How To Land Your First Offline Client Step By Step

26 replies
As Internet marketers we do have a lot of skills that is in high demand in the offline world. For you to land your first offline client it is all about positioning yourself as an expert of some sort.

I have put up an outline on how to land yourself your first offline client In easy to implement steps:


Step 1: Standing out as an expert
This step is all about making yourself stand out as one that brings in value. So what you will do first is to buy a domain name that will cover your local area eg. www.Bestofyourlocalarea.com or www.Spotlightonyourlocalarea.com. Install wordpress and upload a news related theme or whatever theme you like. Since video is very popular now so we will be creating a video directory that showcases businesses in your local area. This will serve as your armoury when approaching businesses. (Remember to set up a twitter, facebook fanpage and youtube channel for the site. Customise your social profiles to stand out too) your

Step 2: Contacting Business Owners
In this step we will phone up businesses on a less busy time of the day or even weekends. Say to them something along these lines
"Hello this is John from Spotlightonyourlocalarea.com we recently launched a video directory that showcases businesses in your (local area) and we are looking for forward thinking businesses who will like to showcase their business for FREE. Will that be you Sir/Madam?

This leaves them with a Yes or No answer. If No, Thank them for their time and move on. If Yes, then let them know your availability and also let them know that this is for a limited time only cos of the volume of clients you have to deal with at present. This gives them pressure to either choose your time or an alternative time that you meant have to let them know it might be difficult to squeeze them in. But never accept the time they give you immediately, say something like I will need to ask my colleague to to see whether he will be able to cover your other booking to avoid double booking so put them on 1 minute hold to convince your colleague to take on your other job. This is a class act that shows that you are as busy as he is. So he will always respect your time.
And trust me they will always call you to cancel if anything urgent comes up.

Step 3: Get the Job Done
Come in on the set date with a flip camera or camcorder. What you need the client to do is briefly introducing himself, his business, what his business does or offers, how long they have been serving the area, any offers they are running at present and their contact details. I tend to make it short because many consumers don't have time to watch lengthy videos so 5mins or less will be perfect. Once video is done catch a quick conversation with the business owner and ask some a couple of questions like: How do you get customers to your business? What problems does he or she experience in promoting their business. Do you have an advertising budget? How much is your monthly advertising budget? What is the lifetime value on every customer? What is the average cost of their service or products? How is the size of their customer list? Would you be interested in knowing how to slash your advertising budget and still make more money? You can add more questions to this too. These questions are the keys to your success in marketing trust me. If you get an objection on questions about advertising budget just let them know that you are running a survey to know whether businesses get enough return on their advertising. Lastly get their contact details (Very Important)

Step 4: Deliver Your Service
Upload the video to your youtube channel. Also you can brand the video with your logo at the end or beginning of the video. Go to fiverr and search for video intros and pay for an awesome intro that will wow them. There are so many on there for only $5. Then email the business owner the link to their video commercial and follow up with a call and offer them a discounted marketing service like google places, social media branding, seo, video creation, article marketing etc. They are more likely to bite the bullet and take you on after taking your time to bring publicity to their business. Also throw in bonuses like video views, on site optimisation etc. THink of a bonus you will be likely to deliver without skin pain. Even if they say NO ask for a testimonial and move on.

Step 5: Ask For Referrals
Whether they take you on or not on any of your offers, always ask for referrals of business that will like to be showcased on your video directory. Always choose to contact the business yourself with permission and let them know that you will mention their name in the process. This startegy in a short time should get you going on getting more business than you can handle.

I wrote this post to act as a guide so you are free to add to it or subtract however you want but never think this is not going to work cos it really works and has been working for me.

Your Moto should be "TAKE ACTION AND NEVER GIVE UP"

Hope this helps.

Joshua
#client #land #offline #step
  • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Bass
    Thanks for that information. I definitely like how you use your phone techniques to convince them your busy. Will be using your idea's.
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  • Profile picture of the author Warrior Ben
    This is excellent advice! I hope that newbie internet marketers see that to really get rich by using your skills, you need to sell to businesses!

    That's obviously not the only way to make money, but it would have saved me years of learning online if I just realized that the big bucks get made one of two ways: Selling your online services offline and creating products to teach people how to do things.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    I have a problem with one part of your advice - lying to them about "having to check with your colleague" and "not accepting their first appointment time" - just to fake that you're busy.

    That's just unethical and cheap.

