If making a cold calls tops the list of things you dread, then doing cold drop-ins to local businesses is probably a close second! And even if you enjoy all forms of COLD Prospecting, today's episode will give you another tool in your prospecting tool box to fill your schedule with quality appointments.
Join me, Charlie McDermott, as I unveil my transition from the shivers of cold drop-ins to the warm, welcoming embrace from local businesses. You'll discover the secret to using your smartphone camera not just for selfies, but as a powerful tool to create a YouTube show that opens doors and builds enduring business relationships.
If making a cold calls tops the list of things you dread, then doing cold drop-ins to local businesses is probably a close second! And even if you enjoy all forms of COLD Prospecting, today's episode will give you another tool in your prospecting tool box to fill your schedule with quality appointments.
Join me, Charlie McDermott, as I unveil my transition from the shivers of cold drop-ins to the warm, welcoming embrace from local businesses. You'll discover the secret to using your smartphone camera not just for selfies, but as a powerful tool to create a YouTube show that opens doors and builds enduring business relationships.
Like call calling, call drop-ins are a very uncomfortable experience for most publishers. If you've done this, you can relate. In most cases, before you even open the door to the business, what do you see? No soliciting, or is it? Solicitors will be shot on site. Either way, it's just not a welcoming feeling. And you know, let's be real, most of us which just aren't wired to blow past the no soliciting sign and pretend that we don't see it. Hello.
Speaker 2:
Hi, it's the no cold calls ever show.
Charlie McDermott:
Charlie McDermott here with yet another powerful strategy you can use to avoid that cold calling madness. I moved to Florida in 2015 to get away from the cold. When I started as a publisher in southwest Florida, going in cold trying to get a point move was even more painful than living through a two-day Pennsylvania power outage in January. I lasted a little longer than two days making cold calls. I'd say it was about two weeks or so. If you're in sales, you know. The wonderful thing about cold calling is yeah, it works. It's a numbers game, right? Isn't that what you hear? Anyway, you make enough calls, you book enough appointments and some of those appointments become new clients. Hooray, it's a mathematical certainty that you'll be financially successful if you just make the dang calls right. So why do so many people give up? Personally, as painful as it was making those calls, I was willing to do it. What crushed me was the pathetic show rate. Many of those individuals who booked an appointment with me just bailed. Yep, they ghosted me, and it was that pain that drove me to come up with a way to get these prospects to actually show up for their appointments. Boy, sounds kind of nice, huh? And that's when I hatched the Good Neighbor Podcast strategy. The result it not only skyrocketed my show rate but, most importantly, it freed me from that cold calling madness. Filling my schedule with quality prospects actually became fun. Why does it work so well? Well, the podcast strategy it taps into that law of reciprocity, which is when someone does something nice for you, you just feel obligated to reciprocate or do something nice in return for them. My definition is simply give value first. No strings attached, no bait and switch, just genuinely help business owners succeed and, like the rising tide, your success will rise along with theirs. So for me, and now publishers all over North America who offer a good neighbor podcast, that's something in return is simply a magazine presentation meeting with you as a podcast. The only way to pack your schedule with quality prospects heck. Now. There are a multitude of ways and in today's episode we're going to look at one of those.
Charlie McDermott:
I call it putting prospecting business drop-ins on steroids. So what are business drop-ins? It's when you walk into a business yeah, cold, and ideally try to book an appointment. Now maybe, if you get lucky, you even meet with the business owner right then and there. Or you go between appointments. You have an appointment at 10, you get there 15, 20 minutes early, you see there's a business next door, on either side of that business. You stop in and you say hi, you grab a business card and, yep, you cold call them later Again.
Charlie McDermott:
This can be effective but, like cold calling, cold drop-ins are a very uncomfortable experience for most publishers. If you've done this, you can relate. In most cases, before you even open the door to the business, what do you see? No soliciting, or is it? Solicitors will be shot on site either way. It's just not a welcoming feeling. And you know, let's be real, most of us, which just aren't wired to blow past the no soliciting sign and pretend that we don't see it. Now, the obvious solution here is not to solicit, just grab the business card. But heck, you could have gotten that information in the comfort of your home some evening with a glass of wine in your hand via Google, right.
Charlie McDermott:
So back to our give value first strategy. You've got a million dollar marketing resource and, like our brains, you're probably only using five or 10% of it. Now, most people call it a cell phone For you. It's your ticket to enhancing your authority, building your no-liking trust factor and yes, filling your schedule up with quality prospects, and this strategy involves using that camera on your phone to promote your business. Now, before you say, oh, it's only a cell phone, don't I need something more professional? Let me put your mind at ease Now. Not too many years ago, I spent untold hours on major motion picture movie and television sets in Hollywood, and, trust me, it's not as exciting as you might think, but I can tell you that the technology that you have in that phone of yours rivals what they were using on those sets not too long ago. Today, full-blown movies are being filmed using just an iPhone. Look it up, it's amazing. So you've got the equipment. Now all we need to do is turn it into sales, all right.
Charlie McDermott:
So step one come up with a show name, something like Meet my Town. Now, for me, I might use, since I'm in Deerfield Beach. My show might be called Meet Deerfield Beach, since I live in, you know, that area, or that's my market area. Step two get a YouTube channel. Now, this will take you all of about two minutes, and if you've never done it before, no worries. Just Google how to start a YouTube channel and then call that channel whatever you decided in step one. Step three is optional, you know, create social media channels. You can always add those later. Start with a YouTube channel and then, as it grows, you can always add social media. In the beginning, it's a matter of just getting going. Youtube channel is enough to get started with and maybe that's all you need.
