Offliners- 2 Honest Questions - Okay, well maybe three technically.

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1: If I dared you to walk across a six inch wide steel beam ,for $100, that was 30 feet long , stretched 200 hundred feet in the air between two buildings....would you do it?

Now,

2: If I told you there was a million dollars on the other side, that was yours...Would you do it?

However cliche, these are real questions...

Personally on number one- I'd not entertain the thought for a second. The answer is "No."

On number two - I have to be thinking about it real hard at least.

Another interesting question- Can you imagine people do that all day long for $25.00 per hour or less?

Making a few phone calls isnt really that scary when you think of it!
#offline marketing #imagine #offliners #questions
  • I would say no to all three questions. Easy enough. :-)
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  • Another question...

    Do you think that a person who believes its impossible to make a single sale of $100 per day, really has what it takes to be an offliner anyway?

    This is for my personal research.

    I want to know what you think.
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    • John,

      Do you think they could get a full time job? Well they can't make any money offlining either. If you think you can't, you can't. Some car said that or something like it as he was driving down America's highways looking for a six inch wide steel beam :-)

      You're doing some heavy research there brother. Slow down and smell the coffee. We need you to keep posting here.

      Tom
  • On question 1, I had to do that to enlist in the Air Force back in 1963. Never got the $100 though...

    Ques 2, in a heartbeat. We both do it everyday we drive on America's highways and there ain't no million dollars at the end of the drive.

    Sorta kinda ques 3, of course, that is at what they value their time. Money is time and time is money and we each value it differently.

    BTW, you can paypal me the $100 and I'll walk the plank when I'm in your neck of the woods :-)

    Tom


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    • When I first lost my songwriting deal in 98 or so, I was loooooost....

      After a month of depression, I decided i was going to get a brick laying job and be like those guys in all those "workin man songs" I had written. I figured I could write even better songs...

      Wasnt a stranger to it from my upbringing...

      Anyway, I did it for about a month then I watched a block fall from 100 feet onto a kid who was pushing a wheelbarrel full of mud, and it almost broke his back, there was an ambulance...

      And I thought, "Im worth nothing to my family dead....", so I went and got a job in Bowers call center.
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  • I prefer to use Attraction Marketing and have the business owner walk across the steel bar to hand me money to manage/consult on his business marketing. :-P
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    • Now thats deep! That was worth this whole thread!
    • This is such an interesting comment. Attraction Marketing also has a variety of meanings depending upon who the spin master is.

      Attraction Marketing to me at least is when I cold call a business owner and he's been thinking about what I have to offer all day and my call is just what he needed when he needed it.

      In essence, he attracted my phone call and manifested it into the physical whereby my solution singularly occupied his thoughts for many days if not weeks prior to our conversation but somehow he just never got around to it.

      Just another way to look at the same concept.

      Certain authors or groups seem to fanatically hijack a concept to serve their purpose.

      Yet no one concept can be contained or anchored with a singular definition at the expense of other possibilities.
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  • Due to OSHA regulations, there would/should be safety cable holes drilled in to the column webs/flanges, and any iron worker would/should have a harness attachment that straps to that cable for safety purposes.

    That said, however, some iron workers will still take shortcuts - and some erectors/contractors get fined quite heavily if any of their guys get caught!

    But, to answer your question...I'd walk across for $1 million - without a safety cable (depending on the rules and weather conditions etc.). I wouldn't do it for free, though.

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  • For $1 million I'd put roller blades on and skate across one-legged with a hulahoop around my waist.

    I'd most definitely die too.
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    • lol. You guys are hilarious. Its looking like most of us share about the same opinion, although one has said they wouldnt do it no matter what.

      Good point. This is the kind of person who wouldnt be able to hold their job in a call center. Nice interjection there.
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  • Sorry for the downer post, John...but I couldn't resist.

    I have conversations like this with my brother, jokingly, but it's usually something along the lines of - would you eat a turd for a million dollars?

