WOW! Selling services offline using "interviews" - Mostly Working

I haven't gone through the interview route myself.... but here is what I would do:
You don't want to sound like a dick, you are there to interview them. I would allow the attendee to stay for the duration of the interview. I wouldn't pitch anything during the interview. At the end, I would setup a meeting to come back in a few days to go over everything. While speaking, I would bring up your services. "Ya know Doc, you said something the other day that stuck out to me. You mentioned doing some more xxxviii or that you weren't happy with xxxxx"
Then go into your close.
"So I did some digging and found that your website wasn't setup to bring you in the most patients possible or your website wasn't shaped to position you as the authority in the area or whatever. "

A lot of people seem to set up these interviews in a misleading way which really hurts the relationship over the long term.

What do you tell them is the reason for the interview when they agree?

Yes, guys I know better than to bait and switch.

Maybe I am thinking about this wrong, but I have not been accused of selling during the interview.

And I do deliver big on the original purpose of the interview, which is to feature their business on my website. The website is something that I took a long time to develop and is well known throughout my area. So they really value the interview.

The business owners take our calls to set up the interview and they start asking questions at the conclusion about why I am giving them this for "free".

So I know this is legit as they love the "free publicity".

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My goal when done right is to get them to admit to some marketing problems in the interview and then agree to "next steps" with me.

But the in-house staff is blocking either the flow of the dialog or a frank discussion of possible solutions. Often because they are the ones messing up marketing with no knowledge.

Hard to predict as it comes off as a "oh, meet Roger Flunkie, he will be joining us".

For the record, this rarely happens, but it is starting to bother me because it happened two times last week!

What should I say to get rid of the interloper? Something professional, not rude like get out of my kitchen!

IMO the title of this thread is misleading.

"WOW"? Why Wow? ..."Mostly Working"? I don't see it mostly working for the OP. All I see is him trying to use a method to connect with potential clients, and not getting far with it because he's using it in a misleading way.

Stop doing that!

You're screwing yourself up in addition to the marketplace. Your attention is always on "Can I make a sale here?" and you're breathing fast and your eyes are darting from place to place. It doesn't look, sound or FEEL like an interview to the prospect and that's why it ends shortly thereafter.

I don't usually share details like I'm about to because some jerk will release this as a WSO tomorrow, or it'll end up on a hate site run by some loser living in his mom's basement, but I'm at the point where I realize only 5 people are going to see this thread anyway.

Look--when you're doing interviews, you interview.

Keep your frickin' eye on the ball.

Your purpose in these interviews is to find out why this niche would want to buy from you.

Now I'm not going to mindread but many times I've encountered people who would talk to any business owner in any niche. This is a mistake. You do not want to talk to a banker, then a baker, then an accountant, and then a manufacturer. You'll never get anywhere doing this. Pick ONE niche and stick with it. At least for awhile (and for WF people, that means more than three days!!)

By sticking to a single type of business, you will begin to develop some EXPERTISE on why these particular business owners would buy from you. I know, expertise, that's a real WOW, right? These reasons a member of that niche would want your help are called Pain Points. They are not hard to get. People want to be helpful. People also want to show off how much they know. I had a client who worked a regular job in Florida and so his day finished too late to call locally. We picked Colorado roofers to talk to about PPC campaigns and I call shadowed with him. Within a dozen dials he got the marketing manager of a medium-sized CO roofing company on the line, and without him even asking for it--because we weren't calling for interviews; we were making prospecting calls--got a good half-dozen pain points. That lady spoke for 20 minutes straight and told him every detail about the CO roofing business. I could release a WSO about how to talk to Colorado roofers from that call.

When you hear a phrase from a member of your niche, and they say it exactly the way another member said it previously, you know you have one of these pain points. You don't have to hunt for these; they just say them. I was calling for a metal fab shop I ran in the mid 2000s, and after a couple days I realized a contractor had said something in the same way another builder had said it the day before. Next call, I began my process using that same phrasing. The guy immediately got interested.

Now you understand the PURPOSE of these interviews: to get pain points for this niche.

These pain points stick around for a long time. Until there's some huge change of technology in that marketplace, they'll be there.

Your secondary purpose for information interviews is to develop some level of familiarity with the prospect. You want them thinking of YOU when they think of whatever your topic is (eg. web design). That's for referrals more than anything, though they could come back and be a client later.

