Acquired a new skill!

[x11joex11]

Hey guys!

I'm excited that I've finally gotten over my fear now of contacting new people. I'm trying to follow the Sam Ovens approach and am pretty good now at getting people to interview with me. Trying to find needs right now in the pool service industry. I think I've found a few and possible customers already by doing this.

Anyone else want to research with me ? We can work together and I'll show you how I contact a bunch of people in a niche and get them to contact me. This is how I start my email.

Student Entrepreneur Looking To Learn More About Pool Service


Hello ,


I am a student at the local cypress college attending the entrepreneur class and as part of our assignment we are to interview a particular business niche and learn more about it. Would you be willing to interview with me about pool service? After my research I can share my findings with you as well in return, so it could be useful to you.


Let me know, thank you!

This has a really good response rate so far, and... I'm not lying since I am a student of entrepreneurship still and... I did go to that college once... so I think it counts .

Now the next step is to see can I get them to pay me for something I don't have yet. We shall see.

 

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[Michael Raphael]

Pay you for something you dont have yet... so you mean con them?

 

[x11joex11]

lol no, why would I con them? How is conning them going to make a business...

If you watch the Sam Ovens video you would understand what I'm trying to do. Just google Sam Ovens Mixergy Video. To be honest I'm con-ing myself if I don't do it this way. The idea is to find out if they 'would have' handed me over money. If they pay me I can use it to develop the product and I can always give it back if I don't feel I can make it.

Imagine I made a product they said was a good idea but then at the last moment when the credit card is about to pulled out they decide nah, it's not really worth it, I just thought it would be a good idea for 'other' pool guys. Who was the one that was conned then? It would be me!

That has happened to me in the past and is a very bad scenario. You have to prove your target audience is willing to take that crucial step and bust out the credit card or everything is pointless.

You don't need a product to sell something to someone, I can sell them on the idea of a product that 'will exist' in the future or their money back. If they want it that badly they will pay for it even then and that will be an indicator that it's a very good product.

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

>>I am a student at the local cypress college attending the entrepreneur class and as part of our assignment we are to interview a particular business niche and learn more about it.
- - - -
This has a really good response rate so far, and... I'm not lying since I am a student of entrepreneurship still and... I did go to that college once... so I think it counts .

Really?

Hint #1 It crossed your mind to wonder whether you would be lying.

Hint #2 You are, it seems, not currently a Cypress College student, not in a college Entrepreneurship class, and not working on a class assignment.

Why fabricate?




(Small decisions that take you to the dark side can lay the groundwork for larger ones...)

 

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[DennisD]

Be careful with the strategy. It's very hard to refund people when you don't have the money.

A while back, I presold my audience on a SaaS app. I was 100% clear with them that the software didn't exist, but I would be building it with their funding. As early investors, they get a lifetime membership to the software with no recurring fees.

I got roughly 8K to develop the idea. Keep in mind, I'm not a developer. I know a few things ABOUT code but I don't know any actual coding skills.

When my programmer took my money and disappeared... I had to make 8K (I had nothing) to refund these people because I didn't want any legal issues. Ramifications of this:
1) I had a website #10 in google for a LARGE keyword (1m exact searches/month). I was on the first page, and had around 5K visitors a month. After refunding my users/investors I couldn't afford hosting/podcasting/domain/shopping cart services. I was late on a $7 payment and godaddy pulled my website. They requested $100 to 'restore' it. I came up with the cash and got them on the phone, and unfortunately the backup of the site was corrupt. I had lost a years worth of site content.
2) I lost all support from my audience and my brand became a 'bad word' of the industry.
3) I couldn't afford to move into an apartment. I couldn't find any work, and LITERALLY became homeless. I'm still pulling myself out.

Yes, this could have been avoided by choosing a better freelancer or paying him only upon delivery of the finished product. But this ALSO could have been avoided if I didn't take money UP FRONT for a product I didn't have. It's a VERY risky scenario, because you can't guarantee what will happen.

If you plan on doing something like this, I suggest you do it all ON PAPER, via contracts. He's contractually obligated to pay you upon fulfillment of a service or product or software. Better yet, get them to pay for the service, and then claim that it's not going through (but don't worry, you've been having problems with your payment processor lately) and tell them you'll get back to them after addressing the situation. That way... you find out if they would have paid but you don't actually take their money.

When you take money for something you don't have, you take on a lot of risk.. and in some cases it's a very illegal thing to do.
Be careful!

