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Obtaining Clients Is Harder Than The Actual Word You Do For Them!

by marketingrep4u
55 replies
Greetings fellow Offliners!

I'm really frustrated and need your advice. Now, when I say 'advice', I mean real advice, not just snide remarks and one liners.

I'm really frustrated about finding new clients.

I have purchased so many WSOs and read so many ebooks on the next best thing for Offliners to obtain new clients.

I've been putting these strategies into place and quite frankly NONE of them are really working. These guys preaching how their simple system made them over $10k just by sending one email or doing one thing sounds great in a sales letter, but in reality, I'm beginning to think they just got really lucky, one time.

My first strategy was telemarketing and cold calling. I even bought a WSO on the topic to give me an edge before I just started out blindly. After 500 logged calls, I got '0' (ZERO) appointments and a bruised self esteem. I decided that cold calling via the phone was brutal. In fact, an associate of mine told me this morning that he's getting 5 to 10 calls a day from an internet marketing company promising him top rankings and trying to sell him over the phone. Needless to say, telemarketing is OUT, no matter how many people that try to sell you a WSO telling you it's the best way to go.

On to the next strategy from a WSO I purchased:

1) I purchased a Google Places scraper software from a WSO for $197.
2) I used it to target 7 different industries in my area (DFW): Chiropractors, Dentists, Landscaping, Accountants, Fencing contractors, Auto Repair Shops, and Plumbers.
3) I had to do a great deal of filtering and research to ensure that I had a quality list, which is no problem, since I'm an Excel nut and found it easy to do.
4) I loaded each list into a new distribution list in Outlook separately, so I didn't mix my lists.
5) I used a template from an email series I acquired from a WSO (because this guy said he had a great response emailing prospects, remember the $10k guy that only sent one email and landed the big account) and sent the email to each distribution list, BUT mail merged them to make each email sent out and appear as if it were personally written to the recipient (easy to do if you're an Office automation nut like me).
6) Attached to each email were 2 JPG images. Image 1 was the search results from the Google keyword tool to show them how much traffic their search terms were actually getting. Image 2 was a screen shot from Google search to show them who is really ranking #1, #2, and #3, stating that these companies were getting the lion's share of the traffic and business.
7) I really didn't think I'd get a large response from the 1st email, so I wrote 2 more to make it a 3 step email series trying to make the attempt at getting them to call me back so I could schedule a free consultation, meeting, or dialog. (Call it SPAM. Call it Shirley for all I care. It was a personal email with NO HTML or fancy graphics, despite the fact that I used the brilliance of technology to help do it quicker.)
8) In the first 2 emails of the series, I mentioned the names of their top 2 competitors, knowing that they would know who they were and want to beat them in the rankings.
9) In all my emails, I really focused on positioning myself as a consultant and not just another sales person.
10) My cumulative list total across 7 different industries was 250 quality real life prospects.
11) I sent out each email 72 hours apart from one another.
12) I exhausted my 3 email series to each list and obtained '0' LEADS (thats ZERO).
13) The only reply that I've gotten is 'No Thanks'.

All of that work of company research, list filtering, writing, and automation PAID OUT ZERO DOLLARS, much unlike the guy offering the WSO touting the one email that made $10k. I sent 750+ emails over a 9 day period, personally positioned and got nadda!

This has taught me some valuable lessons that you just can't buy in a WSO:

1) There's enough FREE advice from great people on this forum that I should STOP BUYING WSOs.
2) Telemarketing really does have as bad a rap in the business world as people say it has.
3) Email marketing, even if you're telling them their house is on fire, doesn't work.

So far, the only thing that has worked is joining a network group for referrals and face to face sales.

This leads me to my last and final lesson learned here: Offline Internet Marketing is HARD WORK. You have to shake the bushes, beat the streets and burn shoe leather & gas to really make sales in this industry. I'm not opposed to hard work, but I bring this up to point out that some of these WSOs will try to make it appear that it's as easy as sending an email.

Now that you know my level of frustration in obtaining new clients and have a feel for what and where I've been, I could really use some advice on what's working for you.

I need new clients, not another WSO.:confused:

Any thoughts?
#actual #clients #getting customers #harder #obtaining #obtaining clients #word
  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    You need to pick one strategy (that has been proven to work for other marketers) and stick with it.

    No more jumping from strategy to strategy, business model to business model, since that will get you no results anytime soon.

    You need to find something that works, and keep WORKING AT IT, until you get results.

    ~Dexx
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  • Profile picture of the author cchipster
    Agreed-It can be a nightmare out there. BUT DO NOT give up...because sooner than later you will find the magic formula that has customers CALLING YOU! It too took me awhile, but now prospecting isnt such a daunting task. Keep your chin up!
    Signature
    No signature, I'm sure you will be ok.
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    • Profile picture of the author MerlynSanchez
      Which strategy do you use? (If you don't mind telling us )



      Originally Posted by cchipster View Post

      Agreed-It can be a nightmare out there. BUT DO NOT give up...because sooner than later you will find the magic formula that has customers CALLING YOU! It too took me awhile, but now prospecting isnt such a daunting task. Keep your chin up!
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    • Profile picture of the author Matthew Payne
      SEO is a hard sell. As one of the responses said try a market that is not so saturated. Social Marketing or selling websites. It is estimated that 50% of businesses still do not have a website. Also one of the few things that I did not see mentioned here is try to sell your service on the Warrior Forum first, I bet a lot of money is made on the Warrior Forum. If you are selling SEO services start on this forum first and you will get clients. Start your prices low and get creditability and then go into the real world of offline marketing after you proven to Warriors you can get them results in your SEO business.
      Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author KabirC
    Business owners are hesitant to contact you...why? Because you emailed them out of the blue, you have no credibility and you look like a scammer because you emailed them out of the blue. You would have A LOT more hot leads if you either cold called or direct mailed? The latter gives more credibility, especially if you have written a book and include it into the package, as I do.
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  • Profile picture of the author MerlynSanchez
    I have been offline marketing for 10 years (except we didn't call it that back then) and it has never been more IMPORTANT to differentiate yourself from the pack.

    There are two things to remember:

    1. The market is getting saturated by every Tom, Dick, and Harriet who can't make it online and wants some "quick" cash. They aren't in it for the long haul and they don't always offer quality service.

    2. Hype sells! It's on different on this forum. Are some people making $10,000 a month? Sure. Is it easy? No.

    Merlyn





    Originally Posted by marketingrep4u View Post

    Greetings fellow Offliners!

    I’m really frustrated and need your advice. Now, when I say ‘advice’, I mean real advice, not just snide remarks and one liners.

    I’m really frustrated about finding new clients.

    I have purchased so many WSOs and read so many ebooks on the next best thing for Offliners to obtain new clients.

    I’ve been putting these strategies into place and quite frankly NONE of them are really working. These guys preaching how their simple system made them over $10k just by sending one email or doing one thing sounds great in a sales letter, but in reality, I’m beginning to think they just got really lucky, one time.

    My first strategy was telemarketing and cold calling. I even bought a WSO on the topic to give me an edge before I just started out blindly. After 500 logged calls, I got ‘0’ (ZERO) appointments and a bruised self esteem. I decided that cold calling via the phone was brutal. In fact, an associate of mine told me this morning that he’s getting 5 to 10 calls a day from an internet marketing company promising him top rankings and trying to sell him over the phone. Needless to say, telemarketing is OUT, no matter how many people that try to sell you a WSO telling you it’s the best way to go.

