My FIRST Offline CLIENT!!!!! How to approach??

Hey everyone. I got my first offline client who wants me to call him to see how I can help him get more business by advertising on the internet.

He is a self employed painting contractor who is finding it difficult to find new business right now. He doesnt have a website and he is only advertising in the yellowpages.

Im hoping you all can take a look at what I plan on saying to him when I call him tonight and PLEASE feel free let me know if I should take another approach with this. What would you do?

Here is the email I got today from a friend who talked to this guy about me:

****, this is the friend I was telling you about that may be interested in Google or a site of his own. He came to this country over 20 years ago, from France ... is here on a Green Card. He, along with a lot of other contractors are finding it hard to book new business, but he has plenty to keep going at the present time. He has no PC or Internet access. He is mainly looking for more business and has been told most people go to the Internet as a first cut at finding contractors, so he might want to do something there. He is in the Yellow pages.
I told John (Jean) that I would have you give him a call to see if you can help him. He knows others in the business, so if you do something for him he might recommend you to others

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I was thinking on first offering him a spot in google local, msn and yahoo. Then if he sees results I will offer to do some keyword research on the demand for painters in my area then tailoring a website or landing page for him to capture leads...also possibally some video marketing optimized with keywords which lead back to his website or landing page.

What do ya'll think? Should I offer him a free service for the local search engine listings or should I charge? This may be a step in the door if I do a great job for this guy.

Anyone who helps will get Thanks from me!!!

WOOOHOOO!

charge him right off the bat! keep the charges realistic but make sure you do a shit hot job, contractors TALK! Thats why it is important to charge him, if you dont all his mates will be on to you to do the same for them. If you keep the quote to a minimum and explain that you are just starting and in exchange for the best price can he give you 5 referals for other contractors that are also looking for work. I bet you get three good quality names and numbers for more work. Good luck.

1. set up a simple little site with contact details, services offered, photos of his work and a google maps widget of their location (if they have one).

2. get him some backlinks with local keywords "<name of city> painting" etc. local keywords should be pretty easy to dominate.

3. you could experiment with adwords if hes keen. generate a tracking code that the person can use when booking for some fake discount etc. this will let you see which keywords are converting. or have an email enquirey page that does this tracking automatically.

do a good job for him and he might get you others. best of luck.

Congregations! You have to charge this guy. If you don't he won't think you are worth much. Do you think he would paint your house for free hoping you tell some friends? Let me know if he does. Also, he is not the type of person that can influence a good amount of people. He isn't the leader of you local Chamber of Commerce. Find that guy and give him some free web services! Now that you have one under you belt, the next will be easy.

PM me and I can help you out, with some resources that will answer your questions.

Good Luck either way.

CHARGE HIM a very fair price for refs like what acesUP said! If you dont charge him he wont respect you or your time and youll end up resenting him. Do a good job and get him some RESULTS so he can see the power of the internet. Then, upsell, upsell, upsell. Make sure you tell us how it goes. Maybe make a log.

Wow! Nice one dude!
Perhaps, i should also start to let my friends know that i am going in offline business to get help from them? Cool Ideas!
from the Service that you cater to him. It's good enough to start since giving too much will scare him off like
'Oh my...going into internet need to have that much of service?!' Give him a slow start then as things getting better start to open other service to them.
Hope this help.

Get an opt in form going as well for him. I don't know a lot about painting and stuff, but if he does some outdoors painting work, maybe send the opt in leads a discount on powerwashing or something a few times a year. The key to opt in's is to be able to market to the people over and over, and little to no cost. Ask him what type of residual things he can offer to people. Also, your idea for tracking is excellent. Maybe do some coupon codes or something. Dominate google local and adwords. Also, don't forget the keywords like "zipcode painting". Also, consider advertising/seoing for cities close to yours. If you can get this guy some business, it could be the the kickstart you need.

dollarkid said:

1. set up a simple little site with contact details, services offered, photos of his work and a google maps widget of their location (if they have one).

2. get him some backlinks with local keywords "<name of city> painting" etc. local keywords should be pretty easy to dominate.

3. you could experiment with adwords if hes keen. generate a tracking code that the person can use when booking for some fake discount etc. this will let you see which keywords are converting. or have an email enquirey page that does this tracking automatically.

do a good job for him and he might get you others. best of luck.

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Also, you can have your contact page say "Call us and use CODE: 741 to get a special discount for a free consultation". That way you don't have to generate anything.

i'm in a similar situation. i'm setting up a client with everything and will probably end up running their ppc/ppv campaigns until they see a profit. i have their site on my server and i registered their domain.... so i know they aren't going anywhere. /evil grin/

I think it would be a good idea to consult with him for the first meeting.

