The One Sure Way to Build Your Offline Business

Great post Ryan! I too am/was in sales at my day job and am planning to turn my offline business into my FT business.

How long have you been at it? How is it going?

Just a year and it's been the easiest to grow business I've ever had and it does well even in bad times because of the huge potential market and lack of skill out there right now.

Ryan - what would you say are some of the best sales books you have read from amazon?

Emily

Having sales experience is a huge plus in this business. For those of you looking for good sales books, I've got a couple that I highly recommend to anyone, experienced or not. The first is "Selling Retail" by John Lawhon. He owned a few highly successful furniture stores, and while the book focuses on retail, the lessons you learn from it will translate to success in any type of sales.

I also highly recommend "The Accidental Salesperson" by Chris Lytle. Both of these books were written over ten years ago, but don't let yourself fall into the trap of needing a more recent book in order to get relevant information. These books bring it.

Will

Good call Ryan,

A word of caution to those without any sales experience who are eager to learn. Forget any pre-conceptions you have about the typical sales person! Thats not who you want to be, nor is it how you will be successful.

The best sales people know and understand that people hate being "sold to" but they love to "Buy". So you need to do 2 things to avoid appearing like a "Sales Person"

1. Ask relevant questions to draw information, feelings and emotions from your prospect

2. BE GENUINE!

Questions like...

- What do you want your new website to be able to do for? (make sales, showcase products, build community, look professional, easily updated etc)
- Whats your experience so far with business online?

So on and so forth....

The first thing I do with new clients is sit for an hour and talk to them about their business and the opportunities for growth online. I have developed a new client questionnaire for this purpose. The result is that by the end of the session my prospect is filled with enthusiasm for the future of their business, they see the possibilities online. This is a great place for me to drop the question.. "So how much would you be happy to invest in your new website?" :-)

They are happy, im happy and me and my new client can look forward to a healthy working relationship.

To summarise,

1. Ask relevant questions (Prep them for sure)

2. Be genuine

Hi Guys! I've got a few gems to mention here:

I really enjoy reading and learning from Sales & Marketing books, i have many in my library but 2 that i always refer back to time and time again are:
i never the get the full title of this book right as many times as i have read it: Getting everything you can out of all you got" by Jay Abraham and here is one that most people may not have heard of: How to sell a Lobster by Bill Bishop ( super easy read and great basic sales strategy ).

Hi I've been involved in off line marketing as a consultant for over 35 years now. I find that today there is lot of rubbish spoken about offline marketing to the point where I have decided to write a practical guide on the subject. I plan to make it a WSO.

I recommend picking up some of the books mentioned already in this thread. Zig Ziglar, Robert Kiyosaki, Dale Carnegie. I have a collection next to me now. Also, get audio and videos too.

I listened and learned from this stuff for an hour or two a day for about a year before I ever launched a successful business. I failed until after I grew in my business and sales skills as well as my own personal beliefs about success.

Thanks Ryan,

As always you provided great information for people who are working in the offline world.

Boss

Great work Ryan. Its all an Offline project need to run.

I think the techniques of yellow page advertising, newspaper advertising, direct mail, and postcard marketing are excellent ways to promote an offline business. With direct mail, if you mail out at least 10,000 pieces, you're sure to get results almost immediately (assuming your list and offer is good). Combine these strategies with free online marketing and info product creation... an offline business can become unstoppable.

@davidlieder - Sure, you will have to PM me your email address so we can discuss further.

@ ivsolutions - Post your info and I will send over a copy.

Thanks, Joe

Pure will, desire and belief, and love for money = Soon there...


~Alex Nash

Tom Hopkins: "How to Master the Art of Selling"

Great sales teaching book. Hopkins sold residential real estate and this is 'hard core' selling with pushy, assertive closes. Not for the faint hearted ... and will offend some ... but still one of the best primers around.

I think the most important part of any sale, in any situation is the discovery. Asking questions and establishing the need or desire is key to any sales presentation.

No amount of closing skills can help if you have not presented the product or service in a way that makes it desirable and appealing to the prospect.

This can only be done by asking the right questions, listening to the answers and adapting your presentaion or pitch accordingly.

IMHO of course :-)

Ryan,

You are 100% right.

When I first started I tried to skip over the personal development piece of the success puzzle because I had the "technical know-how".

As a result, I couldn't sustain the level of success I wanted.

For example, I could get a client, but I couldn't continue to put it all together to get them to continue to pay me monthly and/or buy more services from me.

The problem was my skills, confidence and thought process was all focused on getting the client, but I hadn't developed my skills, confidence and overall mindset to see the client through the next six, twelve or eighteen months etc.

Another example is, I could get one client, but I didn't have the systems in place to continue to produce clients like clockwork.

That took me changing my mindset, which came as a result of changing what I put in my mind, which produced a different way of thinking, which ultimately produced a different set of actions on my part.

That's when I begin to create information products like books, audio products & video's that positioned me as the go-to expert for my area and niches. Just like the guru's did to me!

But more importantly than positioning myself in my prospect's mind, I began to absorb the information I was creating in a different way. I slowly begin to gain confidence and transitioned into a CANI (Constant And Never-ending Improvement mindset for my life and my business.

But, this all happened because I committed to improving every area of my business, most importantly my salesmanship/solution provider abilities.

In order for me to have sustained success, I began to look at each day as a completely seperate battlefield.

Meaning...

Today, I have to read x amount of pages/minutes/chapters of Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy or someone else successful etc. (Feeding my mind)

Today, I have to apply this new type of rapport building strategy (Improving my salesmanship.)

Today, I have to contact these ten people. (Doing my marketing activities)

Today, I have to write this content. (Growing my product offerings)

Today, I have to put together this proposal and present it. (Moving my pipeline along)

So, I coined the phrase "Win the battle today" to create a trigger for myself.

And I also write down the six things that I want to "really" do today. Got this from the book "The Ultimate Sales Machine."

Chris

Right on Chris.

The thing with many people reading this thread is that you guys are looking for opportunity.

There's a difference between just looking for ways to make money online and actually doing.

Building a business. Growing as a person. This is all key to success.

Excellent post Ryan, you are so right.

This is a vital area that a lot of people that get into Offline marketing overlook.

You can be the greatest SEO guy or Google guru in the world but if you can't close people you aren't going to make a cent!

I would recommend Kevin Nation's sales call secrets to anyone who is looking to educate themselves on how to sell.

Great advice!

You can't sell until they hear your story... and they can't hear your story until they trust you... and they can't trust you until they get to know you.

It's all about the relationship.

Millard