(Elite) Calendar Cash: JULY

July is a great month, especially if you’re just starting out. Business owners tend to be more relaxed and reachable due to no major seasonal shopping or holidays are going on and tax time is far away.

One thing I like about July prospecting is that you’ll find higher than normal rates of owners ready to do stuff NOW as well as plan for follow-up in the fall (which will only be 1-2 months away depending on when in July you’re prospecting).

We personally look forward to not only acquiring lots of new print & mail clients but planting the seeds for more larger-scale clients that will come to fruition in September and October.

Always give yourself at least 6-7 weeks for a tentative mailing date if you’re selling 12-18 spaces, or 4-6- weeks if you’re selling 6-8 spaces such as on a 6.5×12 M6-M8 card.

This allows you 4-5 weeks of solid prospecting time and a week or more of finishing design and printing time.

Always make a huge effort right away and keep momentum going. It’s very easy to get comfortable after a few sales, which leads to complacency, and suddenly you’re down to the wire because you slacked off mid-way.

If you reach 3-5 business owners per day, you will find that within two weeks you’ll have at least 10 ads sold. That’s a conservative figure.

Most all problems selling ads are a result of any of the following:

1. Not reaching owners (and instead pitching non-decision makers)
2. Giving too much info out too soon.
3. Not getting a sample card in the owners hand
4. Not offering an incentive to act now
5. Not following up

All of those problems can be easily rectified and can be the difference between selling cards at lightning speed or at a snail’s pace.

Hottest Niches:

1. HVAC (Air conditioning service)
2. Pest Control
3. Window & Siding Replacment
4. Roofers
5. Pool Cleaning Service
6. Bicycle Repair
7. Small Engine Repair
8. Auto Mechanics & Oil Change Stations
9. Car Washes
10. Home & Garden, Landscape supply, etc.
11. Tree & Shrub Removal
12. Amusement Parks
13. Events & Attractions
14. Church Festivals
15. Flea Markets/Farmers Markets
16. Fence Installers
17. Garage Door Service
18. Driveway Sealing
19. Painters
20. Junk Removal
21. Motorcycle & ATV Dealers
22. Jetski Dealers
23. Marine Services
24. Golf Supply
25. Golf Courses
26. Golf Instruction
27. Berry Picking/Farms
28. Wedding Planners
29. Catering
30. Mini Golf & Driving Ranges
31. Boutiques (sunglasses sales especially)
32. Fireworks Dealers

Heavy Hitters

These are the niches that tend to spend money on advertising freely all year ’round.

1.  Lawyers
2. Car Dealers
3. Furniture Stores
4. Plastic Surgeons
5. Cosmetic Dentistry
6. Lasik Surgeons

All-Around Good Targets

These are the nichesthat you can always count on to be advertising throughout the year.

1. Dentists
2. Chiropractors
3. Insurance Agents
4. Real Estate Teams (go for teams and groups over brokers if possible)
5. Hair & Nail Salons
6. Spas
7. Massage Therapists
8. Restaurants
9. Bar & Grills
10. Cafe’s & Bistros
11. Credit restoration
12. Bakeries & Cupcakeries
13. Chocolatiers & Confectionaries
14. Florists
15. Dry Cleaners
16. Auto Accessories
17. Flooring & Carpet
18. Masonry
19. Wine & Liquor
20. Vape Shops
21. Health Food & Vitamin Stores
22. Veterinarians
23. Jewelers
24. Dance & Gymnastics
25. Martial Arts
26. Churches
27. Private Tutors
28. Toy & Hobby
29. Photographers
30. Travel Agents
31. Gold Buyers
32. Gyms & Fitness
33. Weight Loss Centers
34. Bicycle Shops
35. Carpet Cleaning Services
36. Running Shoe Stores
37. House Cleaners
38. Musical Instrument Sales & Instruction

Email:

Everyone loves the thought of prospecting by email. Email is a great 9×12 prospecting tool should you use it correctly.

Here’s a proven script you can feel free to use:

“Hi, my name’s X and I own a small printing business locally. I’m putting together a postcard mailing that’s featuring local businesses and mailing it out to everyone in X area, X area, X area, etc.

If you’ve got a sale or coupon or anything coming up it would be a great way to let every household in town know about it.

I was going to stop by next week to drop off some more info as I think you’d be a good business to feature on it. Let me know if that’s not OK or if a certain day & time works for you.

You can reply here or feel free to call me anytime on my cell at: XXXXX”

—

The most effective prospecting follows a series of well planned steps that each increases the chances of getting to the next step. If you try to leap from the bottom to the top step, you have a much higher chance of failure.

Just like emailing, cold calling should also work in a multi-step process for the best results.

Here’s the proven script we most use currently:

Assuming you have the owner:

“Hi, my name’s X from XYZ printing, how’s it going today?

[wait for response]

Great, the reason for the call is that we’re printing this big postcard throughout [X area] featuring businesses that have sales or promotions going on next month, would it be all right if I sent you some information on it to see if you’re interested or not?

[get email]

ok great we’ll send it over to you and you can look it over. Do you do much advertising now?

[collect information, start a dialogue]

{then ‘suddenly have an epiphany’] …

Oh actually you know John, you probably should see an actual sample of one of these cards, will you be around thursday afternoon if I gave you one to look at? [figure out a time that works if that doesn’t]

---

Now you have a solid lead that knows you’re coming, has given basic info (enough to determine basic interest), hopefully more information during dialogue, and is OK’ing you to stop by.

