Hello all,
I am Scared. I am a cowerd.

Right now i know i could sit down with a small business owner. Find Many hidden assest. And put ways together to harness them . I know i could Develope killer Usp's . Increase the amount of Revenue they get from current clients, and put together referal programs.

My problem. I am to scared to pick up the phone and contact businesses . to At least try and sit down and look for their hidden assest.

Starting from scratch with only the multiple readings of a few thousand dollers worth of marketing books and info products. I know I can do it. I just don't have anything to point to that says i can do it .

there is just so much doubt right now.

Ken

Start with JV's. Get a small network of people you trust and refer you to other people, or introduce you to other people. Create "bundling" packages of your services with others.

JV's are the most lucrative, easiest and significant way to penetrate any market, whether it's based on fear, lack of knowledge or lack of a list.

Ken,

Maybe I'm going too far... and maybe you're not interested in my "solution".

But if you're from Europe, I suggest you take a workshop with either BadBoy or Shark. When it comes to being "direct", these guys rule.

Their websites:

www.badboylifestyle.com

http://www.attractanddate.com/

I don't know if there's something similar in the States, I've lost my touch with the "market"...

Good point from Michel. If you aren't comfortable doing deals yourself, why not JV those deals on commision by hiring your own advocates and deal closers? I learned that from Jay Abraham, but I've never had to worry about that myself, because I've been an negotiator and deal maker in previous jobs. But I realize everyone isn't like that. Work out the details and run an ad in your local paper. People will come.

John

Hey Ken,

Boy can I relate to how you're feeling! After getting involved with web design about seven years ago and slowly building up a portfolio, I'm now trying to get myself out of that business and into copywriting and marketing consulting - but starting over from nothing again stinks.

One of the things that can help you though is doing Pro Bono work for a group or organization that may not otherwise be able to afford it. You could also do some free or discounted work for a company with the understanding that if they're pleased with your work they'll allow you to develop a case study around them and give you a glowing testimonial for you to use for your marketing.

The other ideas here about JV's are right on the money too. Think about businesses in your town you could help who have a lot of influence over other people who could also use your services. Maybe you could help a local accountant or attorney build their business and in turn they could recommend your services to all their clients?

Somthing else that may help, would be to develop a free report or whitepaper you can offer businesses who may be interested in your services. Because I'm rather phone shy myself, I'd rather mail a postcard (or letter) offering my free guide to a select group of businesses who I'd then direct to my website to download the guide and signup for my free email newsletter.

This will help you identify those prospects who are really good candidates for what you're offering, but more importantly it opens the door to get your foot in and start developing a relationship with these folks. The bottom line is that people buy from those they know, like and trust - and sometimes it takes time to develop that level of trust with a prospect before they're ready to buy from you.

Hope this helps!

Steve

P.S. If you're somewhat web savvy, how about putting together a local community website where you could list the businesses in your town in your directory for free? This would give you a great low pressure way to get to know the businesses in your town and in addition to providing you with good leads, you could also make money selling advertising on your site or in an email newsletter you could easily maintain.

I'm developing a site for my county so feel free to PM me if you need some help starting your own site.

Ken,

In terms of actually picking up the phone, this is what I did, and it worked pretty well...

Go through the phone book and pick the WORST POSSIBLE BUSINESSES TO TARGET...

...and then call them offering your services. You'll stutter, stumble, and get hung up on (maybe). But some will turn out better than expected, and then you can call the serious prospects with much more confidence. Trust me; it works.

And be sure to log every single call you make, every failure, every heartbreak... every success. Because that's what they are: mini-successes, because they taught you something NOT to do when you call the serious folks.

And to make you feel better, here's one from my very first day of cold calling for copywriting (and some here will tell you, with some merit, that you should not be calling to market your writing)...

I got another voice-mail and started my pitch. Halfway through, I made a mistake... and froze. And froze some more. And then just hung up because too much time had passed.

But I chuckled about it, wrote it down in my MS Excel cold-call file (which I still have), and then did the thing I'm proud of.

I called her back and left some lame message "explaining" the error. Nothing happened with the call, and I knew that it wouldn't. I called back for me, not for her.

So when you do get the courage up and something goes wrong, just picture that and it may make you feel better.

Alex Stiner

Bad idea IMO...
You are not setting up high example for yourself

being a computer nerd, I was one of those otaku who just can't gell with socially. so I did simple following things.

Prepartion:
1. write down my best pitch.
2. Rehearse it.. many times (think of yourself like a comedian, and you need to rehearse your comedy routine like 30-50 times before it becomes natural).


How to approach:
1. think about the responses people might give you to your pitch.
2. Write down every one of them and see what's your Response to the Response.
3. Now Call up people and talk to them. They'd either do response no #1 or #2 or no #756(u never thought about it or wrote this one). Now all you have to do in this situation is "to persist" through this call. DON'T EVER HANG UP. Persist. and then some more. Think what you can learn from this interaction....

For example.
Varun : Hi Ken, this is Varun here on this line... I just noticed something about Your ad/businessmodel/ and I have few questions...

-> Ken response 1 : Yeah go ahead.
Varun : You see I am a JV expert/copywriter/business consultant wanted to talk about some business oppurtunties on how you can grow you business without spending an extra dime(or watever ur pitch is)

-> Ken response 2 : If you are calling to sell something.. I m not interested in any offer what so ever.
Varun : Oh... Thank you for your time.

-> Ken Response 3 Write your own response :P)
Varun is going to plug next couple of minutes to see if I can get through this Uneasy phase...


Varun

Oh I forgot to add.. check out hardtofindseminars.com n talk to michael sineoff he have lots of pdfs on cold calling.. I read couple of them and they were gold and best of all for free.. jsut email him(he normally responds in 12 hrs)

Varun

I disagree. I'm completely new to the game, but I WAS a standup comic and made my living with it for 10 years. Comics don't practice their acts in the mirror or in an empty room. They practice on stage with an audience. Granted, they don't practice on Letterman. They do it late at night in small clubs to a handful of drunks... but never alone.

Therefore it is my opinion that cannae has it right. Start with the crappiest of all leads and use THEM for your rehearsal. Choose businesses that are almost certainly not going to hire you anyway. But do NOT practice in a vacuum... Practice in front of actual people.

If a comedian tells a joke in the forrest and no one hears it... Was it funny?

Why are we even discussing cold calling?

As a copywriter, Ken should be able to drum up business through his written words, not necessarily his spoken words. Cold calling is pretty much the most inefficient method of marketing known to man. Direct mail, on the other hand, is marketing one to many, not one to one.

Ken - you came up with your own asset in your post - helping other people find their "hidden assets". I love that! Take that idea and spread it into your local market - whether by networking, direct mail, cold calling or whatever.

Good luck with it!

Jane

PS I've never done cold calling, and I never intend to

PPS I wouldn't recommend my clients to do it either

PPPS Get clear on the target market, better still go after a niche, and then figure out where that niche hangs out in order to get in front of them