A Client A Day Keeps The Wolves At Bay (And Mamma In New Shoes!)

Re: A Client A Day Keeps The Wolves At Bay (And Mamma In New Shoes!)


You don't happen to be Swedish, do you, lol? Great idea btw, thank you, Eva

"Mamma vill ha nya skor".

Personally, we now have our own system with our own short codes, however, when we started, we had a private label version of Trumpia.

I would not pay the set up fee, nor the monthly licensing fee. And you can also get a lower buy in, as low as $1,000 which equals about .03 cents each (30,000 texts) or buy in with $2,000 and get them for around .02 cents each. Once you are doing some real numbers, you can get text messages as low as .005 cents each. Your own email server will be an additional $150 per month, but once you have some clients in the bag, it is a no brainer, as I have stated before on the Warrior Forum, we also do simple restaurant walk ins and give them a free month to test and then $97 to $147 to start.

Our closing ratio is at least 80% with all of our area restaurants.

For someone that is just staring out with SMS, I'd probably use the simplest of services that actually work, like YepText and aweber.

Don't mail it too complicated.

Also, do not allow your text messages to roll over, the breakage is profit, and you don't want to be surprised by some dormant client, suddenly waking up and wanting to use all 2 MM of his messages.

Ciao,
Evie

Actually, that is just the way we explain it, what the package REALLY is, is 500 clients and 1,000 SMS and 1,000 emails, ie. 500 clients, messaging two times per month via email and text.

Does that make sense?

And I posted previously, we used to use a white label version of Trumpia (actually we are still using it for a number of clients) and if I was starting out, I'd use something like YepText and aweber.


Ciao,
Evie

Hi Ben!

You are absolutely right, they are slammed with the running of their Groupon.

And when we first started playing with this, it was really tough to even get through to them, let alone have a conversation.

That initial script, once we started using that, made all the difference.

And it was a grind to get our first few clients, but once we did, here is what we did.

We sent two of our people down with Kodak Zi8 HD small flip-like cameras and wireless mics, and we were able to capture video of their business with a flood of people coming in their doors, how hectic the workers were, just basically capturing ciaos.

We were able to interview each owner as they took breathes in between putting out fires, dealing with customers that did not want to follow the rules, running out of product, cash registers refusing to open, computer systems freezing, etc., etc., and we did that with 4 different businesses.

We turned that into a sort of 3 1/2 minute documentary of being on the merchant end of a Groupon Deal.

We even captured one of the owners calling Groupon to tell them to please STOP selling any additional deals as they hit their agreed upon ceiling 260 deals ago and their business could not handle the additional customers and Groupon refusing.

We also did some simple Groupon math versus real math and have a quick interview with one merchant that did 4 different Groupon offers, each additional offer to help finance the losses from the previous.

Once a prospect has finished watching that video, if they do not click call, and call us back, they must be out of their mind.

We even explain integrating our solution into their Groupon campaign, will be seamless, but a week from now, when they want to generate another flood of business, and keep 100% of the money, they can, all at the push of a button.

Now, getting them to watch our 3 1/2 minute video when they are at the beginning of all this ciaos, that is he trick that we had to figure out.

But using the same wording in the script I posted, 4 of our telemarketers were able to each sell at least 1-2 per day.

It was only after one of our closers began using wording that lite a fire under the business owners buns and encouraged them to go in their office, lock the door, turn the phones off, including your cell and spend the next 3 1/2 minutes watching a video each of the business owners, acknowledge they would have paid at least $1,000 to view, prior to D day. The video ends with a vacant business and a hand written note taped next to the "Closed" sign which reads "Thanks Groupon!"

As for Groupon reps warning business owners of other people, I can't speak for the entire nation, but around here, that is NOT happening. The reps I have experienced will say most anything to get the owner to sign on the dotted line and can't get out of there fast enough once that has transpired.

At last count, we do employ around 16 ex-Groupon reps (across 4 states) and we have one in our training right now (and 12 Yellow Book reps.)

I'll survey them at some point this week and find out, but I have been present with over 20 business owners in the last 3 months as they negotiated and signed the agreement (isn't their agreement the most one sided agreement you've ever seen?).

At the time, we were going to start a consulting service that helped our clients secure the very best Groupon agreement terms and we customized the offer and the backend/upsell.