    On to the next strategy from a WSO I purchased:

    1) I purchased a Google Places scraper software from a WSO for $197.
    2) I used it to target 7 different industries in my area (DFW): Chiropractors, Dentists, Landscaping, Accountants, Fencing contractors, Auto Repair Shops, and Plumbers.
    3) I had to do a great deal of filtering and research to ensure that I had a quality list, which is no problem, since I’m an Excel nut and found it easy to do.
    4) I loaded each list into a new distribution list in Outlook separately, so I didn’t mix my lists.
    5) I used a template from an email series I acquired from a WSO (because this guy said he had a great response emailing prospects, remember the $10k guy that only sent one email and landed the big account) and sent the email to each distribution list, BUT mail merged them to make each email sent out and appear as if it were personally written to the recipient (easy to do if you’re an Office automation nut like me).
    6) Attached to each email were 2 JPG images. Image 1 was the search results from the Google keyword tool to show them how much traffic their search terms were actually getting. Image 2 was a screen shot from Google search to show them who is really ranking #1, #2, and #3, stating that these companies were getting the lion’s share of the traffic and business.
    7) I really didn’t think I’d get a large response from the 1st email, so I wrote 2 more to make it a 3 step email series trying to make the attempt at getting them to call me back so I could schedule a free consultation, meeting, or dialog. (Call it SPAM. Call it Shirley for all I care. It was a personal email with NO HTML or fancy graphics, despite the fact that I used the brilliance of technology to help do it quicker.)
    8) In the first 2 emails of the series, I mentioned the names of their top 2 competitors, knowing that they would know who they were and want to beat them in the rankings.
    9) In all my emails, I really focused on positioning myself as a consultant and not just another sales person.
    10) My cumulative list total across 7 different industries was 250 quality real life prospects.
    11) I sent out each email 72 hours apart from one another.
    12) I exhausted my 3 email series to each list and obtained ‘0’ LEADS (thats ZERO).
    13) The only reply that I’ve gotten is ‘No Thanks’.

    All of that work of company research, list filtering, writing, and automation PAID OUT ZERO DOLLARS, much unlike the guy offering the WSO touting the one email that made $10k. I sent 750+ emails over a 9 day period, personally positioned and got nadda!

    This has taught me some valuable lessons that you just can’t buy in a WSO:

    1) There’s enough FREE advice from great people on this forum that I should STOP BUYING WSOs.
    2) Telemarketing really does have as bad a rap in the business world as people say it has.
    3) Email marketing, even if you’re telling them their house is on fire, doesn’t work.

    So far, the only thing that has worked is joining a network group for referrals and face to face sales.

    This leads me to my last and final lesson learned here: Offline Internet Marketing is HARD WORK. You have to shake the bushes, beat the streets and burn shoe leather & gas to really make sales in this industry. I’m not opposed to hard work, but I bring this up to point out that some of these WSOs will try to make it appear that it’s as easy as sending an email.

    Now that you know my level of frustration in obtaining new clients and have a feel for what and where I’ve been, I could really use some advice on what’s working for you.

    I need new clients, not another WSO.:confused:

    Any thoughts?
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    • Profile picture of the author cchipster
      @Merlyn: Think 'big picture' or 'mass quantity' with your marketing. Hitting one dozen businesses with your offer isnt going to turn up any results.

      Look into mass marketing.
      Signature
      No signature, I'm sure you will be ok.
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    • Profile picture of the author QueenOfTheBoardroom
      Originally Posted by MerlynSanchez View Post

      I have been offline marketing for 10 years (except we didn't call it that back then) and it has never been more IMPORTANT to differentiate yourself from the pack.

      There are two things to remember:

      1. The market is getting saturated by every Tom, Dick, and Harriet who can't make it online and wants some "quick" cash. They aren't in it for the long haul and they don't always offer quality service.

      2. Hype sells! It's on different on this forum. Are some people making $10,000 a month? Sure. Is it easy? No.

      Merlyn
      Totally agree... Plus his email with the attachment of the two google images seems a little spammy to me if I got that. I do like the idea of the personalization and quoting the 2 competitor names... But that is overly familiar for a 1st "out of the blue" email from someone I never met and it would creep a lot of people out.
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  • Profile picture of the author 1960Texan
    So far, the only thing that has worked is joining a network group for referrals and face to face sales.
    There's the first part of your answer. Now you need to scale it, and there are a couple of obvious ways to do that:

    1. Spend the bulk of your time networking, and outsource the actual tasks that you're selling to your new clients, or
    2. Hire and train a salesperson or two to do your networking and cold-calling for you, while you do the work, and finally
    3. Hire, train, and manage a team.
    Option #3 works the best for me (in fact I just hired another salesperson yesterday and a new graphic design person about a week and a half ago), but that doesn't mean it will work for you. That speaks to the real secret of marketing in general: One size does not fit all.

    Make an actual list of your strengths and weaknesses, and determine where your time and efforts are best spent. If you can't out-source it and don't want to do it yourself, then don't offer the service.

    Will
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    • Profile picture of the author ShayB
      It really depends on the method(s) that you're using.

      Some methods - like telemarketing - do work, but you generally have to burn through a lot of leads before you get a sale.

      Other methods might take the same amount of time that telemarketing does, but instead of burning through 500 phone calls in two hours to get one or two sales, you can visit a dozen businesses and have the same results.

      That doesn't mean that one is necessarily better than the other. Both methods use the same amount of time to get similar results. It's just that most people prefer one method over another.

      Obtaining clients isn't necessarily hard work.

      1. You make the initial contact ( either they contact you or you contact them).

      2. You follow up.

      3. You have the actual meeting - whether that is over the phone or in person or whatever.

      4. You close the deal.

      Is it time consuming? Yes, it can be.

      But it doesn't really have to be frustrating or difficult.
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      "Fate protects fools, little children, and ships called Enterprise." ~Commander Riker
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  • Profile picture of the author danielkanuck
    I can remember when i tried direct mail to get new clients for my former consultancy business, and i just one phone call from this Bakery. And needless to say... she didn't find my services appealing. Luckily, there are better ways to promote yourself and get clients.

    You want to use a mixture of offline and online marketing methods to your advantage.

    ONLINE

    1) For online marketing, create a 100-page, $10 ebook and promote it how you would normally promote other products online. Make the content hella good and show offline business owners how they can achieve results simply and easily.

    Besides... how are you going to sell your expensive consulting services if you can't even sell a $10 ebook?

    2) After they buy the $10 book, start to pitch your consulting services, but make the main offer a book for $29. At this point, they will more than likely acquire the $29 ebook since the ebook was really good. Put them into your autoresponder backend funnel, and continue to send them free tips... along with promoting your $29 ebook.

    3) Make sure the $29 ebook has links (sparingly) all over the place in your $29 ebook that promotes your consulting services. If you have their home address, send out a letter once a month that promotes your consulting services. At this stage, you're still brand new to them, and it will take some time to gain a receptive ear. But this can be easily done if you continue to contact them once a month. This is how you can gain a relationship with your customer.

    There are things that you can do offline also to promote your services. Scrap telemarketing and cold calling and brainstorm on how to make prospective clients come to you - instead of the other way around.

    You can use direct mail, postcards, free reports to your advantage. With these marketing tools, you can reach hundreds or thousands of potential business owners with your marketing message. With cold-calling, you only have so much time in a day to be on the phone pitching your services. Personally, i think that the offline marketing tips i gave above are better than telemarketing.

    There are so many things that you can do to promote your services. To get new clients, you will need case studies of past clients that you've helped. You may also want to insert some sort of guarantee on your services so that your clients know that all the risk is on you.

    Take action and don't give up. Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author KabirC
      Originally Posted by danielkanuck View Post

      I can remember when i tried direct mail to get new clients for my former consultancy business, and i just one phone call from this Bakery. And needless to say... she didn't find my services appealing. Luckily, there are better ways to promote yourself and get clients.

      You want to use a mixture of offline and online marketing methods to your advantage.

      ONLINE

      1) For online marketing, create a 100-page, $10 ebook and promote it how you would normally promote other products online. Make the content hella good and show offline business owners how they can achieve results simply and easily.

      Besides... how are you going to sell your expensive consulting services if you can't even sell a $10 ebook?

      2) After they buy the $10 book, start to pitch your consulting services, but make the main offer a book for $29. At this point, they will more than likely acquire the $29 ebook since the ebook was really good. Put them into your autoresponder backend funnel, and continue to send them free tips... along with promoting your $29 ebook.

      3) Make sure the $29 ebook has links (sparingly) all over the place in your $29 ebook that promotes your consulting services. If you have their home address, send out a letter once a month that promotes your consulting services. At this stage, you're still brand new to them, and it will take some time to gain a receptive ear. But this can be easily done if you continue to contact them once a month. This is how you can gain a relationship with your customer.

      There are things that you can do offline also to promote your services. Scrap telemarketing and cold calling and brainstorm on how to make prospective clients come to you - instead of the other way around.

      You can use direct mail, postcards, free reports to your advantage. With these marketing tools, you can reach hundreds or thousands of potential business owners with your marketing message. With cold-calling, you only have so much time in a day to be on the phone pitching your services. Personally, i think that the offline marketing tips i gave above are better than telemarketing.

      There are so many things that you can do to promote your services. To get new clients, you will need case studies of past clients that you've helped. You may also want to insert some sort of guarantee on your services so that your clients know that all the risk is on you.

