He Made $5K From One Postcard Using a Plain Brown Envelope

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I just spoke with Doug who just sold out his first 9x12 inch postcard and made around $4 to $5,000 in profit all while still running his separate business and he gave us his exact strategy on how he leveraged this secret little entity in town to create social proof. And he was particularly successful doing doortodoor because of this little incognito strategy that he used against receptionists to get through to the business owner. And most people are overlooking a strategy like this. And if you don't know what the 9x12 method is, it's where you sell ad slots on a large 9 by12 inch postcard and then you mail it to 5,000 doors in town. That's the value to the businesses.

So you charge $500 for each ad slot. That generates you around $8,000 in revenue and then it costs you around $3,000 to print and completely fulfill the cards. We can handle that. So you're left with $5,000 in profit. So let's go listen to this tactical master class.

You're going to love it. Take notes. >> Doug, congrats on selling out your first 9x12 in postcard. and thank you for agreeing to hop on and talk about your experience. So, first of all, what got you into the 9 by12 method?

>> Uh, it was a Facebook ad [gasps] >> that that you were running [laughter] >> and they were it well, yeah, they they clearly do. Uh, and and I I say this as someone who doesn't really spend a lot of time on Facebook. In fact, I I kind of abhore Facebook, but I out of necessity, I will, you know, log in here and there and every so often. And I started seeing your, you know, your ads pop up. [clears throat] And I'm one to always look at other ways to bump up the income stream.

I I do business consulting and I most of my clientele is not small business. In a past life, long long ago, I did I did direct sales using doing social media management to small business, but for the last few years, it's mostly been larger business. So, I thought, well, this could be kind of an interesting way to, you know, pull something into the mix that would allow me to work with small business, too. And having investigated it and seen your system and all the rest of it, I thought, well, I'd be kind of dumb not to do this. So, >> there you go, man.

>> I love it. So, so I take it the business consulting, it's your own business, right? You're not. >> It is. Yes, it is.

Yeah. Yeah. I work with a uh ID mentioned here before we got on camera, I work I have a relationship with Sandler Training that I've been doing for about six years. And for those who don't know, they're a they're a high-end uh training and consulting organization that works with sales, management, leadership, and team development. And I I both sell and facilitate programs through Sandler, but I also have affiliate relationships with a number of other um specialized B2B providers that that don't compete with Sandler.

They just complement what it is. It could be efficiency, it could be IT, it could be AI, you name it. And name your abbreviation. I probably have an organization that would do that. So, I always liken it to being a having a quiver full of arrows.

So, when you're having a conversation with the business owner, it's nice not to be shackled to a single product or service. It's nice to just explore the conversation, see where the the gaps are, where the pain points might be, and then move the conversation in that direction. So, this, as I said, opened up a bunch of doors for smaller business, which I haven't really serviced in a long time. >> Absolutely. Yeah.

So, so your primary goal in creating this card, would you say it was the profit side of things or would you say it was particularly just to get in the door with these small businesses so you can do more consulting for them? >> Well, well, probably more the profit to be frank. I mean, there there are not and I I I will never diss small business because it's like the backbone of everything in this country. We kind of rely on it. But at the same time, much of what I work with outside of this is not applicable to small business.

the the both the the price points, the costs, and and also they tend to be geared more towards companies that have a minimum of 20 employees, and it could be up to hundreds of employees. So, there's not really much opportunity to to leverage the 9 by12 and move into small business with with other vehicles. That said, in the course of conversation with small business, you never know who they know that might be an opportunity for something else. So, I I don't consider it limiting at all in that regard. >> Yeah.

And you can't go wrong with a little extra profit. So, were you satisfied with the profit? >> Yeah, I mean it's I'm not going to sit here and say it wasn't work. It was definitely I mean it was the irony of it was that I have done most of my work from here from the home office and being on camera and Zoom and all that. I don't I don't go out much.

Used to do it a lot before co but after co it was a lot of work from home. And this was this got me out again, which was kind of refreshing because when I used to sell um a door direct sales door to door, I would go to small business. I'd walk in the door and you kind of go out and meet a lot of people that way. So, it was kind of a a bit of a throwback in that regard and a lot of fun, but definitely a lot of work too. You had to talk to a lot of people.

>> Absolutely. Yeah. And I'd love to get into some of your tactics for the doortodoor, but what what did your what did your timeline look like from start to finish for this postcard? because I know you joined our group in like April, a few months ago. >> Yeah.

And and it took quite frankly, it took longer than I thought it would. I I didn't I wasn't expecting it to be a cakewalk, but I didn't think it would I would have to talk to as many businesses as I ended up talking to and following up and circling back and all that. So really, the card went out the card literally went out about two weeks ago today. Two weeks ago yesterday, I think. So, you know, do the math on that.

from sometime in April to finally getting it finished, you know, populated with all the advertisers. It was probably the better part of almost almost two months. >> Yeah. >> Close. >> And yeah, the first card can be a little bit of a grind because you're you're working with fresh relationships, people who have never heard of you before.

