Got my first potential client! Need help asap!

[LoDownLoad]

Hey everyone! Sorry my first post is for help but this is time sensitive. I've gotten a lot of great info from BHW and I'll soon be returning the favor!

I met a woman at starbucks last week. We struck up a conversation and it turns out she recently opened a bar in a great part of town. Long story short I explained the need for her business to be online and showed her a few things I thought she needed to do. She's very interested in social media and I think I can convince her to do email marketing and re-design their crappy website.

I'm meeting her this Saturday, any tips on how to pitch this thing or suggestions in general would be awesome right now. I want to keep everything super simple (K.I.S.S.) until I get the hang of things.

I'm Want to sell some sort of management package including:
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Instagram
-Email
-Google Places

Then later on, upsell her:
-YouTube
-Site re-design

Thanks again for any and all suggestions, tips, comments, etc. Hopefully this post will become a good resource for others trying to land their first client! =D

 

[Danny1111]

honestly you need to find out her budget first - because being a bar they will probably say $200-$300 a month

and you can't give $1000 worth of services for that price ... so yeah find that out first then go back to them with a strategy.

 

[Rougemont]

I have a social media management service that I've been testing out on a client that includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and Flickr, four articles a month and two hours of website updates. If he were interested, it would also include email newsletter management. What I'm saying is it seems to be pretty similar to what you're wanting to do. I've done a little research into pricing, and I plan to roll it out at $1500 a month with a $1000 setup fee. The client I'm testing it out on is already paying almost that much. This service is what I'm going to really try to push this year, as soon as I catch up on the other stuff I'm working on right now.

Good luck with it, and let us know how it goes.

 

[blackouts]

honestly you need to find out her budget first - because being a bar they will probably say $200-$300 a month

and you can't give $1000 worth of services for that price ... so yeah find that out first then go back to them with a strategy.

You're absolutley right Danny1111!
@ OP: you should always give them a range of prices for them because most people have no clue about IM, they think it's all easy, fast and cheap ...
Trust me, it will safe you a lot of headackes afterwards!!

 

[Jumbo_Refill]

Let us know what happen after you've met with her!

 

[BlackHat3]

Nice! Keep us updated!

 

[CageyVet]

As a bar, they going to be wanting to do two things. Promotions and showing how great their bar is to come to....because that is how to get customers into a bar.

So you need to propose a social media strategy that will play into those two things. Now without knowing her budget like Danny11111 stated, it is a bit harder to properly setup a strategy and a price point, especially since the bar recently opened.

What I would do is go in with 2-3 clear and concise strategies that you can outline for her with the benefits that each one will give her business and the price points on each strategy. The strategies should be on different platforms or methods and they should not overlap. Price each method a little bit higher than you think you normally would charge, then if she has even a slight interest in all three...pitch her a complete package deal with a discount but only if she get all three right now. If she wants to add a service or package on later it will be at the initial higher price point. You can explain this is because the set up cost for all three is cheaper if you do it all at once.

As for exact pricing....well that can only be figured out if you know exactly what you are going to do for her.

For example of what I charge, if you want to maintain her Facebook page with a weekly update, a few growing the Facebook page techiques and do some tracking/reporting for her. $400-500 for a complete Facebook page with a monthly charge of $750-1000. This includes 1 hour a month of consulting and strategy session to help them understand Facebook more plus figure out what is best to post for the next month. In actual fact it is for me to stay in front of the client for 1 hour a month to "possibly" upsell them on a new or other service that compliments their current Facebook service.

So for your client, you could sell her on this where you create her a fully optimized Facebook page, post 1 promotional piece a month for her on Facebook and 4 how great her bar pieces a month (something like pictures of B-Day parties, pictures from other special events, etc etc.). You will help her get more likes with a few secret techniques and you will give her a monthly report on your Page that shows her growth, the highlights and what can be improved. Plus the 1 hour consult.

You can say you will do a similar package for Twitter....Google Plus and any other social network.

You can add an Email Marketing Campaign as a 2nd package with you tell her it ties into her Social Media Package because you can create a Monthly Promotions tab on facebook that will give away a coupon or monthly specials email if users sign up with their email address. So package her Email Management of 2 designed email templates 1 for newsletter and one for specials/promotions. You will manage her email account(aweber or what ever), you will send out 1 newsletter email ever month and a promotion email every month, you will add the optin to her website(this is where you can upsell the website design), give her a report every month plus 1 hour of consulting. For all of this it is $500-$900 for setup and a $1000 monthly.

Now she might think "Oh My" if I want all the services for everything it is going to cost me like $5000-$7000 a month...that is sooo expensive. That is where you need to explain the customer value that you will provide by bringing in new customers and getting returning customers. And then you talk to her about the discount in total cost you can do for her if she signs to all the services right now.



I hope this helps a bit...

 

[LoDownLoad]

Thanks for the great info and tips guys! I really appreciate it. I figured her budget will be no more than $2-$300.

Danny111, since this is my first real client (hopefully), and I'm broke as hell, I'll see what I can put together in the $3-$500 a mo. range.

Cageyvet & Blackouts, thanks as well. I'll be sitting down this evening to come up with something solid to present to her based upon everything in this thread. Then all I'll have to do is not be scared to ask for what I want. Just have to remember that I am the "Expert."

