Dealing with rejection

[Itizn]

You are doing what many novice entrepreneurs do: inventing scenarios to prepare for.

I still do this to this day, though not as much as when I was first starting out, so don't feel too bad.

#1 You don't have to be certain, but you do have to be confident.
#2 Test, don't theorize.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kevin88660]

Thanks for those responses! I've never seen that King of the Hill clip before, and I'm a Mike Judge fan.

A couple things on my mind. I'll still continue to prospect regardless, but I thought I'd throw my ideas out there.

Say I do get a client. I then have to make a website that yields high value and results. I do know some copywriting, sales and marketing, but I don't feel well versed in them. I suppose my first few clients will be for free, so there is some room for experimentation... but I have no idea if I'll actually get results.

I've been prospecting through Google searches. I do notice about 80 to 90% seem to have decent websites. These are the "high value" prospects I outlined here before. I suppose there is no way around it, but I have a scarcity mindset. I feel like those great prospects are limited, and I can't just blow through them.

I know about sales strategy now. I know it's about building a relationship with the customer, and discovering pain points and solutions through questioning. Almost like a doctor diagnosing a patient. Maybe I have to think about it more, but I'm unsure of how to transfer the prospect from initial contact to a place of trust, where they'll discuss their business pain points. In person, I could just start a conversation, but if I'm cold emailing or cold calling, I can't exactly do that in the same way.

What are your thoughts?

Business pain points has always been not enough customer, and lack of trust from buyers has always about sellers not being able to deliver what they promised.

So from a buyer’s pov it becomes “certain cost for uncertain outcome”. It is no wonder they will reject most offers and pitches.

No one rejects spending 500 dollar to make 1000 dollar, (if that is really the case).


Once you have decide to do for free it turns the situation around. You will easily find customer who is willing to give you plenty of chances and learning opportunity, because there is nothing for them to lose.

Once both of you figure out how much value you are adding to them, it becomes easy to find a price that both of you can accept to collaborate in the future.

 

[Mhesh]

So, I've stopped action faking (reading countless unnecessary books) and ended my analysis paralysis.

I mustered up the courage and visited a few local businesses without websites, despite being a very introverted person. I chose coffee shops and restaurants where I've been a customer, because I hoped they would trust me. (I know trust is very important from the start, as mentioned by @Fox).

And... I got shot down in flames.

I must admit, this really sucks!

I tried approaching these businesses in a very casual and honest way. I asked them how they were doing, and introduced myself as a freelance web designer, to see if they'd be interested in a website. All I got was "no" and not even a smile.

Naturally, because I'm always analyzing things, I have a few things rocking in my brain.

Did I word things correctly? Did they not trust me enough? Or, is this just a natural part of the process?

And for my big question:

Am I even picking good clients? As I said, they were specifically chosen because I hoped there would be a level of trust. I'm not sure if a website would even get viable results with coffee shops and restaurants. Should I aim somewhere else? I don't really have anyone else that trusts me.

Hopefully someone could weigh in.

Thanks for those responses! I've never seen that King of the Hill clip before, and I'm a Mike Judge fan.

A couple things on my mind. I'll still continue to prospect regardless, but I thought I'd throw my ideas out there.

Say I do get a client. I then have to make a website that yields high value and results. I do know some copywriting, sales and marketing, but I don't feel well versed in them. I suppose my first few clients will be for free, so there is some room for experimentation... but I have no idea if I'll actually get results.

I've been prospecting through Google searches. I do notice about 80 to 90% seem to have decent websites. These are the "high value" prospects I outlined here before. I suppose there is no way around it, but I have a scarcity mindset. I feel like those great prospects are limited, and I can't just blow through them.

I know about sales strategy now. I know it's about building a relationship with the customer, and discovering pain points and solutions through questioning. Almost like a doctor diagnosing a patient. Maybe I have to think about it more, but I'm unsure of how to transfer the prospect from initial contact to a place of trust, where they'll discuss their business pain points. In person, I could just start a conversation, but if I'm cold emailing or cold calling, I can't exactly do that in the same way.

What are your thoughts?

@spirit
Well I do the same thing as a consultant. Web and app development. It depends on how you approach many people don’t wanna move where they are and technically the technology does seem to be either working or wanting. So keep doing what you doing. Also prices matters.

 

[woken]

What you don't understand is that the people who have interest in my information, and will buy my product (music) WILL read all of it. The people who don't aren't my market. The more you tell the more you sell.

True. I do understand that people whom are interested will read all of it. I’m talking about presentation.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Johnny boy]

Thanks for those responses! I've never seen that King of the Hill clip before, and I'm a Mike Judge fan.

