My Journey to 'Offline Glory'

Well done for taking some form of action.

How about adding to each service an offer. "10 things about your website that's costing you money", "How email can add 25% to your profits". Or similar. Have a different landing page for each. Get them to exchange email for report. Have your follow up sequence related to the service. All hopefully obvious! :-)

Always ask them if they know anyone else who might be interested.

An alternative:
Collect all advertising dropping through your postbox. Inspect each website for any faults. Are they responsive? Are they collecting emails? Send an email, letter, or similar with a curiosity question. Don't tell them what's wrong, just tell them you found something. Get them to call or respond to you.

Another.
Take a look at your CofC, particularly the committee members and head. Inspect their website and do as above. Explain you're a new business and are doing website audits in order to raise awareness. Again, get them to call you. The committee members will be more likely to respond as they'll want to know who you are. You're a potential CofC member :-)

In any case, good luck...

Day 2 - Friday 2nd September

So I got some great advice on here in response to my Day 1 efforts that I plan to consider over the weekend but for Day 2 it was more of the same.

I took 2 main learnings out of Day 1 (small sample size sure, but still)

1. I had 'success' in a shop which was quiet, and
2. I had 'success' when speaking to the boss.

Down the road from my day job is a local steak restaurant which has been around for as long as I can remember. I've only ever been there once or twice, as it is quite expensive and a bit out of my budget. The food was pretty good, if a little overpriced. I walk past it quite often in my lunch breaks and I can never really believe how it stays open as there is very rarely anyone in there. I assume it is busier at dinner but for all its 'prestige' I don't know anyone who goes there.

I walked past today and again it looked empty from the outside. I was maybe a tad earlier than the usual lunch crew for a Friday but thought I would try my luck - it meets one of my two learnings from yesterday already.

I was greeted by three staff, with an older man taking the lead.

"Hello sir, how may I help you?"
"Hello, I was wondering if the owner was in?"
"You're in luck, what can I do for you?"

Bingo. I gave him my survey spiel, showed him my flyer, and waited.

"Got any plans for lunch young man?"
"Ah no, nothing in particular."
"I'll make you a deal. Lunch is on the house if you spend some time walking me through all this."

What a great deal. I was instantly overcome with nerves but if I'm to make a goer of this it's something I'll need to get very used to.

"Deal."

So over a couple of medium-rare porterhouses I got a chance to share what I know. At the very start I wondered whether I should hold anything back - if I tell him everything I know he can just go and do it himself?

But I'm not that clever, so I answered his questions as honestly as I could. He had basically no online presence. No website, takes no interest in any review websites, has no way of contacting his customers. His advertising was all TV/radio/print and has been the same way for the last 20 years. He had no need to change it, he explained. But his business was going nowhere so maybe "a grumpy old ******* needs to change." His words, not mine

As we finished up I got doubly nervous as I thought about selling him on something. How was I going to do this? But he beat me to it.

"Before you try and sell me on anything, save your breath." He explained he appreciated my explanations but it is something he will need to think about. I was relieved to be honest. I know I'll have to sell someone eventually but this guy was rather intimidating. I needed a breather to think how to approach things with him.

I thanked him for the lunch and left my flyer with him with the contact details at the bottom. I asked if he'd like me to contact him, and he suggested if I hadn't heard from him in a few weeks to drop in and we'll have lunch again. Sounds great I said, we shook hands and I went on my way.

By that time I was late back to lunch already so there ended my day of prospecting.

Businesses entered: 1
Positive responses: 1

So now I have 2 reports to work on. One for the 'shoe man', one for the 'steak man'. Bit of homework after the kids go to bed.

Thanks again to Gordon for the survey strategy, it has been a great way to dip my toe in and get me started. I may not have made a sale yet but I've already boosted my confidence a little and the mountain feels a little smaller to climb.

Busy weekend with Father's Day here in Australia so a bit to update here on this thread

Day 3 & 4 - Saturday and Sunday, 3rd & 4th September

Family life takes over on weekends but that doesn't mean I can't be chipping away on my future business. When the kids head off to bed I had the chance to send out a few emails to websites in need of a makeover.

There was no real science, I was just browsing some local businesses on Google on Saturday night and taking a look at their websites when I came across a particularly poor looking site that looked like it had been knocked up in Microsoft FrontPage or something (a real blast from the past that).

