Happy New Year Everyone – And 2 Questions

[MikePT]

Happy New Year everyone !!

Hoping this pandemic goes away faster that expect. But doesn't seems to go so fast.

Ok, I have 2 questions on:

– Consulting;
– Selling Information;

I am running ads on Facebook feeds selling small websites to small business owners/freelancers (Consulting) and selling an digital report "How To Get Clients Via Facebook Without Spending A Fortune" (Information) (I get Clients on my mail order physical businesses, so basically the report teaches how to advertise on Facebook.)

And I'm getting leads on both.

I am noticing – what I is assume common sense – these:

Both Consulting and selling Information (specially on selling digital information) is required a VERY BIG TRUST on the seller to buyers buy. Common sense for sure.

On the other hand, on my mail order jewelry and men fashion bracelets business – where I sell physical products – there is no required to much confidence on the seller, in this case me. Make sense: there are photos of the products and I send probably 50% of my orders on C.O.D mail. Have a small % return on C.O.D, and probably 50% of these C.O.D returns people say was the incompetence of the mailman that they never received the order on their mail, and they order again and the C.O.D this time goes well. Who knows what happens here.

Back to Consulting and Information question:

As I heard from on big guys, people don't buy for 3 reasons:

-Don't Want It ;
-Don't Believe You;
-Don't Have The Money;

Analyzing the situation the leads I am not converting, I assume the biggest obstacle is they don't believe me.

Any general tips for be more believed on selling Consulting and Info?

I know this is a super general question. But I am just recently starting to dig a little bit on Consulting and Info. I am used to sell visual physical products, where I see is not needed to dig so much as is needed on Consulting and Info.

I think I made a big mistake on Consulting, I am advertising as "MB Consulting" ("MB" are my initial name letters) for the webdesign services. Probably would do much better as "Small Websites For Small Business Owners". I made "MB Consulting" because on make broad my services. But probably not a good decision for now. Specific niche.. VS General niche.

On Consulting some leads asked to show my portofolio. Not everyone is asking me about my portofolio.

On info I am not advertising a free sample of the e-book report. The report is already so small I didn't thought on giving away a sample.

Thank you!

[GordonJ]

Happy New Year MikePT, hope it will be a great one for you.

Trust does come into play in both arenas, Information and Consulting.

Here is the short version: Get consulting gigs via referral only. Sell information to the people who are ready to buy it.

Now, a more complex look at it. First, competition. How many people out there selling websites to small business owners? YIKES amighty, a very crowded field. To stand out in this field, you must have something different, something unique...

preferably an added value SKEW, one which only you can provide, otherwise it is a constant selling process and one with tons of other people. Why you, why now, what is in it for them and what do you offer others don't?

Tough nut to crack with that type of consulting.

90% of all consulting gigs I did came via REFERRAL, not solicitation and these include those lucrative gigs with Green Tree Press, Ben Suarez, and others.

It is PULL or magnetic marketing, because one has what they want...and mostly that is EXPERIENCE, which can be easily tapped into. I do not know how to solicit or sell consulting services only because I never had to (although I did study it quite a bit back in the day).

How do you use magnetic marketing? My only experience is to get referrals when they are most happy and willing to give you leads. Glenn Osborn has done a great job here telling stories about how he uses jars of candy, etc., to gain attention and get people to accept his calls, or reach out to him.

Maybe something like that might help with the consulting. Just an off the top of head opinion, you've chosen an overcrowed COMMODITY field to consult in.

But, it still could be lucrative for you.

As for INFORMATION. to be continued

Originally Posted by MikePT

Happy New Year everyone !!

Hoping this pandemic goes away faster that expect. But doesn't seems to go so fast.

Ok, I have 2 questions on:

– Consulting;
– Selling Information;

I am running ads on Facebook feeds selling small websites to small business owners/freelancers (Consulting) and selling an digital report "How To Get Clients Via Facebook Without Spending A Fortune" (Information) (I get Clients on my mail order physical businesses, so basically the report teaches how to advertise on Facebook.)

And I'm getting leads on both.

I am noticing – what I is assume common sense – these:

Both Consulting and selling Information (specially on selling digital information) is required a VERY BIG TRUST on the seller to buyers buy. Common sense for sure.

On the other hand, on my mail order jewelry and men fashion bracelets business – where I sell physical products – there is no required to much confidence on the seller, in this case me. Make sense: there are photos of the products and I send probably 50% of my orders on C.O.D mail. Have a small % return on C.O.D, and probably 50% of these C.O.D returns people say was the incompetence of the mailman that they never received the order on their mail, and they order again and the C.O.D this time goes well. Who knows what happens here.

Back to Consulting and Information question:

As I heard from on big guys, people don't buy for 3 reasons:

-Don't Want It ;
-Don't Believe You;
-Don't Have The Money;

Analyzing the situation the leads I am not converting, I assume the biggest obstacle is they don't believe me.

Any general tips for be more believed on selling Consulting and Info?

I know this is a super general question. But I am just recently starting to dig a little bit on Consulting and Info. I am used to sell visual physical products, where I see is not needed to dig so much as is needed on Consulting and Info.

I think I made a big mistake on Consulting, I am advertising as "MB Consulting" ("MB" are my initial name letters) for the webdesign services. Probably would do much better as "Small Websites For Small Business Owners". I made "MB Consulting" because on make broad my services. But probably not a good decision for now. Specific niche.. VS General niche.

On Consulting some leads asked to show my portofolio. Not everyone is asking me about my portofolio.

On info I am not advertising a free sample of the e-book report. The report is already so small I didn't thought on giving away a sample.

Thank you!

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

As for INFORMATION. to be continued

INFORMATION.