      Take action and don't give up. Good luck.
      Why in the world would you sell a business owner who is worth thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars to you an e-book which could cost you credibility? Make it a real book and give it away to them, not sell it to them.
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    • Profile picture of the author patadeperro
      Originally Posted by danielkanuck View Post

      You want to use a mixture of offline and online marketing methods to your advantage.

      ONLINE

      1) For online marketing, create a 100-page, $10 ebook and promote it how you would normally promote other products online. Make the content hella good and show offline business owners how they can achieve results simply and easily.

      Besides... how are you going to sell your expensive consulting services if you can't even sell a $10 ebook?

      2) After they buy the $10 book, start to pitch your consulting services, but make the main offer a book for $29. At this point, they will more than likely acquire the $29 ebook since the ebook was really good. Put them into your autoresponder backend funnel, and continue to send them free tips... along with promoting your $29 ebook.

      3) Make sure the $29 ebook has links (sparingly) all over the place in your $29 ebook that promotes your consulting services. If you have their home address, send out a letter once a month that promotes your consulting services. At this stage, you're still brand new to them, and it will take some time to gain a receptive ear. But this can be easily done if you continue to contact them once a month. This is how you can gain a relationship with your customer.

      There are things that you can do offline also to promote your services. Scrap telemarketing and cold calling and brainstorm on how to make prospective clients come to you - instead of the other way around.

      You can use direct mail, postcards, free reports to your advantage. With these marketing tools, you can reach hundreds or thousands of potential business owners with your marketing message. With cold-calling, you only have so much time in a day to be on the phone pitching your services. Personally, i think that the offline marketing tips i gave above are better than telemarketing.

      .
      This is the million dollar advice, I will never be tired to say that the direct marketing principles are the best way to start and to leverage your marketing effords, the advice that danielkanuk is given it is simple AWESOME!!! i am afraid that most people may not appreciate it because it is TOO ADVANCE to them, he is talking about some concepts that you need to understand and that cold calling will NEVER give you and here they are:

      a) the guy that is buying your $10 ebook is qualifying him self, he is spending money trying to solve his problem, he is telling you: "I have this problem and it is so annoying that I am willing to spend my hard earn money to solve it"

      b) Follow up: Not because the guy is buying your book it means that it is ready to spend more money on your service, it means he is looking for a solution furthermore follow up is the key, how do you follow up? like annoying salesmen calling him every day trying to figure out when he is ready to buy? NO, what you do is to bring them more free/paid information that helps him to take a better purchase decision, you show him that you can solve the problem he is looking to solve.

      Too much to learn in this danielkanuk post, the best advice from my humble perspective.

      Respectfully
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  • Profile picture of the author davidlieder
    What works for me - and something that you don't see a lot in offline strategies - is to use keyword research to find out what potential clients are actually looking for. I usually think of keyword research as being an online niche finder tool, but it can help me understand offline market trends as well.

    For example, people are not looking for SEO as much anymore, that field is oversaturated. A good way to get the door slammed in our faces is to offer SEO. After we have the client in some other way, they might want an SEO package, but building the relationship starts with us offering something that the business owner wants.

    How do we find out what they want?

    Google keyword tool works great, put some keywords in and after the results pop up, click on the column header "Global searches" and it will sort with the highest first, and these are the keywords that people are looking for.

    For example, try "SEO" - there are about 7 million global searches per month, but we know the competition for SEO is brutal, that is the only thing most people seem to offer.

    If you can find an offline niche that has a lot of people looking for it and you know that not many competitors exist in your community, then that is probably a good thing to offer businesses. A good example is "social media", which is a business term not really used by the average population, it is 1.8 million global searches. So how many social media managers do you know in your area?

    The fact is, 90% of companies are trying to get integrated into Facebook by the end of 2011.

    So in light of those facts, I would be willing to bet money that if you offer to talk to them about their social media and Facebook needs, you will do better.

    The problem with some offline niches is that business owners think they already know a little about SEO so their is an instant resistance when you offer to help them, plus the business owner gets hit up every day with offers from national SEO companies that are usually regarded as not helpful or even a scam.

    Social media is still an untapped huge market for the offline marketer.

    Cheers,

    David Lieder
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
    Actually, in the B2B world (that's business to business), developing relationships by creating value through education is the number one way to drive sales. It's called "lead nurturing", and it's far more important to develop this within your business than coming up with new and exciting pitches to be blasted out as some mass marketing thing.

    Back in the olden days before Google, people tolerated B2B sales folks because they were a good source of information. As that education/learning was replaced by Google searches, potential buyers of products and services realized they could simply eliminate those icky salespeople and self-educate. So the role of sales all but evaporated in value.

    The good news is, that while the medium and methods may have changed, establishing yourself as an AUTHORITY in your market is exactly the thing that separates fly-by-night vs. real players who are building a sustainable business. Business owners know that too.

    Here's some interesting statistics... after reviewing 30,000 sales calls in a B2B setting, the sales and marketing monster, Neil Rackham, estimated that upon initial contact with a qualified candidate ACTIVELY LOOKING TO BUY, only 30% are ready to buy in that exact moment. This excludes those who aren't even looking to buy, and have not even initiated any sort of active purchasing decision process. If you take those into account, you drop to very low single digits.

    HOWEVER, 70% will buy from someone within the first 10 months after initial contact.

    This is pretty close to my own experience as well, after working with a whole bunch of businesses all over the US. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more by now.

    So, you have some theoretical maximum plateau of service delivery that you're able to offer in terms of number of man hours, etc... with your present resources. Make the assumption that over the next year, you're not going to add any resources. Then figure out how much money you'd be grossing in sales if you booked out your production hourly availability 100%. Then assign a reasonable hourly dollar figure of what you think you're service mix can generate as an average.

    That total is your quota.

    Now, your objective is to fill your pipeline (potential qualified deals) to that total amount, and keep the number of qualified prospects in that pipeline at all times to represent your annual sales target. So if you think you can sell $300K worth of services in 12 months, you need to keep $300K in potential customers at all times in the pipeline.

    All of these prospects won't be at the same place in the purchasing decision cycle, some will need more education, some less. Some deals will be bigger, but there should be more smaller deals too to balance out the cash flow.

    You'll find that as you fill your pipeline, nurture those leads, educate your prospects, develop authority, that over the next year, you won't just hit your sales goal, you'll run past it like a monster.

    Now, to develop those leads you need a system to educate your prospect. Starting someone from zero knowledge whatsoever, taking them completely through a learning process that helps them make the decision to purchase. This is creating value through your marketing and selling process. You become the authority, the resource, the go-to person.

    Now, while some folks may preach things like mass marketing to business, you're selling a complex service. That requires education and trust. It requires you to develop that customer relationship, and while that's an investment in time and effort, the good news is that once it's there, that relationship won't be easily replaced. Business owners view changing vendors as an activity that carries a lot of risk.

    Remember, competition in the marketplace isn't your enemy, it's inertia. Simply not making any decision kills more B2B deals than anything else. Usually that's because the sales professional hasn't taken the time to get to know the prospect, understand the decision process, the stakeholders involved, and how to provide information and resources at the correct decision-points throughout that process to establish value.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dexx
    Hey Michael...quit being so damn awesome.

    Thanks! haha

    ~Dexx

    PS - That was wicked info--I highly recommend everyone re-read that twice, especially the part about 70% not buying on the first contact (and double-especially if you have been one of the posters complaining about cold calling not working etc.)

    PSS - Go purchase Neil's book "Spin SellingSpin Selling " if you really want to take your 1-on-1 skills to the next level
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrian John
    marketingrep4u, i agree with some of the things you said but you can find some good wso here that will give you some good tools and some inspiration for you next programs.But the best info you could ever get it's FREE, ritgh whitinh these threads.That is the Gold you should use.
    The thing is that the only way Offline Marketing works it's by visiting the client directly and show him your offer.Cold calling i think it's only good when you already have a good brand awareness, people already know who you are.Emails ... i don't think they get read anymore ... too many spam.Just go in person, show an example, some case study, some results or anything that makes you an expert and the sales will be easier to close.That's my opinion
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  • Profile picture of the author TrumpiaTim
    I'd recommend attending your chambers of business city meeting, it's a great way to network especially if you're in a slump and just starting your company. It's a great introductory area.
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      What Michael Hiles has done in the above post reveal market reality...not fantasy, not hope, not should work.

