Need a little guidance

If you are selling Advertising on some A4 postcard then that is your one and only focus when contacting businesses.

If you walked into 10 businesses a day for 5 days with an example to show you would have seen 200 businesses F2F rather than the 30 you have seen.

So maybe you would have sold your 12 spots; what do you think?

I would think sales number 2 onwards is going to be a lot easier because if it goes out to 10,000 or whatever number you decide upon a % of those recipients are going to be business owners themselves and think this is a good idea.

Have a section of the card that has your rates on it, 2 testimonials and a contact Luke on 01234 567890 like the A5 booklets in UK do as then you get them a calling you which is why each edition gets larger and larger as businesses see their competition advertising in them.

It is worth just breaking even on the 1st one if you must just to get it out.

So stick with your plan but increase your actual contact rate and really tweak your presentation as that is more than likely the problem.

Dan

Think back... What did you do to get these 3 sales? Your method must have shifted from then to now. The post above is right, after that first mailing it gets a whole lot easier.

One more recommendation - find some local business group meetings that you can attend, things such as the Chamber of Commerce of your town should offer these. You can probably get all of the sales you need there.

You know, there comes a time where you really have to get to the bottom and give yourself an honest answer on what is really going on wrong with your campaign. Is it the offer? The delivery of the offer? Trust factor? High end value perception?

In the past I've had offers that I thought were great only for them to show up being complete duds no matter how much time/money I threw at it.

Now I takes relentless amount of time before decided on what to promote/market and what kind of business I"m going into.

Test everything and pray that if there are negative areas within your business that you will be able to spot them - the sooner the better.

All the best.

get your hands on a copy of "The Ultimate Sales Machine" by chet holmes. it will change the way you view sales forever.

OK man, so you have this toolkit, right? And you have tools in there...direct mail, web design, SEO, and more...

Don't walk in to your prospect's place of business and pull open your toolkit! It's too early to do that. Ask questions:

What are you having the most trouble with when it comes to getting new people in the door?

What do you think could work for you? What wouldn't? (discover prejudices)

If this solution was working for you, what do you think it would do for you? How many new customers? How much revenue?

What do you think is a reasonable investment in a solution to get you to this point?

Can I live with that investment in exchange for my work? (ask yourself this, quietly)

So why wouldn't you want to get started today?


Your solution(s) should be the LAST thing you apply, not the first.

Hi luke,

Buddy it happens to everyone and Instead trying to introduce too many services and product why not focus on a core product and try harder... yeah I know easier said than done... give it a testing period .....

Sales is a matter of discovering WIFM according to your client and then provide what it is that will meet the need. Think like you are the prospect. What's in it for me? More than likely the first sales were made to people who found what was in it for them. Do a little analysis of your sales presentation that succeeded.

I think the one thing you don't want to do is start adding on things searching for a solution. Stick with your plan just make a few adjustments and keep on working at it. You'll figure it out.

I could give you lot's of ways to make your flyer work but the forum wouldn't like these long drawn out posts. I know everyone is getting bored with this one already.

I'll scale the other services back for now and keep plugging at the direct mail. thanks again.

That response rate thing is mostly because they have never seen this before and its a natural question they ask, but it really has nothing to do with anything and certainly NOT a reason why they cant give you a check.

Fact is NO advertising can guarantee a sale ( unless its an affiliate arrangement). You sell them on the value for the exposure they are getting. Show them the card, get them to look at it and agree how awesome it is, let them agree that it is impossible not to look at. How everyone that looks will find at least one deal that they like and keep the entire card for some time and will discover more things they want later.

Are you presenting it with correct value creation and pricing drops like Bob shares in the wso.

Look Mr. Bidness man the only way you are going to know how your ad will respond is by trying it , and luckily for you , since this is the first time its being released you get the super duper low rate of xx. Im sure you will agree that this is a great opp to get your name out at a very small investment. Now give me a check you check you tightwad sob before I call on your competitor and give him the offer.

This is an easy sale, you can take a consultative approach but that "Toolkit" thing is not the way to go BECAUSE you have to sell the spaces to make this work, you dont have time to be selling other stuff right NOW.

Maybe this will help you get some ideas.

Objection1. "what is the response rate"

I cant guarantee you a actual number , but the typical response rate is between 3-5%, if your only did 2%, you would still make a profit, wouldn't you?

Objection2. "i would like to see testimonials from other businesses who have done this"

I can give you all the references you want, but let me ask you, if i give you a list
of numbers to call, whats to keep me from giving you only the people that
are super happy with us? You would not be asking for testimonials unless
you had reservations / questions about something... what is it, lets talk about that.

Objection3. "i already advertise with so and so and don't need to do another direct mailer"

Then why are you talking to me? Obviously something the other guy is doing
isn't cutting it, or we would not still be talking, what are your issues with him

cost, return...

Objection4. "i have already paid for advertising for the next 4 months and it's not in the budget right now"

is your budget the ONLY thing stopping you from getting started today?