First point. My experience when conferring with others who would want to build an Infopreneurial Empire, is...

they tend to OVERcomplicate it.

In my first response, I said: Consult via referral. Sell info to those ready to buy.

It is pretty much that simple.

I'm going to link to a short video.

https://youtu.be/Hr_sj4Cq6GM

If you don't have 8 minutes to watch it, skip to 2:22 and least see the VALUE SKEWS he presents.

My information product range has been from less than one page HOTSHEETS to several week courses...and just about everything in between.

Way back in 1997, I wrote on a forum somewhere, I HAVE NO COMPETITION which set off more than one guru who was trying to stomp out the competition.

Back then they spoke of WAR. Roll over your competition like a TANK. Nuke your competitors. Annihilate the competition, and on and on and on.

Why go to war if you don't have to? I knew my experiences were one of a kind and that in of itself is often the VALUE SKEW (or unique selling propostion or big idea) in your INFORMATION.

No one teaching the game of golf knows more about the swing than I do.

And how I was able to seperate myself from the clones of the PGA school of thought.

See, in the MJ DeMarco (FASTLANE MILLIONAIRE) video I linked, at the 2:22 mark he outlines what some of the Value SKEWS are, and anyone should be able to use this to help themselves identify how they could differentiate themselves in ANY information market.

Whether it be a HOTSHEET, a White Paper, a Mini Report, Special Report, book, course or membership site or group...there is only one you, and when you see yourself as the SKEW,

well, the world expands twice as much as when you discoved THE PROSPECT IS THE PRODUCT.

So, I guess YOU IS THE SKEW is the follow up to Prospect As Product.

The mechanics, details of delivery, all that, has been around for decades. And to keep it even more simple:

Money is an exchange of value. GET more money, by giving more VALUE

Gordon

[MikePT]

Sharp as always, thank you for your reply Gordon.

I'm going to watch the video.

However I have problem or a no-problem on INFORMATION:

Problem: I don't see anyone here in Portugal selling successfuly information online, and this means I don't know the competition and can't do a market research – maybe only looking to offline top selling magazines and TESTING myself. I some ADS on the marketing niche but I don't know anyone who is successful.

Yes I could sell to worldwide on english, but for now I am trying to "win at home" first. So I am always cluess on the market /competition – I only rely on my small testings.

No-problem: zero competition. That can means opportunity to sell information by direct response.

If you have success on selling only hotsheets that really makes sense on the
importance of value: substance more important than form.

So: increasing value, the less salesmanship skills are needed. And the stronger the USP better.

MikePT

P.S - This is how I run my business: only by testing, trying to use common sense and using some intuition.

[Dien Rice]

Hi Mike and Gordon,

I have to say, almost all of my consulting work has also been by referral... People have mentioned me to someone, who subsequently hired me...

Even those few which weren't by referral, I was already known by the person who hired me...

With info-products, you can sell to "cold" prospects or "warm" prospects...

So far, I've done best by first getting people to "opt-in" to a free email list... This means people get to know my writing for free. Then, I also promote my products... Usually, people are already "warm" prospects by the time they buy...

I think you need much stronger sales copy to sell directly to a "cold" prospect... I'm looking to improve my copy to sell better to "cold" traffic (which is harder to do than the way I mentioned earlier)...

I do believe that to sell info-products, it definitely helps to have good advertising copy. It's not a "known" product you're usually selling - it's something completely new to the prospect...

So people have to (1) be convinced it will help them with a problem or issue that they have, (2) be convinced that it's worth what you're charging for it, (3) be convinced they can trust you (and that you won't rip them off), and (4) be convinced that the risk is minimal (e.g. by offering a money-back guarantee, for example, or seeing many testimonials)...

I hope that helps!

- Dien

Originally Posted by GordonJ

INFORMATION.

First point. My experience when conferring with others who would want to build an Infopreneurial Empire, is...

they tend to OVERcomplicate it.

In my first response, I said: Consult via referral. Sell info to those ready to buy.

It is pretty much that simple.

I'm going to link to a short video.

https://youtu.be/Hr_sj4Cq6GM

If you don't have 8 minutes to watch it, skip to 2:22 and least see the VALUE SKEWS he presents.

My information product range has been from less than one page HOTSHEETS to several week courses...and just about everything in between.

Way back in 1997, I wrote on a forum somewhere, I HAVE NO COMPETITION which set off more than one guru who was trying to stomp out the competition.

Back then they spoke of WAR. Roll over your competition like a TANK. Nuke your competitors. Annihilate the competition, and on and on and on.

Why go to war if you don't have to? I knew my experiences were one of a kind and that in of itself is often the VALUE SKEW (or unique selling propostion or big idea) in your INFORMATION.

No one teaching the game of golf knows more about the swing than I do.

And how I was able to seperate myself from the clones of the PGA school of thought.

See, in the MJ DeMarco (FASTLANE MILLIONAIRE) video I linked, at the 2:22 mark he outlines what some of the Value SKEWS are, and anyone should be able to use this to help themselves identify how they could differentiate themselves in ANY information market.

Whether it be a HOTSHEET, a White Paper, a Mini Report, Special Report, book, course or membership site or group...there is only one you, and when you see yourself as the SKEW,

well, the world expands twice as much as when you discoved THE PROSPECT IS THE PRODUCT.

So, I guess YOU IS THE SKEW is the follow up to Prospect As Product.

The mechanics, details of delivery, all that, has been around for decades. And to keep it even more simple:

Money is an exchange of value. GET more money, by giving more VALUE

Gordon

[MikePT]

Hi Dien,

Thank you for your reply.

You are in accordingly with Gordon reply.

Yes, in both Consulting and Info I'm trying to sell directly to cold prospects. With that it takes very good advertising to sell it.

Thanks!

MikePT