Anyway at the bottom in the footer, it had a link 'Website by XXXX' and clicking there took me to their website with links to all of their clients - in all their hideously designed glory.

Instant prospect list!

So I spent these two nights sending emails to the businesses featured on this web company's site. In my emails I introduced myself as a local web designer who specialises in capturing details of prospects and optimising sites for mobile, two areas where their current site was lacking. I offered a free, no obligation website audit if they felt their website should be making them more money.

23 emails sent and a great Father's Day spent with the wife and kids made it an enjoyable and productive weekend.

Again, well done.

I suggest rather than a single email, send a sequence. Follow up is important and will multiply your results.

Spoiler Alert - I think I got my first client today

Day 5 - Monday 5th September

Ok back to work on a Monday is about as enjoyable as a trip to the dentist. To make matters worse, there was no real time for me to hit the streets again to build on my momentum from last week as I had a few errands to run.

It looked like a day of periodically refreshing my email account hoping my weekend emails caught a live one.

In my lunch break I went off to get a hair cut but was told there was an hour and a half wait at my regular digs - not ideal on an hour lunch break! As I headed back to work I walked past a little Korean hairdresser offering $20 trims and thought why not.

I walk in and the joint is empty except for a little Korean woman sitting behind a computer. She saw me and bounced into action, taking my jacket for me, ushering me to the sinks to give me the works. After a quick shampoo and setting me up in front of a mirror she asked me a question that would change my day.

"So what do you do?"

Just as I was about to spit out my usual answer - "just some basic data entry stuff" - I had a flash.

"I help local businesses get more customers and make more money."

Fast forward 15 minutes and I'm sitting there with basically a crew cut and my potential first client on the hook. We talked about advertising, websites, pricing (I have no doubt she is the cheapest in town), social media, emails - I basically name-dropped any tactic I could to show my expertise.

The only problem of having her keen to listen is I think she kept cutting my hair shorter and shorter so we could keep talking!

Anyway. I agreed to come in and chat further about her business after work on Wednesday to see if we can work together. Considering she doesn't have any web presence at all, and doesn't appear to have any contact with her current clients I'm sure we can come up with something, so fingers crossed.

The lesson for today - make sure you tell people what you want to do. You never know who might be looking for you!

Thanks to those of you following along, providing advice and sending me PMs of support. It is much appreciated. Here is how my last couple of days have gone (no spoilers this time!)

Day 6 - Tuesday 6th September

With a few things on my plate today I didn't spend any time actively looking for clients. I did manage to knock up a quick questionnaire to go through with the hair dresser tomorrow so I'm prepared for that. Also spent time doing some research for my other two main prospects. Looking for clients is important but preparing to deal with warm leads is vital if I'm going to make the sale.

Day 7 - Wednesday 7th September

Game time!

No prospecting at lunch time today means all my energies flow into tonight's meeting.

I nervously arrive on closing time and my hairdresser is waiting to go as she has no more customers for the day. She's strangely excited, which puts me at ease a bit, and I explain I'd like to ask her a few questions about her and her business first. I don't want to sell her something she doesn't need. She is overly thankful for that. So far so good.

So here's the cliff notes from our chat:

• She isn't really making much money but she's making enough to get by,
• She wants to be on the web because everyone tells her she should be but she wanted to know more on why she should be,
• Her sister told her to get on Facebook and she wondered if that was a good idea (she uses Facebook personally but not for her business),
• She is operating far from capacity so any additional business she can bring in will make a big difference to her bottom line,
• She had no comprehension of SEO,
• She has no follow-up or contact with her current clients,
• She doesn't really do any advertising because she doesn't really know where to start,
• She is prepared to spend a few thousand dollars on marketing herself but would like someone who can hold her hand through it.

I explained a few different approaches we can take in relation to the internet, advertising but also business approaches we can take like looking at her pricing, developing a USP or working a client database and staying in touch with her customers.

I fear I may have overloaded her. She liked all the ideas but wanted to sleep on it to work out what she really wanted to do. I agreed to pop in tomorrow after work and we'll nut out a plan to move forward with.

So I think I've just about got my first client. But we'll see if my inability to close will backfire on my tomorrow I guess. Even if that is the case, I still gained valuable experience in talking with a prospect and running through the process, so that is a positive.

