Once upon a time there was some-one who had worked for a large company for 20 years or so. Let's call him George.
He had worked hard and developed a good position but as time went on he became more and more frustrated in his job, he felt he wasn't appreciated within the organisation and really thought there were better ways to do business. Eventually the sheer frustration of being a cog in someone else's wheel became too much and he realised that it was time to move on and strike up on his own.
To begin with he used his reputation and his existing contacts to gain work and he set off doing the best he knew how.
George was good at what he did (something to do with managing projects but he always found it difficult to explain quite what he did do). However George was used to having the support services that a large organisation provides. This included people to do the selling for him, people to do the accounts, people to fix his computer and even people to type emails, make appointments and make him cups of tea.
All this stopped when he started on his own.
To start with it was ok because he had his "get you started work" lined up. But one day, the project came to an end. And he had to find his own work. He had had no previous experience of selling or even more importantly, generating the enquiries that lead to sales in any systematic way. But he scrabbled on for a while and eventually came up with a few days work at, let's face it, not as much money as he felt he deserved.
But putting a brave face on it he got on with the work. He wanted to do a good job hoping to get some more business so he really concentrated on pulling out all the stops in order to impress. He ignored everything else and just got on with it. If he was honest, he put a few more days in than he should have really so the actual daily rate went lower - about half of what he felt he could ask for - which actually was probably less than they needed.
When he had finished the project it was obvious that the customer would not want any more doing for at least 9 months so he was back to scrabbling around looking for work again. This time it took longer to get fewer days.
After several trips round this loop, it began to dawn on our fledgling consultant that maybe he wasn't quite as good and quite as in demand as he thought he'd be. The money was running out and he was beginning to realise that going bust slowly was even worse than going bust quickly.
He couldn't see how he was going to make his way forward and it looked like the choice was between selling his house to fund the business or caving in and trying to get a another job at a rate well below his previous standard.
He really didn't think that he should be just another statistic - one of the many businesses that don't make it through the first 18 months. After all he was good at what he did: he knew that the market needed his skills but somehow he just couldn't connect with it.
You see he'd never learnt that you have to organise yourself to be continually promoting your services while you're working. That the work / prospect / work / prospect cycle has never worked for anyone since business began.
He knew he couldn't afford to spend very much on promoting his services. Just putting an ad in the yellow pages and getting some brochures designed and printed had used up all that he had allocated. He'd never learnt how to promote himself on a shoestring. And being a bit of a novice with computers, he'd bought himself a laptop and invested in a website which had cost him a fair amount but didn't seem to produce any results.
We've all been there but I kept at it and found how to build a lead generating machine that really works. 1Man Brand shares these secrets with you for only £77 so If you've read enough and want to buy 1Man Brand click now.
However if you want to know more about how George got off the hook here's the happy ending.
Where's your next sale coming from?
Feeling a bit disheartened with the whole thing George headed to the pub to drown his sorrows and bumped into an old friend who introduced him to 1Man Brand
"What on earth is 1Man Brand?" said George. "Well, it's a CD that shows you how to promote yourself" explained Dave.
"But I do this now, when I'm not working. I ring people up, I send them my brochures, I've set up a web site but no-one seems to come to it. I don't honestly see what more I can do" said George glumly.
"What happens to all that sales activity when you do get some work?" asked Dave.
"Well obviously it gets put on hold until I finish the project," said George "- what's your point, Dave".
"sounds like all the other contacts you've made get lost and you're back to square one." Dave replied "That means you have to start all over again in your next break between jobs, right?"
"I suppose that's right", said George - "I'd never thought about it like that. So how does this 1Man Brand thing help with that?"
"Well for a start it tells you what to do to generate enquiries so that you you get them coming in continuously - even when you're working. There are some great tips about how to start selling effectively so that people are already taking you seriously when you start to talk to them."
"Well how does that work then?" asked George.
Just then another of their gang turned up in the pub. "Hi Ros", said Dave. "I'm just telling George here about 1Man Brand. You know George, it was Ros who put me onto it in the first place - she's a great HR consultant."
Ros laughed. "Poor you George - it's really hard starting up on your own - I've so been there. "I'd got to the stage where I was looking for recruitment jobs again when I came across this on the internet and decided to give it a go."
George looked even more down now. "That's all very well Ros but I 'm not sure I can afford it - the budget's already shot"
"Well I'm sure you can find £77 - a worthwhile investment - trust me!" she smiled raising her glass.
"How do you mean?" said George. "Get the girl another drink and I'll tell you" she replied.
What can you do about it?
Taking a long gulp at her refreshed glass she began.
"Basically 1 man brand gives you a formula to follow so that you are able to start getting an automatic flow of warm enquiries. The guy who wrote it, Alan Rae, has been doing this stuff all his life. Marketing campaigns, managing sales teams, researching and developing new products, PR, direct mail and exhibitions.You name it he's done it. He also knows quite a lot about how to make web-sites actually work for you.
