Real Offline Biz - Problem/solutions?For those who actually work offline -

Hi Tom.. I have zero problem with people doing offline/online biz - my real gripe is the foolish nonsense around here - I am up for any real biz

an example is when there is a thread the vultures swoop in....to promote what they are promoting. It has gotten out of hand

My own problem - which I am working on - is not really "selling" or closing or getting money upfront - it is after the close - getting them to move ....I hate dragging it out

Now...I do have some dragged out jobs that pay me weekly or monthly LOL>> which is cool. I am looking for ways to speed up the process - and also to communicate clearly with them
Any ideas welcomed. Do you have lollygaggers too?

Don't worry. I work with offline businesses - have done for nearly 40 years, and I'm not selling a WSO or anything else other than free advice, however I apparently don't qualify under Freequeen's "rules"...

Thanks Underground...yes this is what I think I am trying to say...it is not just about "getting the sale" it is about what to do afterwards.

I admit I am one to advocate a "sales process"....my current work in progress is the "aftersale".....

I like the idea of setting the expectations clearly. Thank you...yes. feel free to PM me

UG, this is money. Where can I find out more about this? It would be nice to find a process that has already been developed by someone else. My on-boarding process is a bit sloppy & I'm looking to do exactly what you just posted above.

The shameless self promotion is out of hand

You can clearly see what goes on - any question and they swoop in

the guy with "text" in sig suggests texting biz

the one offering a content writing course say = learn to write content

and so forth and so forth

It is just so ridiculous. A woman trying to sell something "local" was told by some newbie from China to "use ppc">>. amazing that he offers a ppc course in his sig line haha

How can anyone trust such self serving advice ? I don't say I am an expert...but I do work offline

Anything I say is totally up for debate...and I don't sell anything so I dont care - prove me wrong. Show me something new or better. I have learned some from others here but you have to wade through a lot of junk o junk.

Here is a thought - I know stuff I don't post everything I know
really some secrets why would you go sell them for $9.95 or $17 or ?

If you really want a laugh visit the IM forum...where you can watch people with no skills no success no nothing whine about "how can I make a wso" and then you can watch other vultures rush in to help - ready to coach

Funny one today - "how can I make my first dollar online"??

Yikes

I suggested page sayin "H//ll no I don't wanna work, I just want a buck" with a paypal link...you see bums in Key West (and elsewhere around here) with that sign and it works...one guy in KW is pretty well to do thanks to that gig )

I do try to be helpful LOL

Good point, in that they aren't all like that. On this place the majority are just selling crap to others, and it's so obviously when people are self-promoting and saying stuff to drive traffic to their sigs or when they are being helpful without self-interest playing a part.

I've been through probably thousands of wso and trainings over the years.

Probably about 5% were written by people like Iamnamless or Ewen, who genuinely impart and share great content, free or paid.


The rest were by people who bought a course 'create your very own infoproduct in 24 hours even you don't know anything about a subject and start making bank'.

I've looked into courses like that, who proffer the idea that 'you don't need to be a genius. You can be a 10th-grader passing down what you know to a 9th grader, as long as you know a little more than they do, and still make a profit'.


I don't know why but stuff like that, that encourages doing the very minimum you can in order to make money, and acts like you don't need any real skills or knowledge, really annoys me and is endemic here.

Find the most mediocre, easily, brain-dead simple thing and sell you soul and act like a complete cretin to make money with it. It's why so few people in this space actually learn the skills needed for real success, because they're constantly chasing quick and easy and convenient and want to do the bare minimum.


So I don't think it's a clear cut as you're either doing a good service, or a complete fraud. Most just think it acceptable to produce pointless crap and sell it and have been told they're doing something good.

Yesterday I saw a course by Mario Brown, saying in the all the years he's been in IM, the easy thing do to with no experience and no capital, and which you can start making money tomorrow with no capital outlay or skills to speak of is offline consulting.

That's his positioning for his new course; no money, no investment, no hard-work, no knowledge, no skills needed. Buy his course and go out and collect checks like the ones for $2500 on his sales page.

The positioning he is using for this is one most use, it's what the copywriters are actually teaching them. Make it seem like there is nothing required on their part, just the system itself will do all the work. I know because I've studied the same copywriting courses, and seen that complete nonsense, fantasy premise in countless sales pages, so much they I can't even bring myself to read most of them, because I know the tricks and BS their trying to sell me on.

Most people are not even aware they are being dishonest or half-assed. It's certainly not the case that most are selling quality and keep their integrity intact while doing that.

People like Freebiequeen pointing that out are actually far better intentioned and have more integrity then those constantly giving bias info in the hope people by their stuff.

Some great info there that shows the importance of educating your customer. Obviously, in some cases, sometimes they need a day long seminar to really understand what you do and the real value.


The people and companies that communicate this and have a knowledge base that educated their customers are usually by far the most successful from my experience.


I was dealing with a rep from this company today about using their API to provide market research and data on my own platform to my own clients, and started going through their knowledge base (SimilarWeb Knowledge Base - Web Measurement Learning Center) and its dawned on me how much I needed to learn to be able to work out how I, myself, can most benefit from their data and which data sets I need, let alone how I instruct my clients on how best they can use they data to improve their marketing.