What would you say was like the biggest bottleneck particularly for you going doortodoor? What kind of made it take that long? Well, and and I'm I'm gonna I'm going to refine that a little bit because it wasn't strictly door-todoor, but I did in the in the course of initial outreach. I used your your system, your templates for email, like, you know, question dot dot dot dot, that whole thing. But there was a lot of followup.

It was in person at that point. So, it wasn't it wasn't just waiting for them to call back if I knew where the business was and I'd already sent them an email and they didn't respond right away. I would go in and say, "Hey, you know, the email I got." And I would pull out the the demo card and all of a sudden there's a conversation to be had. So it was but even at that even though there was there was uh interest maybe curiosity maybe not like oh where do I sign up although there were a couple people who did literally okay I might I'm in let's do it which was like yeah really [laughter] >> yeah some of them don't even ask questions >> I I didn't go that far but it was kind of like wow this is interesting but u many of them most of them required more than a more than a few touches so to speak before they they would commit or say this is not for me at at the time but uh maybe later that whole Yeah, absolutely.

So, what did the conversation look like in particular? Like when you emailed the business first, you didn't hear from them, but you knew where they were, so you went and followed up in person. >> Well, and and I mentioned this, I think, on one of the other of the uh the call the calls that you have every week. Uh the good news in my case is I'm a I'm a member of the Chamber of Commerce here in in town in Milford, and that was one of the first places I went to look for prospects. I went to the member directory.

I I pulled a bunch of people out in different, you know, different genres and different businesses that I knew I wanted to reach out to. And so the initial contact was not so much like, hey, I'm a fellow chamber member, but when I did circle back with those that were in the chamber, I would make that make them aware of that right out of the gate. I'd say, hey, you may not know this, but I'm also a member of the chamber. And all of a sudden, you've got a little bit of commonality there. And it I think it reduced the uh the friction a little bit because it's like you're not some person they've never heard of.

you've at least got the chamber membership as a as a common denominator. So that helped. >> Absolutely. People like working with people who have similarities to them. So yeah, >> same town as them, that's good, but literally part of the same organization is even better.

So, >> well, and to be to to be fair about that, the I mean, I'm on real real good uh cordial terms with the uh the president of the chamber as well as the membership director and they actually assisted me in identifying prospects and even in a couple cases reached out for me in advance to to lubricate the conversation. So, that that helped a lot. It really did. >> That's great. Do you have your card with you by chance?

>> I Oh, of course I do, Mitch. >> Sweet. And by the way, this is what I went in with when I was going in just this plain brown envelope, just mascara. And I would I would pull out the card. Of course, not the card that was all done.

It was It was a sample card, but yeah. >> I got to pull it back enough so you can see it and get it. There we go. >> So, this is, you know, one side >> and this is >> the other side. And I will tell you, quite frankly, getting the bank on was a real coup.

I'm sorry. It's over here. [laughter] Whichever side I'm pointing at, it's it's on the lower right corner. Yeah. Getting getting the, you know, Milford Bank to commit to this thing was great because that adds a lot of credibility to the Not that these other folks aren't credible, but this was big.

>> Totally. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And and the brown envelope was just a real I mean it was is it was so uh inconspicuous as to be almost invisible. But when I pulled it up and I would kind of like with a flourish I'd pull the card out and I would hold it up and they you know people would be like wow.

>> Yeah. I mean it is it's inconspicuous and you probably didn't come across like too tryhard salesy because you came with an envelope. You didn't come with some fancy binder or anything. none of that. >> So, what would you say was like the ratio because a lot of people out here are trying to figure out what's the best way to get in contact with prospects and close the most sales.

What would you say is the ratio of people you closed just over email in the beginning cuz you were mostly sending emails versus people you had to actually see in person versus people that you closed particularly from the Chamber of Commerce group kind of like personal relationships. >> It's a great question. Um, I'm I'm I don't think that there was anybody I closed just based on the first email. I mean, it was it was ultimately me having some sort of face tof face conversation with them. That that initially warmed up the conversation and made it easier to have the discussion, but nobody that I can remember and I don't think anybody did said, "Hey, this sounds great.

Where do I sign that that and I didn't expect that quite honestly because I think that I think that the the product is what really closes it." I mean, if you've got a good dialogue to go along with that, the product is, >> you know, it's kind of speaks for itself. So, it makes it a lot easier. And then, of course, you just ask the leading question to bring them into it. So, it was probably some combination of um in person and then it was it was uh assisted or helped by being in in those certain cases by being a member of the chamber.

There was no question that those folks were a little bit more open and receptive to it. >> Definitely. So, a combination of the the three. I take it you didn't really focus too much on follow-up emails. You kind of just went with the first one.