Don't bring up price until you know what he wants.

Since you haven't met with him yet, I would find out about his business, find out what is working in advertising and what isn't. and go from there.

it's been a month since the our fellow BHW start his topic. How's the result going on? Care to share? I just finish my card..will be starting to get some cold calling soon.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to updates on this thread also.

jetti789 said:

I think it would be a good idea to consult with him for the first meeting.

Don't bring up price until you know what he wants.

Since you haven't met with him yet, I would find out about his business, find out what is working in advertising and what isn't. and go from there.

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This is probably the best advice.

How would you feel if you were buying a car and the dealer told you that you had to pay for the car before he would show it to you?

When people know you by your postings, articles, videos, books, etc... You can charge them for the first consultation because they have some sort of belief that you can solve their problem.

When you're a complete stranger then you have to lay down the foundation. Take the time to get to know them. What do they want? Who's their market niche? How much is each job worth to them? What is their budget?

You're not giving a consultation at this point. You're just "fact finding". Which in turn gives them an opportunity to learn if you're someone they can trust and who knows what they're doing.

With more experience and with referrals you can make the "fact finding" and the consultation at the same time. But when you're just getting started you may want to take small steps.

Let us know how you did.

hey guys...havent been on here in a while because Ive been super busy with my offline consulting biz. This guy became a paying client and I am almost finished with his site. I charged him $1500 in 3 payments. He has paid me $1000 to date and owes me $500 once the site is finalized the end of this week.

hmm this is really a area that is taking off but the thing is you need to give results to people.

Ive done some SEO for offline companies with no marketing experience what so ever, no real internet presence.

You really have to sit down, and find out what they want like said above..

Congrats Skorpion!

Once you have that one in the bank it's time to get lots of referrals.

Keep us posted on your success!

Thanks Leonard. Things are definently taking off for my business.

Get this:

About 4 weeks ago I was going around town hanging up fliers and happen to run into one of my old friends from high school who was a punk in school. I try not to associate my old friends like that so i almost gave him the 'I dont know you' and ignored him but something told me to stop and say hi to him. So I did.

We got to talking and found out he owns his own direct mail / direct response business and is doing good.

Since then we have teamed up. I am the internet/tech guy and he is the sales guy/offline marketing guy.

Hes got about 100 customers for his coupon book who we are approaching very aggressively this upcoming week with a very 'unique' selling position. Cant wait. Havent felt more alive than right now.

That's awesome Skorpion, keep it up! It's amazing what one transaciton can lead to, and then even what seeing some guy whom you haven't talked to in forever. Best of luck to you

didnt read the comments but i read the starting post.

My 9-5 is as a tech for a small repair shop, but i handle many more things (pretty much anything related to electronics nowadays, and this is including people coming in saying the same thing this painter has said to you/your friend)

basically, when someone comes in saying what he has, this is the approach i have:

lay out his options as to what you can do for him

Cheap package: set him up on google local/yahoo/msn, this should not cost him much and should be the "low end minimum" of what he should have

good package: set him up on google/yahoo/msn, AND create a website for him. we normally charge 200-300 dollars for a basic site, which includes Main page (intro to company), History/bio, and contact/store hours, with 20 dollars per additional page. we show him a list of available templates to choose from (printouts on hand are nice) and he is to provide us a written/typed copy of what he wants each page to say preferably in the layout he would like, we create it (ofc fixing any grammar problems) and host it*

*Hosting is NOT included in the price, you can either let him choose his own hosting or do it for him, signing him up under your referal for even more cash

Once the initial page is done, you let him inspect it, and once he gives the okay that its good, any additional services rendered in the future come at additional fees.

Expensive: same as the above option, only do your absolute damndest at SEO targeting his general location, possibly outsourcing it i suppose.

The important thing is to push for a site to be built, explain to him that most every company nowadays has there own website, explain the benifits of being able to put a website on his card, and that it makes him look more professional and appealing to customers in a subtle way.

dont force it down his throat, your going to be a salesman, but you also want to be his buddy. make it clear that its his option to choose, but point out how important it is to actually own a site. also explain the very basics of "the longer the site is up, the better it will work for you" so he doesnt expect INSTANT results from it

the beauty of it, is once the site is built, YOUR his site admin. when he needs something, YOU get the job. and if im not mistaken some hosting sites are pay by month, and if you have him signed under you, you get a profit every month he keeps the site.

Congratualations on your client OP!