Liane Carmi

So…I went to Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit.  Despite my wife’s complaints that I’ve been traveling too much lately, I got in the car and drove the whole…2 1/2  hours to Stamford, CT.

Now, Donna (my wife) had a couple of other issues she was worried about (other than me being away when she’s actually home).  So when she called me on the first day of the event, she said something along the lines of…

“I don’t want you getting into yet another thing when you haven’t even finished working on X.”
Translation: “you’d better not lose focus!”

And I couldn’t agree with her more.

See, if you’ve been to enough events, you’ve probably experienced something similar.  It seems like every single speaker tries to pull you in a different direction, sell you something else.  One says you’ve got to be doing video and need her product to learn social media the right way.  Another says that without his course you’ll never get your website up…sound familiar?

You come out of those events not knowing which way is up.  You even start to question yourself…”Have I been doing it wrong this whole time??”  Sometimes, you lose sight of what you were actually trying to accomplish in the first place, and you get scattered.  Or worse, you come out with 4 expensive products you probably didn’t need in the first place, and there’s no time left to study the materials, much less put them into action!

Then, there’s the blatant competition amongst participants.  Either a bunch of people who want to talk you into joining their business opportunity, or a bunch of people in your opportunity who are doing their best to keep secrets to themselves.

See, the problem with these events is that most people there are there because they’re looking for a way to “make money online.”

But Ryan Lee’s event was pleasantly different.

Sure…there were the speakers who came on stage with the intention of selling.  And many used pressure tactics (“…only for the next 10 minutes, then the price goes up…”).  But the difference was that they gave REAL content.  The juicy stuff you can take home and work with.  AND…

Get this.

The entire 1000+ person crowd was most interested in something like this:

(drumroll, please….)

1. “how can we work together?”
2. “what can I do to help you move your business forward?”

…and at a deeper level:

3. “how can I take my passion and turn it into a profitable online business while helping others?”

And that’s why, for the first time in the history of me attending live events, rather than coming out with products I didn’t need, or a feeling of failure, I came out empowered.  I came out with new clients.  New skills to use.  I came out with incredible ideas that I have already started putting into use (and that aren’t taking me away from my focus).  And I came out with potential JV partners, and new friends in the industry.  A new understanding of what it means to run an online business.

I learned from people like Yanik Silver and Tim Paulson how to charge more for my products and services.  I learned how to take one information product and turn it into at least 6 or 7 other info products (thanks, Jerry Clark).  And I learned all about the psychology of sales pages, and how to increase conversions (thanks to Chris Haddad).  With the training of Ryan Lee himself, I came out with a 24-hour blueprint to creating a continuity site (it’s easier than you think!).  Finally, I actually learned 4 new powerful traffic tactics.  Yep, ME, the traffic queen.  Tactics from Chris Farrell I had never heard of before.  (Now THAT is unheard of!).

And I actually found increased focus, thanks to Ryan Lee’s “idea joggers.”  These were a group of coaches who sat in the back of the room and spent time with as many people as they could helping them get a clearer picture of what they were passionate about…and how they could turn those passions into a business.

(A special thanks to Jillian, even though she did call me a “plastic face.”)

By the way, I especially enjoyed the 1-hour “speed networking,” even though I did just about lose my voice towards the end.  I would recommend making 300-or-so copies of your “calling card” rather than the 1,000 I made, though.

(Here’s the one I used)

About Me

So…would I recommend Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit next year?  You betcha.  I’ll be there, notebook and pen in hand.

And until then?  Howie Schwartz’s Sustainable Traffic Workshop is coming up next week.  I’m looking forward to hanging out with the other project managers, and especially to presenting.

We’ll be talking about Mobile Marketing (which is quite possibly the hottest thing for local businesses right now), and about many other money-making marketing tactics.

I hope to see you there

But if not…check back here for an update.

Okay.  Some people are amazing at prospecting and making cold calls.  Others, like me, are rather bad at it.  So I was pretty excited when my wife called me from her conference in California to tell me that part of her training for her new position was on making cold calls (in person) and closing sales.

I recently began offering my web promotion services to local businesses in my area, and making cold calls is a huge part of that.

So I stayed on the phone with my wife for over an hour getting all the juicy details, and finding out that I wasn’t as bad as I thought – some of the things she mentioned I was already doing. But there was a LOT I didn’t know.

Anyway, here goes.

Here’s the down-low on how to make cold calls and prospect, business to business, in person.

Start with your pitch.

Come up with a 30-second pitch.  Introduce yourself, say 3 things about your company, and 3 benefits for the potential client.  To hear the pitch I came up with, click play:

Next, ask the business owner if he is interested in learning more.

If not, it’s no big deal.  You just lost 30 seconds of your day.  Leave in a way that allows you to come back some other time.  You can say something like, “Maybe it’s not the right time for you right now.  Have a great day!”

If he is interested, schedule a second meeting.

Come to that meeting prepared to educate him on what you do, and how it can help him.  Bring lots of screen shots, examples, and so on.  Show him what you’ve done for other clients.  Also tell him what your fees are. Answer all his questions. If he’s doing 80% of the talking, you’re doing well.

After that, you need to find out if he wants to work with you.  So ask!  “Now that you’ve seen what I have to offer you, let’s move forward!  Are you willing to invest in (your service here) to increase your profits?

If the answer is yes, BE CAREFUL!  Don’t just ask for payment. First, go back & review all the benefits he’s going to receive.  Justify the purchase and make him feel really good about it. Then, tell him how you work – how you accept payment…and have him sign a contract.  Better yet, if you can accept credit cards, get his credit card information right then and there.

But he might say something else…

If he’s not sure he wants to move forward, he probably has some concerns.  You can say something like, “sounds like you still have some questions.”  Let him talk and tell you his concerns.  Then, respond.  Make him feel better.  At that point, ask for the close again.

Or he might say he needs to speak with someone else.  If so, you can ask him about the process.  “What does it take to make this happen?”  Get a time when you can follow up with him.  And follow up to ask for the sale again.

He could also say he’s not interested at all.  If that happens, you go back to the original response – maybe it’s just not the right time for him at the moment.

Anyway, the teacher in me got crazy and created this:

workflow for cold calling / prospecting

Prospecting Cold Calling Workflow

Okay…all you natural sales types…does this sound similar to what you do? What do you do differently that’s worked?