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Agreed, on the first point about this being harder than is made out. Its easy once you get the hang of it, really! But the fact is this is a real business, where speaking with real hard nosed business people is what you need to do to get business and clients.

The fact is, they get sold to all the time meaning they see you coming a mile off, they get the internet thrust down there throats daily and quite frankly 90% will say they are not interested in what you have to offer even if they could use it!

Persistence is key, I say forget the reports and get to the point. Work out what you want to offer and script it up. Try different ways in on the approach and find something that works. Then keep at it! For every 99 NOs you will get 1 YES!

As for the second point above, how do you make the assumption cold calling is a waste of time??? That is so far from the truth in this niche, I know from experience. I have seen multi million dollar companies built on the strength of cold calling, seriously, in this exact niche!

There is a way to do it! It takes time to master but is HUGE! Most big advertising companies from the yellow pages to web directories use cold calling as there main prospecting avenue, WHY?

Because it works! and it is the quickest way to find interested business owners that need help!

You could visit 10 business owners within the hour, a few listen to you because you walk in face to face but deep down 9 are not interested at all, they just dont want to be rude. But you could hit the jackpot on 1 who is willing to see what you got.

You call the same 10 businesses using cold calling and within 5 mins you found that interested party! This is only 1 example!

Cold calling is a tool that can be used for all sorts from arranging appointments before hand, building rapport beforehand, to weeding out the tire kickers in seconds.

As Tim put it above for the phonebook being an awesome lead source..... I will take a double helping of cold calling anyday!!!! A pair of balls is all you need! hehehe

There is an ART TO COLD CALLING!

Obviously my opinion but I am doing this for real right now, sat in my office today and its working for me every single week!

Now Go Get Em

GoGetta

Not if you know how to do it properly. DM me if you want to know how.

Forget the appointments

An example:

Develope a site for florists in your locale.

Send a post card or email to every florist in your area informing that the site could be theirs and increasing their bottomlines within a few short days.

Also, state that only one florist will get the package.

Use your SEO and SEM monthly fee package as an upsell.

In any case you get the setup fee and the monthly hosting fees.

Very true... but that's what this forum is all about...
So, perhaps going to the library and picking up a book
called ... The SPIN Selling Fieldbook by Neil Rackham...
Have a read and don't give up...

There are many opinions out there but the bottom line is
persistence... Sales whether it's online or offline is all about
numbers and practice... The one that fails the must and learns
from each failure - WINS...

"Example, over the last two weeks, I called 150 businesses"

I wonder if you could list all the names of the businesses you've called.

That's quite an accomplishment.

Here's the bad news.

Your approach is VERY poor and is just making you come across like a sales person.

As soon as you say "do you want a free report" the business owner is thinking "what's he trying to sell me?"

You haven't established any value or any reason he should want your report.


The way you're doing this is making it very hard for you but if you genuinely have contacted 150 businesses over the phone then you have enough guts to make money with this...you just need to change your approach.

First understand that talking to business owners is a skill you develop with practice.

Second, to get hired at any kind of substantial rate you're going to have to talk to the same business owner for 2 hours to 6 hours.

So to develop the skills you need and get hired you need to put yourself in situations where it's likely you'll get to talk to a business owner for a substantial period of time.

And no business owner is going to be interested in talking to you for more than 2 minutes if he thinks you're a sales person.

On the other hand if you watch business owners they will spend hours talking to the business owner next door or from down the street...it's rare for them to have that peer to peer conversation.

So the first thing you want to do is position yourself as a fellow business owner...you have your own consulting business or internet based business.


Second you want to start by talking to business owners you already know and business owners your friends know.

Ask everyone you know where they spend their money and what business owners they know.

Offer to give those business owners a complimentary internet marketing consulation worth $xxx.


Finally if you're going to use cold calling I recommend you listen to anything from cold calling expert Ari Galper.

If you're using snail mail it certainly can work (at offlinebiz.com we have people getting 20% of business owners contacting them from the Amazing 4 Line Letter Gold Members have access to).

But keep in mind business owners get a lot of mail so yours needs to stand out.


I hope something in here helps.

Remember that how difficult or easy this business model is is actually based mostly around your level of skill at talking to business owners so that's what you really need to work on improving the most.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Listen to Mike here.

I'd also add that the reason most people struggle is twofold.

First they don't take action that can conceivably get them results...in other words they do things in a way that it seems to be obvious to everyone but themselves that they have no chance of succeeding.

You need to do things in a way that have a real chance of success and that might mean taking a look at what successful people are doing and copying it TO THE LETTER...at least while you're starting out...so you have a chance of getting some results.


And as Mike points out the reason people don't do that is because part of what successful people are doing makes them feel uncomfortable so they simply leave it out or don't work on it enough to get good at it.