    We're super deep thinkers or something.
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  • /\ I think the saddest thing about that is actually feeling good when you're thinking about it. Like "oh yeh this turd is gonna taste so bad but that money is going to feel so good sitting in my hands".

    How sick. But yeh I'd do that too. The things people will do for money.
  • There is a great documentary on Netflix about the French guy who walked across the World Trade Centers on a tight rope back in 1974.

    Very inspiring...the planning, the preparation, everything about it was fascinating. He did it for nothing and got arrested too, but he loved every minute of it. He still can say he was the only human in history to accomplish a feat like that. Check out that documentary and you'll be inspired to do anything no matter how difficult it may seem.
  • The more I think about this, the more I believe that the primary reason people hate doing it is because don't like spamming. Imagine telling them that it's not illegal to ring people up out of the blue...would they hesitate?

    That person should not be left alone for any length of time.

    Cheers.

    Joshua
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    • Thats an excellent point. I think you're probably right. A lot of closed minded people may equate telemarketing to harassing people. Instead of trying to provide a solution to a few people in a larger group.

      And if you do it right some of those people you "harass" give you money.
  • I'd practice walking across the six inch plank on the ground first a hundred times and then do it. Its the same plank just greater risk as the height increase but really no harder.
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    • Many prosperity teachers believe that a $100,000 sale is no harder than a $10,000 one, just depends where you direct the energy.

      For instance:

      I off-handedly planted a seed on a thread the other day that for 100k I might start a call center for some one

      That seed wasnt hard to plant...Just threw it out there into the universal soil...Now someday someone is gonna come across that post at some point and entertain the idea. I will have made a 100k sale as easily as any other online one.

      When you plant a seed like that you open up a potential channel for prosperity to flow to you.

      Is this attraction marketing?





      JK
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  • Bit off topic, but one of our favorite games in college was "Would you rather..."

    Both choices were always horridly disgusting or dangerous.
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  • yes yes no
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  • First thing I'd do is post a gig on Fiverr. While I was waiting for someone to respond to the gig, I'd write up a quick WSO about how to turn 5 bucks into a million! (with less than 4 hours of work, and ZERO cold calling!)
    TADA!
    For all you deep thinkers, DON'T EAT POO! Outsource!
  • Khemosabi has spoken.
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  • First, I'm a total chicken. I'm the guy who wouldn't walk the beam for a million $$.

    But....

    Metaphorically, I walk not just an i-beam, but a tightrope, and I will continue to do so.

    Sometimes, I'll do a back hand spring on the tightrope. :-)

    I think I'm a lot like many offliners in this regard: Making it for yourself, being the master of your own economic destiny, running your own business - all those things are walking the tightrope.

    I got laid off in 2009 and decided then and there to do my own thing. At the time, I had a 2 year old, an infant, a new mortgage, and a new wife.

    I could have moved to a different corporate job and made fine money. I had been at the senior manager/director level at a large web services company. Instead, I had the conversation with my wife.... "I've got to try..."

    Now, I'm spoiled goods. I could never work for anyone again. After 3 years of building...sales, productizing, contracts, accounts payable, account receivable, account management, keeping clients happy, reporting, and on and on and on.... How could I ever listen to anyone else again? Ha! :-) (See, now I know everything.)

    February was a terrible month. Billing for some consulting projects got pushed and a couple key clients dropped off. It sucked. I was walking the tightrope. At the other end of the tightrope I could see 2 completed projects and 2 new clients.

    I steadied myself, focused on the goal, walked the tightrope and April has been one of my best months ever.

    So....would I physically walk the 6" i-beam? Nope.

    But I - and every self-employed offliner - walk the beam every day.
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  • John,
    I love the way you hammer a point home using analogies.

    also...

    the "take away" in the middle of the post, was smoooooth

    for anyone who missed it "...If I want it at the time still."
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  • @Ken

    Takes one to know one.

    You probably also know that because of that thread title a person with that interest is 100 times more likely to come across the other post than this one lol. (Details Baybee; know em!)

    Either way, wouldnt hurt even if they came across both. The take away os actually 50/50 in reality. Thats alot of work.

