The first time, I stumbled on it. Once I realized how absolutely profitable it was, I decided to talk to a few salesmen in similar fields.

In a nutshell, here is how it worked;
I was selling vacuum cleaners for maybe $1,000 (this is in the 1980s), I found a customer that bought, a year before, a water filtration system for a few thousand dollars.

They started giving me referrals. They asked if I wanted the same names they gave the water filtration guy. I had an epiphany, and said "Do you know who bought from him? Just give me those names"

So I was only seeing people that were used to an in home salesman calling them....used to buying from him..and were used to giving him referrals.

My closing percentage shot up to almost 100%. The problem was, I was only seeing the other salesman's buyers. And it was a shorter list than his prospects.

So...in six months or so, I wasn't following a year behind him, but only a month or so.

So....I went to other salespeople I knew. I asked for the names of a few home owners that were easy to sell. I went to a life insurance man, and a fire alarm guy (I think). I also gave each of them a few names of people I suspected would buy from them too.


And...when I saw a prospect, I would ask them if they ever bought another product from an in home salesperson. They might say "Well, we did buy a security system" and I would be off, running down their "security system referrals".


the reason this worked so very well is;

Few people will let an in home salesman in their home.
Fewer will ever buy from an in home salesperson.
Fewer will give a good list of referrals that will also buy.

I was only seeing, that small percentage of people that were very highly likely to buy from me.

I worked with just this method for a few years. It started getting harder,because I live in a market areas of only 100,000 total. That's maybe 20,000 homeowners. Maybe 5-6% of those are highly likely prospects for me. That's about 1,000 total prospects.

So, I had to start selling outside my market area. And then I started closing sales for other companies......

But I've used the same method selling local online marketing systems. I find "Referral buyer strings" from other advertising media...and work those.

I only see people that are proven to buy from guys like me.

And if it's a cold call (not often anymore) one of my most important questions is "Tell me about the other marketing media you've bought in the past"

I hope that helped. I'll be happy to clarify any point..


Mostly, not customer lists. I was going to see one of their customers. The buy would give me a list of referrals. And I would go from their. The customers were building my lists for me.

I love you guys!!!!! **Eric Cartman voice**


This is why I love coming here... always seems to expand the horizon!


The Doc and Claude gave a great example of how what works in one form of media (buying lists for mailings) works in another form of media (in-home salesman).


Same concept, just a different form of media (delivery).


That's why Dan Kennedy has never used the internet, but makes millions from the internet. Offline marketing translates to online marketing.