He really helped me re-think my website. I realised that I'd concentrated far too much on the layout and feel of the website and had neglected the need to actually gather information on my visitors. Now my weekly newsletter has generated hundreds of contacts which I just was not getting before. There must be loads of people out there like me who know their business but just need a bit of help in meeting new people to do business with."
"That's all very well" said George " but how do you get round the fact that once you get a contract you're too busy to lift your head?"
"Well that's the whole point" chimed in Dave. "You have to think in terms of the Sales Process."
"What's that when its at home - don't you just have to convince someone to buy from you?" George was beginning to get impatient. Ros took up the story again.
"Well yes and no" she said. "What's so powerful about this approach is that it recognises that for each sale you make, you need to have 3 or 4 good prospects on the go and to get them you probably have had a detailed conversation with another 4 or 5 - that means for each sale you have to be interacting with 20 or so people quite seriously."
"Blimey that sounds like a lot - I don't do anything like that" said George"."Well that's just the half of it", Dave put in "you need to have up to 20 marketing contacts for each one. In fact most sales require about 7 contacts before they buy anything"
"How is that possible" said George. "Well", Ros continued, "Alan says that as an independent you will find it difficult to work and sell - so you have to work smarter. You have to let your web-site take the strain - he says what you want from a web-site is a letter box on the wall out of which emails fall that say that they've seen your stuff and they want to know more."
"Basically you only have time to talk to your customers and the best prospects and what you need to do is to organise a continual flow of warm leads that you can follow up"
"So how do I get my site to start working - no-one goes to it at the moment." George was starting to sound quite miserable.
"Well you just have to get started" said Dave " It's quite simple really - you use your site to show what you do and write some articles to download that are useful to your customer. You're a project manager - aren't you. Why don't you write something about 10 ways to stop projects going flat on their back. That's useful to them, shows you know your stuff and doesn't stop you selling things to them. And then you can ask them for their details and permission to email or otherwise contact them - in exchange for the information they want"
"I still have to get them to go to the site" said George doubtfully.
How to get enquiries
"Well that's why its so good" said Ros."What Alan does is tell you how to drive traffic to your site using both on-line and off-line techniques. He's very keen on things that don't cost much money - like PR, blogging networking and using pay per click to drive traffic to the site." She fished into her bag for the workbook - "look" she said," the model looks like this
"What he's getting at is that your site is where you show off what you can do. You can use it to generate enquiries but you have to make sure you get the people there first"
"But isn't that pay per click stuff horrendously expensive?" said George. "No it's not if you do it the right way" said Ros.
Dave took up the story again. " What 1Man Brand tells you is how to go about it the right way. Basically you set yourself a limit - he recommends you try £3 per day for a month and what that does is tells you what people are looking for. Then you can build those keywords into your site copy, your headlines and you can use the tools of on-line blogging locations like Ecademy to drive traffic to your site through using keyword phrases in your signature.
What results can you expect?
The results can be impressive. Ros has managed to get 2000 enquiries in 18 months for a total cost of £1500. This means that 2000 people have read her stuff and several of them have just rung her up - she's had enough work to keep her busy once she got the system set up. The beauty of it is if you get too much work you can either sub-contract it or just turn the clicks off for a bit. And after a few months of focus you start to show up on the organic search listings - then you're really cooking."
"But he doesn't just cover web based tools", Ros said having finished her drink." 1Man Brand covers all the other basic marketing techniques from the point of view of a small, 1 or 2 man business. How to research and develop new products. How to write copy. How to do your own PR or how to employ an agency. How to use exhibitions and workshops to get more business. How to do do direct mail and use a database. And finally how to sell."
"In fact it's got everything that a start up business needs to know about marketing and sales in it. I really wish it had been out when I started my own IT business" said Dave. "Same again?" he said moving towards the bar.
George decided then and there that if had worked for the others he'd give it a go. He had nothing to lose after all.
If you recognise this story or even if you're just starting out, 1Man Brand shares these secrets with you for only £77 inc VAT.
Remember the CD contains 4 lessons which last between 35 minutes and on hour. Each session is presented in powerpoint with voice over and is accompanied by a workbook and practical examples to help it all make sense. Sessions cover topics both online and offline and are organised under the following headings.
- What's Your Story
- Telling it in writing - about copywriting and Pr
- Telling it face to face - getting to grips with the S word - Selling
- Telling it on-line
As well as the workbook, there are practical sample documents, that you can use to help develop your own campaign. These include sample Press Releases, web copy, marketing plans as well as fact sheets on pay per click and keywords.
And don't forget if you don't find it useful I will refund your money - every hard earned penny.