Rougemont, I like your plan as it sounds very similar to what I want to do. I'd like to talk to you more in depth about it if at all possible.

Also guys, I thought about including a "Miscellaneous" fee for things like flyer/Ad designs various things a business may need that a consultant could take care of (Middleman of course) instead of her having to do it or pay someone else. What do you think?

Btw, I'll be hitting thanks buttons tonight for everyone that has helped! =D

 

[antichrist]

Congrats on your first client (hopefully!). Everyone that has provided advice so far has been right on the ball. Remember, you must demonstrate the entire time, how the services you offer will provide value for their business. That being said, I would not charge a Miscellaneous fee. Or at least not call it that! That will get the client thinking about what they are paying for. You want them to have a clear cut idea, so if you are to charge them an extra fee, make it something that sounds useful and provides value.

Good luck!

 

[Chief Ranker]

My advice is to focus on one thing to sell her at a time, you don't want to go all information overload.

Focusing on one service at a time is better for few reasons; you're more focused, it's less stress on the both of you if you're just discussing one thing, it's easier for the client to sign on the dotted line right away...

So come up with the absolute BEST method for their particular business, focus on it, and know how to sell it. Then get paid.

Once you've provided the value, once the trust has been created. Then you can move on to up-selling.

In my experience, this has worked best...

 

[Danny1111]

Yeah I figured they would have a low budget and some of the responses came back with $1000 plus quotes... Which I figured would happen.

I know you need the job ... But you have to make money for time spent as well .. So don't over promise ... Just find something you can provide that works for you and works for them... At their price point.

 

[tints]

I would start with review funneling and Facebook campaign. QR code with link to company fb page for likes it a great way to show instant results.

 

[HereComesTheDrop]

this is an awesome idea. since you are new at this business, if i were you i'd use this first gig as a promotional tool to gain other clients. ie, do the best job you can for whatever she's able to pay you, even if it doesn't match up with the workload, so you will have a good example to show other potential clients and charge them the fee that it's actually worth. anyway, that's what i would do. good luck

 

[LoDownLoad]

this is an awesome idea. since you are new at this business, if i were you i'd use this first gig as a promotional tool to gain other clients. ie, do the best job you can for whatever she's able to pay you, even if it doesn't match up with the workload, so you will have a good example to show other potential clients and charge them the fee that it's actually worth. anyway, that's what i would do. good luck

Thanks so much for all the good advice an tips everyone! I'm calling her today to lock in a meeting time. I'll figure out exactly what to offer tonight, throw in 1 "freebie" no matter what she picks to add even more value. Any tips on presentation?

I thougt about drawing the packages up in ms paint with icons and few simple cut and paste graphics. I'd love to hear tips on this because presentation is everything.

 

[LoDownLoad]

Alright guys, we set a meeting up for Monday afternoon at her bar. Any suggestions on how to sequence my presentation for the best results? I'm going for a $3-$500 a month social media management package. If she goes for the gusto I'll throw in some reputation(review site) management and a fully optimized google places, as well as 1 on 1 consulting for marketing strategy each month. Also, QR codes as suggested earlier for quick results.

 

[LoDownLoad]

UPATE:

Success!... Well, kinda..

We met yesterday evening at her bar. It was pirate themed and looked great! Come to find out they serve awesome food as well. Long story short, I didn't get to manage her social site. The bartender does a pretty good job of doing so. Once I figured we werent goin social I explained other options she should take.

-Rep. Management, Awnser: "we already get pretty good reviews.
-Google places optimization & management, Awnser: "Those Bars at the top of google pay a LOT of money to be there"

So, at this point I'm like ok... No more ammo... I'm done. But... I kept going.
They want 2 simple changes to their website:

-Add the facebook icon to the site
-Change the header and footer photos on the site. When she asked how much, I easily responded "I can do it for 50 bucks, no problem."

Also, she's really interested in instagram. However I don't have a High quality digital camera and I still have a crappy iPhone 3g. So I kinda stalled her on that one.

How was this meeting a success? Besides getting paid $50 this weekend to extremely minor edits to her site, this was my very first meeting with a real business owner/potential client. I'm a very outgoing "people" person, however I admit I had a bit of butterflies as I walked into that back office. Luckily for me, she and her bartenders we're very easy going. You can only make money doing this if you:

A.Know what you're doing(or can outsource it), and
B.You're confident enough to sell yourself. These businesses NEED us!

But the BEST part of this is... She agreed to introduce me to the other business owners on this particular strip! That means instant credibility, and no gatekeepers!

BTW, I may be able to sell email marketing service to her if the guy who manages the fanpage thinks it's worth it. Of course you already know I've more than explained the benefits.

Here's what I plan to do when I get back up there this weekend:
1.Simple site edits
2.Give the bartender a few tips on branding the fanpage. (No too much)
3.She's getting new to-go menus, I'm going to draw exactly what she needs to be on there and where for the best impact.

Why am I doing this? "Reciprocity," and further showing them my expertise as a serious marketer. This way when she introduces me she'll really sing my praises. I'd love to hear you guys response to this as well as any suggestions!

 

[Jumbo_Refill]

That is pretty awesome, hope you get a lot of business through her. It kinda sucks that she didn't need you for anything but getting her to introduce you to other local business owner is worth it's weight in gold! I don't know what else to say other then keep impressing them and they will lead you to bigger and better business!