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So....you want to succeed and be a good offline marketer ....huh?

by chrisnegro
12 replies
Offline Warriors:

I just wanted to leave you guys a tip here before I went to bed. If you want to be a good offline marketer, the first thing you need to know is DON'T LISTEN TO JUST ANYBODY. Make sure they are legit and can prove they are actually collecting checks from business owners - NOT just collecting checks from other internet marketers because they have a product to sell.


HERE IS THE TIP

If you want to succeed as an offline marketer (and collect $1,000-$5,000 monthly checks), you need to make sure that the business owner hears you talking about their finances AND THEIR BOTTOMLINE .

More specifically, they need to hear a plan from you in which they can visually see that what you are recommending can work (and more likely will work).

I have found that 80% of my work is making sure I make sure I have a plan to make them money (and convey this adaqutely to the business owner) and 20% actually marketing. IF YOU HAVE THIS MINDSET (GOING IN WITH YOUR CLIENTS) you have greatly increased your chances of making a living at this by 75% at least.

Hope this helps you,

Chris Negro
#good #huh #marketer #offline #soyou #succeed
  • Profile picture of the author jimbo3891
    I would definitely agree with Chris here.

    There's plenty of people selling ideas about offline marketing that have never done it themselves. They've tried to take an online model and apply it to an offline strategy. Don't get me wrong, some of those ideas will work, but not all of them.

    When you are sitting behind your computer selling a mediocre product or service to someone half way around the world, there's no emotional connection with them. Many of the big name gurus "say" that there is, but there's not. Those that are buying from you are just a paypal account. I'm not saying that you (or others) don't care about the people that buy from them, just that there's something different when you've not met the person personally. If you're selling a mediocre product or service to a person you've met face to face, unless your moral/ethical well is dry, it's a lot harder to just take their money and half way do it.

    When you are sitting across that table talking to that business owner who is struggling to keep his business afloat in this dismal economic situation we're going through, if there's not an emotional connection to that business owner, then your are one cold hearted - well you know what I mean. It breaks my heart when I'm talking to a business owner that needs what we do, can't really afford what we do, but can't afford not to take advantage of what we do. I don't work for free though.

    So, what I try to do is find something that can help grow their business - maybe a small something that can get small results, get me paid something today, and increase profits for the business owner. If I can help keep them alive today to work with us next month, then we can potentially do more for them the next month.

    Everything we propose for the business owner, we try to structure based upon the ROI of what we're proposing. In fact, we've started telling business owners, "If you don't see a positive return on your investment with us, we'll not ask you to spend any more money with us. Is that a fair promise?" One business owner had to almost pick himself up off the floor and said it was "refreshing". The Yellow Pages, Radio, TV, Newspapers, etc will not make that promise - they'll just have more ideas to get the business owner to spend more money.

    Now to do this effectively, you've got to make them work. They've got to be committed to spending the time with you and giving you the information you need to determine their lifetime value of a client - before you go to work. If they're not willing to invest the necessary amount of time, they they'll probably not make a good client anyway. It's a poor businessman that doesn't know the numbers of his business.

    Like Chris, I'd say about 80% of our work is actually figuring out the plan to help the business increase their revenues. Very little of it is actually marketing our business.

    Thanks Chris for providing some excellent "fodder" for some late night thoughts. I hope some others contribute their thoughts to this as well.
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    James Dunn
    Athens, GA
    http://wpmu.org/author/jamesdunn

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    • Profile picture of the author chrisnegro
      Originally Posted by jimbo3891 View Post

      I would definitely agree with Chris here.

      There's plenty of people selling ideas about offline marketing that have never done it themselves. They've tried to take an online model and apply it to an offline strategy. Don't get me wrong, some of those ideas will work, but not all of them.

      When you are sitting behind your computer selling a mediocre product or service to someone half way around the world, there's no emotional connection with them. Many of the big name gurus "say" that there is, but there's not. Those that are buying from you are just a paypal account. I'm not saying that you (or others) don't care about the people that buy from them, just that there's something different when you've not met the person personally. If you're selling a mediocre product or service to a person you've met face to face, unless your moral/ethical well is dry, it's a lot harder to just take their money and half way do it.

      When you are sitting across that table talking to that business owner who is struggling to keep his business afloat in this dismal economic situation we're going through, if there's not an emotional connection to that business owner, then your are one cold hearted - well you know what I mean. It breaks my heart when I'm talking to a business owner that needs what we do, can't really afford what we do, but can't afford not to take advantage of what we do. I don't work for free though.