So I've been creating guides and educational material all day just because in the back of my mind I knew the most important think is them understanding things clearly, and I can't just assume they do.

Learning about that company doing all day trainings to sell their products, just reinforced the idea that I need to strengthen my communication to ensure my clients know the how, what, why, when and everything they need to benefit most.

Creating a knowledge base, with camtasia videos, reports, faq's I think is really worth the time doing and will generate more involvement and buy in from the client when they are more engaged in the process and what's required.


They'll reciprocate in most cases, with the same level of attention to detail, clarity of purpose and intent and engagement/involvement in the process.

Interesting....there are a lot of biz owners who do not have a clue....but I do remind myself they have skills that I don't have....they can fix toilets, give a massage, watch a bunch of screaming kids in a day care, kill termites, make great pizza etc....
I think sometimes we as offline marketers look down our noses at folks who clearly don't know how to work their computer - cause they have been busy running their business

I think many of them would be open to this....there is also the possibility getting new clients from a seminar...yes, you can explain to them how they need to set up social media,set up email system, autoresponders, send emails, blog, website...when they think of how much work it is, and how busy they already are - then they may just hire YOU to do it win win LOL

I did give a (free) short seminar to a select biz group a friend of mine owns - and I got 2 clients from it

I also did a seminar for another non competing person who runs seminars (paid) ....I got half the door for that one and it was a nice sum and I did get one client and a couple who were interested but more looky lous

now I have a guy who does quickbook seminars who wants me to speak (running, ducking, hiding...cause the JV animule may come after me....is this a JV>>??? LOL)

Were you thinking of seminars or webinars?

We've done workshops and seminars reasonably regularly over the last five years. Always get clients out of it, especially if you follow up afterwards.
Paid ones tend to have better and more reliable attendance.
And we almost always used JVs (that word again) to fill them. In some cases I've used JVs to get the presenters as I'm not that thrilled at public speaking.

99% of the time I have received the entire amount up front, no installments or partial payments unless it was a very large project.

It doesn't help.

I think it all depends on your ideal client as well. If you're the type to just go after a few clients but high quality clients then you're probably less likely to have that problem. However, if you're building a real business and want to lower your overall risk then you're looking for a certain level of volume, and that's when you encounter that more often.

Maybe others have different experiences.

I've had a client that has talked about wanting to make some changes to a few pages on the website.... they've talked about it numerous time and in 3 years have never gotten around to sending those changes over. LOL.

Ah man, I have to add this. My clock gets fuzzy as ****. But now I see it so clearly. Thank you for posting this. Very valuable for us who have had "clock" issues before.

Wow, I have one of those...just sitting in limbo. A half-finished website, just sitting on our server since March. Have you tested charging people for being late? For instance, "you have x days to get your revisions to us. If not, then a ______ fee of $x.00 will be added for everyday late.

I'm asking, because once you get a lot of projects rolling, it throws a monkey wrench in the system if they go non-responsive. Then, you have to remember where to pick back up, get contractors going again, etc.

FreebeeQueen,

I am sorry, there must be some confusion... Here are some FACTS about me:

1. I operate a financial services technology company (website) which integrates with over 5,400 banks. Do you know what that took to build, design, and launch? From the ground up? Lots of tears, being kicked in the gut, ramen noodles... I never gave up even when it was darkest.
2. I have been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek. Print + Online
3. Prior to becoming a financial services technology CEO, I was a financial services marketing consultant. Produced 6 live action commercials with real hired actors, other videos, seminars, etc.
4. I have written and published a few books on Amazon. Notice the titles of them. I have written them to a) RANK for targeted keywords, thus generating leads for myself b) generate organic inbound partnership inquiries.
5. I have received venture capital for my venture. Only 4% of start-ups ever do...
6. I work with "newbies" who are cold call warriors (real warriors in my book) in learning the ropes to this business.
7. For the rest of my natural life, I will always be connected to the world of getting cash strapped business owners money. Why? Because as long as there is capitalism, there will always be a need for money. My market is a $500 billion market - what's yours?

Finally, I use Warrior Forum as a place to experiment, test, and tweak. For $20 I have shipped several WSO's just to "test the market." And the direct messages I have received have left me concerned for our country... Not many "go-getters" out there.

Needless to say, I wouldn't rely on providing $7 reports for a living when the average commission in my space is $2,800... I know of not a single person who started with me 8 years ago (besides myself) who has not had at least ONE month where they brought home $100k+ (I'm working on it). If I stayed the course and did exactly as they did without taking risks, I would have easily passed them... Every month.

Now that we have the facts straight, and you know who I am and get the sense I'm not a product peddler and operate a real business, making real payroll, etc. - let's focus on my point.

Say it ain't so, lol.

You can be as "firm" as you want to be, but from my 30+ years in business, I know that some very good clients don't express themselves well in writing, don't like to write or never get around to writing tasks. Yet they can talk it out with you very well.

If you are more flexible and offer to sit down with the client, in person or on the phone, to talk it through, you can usually get what you need in one pass.

This beats waiting and begging hands down.

Marcia Yudkin