What are you finding the hardest about getting offline clients?

Hi Matthew.

Firstly, you must realise that "getting your name out there" is purely a vanity statement. I hear it a lot and I think people say it because they assume if you "get your name out there" then some people will ask you to do some work for them.

So, my advice is to ask yourself a slightly different question...

"How do I get myself in front of people that need my help to convert more website visitors into clients"

The rule is that no-one really wants to spend money on web design, but they will pay for you to make them a site that will get them more business.

These are the people that will give you money.

They could be at your local chamber events, networking events, simply around the corner in their offices waiting for a phone call...

Make everything you do purposeful.

Now let me ask you a question in return ... "What will you now do to find the people that need your help converting website visitors into clients"

Hi Mike

I hear you loud and clear !!!

The Chambers can be a pain at times. Here is my strategy though:

We did a kind of JV with them. We paid some money and they put an event on where 60 local companies came along, had some breakfast and listened to us talk about how SEO could transform their business.

From that event, several things happened:

1. Other people asked us to speak at their events.
2. People in the room booked meetings with us (a couple became clients).
3. People referred other businesses to come to other events we put on.

So, in that respect you can 'work' the chamber and get a return.

What you said about "no money available" is a basic reaction to people thinking they are spending instead of investing. You could cover this off in a seminar if you got chance to do one.

Hope that helps.

Well ... most people don't like doing that. So you should do it ... a LOT !!

I hope you don't mind me butting in on your thread.

The "I don't have money" objection is one of the most common objection. Believe me, most have the money. What they're really saying is, "You haven't convinced me why I should part with my money and give it to you?"

Take a look at your presentation and evaluate these items ...

Are you telling, or are you selling?
Sales people like to talk and too often they just simply say way too much! Plus, if you're doing all of the talking you'll lose their interest. Your presentation needs to involve them into your presentation by asking them questions, doing tie downs, etc.

Is it focused around the business and how they benefit by having your service?
Again, too often people will tell people all about the service or product but they don't show how they benefit from it or explain why that's important to the business.

New sales people will sell features. A feature is what it does. To effective sell you sell benefits which is how the business benefits from what the feature does.

To break the habit of feature selling, do this ... Give the feature and then follow that with, "and what that means to you is ..." and then give them the benefit of that feature. Benefits is what sells, not features (unless you're selling a high tech item to engineers people ... they want features).

Not Doing Little Agreements Through Presentation.
Throughout the presentation you should be getting little aggreements. These let you know they're listen and with you, and help you learn quickly when they have an objection or don't agree.

The standard rule of thumb is when you share something of significance that would be of value to the business, tie it down with a minor close ... "This helps your business build your list so you can market other products and services to those people." You can tie it down like this ...

• Do you see how that would be of value to your business?
• What an excellent way of building a list to continue marketing too, wouldn't you agree?
• Is that something you could see your business doing?
• That makes sense, doesn't it?
• Nice, huh?

There are hundreds of ways of tieing a statement down or asking a minor close.

Also, what you absolutely need to understand is ... If you say it, it's not important. If they say it then it's the gospel truth. Tie downs take important statements you make and make them true and important.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Got to get a proposal out.

Bradley

JerrickYeoh,
Then why are you selling it when there are so many other products you could be selling?

Quit beating your head against the wall and make this business easier. Find a product that makes sense that offers great value to a business and sell it.

My business practice isn't to lead in with traffic generating strategies like SEO. Instead I first help the business to put in place strategies that maximizes their advertising. Most of these are online tools, but re-engineered for the offline business.

My objective is to make sure the business is maximizing the current marketing FIRST, which in turn increases their leads and sales. Talk about being the businesses hero!

Let's say the business is currently spending $1000/mo on advertising and prior to my involvement they would produce 20 leads and 10 sales. That means ...

• They're paying $50/lead ... this is their cost to lead amount.
• They're paying $100/sale

Once I put my pieces in place, for the same $1000 they're currently paying (at this point I don't touch what they're currently doing) they pull in 50 leads and make 35 sales. That now means to the business ...

• They're paying $20/lead ... this is their cost to lead amount.
• They're paying $28.50/sale

They quickly see the results of the pieces I put in place. Obviously they're ecstatic!

Then I ask them, "Could you imagine how much more money you'd make if we could attract even more of the consumers who are right now looking for a business like yours?"

They get excited. I then give them a presentation about smart phones and how people are now searching for businesses using the internet. Making a long story short, they say yes to about anything I offer because they know that with the new system I've put in place that they have a better chance than any competitors to earn the business of those people looking online for a business like theirs.

My point in all of this is find your speciality, find the products that you feel good about.

I never lead in with SEO. To me, that's putting the cart in front of the horse. I first put the pieces in place so when there website does get the additional traffic it's positioned to dominate that market place and the business has a system in place to effectively and automatically handle the leads, for one.

Bradley

Hi Jerrick.

Part of your job is to make people aware of how they need SEO. The thing is though that you can't just tell them.

For example, if you told me to get fit, I probably wouldn't. If you helped me understand that I may not live past 50 and see my kids grow up if I keep on eating crap, I would take more notice.

So... in the same way, you need to help companies understand that they will be beaten by the competition if they are not no.1 on Google for what they do.

How do you do that?

1. Free reports
2. Seminars
3. Email newsletters
4. Talks for your local chamber
5. Articles in local business mags

you get the idea...