When I started my business, I learned a “one-call-close” sales process.

I would walk into the office of an agency owner that I had never met before, and my goal was to walk out with a check!

The crazy part is that it worked.

While I had success with this process, I don’t recommend it for creative service firms.

I think it’s better to sell slower.

Let me explain.

When I see pitches from creative firms, it’s usually some version of:

– Your current marketing is letting you down.
– We’re smart and creative, and we can make your marketing better.
– Oh, and it’s going to cost you a lot of money.

If that’s what your pitch outline looks like — can you see what a leap you are asking for?

How can we make that gap smaller? How can we make that leap safer for the client?

Pitch a low-cost “starter” engagement.

Even if the client is coming to you and asking for you to pitch a full marketing plan, how can you do that? What do you know about their business?

OK, let’s say you’ve specialized, and you know a lot about businesses “like” this one. You still don’t understand the dynamics of this business with these people. You don’t know the history of how they got here, what they’ve tried before, and the constraints they are facing.

Yes, you should try to uncover some of this in the discovery call, but how forthcoming are they going to be in that first call?

How can we “date” before we get married!

If you don’t have a low-cost “starter” engagement that you regularly sell to your prospects, hit reply, and let’s get on the phone and brainstorm some ways you can date a prospect before you marry them!