Just too much opportunity I guess, as that has been placed on the back burner.

As for the non-compete, that is directly related to LivingSocial, Facebook and Google Deals, and look around at how many merchants are ignoring that and doing deals with any deal of the day rep with a breath.

And Groupon itself is going to have their own legal issues as each state's attorney general begins cranking down on, for example, the expiration dates. The AGs contention is that these are really "gift certificates" and new "gift certificates" laws prevail.

Sad for owners who might have to honor certificates for a year or forever depending on the state.

Although, there isn't a lot of breakage as reps try to insinuate. Especially with all of the reminders Groupon sends the purchasers that their certificate is expiring.

Our telemarketer that is closing 5-8 per day is calling 3 metro regions.

In all honesty, he admits he is only looking for low hanging fruit, and the idea was like I said to create a Groupon Consulting Program and that has kind of fallen out of favor with myself and a couple of our managers.

It could be my fault for ragging on Groupon so much, but lets face it, businesses are going to use Groupon/LivingSocial, etc., as long as the economy continues to suffer. This business owners are scared to death and they mistakenly look at Groupon as a zero cost of entry, not realizing that is smoke and mirrors and there IS a cost and it could potentially bankrupt their business.

As for offering this here on Warrior Forum?

I don't see it that way at all. In the last year especially, I have been very blessed and it seems like the more people I am able to help, the better my luck becomes.

The first year of doing local consulting, I was selling videos, and I got sucked into believing everything that I learned from a certain course. I had to figure things out on my own, and once I did, that same course seemed to be fascinated with me and my success. I was very free with what was working even giving exact details, and soon, my clients were getting phone calls from people who knew a bit too much about me, my prices, technical aspects of my business, etc., etc. and they tried to steal my clients away.

I grew paranoid and began guarding every single tactic and strategy I learned.

But, over time, I realized, the hard way, that for most business owners, having 5 videos on page one of Google, even for great keywords, wasn't going to change their life.

I then set out to discover what it was these business owners really wanted and you know what, as you already know, they don't care a lick about SEO, SMS, HTML, etc.

They think they want customers... but what they really want is increased profits... that can mean new customers or making them more profitable from the customers they already have, or a combination of both.

Next, however, I found that what these business owners were most impressed by was my customer service. how much I genuinely cared for them and their business. When I asked about their family, it wasn't some sales technique to warm them up. it was because I care. I truly wanted to hear about their kids soccer game or their daughter's college graduation.

And I said what I meant and meant what I said. When I messed up, I told them so. I under promised and over delivered in every possible way. Each client, is added into a service which mails them a physical greeting card every 3-5 weeks.

Even for the silliest of occasions or odd holiday's "Talk Like a Pirate Day!"

Any reason to stay in touch, ask how they are doing, offer a tip or trick unrelated to our business, but something that might help their business.

Being exposed to so many different businesses allows us to get one heck of an education and one tactic or strategy that is taken for granted in one industry, might be considered pure genius when presented to another.

This business is high tech, but never forget it is also high touch.

But to get back on track (I'm getting there, I promise) it was the help and guidance that I got from an old college friend, who invited me to come see his local consulting business in Florida, and how freely he shared his business model and gave me permission to "go back and try this," "see how this goes over in California."

Even John Durham here on this board, who was an open book on all he had learned throughout the years. Well, I got excited again and I love to help people anyway, so I am sharing without given details that could directly hurt my business.

The whole reason I became a nurse anesthetist.

If you think about it though, it's still sort of selfish because I know it will come back to me exponentially.

And right now, I'm about the luckiest girl I know.

And the fact that there is so much opportunity out there that 100 Warrior Forums couldn't handle it all.

There really is gold in them there hills!

Ciao,
Evie

Yes, he is a gem, but I am so proud of everyone.

The funny part is he continued to play with following up with the Groupon/LivingSocial and a couple of other deal sites (our newspaper is now offering daily deals in multiple categories as is entertainment.com) on his own time as a sort of proof of concept.

I just inquired of Sean and he said he calls about 40-50 deals each day and closes about 1:4 now.

:-)

But all along, he was determined to make it work, and as I said, the key was getting these business owners to watch that darn video. You'd think that would have been relativity easy.

Like they say, you can lead a horse to water...