      So, what I try to do is find something that can help grow their business - maybe a small something that can get small results, get me paid something today, and increase profits for the business owner. If I can help keep them alive today to work with us next month, then we can potentially do more for them the next month.

      Everything we propose for the business owner, we try to structure based upon the ROI of what we're proposing. In fact, we've started telling business owners, "If you don't see a positive return on your investment with us, we'll not ask you to spend any more money with us. Is that a fair promise?" One business owner had to almost pick himself up off the floor and said it was "refreshing". The Yellow Pages, Radio, TV, Newspapers, etc will not make that promise - they'll just have more ideas to get the business owner to spend more money.

      Now to do this effectively, you've got to make them work. They've got to be committed to spending the time with you and giving you the information you need to determine their lifetime value of a client - before you go to work. If they're not willing to invest the necessary amount of time, they they'll probably not make a good client anyway. It's a poor businessman that doesn't know the numbers of his business.

      Like Chris, I'd say about 80% of our work is actually figuring out the plan to help the business increase their revenues. Very little of it is actually marketing our business.

      Thanks Chris for providing some excellent "fodder" for some late night thoughts. I hope some others contribute their thoughts to this as well.
      Thanks James.....I ALWAYS enjoy your contributions to the offline community here at the Warior Forum. Couldn't have said it more better.

      Success to you James,

      Chris
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      • Profile picture of the author VeitSchenk
        mhmm, I'm undecided about James' point of view ... yes, when we're talking ebooks etc, there is no emotional connection, but when you sell high-end coaching where you interact with your clients, there is emotional involvement (or like you say, there's something wrong with you...). At least that's how it works out for me ... and I've never seen any of my clients in the flesh.

        anyway, for local, I agree 100% (I'm also doing local business coaching), the marketing required is minimal ... ask a few questions that are focused on them, give them a quick example what Google thinks about their current website (Oh, I'm found for "gerbils", but I'm a butcher...) and then show them how to get out of the gerbil-mess.

        final thought on James' response: a business owner who doesn't know their numbers.... sad truth is: for most the situation is so bad that they're burying their heads in the sand: too busy fulfilling a few orders and then desperately filling the pipeline again to be thinking about lifetime value of their clients, profit margins, etc.

        Veit
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        Connect with me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/veitschenk

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        • Profile picture of the author chrisnegro
          Originally Posted by VeitSchenk View Post

          a business owner who doesn't know their numbers.... sad truth is: for most the situation is so bad that they're burying their heads in the sand: too busy fulfilling a few orders and then desperately filling the pipeline again to be thinking about lifetime value of their clients, profit margins, etc.Veit
          You would be surprised to know how many businesses operate like this.

          Success,

          Chris Negro
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        • Profile picture of the author jimbo3891
          Many Apologies Veit.

          I was talking about eBooks and things like that - I thought I referenced "Clickbank products" and the like, but it was 2:38AM so I may have thought it but not typed it. I wasn't talking about coaching because that is VERY, VERY High Touch - done some of it myself for business owners and if you can't get an emotional connection from that then you are brain and emotionally dead. <GRIN>

          "Business owner who doesn't know the numbers" - When I taught business development classes that was a phrase that we used with them lots of times - I actually picked it up from Paul Dunn in Australia. We taught business owners that they had to be more concerned about working "on" their business than "in" their business. Working "in" your business makes you little more than a technician, while working "on" your business brings you closer to an entrepreneur. But, alas, most business owners are too busy making pizzas, installing hot tubs and pools, and changing oil and tires that they feel they don't have time to work "on" their business. That's all the more reason they need us and it's part of our job to show them just how much and what we can do for them.

          Someone mentioned ROI. I'll relay a funny story that I just experienced this afternoon. We do a text marketing system for local businesses and part of our requirement is that they track the results in their store in great detail so that we can help them analyze results versus efforts expended to develope a ROI analysis. Every business owner we've sold on this has committed verbally to do the things we ask. We signed a pizza restaurant on to the program a couple of weeks ago, and 30 minutes before the text coupons went out, I contacted the owner to make sure he had trained his employees on what to do and had put a coupon code on their register so we could track redemptions. As of Monday of this week, he had NO redemptions. Today I talked to his assistant manager when I dropped by the store and he said he had personally seen 15 of the text coupons come through. They had NO coupon code on the register and no one in the store had been trained what to do. The assistant manager knew what we were doing so he just took care of it.