The "I'll do this part of the method but I'm not doing that" philosophy doesn't work.

If you're willing to work on the key skills that might make you feel uncomfortable initially you'll get good at them, you'll make money and over time you won't feel uncomfortable doing them.

When you were learning to walk as a baby you felt uncomfortable initially standing and falling over.

But you didn't say "I think I'll just stick to getting around by crawling" because there were a whole pile of people showing you how to walk and insisting you should get up on your feet.

It's the same when you learn to drive.

You don't say "I don't mind steering but I'm not comfortable pressing my foot on the gas pedal so I won't do that."

NO there were a whole lot of people who would look at you like you're an idiot if you talked that way.

And hopefully you learned to drive.


In selling your internet marketing services to local businesses THE key skill is talking to business owners.

It's a skill some people already have and some people have to develop.

It's something that's actually great fun once you get it but it can be intimidating if you've never done it before.

But it's just like walking or driving...you need to take the time to develop that basic skill.

Sure you can and should use email, mail, referrals etc to get business owners contacting you, to book appointments etc etc.

But you can't do this business effectively without talking to business owners so stop trying to look for ways around that and just commit to developing the skills to do it well.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Will -

I am glad I never got this advice before I used the phone book as my major source of new business.

Lets see a book with every business in your town that:

1. Understands the importance of advertising
2. Is willing to pay decent money to advertise
3. Separates themselves from the people who don't care/don't want to
4. Someone else does all the hard work for you in finding them

If that is worthless then I'll take a double helping please.

My guess is the issue has to do with persistence. As my grandfather use to say - even a blind pig finds a truffle.

So if you send out 30 letters and they don't work ... then what? If you call 150 people and 149 say no ... then what.

Persistence and action are the key.

Here is what I did when I first got started.

1. Made a list of businesses I thought would be interested in my services. I used the phone book to find them, btw.

2. I made a marketing plan to contact each business once a week. One week I called, the next I wrote, the next week I stopped by, etc.

Some things didn't work right off the bat, others did. Oh and when I wasn't happy with the results in my local town I expanded my area to two other large towns. If I didn't get the results I wanted then I went statewide with it.

Now I market to three states and growing.

My point. 95% of people stop at the first failure. Be persistent. Cold calling does work - send them a letter. That fails show up on their front door step. That fails try something else.

A friend of mine gave me some great advice yesterday.

Make a list of 10 things you could do to advance your business. Then do them - all of them at once.

Oh and one last thing. Calling up a company and asking them to get a report that benefits only you without something in it for them - that is not going to get a lot of love.

Like asking a girl out on a date and telling her she has to pay for both of you.

Cute analogy.

Keep in mind that even more valuable than getting hired is the potential referrals you can get from a business owner.

It sounds crazy but it can actually be far easier to convert a referral to a paying client than it is to convert a business owner you've already spent a couple of hours talking to.

Put another way...if you get those girls who join you for dinner to introduce you to THEIR girlfriends your chances get much much better.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Does it? How well? What has been your typical response rate from phone book leads?

I agree that there are many info products out there on offline marketing that are authored by those who have no experience and simply rehash what they have seen and read.

Real offliners are making money and there are honest real offliners who have products that will help you. You have to be persistent in your efforts to make anything work.

This business is not easy at the start but once it kicks in it can be very very lucrative.

RA

Take double glazing as an example:
A telesales team will call 600 people to get 10 appointments, 6 of which will confirm and 2/3 will sell.
A door canvass team will knock 100 doors to get 3 appointments and a dog set on them! Again 70 % will confirm up and 33% of those will sell.

A double glazing salesman will close an average of 1 in 3. Exceptional people will close 1 in 2. Although that should result in £50k - £75k a year income only 1 person in every 5 stays in the industry for more than a few weeks, and only 1 in every 5 of those that do will achieve a 50% closing rate.
The people who leave will tell you it's a scam etc etc etc.

To the people who stay in the industry it's the easiest way to make an income that matches that of any professional person.

If you have the right personality then it is easy. I suffered from a lack of confidence and tried direct sales to give myself a boost. Ended up doing it for 9 years.

If you want good sales training get a job selling kitchens or double glazing. It's virtually all commission only so if you appear semi presentable you will get taken on.
Approach one of the big companies. The training is always ongoing and usually of a pretty high standard. After all you are going to go into a customers house and coming out 3-4 hours later with the contract. Believe me when you know that if the customer calls in to order the following day, then it's the mangers commission not yours, it tends to hone your skills very quickly!

After that selling to businesses is a doddle. They have the money. They understand the concept of ROI.


If you look at the figures from double glazing each sale had involved contacting 300 people, and that is being done by experienced canvassers. If you had kept on with setting appointments you would probably have got the appointment. With experience you should be getting 1 app for every 50 calls unless you target them better.