Fingers crossed my next update will be a winning one.

Offline businesses must be different in Australia. Practically all "brick and mortar" businesses in the U.S. have a sign on their front door stating, "No Solicitors."

Hello TP84

I really like your posts, the day to day details you are posting as you work on establishing your business. I hope your posts gain attention as they should help many others who are in the same position as you, jus starting out

We all have to start from scratch, my first year in IM I made the grand sum of US$408 profit for my whole first year of effort. Some 13 years later my Dad an I have a huge Offline Business with 68 full time employees an high multi million pound turnover, most of it from Offline.

I think in some ways advice like yours can be more easily followed by others starting out more than advice from those of us with tons of experience. It is a little bit more difficult to try to explain say 13 years of efforts in growing our Businesses.

I wish you every success an I am sure you will be successful, as you are out there "doing" rather than jus in here "saying". Like the NIKE slogan - "Just Do It".

Cheers
Lindy



I'll come back an follow your progress

Great work out there and inspiring to read about your journey...

But I will give you some tips that could be good to think about.

Nr 1 - Always think that you could get some information about your Nay -sayers... Email cellphone number and get a Yes from them to send them information. Put them on a newsletter and send them advice they can use in their niche.

Nr 2 - Even if they say No at first. Make a visit nr 2 and 3 with a couple of months regularity and you will brand yourself. Think that they don't know you and it's impossible to trust you. Therefore, they need some extra time with you even if they, at your irst visit say Ooh noo...

Nr 3 Give them a hook. Print out an article you have written filled with good advice for them. But end the article with a big hook so your prospect Have to visit your site or signup at your list.

Nr 4 - Send some "personal" textmessages with advice and good information to the owners and the should be great.

Good luck and keep upp the hussle!

A delayed update sorry guys but the details still stick pretty firm in my mind!

Day 8 - Thursday 8th September

So back to visit my favourite Korean hairdresser. This time I came armed, ready to sell - we had discussed what options we had yesterday, today was time to get the nod and get started with my first client.

I rolled in with an outline of what I had to offer her business, as well as my pricing for each service. I listed these in order - develop a USP, formulate a customer contact plan, build a web presence and build a social media presence on Facebook. These were all areas we had discussed the day before.

At the top of my page was a key pre-sell - I wanted her to tell me what one extra client each day would do for the bottom line of her business. I lead with this question to try and show the value of what I'm offering. We determined $50 a day in revenue was a fair amount for one extra client - which I extended to $300 a week (she works Saturdays) - $1,200 a month - $15,000 plus a year.

I ran through the four areas I proposed to help her with and how much they were going to cost her. I asked if she thought this could bring in a goal of one extra client per day, and reminded her how much extra revenue that would bring to her business.

"Would you like to go ahead with a plan to implement all four steps?"

I thought I set it up well. Unfortunately the answer was "No".

OK not totally "No". It was a "No, I don't want to spend money on all four steps straight away. How about we go with options 3 (a web presence) and 4 (Facebook) to start with as that fits my budget better and it gives me something to show people?"

Not a home run - but a pretty handy lead off double (yes we see baseball down here in Aus!)

We decided to go with a website and a Facebook page, and I promised to give her a quick crash course on Facebook and posting cool hairstyles she does, new products in store, availabilities etc.

• $995 for a static 3 page website (home, services, about)
• $495 to set up a basic Facebook page and a quick crash course on ways she can use it
• $95 a month for hosting and maintenance

Total Sale = $1490 up front and $95 a month ongoing.

Now further to this, I explained that I have offered these services at a cheaper price in exchange for a testimonial from her if she is happy with what I deliver. Being such a happy person she is, she assured me that won't be a problem and she'll be telling anyone who will listen. I'm hoping that is plenty of people considering they don't have much choice while they sit in a chair in front of her!

So to recap. I still have a lot to learn but going through the whole process from start to finish will no doubt prove an invaluable experience. I have some ideas on how to refine my process next time (and have got some great ideas from you guys in this thread also).

But I've got paid, I've built a relationship and now I get the chance to show what I can deliver. That is worth its weight in gold.

At the end of the day, we can refine our processes to within an inch of their life, but at some stage we actually have to get out there and have a crack. Hopefully my posts can show you that making mistakes is all a part of the process, but as long as you go out with knowledge and a true desire to help the people you are talking to, the opportunity is there without having to have all your ducks in a row.