          I contend many business owners are unsure of what they need to track in order to develop an ROI analysis. Hey, even when they are told exactly what we expect, they have difficulty tracking those items. Once again, all the more reason that they need us - to establish an accountability system so that they have someone to hold their feet to the fire and ensure that they do what they're supposed to do.

          Betcha didn't know part of your job as an offline consultant was babysitting, wiping snotty noses, and changing dirty diapers. Well, not actually, but figuratively it's part of our job. We've got to babysit business owners to ensure they do what is best for their business.

          Once again Veit -- I wasn't talking about those that are selling coaching - that's an entirely different segment that I didn't even consider. I consider Maria Gudelis a very dear friend and I've learned tons from her. I think she and I have an excellent relationship. But, I've never met her face to face. We have that emotional connection though. And she's not hesitated to give me the "kick in the rear" when I needed it a few months back. As I said, that's an entirely different product that we're talking about. It is definitely an emotional connection sell.

          James Dunn
          Originally Posted by VeitSchenk View Post

          mhmm, I'm undecided about James' point of view ... yes, when we're talking ebooks etc, there is no emotional connection, but when you sell high-end coaching where you interact with your clients, there is emotional involvement (or like you say, there's something wrong with you...). At least that's how it works out for me ... and I've never seen any of my clients in the flesh.

          anyway, for local, I agree 100% (I'm also doing local business coaching), the marketing required is minimal ... ask a few questions that are focused on them, give them a quick example what Google thinks about their current website (Oh, I'm found for "gerbils", but I'm a butcher...) and then show them how to get out of the gerbil-mess.

          final thought on James' response: a business owner who doesn't know their numbers.... sad truth is: for most the situation is so bad that they're burying their heads in the sand: too busy fulfilling a few orders and then desperately filling the pipeline again to be thinking about lifetime value of their clients, profit margins, etc.

          Veit
          Signature

          James Dunn
          Athens, GA
          http://wpmu.org/author/jamesdunn

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  • Profile picture of the author steelhead
    Very good point Chris. This is the differentiating factor. When the owner is considering your proposal as compared to others or as compared to history from other consultants, they don't often find a solid ROI plan coupled with the strategies. A glaring hole in the Plan.

    The ROI part of the plan is a missing ingredient. I find this especially true with the latest round of self ascribed social media consultants that frankly, lack depth.

    Most sensible business owners consider the ROI the most important thing even though they don't always verbalize it directly. Perhaps they only have a fuzzy idea, which is all the more important for us to emphasize a metric baseline.

    One of the risks we undertake is that the client does not follow through with an earnest commitment to change. The best laid plans can go awry to skew or screw the ROI.....and then of course we get the blame. The only way around this I have found is the continual reinforcement of the PLAN. Becoming involved as much as you are allowed in the implementation of the PLAN with mutual agreement of benchmarks.

    Which brings us back to the power of communication and understanding of the client's business, finances and THEIR BOTTOMLINE.

    -Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Bayo
    Good topic Chris.

    My experience and beliefs about success in working with business owners:
    1. They need to know they have real problems (as opposed to just being aware)
      .
    2. They need to be actively seeking solutions to the problems
      .
    3. They need to be open to exploring what I offer in terms of solutions, even if they have never heard of them or used them before
    If this is not possible then there's really no point trying to help a business that isn't ready to take action.

    Also, from providing professional Fast Growth Coaching in marketing and business to entrepreneurs, small business, service professionals and others via FastGrowthCoaching.com, I know that:

    1. Success for business owners is 80% Mindset Shifting and 20% Tactical Action Planning
      .
    2. Success for professionals who are going to be successful as Marketing and Consulting specialists is 80% Mindset Shifting and 20% Tactical Action Planning
      .
    3. At the core, businesses (local, national or international) are more interested in generating more revenue and making profits over saving money
    Finally, it becomes easier to be successful when you understand that as Marketig and Consulting specialists, there's help we can offer that's highly profitable that doesn't actually involve the internet.

    Cheers

    Bayo
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave Lianelli
    Originally Posted by chrisnegro View Post


    HERE IS THE TIP

    If you want to succeed as an offline marketer (and collect $1,000-$5,000 monthly checks), you need to make sure that the business owner hears you talking about their finances AND THEIR BOTTOMLINE .