Tertiary purpose is to develop your expert status. What are your plans for what to DO with these interviews? Do you realize you have the raw material for a marketing collateral piece here?

To me, this thread is just another example of the "thud and blunder" attempts by desperate people in the hopes of latching onto something that magically works. Doing the info interview approach IS work. It also has several spillover benefits if you carry it out consistently and properly. The OP is not doing that yet.

Yes, I am working one niche at a time. I find that this is the best way to facilitate dialog which gets the business owner to open up.

Ok, after some reflection, here is what I learned:

I lack credibility on this forum. So I must endeavor to provide more details first about myself, my values, the marketing plan, how it works and how much business owners appreciate it, etc.

I will not start my forum posts with questions about fine tuning a working process.

No matter how legitimate and valued.

With a low post count, it is just not believable.

And there are not enough words or time to explain the full business plan.

Yet there are those rare individuals like vndnbrgj who will stay on topic and hone in with a great answer to the question. Thanks by the way...

Because credibility is important and I did not provide enough details, people will fill in the blanks with their assumptions. Some are so consumed by their positive and negative experiences that they respond loudly in strange and ferocious ways.

I understand now.

I am getting heckled 2/10 times by the in-house staff on the same basis as to how this thread unfolded:

1. Trust
2. Timing
3. Sport

All a cost of doing business.

Happy times...

Ignoring all of the assumptions made by others, my question is this....

What is it in setting up the interview that even makes them want to include others in the interview? That seems odd to me. Are you interviewing business owners to write the story of their business, or are you setting up a general interview about who they are as a company now? In the former I would think that the owner wouldn't think to include others, but I could see it in the latter. In other words, my focus would be on what I could do to exclude others in the process.

I used recorded interviews to establish a relationship to get booked for speaking gigs. I've also used it in a very limited way, to directly sell my local online marketing service.

Kanigan really knows what he's talking about here. The only difference to me, is that I would leave openings, in the interview to let the guy know that I work with people in his business. After the interview, I ask if there are any questions (we aren't recording now), and sometimes the guy will just blurt out "So, what can you do for me?" or something like that.

But there has to be a real interview. And if it's a real interview, why do you care if underlings are in the room? Hopefully, these are the same underlings that will be there when you present your offer (assuming you do). So use the interview time to get them on your side. Ask them a question. Thank them for participating. Mention that other people in their position tell you that your service makes their job easier. But do this lightly. If they even notice that you are looking for business, it will backfire.

If it were me? I would interview 5 or 6 leaders (that you wanted to work with) and create a report based on what you learned from all of them. Then give the report to each prospect. At the very end of the report, mention that you help people in their business.


Decades ago, when I would pick up women, I never asked them overtly. I would just leave openings so they could let me know that they were interested, if they were. One or two is plenty.

It's a completely different dynamic if an interviewee asks "So, do you think you would help my business?"...rather than you just starting to pitch.

Added a tad later; I just read Oziboomer's post. Follow that idea. One of the best posts I've read on the subject.

Yeah, mentioning that you have a buying opportunity beforehand is good positioning, and then the interviewee will be ready for your suggestions. Just don't call it only an interview...and then pitch. That's very bad.

Oh yeah, Claude. Which of your books covers this? Based on what you know I am doing with interviews, which of your books can help me?

After the interviewing, I think my process is "consultative selling", at least that is what somebody told me I am doing, but I never studied sales formally.

I am a techie who has thrown himself into it. And it works, but I make a lot of bonehead mistakes that are probably simple sales techniques.

Please PM if necessary so I do not get into trouble...

Without sounding like a jerk, and before the interview, say some thing like:

"I've found that there is more candor when I interview one on one."

"It usually works better for the business owner if the interview is one on one."

"Before your interview, I will have studied your internet presence and then during your interview we will talk about some of the things I observed. It has been my experience that it is more productive for the business owner when the interview is one on one. The information flow is better and then it's easier for
you to implement any ideas because you know your staff..."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

If they do bring employees in, then as Claude suggested, be very non-threatening. Figure out ways
to phrase things so that it will sink in, and then later the employees will think it was their idea in the
first place. Facilitate discussion.

Suppose a topic is their FB page and the employees who created it and work on it are present. Ask them for their ideas - chances are they have been thinking about some of the same things you want to implement. "What are some ideas you guys have for your FB page?" "This is working really well right now for businesses similar to yours. How do you think it could be made to work for your business?"

Employees buy when they think it's their idea.