It's been a long, long time since I've prepared for a sales call. Normally I'd just wing it and printing has been so boring after 25 years I'm long in the tooth. This Internet marketing stuff is different, I'm pumped about it. I was also wanting to be prepared for this call, it was the test to see if I'm on to something or not.
I've been giving it some thought in terms of how much I should be charging. I want accounts that are going to commit to 20 hours a week at $25 or $2000 per month. I truly feel that to do a good job I need poochie and friends working on it everyday. I was thinking I might make an exception for the physiotherapy place because I don't know if they can afford it. My mistake thinking that, I got to shake the wholesale Winnipeg boy out of the system.
My meeting at the Physio place was 11:40 am, I had a 10 am meeting at work, printed out the reports and was off to my meeting. We met in the treatment area and used one of the physio tables as our desk. I fired up the laptop, pulled out the reports and it was game on. It was awesome, I love the Internet stuff and I was showing her what the reports said, what things mean and what she needs to do. I started it off as if she wanted to do it this is what she needs to do. I even knew who built her site through the DNS research I did and it was an printer doing web and they did a not very good job. I suggested she needs to redesign the site along with about 20 other suggestions. By the end of it she was asking me how much I would charge.
I played it cool and positioned myself as this is really a start up for me, it's naturally evolved. I primarily learnt all this for myself and launched my own websites, all true. I embellished how successful the sites were a little. I brought it all around telling her that she can't afford not to do Internet marketing, she's losing business and the industry as a whole is terrible. I told her to think of every client that walks in the door as a long-term client and not worth one treatment but 5 years of treatments. I've been told a typical physio patient is worth $5000. If that's the case, if they could get one person a week come to their business that could be worth $250,000 per year of lifetime sales. Quick ROI.
I told her that I like to assign my guys in blocks of 4 hours, 20 hours a week at $25 per month. She did the math and said $2000 per month. I said yes. I then said she needs to make at least a 3 - 6 month commitment for it to work over the longer term. I also said I could give her a break and do 10 hours a week. She then surprised me and didn't seem to think $2000 was a crazy price. She thought maybe I could get started full time and after 2 or 3 months take it down to $1000 per month. In addition to my fees I told her to budget an extra $1000 per month for website, press releases, pay per click charges, etc. She didn't seem to balk, if anything I was trying to give it to her cheaper. She said she paid $2000 for her current site when I asked her. I told her we could get a new site up for under $1000 that looks way better. She definitely believed I could do the job and asked me to send her the numbers we talked about in an email. She's going to review and think about it and get back to me when I get back from Vegas. I was shocked how much she was on board for a 3 person business. Now that might change, we'll see if she can afford it. I hope so it would be an extra $1500 per month in my jeans after expenses.
I still hadn't heard from Wayne and it's been driving me crazy. I've had major anxiety and not the type of feelings I want to take with me and stew on in Vegas for the next 10 days. I came up with a plan and called him, I got his voice mail and left a message that it's very important I get a hold of him before he has his meeting with Chris on Thursday, it's important. What I wanted to tell him was not to try and have Chris take a pay cut, he's told me he'd walk if he was asked and we couldn't go forward without him. My life would be hell.
At 4 pm he called me back. At first it was a little awkward but I gave some great phone and everything warmed up. I told him about Chris and then segwayed into my situation. He mentioned that the only thing he didn't like about my email was the line "I do sympathize with your financial situation at Oakville". He felt that I was dumping it on him and not taking it that it was "OUR" financial situation. I calmly explained that was not the spirit of the comment and he misunderstood. He mentioned that after our conversation and my email to him that it's been weighing heavily on his mind. That kind of surprised me that it was bothering him too. I wanted to get everything out in the open and come up with some sort of plan moving forward and let him know I'm still on board. It was a pleasant jousting match back and forth. He said he shouldn't have agreed to pay me so much for a money losing operation, I told him I assumed he evaluated the situation and it made sense to him at the time as it did me and thats' why I chose his offer over others. I purposely was very gentle and kept talking profitability is needed for both of us. That I'm motivated because if the company does well I'll do well. I did the dance.