    More specifically, they need to hear a plan from you in which they can visually see that what you are recommending can work (and more likely will work).
    Hiya Chris,

    you're right on!

    Many 'offline marketers' don't understand you need to do actual selling. Heck, most of them don't even know how to sell. They're into the technical side of things, like SEO, video publishing and such.

    But to become a consultant, coach or whatever offline - you need to be able to sell. And to sell you need to speak the language of your prospects: those of the bottom-line!

    Thanks for pointing that out!

    -Dave
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    • Profile picture of the author blissk
      Chris,

      Thanks for sharing the simple and crucial tip. Talking about how our services directly impact their bottom line and finances is something that I personally do but I don't do it enough and may have lost few prospects this way.

      One keyword you mentioned is ADEQUATELY conveying value.

      The job becomes to make sure the client UNDERSTANDS the impact of our service to their bottom line. So when discussing each segment of our service we ask - "do you see the benefit in this? Do you see how it will bring you more customers?"

      James -thanks for your golden tip: "If you don't see a positive return on your investment with us, we'll not ask you to spend any more money with us. Is that a fair promise?" I have been looking for way to articulate this and I will use it!

      Good stuff!

      -Anand
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      • Profile picture of the author jimbo3891
        Originally Posted by blissk View Post

        Chris,

        Thanks for sharing the simple and crucial tip. Talking about how our services directly impact their bottom line and finances is something that I personally do but I don't do it enough and may have lost few prospects this way.

        One keyword you mentioned is ADEQUATELY conveying value.

        The job becomes to make sure the client UNDERSTANDS the impact of our service to their bottom line. So when discussing each segment of our service we ask - "do you see the benefit in this? Do you see how it will bring you more customers?"

        James -thanks for your golden tip: "If you don't see a positive return on your investment with us, we'll not ask you to spend any more money with us. Is that a fair promise?" I have been looking for way to articulate this and I will use it!

        Good stuff!

        -Anand
        Hey Anand.

        That promise of not asking them to spend more money with you comes with a commitment from them though...they have to do their part to provide you the data that allows you to prove whether they did or did not make money from the work you've done with them. If they don't provide the numbers, then I'm definitely gonna ask for more money. In fact, the pizza restaurant I just referenced is probably going to spend more money with us because he thinks his offer wasn't appealing. That's fine to - he wrote the offer, so I'm O.K. with him thinking he messed up. But, I will demand more strongly this time that he establish a method to track it better.

        James Dunn
        Signature

        James Dunn
        Athens, GA
        http://wpmu.org/author/jamesdunn

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        • Profile picture of the author blissk
          James,

          Thanks for the clarification.
          Business has to provide conversion data and we have to make sure and verify their
          accountability systems.

          -Anand
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      • Profile picture of the author chrisnegro
        Originally Posted by blissk View Post

        One keyword you mentioned is ADEQUATELY conveying value.

        Good stuff!-Anand
        I like to make business owners mouths drop using pre-hearsed scripts and pitches. One pitch that I use to convey value is to quote cbsalary.com and salary.com's websites for the salaries of marketing professionals (of which I am skilled for or some oversees virtual assistant is skilled at). Side note...NEVER tell the business owner you are outsourcing -- this is your coca-cola secret formula

        For example, Cbsalary.com and salary.com's states that THE AVERAGE Marketing Manager, Marketing Analyst, Ecommerce Marketing Manager salaries range between $80,000-$85,000 per year (not including benefits).

        I tell this to EVERYONE OF MY CLIENTS...... I then say..... I charge a fraction of the average rate is around the county...... plus I can bring 5-6 guys on your account....AND THE BEST NEWS IS....YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY ANY OF US BENEFITS. (and make sure I smile and grin when I say this --- believe it or not ...it works) .

        And then I proceed to tell them that typically my clients and I work out what is a doable monthly fee to retain our marketing firm. I make the terms such that they can back out at anytime. (But I set it up in such a way..... it would be stupid to back out.) .....but nonetheless it lets the business owner feel in TOTAL CONTROL (which is the goal).

        And then I say....Mr. Business Owner....my attiude is if I'm not making you money...I'm not in business. I have a VESTED INTEREST in making you money....as when I do....you are going to want to keep me around alot longer (and then I smile with a big grin ).


        Rehearsing these pitches gives me the confidence IN EVERY PRESENTATION AND PITCH to the client. It has taken alot of coaching, practice and relentless work ethic to make this second nature.

        Hope this helps you,

        Chris Negro
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