Dag 16: Een bureau bouwen vanuit kras - Mijn 2 verkoopmethoden gedetailleerd

In het geval dat je nieuw bent in deze vlezige kleine serie, documenteer ik alles (onbewerkt en echt) in de openheid terwijl ik probeer een sterk gericht sociaal klantenservicebureau op te zetten, verschillende banen werk, omgaan met angst en angst voor het onbekende.

Dus op dag 15 denk ik dat ik een bericht luid en duidelijk heb gehoord: FOCUS OP HET KRIJGEN VAN KLANTEN. Dat is alles wat ik nu zou moeten doen. Niks anders. Het kwam uit verschillende opmerkingen en ik moet luisteren omdat de mensen die deze opmerkingen hebben gemaakt ervaring hebben en wat ze me vertellen is exaclty wat ik wist maar niet toegegeven.

Dit is moeilijk te horen omdat het voelt alsof ik iets belangrijks mis, maar ik moet onthouden dat ze gelijk hebben - zonder klanten - is er geen zaken. Ik kan het advies in natura nemen of falen.

Omdat falen geen optie is, zal ik het advies opvolgen. Misschien is dit hoe mentoring plaatsvindt, precies hier op Medium in de open lucht. Ik wil Bryan Millhouse en Mahlon Prince bedanken voor deze opmerkingen.

What you are witnessing here are the results of being open about and transparent. The more open I am, the more vulnerable I am and that means I will get kicked around from time to time — hey, that’s OK because if everything was minty fresh and perfect, then what’s the point?

The real point is this: What you do about it. That’s what matters. You can get defensive — that won’t do anything. You can ignore it — and there’s a 9–5 job waiting for you. You can say you’ll do something and never do — and that’s worse because you have only failed yourself.

The Sales Plan

So here’s my plan. Here’s what I did. Here’s what I’m doing right now.

I emailed a really great friend and mentor. Felix Velarde is a heavyweight agency coach. I worked with him for a day in Los Angeles. Best day of my life. He’s brilliant and he has the experience to back up his claims — I value Felix for the time he gives me when I need it.

We chatted and I mentioned where I’m at and the fact that I’m sitting here not doing what I need to be doing which is getting clients. So here are the two sales activities I’m doing:

The Class. Here’s what I’m doing and this isn’t a big secret — it’s all been done before but it hasn’t been done by me — and I love doing this:

I am going to put together a one-hour class that has massive value. For me, this won’t take very long because I have so much up in my head. Then, I will find a venue somewhere that seats about 20–30 people. I’ll negotiate a rate for two-hours of time and I’ll find out how to provide some coffee and such.

Next, I’m going to create a quick sign up web page with info on the free class. I will then create some LinkedIn ads and Facebook ads and push those out to various targets: I’m thinking of targeting CMO’s in midsize companies that live in that specific area (obviously). If that does not work, I move on to getting an email list and doing emails. If that does not work, I rent a plane and do some skywriting. J/K.

Here’s the class: What is all the hype about Social Customer Care? How is it actually implemented? Why is the return on investment so big?

I will collect the following: name, email address, phone number. The reason for this is so I can confirm in an email when the date gets closer and then I only collect the phone number so I can send a text in case something comes up that would inhibit the class from starting on time, etc. It’s all in the name of customer experience.

So I do the class. Out of 20 people, 1 will not really know what they are doing there. 5 will go off and try to implement this themselves. The others will seem intrigued and perhaps at one point they will give me a call and want to chat further.

Cold Emailing. I’m not going to ditch this. I am blocking off a major portion of my time to do my prospecting via Twitter — sending my emails out and then keeping track of this in OnePage CRM and following up.

In doing this, I search Twitter for examples of brands that simply are not providing good customer care and otherwise leaving their customers hanging — I then have some good proof and it’s like a warmer email when I reach out and very simply say that I’d like to chat and here’s how I can help. I also let them know how I would have handled it. And I attach a screenshot of the tweet.

If I bomb at both, then guess what? I tried. I rework it, get back on the horse, and do it again and again until I’ve done it so many times I’ll be able to tell you exactly what works and what doesn’t work.

Everything else right now is not as imporant as the two activities above. Period. There is where my time will be spent when I’m not juggling my other income source and trying to keep everything at bay. Yes, I’m not wealthy enough to be able to not work. I’m, as they say, hustling in a major major way. I have bills. I have rent. I have a car payment. I have all that stuff just like every other adult.

If you are reading this and thinking you can’t do it because you have “responsibilities" then those are excuses. If you are reading this and think that no one can grow a large, multi-national agency with “responsibilities" then you are wrong. You don’t have to be 20, carefree, and lack responsibility. You can be anyone, anywhere, in any situation and make something work.

Rewire Digital Stats:

Feeling: Pressured and behind but also feeling like I could take on the world.

Spent: $1,400 so far

Income: $0

Sales Actitivty: Started!

• •SJK

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 291,182+ people.

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