My objective is to do what I need to do to keep the money coming in. I asked him about my next check, he asked when it's due, I said next week. I asked what he suggests we do. He very gingerly answered in around about way that he wants me to accept the wage reduction of $25,000 per year and pro-rate that check. I say round about because the he wasn't directly saying it until I clarified it with him. I said I'd accept it and I told him that I'm kind of numb, anytime you deal with a persons wage it is a sensitive situation and with commissions being paid he's reducing my wage by about $80,000. He paid me $100,000 last year as part of our consulting agreement and thought that meeting in the middle was fair. I told him that that was part of the sale price and I haven't made under $200,000 in over 12 years.
I set it up that I'll accept what he's suggesting in terms of an immediate reduction and lets work together to finalize a plan over the longer term after looking at the sales numbers and profits. It let him win this battle. I said I don't want to keep revisiting this every few months, I need the stability to know what the plan is. I'm gently setting it up that it will naturally flow for him allowing me to pursue other income opportunities. I need to make $200,000 plus and he needs to pay a lot less. Not to mention the margins in the photo books are getting worse and worse. It's not a great business and you can only make money if you do huge volume. Wayne is getting impatient and wants a return on his money not a bottomless pit of loses. I don't think Wayne's pockets are that deal. As a side bar I found out that Wayne just turned 49 years old on Oct 6th. He looks good for his age, I thought he was younger than me, maybe 43 years old. Al thought the same thing, we both were surprised.
In the end I was relieved. I got Wayne committed to sending me the next 4 months of post dated checks for the reduced amount and I got peace of mind that the money will be in my bank and that Wayne and I are still on track. Now that I got the Picaboo deal on the side I'm up over all anyway on my base. I was at $150,000 base with Wayne, now it's $125,000 and then when I add the $60,000 from Picaboo I'm up to $185,000 base plus $750 per month for expenses from Wayne. I'm okay. We may be going to Roth next year after all. If I can get the Physio place on board and maybe one or two other accounts I can be up another $40 - $50,000 per month. Al thinks that there is a whole bunch of small business owners that know nothing about the web that need my help and in my immediate area there is enough to keep me more than busy and making good money. My brother Bob thinks the same thing. I'm starting to believe it too.
I know have 4 income streams; AG, Picaboo, Results Cloud Marketing and Caricature Toons. If I can make a little off each and keep growing I may be in a great situation in the not to distant future. I definitely know that AG is going to dry up, I give it until June that they are in the business, then all bets are off. I know that at one point Wayne will let me expand to do other things to make money and will be cool with it. I'm so glad we didn't have a signed agreement yet. All bets are off.
There was nothing but relieve when I got off the phone with Wayne, it was an hour and 15 minute conversation. I felt lite in the heart. I could now go to Vegas without any anxiety. That conversation was helpful. The concession I made and the drama I caused him for the last week and half has been good. I gave it up, but I gave a bit of a fight and caused him some hardship as well. And I'm still getting a decent amount of money paid to me. Mission accomplished.
I was thinking of going for a ride today, then it started raining and I didn't want to go earlier, I didn't want to miss Wayne's call or take his call from outside on my bike. I stayed put, it was the perfect call. Instead of training, I took it easy, let my legs heal and started packing. There is a lot of anxiety packing. I'm always worried I'm going to forget something and you don't want to take too much or too little. It ended up taking me about 2 hours to get everything packed. I was exhausted mentally afterwards and after I pre-loaded the bike box in my truck for tomorrows drive to Buffalo, I went to McDonald's for a nice big coffee. I didn't have mine this morning and I was craving it.
Then it was onto the couch to update the blog and chill. It was helpful I felt so much better. I wish I could bottle the feeling I have right now, I feel virgin white and pure in one with nature. It's like a soul cleansing. I'm so looking forward to relaxing in Vegas and moving forward with the next part of my life. Tonight I even set up and ordered my business cards on Vista Print. Then used fiverr.com to have a guy set up a MS Word letterhead template with my new logo. I'll use it to send my pricing proposal to the physio place. I love it. I also been communicating with the guy who did my logo design and saw a website design he did that looks exactly like what I want. I got a price of $400 from him and am trying to knock him down. Hell he's from Malaysia, they don't need that much money to buy there bags of rice. (hehe Simon).
Now I just need to wake up and be out the door for 7 am, get through the border with no trouble and I'm up, up and away. The only bummer will be missing the family and Halloween. The kids were laughing that I wasn't going to be here and talk to the young kids that come to the door like a pedophile. They joke that I have no ability to talk to little kids without sounding creepy.
No Training - Pack / Rest
3053 Calories
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