A chat about selling marketing services

[Andy Black]

@xShepherdx posted last week about his frustrations hiring a marketing freelancer.

We've never spoken but I offered to hop on a call and chat about it.

If you watch then please add your notes and I'll add them to this opening post.

What's your takeaways?

What will you do different going forward?

View: https://youtu.be/lbi26HUaSKg

 

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[xShepherdx]

@Andy Black it was great chatting with you!

Hearing your approach taught me a ton and marketers everywhere should be taking notes/watching more of your videos .

My key takeaway on the marketing freelancer side is to connect with your client, show them you're the expert by talking them through the problem, navigating GA with them, etc., and giving them a sort of roadmap of what is going to happen before making the relationship transactional. This generates a ton of goodwill and helps you stand apart from the crowd in a huge way IMO.

Moving forward, I'll be using this information to refine my questioning when hiring freelancers of all sorts.

Instead of asking about results and money (transactional), I'll be gearing the conversations to be centered around people's individual skill sets and what they're excited about. This way, they can do whatever it is they do best without me accidentally shifting their focus to the wrong things.

Thanks again for the great chat Andy, I'm still replaying the conversation in my head and finding new bits of wisdom.

 

[jb519443]

What a great video @Andy Black - So many things for both Clients and Teckie's to take away from this conversation.
How Clients are looking for someone not just to run campaigns for X amount. They are looking for someone who can understand their business and understand what they have done in the past and how you can help them. Also leaning in on a business level with clients and explaining what they need to provide or do to be more successful (Clear Goals) >> Red / Blue Widget example. Your approach (which I have robbed) to helping people will bring you a lot more sales/referrals than trying to close a deal post initial chat. It's amazing, by having a simple chat with the business owner, maybe help with items that are glaringly wrong & understanding what they actually want or need, will 9 times out of 10 land you the deal - because they automatically trust you as you are not pushy and your not talking money > which they see as " oh here is another one, just looking to close the deal and do the same as the last guy !! "

 

[Senecal]

Thanks for sharing this @Andy Black! Another brilliant video.

Your process is just disarming in so many ways. No wonder you get referred to by a lot of people.

I'm one of those techies who's having difficulty communicating the benefits of my services to the business owner. If there's one thing I can do to improve that, what would it be?

In other words, how do I work towards achieving your level of clarity? (if that's even remotely possible)

 

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[Andy Black]

Thanks for sharing this @Andy Black! Another brilliant video.

Your process is just disarming in so many ways. No wonder you get referred to by a lot of people.

I'm one of those techies who's having difficulty communicating the benefits of my services to the business owner. If there's one thing I can do to improve that, what would it be?

In other words, how do I work towards achieving your level of clarity? (if that's even remotely possible)

"Show, don't tell."

Don't communicate the benefits. Show them.

Don't communicate you'll be a good person to work with. Show them.


I'm just a normal guy btw. My superpower is I'm comfortable being myself.

 

[Andy Black]

how do I work towards achieving your level of clarity?

Ooo. I even wrote something about this:

• MINDSET - Clarity of Purpose

 

[Andy Black]

@mikecarlooch ... have you watched this yet? What's your thoughts?

 

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[thomashoi]

Thanks for the video, Andy! I see this is similar to consultative selling where you asked client questions and they answer you back. Done correctly, it’s like a doctor asking a patient their symptoms and then the dr conclude by telling the patient his diagnosis and then give medicine. This should be the kind of conversation a sales person have with the potential client.

You turned the entire dynamics around and position yourself(the sales person) as the consultant or adviser so the patient (client) will trust you completely and you can close the sale easily.

In my day job, I used this strategy every time, always ask the prospect to tell me about themselves, their vision, their challenges/struggles so I can act like a “dr” and suggest solutions which can help him. I get the sale most of the time using this method.

 

[Oso]

I love the idea of bridging the gap between business speak and being personable. I also agree with the emphasis on basic communication humans tends to lack. It allows both freelancers and their clients an easy way to ensuring you're on the same page, and/or you're on your way to being on the same page.

The concept of tech people failing to adequately elaborate on the how and why their service(/product) is worthy, and exactly what they do is something I quickly noticed lacks in the tech world. This is why I try to help my fellow developers flesh out their people/communication skills.

Overall, this conversation is a must-watch for people new to freelancing/near their beginning stages, and if you're an experienced freelancer, this conversation is a refreshing review on potential ways to gain additional clients while simultaneously strengthening the bond with current clients.

 

[Andy Black]

For me, building a relationship is more important than making a sale.

 

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[KrisRomer]

@xShepherdx posted last week about his frustrations hiring a marketing freelancer.

We've never spoken but I offered to hop on a call and chat about it.

If you watch then please add your notes and I'll add them to this opening post.

What's your takeaways?

What will you do different going forward?

View: https://youtu.be/lbi26HUaSKg

Just watched this video and it helped a ton.

My biggest takeaway is to not sound like a salesman, and just make the client comfortable with you. I also loved the part where you take over their mouse and show the client (in their account) what could be improved, for free. I feel like this builds a lot of trust for the client and I will definitely implement this when I get on future calls.

Appreciate the high-value video Andy.

 

[Practic]

@xShepherdx posted last week about his frustrations hiring a marketing freelancer.

We've never spoken but I offered to hop on a call and chat about it.

If you watch then please add your notes and I'll add them to this opening post.

What's your takeaways?

What will you do different going forward?

View: https://youtu.be/lbi26HUaSKg

An unusual way to attract customers and keep them loyal in conditions of economic crisis

1. Problem

In conditions of economic crisis and inflation the main problem is reduction in real purchasing power of consumers, therefore traditional marketing and advertising methods are not efficient (or do not work at all).

2. Solution

To attract customers and keep them loyal businesses should help their customers to increase their purchasing power by sharing a portion of business income with customers.

A business owner calls to a client and says: “I want to help my clients in hard times and to give them opportunity to get passive income streams from my business by means of participation in income sharing programs”.

A popular form of compensation for referrals is a refer a friend program or revenue sharing program, in which a business pays a fixed reward (or % from sales) to a person for direct referrals. The problem with this type of program is that the person is not rewarded for indirect references.

Let us, consider an example where you referred 10 clients and each of them also referred 10 clients.

Therefore, in total a company has 110 new clients (10 referred by you directly and 100 referred by you indirectly). If these 100 clients also refer each 10 persons, the company will have 1,110 clients and so on. If not your referrals, this company would not have so many clients, but the company does not provide you with income from sales generated by all these customers. The only reward you have is for 10 direct referrals. Is it fair?

Income sharing programs (ISPs) pay you regular income as a share of sales generated by direct and indirect referrals (up to a predetermined level). Therefore, you have in addition to active income (for direct referrals) also passive income (from sales generated by the indirect referrals) and this income is comparable with income from a job, micro-business, or other employment. As we can see, income sharing programs offer customers the most efficient option to increase their income (as measured by rewards per time and efforts).

A popular misconception about an ISP is that it is a sort of a MLM scheme. This is incorrect. In MLM participants are forced to buy products/services from MLM companies and then resell them to their friends, relatives, etc. In ISPs participants are not forced to buy and resell products/services, instead they are rewarded for referrals (direct and indirect). For the reason, that passive income from indirect referrals is comparable with income from a job or micro-business, such programs give customers a new option to increase their income without a need to work (passive income).

For the reason that participants of an ISP receive stable regular passive income from a business they have very strong loyalty to this business.

Is this method work for any business?

No. It works only for businesses which are honest with their customers, treat them with respect, and whose owners are not greedy to share business income with the customers.