But like all of my stars, he has a fire in the belly and success on the brain.

Groupon should have taken the big payday from Google, as their S-1 is exposing their business model is a lot more "float" than substance...

I have not heard recent numbers, but they are hemorrhaging big time.

Ciao,
Evie

Personally, our experience with free trials, unless you have huge volume and can afford the breakage, is not the best idea.

The free trial clients, that would not ante up to put some skin in the game, were where most of our headaches came from. Also, trials that converted to a paid subscription, we had refunds and chargebacks to deal with.

With that said, we do have an SMS service that has one month for $1 and then it converts to a full boat, however, we disclose that fact numerous times and even send them a link to cancel, 5 days before their maturity date.

That IS working quite well, but we are sending on average 600 people a day to that site.

So the numbers work.

For Sean, our Groupon/LivingSocial closer, Sean keeps 100% of the setup fee.

He is making bank, that is for sure, but worth every penny.

He does not receive any of the recurring, however, he does have an opportunity to upsell additional services and earn a percentage from those sales as well.

Ciao,
Evie

Hi Evie.

When I open a thread and see that it's you I always read everything in it, and I'm never disappointed.

Thanks for all the great information. I have a folder full of Groupon leads I've never contacted. What you've shared here looks really good. (Anything you'd like to add for someone like me who will be contacting owners about Groupon follow ups for the first time)?

It sounds like your friend is doing it right!

For some reason personal services, like medspas, personal trainers, gyms, etc., have figured out that they need to not only capture their newfound customers information (which is easily done in these businesses, as they require each client to complete paperwork) but they also understand the importance of making a OTO or upsell.

Most business owners are doing neither.

Additionally, in our reputation management business, we have identified how the OTO/Upsell, if done improperly, can ruin a businesses reputation, which they might have built over a decade or more, in a one or two day Groupon/LivingSocial campaign.

The public will smell a rat from a mile away and if you abuse them, by attempting a bait and switch, the same viral activity that made your campaign successful, will also work in reverse and destroy your business.

Even large Fortune 500 companies do not quite get how important it is to make a sincere offer and not attempt to game the Groupon/LivingSocial system.

For example, one only need look at the horrible FTD flowers, Valentine's Day fiasco. Groupon offered $40 to FTD.com for just $20, just in time for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately customers ended up feeling ripped off as the prices for Groupon customers was basically more than double that of their public website and to make matters worse, no delivery until a day AFTER Valentine's Day.

Talk about bad press!

So, businesses need to hire a consultant that can navigate the landmines and create an offer and OTO that is congruent and their new customers will find useful and are excited by.

BTW - I thought this was an interesting fact. Groupon is spending $24.08 for every new customer, while the average revenue per customer is $17.55, or $6.53 less than the cost of acquisition. Similarly, the cost of adding a subscriber to their mailing list is $5.37, while the real revenue per subscriber is just $3.43. The more people they bring in, the more money they lose.

Is that REALLY sustainable?

Ciao,
Evie

Sorry, I think I am so excited my electricity is back on, I missed that question.

BOTH!

Even for those that are capturing new customer information, very few have a reliable system in place to follow up on a regular basis.

One personal trainer, her in La Jolla, had 90 some prospects, they were emailing each one individually.

Individually!

And this gal used to be an executive at Cox.

She was blown away when I showed her how to personalize messages using email, text messages and then when i shared voice broadcast... :-)

And we all know how many touches on average before a conversion, right?

And using SMS marketing in creative ways, has the highest conversions I have ever seen.

Ciao,
Evie

Oh, but a REAL politician would have taken Google up on their offer. :-)

Ciao,
Evie

Brad - thank you, that is awesome!

Much appreciated.

What would you say your biggest constraint is right now?

Ciao,
Evie

I really like what you've posted too, I've kept my eyes on the industry as a whole, from both aspects (mobile texting and the daily deals as they are). I think customers will always want it - its the businesses that probably won't. I did actually purchase some sms keywords to start working with this strategy but got sidetracked... this reaffirms I was right several months ago when I did buy them.

Hopefully businesses aren't too dazzled by the $ that "appears" to be created with the daily deals sites to focus on what is most important, profits going into their pockets (not others).

Amber

I think lots of people are rethinking deal sites. Check out what's happening in China.

And this.