Offline business meeting

by Micheal Perkins

Posted: 16 years ago 16 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I have a meeting this morning in about 1 hour. I'm meeting with the marketing guy for a local sandwich business. I talked to the owner a couple weeks ago about his business. He told me during our conversation that he is spending $1,000 a month on yellow page ads, and a local throw-away ad book.

He said he is not seeing any returns on that and knows he needs to stop. He keeps spending his money with them though because he does not know where else to spend it. He said he has it budgeted, so he just keeps giving it to them because he doesn't know what else to do. Even though it's not getting any return, he figures at least it has a chance of catching some people at some point.

I mentioned the benefits of email marketing and how cost effective it was. I asked what it would mean to his business if I could increase his business by 20%. He said "That would be the dream wouldn't it. If I could only increase my business that much."

He also mentioned he wants to get his menu online with an order form so people can order online. I told him it was doable, and not all that difficult, it will just take time for a programmer to code it.

So he told me to call his marketing guy and tell the marketing he said to talk with me. So we set up a meeting this morning at the business.

So here is my plan:

I've looked at his site and at his keywords. I know what he is targeting and found about a dozen keywords that he is not targeting, and should. I'm going to show him the list and the amount of traffic those searches generate a month, which is over 2,000 searches.

I also found a couple of keywords his competitors are listed for on Google maps. I'll offer to get him listed for those for a fee.

I set up a light box for an email system. I will show him how that works, an I know he is already interested from the bait I already set during our previous conversation.

I know from talking to the marketing guy, getting the menu online is at the bottom of his list, but the owner thinks that is the top priority. I'm going to offer to do it for a fee.

#business #meeting #offline

trom771 16 years ago

Have you considered offering mobile marketing? This could be great for a sandwich shop...for example, on a slow weekday morning, send out a text message to your list offering a $5 lunch special right as people are making lunch plans.
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laird 16 years ago

Micheal,

Have you been able to ascertain if the "marketing guy" is a business partner, relative, independent contractor or another type of relationship to that of the business owner?

Positioning your ideas smartly places you on that trusted advisor level.

Del
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Michelle Strait 16 years ago

Good luck with your meeting. And let the marketing guy know the menu needs to be online. Easy to print too. I hate it when I visit a restaurant's website and they don't have a menu posted. LOL
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iw433 16 years ago

20% may be doable, but I would not promise it. What you will be doing for your client is MARKETING! I would be careful with His marketing guy, he may feel threatened. I would show the marketing guy a few keywords that you can get a good position for, but not all of them. And I would just tell him that the menu goes on line, word for the bossman. Who cuts the checks? Marketing Man or Boss Man? I like to work with the guy that cuts the checks. Just my thoughts. Whatever you do, I wish you the best.
Good luck.
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Micheal Perkins

16 years ago

Well, the meeting did not prove fruitful. First off, and my mistake for not making sure it would happen, the owner was not there. Instead it was me and the marketing guy. He is the guy who cuts the checks for the marketing, but I should not have been talking to him alone.

It was pretty clear at the end of the meeting that he was not open to any ideas other than what he has already decided on. We again talked about the website, and he thinks it needs to be changed. I offered to do it, and told him once we lined out an idea of what was needed I would give him a price for my work. He said he was not ready to do it.

I explain how we could set up an email marketing campaign to save money, but drive in traffic. I even showed him how we could throw a light box on the front page of the website and collect email addresses. I had a working example already set up and showed it to him. He was impressed, but not ready.

I talked to him about the keywords that I found that the site was not optimized for. I did not share the actual search terms with him, just that they were related to this business and the business market in general. I told him how many searches a month were being done for these keywords, I estimate it was over 2,000 in my earlier post, but it turned out to be just over 3,700. I pointed out how much website traffic was being missed. He wasn't concerned about it.

I asked him what was holding him back and he said he was working on consolidating the marketing budget and would be ready in 6 months to talk about what I had to offer.

I thanked him and kept it professional and gave him a business card. We ended the meeting and I left. So I'm going to go around him soon and talk to the business owner alone. I'm going to show him the things I showed his guy and let him know the guy was not interested in working on anything we talked about yet.

He needs to understand what I have to offer and what is being missed. If he wants to pass also, no problem. I'll sell my services to his competitors.

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jmidas

16 years ago

Hi Michael, I just started reading down this thread and had not gotten to your last post when I was already forming my post in my head. I know I was two hours too late to help, but I was going to implore you to make sure you had the owner there. Truth is, you were screwed from the beginning on this - the owner wants what you have, but pawned you off to some yahoo who is very likely threatened by you. Del had a great question that you should have tried to figure out - who is this marketing guy? My guess is you were guessing that the owner would be there but never confirmed it.

If I had a "do-over" on this, I would say you almost did everything right, except one big thing - insisting that the decision maker - the owner - was there. It would have told you something right up front: if you asked him to be sure to be there and he declined, he as not serious about you OR if he said he wanted to be there and showed up, you had a serious prospect. it sounds like your first meeting with the owner was ideal. You just needed him there for the second.

