How to sell services that people are unfamiliar with?

[LaneMan]

I'm reading The Millionaire Fastlane after having read Unscripted and in chapter 2, MJ mentions that he started selling leads to people who were unfamiliar with Web leads during that time.

I'm faced with this same problem right now. I sell web design and landing pages to capture leads but in my country, people aren't familiar with Websites or lead generation. They only know of word-of-mouth marketing and what I call lack-of-better-choice marketing where there's no competition and the customer has no choice but to buy from you until someone else starts selling the same thing.

Many of them advertise on Facebook and get decent results but because they don't know about Websites or haven't seen other local businesses profiting from them, they're unwilling to invest. Many of them also believe that having a Facebook page is the same as having a website.

The only businesses who care about websites here are big Offshore companies, government organizations, and companies started by expatriates from developed countries because these people know how powerful the Internet is as they have experienced it already in their country. These businesses are making a killing and stealing business from local businesses. Local ones can never compete.

What I'm lacking right now is real data to present during my sales meetings. Sure, I've worked for offshore companies and built lead gen websites for tons of companies in developed countries but my prospects can't relate to that.

I thought about providing free trials but I lack the capital right now and would probably end up bankrupt.

I wish MJ talked more about how he solved this problem in the book.

Any ideas?

 

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[Flint]

Don't sell services. Sell results and benefits.

 

[LaneMan]

Don't sell services. Sell results and benefits.

That's what I do but it's hard to sell results and benefits without real data backing up the results and benefits.

 

[Kid]

The thing that you can do, although not fast is one if not only way to do it:
Start writing a website or even facebook page, about having a website and doing business through it.
It will cost you few bucks for domain and some simple hosting.

Now, the thing is that you educate them but also collect their email, or invite them with messenger bot.

After some time you not only have educated businesses, but also a mailing list of people ready to buy from you - since you're the one that acts as authority in this niche.

I don't remember if BaseCamp did it in such way or was that someone else, but search google for "start with audience" there should be case studies of people who had audience first (by educating them) then they offered services.

Anyway good luck!

 

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[ZCP]

where are customers that DO understand? go there

 

[Stargazer]

The only businesses who care about websites here are big Offshore companies, government organizations, and companies started by expatriates from developed countries because these people know how powerful the Internet is as they have experienced it already in their country. These businesses are making a killing and stealing business from local businesses. Local ones can never compete.

I would agree with @ZCP however if you must bang your head against a wall, is what you have written above and I have bolded true?

Because if it is true the local businesses would know they are losing trade to the foreigners. They would be moaning about it in their daily huddles big time.

So all you need to do is tap into that.

eg 'Look, you know how the foreigners at xyz have stolen half your business? Let me show you on a piece of paper how they did it. Got a pen?'

Dan

 

[LaneMan]

The thing that you can do, although not fast is one if not only way to do it:
Start writing a website or even facebook page, about having a website and doing business through it.
It will cost you few bucks for domain and some simple hosting.

Now, the thing is that you educate them but also collect their email, or invite them with messenger bot.

After some time you not only have educated businesses, but also a mailing list of people ready to buy from you - since you're the one that acts as authority in this niche.

I don't remember if BaseCamp did it in such way or was that someone else, but search google for "start with audience" there should be case studies of people who had audience first (by educating them) then they offered services.

Anyway good luck!

Content marketing has been on my mind for a while now. I will prioritize it and see how it goes.

I would agree with @ZCP however if you must bang your head against a wall, is what you have written above and I have bolded true?

Because if it is true the local businesses would know they are losing trade to the foreigners. They would be moaning about it in their daily huddles big time.

So all you need to do is tap into that.

eg 'Look, you know how the foreigners at xyz have stolen half your business? Let me show you on a piece of paper how they did it. Got a pen?'

Dan

I tried doing that but the level of pessimism was really high. Most of the would respond by "Oh, it works abroad but it will never work here", etc.

Maybe I just got unlucky and landed on some pessimistic prospects though because I've got a ton of prospecting to do.

 

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[Kid]

HIRE those businesses to do whatever they do and offer that online.

That would be a plot twist.

 

[bracknelson]

When you launch something new in the market, that never comes into the market before.

Do a lot of promos in the market, tell the benefits of it.
Explain what it is for, what it can do, what the uses of it.

Make your brand ambassador a popular celebrity.
They will gain consumer trust for your service.

Give trials of your service in the market for free, show it in a crowded public area.
Keep trying till your service gets popular after that keeps constancy in the market.

 

[Royal Function]

I would niche down, create a generic website for the niche, and SEO it. For instance, if you want to sell websites to used car dealers, create a generic website targeting a specific location. You will get traffic/search/inquiry data from your Analytics. Then you go to your prospects with the website + data and tell them if they have a similar website they will get X number of inquiries per month of whom Y% will actually buy cars. Even better, send them the leads you are getting and show them how those leads came out of this magical thing on the internet called a website.

 

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[bracknelson]

In this competitive society where everyone has solutions for every problem through their product and services so it's a little hard for new business owners to stand out. But if you follow the right strategy then your chances of success with increase.

The first tip is to focus on the right targeted prospect or customer. Do your deep research try to create a buyer persona, experiment with A/B testing. Then give your service accordingly which let them feel because in the end, you are selling to humans they need emotio0nal touch.

 

[LifeisSuffering]

I'm reading The Millionaire Fastlane after having read Unscripted and in chapter 2, MJ mentions that he started selling leads to people who were unfamiliar with Web leads during that time.

I'm faced with this same problem right now. I sell web design and landing pages to capture leads but in my country, people aren't familiar with Websites or lead generation. They only know of word-of-mouth marketing and what I call lack-of-better-choice marketing where there's no competition and the customer has no choice but to buy from you until someone else starts selling the same thing.

Many of them advertise on Facebook and get decent results but because they don't know about Websites or haven't seen other local businesses profiting from them, they're unwilling to invest. Many of them also believe that having a Facebook page is the same as having a website.

The only businesses who care about websites here are big Offshore companies, government organizations, and companies started by expatriates from developed countries because these people know how powerful the Internet is as they have experienced it already in their country. These businesses are making a killing and stealing business from local businesses. Local ones can never compete.

What I'm lacking right now is real data to present during my sales meetings. Sure, I've worked for offshore companies and built lead gen websites for tons of companies in developed countries but my prospects can't relate to that.

I thought about providing free trials but I lack the capital right now and would probably end up bankrupt.

I wish MJ talked more about how he solved this problem in the book.

Any ideas?

I live in Algeria and most people have no credit card so When Jumia( an e-commerce giant in Africa ) start selling their services, they adapt to the customers' behavior.

 

[Johnny boy]

Jesus christ, if that's all it takes to dissuade you, then you're in for a rough ride.

Call up a business and say

"uh, do u want mo' customers????"
"ya"
"Oh cool, I can like, get u a lot of them"
"sweet how much"
"like $450"
"no, like, how many customers"
"like a lot"
"oh sick haha how?"
"websites n' shit"
"websites n' shit?"
"yeah, websites n' shit"
"that's crazy, what's the price?"
"I already said it was $450"
"oh, uh thats a lot"
"haha yeah it is but it's totally worth it"
"okay dope let's do it"
"sick, here's my venmo"

 

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