How to get Customers?

by stoaf88

Posted: 13 years ago 24 replies

OFFLINE MARKETING

I have read tons of offline guides and have actually doen some work for friends and offline SEO is easy.

The main problem I have is acquiring clients.

I can rank wordpress sites, videos, and web 2.0 properties no problem, but I can't get clients.

I HATE cold calling or talking on the phone for a firsy impression. First of all Im always nervous and I have a heavy Boston accent so that does not help at all either.

Email usually does not work too well.

Does anyone have any secret tips up their sleeve they care to share with me?

#customers

prosperwithdnb 13 years ago

Hire a sexy sales woman to talk to business owners in person and sell your services and give her commision.
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- danielkanuck 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by prosperwithdnb
  
  Hire a sexy sales woman to talk to business owners in person and sell your services and give her commision.
  
  I think i like this idea... Lol.
  
  In all seriousness though, are you giving your prospects the opportunity to sign up to your email newsletter, or are you sending them to a hard sell website? Do you give them the opportunity to call a 1-800 number, or can clients only contact you via the web?
  
  Are you using direct mail in your arsenal also? I'm thinking you can put up a simple postcard campaign and gather new leads from it. Wouldn't cost you much... plus it's much better than cold calling in my opinion.
  
  Thanks
  
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- topnichekeyword 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by prosperwithdnb
  
  Hire a sexy sales woman to talk to business owners in person and sell your services and give her commision.
  
  It is too easy and little bit Blackhat type so, it's not be a good practice! So, we need to find another best way!:p
  
  Thanks
  
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tdpubs 13 years ago

Establish a team for marketing and sales. You can hire women from outsourcing agencies to make the calls and set the appointments then have a local closer who handles the actual presentations. You are the expert in your field so let them do what they do best. Hire a sales person on commission with the idea that they don't have to cold call or set appointments. Give the telemarketing person an incentive to set solid appointments and a bonus when the sale is made. You'll have more consistent sales when you split the tasks and provide the leads for the telemarketer. Good luck.
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Hugh 13 years ago

Tip! Any salesman worth his salt will NOT work for peanuts.

Hugh
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- cchipster 13 years ago
  
  Agreed. You will need a sales team either by phone or canvassing to really do any numbers fast.
  
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  No signature, I'm sure you will be ok.
  
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stoaf88 13 years ago

Where is a good spot to look for sales people?

Odesk? Craigslist?

Where have you guys had success?
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mrelosa 13 years ago

You can outsource a virtual assistant that can handle the calls for you, respond to emails, etc. You can check oDesk for freelance contractors that you can pay for just $200-$300 per month.
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- Matthew Payne 13 years ago
  
  Maybe consider something besides SEO. Maybe a less saturated market. You could also SEO your own SEO website and get clients that way. You could also offer your services to webmasters who need SEO work done for their clients.
  
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Alex Tran

13 years ago

If there is a trick to getting customers in a highly competitive market, it is to give value first.

In my market, doctors, chiropractors, lawyers, restaurant owners, and so on get bombarded daily with "We will SEO your site for free" emails.

It is easy to scrape emails from the web and spam the heck out of these business owners. Because of this practice, SEO is perceived as low value or worst -- spammy.

In order to stand out, you need to approach it differently from your competitors. I suggest picking a few high quality target prospects. Start with 15. Create a video on what you know about their business, what you think their challenges are, what possible solution you can provide to their challenges.

Be specific in your video. Don't just say, "I'll rank you on the first page of Google." That is a "so what?" statement. If you can justify it, say "I'll create a system to get you 3-4 new qualified leads each week at a cost of $XX.XX per lead." Then add, "Here is an example of how I would do it."

Then ask for the next step by saying, "If this makes sense to you, I can meet on Tuesday at 3 pm or Thursday at 10 am to refine this plan."

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing. And more importantly, I hope this helps you to think as a consultant rather than a market seller.

Good luck.

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1 reply

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BradleyC

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alex Tran

If there is a trick to getting customers in a highly competitive market, it is to give value first.

In my market, doctors, chiropractors, lawyers, restaurant owners, and so on get bombarded daily with "We will SEO your site for free" emails.

It is easy to scrape emails from the web and spam the heck out of these business owners. Because of this practice, SEO is perceived as low value or worst -- spammy.

In order to stand out, you need to approach it differently from your competitors. I suggest picking a few high quality target prospects. Start with 15. Create a video on what you know about their business, what you think their challenges are, what possible solution you can provide to their challenges.

Be specific in your video. Don't just say, "I'll rank you on the first page of Google." That is a "so what?" statement. If you can justify it, say "I'll create a system to get you 3-4 new qualified leads each week at a cost of .XX per lead." Then add, "Here is an example of how I would do it."

Then ask for the next step by saying, "If this makes sense to you, I can meet on Tuesday at 3 pm or Thursday at 10 am to refine this plan."

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing. And more importantly, I hope this helps you to think as a consultant rather than a market seller.

Good luck.

Alex is so right on!

What you MUST understand is that this is NOT an online business. You cannot and will not succeed by just simply sending them a bunch of emails that send them to a squeeze page which then sends them to a hard sale sales letter!

You are an offline business. You must treat your business and run your business like an offline business. That means that your primary objective in the "lead generation" phase should be to have a conversation with them.

Yes, you heard me right ... have a conversation with them!

