Let the residual income begin :)

Thanks everyone. I'll keep posting my results here as they happen.

One other thing that happened this week was I went to talk to a coffee shop owner (trying to sell a mobile site). Although she couldn't afford it at this time, she did give me information about a local networking group she belongs to. They meet once a month and talk about marketing and things like that. She said they have a bunch of local businesses that go to these meetings. It sounds a lot less formal than the big groups like BNI...which for me is a good thing.

So I signed up for this month to see what it's all about. Maybe I can get hooked up with some of those businesses there

Mike

So I had my meeting last night with the music school (see post about my cold call to them above). It wasn't a home run but it was at least a double.

But before I get started on how the meeting went, I want to mention something interesting.

There was one thing I discovered while I was there. I did know that the iPad cannot play Flash (at least the first version of iPad). But I didn't know that it doesn't play JAVA either. This music school's website uses java for it's menu links....so....anyone that visits their site with an iPad cannot even see the links to all the other pages which means they're stuck on the home page.

So keep that in mind when prospecting. If you see a business that uses a lot of Java code on their site, you can tell them that the millions of people with iPads cannot properly see their site...if at all.

Ok. Back to the appointment.

I was supposed to meet both the mother and son (owners), but when I got there, just the son was there. The mother was running late. So I started talking to the son and asked if he wanted me to show him the mobile website before his mother got there. He said "sure".

I then proceeded to show him his website on my smart phone which looked terrible and took a long time to load. This is when he told me that his iPad doesn't do Java and neither do a lot of iPhones.

I then showed him the mock-up site I created for him and he loved it. He loved the "tap to call", the Google maps and the email form. He also didn't realize that I could put photos in the other pages that I created for his mock-up.

A few minutes later, mom shows up and I did the exact same thing. But this time, the son turned into my own personal salesman explaining how great this is and how it's exactly what they need. He also talked to his mother about their current site and how it can't be seen on iPads.

So I'm thinking...this is a slam dunk.

Then we talked about pricing and how I'd create the mobile site for free and just charge for hosting and maintenance. Then the mom says...

"Well, we prepaid our current hosting company and it's not done until March 2012. And I really don't want to pay for your hosting fee and their hosting fee at the same time. But if you could host both sites, we'll definitely do that....we'd just have to wait until March".

WHAT???? What just happened here???

So rather than have the whole thing blow up in my face and have to wait 5 months to do anything, I turned it around and gave them a discount on the monthly hosting for the mobile site until March, AND, convinced them to have me rebuild their current website (which will not be free) and host it as well in March.

They liked that idea. Whew.

We also talked about other marketing ideas such as Youtube videos, Facebook Fanpages and QR Codes. They loved everything I was saying and want me to write up a proposal (with a price) for a marketing plan that would roll out all these ideas in phases.

They asked if I would work on commission with some of these ideas (they pay $100 per new student). I told them I'd get back to them on that but after thinking about it, it may be something I'd do if I came up with a "one shot" marketing project.

For instance, run some sort of QR Code campaign for a month and I'd get a commission for any new students that come in because of that campaign. That sort of thing.

Towards the end of the conversation, she mentioned that she belongs to a small networking group that meets twice a month and told me that I should come to one of the meetings. That's the second networking group invitation I've received in two weeks. I'll definitely hit both of them to see if there's some business I can drum up there.

After about two hours, I meeting ended and everybody was happy.

So to recap all of this....

I went into this meeting hoping to sell a mobile website (which I did). I will also be re-building their old website and create a full blown marketing plan to include such things as videos, facebook and QR codes.

And as the meeting ended, I think the three of us could also become good friends because while I was there, we hit it off very well.

I definitely want them to be long term clients.

Mike

Yes, I agree with your statement and I am ready to hit the streets (and the phone!). I would just like to find a mobile website I can sell, along with SEO, other Google related SEM, a web site I can offer, etc. I would like all of these together so that I am able to have my website offer all these options.

Can you let us know which mobile sites you are offering and any other services you provide and who you are partnering with?

Thanks for your inspiring story and good job keeping focused! My biggest problem is picking a horse to ride and staying with it! I keep coming back to mobile and online marketing services and need to have some good companies to partner with. Thanks! again!

You're on the right track Mike! Here is a client of mine's mobilite screenshot. They have a meeting this week and it shall be finished with the edits. What you see is the second half of my proposal. maybe it'll give you an idea. Stay well in life

Along the same vein, the church could record their sermons and send a link via SMS for those who want to watch again or those who missed it.