Thanks for all the support and I look forward to posting some more updates on fulfilling my end of the bargain for Client 1 and searching for Client 2.

TP

Thanks again for all your post's and updates! - It will be very helpful for a lot of people out there.

Something that helps me a lot is to give the prospect two proposals and one in case of... If you only give one the prospect choose between two options. Your proposal or nothing at all.
If you give two proposals on two different levels of price, one quite expensive and one with a normal level of priice will give you more deals, just because there is not an (mentally) option to leave you witout a deal.

- For me it's work very well

What do you think about that?

Day 18 - Sunday 18th September

So I haven't had the time to update this thread for nearly a week. There's two reasons for this. One, I have a couple of sick toddlers in the house, and they are very good at sharing their germs so I've been under the weather myself.

Two, I've really had very little success, to be honest. Maybe it was beginner's luck, but when things happened for me straight off the bat, I had some motivation to share my 'wins' in this thread. As shallow as it may be, it's a lot harder to come back reporting on my 'misses'. But I think they can provide information just as valuable (or even more so) than the wins, so I've pulled my finger out to share some more experiences.

The past week and a bit I've tried a few different tactics.

First of all, my warm leads. I put together a short report of three case studies for the shoe shop and the steakhouse. When I dropped them off to the relevant business the owner wasn't in, but I left it for them with a personally addressed note. I'll call in again next week to see if they've had a chance to look or whether I can go through it with them.

Now my prospecting efforts.

Monday thru Wednesday I kept up with my walk-in survey gig. For whatever reason, I hit at 0 for 29. I found myself having enough conversations, but could never get to the next step.

Thursday and Friday I decided to test out another strategy I had and do some cold-calling.

Thursday I went with the same survey premise. Getting through to the owner was a tough task - I was calling blind so didn't have a name to ask for, which I understand is a disadvantage. Charming the receptionists only worked to a degree -they were happy to answer my survey but closed the door on anything further. 0 for 22 there.

On Friday I went with a more straight-forward approach. I introduced myself as a local consultant wanting to set up a brief meeting with the owner to make him more money. Straight to the point. Straight onto the next call too, it seemed. 0 for 34 on this effort.

Of a night I have been sending out more emails. I did a follow up with the previous 23 websites I contacted (none had replied). Still no response. I contacted a number of businesses without mobile-enabled sites. I contacted businesses who weren't capturing prospect information. I contacted businesses who were 'hiding' their contact details on their own damn site!

84 emails sent. 0 replies so far.

Total combined effort for the week - 169 attempts, 0 successes.

The point of posting this is not to get sympathy, or to share frustration. 'Failure' does bring benefits. I'm not scared of getting a 'No' (some may argue I cop it too easily). I have gained valuable experience in speaking to a wide range of people.

I spent a quiet weekend reading and reflecting, and here's what I've learned:

I haven't clearly defined to myself what service I want to offer. I'm still bouncing around - I can do a website, I can do some SEO, maybe I can work out a USP. If I'm not 100% in my mind how I'm bringing value to the client, then I'm not fair dinkum. I need to plan this ASAP.

My offer isn't good enough. I can sit back and say my sample size is still small, the numbers aren't so bad, I just need to stick at it etc. But the truth is my offer is too easy to turn down. I plan to rectify this straight away - I need an 'irresistible' offer. An offer that people don't want to miss out on.

I need to remove the risk for my prospects. There's a bit at stake for these businesses to give me their time or information about their business. In their eyes I have no credibility, and they have no reason to take a risk that I may be able to deliver what I'm talking about. I need to offer a deal to my prospects that removes that risk.

So I spent the weekend planning my next approach. Thinking about what is working, what isn't, what are my obstacles and how I can overcome them. My 'failures' will only serve to make my offering more valuable the next time around.

Hope you enjoyed my update, hopefully it won't be as long until the next one. Thanks again for the PMs of support and advice. If I haven't got back to you yet I haven't forgotten, sorry for the delay.

All the best in your own offline efforts
TP

Hey man... What do you mean with Your offer is not good enough? Do you think you prices is to high? Well... people buys bottled water for no reasons and they buy it for 10000% more than if you just fill your glass at home. You should buy/listen to a sales man named Grant Cardone and buy Sell or be sold, 10x rules, the closers survival guide. Three, really good aufio programs.