    Why start out your business with such desperate tactics? It's just lazy. Surely you can think of a way to get your result with lying to your prospects?
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    nothing to see here.

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    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Baxter
      There's a few holes in your strategy, but other than that it's some pretty good information..

      Jeff
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      • Profile picture of the author fonoi
        Originally Posted by Jeffery Baxter View Post

        There's a few holes in your strategy, but other than that it's some pretty good information..

        Jeff
        I am interested to hear what the hole's in his strategy are. I thought the general idea was pretty good and would love any improvements.
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      • Profile picture of the author Joshua Kwentoh
        Originally Posted by Jeffery Baxter View Post

        There's a few holes in your strategy, but other than that it's some pretty good information..

        Jeff
        Hello Jeff,

        Could you help by filling up the holes for us here pls?

        Thanks in advance.

        Joshua
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    • Profile picture of the author Joshua Kwentoh
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      I have a problem with one part of your advice - lying to them about "having to check with your colleague" and "not accepting their first appointment time" - just to fake that you're busy.

      That's just unethical and cheap.

      Why start out your business with such desperate tactics? It's just lazy. Surely you can think of a way to get your result with lying to your prospects?
      Hello Andy,

      Like I stated earlier,

      I wrote this post to act as a guide so you are free to add to it or subtract however you want but never think this is not going to work cos it really works and has been working for me.


      Unethical??? Cheap??? Lazy???? You use words that are so demeaning. You don't know me and you choose to refer to what I do as this. A bit of respect is what it takes. I do not expect this from a man of your caliber.

      I refer to my tactic as being gray hat of some sort cos I am offering them something that is very valuable for free but they will never know the value if I do not act busy and take on any date & time they set. I believe in this business you have to be in control unless you get doors shut in your face before you even open your mouth.

      Do you care sharing some ethical tactics you use? Since you are the GENIUS and am very desperate student of IM who is always willing to learn new ways to improve on my knowledge.

      Offer us some pointers that can improve this if you may.....

      Joshua
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      • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
        Originally Posted by Joshua Kwentoh View Post

        Hello Andy,

        Like I stated earlier,



        Unethical??? Cheap??? Lazy???? You use words that are so demeaning. You don't know me and you choose to refer to what I do as this. A bit of respect is what it takes. I do not expect this from a man of your caliber.
        As you noted - I was referring to the tactic of lying to create false scarcity - nothing to do with you.

        If you post such things surely you must expect that not everyone will agree with them?

        You're free to run your business as you see fit. When you post this type of thing as expert advice then other members have some sort of duty to call you on things which don't seem right. I have no agenda and nothing to prove to you (or anyone else), so I'm not going to argue with you about it.

        If someone would needed help had posted for my advice I'd happily give it, but I'm not going to waste time trying to justify why I have my own opinions about business.

        I'll let others who are of a similar mindset to you build your strategy with you rather than waste time trying to join to dissimilar approaches together.

        My comments were not aimed at you personally - just the comment you made.

        I wish you well in your business.

        Andy
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        nothing to see here.

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      • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
        I'll share with you because I agree with Andy on this one.

        I have this time on Monday, or this time on Tuesday. Which is best for you.
        Going the good guy bad guy route is BS.

        Your still in control, they have 1 of 2 options for an appointment.

        Also your post does not belong in this part of the forum either.

        It belongs:

        HERE

        Originally Posted by Joshua Kwentoh View Post

        Hello Andy,

        Like I stated earlier,



        Unethical??? Cheap??? Lazy???? You use words that are so demeaning. You don't know me and you choose to refer to what I do as this. A bit of respect is what it takes. I do not expect this from a man of your caliber.

        I refer to my tactic as being gray hat of some sort cos I am offering them something that is very valuable for free but they will never know the value if I do not act busy and take on any date & time they set. I believe in this business you have to be in control unless you get doors shut in your face before you even open your mouth.

        Do you care sharing some ethical tactics you use? Since you are the GENIUS and am very desperate student of IM who is always willing to learn new ways to improve on my knowledge.

        Offer us some pointers that can improve this if you may.....

        Joshua
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4518157].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author RRG
          Positioning yourself as busy and successful is just plain smart. "Fake it til you make it."

          Dan Kennedy is notoriously hard to reach, clients get frustrated, yet they pay him $18k a day for his time.

          Dan told me once that he doesn't operate that way because he's "Dan Kennedy"; he's "Dan Kennedy" in part because he acted that way from the beginning, when he was a relative nobody, when he had nothing going on.

