I Learned it from YOU Dad!
Ok, so not from my dad…
Rather from the biggest and most important influence on my life these past 12 years… my wife: feet hitting the pavement.
If you want to get a job, you have to walk the beat.
The backstory goes something like this:
My then fiancee and I had just moved to Barcelona because I couldn’t find work in the UK… and it was a bit too cold for my Texan blood. So we upped-sticks, as my wife likes to say, and moved to Spain.
I had a good feeling about Spain: I spoke Spanish fluently, I had lots of experience as an ESL teacher, and the weather was much warmer than in the UK.
But after a week, I still hadn’t landed a job. I had the qualifications, but nothing was popping up on the internet that looked appealing. So Josie convinced me to get out there and just walk the streets until I landed a gig.
My feet hit the pavement and I wandered aimlessly down the big city sidewalks handing out my CV and holding impromptu interviews with potential would-be employers. After two days I had 5 proper interviews and 3 solid part-time jobs!
Not JUST digital marketing.
My new web development and digital marketing business is doing well currently, but if I should lose one or two of my big clients, I’d be in deep #poopybrown water without a paddle! But, I sell digital marketing, so shouldn’t I just market my own business digitally? yes… … and NO!
Not JUST #digiMarketing.
My family, as I’ve mentioned before, is doing a bit of traveling here for the next couple/several months/years, and so I’ve come up with a bit of a marketing game plan… I’m going to go out and physically meet my #WouldBeClients and my current customers #Face2Face.
My plan is this, I’m going to have my feet figuratively hit the pavement in every major and not-so-major city and village we spend ANY length of time in along the way. I’ll pick out a handful of what look like high-potential leads, research them, choose the best 3 or 4 prospects and then build up a mock strategy for each.
I’ll then spend an afternoon and walk my #happyself into their establishment and present my plan. I won’t lay it on too thick. This will be, after-all, a slightly more personal form of unsolicited #Door2DoorMarketing.
Sell holes – people need drills to make the holes
As my friend Brian Trusty (Executive Director of the Texas’ Chapter of the Audubon Society) once taught me, in order to sell someone a drill, you don’t tell them about what your drill (or any drill for that matter) can do, instead, you show them how important it is that they be able to make holes… if only they had a drill that could do that for them!
So, yeah… I’ve collected my first list of leads out here in a small town in the north of England and I’m hoping that tomorrow, I’ll meet my #NewestClient – he just doesn’t know it yet!
Is it a contradiction?
So tell me, is it contradictory that I’m practicing #FeetHittingPavement while I’m selling #DigiMarketing … it’s not right?
What are some other methods you’ve used to catch that lead that might otherwise seem a little untraditional in your particular field? Leave me a comment because I’d really like to know!