So... You do some work a couple of days and then try another way to reach your clients? I don't think your problems depends of a bad offer or anything else except for your consistency. You have to be a master on door to door knocking. You have to be the master of the masters to reach your client by walking through their doors. Not try another things "That might work...".

What I can see as a problem here is not your effort but the words you use or don't use. What do you say when you meet your prospectives? What is your approach? How are you dressed? And so on. Give us the details on every specific meeting so you can get som real good advice. We don't know anything about your meetings so how can we give you the best advice that you need?

You do a great job but you have to focus on your job which is walking through their doors. Do that thousands of times and you will soon be a real master.

Thank you for your updates!

Bit of a different update this time. A week's worth of experiences crammed into one post.

Day 24 - Saturday 24th September

So my last update mentioned that I was looking to change tack somewhat. I refined my processes on Monday and Tuesday and hit the road on Wednesday with a new gameplan and a strange air of confidence. Maybe with knowledge comes confidence - I am in a much better headspace, have a much clearer approach and think that brought with it a confidence that I am what these business owners are looking for.

GordonJ's most recent post offers a very relevant suggestion as it turns out, as I had decided to take a similar approach to what he suggested. My initial contact with prospects will solely focus on selling an appointment where I can run through a questionnaire with the prospect (which I describe as a 'free, no obligation business evaluation').

I explain that not only is the evaluation free, but the follow-up report is also free. The prospect will be free to use it and implement everything themselves and I will hold nothing back in detailing all the areas they can improve their business. I have been re-reading a lot of Jay Abraham lately and will be following much of his practices in what I recommend.

It is a much easier sale - a free evaluation PLUS recommendations. It also gives me a point of difference (a USP you may say) - clients pay for the implementation, not the recommendations, for as we know many consultants will do the latter but not the former.

I didn't stop there though. My offer is better, but it needed some zing. So I've played around with some guarantees to make this a real no-brainer offer:

First I asked for their hourly rate. I then offered a "triple your rate" guarantee. If they feel at any time that my evaluation was a waste of their time, then I'll pay them three times their hourly rate out of my pocket. Sometimes I offered double. Maybe one day in future I'll offer five times.
I also intend to offer a money back guarantee at any time on implementation - further removing the risk for the prospect.

Now my offers are looking much more direct, confident, and appealing.

But I didn't stop there. In addition to the great works of Jay Abraham, I had a refresher on Robert Cialdini's excellent book Influence. I found one strategy particularly useful when trying to pitch my prospects - that of reciprocity.

"Do you have 5 minutes spare and I can run you through what I have to offer. No? OK - how about 30 seconds..." Considering my pitch takes only 30 seconds, I'm more than happy when someone agrees to compromise and hear my 'shorter' version.

Combine all this with a pitch that I have no products to sell and my strategies work without spending more money on advertising, and I think you'll agree I've come a long way in a couple of weeks.

Results

I spent two lunch hours prospecting in town - Wednesday and Thursday. A work lunch on Friday slowed me down there but it was far from a problem after my first two days.

Businesses entered: 14
Appointments booked: 1
Come back next week: 4

I had "success" (ie an appointment or a come back next week) with two chiropractors, a financial planner, a dentist and my old mate at the shoe store. The shoe store is the scene for my appointment, and I'm sure the consistent contact and ability to speak directly to the owner worked wonders here. I'm seeing him late next week.

As for the 'Come back next week's', they were good results. All four instances I dealt with front-of-house (the 'gatekeeper' for want of a better word'). The owners work in their business and lunch hours weren't a great time to get to them but I felt confident to pitch the 'gatekeeper' instead. Something along the lines of 'have you got 30 seconds to hear me out, I've nothing to sell, then you can either tell me to go away or you can put in a good word for me with your boss and I'll come back next week to make an appointment'. To win over 4 out of 13 feels like a great result and I plan to ring ahead before I call in next week.