          It's like when you set an appointment with someone, you don't say, "Sure, I can meet with you right now!" Even if your schedule is wide open, it's more powerful to say, "Well, I'm booked up this week. How about next Wed. at 2 or Thu at 10?"
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    • Profile picture of the author philboy uk
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      I have a problem with one part of your advice - lying to them about "having to check with your colleague" and "not accepting their first appointment time" - just to fake that you're busy.

      That's just unethical and cheap.

      Why start out your business with such desperate tactics? It's just lazy. Surely you can think of a way to get your result with lying to your prospects?
      Ever heard of James Caan ( dragon's den ). His first office in Knightsbridge was so small, he would arrange to meet clients in a coffee shop and tell them the office was being decorated, or busy .... shocking


      To get his employment agency ( Alexander Mann ) off the ground, he would invent an ideal candidate for a particular businesses, once he had his foot in the door he would then leverage this to find a genuine candidate.

      to me, what is important is intention.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dexx
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      I have a problem with one part of your advice - lying to them about "having to check with your colleague" and "not accepting their first appointment time" - just to fake that you're busy.

      That's just unethical and cheap.

      Why start out your business with such desperate tactics? It's just lazy. Surely you can think of a way to get your result with lying to your prospects?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4521467].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author JustinDupre
    Great tips. Very informative.
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  • Profile picture of the author JustSomeWarrior
    Hey people only offering criticism and no helpful suggestions on how to improve: contribute something worthwhile or keep your mouth shut.
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  • Profile picture of the author margocales
    We all have our own way of creating a business picture to Clients.

    Provided you remain ethical and true (white lies) and provide the service you are offering carry on using your own tactics.
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  • Profile picture of the author Teravel
    I have a few suggestions to add, for those of us without camcorders.

    * Don't limit yourself to a video site. Businesses will jump at free advertising even if its just another business directory. The thing you have to focus on is getting that directory quickly ranked to show that you mean business.

    * Don't just target your immediate area. If you are in a small city like I am, target some of the small towns nearby. I am focusing not on my local area, but my entire county (a small portion of a US State, for those of you in other countries that don't know.) This helps by giving me more prospects, wider reach, and we are all still connected anyway as it's a resort area based around local attractions in the smaller towns around my home city.

    * If a business doesn't have any web presence, offer a free start-up. Explain it will cost some investment due to Domain and Hosting, but that the initial work will be free. This works great with small 1-3 page websites for service businesses such as electricians, plumbers, etc. Once they see what the site can do for them, and start changing their current advertising to include a website, you will hear back from them asking for more.

    * If you're afraid of calling businesses and explaining your services, call them up and ask them a few simple questions about their business. Are you afraid to call a pizza place to order delivery? Use this to get used to calling those people that you don't know. It will help you feel more comfortable on the phone.
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  • Profile picture of the author PhilaPM
    I think this is a great idea. Anyone have some good wordpress themes we could use for our business directory listing website?
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  • Profile picture of the author gkappny
    Excellent detailed write up..good luck!
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    Greg K


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  • Profile picture of the author zoltzz
    Awesome idea. Not that much work either. Great thinking about the referral as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ehsan_am
    I want to add a little something to this strategy that has been working great for me.

    Obviously you can use the strategy without creating videos and a simple business directory is enough.

    I always ask for several questions at the end of the interview. What is the exact name of your business? Could you remind me of the exact address? Phone number? Website? "What? You don't have a website? " Act shocked and they will always feel like they have to justify. Worst case scenario they will tell you they don't need a website and you know that you either have to convice them or just let them go.

    To my experience it is too much work to convince them. Most of people know they need a website and you can sell them on web design. Those who don't think they need a website are just people that will be hard to sell or at least upsell later on.
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulFL
    The scarcity strategy is very effective. Dan Kennedy's mentioned a lot here - In Magnetic Marketing, he references having a restaurant owner getting cars stored in his lot to simulate a crowded restaurant.

    If you're uncomfortable with the idea, just say something like, "Oh gosh, that may be a conflict, would you hold for a few seconds while I confirm that time will be ok?"
    Get back on and say, "That works" or, "That won't work for me but xx day at yy time will work."

    Say what you're comfortable saying. The real key is to take action.
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  • Profile picture of the author satrap
    That is a great idea for anyone to make some cash. Of course, you could always add your own twist into it and make it work for your own personal situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author wkenzf
    Thanks for the advice^^
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