But, you posture it in numerous "Self-Serving Benefits" to the business owner. At the lead generation stage, all they care about is What's In It For Me? Re-read Alex's post!

Whether you send them a video message or have a well written, benefit driven email, it must be 100% focused on what the business gains by going to the next step, and if they don't go to the next step then they don't get to benefit from this and this and this.

Do NOT sell products. Wrong timing for it. This is the lead generation phase of the sales cycle. All your trying to do is find businesses who have an interest in ... increasing their sales, not losing leads and sales to their competitors anymore, etc.

Good luck.

Thanks

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invite 13 years ago

An important element to creating a long-lasting profitable business is finding good wholesalers willing to work with you. If you are thinking of starting a business,
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alabama 13 years ago

Do marketing in online, Its helpful for you..
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igre123 13 years ago

Make a website with your business information and promote it online
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racheltom 13 years ago

You can make promote it both with hard n print media
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thesorcerersapprentice 13 years ago

Give them something free up front. Once I started giving people a free 30 sec commercial on Page 1 of Google I started getting a lot more clients. It only takes about an hour of your time and it is well worth the investment.

After all who is going to say no to something for free?
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snovakor 13 years ago

yes, give him something for free - > in front ... you know, that people always love something for free !! Look my site in Sign ... this one - Copy writing PRO .... you'll see that i have on next (second) page CD with knowledge for FREE !!!

Regards
Alex
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- Blackyoko 13 years ago
  
  The key here is providing value. DON'T explain how you will put him in the 1st page of Google. That means NOTHING to the client.
  
  Explain the value of that in terms of the client NEEDS. And what the client NEEDS is only determined by asking QUESTIONS. And THAT´s the most important part of that sale process.
  
  How about this:
  
  You ask: "What is your marketing effort? (What do you do to get clients?)"
  
  Then you say: "Is that been effective to gather new clients? You can tell how many clients came from each form of marketing effort?"
  
  You ask them questions and you SHUT UP! The selling process is 75% listening and 25% talking.
  
  LISTEN CAREFULLY. BE ATTENTIVE.
  
  There is a big chance that the prospect is NOT happy with his marketing but doen´t know how to do better.
  
  You then talk about possibilities like this:
  
  "How would you like to be known by hundreds of prospects, with you can track easily, keep in contact and instill the need for a great service that only YOU can provide?"
  
  The answer is obvious.
  
  Then you ask:
  "How much do you think a new client is worth for you?"
  
  And then:
  "If that is the case, if i was to tell you I can provide the means for you to get those clients, would you be interested?"
  
  And then:
  "How about this: I will build you a web presence that will make you not only looks good but makes you visible to hundreds of prospects every month. I will teach you how to be in contact with them (list building) so that you can let them know you and your services."
  
  The key here is "web presence" and NOT "web site".
  
  By then, the prospect should be curious about pricing. With the former question about "how much a client is worth" you should be preatty confident on your prices by now.
  
  On a note about where to look for clients, try the people on the outdoors, busdoors, full page ads on the yellow pages. Those are the people that are investing in marketing.
  
  On a second note, about cold calling: The best is to GO TO THE PLACE. Don´t be lazy. But, if you insist on the phone, you should not try to make ANY sale by the phone. The purpose of that is to:
  
  1. Find who is the decision maker and as much information on him as possible.
  2. If you are feeling bold, try to make an apointment with him. Don´t tell that you are an SEO Consultant. That is alien to them. Tell them you are a MARKETING CONSULTANT with important information about how to expand their business. Say that you will do a free presentation and give insights on what they could do to reach more people.
  
  What ever you do, DONT TALK BAD OF ANYONE, INCLUDING THE COMPETITION!
  
  Also, confidence is KING. Act confident. Don´t apologise for nothing. Be objective and brief.
  
  I hope I have helped.
  
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indolesman 13 years ago

You need to network, get to know business owners and offer them no win no fee packages, its a surefire way of getting work.
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kiddoman 13 years ago

Try to do some campaign and let more people know your products or stores!
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Susan11 13 years ago

If marketing is talked about in longer prospect, SEO will be a good idea. SEO includes OFF-LINE and ON-LINE methods to promote any website. Those who want to get more traffic, involving SEO activities can budge the scene from nothing to potential customers.
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- sprks79 13 years ago
  
  I use the Chamber of Commerce. I go and talk to local businesses and just talk about what it is i offer, and what the benefits "could" be for them. I have a huge success in client acquisition this way. People want to spend the money so they can make money. Be proactive and it will come.
  
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sdentrepreneur 13 years ago

I would focus on Chamber, Business Mixers, LeTip and BNI groups if you are just starting in this field. Build relationships and trust. Take on a few clients for free, prove your skills and then they will be part of your referral sales force.

I went to a business mixer 2 years ago, took me 3 months to get a meeting with a franchise owner of 18 locations, we now have 120 of the franchise locations and billing $15k per month. Be patient....confident....
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- SMEDiscounts 13 years ago
  
  Why don't you try "Group Buy" sites? They can offer an easy inexpensive way of getting some clients through the door?
  
  Just remember that the real value to you (the merchant) lies in the conversion of the new customers into long-term repeat business! So be sure to have upsell, cross-sell options and a solid back-end to follow-up with the customers post their first purchase!
  
  We do this specifically for B2B businesses. If you're operating in the UK and this is of interest to you, check us out at SME Discounts.com
  
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