Yellow Pages is great as a lead source. Look for companies with a web address, search for them and make a list of the ones that don't show up in google. A lot aren't even on the google map.

Find out the name of the owner and call in. Your intro should be:
"Hello Mr so&so, My name is --- I'm an internet consultant. I see you have a web site but when I did a search it didn't come up in the results. I'd like to schedule a 15 minute meeting with you so I can show you how to maximise your return on your investment. Would such and such a time be good for you?" Sell the initial appointment and try and keep it to 15 minutes.

(NOTE: In the UK be very careful using first names unless invited to do so. When I was in the restaurant trade I lost count of the reps that heard my staff calling me by my first name and chose to do the same. It wouldn't have mattered if I would have killed for their product, I would never have ordered from them for their cheek, and I know a lot of my contemporaries were of the same opinion)

Don't be at all surprised to find that they paid £2000+ for their website and have had zero return from it. At your 15 minute meeting arrange a time to discuss your proposal. Most local business sites don't even have any mechanism to catch leads. Usually you will find a contact us page that brings up an email enquiry form. If you just sell them on the idea of capturing email addresses and using an autoresponder you will be giving them ideas that they have never heard before. I prefer to set up a blog for them and sell them on the idea of doing their own posts. 10 minutes on a Monday morning is all it takes.

Sell them cds to hand out to their customers that just link to a lead capture page... "to register as a VIP customer and get exclusive deals, just enter your name and email address"

You can get 1000 cds overprinted and burned for around £4-500 if you shop about. A business will happily pay £750 for them to use as business cards. A hardware shop I supply has got 1 opt in for every 3CDs he gives out. His site is just a wordpress blog which he puts a new offer on every week himself, and emails his list. I charged him £200 to set up his blog, I get commission on his hosting and autoresponder and every couple of months I supply another batch of CDs. 14 months in, His business is up 12% on last year, and every offer he mails out sells out. On top of that I have done exactly the same for two of his friends. Each customer is worth about £1000 a year so it soon adds up for very little work.

Beats double glazing anytime!

Billy -

Thanks for the early morning laugh. Sorry to disappoint you but success usually shows itself in the form of work. All my best.

Tim

The advice here has been right on the money.

Another thing I'd suggest is getting a copy of Dan Kennedy's Magnetic Marketing kit. You should be able to get a copy on eBay for $50-$70. If you can't afford that, pick up a copy of his book "No B.S. Sales Success." That book is full of no-fluff, all-meat content and gives you both an overview of the selling process, how to reach decision makers and how to position yourself and your business. And make no mistake, positioning IS key to how successful you will be. The book is simply OUTSTANDING.

And Andrew is right: the approach with the free report is all wrong. We in IM are so accustomed to seeing a free report that we forget what it really is and what it's job is: to generate leads and ATTRACT clients: i.e. you DON'T go to them, they come to you. It's what Dan Kennedy calls a Lead Generaton Magnet (LGM). People don't want a free report. They want to know "How to Attract More Customers Easily and Consistently While Slashing Your Marketing Costs to the Bone" -- which the free report just happens to tell them.

Q: Do you want my free report?

Q: Do you want to know "How to Attract More Customers Easily and Consistently While Slashing Your Marketing Costs to the Bone"?

Which one is more likely to get interested business owners to raise their hands and say "Yes, I'd like to know more"?

Also, remember that your LGM doesn't have to be a free report. It could be a talk or workshop you put on for the local business community (on the same topic). Approach your local chamber of commerce and offer to give a talk to their members on this topic. When you do that, you get the implied endorsement of the chamber and members are more likely to view you in a favorable light.

Or write a press release about your free report and send it in to your local newspaper. Talk about the problem your report solves (i.e. we're in a recession, local businesses are hurting and your report gives them solutions). Let the reporter know that you'll give a complimentary copy to any business owner who asks. The newspaper is very likely to print THAT and those who raise their hands and request your information are much more qualified than those you approach cold.

And as someone else mentioned, make sure you rank well in your local area and that your site is optimized for your area of expertise and local geographic area.

Also, you might want to check out Raleigh Pinskey's book "101 Ways to Promote Yourself." It's a buffet of ideas for promoting yourself not necessarily a streamlined strategy for marketing your business. Her Web site is Raleigh Pinskey's Promote Yourself - Branding Expert, PR Expert, Publicity Expert, PR Expert, Marketing Expert, Public Relations Expert, Online Branding Expert

Remember that you're TRULY integrating online with offline and you have to use both offline and online methods to promote yourself.

I think it's so easy to get overwhelmed and try to do everything at once. I think a huge key to success is outlining a simple plan/strategy, focus only on those strategies and tactics which fit within your plan and sticking with it.

