Offering your services without meetings?

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Alinea

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I live in a semi-rural (mostly farmland) area outside of a large city. It takes about 1.5 to 2.5 hours to get to the city, depending on the area. Besides the travel/commuting time, I'm worried about how they may react upon my appearance. I'm in my 20s, but I'm worried that they may not take me seriously enough. I don't look childish, just young and inexperienced.

My website was professionally made and looks credible, but how should I respond if they ask to meet up? I know someone that never meets anyone because he says the clients are always too busy to meet. However, he lives in a different city and I don't think that will hold true in my case.
 
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I don't know what product you are selling, so I don't know if meeting up with people is worth your time.

If the conversion you may get is worth the drive to meet the person, than just take the time to meet them.

Don't look at age as a "handicap." If you know your stuff, that will show, and people will work with you. There are plenty of young, successful internet marketers.
 
azguru said:
I don't know what product you are selling, so I don't know if meeting up with people is worth your time.

If the conversion you may get is worth the drive to meet the person, than just take the time to meet them.

Don't look at age as a "handicap." If you know your stuff, that will show, and people will work with you. There are plenty of young, successful internet marketers.
Click to expand...

This sums it up. As long as you dress the part, people won't care how old you are. If anything, they would find it impressive that a young man from the countryside is so professional.
 
I think meetings are still important. Dress professionally and present yourself as a professional and the knowledge (assuming it's there) will knock them off their feet! Are you selling SEO services?
 
I design websites and plan to sell SEO services.
 
I am in the same situation as yourself, and can say that as long as you know your stuff, age does not matter. Keep at it, the more experience you get, the easier it'll be. I personally do not believe that setting up a meeting is critical, as long as you have good phone skills.
 
Imo the meetings can be replaced with video calls today. Juts make them a suggestion to start a video call in skype due to your lack of time or distance of the arrival point.
 
You need to try and do it all on phone or by webinar type thing.

If you do go to the city and it is that far from you then really you need to make lots of appts for a whole week and stay in a hotel as it would not be cost effective for you to take a day to go to a meeting and find they had to go out.

Regarding age, that is in your mind. Internet is a young persons thing. Business owners will believe a 20 year old knows more about IM than a 40 year old.

Just be clean and tidy. Don't wear clothes that you wouldn't normally as you would be awkward.

Dan
 
Age should not be an issue, but it can be. I don't offer services, but simply run my own sites. However, just as was implied in a previous comment that the Internet is a young person's thing, if I did offer services I would suffer from ageism at the other end of the spectrum. I'll be 70 next. I was writing software as far back as 1968 and have been on the Web more or less from its start, but still have people doubting whether I can really understand what I'm doing. After all, I'm not young enough.

Just go for it. Provided you have enough knowledge to be ahead of your clients pluck up courage and get stuck in. You'll learn from every project - including the mistakes! But always keep just a little bit of nervousness so as not to become too self-confident. (Lessons learned from a long international consulting career; sorry if it sounded like a sermon).

Wishing you well.

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191 using Tapatalk 2
 
You have to take the cost of going to meetings gas..etc...I would rather due it online and phone but I go to meetings...just look the part and sound like you know what your talking about...
 
Alinea said:
I live in a semi-rural (mostly farmland) area outside of a large city. It takes about 1.5 to 2.5 hours to get to the city, depending on the area. Besides the travel/commuting time, I'm worried about how they may react upon my appearance. I'm in my 20s, but I'm worried that they may not take me seriously enough. I don't look childish, just young and inexperienced.

My website was professionally made and looks credible, but how should I respond if they ask to meet up? I know someone that never meets anyone because he says the clients are always too busy to meet. However, he lives in a different city and I don't think that will hold true in my case.
Click to expand...

Face to Face will get a higher close rate. But you can sell these services over the phone and with a nice online presentation. Look into gotomeeting, or joinme (free)
 
Thanks for the great responses! I think phone/Skype calls and screen-sharing would work best, and maybe occasional meet-ups!
 
You could always hire a closer/sales rep on commission to go represent you for appointments that you booked.
 
I too agree with my fellow mates.
Meeting to b honest is not always necessary
If you have good communication skills and is confident about the product/service then I am sure Skype calls/Phone calls/Video calls and most of the times e-mails are enough.
Don't get much worried I am sure things will be fine... :)
 
Be Professional - You Are The Expert In Your Field

Happy Holidays
 
Age SHOULD not be an issue, but we have found that it is. We have found that our younger "looking" clients fare better when we set appointments for them to speak to someone via phone. Skype has proven to have the same issues as an in person meeting. In addition, if you do phone appointments, your target niche/demographic area is WIDE OPEN. You can sell to anyone, anywhere, at anytime...as long as they agree to talk to you.

So, my suggestion is to set your appointments (yourself or hire someone) by calling a targeted list (free or paid), and follow up and sell your service. No need to waste 2 hours in the car...you can spend that time on the phone setting appointments or selling!
 
Honestly I wouldn't worry about this stuff... you need to develop some confidence here. Appearance is something that can easily be remedied (or faked) with proper grooming and attire. If you can't afford to buy a suit and get a haircut, you're not in business.

After that it's going to come down to your ability to pitch your own products and close the deal. If you can't cleanly discuss your own services... again, you're not in business. Spend some time in front of the mirror or with family or friends talking about what you do and hammering out your pitch until it sounds good and you can answer questions easily.

As someone mentioned above, your close rate will definitely go up in a face-to-face interaction so you should be craving these opportunities.
 
I've had the same concern as you and over the years have learned that it's now acceptable to work with people of this age range in technology related affairs. In fact, you will notice that even a lot of store managers are now in their 20s and in most businesses, a lot of the reps. are now in their 20s in all niches so although there may be some skepticism, if you show confidence they will at least believe that you know what you're talking about. Their concern will probably be about the longevity of your operation if they have a more prestigious business or had a bad experience with their previous web company/person.
 
Its possible. I offer mobile websites to clients and work full time, so I don't have time to meet them. I do everything by email and by phone, and take payment via paypal. I probably lose clients like this, but if I just sat around wondering if it could be done, I wouldn't get any clients at all. So yes, you can get clients, not as much as if you did meetings, but it can be done. Just play a numbers game.
 
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