A couple things on my mind. I'll still continue to prospect regardless, but I thought I'd throw my ideas out there.

Say I do get a client. I then have to make a website that yields high value and results. I do know some copywriting, sales and marketing, but I don't feel well versed in them. I suppose my first few clients will be for free, so there is some room for experimentation... but I have no idea if I'll actually get results.

I've been prospecting through Google searches. I do notice about 80 to 90% seem to have decent websites. These are the "high value" prospects I outlined here before. I suppose there is no way around it, but I have a scarcity mindset. I feel like those great prospects are limited, and I can't just blow through them.

I know about sales strategy now. I know it's about building a relationship with the customer, and discovering pain points and solutions through questioning. Almost like a doctor diagnosing a patient. Maybe I have to think about it more, but I'm unsure of how to transfer the prospect from initial contact to a place of trust, where they'll discuss their business pain points. In person, I could just start a conversation, but if I'm cold emailing or cold calling, I can't exactly do that in the same way.

What are your thoughts?

If you are going to do it for free, then just make a fake website to practice. Nobody wants a free site so build a couple and then charge a fair price for a good website.

If someone has a good website they are not your target audience. That's like a surgeon calling a healthy person trying to get more people to operate on. You are the surgeon, find people who need surgery.

If I'm selling a website to a lead, I do a couple things.

1. Ask the basic questions to confirm that they actually want to pay for a website to be built
2. Ask more questions about their business to make sure we come up with a good strategy
3. Establish value by doing two things.
A: Language such as "We will have you work with our construction company team, they specialize in dealing with companies in your industry". "Once we get you signed up our secretary will send over an invoice". "For companies like yours we have done X in the past and it had worked well". "A lot of clients ask the same thing that you just asked".
B: Offering genuinely good advice upfront in the first phone call. This comes from experience. But I've gotten paid a thousand dollars without asking after a single 1.5 hour phone call. I consulted an accountant with her own firm in San Francisco and after the call she wanted to pay for it and sent me $1,000.

The advice is don't talk to people that aren't interested in getting help and paying for it. And go through a lot of people.

 

[spirit]

Some great advice here!

My biggest worry is that I won't get a client results with their website. For example, making them more money.

But, I suppose I can only learn by taking action.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Some great advice here!

My biggest worry is that I won't get a client results with their website. For example, making them more money.

But, I suppose I can only learn by taking action.

My advice is don’t worry about step 2, until you finish step 1. Step 1 is getting a client. Until you do that, don’t worry about doing a good job.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AndreiR]

True. I do understand that people whom are interested will read all of it. I’m talking about presentation.

Like you said, not trying to be rude, but some people just won't see reality outside of what they want to see and the proof is in their results.

 

[Keeton]

So, I've stopped action faking (reading countless unnecessary books) and ended my analysis paralysis.

I mustered up the courage and visited a few local businesses without websites, despite being a very introverted person. I chose coffee shops and restaurants where I've been a customer, because I hoped they would trust me. (I know trust is very important from the start, as mentioned by @Fox).

And... I got shot down in flames.

I must admit, this really sucks!

I tried approaching these businesses in a very casual and honest way. I asked them how they were doing, and introduced myself as a freelance web designer, to see if they'd be interested in a website. All I got was "no" and not even a smile.

Naturally, because I'm always analyzing things, I have a few things rocking in my brain.

Did I word things correctly? Did they not trust me enough? Or, is this just a natural part of the process?

And for my big question:

Am I even picking good clients? As I said, they were specifically chosen because I hoped there would be a level of trust. I'm not sure if a website would even get viable results with coffee shops and restaurants. Should I aim somewhere else? I don't really have anyone else that trusts me.

Hopefully someone could weigh in.

When starting a business, you're going to have a lot of rejection, and I mean a lot. My business is very capital intensive, and I didn't have the money to start it. So I went to banks to get a loan, no bank would loan, I tried getting lines of credit, no chance. I tried getting money from family, no one wanted to be a part of the business, I tried going to angel investors, no one wanted to invest. I then went to hundreds of venture capital firms before I finally got one yes. Sometimes you need to drag your boat on the bottom of the ocean floor to find all the stones. The more people you approach, the more likely you are to get a yes. So don't give up and keep trying.

 

[spirit]

I'm making a massive list of local businesses to cold email.

Here are the BIG types of companies, as I mentioned:

- Construction
- Industrial Services
- Engineering
- Oil
- Legal
- Medical
- Real Estate

However, I'm sure there are more viable niches. For example, @Fox did some gym websites on his YouTube channel.

Anything else I can add to this list that would be good prospects?

How do you communicate to a prospect that their website is bad? By bad I mean websites that look horrible or serve no purpose. I don't want to offend them.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.