    But on your noticing...

    We ole sales pro's dont get enough credit for being sharp Ken... You learn alot talking to hundreds of people everyday. Good eye. We know the nuances that make all the difference. dont we.

    Correction;

    Alot of people know em, but a pro "owns" em!
  • I think it takes a willingness to do that if necessary. Ultimately, you want people to come to you based on your position and market reputation. So until you get to that point, you have to have a way or method that works for you of getting in front of these businesses. The more direct the method,less of a strain it is on your time and resources.

    CT
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    • Im with you Charles, but since this thread is taking a turn toward attraction marketing anyway...

      What if...

      You hired a bunch of offline affiliates. Brainwashed them to thinking they are working for the most upcoming company on the planet with the most superior product (could be true), and let them go out into a region by 50 or 100 and create your companies myth with those people.

      Thats basically what you do with any large sales team anyway.

      Then the only thing you would have to earn is your recruits and their faith.

      Depending on the types of take aways you set them up with, businesses could be coming to you on your own terms.

      Ken makes a good point that alot of doing great sales and business on your own terms is "take ways" - The "I dont need your business, and might not even want it, it depends on some things... but if you jump through hoops... you might be able to book me..."

      Later you wont have to think about it like that because in truth, you wont care either way...then no technique is needed because the true energetic shift is there and you have all the leverage. because you really dont need the business.

      For instance "Bob, I have only 5 slots open, Im not positive I can even get you in if you "wanted" this...but let me check.... hold on a second.... by the way if I get my boss to say yes, are you going to want to go ahead and fill this slot today...? Okay, cant promise anything, but let me see if we have room for you..."

      Let them stew on mute for a minute, then come back and seal your deal with a big "Congratulations Bob!"
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  • Well i learned sales takeaways early on in my career....

    But you crossed over into real world takeaways .... when you mentioned

    """I dont need your business, and might not even want it, it depends on some things... but if you jump through hoops... you might be able to book me..."""

    That is something it took me a while to catch on about... the power of it i mean.

    I got lucky and found out. I started producing infomercial quality leads, at about a quarter of the going rate at the time. Everyone wanted them, and i mean everyone.

    and of course i could only produce so much.

    The more i said "no", the more i said, "we will see" the crazier the offers got.
    It was a real eye opener, and a lesson i have never forgotten.

    P.S. leave it to you, to get a deep discussion going on a weekend

    edit--
    had to comment on this

    We dont lose anything by teaching others everything we know..."

    Your right we don't. For the most part i know i am not a good teacher,
    and i am "ok" with that ( cant be good at everything .. right )

    but i do like helping, when i can.

    if someone did not help me, i never ever would have been in sales,
    my life would have been completely different.

    Sales changed my life, and when i see people making that first step
    ...like i did, i root for them.... i cant help it.
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    • I have 2 interests, my passions and my kids... so I could go on forever. The more I talk about my passion the more it becomes intertwined with my work ... so its just a big passionate experience...

      The more you tell people about your dreams the more people dream them with you. The more people you ask for sales everyday, the more sales you get...

      This post of yours is excellent. I almost hesitate to post after it because it could lead to such great understanding for someone, so here it goes:


  • I hate heights. I'd much, much MUCH rather call for 8 hours than walk across that narrow beam. I can't get hurt on a sales call.
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    • Like Tom said, (paraphrase) "The phone aint gonna hit you in the face with a brick..." lol


      Ps. Ken , you should start a thread on take aways if its something you feel strongly about.
  • John and Ken,

    Thank you guys so much! This thread has changed my thinking about sales. I first started getting in deep yesterday (came across the Jobless Dad post and have been basically reading nonstop since) and I'm getting set up to make the calls starting tomorrow. Now this will help me a lot as when an owner asks if I or anyone I know can help them with marketing, I can say, "Yes I know a thing or two and I'm helping other businesses right now so I'm not sure if I have much room for any more clients at the moment."

    Is there anything else I can add or change to this to help close? Thanks again for the inspiring thread everyone!
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