Evening/Weekend Appointments? Starting offline with a day job?

Even if my wife and kids would appreciate that, I'm sure the owners are quite busy during those times.

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Im not doubting that YOU can, there are rare REALLY REALLY talented marketers who can.

But I have to disagree that one should be able to market our "offline" services online just because we are able to market a small business owners service online...

A local pet shop doesnt have the same nature of competition as a local web designer. Marketing a webdesign service online, isnt the same as marketing a local pet shop online. Depending on your geography and the competition in that local market...how many savvy web design companies there are in your local market....

If you have a system that beats cold calling, and maybe you do, it would be awesome to have you spill it here for us, because I for one would love to know how to create predictable results without offline sales presentations... Simply "You should be able to do this if you are like me..." isnt helping much. Any ideas?

Also I guess it depends on what you consider "doing well". If two clients every 90 days or so meets that qualification for you... Then maybe some aggressive craigslist or PPC advertising would work.

In some countries, one client per month at $3k will make you "rich", even 1k would make you very well to do in some countries. BUT, if a guy from the US landed one 1k client per month... His family would be in jeopardy of foreclosure, but in some places he would have a thriving business.

success is relative. 3k per month would pay a little less than half of my monthly "fixed" expenses for instance, while for some it could really make them prosperous.

Also,

Is this concept something that can be duplicated by your average offliner? What are the variables involved. I ask with optimism that you can show us how to do this.

As to the OP, there are alot of businesses that are open til 9pm. Its not the best time to call, it would be better if you had a partner in another time zone you could just set appointments for... However, you absolutely can work your way into appointments calling businesses that are open in the evening and there are a ton of them.

Edit: I do know a guy who has an offline affiliate network , they send people to his site, and he catches them in live chat as soon as they arrive. Sort of a referral system. So he does close some without ever getting offline or picking up a phone.

Im not saying its impossible at all... But Webdesigners dominate the search engines more than pet shops, so it would be hard , unless there is something Im missing...and Im sure there is. In any event, cold calling doesnt leave anything to the imagination, you just do it and go get yourself customers.

LOL I know, I read your story. Heavy industries you got into.

Going back to strategies, it's been said over and over, if you are so confident with your product, why not prove yourself. A lot of people are afraid of working for free... But as long as they don't have clients that's exactly what they are doing. Even though it has somewhat to do with my strategy, I always show my client results first, some of them to make them drop their jaw.

Any how, I'd certainly be honored if you can take a look at my strategy and gimme your opinions. I'll PM you next week or whenever I have everything laid out.

My full respect.

If I owned this forum I would put this post in the GOLD thread. Why not just be upfront and say what you mean? Let the system do the work instead of blowing half your calls trying to be cute or use some technique?

Its alot of work trying to sell yourself on every call, much eaiser to let the system do the work and just state your case like it is.

Love this post.

Two things. Groupon tells business owners to be wary of people contacting them for internet marketing services, and pretty much tells the business owner "you can't trust them." One of my friends owns a deli in town and was told that by his Groupon rep. Of course I didn't know that until after I launched a postcard campaign, so this is just warning in case you decide to target these people. If you've had success with it, great!

The other thing. I was on the phone with a business owner yesterday who actually took the time to go over my pitch with me and tell me what she'd want to hear me say to get a sale from her (very random and helpful, we talked for over 30 minutes!) This is in no way a definitive "here's how you talk to business owners" but here's what I walked away with:

1. Don't say you're just starting out. She said a lot of people say that to here and it makes her wonder if they're 1. any good and 2. going to stick around and 3. why don't they have more clients.
2. Don't say "how are you today!?" and try to be all cheery. Talk to them like they're a real person.
3. Be brief. Cut straight to the chase. Don't be a wuss.

So, my pitch, as amended:

Hi, this is JJ Abrams with Really Crap Movies, Inc. here in Detroit. Hey, I'm just calling today to set up a time to talk with you all about using Mel Gibson as a spokesman in your products. Is there someone there that usually handles that?

Hi this is Bob.

Hey Bob, your gatekeeper (use their name) told me you're the guy I need to talk to - hey, we're setting up Mel Gibson Promotions in the city here and I think your company would see a huge benefit from having Mel stand outside your store and scream at customers - it only takes about 15 minutes to go over the whole thing - when is a good time for you?