      He's talking about not ramming a square peg into a round hole.

      To get a reality check what a busy decision maker has going on in his/her daily life, you would do well to read up what Jill Konrath has to say.

      She says consultive selling where you ask lots of questions are totally outdated in the world of Of frazzled decision makers.

      She has taken Neil Rackman's findings and work to the next level.

      Best,
      Ewen

      P.S. You've got 2.7 seconds to get listened to or swept away. And the surprising thing, her findings show these frazzled decision makers prefer email on first contact.
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    • Profile picture of the author thesoniclounge
      Originally Posted by TrumpiaTim View Post

      I'd recommend attending your chambers of business city meeting, it's a great way to network especially if you're in a slump and just starting your company. It's a great introductory area.
      I'm using Tim's quote because it is a very good one!!!

      This is what I have done in my area and works for me may not work for you..this is my experience.

      I call the local Chambers of Commerce and ask to do a presentation on how to setup and optimize a Google Places listing. I usually get in because they are looking for people to speak at these.

      I targeted smaller suburb areas near the big city in the beginning because I was afraid to speak in front of people and this helped me get over the fear with smaller crowds.

      The beginning of my presentation I talk about a bunch of places they need there business website online. I give a basic presentation on how to setup google places properly. I also tell them how to optimize it for the best results and tell them how to get reviews by offering coupons to there customers.

      It's basic stuff to internet marketers like us but to most small business owners it's valuable information "why" because everyone is trying to sell them a service on how to optimize there website. You are giving it away for Free. When I get to the end of my presentation I tell them to "text there name and email address to this shortcode" and they will get a FREE PDF explaining everything I talked about today including step by step how to setup and optimize there Google Places listing.

      I'm not selling anything, I'm giving away something of value to the business owners that others want money for and I'm including a free product.

      I'm building a list of business owners and introducing them to the power of mobile marketing without them really knowing it.

      The more you do presentations the more you will get business. Just get out there and let people know your doing it. If you do it enough and your good at it people will come to you. You will get people who approach you about doing it for there business after the presentation. I don't sell anything at this presentation I should already have there contact information and do a follow up the next day for a meeting.
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      • Profile picture of the author QueenOfTheBoardroom
        Originally Posted by thesoniclounge View Post

        I'm using Tim's quote because it is a very good one!!!

        This is what I have done in my area and works for me may not work for you..this is my experience.

        I call the local Chambers of Commerce and ask to do a presentation on how to setup and optimize a Google Places listing. I usually get in because they are looking for people to speak at these.

        I targeted smaller suburb areas near the big city in the beginning because I was afraid to speak in front of people and this helped me get over the fear with smaller crowds.

        The beginning of my presentation I talk about a bunch of places they need there business website online. I give a basic presentation on how to setup google places properly. I also tell them how to optimize it for the best results and tell them how to get reviews by offering coupons to there customers.

        It's basic stuff to internet marketers like us but to most small business owners it's valuable information "why" because everyone is trying to sell them a service on how to optimize there website. You are giving it away for Free. When I get to the end of my presentation I tell them to "text there name and email address to this shortcode" and they will get a FREE PDF explaining everything I talked about today including step by step how to setup and optimize there Google Places listing.

        I'm not selling anything, I'm giving away something of value to the business owners that others want money for and I'm including a free product.

        I'm building a list of business owners and introducing them to the power of mobile marketing without them really knowing it.

        The more you do presentations the more you will get business. Just get out there and let people know your doing it. If you do it enough and your good at it people will come to you. You will get people who approach you about doing it for there business after the presentation. I don't sell anything at this presentation I should already have there contact information and do a follow up the next day for a meeting.
        This is a great strategy! People you meet IRL will have a much greater degree of trust for you than any online "scraped" prospect. I love the text for a PDF strategy too! Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
    Lol.. @MarketingRep4U...

    I bought the same WSO... I didn't like it. I have some different methods but, I like to see what others are doing. But, I give you credit for putting it to use.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Rivers
    Okay,

    So, before I give you some of that real advice you were asking for, let me recap:

    - You sent out 750 emails total (3 mailings to 250 leads)
    - You made 500 phone calls

    After reviewing your post, I believe those were all the marketing actions you actually did. Right?

    Well, to state the obvious, that's not enough marketing actions for you to have the level of success that you desire.

    You sound like me a year ago. So, here's what I actually did to solve my client-getting problem.

    Drum roll please....

    I created a marketing plan that included four very different marketing strategies. (Yes, I have more, but these first 4 were affordable and varied enough) And I also created a backup plan with another four or five marketing strategies in case the first four didn't work.

    See, I've been around long enough to know that the odds are not in my (or your) favor when it comes to getting clients.

    Why would I say that, you ask? Okay, so let's be honest.

    Do you have a best-selling book to attract high quality ready-to-pay-you-today type clients like Seth Godin, Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy etc.? Probably not.

    Do you have a radio show, newspaper column, television show to position you as the go-to expert for your niche or target market like Brian Tracey, Suzie Orman or Gordon Ramsey. Probably not.

    Do you have a local business joint venture partner who would be willing to promote you and your expertise to all of his country club friends who own thriving businesses? Maybe, now that I mentioned it, but probably not.

    Well, if your answers were like mine were back in the day, then you must become your own marketing consultant before you can become someone else's. Now, I'm not gonna do what some other warriors do and tell you to not be a marketing consultant because you're not ready.

    I'll just say that you have to become your own first client.

    So, here are the four marketing strategies I used:

    1. Craigslist Posting - I made a image ad with a compelling offer with a strong headline and details of the offer in the ad. No, mystery stuff for me. I followed the Frank Kern methodology. Here's what I got...Here's what it'll do for you... And here's how you buy it.

    2. Postcard Marketing - I designed 3 different postcards offering a free audio product a put together. I mailed this postcard out 3 times to the same prospects.

    Now, I was willing to mail it out 10 times to my list. Yes, you read that right. I was mentally, emotionally and financially ready to mail it out 10 times, but thankfully I got my clients and didn't have to.

    3. Email Marketing - I did something similar to what you did, but I stuck with the same niche for all of my mailings.

    4. The I'm-Already-Advertising Campaign - With this strategy, I cut out newspaper ads for local companies that were advertising and I put together my salesletter offer and sent that to them in a big package with their ad also in it. (Got this from a WSO offer)

    Now, here's the real secret to making these strategies work.

    Do the marketing strategies for at least 90 days straight. Yep, that's right. I don't even touch a marketing strategy unless I'm willing to do it for 90 days straight.

    In my opinion, that's even cutting it a little too short for meaningful results in some cases, but definitely with "trying" anything for a shorter time period than that, you're playing games and are not serious about your business.

    In my experience, every marketing strategy could work if the circumstances are right, however, most of us don't try enough marketing strategies to see which ones will work in our specific situation.

    That's a user error and not a strategy error.

    Based on your post, it seems to me that you were a little unrealistic about your expectations and what you experienced was a expectation adjustment. We all go through this in our businesses, so you're in good company.

    To avoid this from happening again, be prepared to try several marketing strategies at a time for AT LEAST 90 days before you bury it and declare it dead.

    Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author roypreece
      Originally Posted by Chris Rivers View Post

      The I'm-Already-Advertising Campaign - With this strategy, I cut out newspaper ads for local companies that were advertising and I put together my salesletter offer and sent that to them in a big package with their ad also in it.
      This is a great strategy because:

      If you approach everybody, then most of them won't be interested in marketing (or your advice as a consultant)

      So you have to make two sales:

      1. "You need to be proactive and spend money to bring in some new business."

      2. "You need me to help you do that."

      But if you clip out the ads of the people who are already spending money to attract customers, then you only have to make one sale:

      1. Spend some of that money on me and I'll help you. I'll be more cost effective than what you are doing at the moment. Here's why ...

      This way you need to call far fewer people, because the ones you call will already be tuned in to the right wavelength.

      You still have to put in the calls (or personal letters or emails) but you'll have a great message: I can help you do what you're already doing but better, cheaper, faster and easier for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Deidra Renee
    Originally Posted by marketingrep4u View Post

    Greetings fellow Offliners!

    I'm really frustrated and need your advice. Now, when I say 'advice', I mean real advice, not just snide remarks and one liners.

    I'm really frustrated about finding new clients.

    I have purchased so many WSOs and read so many ebooks on the next best thing for Offliners to obtain new clients.

