do it right, you want to spend as much as possible.

    The problem you've probably also got is that since you've only recently moved to targeting offline business, you don't have any decent history to leverage your argument with.

    The fact that you said you're offering her a great deal but charging her $50 for an autoresponder she could get for herself at much less means you need to be adding a bunch of value on top of the tool itself in order to it to make any sense at all. If she wasn't clear about that value (it's easy to speculate, but business owners want (and deserve) facts about how the expense will make them more money) then she's not going to want to spend the money.

    The problem that is most common (IMHO) is that IMers tend to have a thousand ideas about "what's possible" when it comes to things offline businesses could be doing, but very rarely actually have any proof to back it up, so many offline businesses just hear the talk and think to themselves "that sounds great but I'm a business person and I can't see where the extra revenue you're talking about will come from, since I have no real reason to believe just having a website will suddenly get me new customers - there are millions of websites out there".

    It makes things simple - if you have a proven track record of making people more money than they're spending and you can show that - it's easy to get people to do business with you.

    If you have no proof and just talk a good game, you'll struggle until you build up that record.

    Andy
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hey Andy!

      I completely understand that, and I am enjoying reading peoples comments.

      I have taken a lot of knowledge from this forum, and I will always come here to learn!

      My problem is, how do I get he clients in the first place? I need clients to gain a track record!

      I have toyed with the idea of maybe doing some free consulting on an already existing website, but again, free doesn't work most of the time!

      Do you have any advice for gaining some experience?

      Thanks

      David
      • [2] replies
  • This is a great thread.

    Never charge so low that people think "something's not right". Infact, never charge low. There's always room to go down in price once your prospective client see's what you're worth, but simply can't afford it. However, no business will ever say "Yes, I'd like to pay you even more for the same service!".
  • There is only one successful way to close an accountant (ok really more than one)

    Keep all the important data and information in an excel spreadsheet and work with them to fill in the numbers.

    When they work WITH you and see the BOTTOM LINE, you are now a part of the team not a vendor.

    The accountant knows their business best, ask what they think the financials will be if their clients bought just one more service they offer?

    Show them the returns using yields on investments, not percentage of increase profits.

    Mark Riddle
    • [1] reply
    • David,

      Some great advice on this thread.
      I particularly liked MacFreddie's 'tough love' - he's really a yes-we-can marketer in disguise ;-)

      Mark Riddle also hit the nail on the head about spreadsheets being the pride and joy of bean counters.
      "Just show me the numbers" - I recall hearing that phrase so many times when I prepared tech proposals in cubicle-land.

      As you're in Blighty, you might learn a lot from Chris Barrow's site and this short post in particular:
      Chris Barrow's Blog The 3-minute sale

      Chris is a business coach for private practice dentists.
      He doesn't pretend to be a guru who walks on marketing waters... he writes honestly of his successes and failures, his strengths and weaknesses.

      And he's totally focused on what's relevant to busy dentists - the perils of running a dental team, cashflow mgt, business plans and marketing.
      All the stuff they probably don't learn much of in dental school.

      (Look at the red menu bar at the top of the page - the majority of those topics speak to 'pain issues' that keep many dentists awake at night.)

      Of course, Chris has built his business from experiences and knowledge gained over the years.
      You mentioned how can someone new gain credibility with clients.

      Well, you could do worse than create a blog that starts speaking your target prospects' language. For example, if you were a struggling dentist, I bet you'd have opinions on this post:
      Chris Barrow's Blog Visibility and the power of positive thinking

      Good luck!
      • [1] reply
  • Hi David, what (or why) were there to be two websites?

    Tony
  • Not wanting to divert the thread, but just quickly any recommendations (books ebooks etc) on a closing script - I can talk the talk, or write the words, but I can't close to save myself

    Thanks
    Lisa
    • [1] reply
    • Lisa,

      I cover several different ways to close in my product Offline Consulting Secrets.

      Hope that helps,

      Mike
  • If they don't have a web presence already for their business then they either don't understand the relationship value between what it would mean for their business and money, or they have already been contacted before and figured it was entirely too expensive.

    The only reason someone thinks something is too expensive is because you've done a lousy job at showing the return.

    You have to show them the value and then relate it to something they can fully and completely understand and see the relationship between their money and what that would do for them as far as a possible return.

    Most offline companies see advertising as a pain in the neck and an expense instead of a return on investment.. .Why do they think that? Probably because they have no clue what each ad performs for them...

    Make your clients understand this and it will be an easy sale...

    Mike Hill
  • Hi Everyone.

    Thanks for replying to this thread, I've read it a couple of times now and theres some really good information!

    I'm soooo determined to learn from the mistakes I make, and I also want to learn from other peoples mistakes.

    A couple of months ago I got myself a mentor for my online business, and things are looking up, so I think I may also get a mentor for my offline business!

    Saying that..does anybody have any recommendations?
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