 

[1step]

I'm not lying since I am a student of entrepreneurship still and... I did go to that college once... so I think it counts

I wouldnt lie about this, there are other ways to say it that will work just as well without the lie. Remember these are people that you hope to work with for years to come.

Is this really that much higher converting than other emails you have sent? I cant imagine that the fact that you are a student makes that much of a difference. In fact when I read the email I instantly think why would I interview with this guy it sounds like I am going to be creating my competition.

 

[Michael Raphael]

If anything take notice from the post above me and think... have you gotten a solution, how can I send the same message and phrase it differently and make the perspective positive rather than negative. Well... times up, but I'll tell you anyways. Haha cocky old me... anyways.

With the same "fabrications" tell him you are a student and you are curious about what it would take to join his company, ask him what he does, and what you should do in school to better your odds at getting a position in his firm. Ask what position you would hold, what would your tasks be, and so fourth. If you are going to fabricate a story might as well do it cunningly.

 

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[NVaz]

Remember that: "Your choices spark the fires of future circumstances" MJ DeMarco

- You can choose to lie or to be honest.

 

[x11joex11]

I'm not sure how else to get their attention to learn more about the business than that method, and I consider it a white lie since it doesn't hurt anyone IMHO. If I could find a way to make it work without any little fibs at all I'd prefer that but these days everyone thinks you are a spammer unless you can say something clever to get their attention. I can run a test with an alternate email idea if someone wants, I got another list of pool service guys emails I can email them and see the response rates.

I could tell them I'm an entrepreneur looking to find a need in their industry that I can help solve but then I'll just look like a salesperson... It's also mentally easier to approach from the perspective of a student.

Thanks for that post Dennis, I am going to take that advice seriously. The difference in my case is I am an actual programmer so I could program the project myself and hire out to make it just go faster. I'm very good at hiring freelancers to get jobs done at affordable rates since I understand how it works from the fundamental level.

 

[1step]

I could tell them I'm an entrepreneur looking to find a need in their industry that I can help solve but then I'll just look like a salesperson..

Thats what I would do.

Tell them you are a software developer and you want to talk about their business. You have nothing to sell you just want to talk and see if there are any problems with their business that you could help them save time or make more money by using software. Restate that you have nothing to sell and emphasize that you like to focus on problems that could possibly save them time or make them more money.

Thats the way I would go. I havent done this yet but I was pretty interested in Danes program, I follwed it close and listened/watched a lot of the interviews. I believe this is the way he approached it as well. I dont remember where I saw it but I thought he actually gave out his cold email script that he used? I think I remember him mentioning he used the headline "weird question" or something of that sort.

I may be getting my interviews wrong though

 

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[liquidglass]

"If it did not exist honesty would be created by man as the quickest way to becoming wealthy and successful" - Earl Nightingale

Be honest and tell them you're trying to solve some issues to make it easier for them to do their job and a few minutes of their time would be all you need to make their life easier in the future. See what kind of response that gets you.

everyone thinks you are a spammer unless you can say something clever to get their attention. I can run a test with an alternate email idea if someone wants

A) This is EXACTLY what spammers do to grab attention, don't assume you're separate by doing the same thing

B) If someone wants? How about what you want.

 

[x11joex11]

Okay I think I came up with a line I'm going to try that is more honest.

“Hey, I’m just curious — what is the most important activity you do in your business, and do you have any pain associated with that activity? I’m looking to help make your industry easier, faster, more fun and more profitable. Based on your answer, we could possibly build a solution to help take some of the pain out of your business.”

I will give this a try and hope it gets some responses.

 

[Michael Raphael]

If you want my opinion just based off reading that... uchh nope he just wants to use my information... word of advice read how to win friends and influence people, trust me!

 

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[DennisD]

I could tell them I'm an entrepreneur looking to find a need in their industry that I can help solve but then I'll just look like a salesperson... It's also mentally easier to approach from the perspective of a student.

I think you should suck it up and just do it this way. You're afraid of being a pain in the a$$, I know, but business people are used to talking business with other business people. Talking to salespeople isn't a bad thing for a business person. All B2B is built around making life easier for the business person being sold to, it's not like when a consumer is approached by a salesperson.

Just say "I'm a entrepreneur and software developer, this is the industry I'm creatively solving needs, let me pick your brain for 6 minutes so I can develop something that will make your life easier"

 

[x11joex11]

I'll try that approach as well, I suppose I have nothing since it has not been tried yet. I will report back on it soon.