COVID-19 Agency Battle Plan with Rob Warner Part 3 – How to Survive in Today’s Market

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Prospecting is the key to surviving today’s market. Now more than ever, people will only listen to what they truly care about.

In part 3 of the COVID-19 Agency Battle Plan with Rob Warner, Joe and Rob map out the tactics and strategies for successful prospecting that addresses the problems that prospects face in these difficult times.

Show Notes

  • Prospecting in today’s climate {00:48}
  • Doing the Opposite and getting creative {2:43}
  • Ethical Opportunism {4:28}
  • Billing Terms {5:26}
  • Special packages {6:38}
  • Prospecting scripts and angles {8:10}
  • Connecting with a more personal approach {11:35}
  • How Paypal Credit works {12:09}
  • Serving your niche/community {12:41}

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Joe Troyer

So how do we survive in today's market? I think now more than ever, we got to be really really, really careful. We've gotten asked a ton of times about how do you prospect during today's climate. And I think that if you're not careful, if you're not really careful in your messaging, you come across tone deaf. And when you come across tone deaf, I think in today's market in today's climate, you're not going to get anywhere, you're going to get completely ignored or you're going to get a big fat FU as a response. Right? And what I mean by tone deaf is that people are very sensitive right now. and rightfully so, right?

More than ever, people only want to listen to what they care about. Okay, so you want to speak to what prospects are concerned about right now. An example of tone deaf would be sending out a prospect prospecting email, right, that doesn't address COVID-19 that doesn't address what's happening that doesn't address the pandemic and it's just acting like business as usual. That's being timed out, right. But if instead you change your messaging slightly you tweak it, you update To speak to the concerns that Dentists have about COVID-19. In their practice, you're going to get a much, much better outcome. Right? So you want to speak to your prospects and figure out what they are concerned about. And then ultimately, you want to align your products and services to really overcome prospects concerns.

And this really makes me think about a quote, and me and my wife say this all the time, right whenever one zigs zag I really encourage you guys to really do the opposite of what everyone else is doing in your market. Be creative, create your own path and think outside the box. Ultimately, be the best and prepare to reap the rewards. In today's market I think you have to expect the best. You have to prepare for the worst. And you got to figure out how to capitalize on what comes. Just don't be like Homer Simpson, right?

Please don't stop prospecting. This really, really concerns me in the current state of affairs. I see so many agencies and so many marketers just throwing up their hands, binge watching Netflix for like, literally hours and hours or days on end, and completely changing the trajectory of their business. So please, please, please don't stop prospecting, embrace this. So let's talk about how to still prospect and even make sales in today's climate, which is what we're doing. Now. Rob, you want to take this one?

Rob Warner

Sure. Absolutely. And I'm going to add a phrase into this that I heard on Here's a podcast I was listening to the other day, when it was Dean Jackson, Joe Polish and Jay Abraham talking referred to earlier comment, how am I spending my time I listen to smart people. They use the phrase that I think couldn't be more appropriate for the current situation, which is ethical opportunism. That means being aware of what's going on in the market today, adjusting your mindset and your marketing appropriately. But taking advantage of the opportunity that it creates in a way that is beneficial to the other people, and that's going to be key.

It's gonna be valuable. If you're ethical about it, there are huge opportunities right now. So, so Joe has already said Don't be tone deaf, acknowledge what's going on in the world, lean in and align your product or service as a solution for their current problems in dealing with COVID-19. We spoke about that What we do with dentists right now, we know they can't do implants and veneers which are our most profitable services. But by just making them the go to in their town for emergency patient treatments, allows them to keep the lights on that pays the bills. So lean in, align it, make it real, don't fake it, and you're putting yourself in the box seat. Now billing terms, cash can be an issue right now.

So think about different ways that you can present your offer so that you can still win the client still some or all of your money but in a way that is sensitive to their needs right now as well. We've just said to everybody in this call, preserve cash. They've been told to say most likely so think about deals like half rate to start. Maybe you start three months for half price. prove your worth and build the relationship. That means you margins are lower, you've still got a client, it still keeps you busy. One thing that we recently used the first time ever now is we called PayPal bill me later, if you Google it, it's called PayPal credit. And it's available to most people who take payments via PayPal. Certainly in the UK and Australia, it's available to merchants in those countries. And from the buyers point of view, it gives them depending on the country in the deal, four to six months, interest free to make that payment for you, as a business owner, you get paid right away. So think about that, that allows you to sign somebody up

and say, Hey, let me come in. I will start and solve your problems today for you, I'll make a positive impact. And you don't have to pay for three to four months by which time you've already got massive value out of it. That's a huge offer. Not everybody is accepted. But if 50% are, that's a great place to be. Sign now half rate for 90 days. Sign now half rate for 90 days. You can do a drop, but what to reduce specification of service? Okay? Well, you should do emergency dental for now for three months, then we're going to do veneers, implants and teeth whitening. You get the idea of just saying half doesn't mean same service for half the price, a smaller, more focused, more appropriate service for half the price but expands in the future, you get the idea.