    I've been putting these strategies into place and quite frankly NONE of them are really working. These guys preaching how their simple system made them over $10k just by sending one email or doing one thing sounds great in a sales letter, but in reality, I'm beginning to think they just got really lucky, one time.

    My first strategy was telemarketing and cold calling. I even bought a WSO on the topic to give me an edge before I just started out blindly. After 500 logged calls, I got '0' (ZERO) appointments and a bruised self esteem. I decided that cold calling via the phone was brutal. In fact, an associate of mine told me this morning that he's getting 5 to 10 calls a day from an internet marketing company promising him top rankings and trying to sell him over the phone. Needless to say, telemarketing is OUT, no matter how many people that try to sell you a WSO telling you it's the best way to go.

    On to the next strategy from a WSO I purchased:

    1) I purchased a Google Places scraper software from a WSO for $197.
    2) I used it to target 7 different industries in my area (DFW): Chiropractors, Dentists, Landscaping, Accountants, Fencing contractors, Auto Repair Shops, and Plumbers.
    3) I had to do a great deal of filtering and research to ensure that I had a quality list, which is no problem, since I'm an Excel nut and found it easy to do.
    4) I loaded each list into a new distribution list in Outlook separately, so I didn't mix my lists.
    5) I used a template from an email series I acquired from a WSO (because this guy said he had a great response emailing prospects, remember the $10k guy that only sent one email and landed the big account) and sent the email to each distribution list, BUT mail merged them to make each email sent out and appear as if it were personally written to the recipient (easy to do if you're an Office automation nut like me).
    6) Attached to each email were 2 JPG images. Image 1 was the search results from the Google keyword tool to show them how much traffic their search terms were actually getting. Image 2 was a screen shot from Google search to show them who is really ranking #1, #2, and #3, stating that these companies were getting the lion's share of the traffic and business.
    7) I really didn't think I'd get a large response from the 1st email, so I wrote 2 more to make it a 3 step email series trying to make the attempt at getting them to call me back so I could schedule a free consultation, meeting, or dialog. (Call it SPAM. Call it Shirley for all I care. It was a personal email with NO HTML or fancy graphics, despite the fact that I used the brilliance of technology to help do it quicker.)
    8) In the first 2 emails of the series, I mentioned the names of their top 2 competitors, knowing that they would know who they were and want to beat them in the rankings.
    9) In all my emails, I really focused on positioning myself as a consultant and not just another sales person.
    10) My cumulative list total across 7 different industries was 250 quality real life prospects.
    11) I sent out each email 72 hours apart from one another.
    12) I exhausted my 3 email series to each list and obtained '0' LEADS (thats ZERO).
    13) The only reply that I've gotten is 'No Thanks'.

    All of that work of company research, list filtering, writing, and automation PAID OUT ZERO DOLLARS, much unlike the guy offering the WSO touting the one email that made $10k. I sent 750+ emails over a 9 day period, personally positioned and got nadda!

    This has taught me some valuable lessons that you just can't buy in a WSO:

    1) There's enough FREE advice from great people on this forum that I should STOP BUYING WSOs.
    2) Telemarketing really does have as bad a rap in the business world as people say it has.
    3) Email marketing, even if you're telling them their house is on fire, doesn't work.

    So far, the only thing that has worked is joining a network group for referrals and face to face sales.

    This leads me to my last and final lesson learned here: Offline Internet Marketing is HARD WORK. You have to shake the bushes, beat the streets and burn shoe leather & gas to really make sales in this industry. I'm not opposed to hard work, but I bring this up to point out that some of these WSOs will try to make it appear that it's as easy as sending an email.

    Now that you know my level of frustration in obtaining new clients and have a feel for what and where I've been, I could really use some advice on what's working for you.

    I need new clients, not another WSO.:confused:

    Any thoughts?
    Telemarketing works, just ask John Durham and everyone else that does it .. I personally don't do it in my offline business (but am about to hire a telemarketer) but I have done it in the *real world* and made the company I worked for a lot of money and I was selling NEWSPAPERS, something ppl can get from their local grocery store lol the yellowpages does it all the time (successfully) Email marketing works too, thats all I use right now. You have to know how to use it effectively. The only way I've done that is trial and error, stick to one business model and one strategy for getting clients and do it until you get clients. You will see that it works. Something always works..whether it's postcards, emails, etc you just have to do it long enough for it to happen..and yes that's the frustrating part
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  • Profile picture of the author affirmwealth
    A few more cents...

    What email address and business name are you emailing from? I think that business owners take your email more seriously when it is from John Adams, CEO, My Corporation, john@mycorporation.com vs Jimmy, jimmy@hotmail.com. I'm sure you get my point.

    Secondly, why don't you start with your circle of influence (i.e. warm market)? I have only mentioned to a few friends that I am doing offline consulting, and I also did some work for a few for free or at very low cost, and I've been getting referrals (which are much easier to convert than cold calls).

    Third of all, you have to follow up. Why don't you follow up those emails with a personal phone call, asking them if they got your email?
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  • Profile picture of the author Hugh
    For your MBA in marketing, read above posts until you can quote
    them from memory. It's all right here.

    Hugh

    P.S. I tried to play the piano once. It didn't work. So I quit. H
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    "Never make someone a priority in your life who makes you an option in theirs." Anon.
    "Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon." -- Winston Churchill

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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    I'll tell you what worked for me:

    1 / Local. Local. Local. Start there. Help people. Gain respect. Connections. Make money.

    2 / Then with money, portfolio and testimonials in your pocket go abroad. Adwords. Print. Lunch meetings. etc etc.

    In short:

    Offline is NOT what some folks sell here. But this is a marketing forum: most of the time people sell DREAMS - not TESTED methods.



    Errr... Nevermind my post and just read Michael's post above 10 times.

    Peace!!

    ;D
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    People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeoFan
    Ideas:

    Hand delivering a well-designed, double sided flyer on heavy, glossy, UV coated stock will make a lasting impression. Briefly meet the business owner, and introduce yourself. Get an appointment, for follow-up (if you cannot close on that first meeting.)

    Sell by referral. Get your first successful clients to refer you to friends and colleagues.

    Pick your niche and pursue it! What's your niche? Define it well. (Diversify when appropriate, but with focus...)

    I have Unified, Integrated offline/online solution that is very cost effective for postcard lead capture. It drives prospects to your web-page with tracking. Let me know if you want more info. It works very well if you can target your list.
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    • Profile picture of the author DaniMc
      Originally Posted by GeoFan View Post

      Ideas:

      I have Unified, Integrated offline/online solution that is very cost effective for postcard lead capture. It drives prospects to your web-page with tracking. Let me know if you want more info. It works very well if you can target your list.
      Hey GeoFan, I am interested in hearing more about your system.
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      Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
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      • Profile picture of the author Pmac721
        Wow!...just found this thread and wanted to say thanks for everyone that contributed. I learned more from this thread than I have from most of the WSO's that I have purchased...
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        • Profile picture of the author DABK
          This is a very good thread.
          So, I'm bumping it.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Pawlett
    There seems to be a bit of dichotomy on this forum in that people want to promote their online services to help offline clients get more customers but don’t know how to get them themselves!


    To me lead generation is simple, second nature actually and I believe it’s all to do with your mindset if you don’t get it or find it difficult.


    There are hundreds of ways to get clients and I will go through some of the basics in a minute, firstly you need to think of the ways you don’t want to get clients!


    I hate telemarketing with a passion, conversion rate to low, so I don’t do it.


    I don’t like direct response mail, expensive to test and I prefer near instant results.


    Some would say do it anyway and get out of your comfort zone but why should I when there are so many easier ways that produce better results.


    I would urge everybody to re read Michael's post above, I am going to put it into layman’s terms with a method I use all the time.


    In fact I use this yesterday with awesome results.


    It seems that most on here started as online marketers but seem to forget that fact when it comes to finding offline clients.


    Finding clients is just like getting traffic in the online world, you have to go where the traffic is or JV with the person who has the traffic, add some kind of value then convert them.


    For example some may be searching for plumbers in their town, why not find plumbers merchants, these guys speak to plumbers on a daily basis and there business depends on the success of hundreds of individual plumbers.


    The same goes for:


    Food wholesalers depend on restaurants
    Car part suppliers depend on garages
    Hairdressing wholesalers depend on hairdressers etc


    Can you see where I’m going with this? These B2B wholesalers, suppliers and traders all ready have the mailing lists you need.