OK here's a couple of thoughts going forward

• I feel this strategy is well suited to working the phones, possibly at start/end of days where I may have greater chance of the owner being available (depending on the profession). Building relationships with 'gatekeepers' will help me to work out what times are good to call also.
• I made contact with the chamber of commerce to discern the possibility of offering a session to members - stay tuned on this - I'm thinking a short interactive presentation on evaluating your own business marketing could bring in many clients

Bit going on! I feel I've made a breakthrough this week in moulding my offering to what I've learned so far. Sorry if this is a bit rambling but plenty to jot down from this week and hopefully there's a few ideas to inspire something in your own efforts.

Thanks for reading, loving hearing your thoughts as always.
TP

Way to go! You have learned a lot doing this and I thank you for sharing. You have given me quite a few ideas.

Suggestion: have you asked the hairdresser if she has friends that need Internet help? She could introduce you, which is actually a lot better than getting a testimonial from her. Also ask her if she is in the Chamber of Commerce, Business Association, or similar. She might introduce you to people in those groups.

Good luck and I hope that you keep documenting your successes!

I'm back and I'm on a roll

Day 26 - Monday 26th September

The juices were flowing this weekend as I worked on my deliverables for my hairdresser friend. Getting into the website designing flow gave me the motivation to work on my own personal website for another strategy I am keen to test out. This involves an email sequence of tips for business owners to grow their business, much along the tested strategies often detailed by the likes of Abraham/Kennedy etc. Once the website is set up it's very much a set and forget arrangement with an 8-10 email sequence with a lot of valuable information for business owners which will also pre-sell them on using my services if they don't have time to do it themselves.

I came up with a twist on this strategy while I read a monthly community newspaper which turned up at my house last week. It is a very community-focused paper with a lot of content from local businesses and it got me thinking. A quick call to the editor and I have the opportunity to write a monthly column and provide a link to my website and my telephone details at the bottom. A great way to establish authority and send targeted traffic to my email sequence - those who get through my emails should be very valuable leads moving forward - whether it is working with them or gaining testimonials or referrals from them.

Anyway that is basically set up so it's a matter of writing up the content and getting my first column prepared before next month's issue goes to print in a couple of weeks.

Onto today's activities. I made calls to the gatekeepers I spoke with last week, just to check if they had spoken with their boss or shown them the flyer I left. 2 of the 4 had, the other 2 said not yet but they will do so. I asked if the boss will be around between 12 and 2 on Thursday or Friday (my main 'working times' as I can take my lunch break around then) and made plans to visit each business accordingly. I think the extra point of contact before I return will help next time I see the gatekeeper, and if I can meet the boss while I'm in there it will be even better. I plan to make a time for all 4 when I visit later in the week. Hopefully I will have made a good enough impression for the gatekeepers to book me in for at least a quick chat, if not an hour long meeting, with the boss depending on whether they actually speak with them/show them my offer in the meantime.

PS - I neglected to mention in my last post that I left my flyer behind for them to show their boss in case it was easier than talking them through it. It was basically just a page explaining my offer much as I did verbally to the gatekeeper. I like to make things as easy as I can for people to help me.

As you may have noticed, I much prefer the strategy of working with the gatekeepers, rather than trying to get around them. I feel they can be quite an influence on their bosses and to have them on my side can only be a good thing - much more valuable than being the guy who tried to dodge them with 'shifty marketing techniques'. I plan to drop them off a little something when I call in next for their time

Tonight I'll be working on refining my questionnaire in preparation to meet my shoe store mate on Wednesday. Wish me luck

These are more like it :-) Automation and getting your message in front of multiple people at the same time.
One at a time is great when you start out as it can build confidence and experience, but moving forward you need to automate and get your name in front of many people at once, as much as possible.

One of my fellow countrymen writes a weekly column for the national newspaper and gets loads of enquiries from it. One of my early SEO proteges wrote for her local paper but gave it up because she got too many enquiries...

Look out for JV opportunities where you can make offers to customer lists. Doesn't have to be a customer. e.g. you meet an Accountant and in the course of the conversation you might offer him a customised copy of one of your reports to distribute to his client list. If you pitch it right, he'll love you for it and may even end up offering ongoing referrals. You include a special offer in the report "just for Mr Accountant's customers"...

Day 28 - Wednesday 28th September

Game day. I met with my shoe shop guy today for my first 'optimisation analysis' (I'm still trying to settle on a term I really like for this consultation. Ideas welcome!)

