local small businesses

Hi Art,

You've made this claim before on this forum, can you point me in the direction of these conspiracies? Where can I read more about the latest BS? Not that I wan't to subscribe to them, but simply to understand your points.

Glenn

I've been consulting with small to medium businesses for several years now...I used to offer SEO, Web Design, Etc.

Now I go strictly with Lead Generation and also Site Rentals. Granted the other services are great to offer, but at the end of the day...you're still working for someone else.

That's why I made the switch in my business...lead generation is great as you control pretty much the entire process...same with renting sites. Build it, Drive Traffic, Rent It.

Nobody calling saying, oh can you change this color, make this text bigger, etc. I really couldn't deal with that...

My 2 cents...good luck!

Here's one possible answer...

What happens if what you do doesn't work?

That's why I ask for a six month minimum commitment. Unless we get lucky, we probably won't hit the optimal mix on the first swing. I'll give you the best chance I can through research and experience, but the customers are the final judges of whether or not we get it right.

My process is to put the best possible offering out there and see what happens. Then we'll tweak it and watch again. As long as we work together, I'm going to be trying to beat our best. It's called "split testing" and it's been making fortunes for over a century.

You knew there was an element of risk when you opened for business, right? This is another calculated risk, one with unlimited potential upside. If I'm a complete flop, you're out a few dollars, same as a failed ad or product line that doesn't sell. I've never had a complete flop.

Mark, you have it right. It's like the old saying, though...

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

(Just ask my brother. Just under his hairline is a small crescent scar caused by mixing small boys and Road Runner cartoons with a hammer. )

There is no one solution for all businesses. I offer everything under the sun, but I don't go in with guns blazing ready to hit them with all of it.

Their needs and wants vary, so your answer is to consult with the owner, find out what they want and need, and cater your offering based on those.
Thats what I do and it works great for me.

Keith

No Problem Jaime...
For site rentals...I pretty much go for High Value Businesses in Large Heavily Populated Areas.
The reason is a higher value to the prospect. I look for people that have high CPCs and are advertising through Adwords, but don't have much of an organic presence.

Which if you can get this right, there really isn't much of a sales pitch to make. The value of a lead to the business owner has really the biggest impact on the pricing of the rental...well, really the 2 factors mentioned above need to work together.

For example, which do you think would have a higher visitor value...visitors to a Personal Injury Attorney in Seattle or visitors to a Hair Salon in Johnsburg, PA. See what I mean?

Now as far as getting it rented...it's actually very easy. First of all, the site is already built, ranking and getting traffic. So, when you approach a prospect to rent the site...you can show them all of the data, Look this is what you get!

Do a quick comparison of what the traffic would cost through Adwords, the throw out a little food for thought..."What is a call worth to your business...How many calls turn into paying clients, etc" Then once you know this, get them thinking about that many extra people on their site with the ability to call and/or email them.

That's about it! Basically state, here is the price, this is what you get...do you want it?
Keep in mind, I don't have any rentals going in my area...everything is done over the phone and through email.

Another thing is sincerity...I really do want them to kick ass with the rental. I'm pretty competitive by nature, so I try my best to give them bragging rights with their position in Google, the money their saving, how they outrank the competitors and how it increases their bottomline.

With Lead Gen...again, I follow a similar model as the rentals. High value businesses in Heavily populated areas. The reason here is, if you're getting paid on a per lead basis...you need to compete in areas where a ton of leads can be generated. Why work with one client who buys 10 leads a month, when you can focus on getting a client that buys 100s of leads per month.

This is a very easy sell...since it's all results based. To make it even easier, I generally provide 50 leads for free. This gives me a gauge on several things...how fast I can generate the leads and gives me an estimate of the cost. Then once you have that data, price your leads accordingly. Again, this is all done over the phone and through email.

And again sincerity...I want them to make a solid profit on the leads I generate. That's my goal, I find it's best to focus on delivering quality then it is to focus on high profits. Deliver quality and the big profits follow.

Hope That Helps Jaime! This is the longest forum post I've ever made in my life!