A couple of years back I made a small speech to a major business group in my home town.
The function was attended by 600 people (300 more than the function usually gets) because the key note speaker was a guy called John Singleton. John is a major player in the advertising industry in Australia and has been for many years.
We were sitting there having a chat when a guy came up and asked John how he managed to make his start and secure a major account with a guy called Gerry Harvey (Gerry is a billionaire retailer).
John’s answer was pretty simple
Mate, I just rang him up and asked to see him.
I went in and said my name’s John Singleton. I have an advertising business and I reckon we can make you more money by doing TV ads for your business. Do you want to hear more?
He said “Yes”, I made a pitch and he bought some ads.
Nowadays, John’s agencies provide something like 1 out of every 2 commercials on Australian TV!
Don’t be shy!
Get out there and ask people to buy your stuff.
As a quick example, Tailored Media is the sort of business where we often identify marketing strategies that would work well for businesses we have no connection with.
We step up to them – whether it is via direct mail, a newspaper advertisement, a telephone call, whatever – tell them we have the solution to their problem and ask them to buy it (it’s always best if we can talk with them and identify their problems and then offered tailored solutions, of course).
Can you ask more people to buy your stuff?
- Might be by making an offer to old customers
- Might be by doing a telemarketing campaign
- Might be by doing a direct mail campaign
Keep asking people to buy your stuff. Not all of them will of course, but many will.
Remember, don’t be shy! Your business success depends on it.
Cheers