To say I was nervous was an understatement, but that is a good sign - if you don't have some nerves then it doesn't mean anything to you. I prepared as well as I could, reading through my questionnaire and playing out scenarios in my mind on how to approach different situations or objections.

I've come across a few questionnaires in my travels but prefer to work on a custom version of my own. I have designed it to achieve my desired objectives.

• I look to initially establish a rapport with my prospect. I look to gain their trust as I explain my business model to them straight off the bat. For example:

"I find out as much as I can about your business, and then give you all the advice I have on how to grow your business by optimising what you already have. I hold nothing back and you are free to use my advice as you wish without ever paying me a cent. Some clients choose to pay me to do the work for them instead, and that is how I can offer this service."

• Asking questions about their business continues to build that trust. People like to talk about themselves, and they are more likely to like me if I am genuinely interested in their business/life.
• I look for the pain in their business, and keep touching on it. I aim to provide brief ideas on how to solve said pain as we got through, in a manner which conveys expertise and authority.
• I look to reinforce the wins they are having and congratulate them on doing so.
• When I find an opportunity, I like to make sure the prospect understands what we've just found. I try to get them imagining what it would do for them to capitalise on said opportunity.
• I look to build value as we go through, so much so that my proposed fees will eventually seem miniscule in comparison

So that said, onto the meeting.

I think it went reasonably well. If I was to think of one phrase for this business, it would be 'a leaky boat'. I was overcome with possibilities as we went through the analysis that I needed to check myself - I didn't want to be hammering everything this guy was or wasn't doing. I'm not a naturally outgoing person so there were a few awkward pauses, but I expected that and it's something I hope to work on over time.

That said, I really need to work on how to agitate what he isn't doing, but also turn it into a positive that it gives us great opportunity to grow. I sensed him getting a bit down as we went through and he struggled to answer many questions positively. Maybe I will look to throw in a couple of cheap wins in future to keep my prospect's spirits up.

At the end he said to me, 'Wow, I'm not doing a good job of this at all, am I?'

I tried to reassure him. 'Look, let's say we sat down and you did an analysis on my knowledge of shoes. I wouldn't really have a clue, would I?'

'No one has taught me specifically about shoes, so where would I get the chance to learn about it? The same goes for you with marketing.'

I'm pleased that I put it that way for him - his demeanour definitely picked up. Now, it wasn't his fault that he didn't know marketing. How could he if he had never been taught?

I made an appointment to see him next Friday at lunch time. That will give me enough time to go through the answers and construct a plan of attack for him moving forward. And also to work out how much I can make him and what I can charge. I may be a little overconfident but I would be surprised if I can't close the deal next week, as long as I am prepared.

What a relief! My first analysis with a business owner and it actually went ok.

Thanks for reading
TP

Good stuff here. Thanks for sharing, TP84.

Got a recommendation for you: Get "Fanatical Prospecting -- The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, E-Mail, Text, and Cold Calling" by Jeb Blount. You can find it on Amazon. It will help you a TON. And/or check out his website at SalesGravy.com. He's got some good resources on there. Check out the "Free Resources" section.

Second recommendation. Spend $15/mon (or whatever it is) on Pipedrive.com. I've used a dozen of these types of programs, and this is the slickest one I've ever used. Drop dead easy to setup and use.

It's a CRM that helps you track all contacts with prospects and customers. There's a smartphone app that syncs with it, so you can jot down notes in your car or on the sidewalk, immediately after sales calls or client meetings, and add reminders that will then show up on your calendar and ping you automagically. Every email you send, you can automatically have it attach to (and even create new) client records. Great for record keeping.

There's nothing more impressive than calling someone back "in 2 weeks" like you said you would. The flip side is, when you DON'T call when you say you will, you can forget about getting any business from them.
Same for promised proposals, emails, etc, etc.

It's also embarrassing when you make a bunch of calls Monday, and then more on Tuesday, then more on Wednesday...and then Wednesday around 5 o'clock some guy calls you back saying he's interested, and you have NO idea who he is or when you called or what you talked about or even IF you spoke to him. That can be a deal breaker right there.

But if you can say, "Sure, hang on one sec my hands are full" and then quickly search the phone number in Pipedrive, look through your notes, and show him you have TOTAL RECALL, well, that can be a deal CLOSER.

My 2 cents.

Keep up the good work!

Any updates for us? Inquiring minds want to know...!