Remember, it’s a multi-step process. Don’t give them the pricing, don’t give them a ton of info… if they keep pressing you, just set a time where you can stop by for five minutes or so along with a sample.

Trust me, you’ll close exponentially more deals in front of their face than if you try to close over the phone. Don’t burn good leads!

M3’s are best used to give you or your client free advertising in the form of getting two partners to pay for or dilute the cost of the mailing.

For simplicity, I’ll assume you want to assemble an M3 for your local marketing business, so you would target partners who would also want to reach local businesses.

Charging partners 25-30 cents each per card will cover most mailings of 1,000 or so businesses and give you completely free targeted exposure.

These are businesses that are likely to want to reach other local businesses (and thus give you the free ride).

1. Office Cleaning & Janitorial Services
2. Window Washing Service
3. Power Washing Services
4. Insurance Agents
5. Accountants, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services
6. Water Suppliers
7. Restaurants & Caterers
8. Electricians
9. Computer Service, IT & Networking Services
10. Office Supply
11. Communications (phone services)
12. Carpet Cleaning Services

Hi, my name’s Jake and I own a local printing business here in X town.

I thought I’d give you a shout because I’m thinking about mailing a big postcard out to every business in X, X, and X and I figured you might want to reach every business with your services too?

I figure if we get two or three of us that don’t compete, and share the space evenly on a huge postcard (and since I’m able to print everything cheaply), we’d all save a fortune and reach all local businesses in one swoop.

If you’re interested or have any questions feel free to reply or give me a call on my cell at XXX XXX XXXX, I’m looking to probably get this out within a month.

Targeted mailings (solo, not co-op) are outstanding not only because they’re wicked easy to fulfill, but because they open up doors to consulting services.

Business owners, when interested in targeted mailing, quickly become more curious about direct marketing, advanced targeting, and marketing systems and funnels in general … all with you as the obvious expert.

The best way to sell targeted mailings is to make sure your target prospects are likely to be able to afford doing solo mailers and are likely to have a specific audience they cater to.

Many local businesses don’t exactly know how precisely they can target their ideal audience and you can really open their eyes (and their wallet).

For businesses that may want to reach commercial prospects, feel free to scroll up to the “M3” prospect list and use the B2B prospect list.

Here are great niches that do well in the targeted mailing sector based on our experience and results:

1. Real Estate Teams & Groups (sometimes individual agents but almost always target teams or groups as they have much more advertising $$$ and need for leads.
2. Car Dealers
3. Private Schools (this can be tutoring services as well — generally called ‘learning centers’ and such).
4. Dentists
5. Cosmetic Dentists
6. Chiropractors
7. Financial Planners
8. Established Boutiques
9. Jewelers
10. Pool Supply and Installation
11. Remodelers
12. Window & Siding Replacement
13. Garage Door Installation
14. Basement Remodelers
15. Plastic Surgeons
16. Furniture Dealers
17. HVAC
18. Veterinarians

Email Script

I like to always think of the data first, then look for who might be interested in that particular data.

Say for example, 40-60 year old homeowners making over $150,000/year and living in homes over $200k in value may appeal to certain industries that you can target, etc.

There are an infinite amount of combinations of age, sex, marital status, income, home status, home value, and more that you can put together and find good prospects for. Even more opportunity exists when you target even deeper, such as presence of children, children ages, life events like new parent, recently divorced, new mover, new homeowner, etc.

This type of data is easily found and analyzed using the resources in the elite content area.

And for even better results, utilize the crystal ball technique (that you should NEVER be without!).

Nearly all local brick & mortar businesses print stuff in one form or another. They have to go somewhere to print them and often just go wherever is closest or fastest.

There is an amazing amount of business to be had offering print services that you can completely broker 100% for all fulfillment.

Offering Print and Design services are a great way to introduce yourself and become an integral part of your local business community as well as a door-opener for your other, more difficult to sell services.

Print & Design is also a great supplement to your 9×12 business, because if you can’t sell an ad space to a prospect, you have an immediate “backup” service that has a high chance of interest.

There’s so many products you can outsource out and sell:

1. Business cards
2. Letterhead
3. Envelopes
4. Brochures
5. Booklets
6. Rack Cards
7. General Signage
8. Trade Show Signs
9. Vinyl Banners
10. Outdoor Feather Signs
11. Yard Signs
12. NCR Forms
13. Calendars
14. Notepads
15. Magnets
16. Flyers
17. Event Tickets
18. Doorhangers
19. Hang-tags
20. Table Tents
21. Window Clings
22. Vehicle Magnets

Virtually all local businesses are good targets for printing services however some will obviously do more and spend more than others.

One thing I’ll mention, it never ceases to amaze me at how large printing jobs can seem to just come out of nowhere with no way to predict it. We’ll sell business cards to a company and then within a few months be selling thousands of dollars per month in printing (especially with companies that have multiple branches and such).

Throughout July we’re prospecting all across the nation mostly for:

1. Window & Siding Companies
2. Remodelers
3. Carpet Cleaners
4. Home & Garden Supply
5. Pizzerias
6. Realtors
7. Lawyers
8. Garage Door Installers
9. Insurance Agencies
10. Salons & Spas