OK great, well we can work around that, because we believe in our results,
and we want to prove ourselves to you, so we can have your future business
as well, we can split your payments up over a few months, ill get you started for
500 today... 500 in 30 days... ect.

Objection5. "only xxxxx amount of homes"?

When you target market, its not the amount that you send to that matters,
its how qualified the prospects are that you send to., would you rather
i send your advert to 1 million people with no interest in your product,
or 2000 people all eager to own what your selling.

"Mr. or Ms. Decision Maker...appreciate you taking my call. I'll be brief. What I'd like to do is ask you a quick question, to find out what category of business you fit into. The people I talk to fit into one of two categories: those who are satisfied with how many leads and customers they've got, and those who are unhappy with the number of qualified leads and customers they're getting. Which category do you fit into?"

This should take you 20 seconds.

Sorts 'em In or Out.

If they're In, start asking more questions.

Can you tell me more about that? (not having enough customers)

How long has this been going on?

Have you tried anything to fix it? If so--how did that turn out?

If you had all the customers you need, what would that look like?

In a perfect world, what do you think should be in place to get there?

I think you are exactly on the right track with this line of thought.

You are positioning your services as "services" but you aren't really talking directly about benefits. Why not change this around? After all, it isn't the advertising your clients really want, but the customers they hope to get. Same with web design and seo.

For example, I tell my prospects, "I bring you new customers." That always gets their interest.

When they ask, "how?" I don't tell them right away - instead I ask questions first. I chat with them about their business until I have an idea what could help them, then I offer that.

You might try an approach like that, sounds like you're thinking along these lines already.

Ok let me touch on some points.

First the 5 objections you mentioned.
Objection1. "what is the response rate"
Response rate vary on a number of factors including the deal or deals you choose to offer. If you offer a free pizza(or normal expensive item they sell) with no additional purchase you would get close to 100% wouldn't you think? And if you offered 10 cents off their next purchase your rate would be close to if not 0%. Even those who came in off that mailer wouldn't spend the time to cut out the coupon.

I can tell you that similar postcard mailers produce a coupon return rate of (real percantage). Rather your response rate would be higher or lower I can't know for sure.

What I can tell you is this. We will put your name and offer in front of (number of house) or more people. It will not be hidden in a magazine or an envelope. It will be right in front of them. It will bring you customers and it will help brand you to people local to you(assuming the targeted homes are near the business, have a map with you maybe). Beyond the deal itself your long term goal is to get these customers to think of (name of business) when they need (product or service they offer), right? Let's use help you using a method that has helped thousands of businesses around the country already.

Objection2. "i would like to see testimonials from other businesses who have done this"
As you know we have just begun offering this service locally(you told them that right) which is why we are discounting our normal price for these first few mailings. What I can tell you is I speak with marketing specialists around the country and know that this has helped thousands of small businesses just like you. Customer locally haven't seen anything like this. Just think of how that factor alone will draw their eyes to your logo and your offer.

The great thing about this is that you can be on the cutting edge locally but know that nationally this has worked well. You get to be a trend setter without the risk.

Objection3. "i already advertise with so and so and don't need to do another direct mailer"
That is the great thing about this mailer. It compliments everything else you are doing currently for branding. Yet because locally your customers have not seen anything like it that makes it stand out. And with mailers we all know you need to stand out to not go into the dreaded circular pile, right?

This is what I know. Across the country thousands of businesses are using this successful. Our company is working to bring this to local homes. To bring you to these local homes. I know this mailer will grab their attention and I know with your experience you will create a deal for the mailer that will hold that attention.

Objection4. "i have already paid for advertising for the next 4 months and it's not in the budget right now"
It's clear you want to do this but as you said it is not in the budget right now. 4 mon from now would be Dec, right? How about I stop back in Dec. Just pencil me into the budget for Dec. We should be working on the Feb mailer at that point. When I get back to the office I will right up the invoice and the agreement for the Feb mailer and mail it to you. You can go ahead and sign it and I can just come around in Dec to collect payment and get the deal you want to put in.

And since I know you really want to get in on this I will honor our current introductory pricing for that Feb mailer even though the introductory period will be over by then.

(you may get the sale for Feb. You may even get him just to do it now. or you will get the real objection.)

Objection5. "only xxxxx amount of homes"?
We are currently targeting xxxxx homes in this area(show map). Where else can you get such targeting mailings at just .XX per home. We would like to open this up to a larger geographic area in future mailings, maybe even offer several card each month that target different areas. It is good to know that when that time comes you will be one of those who will support us in this effort. Would you like to lock in the next 3 monthly mailings now for the current xxxxx homes?

(assume this is a buying signal. yeah it might not be but I love assumption closes off objections)

Now some general thoughts.
How many homes are you targeting?
What is the price per home?

Why have you called 600 businesses? If you are getting objection where you are hitting too few homes you need to keep the businesses near the homes you are targeting.

I would focus on meeting in person. Remember the pitch here is local homes to help branding while bringing in new and returning customers with a great offer. You can sell this better in person in my opinion.

Like others have mentioned what is different now vs. those first 3. What you were doing worked. Now just rediscover it.