    I offer these companies a free service (I never do anything for free unless there is massive leverage in it), the free service is a free eBook for their customers on how their customers can increase their business.


    By increasing their customers businesses their own business will increase.


    When this email goes out it goes out from the merchant immediately giving you authority and credibility when you do this you will, by putting time and effort into the freebie and giving tremendous value have clients beating your door down.


    As a bonus you will nearly always gain the merchant as a client as well.


    Hope this is helpful
    John
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    • Profile picture of the author marketingrep4u
      Originally Posted by John Pawlett View Post

      There seems to be a bit of dichotomy on this forum in that people want to promote their online services to help offline clients get more customers but don't know how to get them themselves!


      To me lead generation is simple, second nature actually and I believe it's all to do with your mindset if you don't get it or find it difficult.


      There are hundreds of ways to get clients and I will go through some of the basics in a minute, firstly you need to think of the ways you don't want to get clients!


      I hate telemarketing with a passion, conversion rate to low, so I don't do it.


      I don't like direct response mail, expensive to test and I prefer near instant results.


      Some would say do it anyway and get out of your comfort zone but why should I when there are so many easier ways that produce better results.


      I would urge everybody to re read Michael's post above, I am going to put it into layman's terms with a method I use all the time.


      In fact I use this yesterday with awesome results.


      It seems that most on here started as online marketers but seem to forget that fact when it comes to finding offline clients.


      Finding clients is just like getting traffic in the online world, you have to go where the traffic is or JV with the person who has the traffic, add some kind of value then convert them.


      For example some may be searching for plumbers in their town, why not find plumbers merchants, these guys speak to plumbers on a daily basis and there business depends on the success of hundreds of individual plumbers.


      The same goes for:


      Food wholesalers depend on restaurants
      Car part suppliers depend on garages
      Hairdressing wholesalers depend on hairdressers etc


      Can you see where I'm going with this? These B2B wholesalers, suppliers and traders all ready have the mailing lists you need.


      I offer these companies a free service (I never do anything for free unless there is massive leverage in it), the free service is a free eBook for their customers on how their customers can increase their business.


      By increasing their customers businesses their own business will increase.


      When this email goes out it goes out from the merchant immediately giving you authority and credibility when you do this you will, by putting time and effort into the freebie and giving tremendous value have clients beating your door down.


      As a bonus you will nearly always gain the merchant as a client as well.


      Hope this is helpful
      John

      I truly appreciate EVERYONE'S advice. I asked for it and I got it.

      John - This really resonates well with me. In fact, I've been a fan of the JV concept forever. Like you said, I really wasn't applying these methods for myself. Man, if I had the $497 for your personal coaching, I'd be your best student. (Broke now, but won't always be.)

      Again, thank you so much, EVERYONE, for your advice!

      I'm encouraged, pumped up, and EACH OF YOU have helped me find my second wind.

      I think that I fell into a mindset of 'not being able to see the trees because of the forest'. I'm a graphic designer by trade and it's been just like looking at a design for too long and not really seeing where the improvements can be made, simply because I've stared at it too long.

      As each method continued to fail, failure was all I could see. Now, add the fact that I'm flat broke now didn't make matters any better.

      I'll keep pressing on, BUT with a new sense of direction!

      You guys ROCK!!!!!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Rhome
    Good tips in there John.

    One method we all probably dislike somehow is getting 3-5 businesses on board by helping them out for FREE (yuk) for 60 days. Well, not totally free: for a video and written testimonials, and referrals too, if they are satisfied of course.

    If they want to keep you after 60 pays, well pay up.

    I admit I haven't done it yet as I'm busy with something else - and procrastinated too - but it sure can be a good start. If I had done this 60 days ago my business would take off.

    I'm actually committed to some other venture. If that one fails, then I'll put my eggs in one business - consulting - and start up that way among other things. Just know that's the first few months will be grim financially, but then it gets better and better.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Iannotti
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author digichik
    Don't give up on telemarketing yet. The are some great sample telephone scripts in various threads in this forum, take some time and search for them, it's well worth it. It sounds to me like your phone script needs some major tweaking, if you made 500 phone calls and didn't even one client. There is something definitely wrong with your telephone approach. Are you calling for appointment or are you trying to sell your services over the telephone?

    Sales is a numbers game, just by making x amount of phone calls you will get x number of appointments or sales. As you improve your confidence improves, and your comfort level with your sales pitch improves the number of sales/appointment you make will also improve.

    Every large corporation uses b2b telemarketing. Why? Because it is cost effective, saving both time and money in generating sales, leads and appointments. If you want to be truly effective in your offline business you will need to learn how to telemarket your services. Instead of spending time writing a 100 page book, invest that time in writing a good sales script for yourself. A script which sounds like you talking, not like you trying to sell something; then get on the phone and call, call, call. I would suggest, as others have, you start out with local businesses. Don't try to sell them something on the phone just work on getting an appointment with the decision maker.

    Keep your business simple, you invested a whole lot of time making spread sheets, when you could literally just take a pad and paper and the yellow pages, open it up and start dialing.

    For small businesses, the owners usually make the marketing decisions. Just starting out I would not waste time with Dentist, Doctors, or Chiropractors; many have office personnel(gatekeepers) who will at all costs keep you away. This may discourage you. Stick with plumbers, mechanics, landscapers and the other vertical markets you listed, these should be easier to crack.

    Again search this forum for telephone scripts, many generous individuals have posted some great ones in various threads. John Durham also has a forum for offline businesses that has some great telephone scripts. Corporations pay consultants thousands of dollars to write telephone scripts for their sales and lead generation teams, you have this available to you FREE in this forum. Use It!
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    • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
      Being able to distinguish plain facts from exaggeration helps a lot.

      If you think about it with any common sense at all this statement is obviously exaggeration:

      "In fact, an associate of mine told me this morning that he's getting 5 to 10 calls a day from an internet marketing company promising him top rankings and trying to sell him over the phone."



      Yes the work in this business is in getting clients.

      That's true for nearly ANY business.

      Acquiring clients in our modern society has become difficult and expensive.

      That's why good marketers are so valuable.

      The method you use for marketing to clients has to be appropriate to the business.

      In this case where you're working on getting clients at multiple thousands of dollars the real key is building trust and rapport.

      The fastest way to learn to do that is to get face to face with business owners and start asking questions and listening.

      If you haven't had half a dozen conversations with different business owners that have each gone for two hours or more then you know nothing about this business...you are by definition a complete newbie with no real experience.

      So that should be your first goal...some one on one conversations with business owners that have real length so you can understand who your prospects are and what's important to them.

      How do you do that?

      You can start by talking to business owners you know, business owners your friends know, the owners of businesses where you're spending money.

      You can also go to business networking meetings, trade shows, some charity groups...anywhere business owners congregate.

      Once you get beyond that first step...learning how to talk to business owners...asking questions and listening...this whole process gets a lot easier.

      Until you've done that you really have very little chance of landing any high paying clients.

      Like most businesses that have high income potential this is a business about PEOPLE and the relationships you build with people.

      None of that is reflected in your activities so far (which seem to be about how many calls you can make and how many emails you can send).

      Get to know the people you're dealing with first...really care about who they are and what problems they have...and go from there.

      Life will be a whole lot easier and a lot more fulfilling for you and the business owners you talk to.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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      • Profile picture of the author marketingrep4u
        Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh View Post

        Being able to distinguish plain facts from exaggeration helps a lot.

        If you think about it with any common sense at all this statement is obviously exaggeration:

        "In fact, an associate of mine told me this morning that he's getting 5 to 10 calls a day from an internet marketing company promising him top rankings and trying to sell him over the phone."



        Yes the work in this business is in getting clients.

        That's true for nearly ANY business.

        Acquiring clients in our modern society has become difficult and expensive.

        That's why good marketers are so valuable.

        The method you use for marketing to clients has to be appropriate to the business.

        In this case where you're working on getting clients at multiple thousands of dollars the real key is building trust and rapport.

        The fastest way to learn to do that is to get face to face with business owners and start asking questions and listening.

        If you haven't had half a dozen conversations with different business owners that have each gone for two hours or more then you know nothing about this business...you are by definition a complete newbie with no real experience.

        So that should be your first goal...some one on one conversations with business owners that have real length so you can understand who your prospects are and what's important to them.

        How do you do that?

        You can start by talking to business owners you know, business owners your friends know, the owners of businesses where you're spending money.

        You can also go to business networking meetings, trade shows, some charity groups...anywhere business owners congregate.