A couple of key tings to remember about marketing yourself:

1. Pick a Niche.

You might decide to focus only on certain types of businesses or you might focus on ALL businesses within your geographic market.

2. Build a List.

The most important part of your business is your lists of prospects and customers. You should ALWAYS be in list-building mode. Your goal is to get as many of your ideal clients onto your prospect list and then convert at as many of those as possible into customers.

Remember the 2-step model:

When people first meet you, they're not very likely to do business with you. People do business with people they know like and trust. So you first have to get them onto your prospect list, i.e. DON'T go for the immediate sale. Just get them onto your prospect list!

How do you get them onto your prospect list? Get them to raise their hand and say "Yes, I'm interested in your free report/talk/audio/video/whatever." Those who raise their hands and ask for your information are much more likely to do business with you in the future.

Send them good content, offer helpful tips, etc. You want to be seen as a resource, not a nusaince!

Next, you want to move as many as possible onto your customer list. Now they know you, like you and trust you. So show them what you can do for them and offer them the chance to do business with you.

Now, I know I'm being general, but I'm focusing more on the overall strategy here. ALWAYS be in list-building mode.

3. Re-sell and Up-sell

Those who have done business with you before are more than twice as likely to do business with you than someone who's never met you and doesn't know you. Plus, you've already gone to the work and expense of getting those customers. So it's MUCH cheaper and easier to sell MORE to your current customers.

So find out what they want/need and give it to them.

There are tons of ways to do this and even more specific tools and strategies to do it with. But you get the idea of the overall strategy.

HTH!

Michelle

So you started out by talking to the director of your local chambers of commerce...a great center of influence.

You can do the same with many business networking groups, even churches...any group that has a base of members including a good percentage of business owners.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

WOW! Thank you everyone for your reply. Much to read and take in.

Matty

I'm going to put this in my sales letter and mail it to 500 local businesses.

I'll let you know what happens.

Well, I've already posted day 1 and 2 of this videos series... I figure ... Hell why not day 3

YouTube - The Course in Mastery Day 3
good luck

Jay

This is exactly what I recommend but you should keep in mind that many people would see this as cold calling...since in many cases it does involve building friendships with people you barely know or don't know at all.

Ideally if you build friendships with a ton of business owners you're going to do very well.

The advice and the mindset you're sharing here is excellent.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Everyone needs to be out of debt, in shape, have good relationships, etc.

If you sell people what they need instead of what they WANT then you'll have many more disappointments than successes.

Oh and if you can show me how to turn 500 into 1500 I'd happily give you the $500.

Show them you are an investment, not an expense.

seems the trick with this is coming up with a printing source before you have clients?

hmmmmm - interesting

I wonder how far networking with ( friends, family & neighbors ) dates back?

For some reason you feel that I mentioned that out of ignorance? Just the opposite... (Perhaps anger management courses will be in your near future)...

However, you made a point to express cold calling is dated... Now you've made a point to show how dated networking with your warm market is... Thanks for sharing... Oh and one more thing... How do you suggest someone goes after the below prospects?

That's not really considered your warm market...

Stop the presses... Are you suggesting that someone cold calls?

Relax... I'm not against you...

Your warm market only lasts for so long and in order to have a constant flow
of business you may need to do a little cold calling here and there...

But that's something you already know based on your above suggestion...

Cheers

Jay

Bingo!

Although the original poster has the right idea, he's going about it all wrong. The free report (or CD or whatever) is supposed to attract potential clients and help you build build a list. It's supposed to eliminate cold calling. Instead, the OP is cold calling -- asking if they want a free report. :-\

Instead, give it an irresistible title like "How to Attract More Customers Easily and Consistently While Slashing Your Marketing Costs to the Bone" and you're bound to attract more attention. Or record a CD on the topic instead. It will have a higher perceived value if it's an audio CD instead of a printed report. Either format is fine. Go with what's faster and easier for you to produce though.

I wouldn't cold call business owners. Instead, I'd send out a letter or postcard offering the free report. Then give your free report only to those that request it. Those that request it are MUCH more likely to buy from you than if you mass-mailed (or mass cold-called) those folks. And it positions you much better.

You could also contact your local Chamber of Commerce and offer your free report to all their members. It makes the chamber look good and you get the implied endorsement of the chamber.

With all due respect to GoGetta, I wouldn't, couldn't cold call anybody. I just can't make myself do it. Ick!

But don't ask them if they want a free report!!!! They don't want another single "thing" cluttering up their desks or taking up their time! They need customers! So ask them if they'd like to know "How to Attract More Customers & Clients Easily and Consistently" and see if that gets a better response.

HTH!

Michelle

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...gone-wild.html

Hope this helps