antipreneur Archives - The Sales Experiment

I’ve always considered myself a teacher. I used to dream of people standing on their desks and saying “O Captain, My Captain” to me when I finally retired after 50 years of pouring into young minds.

But alas, I’m not that kind of teacher. I still love to teach. Perhaps it gets in the way of my sales because I almost am more jazzed when a client or prospect finally understands some strange insurance concept than I do when they sign on the dotted line.

According to John Jantsch, though, in his interview with Michael Stelzner on the Social Media Marketing Podcast, teaching is an effective way to engage potential clients.

Financial planners do it all the time. They will put on those seminars in the side room at the local mid-range restaurant, gathering 20-30 prospective clients to share information about handling money, budgeting, and investing. It must work. At least Pappadeaux and the like are making some cash on the practice.

Since I love teaching. And I make a living selling. Why not harness my teaching and find opportunities to give presentations to my target audience?

Today’s Action: Make a List of Potential ‘Audiences’ and Reach Out to at least One of Them

I’ve given a few talks in the past and am sure I can come up with clear content.

The content is useless without an audience.

So, per John Jantsch’s challenge in the podcast, I shall seek opportunities to teach. Not only will I teach, but I’ll give away the farm. I agree that while some individuals will take my information and go do their own thing, many people just want to be able to trust someone. If I can show what I know, then perhaps I’ll be the trusted guy.

Where I might be able to find audiences:

Community Foundations: There are foundations all over Atlanta. Perhaps they’d want someone to deliver content to the nonprofits they distribute grants to?
Associations: Associations need to provide value to their members. I’d love to be part of their value.
LinkedIn Groups: Local based LinkedIn groups might be a good option.

I was able to come up with a few potential options right off the bat and reached out to one of them. We’ll see how this one goes.

If this works out, I’ll have to bone up on my Powerpoint of Keynote (but don’t worry, I’ve listened to enough Michael Hyatt to know not to use my ‘bullets to kill’… you know, death by Powerpoint and all that.

Other Content for Today

In addition to the Social Media Examiner podcast referenced above (and used for today’s challenge…

Antipreneur Podcast with Ben Settle – #27: How to Double Your Sales by Spewing People off Your Email List – I would have used this one, but I couldn’t think of anything controversial to blog about.

In the Meantime – North Point Community Church with Andy Stanley – Finding Contentment: A correction of how we normally use “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me”

There you have it… I started my list and sent a cold email. I’ll get on the phone and call 10 by the end of the week.

Until tomorrow…

If my goal is to hit a certain income level by March 1, then it makes sense to actually plan that out, right?

If I want to hit 180 lbs by 12/31/14, can I not back into that goal by doing a bit of math?

The old Stephen Covey Habit for Effective People, “Begin with the End in Mind” was brought up in a podcast I listened to today.

So that’s my action item inspiration: “Begin with the End in Mind”

The action item: Do the math. What would it take for me to get to where I want to be by March 1?

So that’s what I did. I figured out what the monthly revenue needs to be by 3/1/14.

The question now is the how.

What skills do I have can I leverage for additional salary or project/contractor work?

What types of clients can I engage?

What problems can I solve?

Those are pretty much the questions any business needs to answer, right?

I’ve done the math. Starting in October, I need to hit a certain benchmark. You don’t need to know what that benchmark is, but that’s less important than figuring out how to hit the benchmarks.

But tonight is Friday night…

And my wife and I are supposed to be catching up, so I’m going to address that priority and shut down the WordPress

The Content I Consumed Today

How to Analyze Your Market Like the FBI Analyzes Serial Criminals and Criminal Masterminds: Antipreneur Podcast by Ben Settle. This episode actually dovetails quite nicely with two recent posts on better understanding your target audience. Settle, though, really removes a lot of the mystery and shoots from the hip as per usual.

Do Something That Doesn’t Work: 48 Days On Demand Radio with Dan Miller – Dan hits on the whole ‘Begin with the end in mind’ idea in this episode of his weekly podcast. Another important idea, especially if you are concerned about the time you have to look for work or build a platform. Try scheduling dedicated time, even if it’s only an hour. Try it. Schedule it and keep your appointment with yourself.