About two months ago I went to visit my grandma. She asked me if I was still running “that Internet business that you have”. I laughed and I told her that I was still running my Internet marketing agency. For the first time ever she asked me what exactly we do and I explained to her that we help companies increase their sales using the Internet to promote their businesses.

Grandma then said something that I’ll never forget: “I don’t understand why people buy online or hire companies they know over the Internet. How can you trust someone you don’t know?” I tried to explain that things have changed and that you could put some testimonials on your site so your prospects could see that you have several satisfied clients.

A couple of hours later, when I went back home, I started thinking about what Grandma said. I thought she might be right. I started thinking about all those times we sent proposals to prospects that decided to go with local companies. In most cases we offered a lot more at a much better price but we didn’t land the accounts because we weren’t local. I’m not saying that everybody needs to meet in person with you before hiring you, but a large percentage of people won’t give you a penny unless they know you in person. This is even more true if you sell high-ticket items (that cost over $200).

I decided to start a little experiment and fly out to meet with companies that expressed real interest in our services and had products I really wanted to promote for them. The results blew my mind: we’ve gotten more clients in one month of meeting with people in person than we had gotten in the last four months communicating via phone and email.

I still think that social media, email and phone are essential tools and I couldn’t work without them. We use social media marketing to drive people to our site. Once they contact us, we email them back asking them some questions. If they are interested in our services and we’re interested in promoting them, we arrange for a phone call. If the phone call is good, then in most cases we meet in person to work out the some details and create a plan of action together with our client. Adding this last step (meeting with them in person) has made all the difference.

Can you learn something from my story? Do you communicate with your prospects always by email? Try calling them. Do you deal with them over the phone? Meet them in person. You need to earn their trust before you get their business, and a real, old-school meeting is worth 1,000 emails and at least 100 phone calls.

Author: Zeke Camusio

Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur, marketing speaker, author of The Internet Marketing Bible and CEO of The Outsourcing Company, an Internet marketing agency based out of Portland, Oregon.

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6 Responses

1. 

   1

   Margie Mintz 
   

   Thanks, Zeke. I’m a new subscriber, and have been enjoying your writings. This was particularly good as a reminder to keep all of our communications avenues open. I had a phone call yesterday that lasted way longer than I had intended, and Ii kept thinking how much more efficient email would have been. Then we discovered we had both gone to the same high school and had friends and some interesting memories in common.

   My grandmother would have said the same thing! (actually her infamous – in our family – quote is from a visit where she complimented a sweater and asked where I had gotten it. The much repeated quote was “I can’t beleive you got that sweater from the internet”)

   Keep it up,
   Margie

2. 

   2

   Zeke Camusio 
   

   That’s a funny story, Margie. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

   Zeke

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   3

   David Green 
   

   Good points, Zeke! I just got a call last week from a local business that had hired someone in Utah to setup a website for them and they weren’t making much progress – now their main concern is to work with “someone local” that they can meet with and “wrap their hands around their throat” if things aren’t done right!

   Another experience: I’m working to grow a non-profit organization to an inclusive residential community for developmentally disabled adults in our area – (more info at http://www.ospreyvillage.org). We recently held a fundraising event at a local yacht club, and most of the promotion was done via personal contacts. I also posted about it on our website and Facebook Fan page as well, but didn’t see much in the way of hits or interest from those efforts.

   We only had about 45 people actually show up for the event, but we got numerous donations from those who couldn’t come plus raised some money from a small silent auction at the event. Even more important was the fact that we were able to talk directly to those 45 people who had already shown an interest in our organization, OSPREY Village.

   The net results: we raised almost $4000 from the event itself and from donations prior to the event, but we also got checks for $6000 in donations AFTER the event from those who personally heard us talk about our vision and mission and decided to support us further! That personal touch (and followup) can make a big difference!

   David G.

4. 

   4

   Zeke Camusio 
   

   Wow, David! Thank you so much for sharing that experience. It makes me happy when I hear stories from people who do things for others.

   Have an amazing day!

   Zeke

5. 

   5

   Jane 
   

   I have had the exact same sorts of situations described above occur! When the people in my business support groups and networking events see me present my StickFiggy business concepts (children’s books, stationary, and gift items) they respond very enthusiastically. However, when I contacted an expert in the image licensing industry via e-mail, the response was very different. I understand the phenomenon and see why people try to narrow the gap with things like video blogging etc.. but I’m still nervous about the challenge of selling my first StickFiggy picture-book story to a publisher when I can’t be present! (these things are just mailed in!) However… people- perhaps this is a place where something like twitter can break the ice if you can find the right contact! Ever had success “cutting in line” and talking to a key person in this way?
   Cheers,
   Jane

6. 

   6

   Kevin 
   

   G’Day again Zeke,
   I am an Electrical and computer systems engineer, was a senior engineer with some of the biggest names in mobile telecommunications, (Australia, USA, Netherlands, Switzerland). I am a techo, Oracle DBA certification, self taught web, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, Php development. A few years ago I released a web site, Php5, MySQL, with a content management system I developed solely. This sports website permitted sporting organisations covering cricket, soccer and basketball to upload extremely detailed performance data for each match. The difference between my web application and others out there are;
   1. It is completely database driven with a user interface for novices which I created.
   2. Each club has the potential of earning advertising money by approaching local businesses. Local businesses therefore do not have to sponsor clubs for an entire season.
   I have more details and thaughts of my application but being a techo I lack a marketing genius. I visited the Football Federation of Vicroria and Crictet Victoria. My application was much better than theirs and those of any of my compettotors in Australia. I love sports and will develop more applications for anyone interested. But I need marketing help. My application has been offline for a few years, but it was my heart and sole for a few years. If you know of a sports organisation who want a web site that allows local teams to earn advertising money let me know and we will launch it again.
   Regards,
   Kevin
   kevlever@hotmail.com