Joe Troyer

Somebody asked what we're doing right now, guys, we're really doing the no payments for 90 days using PayPal credit or a service like PayPal credit is the one that we're playing with right now. So just full disclosure, but there's some other options obviously, that you guys could try as well.

Rob Warner

And it's working as well. It's certainly when we said about people booking appointments,it's certainly something that helps get that callover the line.

Joe Troyer

We've gotten a lot of people that are like I'm interested but you know with COVID-19 and then We talked about how we're rolling out a special or a package for no payments for 90 days. And that's getting a lot of people to book. So Alright, so leading with value while or where you can so a lot of people have asked me like Joe, what prospecting scripts or angles Can I use right now And guys, there's really no limit. If you think about it, all the angles that worked before are going to work now. Again, if I were you again, just don't be tone deaf. Right? So if somebody Google My Business hours aren't correct, and they haven't addressed or updated them from COVID-19 since the outbreak happened, you can see that easily and you can prospect and, and and outreach to that business owner, right, showing them how to update that or offering to update that.

But don't ignore that COVID-19 has happened. Right. So embrace that talk about that. Okay, if people aren't posting on social and letting their customers and their prospects know about it, right, lean in. Okay, use that as an angle to outreach with. Okay, if on people's website, they're not talking about COVID-19 and dealing with it when a prospect lands there, they're not going to know if the person's open or if they have social distancing as part of their service and whether or not they should use them. At the end of the day, like businesses can be tone deaf too, right and if they aren't social posting, if their hours haven't adjusted, if they're not literally on the landing page that somebody lands on when they click on their website, talking about and dealing with COVID-19 they're coming off as tone deaf.

So obviously, we've talked about how important that is. For all of you guys's agencies right now. It's just as important for local businesses. I have somebody in, in our private slack group telling me about how they're doing really, really well. reaching out to people with SSL issues right now. Okay, and just saying, Hey, I'm sure lots of people are trying to contact you right now because of COVID-19. But when they click on your website, right, they see this error and they take a screenshot of the error in Chrome and send it to him. Right? Can I help you with that? You can obviously reach out in terms of in a marketing angle talking about COVID-19.

And what they should be doing, you guys should have seen the the, the marketing pack that we put together for dentist, right? really coming out as like a public service expert angle, like, here's the survival guide for dentists in COVID-19. One of the cool angles that we baked in there was and this was really, Rob's doing was like, I've sent this out to all my dental customers, but I also thought I should send it out to you. So even though They're a prospect, they're not a paying customer, right, they still see value in what you're sending them. And think that you made a special exception for that, like that's a that's a great marketing angle. So again, the angles are limitless. At the end of the day, find a way to help. And then don't be tone deaf. Right, embrace that COVID-19 is happening to you say that you're working from home and that you have extra time. And so you're just helping local businesses. That's an excellent way to get your foot in the door. And it's believable, right? It's real.

Rob Warner

Joe you can always call them and ask them as well currently. And one thing, one thing I say with right now is everything needs to feel one to one and personally cannot feel mass. It can't feel like they're just one person with email blast of 1000. I strongly recommend at the moment sending out anything you do, personally through a personal email account or a personal phone call. So if you say hey, I've done this myself My customers occurred to me, you might need it. Would it be helpful if I send it over to you? If not, no problems, no pitch, just there you go.

Joe Troyer

We got a couple people I see in the chat asking about how PayPal credit works. So you guys get paid immediately. Right? The funds, they pay those, you know, those funds that they paid you over time through PayPal credit, simple stuff. Yep. Sounds simple. In most markets, it's, you know, you know, 90 days at least, or up to six months we've seen in zero interest. But then after that there's interest, there's fees and penalties if it doesn't get paid, but super simple service. So, how can you everybody on the call, as a marketer, as an agency, stand up and serve your local or niche community? I think at the end of the day, it's really, really simple.

Like we just got to get active, we got to double down. We just kind of get out in our market and buy our market. That can be a local community right of people that you're helping or that could be a specific niche or specific niches and you just help and lead with value. Right and idea. Somebody again in our private slack group is running a free webinar and I think they're going to turn it into a series for COVID-19 for a niche that they have an email list for they have access to an email list. Okay, you guys could help Chamber of Commerce's with this or or groups of software as a service companies that have your clients, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, etc. Everybody's panicking right now.

And I saw a lot of comments from people saying that they're getting emails from people and they're being tone deaf. Now's the time right lead with value. teamed up with one of these people that has the customers that you will want access to an offer to run a free webinar series. Okay, helping them teaching them what they should be doing during COVID-19 seem like you're gonna set yourself up as an amazing expert, and to really reap the rewards now, and as this COVID-19 thing goes away whenever that timeline is, so build your retail reputation now, as an expert show off your leadership during this critical time. And folks just think about and for me, I'm always thinking about this and everything that I do is how can I give more than I take? Right How can I provide more value? Right than I take

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