Also, I would not give away too much of your info/plans right up front. Let them talk in terms of their goals and then you can reply that "those things are doable, and then some" without giving him your keyword research or teaching him (which is what you did) about lightboxes, opt in's, etc.

At this point, I would do one last thing, which is do a nice follow up with the owner and let him know that you had a nice chat with the marketing guy - but maybe throw in that "we really needed you there, maybe we can revisit this next week when all of us are able to address your concerns" or something like that that does not sound too threatening to the marketing guy (especially if you dont know his relationship wityh the boss).

Good luck.

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Martin Luxton 16 years ago

Micheal,

It seems to me the marketing guy realizes that if you got involved he would become redundant. He's already wasting $1,000 a month. Tricky one.

How about a results-based offer? You sort out a coupon offer online and if it results in X number of customers by the end of the first month then you talk about payment for your future services. Make sure you let the owner know that the coupon thing is only a small part of what you can offer

And, of course, if you are only charging $500 a month for something that will snowball, it's a no-brainer for the owner.

Martin
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Micheal Perkins

16 years ago

Originally Posted by jmidas

Truth is, you were screwed from the beginning on this - the owner wants what you have, but pawned you off to some yahoo who is very likely threatened by you. Del had a great question that you should have tried to figure out - who is this marketing guy? My guess is you were guessing that the owner would be there but never confirmed it.

Bingo. I shot myself in the foot before I walked out the door. I made the fatal mistake of "assuming" the owner would be there. We all know what they say when you "ass-u-me." Lesson learned, and it will be the last time I meet without the owner present.

As far as who he is, he's just guy who buys the product and wants to help. He has marketing experience, and is working for some other businesses taking care of their marketing, and was referred to the owner by another business owner.

Also, I would not give away too much of your info/plans right up front. Let them talk in terms of their goals and then you can reply that "those things are doable, and then some" without giving him your keyword research or teaching him (which is what you did) about lightboxes, opt in's, etc.

I held off on teaching him anything. I showed him a lightbox, but never referred to it by name. I just told him I could put a small bit of code on the website to make it do what I showed him. He was impressed and asked how I did it.

I just smiled and told him, "That's like the laundry commercial from years ago, It's an ancient Chinese secret. That's what I get paid to do and I don't share my techniques." He laughed and thought it was funny.

At this point, I would do one last thing, which is do a nice follow up with the owner and let him know that you had a nice chat with the marketing guy - but maybe throw in that "we really needed you there, maybe we can revisit this next week when all of us are able to address your concerns" or something like that that does not sound too threatening to the marketing guy (especially if you dont know his relationship with the boss).

I will be following up with the owner. I'm going to go in and make a purchase in a couple of days and then talk to him about all of us sitting down together, because I think his marketing goals are different than those of his guy.

It seems to me the marketing guy realizes that if you got involved he would become redundant. He's already wasting $1,000 a month. Tricky one.

It's actually not the marketing guy that did this. The owner had this set up after taking the advice of the yellow pages salesman. I'll give the marketing guy credit, he is correcting the problem and working to get that spend of the budget fixed. He is cutting back until he sees a drop in sales and then will go back to the amount spent before the drop in business.

Have you considered offering mobile marketing? This could be great for a sandwich shop...for example, on a slow weekday morning, send out a text message to your list offering a $5 lunch special right as people are making lunch plans.

I talked about using email marketing to send out coupons to the email list with a time limited discount. He said he does not want to devalue the product. I explained that the product won't be devalued, it will most likely cause people to come in more often to purchase.

He still wasn't open to it. I pointed out that driving in that extra traffic would increase the bottom line for the business. I also pointed out that 20 extra sales week with a discount still increases the bottom line. I'm pretty sure he has it in his head that his way will work and there will be no other way.

There was one thing that really bothered me during the meeting. He revealed to me that he got the owner to spend $2,000 recently to print up 50,000 stickers for $1 off a purchase at another business. These stickers are placed on the lids of the drink cups for the business. So when someone buys a drink, they have a coupon to get a discount at a record store.

So essentially he got this business owner to spend $2,000 to promote and generate traffic and sales for another business! The other business should have been the ones to purchase those stickers.

I don't want to offend the owner or the marketing guy, but the owner obviously doesn't understand what a bad investment that was on his part. I think the owner needs to know he should not have spent his money to promote another business. The marketing guy says the profit margin on the drinks is really high.

So obviously he thinks people are going to come to the business and buy a $1.50 drink, just to get a $1 discount somewhere else. Maybe they will, but I don't see it. If I'm there getting food, I'll get a get a drink. I'm not making a special trip to that business to spend $1.50 so I can get $1 off somewhere else.

I'm not going to say anything right now, but once I get and account with the owner and establish that relationship, I'm going to point that out. Just so he dones't spend money like that again.