        Once you get beyond that first step...learning how to talk to business owners...asking questions and listening...this whole process gets a lot easier.

        Until you've done that you really have very little chance of landing any high paying clients.

        Like most businesses that have high income potential this is a business about PEOPLE and the relationships you build with people.

        None of that is reflected in your activities so far (which seem to be about how many calls you can make and how many emails you can send).

        Get to know the people you're dealing with first...really care about who they are and what problems they have...and go from there.

        Life will be a whole lot easier and a lot more fulfilling for you and the business owners you talk to.

        Kindest regards,
        Andrew Cavanagh
        I appreciate your input.

        However, I have been attending the networking groups and visiting prospects face to face, as mentioned.

        In regards to your statement about an "obvious exaggeration", even the business owners I'm visiting with are saying that they're being bombarded with calls, up to 10 per day, from SEO companies.

        Sorry. Not exaggerating, just stating the feedback that I'm getting up to this point.

        I think someone even made the comment earlier that if you even mention SEO, prospects immediately shut you down simply because they've been called on so much my SEO cold callers.

        Thanks again for the input.
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        • Profile picture of the author tingram112
          Sometimes you just have to vent your frustrations and keep going. I was actually experiencing the same thing...emailing prospects, not getting any responses, spending time doing a lot of hard work....

          Now that I know other people are going through the same thing...and I know it's not just me, here's what I noticed from my own efforts prospecting:

          1.Being local definitely gives you an advantage. The ability to develop real relationships does wonders for getting clients. That's why face to face is so effective.

          2.With all the competition, the bar is steady rising for offline marketers. To get consistent results you have to almost corner business owners with real results instead of free consultations etc.

          That's why hotdog stands do so well...people are hungry and the hotdogs are already there on the grill ready to go. No proposals or evil genius emails necessary.

          3. Use every trick in the book. Even when you're doing everything right, some business owners just won't be motivated to grow their business with online marketing. I suggest going after a mix of local businesses, and targeting larger businesses. They seem to appreciate the value of online marketing more and have bigger budgets.

          4. Go off the grid. I totally agree with avoiding the usual suspects( Dentists, Chiropracters, etc) unless you already have a real world relationship. Or you already have a premium ranking.

          5. Test, test, test. Sometimes email will work, sometimes cold calling will work. Sometimes nothing will work. At some point you'll build momentum (clients, relationships, referrals, more clients etc) and won't have to work so hard.

          Thanks for the post. I'm sure a lot of people are experiencing the same thing...
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        • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
          Originally Posted by marketingrep4u View Post

          In regards to your statement about an "obvious exaggeration", even the business owners I'm visiting with are saying that they're being bombarded with calls, up to 10 per day, from SEO companies.

          Sorry. Not exaggerating, just stating the feedback that I'm getting up to this point.
          I didn't say you were exaggerating. I said it was an obvious exaggeration.

          In other words anyone telling you they're getting 10 calls a day from SEO companies...that's an obvious exaggeration.

          Think about it for a minute. 10 calls a day. Day after day? Week in, week out? Really?

          I would seriously doubt that had 10 calls from SEO companies in just one day...ever in the history of the company.

          That would be quite an event if it happened.



          On the topic of services if you're opening contact by talking about one of your services you're probably not going to do too well.

          Ideally you open conversation by asking questions and finding out more about the business and what's important to them.

          One of the biggest mistakes many people make is trying to sell their service (business owners don't care) instead of focusing on getting to know the business and the owner first and showing a genuine interest in them.

          Also SEO is more or less meaningless to many business owners.

          What most want is more sales and profits.

          The also have other worries and concerns that are a priority to them now.

          If you find out what those are then your chance of coming up with ideas and solutions that will appeal to them and get you hired increases enormously.

          Kindest regards,
          Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author MickAdamski
    It looks like this post has covered most everything.

    The one thing I'd like to mention is you need to focus on what the core reason is for a person or business to buy your service or product.

    They are looking to do one thing and that is to MAKE MORE MONEY!! They don't really care about the charts and the promises of SEO rankings. What they want is to make more money, make their lives easier, give them more time off with their families, let them buy that new house or car etc. They want the benefit not the service. So focus on the benefit. Position yourself as the way to get the benefit. If you do SEO or anything else they will ask you how on their own.

    You could try a JayAbraham strategy and tell them that you will only take a fee if you produce results. If you make them $4 then they can pay you $1. Just a thought and I bet your competition isn't doing that.

    Good luck and keep at it.
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  • Profile picture of the author TriWin
    You will get the best results with multi-channel marketing. Unsolicited email end up in a spam filter. Cold calls are ignored, I know because I ignore them. Direct mail needs to be sent multiple times to get good results. But when you mix them all together you start to build brand recognition. Just because they don't want you product now doesn't mean they won't want it later and you company will be familiar to them at that point.
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  • Profile picture of the author OfflineMan
    Getting theh ball rolling is always the hardest thing, once the ball is rolling and clients are linning up it gets hard if your not setup properly.. I got burned out very quickly at first because I was getting a ton of referals and trying to do it all on my own...
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  • Profile picture of the author mjlimey
    great post - I have read and re read, tons of new ideas here.
    Thanks
    Mj
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    • Profile picture of the author ChristopherDittemore
      Thanks for this thread, there are a lot of great methodologies in here!

      I want to offer a little suggestion from my limited experience in the offline market, started yesterday, but I used to cold call mortgages and done extensive online marketing.

      I called a couple people yesterday spoke to 3 people, and got 1 client already. You're right business owners don't want your services, but they want more customers.

      You need to figure out two things:

      1. Why do they believe they don't have more clients?
      2. How can you uniquely give them the experience they want?

      The guy I spoke to, who was a photographer, had gone through many SEO providers and was frustrated with them all. So, I asked him about his experiences, if he was happy with the results. He wasn't happy at all. So obviously, he needed my services. Then I simply explained why my experience was unique than anyone else he had called.

      For instance, if you talk to a client and they say - they have a website. Don't hang up! Ask them how they're results are? You're not a sales person you're a consultant and as Andrew said, consultants ask questions.

      These people might have 10 people calling them every day - but how are their results? Give them what they want, how they want it, build a relationship and offer other services down the road.

      I just wanted to offer a little value to a thread I got a lot of value from.

      Christopher
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  • Profile picture of the author jacquic
    There's a huge amount of valuable information above and I won't repeat it, except to reiterate that networking is an effective medium and long term startegy, and that asking people questions about themselves and their businesses is far more effective than just selling one's services.

    You've started a very interesting thread here!

    One method not mentioned yet is workshops. We run one of these every six weeks or so and pick up good referrals and/or a client from them.

    Kudos to you for going ahead and doing all that cold calling. Keep the prospecting up and tell us when you have your first client.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kim Phoenix
    I'm not sure what your offline business entails, but you may find this link helpful for aspects of your offline business. I have listened to this in the past, and although I did not buy the course because it's not what I want to do, you may be able to apply some of the concepts that she speaks about (the free parts).
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    http://www.TheOnlineChick.com
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    • Profile picture of the author scottuga44
      I've read this thread about 3 times already and every time I go through it, I gleam some new info. Thanks so much
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidPreston
    Great stuff!

    As many of you know, I started my offline consulting years
    ago with free workshops. (Still works great today)

    Working with local non profit groups works well

    Talk to your local chambers, NFIB leaders etc. and offer
    a free workshop for their members on "How To Harness
    The Internet For Your Business"

    Go in with the mindset of actually showing them EXACTLY
    what to do. Really show them what it takes, timewise and
    knowledge wise.

    NO PITCHES!

    At the end simply have a box of cards and tell them,
    "I'm really busy as you can imagine, but if you get
    stuck call me and I will try to help you if I can."

    The phone rings, and rings....

    This puts you in the "expert" category fast and by
    honestly helping them you will pick up more clients
    than you can handle.

    It's free, and puts you in an entirely different light than
    the firms calling every day...

    Hope that helps some-keep at it :-)

    David
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    Click Here to gain enormous credibility incredibly fast, online and offline!
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  • Profile picture of the author gekko2.0
    There is some golden information in this thread and its all real world tested by people who are doing this stuff every day....thanks for sharing everyone!!

    Here is something I keep in mind whenever I'm in sales mode:

    "If I can't market myself to this potential client about the benefits of my services how can I possibly market their business to their potential customers?"