Charlie McDermott:
Step number four invest 20 bucks on business cards. Come up with your show name, put it on a business card. You're off to the races. Step five start with your clients as a warmup. I call it friendly fire. The first few times it's gonna feel a little weird, a little strange. So work with people that you have a relationship with and get your legs under you. Step number six now branch out to your networking groups or chamber events. You're sitting there having lunch with someone saying hey, mary, right after this, let's get your business story out there in the community. Would you be interested in that? And she's like well, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, all I need is five minutes, cool.
Charlie McDermott:
Step seven business drop-ins on steroids. Don't worry about those no soliciting signs, because you have something of value. You wanna help promote that business. They've been nominated to be on your show, so it's an invitation. Now, hey, sometimes they'll be there. You can knock it out right there on the spot, and sometimes it might be a leave your business card there and or get their information and instead of making cold calls, those calls become more of a booking opportunity for that business to be on your show and I'll tell you once you get going.
Charlie McDermott:
Once you get a few of these under your belt, businesses are gonna be knocking at your door to be a part of it because, again, it's free promotion, and there are other components here that I won't get too deep into, like search engine optimization, getting found on Google that can be very beneficial to local businesses. They can also use this video in many other ways. We'll explore that in another episode, but this is huge value. So don't look at this as just a simple five minute video that you're gonna do, or you could just do audio. By the way, you don't have to use your iPhone or whatever cell phone you're using will record both the audio and the video, but lots, lots of ways to use that for that business owner to get thousands and thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars of value from that simple five minute video. By the way, it shouldn't take more than five minutes.
Charlie McDermott:
All right, step number eight, probably the one that some of you gonna butt, butt, butt editing Time, money. Do I need an editing staff? Heck, no, if you're not already familiar with this. When you open up a YouTube channel, you load your video in there. You can edit the video in YouTube. It's your full production house. If you're not familiar with this, youtube has plenty of information and it won't take you more than maybe the first time two or three minutes to edit your video, which doesn't take much at all, and then you'll have it down. Step number nine promote the show. Send your guest the link to your show.
Charlie McDermott:
The most important step that we didn't cover yet is the reason why you're doing this in the first place. Now, no ulterior motives here. There's no. As I said earlier, this is not a bait and switch. Hey, mr and Mrs Business Owner, now that we have your video ready, I'll put it on your YouTube channel if you pay me X amount of dollars this stuff happens all the time and that'll be one of the first questions you'll get, or the skepticism that you'll receive from some of these business owners, because they've already been through this. This is a freebie for them. You are an advocate of local business and that's what you do, that's what you're passionate about, and this is one of those ways you help businesses to succeed. Obviously, you have other ways, like your magazine, like digital and things of that nature. So the most important step is to book your presentation and again, that's a whole nother episode, but the short version is right.
Charlie McDermott:
After you record the episode, when they're excited, just simply invite them to a presentation. Hey, mr Business Owner, I'm gonna be back here next week. I'm actually recording a show for XYZ Company. I'd love to get together with you, or what I typically say. I get rid of the love because the love sounds needy. I say we need to get together and here's why. And then what you normally say All right, law, reciprocity. You've done something very nice for them, extremely valuable. They're going to feel the obligation to do something nice for you, which is simply meet with you.
Charlie McDermott:
What about the interview? What about the show? Charlie, what do I ask? Keep it simple and easy. Maximum limit on the show I recommend five minutes. No one's going to watch a hour-long video of whatever business that you're in. Basically, you're just meeting with the business owner. You're going to ask them to share who they are. You're going to ask them what it is that they do or their business does. You're going to ask them how can they help local residents? And then you're going to ask them how can your viewers find them? Pretty simple, they could answer those questions in their sleep. They don't have to prepare, it's just off the cuff and people will resonate with those videos and you'll look like a hero. So again, five minutes max. Tell them that going in, so you don't get a chatty Cathy or chatty Charlie and just someone droning on and on and on and on. Limit it to five minutes and keep in mind you can do these via Zoom as well, so you don't have to show up at the business and spend all that travel time. Hey, if it's easier. You're familiar with Zoom. Knock it out via Zoom.
Charlie McDermott:
Think about the ripple effect of this One. I call it guilt by association. What does that mean? You're meeting with a cosmetic surgeon. You're meeting with the owner of a roofing company who's one of the movers and shakers in your community. You're meeting with other business owners. Other business owners will see those videos and guess what? They'll recognize you as a player. They will be more likely to meet with you because you're building that no like and trust factor. Every single time. You record a video and guess what those businesses, those guests that you interview, are going to do? If they're smart, they're going to put that video on their website, they're going to share it on their social media, so you'll get even more exposure. It's a spider effect far reaching beyond what you can even imagine.
Charlie McDermott:
Most of the time You're going to show up differently. Instead of showing up as someone who wants to sell them something, you're there as someone who wants to help them, again as a business advocate. And the third one really really important warm referrals galore. The most important step is booking the appointment. The second, most important step is to simply say Mr or Mrs Business Owner, who do you want to nominate for my XYZ show? And they're going to say, oh geez, you know what? Right next door here, you got to meet with Josephine, she's awesome, she does this, and that Sometimes you'll have to limit them to like three or four or five and say I'll come back or I'll be back in touch. So now, whether you call or stop in those businesses, you're going in on a referral. How powerful is that? So that'll do it for this episode. Go ahead and leave your questions and comments. I'll cover those in a future episode and if you like this show, please remember to like it and leave a review. I'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:
Say goodbye to cold calling, chasing leads and waking up on Monday with a blank calendar for the week. Now you can join publishers throughout the US who have plugged into a systematic path to sales growth without adding more work or overhead. You're ready to have more fun while you scale your business and income.
