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"It's like a biker bar without booze"

by ewenmack
8 replies
Yep.

If you aren't adapting your message
to the realities of today's market,
your message is as much use as...

a biker bar without booze!

A colleague recently said a brick and mortar business owner had 10 people made contact with him in 1 day offering varying type of marketing services.

I made a phone call to a Florida lady who is an ad broker enquiring about her services.

She noted my accent and automatically associated me with a person offering SEO services when I wasn't.

It took a little while to break through that barrier because she said she gets so many calls from SEO guy's.

Time to wake up to what your prospects lives are really like.

Then match your message to
reflect this new market.

Best,
Ewen
  • Profile picture of the author SashaLee
    Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post


    It took a little while to break through that barrier because she said she gets so many calls from SEO guy's.

    Time to wake up to what your prospects lives are really like.

    Then match your message to
    reflect this new market.

    Best,
    Ewen
    Hi there,

    Great advice Ewen. Our clients are so irritate by the "Want to be #1 on Google" phone calls that they've been asking us how to route them to hell. Some of our clients are looking for call routing systems so that if they can flag you as another-SEO-chump they'll be able to program that your number never gets through or rejected. So you've lost them for life.

    I can tell you that if your current business model is cold-calling you'd better be able to separate yourself from all the other cold-callers and the way to do that is how Ewen describes above.

    When you call a small business, they assume you are looking to hire them. When the switch goes off in their heads that you're not going to buy something or hire their services, you've instantly become someone who might be wasting their time. That's a tough row to hoe.

    All the best,

    Sasha.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    I think you touched on two of the major problems faced by cold callers & business owners.

    1. The volume of calls for marketing services is too high. 10 calls a day is not a joke it happens. Some businesses receive even more emails. So how does today's marketer stand out?
    • Sound Different: Don't sound like the rest. I know people are going to freak here but lose the script and be real.
    • Be The Expert: If you are asking us what to show your potential clients no offence but stop trying to sell it till you can do it or have a team that can with a proven track record.
    • Go Local: If you are afraid to start by selling local that tells me you are afraid of clients hunting you down. What does that say about the service you offer?
    • Talk Business: Stop using terms like SEO and Top of Google. This isn't how business people talk. Also if you are going to target a niche use terms they use. For example with car dealers you might talk about their BDC.
    • Original Offers: If everything you offer you got out of a WSO and you pitch it 100% the same you may need to change it up. The exception would be stuff like EDDM local as there is unlikely to be a guy local pitching it.
    • Price Fairly: There seems to be two opposite problems when it comes to pricing. Either you think you have to be a price leader and your price comes off too low and cheap. Or you think you can outsource something for $5 to $50 and sell it for $3k or more. Create a good service and charge a fair price and you will stand out and look professional.
    2. People avoid the local and pitch nation and worldwide. The problem with this is that they know you are a marketer due to the accent. The second they hear your voice you are labeled and in a bad way. Every bad marketer that came before you is what they associate you with.

    Of course as I touched on above the reason people avoid local IMO is clear. They wouldn't sell what they are offering to friends and family. They deep down may not be able to admit this. If you wouldn't offer this service to your dad for his business why would you offer it to a guy on the other side of the world?
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    • Profile picture of the author Yvon Boulianne
      Originally Posted by Aaron Doud View Post

      [LIST][*]Sound Different: Don't sound like the rest. I know people are going to freak here but lose the script and be real.[*]Go Local: If you are afraid to start by selling local that tells me you are afraid of clients hunting you down. What does that say about the service you offer?
      Two very very important point

      Create a Tribe and help them, create relation and trust is the new marketing
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  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    The more successful marketers are building up authority prestige in person and in marketing so clients seek them out rather than the other way around. It's 10x more powerful to have an incoming inquiry on your services than an outgoing contact.
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    In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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  • Profile picture of the author XponentSYS
    When I pitch someone I remember the fact that they're "brick and mortar" and really don't actually give a shit about "SEO" or "being number one on Google".

    By this I mean, what they REALLY care about is MORE BUSINESS and if you run with THAT promise, they're easier to close.

    They want more business and how you get them that (SEO) is really your game.

    I'd tattoo an elephant with their ad and they wouldn't care if at the end of the day, they got more customers. A bit dramatic but point made.
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  • Profile picture of the author Writerdave
    The key ought to be 'What does the customer want?' The failure of many businesses comes through focussing on what they need rather than what the prospective customer needs. Doing intense research on what the customer wants will give you better conversions and higher sales.
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    Live healthy, live longer...
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  • Profile picture of the author Rearden
    Here's how you differentiate yourself when prospecting:

    Walk through the door instead of calling.

    I have 3 recent instances where I placed several dozen cold calls with zero luck over 3 months to target accounts.

    So I decided to go in cold -- 2 I "seeded," 1 I called on an internal line.

    I spoke with 2 immediately, and the 3rd the following day on a follow-up call.

    We have or will have proposed them all -- if luck were on my side, winning all 3 of these accounts would put me over quota for the year.
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  • Profile picture of the author jsmm
    I never use the phone..
    I walk right in after I do my homework to see if they are in a need of a specific service then I will leave something if I do not speak to the decision maker sending them to more information to educate them.

    Thank god I do not have to deal with all that nonsense again..
    I only work on refer these days...
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