Finally taking action - Video Production Company

[Perennial]

So. I posted a while back here on the INSIDERS forum.

In the few posts that followed, I detailed how I wanted to start a SMMA.
Just like everybody else

Anyway, a lot of life events happened that threw a bit of a spanner in the works,
but I've recently got back on the horse and I'm taking action where it matters -
actually getting clients (I'm also purely focusing on video for now).

When I made my first post, I made a whole song and dance about improving my
portfolio. This is sensible... to a point. But I already had decent examples of what I could do,
so really I should've been doing what I'm doing now.

What am I doing now?

Well, I'm putting on a suit, some nice shoes, and walking directly into businesses.
The aim being to set aside an appointment in the near future to discuss how I might
benefit their business with the use of video.

So far, I've had 2 meetings with managers of chains, and I have 2 meetings next week
with a non-chain restaurant and an indoor golf-improvement centre. This is from around 20
approaches. I've been reading sales books to improve my ability to book appointments and to
close in presentations. The 2 meetings I've had so far were pretty much 'we'll take it to the operations
manager', or "we'll pass it on to marketing", since they're chains.

But the one's next week will be with the top decision makers in each company.

Anyway, you wouldn't believe the difficulty I had in even making the first approach -
believe me when I say there was a herculean level of frustration involved.
It seems silly, but I'm a naturally shy person, and walking into a business to sell
my services majorly challenged my self-esteem. There were many exercises necessary
to overcome that initial barrier. But I did it.

So I wanted to make this post as a flag in the sand to mark the point at which
I REALLY started taking action.

I also signed up to MJ's GoalSumo.com - which literally seems like the productivity tool I've been looking
for my whole life. I anticipate using it massively in the coming weeks.

 

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[Consolation]

Great. We are in the same industry. But, I'm only focusing on live streaming video services.

Here's a suggestion. Can you make them an offer they can't refuse?

Something that doesn't need a polite refusal or delay?
Something of value upfront?
Something that they feel 'indebted' to pay back to you (remember Hare Krishna story in Cashvertising by Eric Drew Whitman)?

In my case, I only provided free demonstration for my first client. After few months, I got few sales.

I should tell you that from the free demo that I provided, I got some hot leads. And it did turn into sales.

 

[Perennial]

First Update. The two meetings this week went well, in the sense that they were interested in my services. However. The first one I messed up by failing to bring up my price - the owner asked if I could send over some quotations and I said "sure! I can email you over some quotations...". I was extremely disappointed with my response - I know better.

In the second meeting, I made sure to bring up price, and the owner didn't seem particularly perturbed by it. So good sign there at least. The only trouble is, the owner of this place has a business partner who wasn't available at the time - I had made them a demo video showcasing what I could do (using their brand logo), and he asked if I could send it to him. I have, and a couple days later they are yet to respond (hanging around in email land is becoming a giant slobbery kiss of death, and I don't like it).

So. I've been away for a couple of days seeing family, but now I'm back, and I've created a rough plan of action as follows.

1. Up volume of places approached - the best way to overcome this stuff is by practising for real, so I need to give myself as many opportunities to bat as possible. Aiming for 30 approaches per weekday.
2. Utilize 'Up-front contracts', as described in the Sandler selling system - these are verbal ways of taking control and structuring sales meetings, agreeing on the process upfront and engendering honest communication. These should reduce the chances of me being stuck in email-land ad-infinitum. Also pondering scheduling another in-person meeting after the first one - but that delays things, so I'm going to try the 'Up-front' contracts as my first port of call.
3. When I'm setting a meeting, ask ahead of time if there are any other people who should be in the room too, so that we don't have to play a game of Chinese whispers. After all, the whole reason I'm doing this in person is because it should be more effective. But if the person's business partner hasn't met me... unless the person I met is ridiculously enthusiastic about me or my service, it'll probably result in a no sale.

Great. We are in the same industry. But, I'm only focusing on live streaming video services.

Here's a suggestion. Can you make them an offer they can't refuse?

Something that doesn't need a polite refusal or delay?
Something of value upfront?
Something that they feel 'indebted' to pay back to you (remember Hare Krishna story in Cashvertising by Eric Drew Whitman)?

In my case, I only provided free demonstration for my first client. After few months, I got few sales.

I should tell you that from the free demo that I provided, I got some hot leads. And it did turn into sales.

Ah that's great! Hmm, apart from a demo video (which I made for the golf company using stock footage) I could maybe offer a money-back guarantee? (Not too sure I'd use that wording, as it sounds a bit sales-y, but the concept itself is time-tested).

I suppose the analogue free-offer on my side would be the demo video - similar to your demonstration, but it will be interesting to see how that performs versus a money-back guarantee. Or perhaps I could do both. We'll see...

I appreciate the input!

 

[Perennial]

Ok, this will be a quick one - but an update on the action I've taken, my general philosophy, and the action I will be taking tomorrow.

On Friday I approached 6 companies - wanted it to be far more, but my GPS was messing up, and it was very hot. The combination of sweat and being lost was not fun. I'm now using an app called Badger Maps to plan out my route (and update prospect info in real time), and I will be relying on the map itself and less so the GPS for finding my way around.

This weekend I've been trying to look at the biggest needle movers, and I keep coming back to volume and sales skills.
The fear of approaching a business - at least the hesitation - is now entirely gone. So I've planned a good sample size for tomorrow ~20 places, and I've been practicing my response to any mention of an email (email=death, not that I didn't know that before, but experiencing it first hand is remarkable).

The only other thing that will have a big effect now is qualification, and to that end, I've eliminated chains from my prospecting for now - so I'm only talking to places where the owner or decision maker will actually be there.

I'm considering using the facebook ads library to find companies that like to advertise, as they probably have a greater interest in video services, but I see this as a later optimisation (possibly next week). Found a source for recently opened restaurants that might prove useful too. But for this week - the chief considerations are volume, so my routes will be places with a high density of independent restaurants or other businesses that could use my services.

I've only approached around 20-25 places total thus far, so if I reach my expected number tomorrow, then I'll have doubled my overall number.

One final thing I'll be doing to improve the value of each exchange where they don't want my services - ask for a conversation about their experiences in running the business at a later time, instead of a sales meeting. That way I learn industry knowledge and pain points, and potentially earn valuable connections. Trying to tie everything together - we'll see what happens...

 

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