Offliners: How do you do it? Taking a Poll

Hmmmm....no one has any thoughts or opinions..?

Gather information on the client --> Obtain meeting --> Present proposal --> Send thank you note --> Follow up meeting --> Yes/No? -- Thank client again.

Always OVERDELIVER

General idea of what I do, most don't get it anyway. (Have yet to meet a client that can wrap their head around article writing or forum commenting and not one has heard of an auto-responder.) I had an pamphlet made for a client's customers and to use and to add with an auto-responder. He was quite surprised to get it. Loved it and is currently editing it. He still doesn't understand the auto-responder aspect. He just likes having it to give to clients in printed form.

Usually outline roughly a forth of what I eventually do. That usually is more than is contained in any contract they have seen. They have the ability to be pleasantly surprised later.

No results guarantee, but personally if sales don't go up, I wouldn't take the money anyway. Anyone can guarantee results that mean nothing.

No contract - most wouldn't 'get it' anyway; meaning I have seen bad contracts and good contracts but have yet to meet a client that knows the difference.

Clients have all been referrals so far and no one has declined. but being an ex car guy I would be inclined to not leave until they said yes. Lol. (Although a hard close usually means a hard client. Let someone else have them) I have said no and recommended a larger company. I spent 30 minutes free explaining to them what they might want to look for.

I deal with tiny clients so my methods are somewhat atypical. If I was dealing with larger companies I would do things completely different.

And of course as stated: Always OVERDELIVER

For me, I made up my own Offline marketing mindmap. The information is presented in an easy to read format. It's quite different from the original Mind Map that Maria Gudelis sold (haven't seen her 2.0 version).

It's in color (used Mindmanager to create it) and I had it printed and laminated in 11 X 17 format at the local FedEx Kinko's. I use it as a teaching tool about what I will be providing.

The business owners tend to like it. By taking the time to explain what I will be doing for the money, the owner's mind is put at ease. They are afraid of paying for a service for which they have no idea how it's being done. Per John's analogy above, they may not want to know what the torque is for tightening the wheel lug nuts, but they do want to understand, in a rough sense, what is being done e.g. tightening the lug nuts.

Of course, I find some business owners don't want much detail at all and the education aspect has served to only confuse them. Who knows? By this time next year I may have chucked this, and will have adopted another approach.

Hello Alex,

I am very interested and will sent you a PM

All the Best

Like someone else mention. Thank You notes are awesome. Always trying and separate yourself from the competition and stand out. That way when the prospect is going to make a decision and there are say, 10 people that made all decent presentations, if you did something to stand out its almost guaranteed that they will chose you over the rest.

I use direct mail to generate leads and then follow up with a phone call to set an in-person appointment.