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Martin Luxton

16 years ago

There was one thing that really bothered me during the meeting. He revealed to me that he got the owner to spend $2,000 recently to print up 50,000 stickers for $1 off a purchase at another business. These stickers are placed on the lids of the drink cups for the business. So when someone buys a drink, they have a coupon to get a discount at a record store.

So essentially he got this business owner to spend $2,000 to promote and generate traffic and sales for another business! The other business should have been the ones to purchase those stickers.

I don't want to offend the owner or the marketing guy, but the owner obviously doesn't understand what a bad investment that was on his part. I think the owner needs to know he should not have spent his money to promote another business. The marketing guy says the profit margin on the drinks is really high.

So obviously he thinks people are going to come to the business and buy a $1.50 drink, just to get a $1 discount somewhere else. Maybe they will, but I don't see it. If I'm there getting food, I'll get a get a drink. I'm not making a special trip to that business to spend $1.50 so I can get $1 off somewhere else.

Sounds like a good idea applied wrongly. If the coffees have such a high margin why doesn't use the sticker idea for his own business? So today is Thursday 19th. You get a sticker for 50 cents off coffee on Friday 20th. And let the customers know they can photocopy the stickers and give them to their colleagues and friends!!

And how about an affiliate programme? You give a customer stickers with their name on. They photocopy and distribute it. For every 4 redeemed vouchers they get a free coffee. For every 20 they get a free sandwich of their choice. Top affiliate of the month gets . . .?

Martin

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Sebulba

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

Martin,

You are a creative thinker. I like that

Seb

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Richard Tunnah 16 years ago

Martin is spot on. Learnt the same lesson last year with a waisted meeting with a reasonably big company. You need to always have the owner/CEO present for these meetings. I'd also be careful about targeting medium to large businesses who seems to employ whole departments of 'lazy' marketers that don't do much and will block you at every turn as you'll show them up!

Just my 2 cents.

Rich
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- Shaun OReilly 16 years ago
  
  Yes - having both the business owner and the marketing
  manager at the meeting is essential.
  
  Did you take the time to get the marketing manager to
  define the problems he's having - from his perspective?
  
  Remember that he'll only be willing to spend his budget
  to solve problems that he believes they have and are his
  top priorities.
  
  Then your job is to position your services as solving the
  problems they want solved.
  
  From what you've said so far, I also think that you've
  prescribed your solutions too early before thoroughly
  identifying the problems.
  
  Diagnose first. Then prescribe.
  
  Also, don't give away too many details on exactly how
  you're going to solve their problems.
  
  At the end of the day, they're most interested in that
  their top problems get solved - not with how it's going
  to be done.
  
  Dedicated to your success,
  
  *Shaun O'Reilly
  
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mia7 16 years ago

Hi Michael,

I actually have a sandwich business (cafe) and my customers love the fact (actually look forward to it) that every morning receive an email from me stating the special of the day and any special offer I have and I can tell you that just that fact alone increased my sales.
There is so much potential there for him and he is missing out!
Also I do feel you gave him too much information up front. Write to him tell him and tell him he needs to start collecting his customers emails and give him a time limit and say you will be intouch by such and such a date and then you can put everything into place for him and he can sit back and watch his profit go through the roof - Yes its him you need to have the meeting with, not his side kick - good luck!
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Micheal Perkins 16 years ago

LOL. Excellent idea Martin. I had not thought of a way to incorporate an affiliate program into that kind of business.

I'm glad it's working for you Mia. I knew it would work, and I'm sure I can convince the owner it will work also. I'm going to show him the lightbox technique and ask if he wants to try it. I'm going to give him 20 days free, and tell him I will visit with him after 20 days so we can evaluate his results.

I will get an immediate offer for discounts from him to put into the auto-responder. I'm going to print up a flier for them to hand out with every order promoting the email list with a call to action to join it.

I will set the discounts he gives up in the auto-responder and ask him to keep track of every coupon a customer brings in. Then after 20 days I will show him how many people are on his list, and count the coupons to show how much business the email marketing generated.

So he'll get started for no cost, and be able to see the results of this marketing effort. Then when we are sitting at the table with his figures, I will let him know what it will cost to continue. I know that I will have proven my worth to his business by then and he will have a hard time not hiring me. I know it will be hard for him to say he does not want to continue, when he can see I am making him money, not costing him money.
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Mark Riddle 16 years ago

Michael,

I owned a popcorn Ice cream shop for a number of years, my manager was always told to tell sales people that I was the marketing person.

I would talk with the sales person fully having the perception that I couldn't do a thing without the owner saying OK, but first they had to get the manager to go along with it, after I say it was a good idea.

The manager has pull with the owner, I just show up and collect checks

If the sales person didn't come back and sell the manager, I knew they wouldn't follow through on what they promised.

Another thought for you Special doesn't automatically mean discount.

Special also mean limited time offers.

When I would introduce a new product, It started as a special.

It can be a different sauce, or different bread, or make it a wrap.

Mark
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Russ Reynolds 16 years ago

What to do now....

Show up a couple of days after he's forked out another $1k and ask him how that is working for him...
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Offline business meeting

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