    At the end of the day its all about sales if you can't sell yourself or your business you probably won't be viewed as the best candidate to help them generate sales. If you excel in the technical areas but don't have the people skills necessary to do sales hire someone who does. If you can't afford to hire someone join a group like Toastmasters to learn the basic skills.

    This is a tough business to get started in but once you get the ball rolling its exciting and rewarding plus you meet some interesting people along the way that can help your business grow more than you ever expected.

    Tim
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  • Profile picture of the author marketingrep4u
    Someone asked me how to mail merge in Outlook after reading this post. I tried the PM option, but I don't have enough posts here on WF and it wouldn't let me.

    So, heres a link that will teach you how to send personalized emails with Outlook to a larger distribution list:

    Microsoft Outlook - Mail Merge: How to send a personalized e-mail to many people at once

    Rich
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  • Profile picture of the author DaniMc
    This is a wonderful thread. It truly illustrates the value of our fellow Warriors.
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    Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    So far, the only thing that has worked is joining a network group for referrals and face to face sales.
    Another member confirmed that one sentence that really stood out for me in your original post.

    I've been preaching face to face sales since last year but it seems many aren't ready to receive it yet. That's OK! = )

    B2B still requires the most core elements of interaction and this is social interaction.

    What I mean by social is seeing people in person.

    Everything Michael Hiles posted is true, you need to nurture relationships with the prospects you really want to do business with. Now just so you understand Michael comes from an area of business where his clients are for the most part out of the reach of most people on this forum who are still getting started. But this does in no way invalidate Michael' input, the truths he communicated still hold true for any size of business.

    Now I know that I preach one call closing and many people think that this is HARD in your face pressure, pressure, pressure selling. This is the typical perception people have when they hear the word closer.

    On the contrary a "real" closer is one who can get through all the elements Michael mentions, "nurture those leads, educate your prospects, develop authority" he also says, "developing relationships by creating value through education is the number one way to drive sales" and again he goes on to say, "...provide information and resources at the correct decision-points throughout that process to establish value."

    Michael also said, "taking them completely through a learning process that helps them make the decision to purchase. This is creating value through your marketing and selling process. You become the authority, the resource, the go-to person."
    It is possible to achieve ALL of the above when approaching small business owners in your area, IN ONE VISIT FACE 2 FACE!

    Are you going to get a new client every time you take some one through this process? Surely NOT! Are you going to get shut down before you even get a chance when you meet with a business owner face to face? YUP!

    Are you going to meet a business owner at the right time and moment and take them through the whole process above and get a new client on your first visit? YES, You most assuredly will!

    Are you willing to take the knocks until you do get that client? That's the REAL question you have to answer for yourself.

    Now...

    Building a education based sales funnel is a very sound and smart practice. And I encourage every one to establish one, however...this will take you time to create, time to implement and time for it to start working and this to be expected.

    BUT!!!

    You must do it.

    Think about this for a moment..

    You can start out going in and talking to business owners face to face consistently and YOU WILL begin to pick up your first clients. Now you have some income, now you have a relationship with some one you can network with, now you've got your start. In the mean time in the back ground your deploying your funnel system as Michael talks about and before you know it your all over the internet at your local level. The business community begins to recognize you online and the more they see you online the more trust you gain.

    After some months you as you've been selling face to face to get new clients you've build up an authoritative position on the internet that your company or firm knows its stuff.

    Now if you've kept at a consistent pace of going out and selling face to face you have a core group of clients AND you should be getting leads from your funnel which is taking them through the education process.

    If you or your salesmen just happen to visit a business owner who's seen you online a few times you have instant credibility, you have instant trust factor, you have just increased your chances of getting the sale on that visit.

    If you do not know how to create a education bases sales funnel I am going to tell you exactly how right now.

    Go out and talk to business owners Face to Face, keep track of every single obstacle that owners throw up. Keep track of all the questions they ask because these are the same questions they look for answers to online. Keep track of how you have learned to overcome obstacles to get the sale. Keep track of all the answers you give in response to the questions your asked. Identify which answers resonate best with your prospect and mark those as most effective.

    Take all that data you've gathered and use it to create your education based sales funnel.
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
    Someone has clearly been taking notes... lol

    I don't really have much to add except that when you master that marketing process for yourself, you've also mastered marketing consulting at the top of the food chain. You will never, ever have to look very far to create a substantial income.
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  • Profile picture of the author Noah Fleming
    Originally Posted by marketingrep4u View Post

    Greetings fellow Offliners!

    I'm really frustrated and need your advice. Now, when I say 'advice', I mean real advice, not just snide remarks and one liners.

    I'm really frustrated about finding new clients.

    I have purchased so many WSOs and read so many ebooks on the next best thing for Offliners to obtain new clients.

    I've been putting these strategies into place and quite frankly NONE of them are really working. These guys preaching how their simple system made them over $10k just by sending one email or doing one thing sounds great in a sales letter, but in reality, I'm beginning to think they just got really lucky, one time.

    My first strategy was telemarketing and cold calling. I even bought a WSO on the topic to give me an edge before I just started out blindly. After 500 logged calls, I got '0' (ZERO) appointments and a bruised self esteem. I decided that cold calling via the phone was brutal. In fact, an associate of mine told me this morning that he's getting 5 to 10 calls a day from an internet marketing company promising him top rankings and trying to sell him over the phone. Needless to say, telemarketing is OUT, no matter how many people that try to sell you a WSO telling you it's the best way to go.

    On to the next strategy from a WSO I purchased:

    1) I purchased a Google Places scraper software from a WSO for $197.
    2) I used it to target 7 different industries in my area (DFW): Chiropractors, Dentists, Landscaping, Accountants, Fencing contractors, Auto Repair Shops, and Plumbers.
    3) I had to do a great deal of filtering and research to ensure that I had a quality list, which is no problem, since I'm an Excel nut and found it easy to do.
    4) I loaded each list into a new distribution list in Outlook separately, so I didn't mix my lists.
    5) I used a template from an email series I acquired from a WSO (because this guy said he had a great response emailing prospects, remember the $10k guy that only sent one email and landed the big account) and sent the email to each distribution list, BUT mail merged them to make each email sent out and appear as if it were personally written to the recipient (easy to do if you're an Office automation nut like me).
    6) Attached to each email were 2 JPG images. Image 1 was the search results from the Google keyword tool to show them how much traffic their search terms were actually getting. Image 2 was a screen shot from Google search to show them who is really ranking #1, #2, and #3, stating that these companies were getting the lion's share of the traffic and business.
    7) I really didn't think I'd get a large response from the 1st email, so I wrote 2 more to make it a 3 step email series trying to make the attempt at getting them to call me back so I could schedule a free consultation, meeting, or dialog. (Call it SPAM. Call it Shirley for all I care. It was a personal email with NO HTML or fancy graphics, despite the fact that I used the brilliance of technology to help do it quicker.)
    8) In the first 2 emails of the series, I mentioned the names of their top 2 competitors, knowing that they would know who they were and want to beat them in the rankings.
    9) In all my emails, I really focused on positioning myself as a consultant and not just another sales person.
    10) My cumulative list total across 7 different industries was 250 quality real life prospects.
    11) I sent out each email 72 hours apart from one another.
    12) I exhausted my 3 email series to each list and obtained '0' LEADS (thats ZERO).
    13) The only reply that I've gotten is 'No Thanks'.

    All of that work of company research, list filtering, writing, and automation PAID OUT ZERO DOLLARS, much unlike the guy offering the WSO touting the one email that made $10k. I sent 750+ emails over a 9 day period, personally positioned and got nadda!

    This has taught me some valuable lessons that you just can't buy in a WSO:

    1) There's enough FREE advice from great people on this forum that I should STOP BUYING WSOs.
    2) Telemarketing really does have as bad a rap in the business world as people say it has.
    3) Email marketing, even if you're telling them their house is on fire, doesn't work.

    So far, the only thing that has worked is joining a network group for referrals and face to face sales.

    This leads me to my last and final lesson learned here: Offline Internet Marketing is HARD WORK. You have to shake the bushes, beat the streets and burn shoe leather & gas to really make sales in this industry. I'm not opposed to hard work, but I bring this up to point out that some of these WSOs will try to make it appear that it's as easy as sending an email.

    Now that you know my level of frustration in obtaining new clients and have a feel for what and where I've been, I could really use some advice on what's working for you.

    I need new clients, not another WSO.:confused:

    Any thoughts?
    You are dialing for dollars. Build a business.
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