And then >> I did a bit of that. I mean, it wasn't like it was excessive, but the when and this just goes back to my I guess you can say is my own standard uh prospecting process or outreach process. I I just from having been in sales for like forever, um I will typically do if there's an initial email that goes out, they're they're going to get something from me in the way of a follow-up touch within 24 to 48 hours. It's it's either a phone call, it's another email, or it's an inerson visit. And then from there, it'll be, you know, if we've had a conversation, then there will be one or more follow-up emails if they if they're not immediately receptive to the opportunity.

So, it's there's a there's a cadence, if you will, built in there. >> Yeah. >> And I think it's critical. I think I think you can't People are so distracted now. It's you can't you can't depend on just a single a single contact being the thing that's going to seal the deal.

>> Absolutely. And I'm I'm a firm believer in hitting them from multiple different angles, not just following up from one angle, which is good. But if you think about it psychologically, if somebody's reaching out to you multiple times from the same exact angle, it just seems like they have a good follow-up sequence. But when you all of a sudden, let's say you were emailing them, when you all of a sudden Facebook Messenger them, you hit them from a different angle, now it feels like they're actually chasing you down in particular, feels a lot more personal, so you're going to be more likely to respond. So my question for you is in person, one thing people have trouble with is getting in person with the actual business owner.

How did you navigate that or did you even try to navigate that? >> Well, I mean that that's one of the beauties of smaller business because very often the business owner is there. I mean that may not be the person you you meet when you walk in the door, but it's not like they're, you know, in some ivory tower. They're they're typically on site or they may be coming back soon. And I would I would go in and I wouldn't immediately ask like was the business owner in.

>> But if I'd had an initial email outreach and I identified who the person was I want to reach, I'd ask for them by name. I say, "Hey, is Mitch in?" Well, that person would say, "Well, he is or he isn't." I say, "Well, I'm following up on an email that I sent him just a couple days ago. I want there's something I want to show him that relates to that message."

And that's all. You don't have to go into explanation beyond that. They're they're not okay. All right. I'll find him or not.

And then if he's not there, when's he going to be back? and and and I would pull out a card and I'd say, "Well, tell him I I stopped in because this is about the email, something that references the first message he got >> or she got that way." Yeah. >> Okay. So, you kind of that's a different strategy.

So, you kind of go in undercover like you don't you don't try to pitch the the front desk lady, but you're also not like implying that you're pitching at all. So, you're implying you already kind of had a conversation. >> Correct. And and I mean, in very few instances did I I mean, because I spent a lot of time mapping this out. I would go and look at if they weren't me chamber members I would go on and do various searches like who who's the owner of XYZ company I'd go online do Google search to find out who it was if I didn't know who it was and in certain instances if I knew that there was somebody I was connected to I use LinkedIn excessively but I use it a lot if I knew someone was connected to it I'd ask them to make an introduction for me just to to kind of warm the whole thing up but I would almost always go in and ask for the owner >> and whether I'd sent them an email first or Not I I would say, "Hey, is it, you know, as mentioned?

Uh, no, he's not. He's in back." Oh, all right. Look at real quick. I had something I wanted to show him click that I think that he might have interest in just based upon wanting to expand the audience for his business.

You got a minute? And just, you know, launch into it. And if they say, "What's it have to do with?" I then I would pull out the card and I say, "This." And I would just hold it.

And they're like, their eyes kind of get big and they're like, "What's that?" And I said, "This is a special unique uh direct mail program that I'm putting together to to work with certain businesses in Milford to promote to Milford residents." And usually they would find the business owner. >> Nice. >> That point.

Yeah. >> I hope people are are writing this down because it seems like you you cracked the code on how to get through the gatekeeper. Now, what percentage of gatekeepers would you say just didn't let it slide and told you he's busy, leave the card? Well, and and you know what I did? I never went out with the intention of leaving.

I mean, I I ordered your your initial sample pack and I never went out thinking I was going to be dropping those things off and never getting them back. And quite a few of I never got back. So, [laughter] so I kind of um I learned relatively fast to not to not leave them. I would simply I would show them and say, "Look, I'm sorry. I've only got a couple of these and and this is just, you know, showand tell, but I can't leave one behind for you."

But in some cases, if I just felt that there was a real possibility, I'd say, "I'll tell you what. I'll leave with you now, but I may have to circle back tomorrow or the next day to pick it back up. Is that okay?" And then that gives me an excuse to go back. >> That's a great idea.

>> Yeah. >> Wow. That's a great idea. That gives you a great excuse to go back. >> Yeah.

>> Nice. >> I mean, not always, but but the gatekeeper, I'm going to say, more often than not, was was receptive. I mean, was not like, you know, putting up the brick wall and, you know, we don't do this, we don't do that. They were as soon as they saw the card and they understood what the value might be to the business, they were they were kind of open to it and open to maybe making the introduction or at least having, you know, having being in the process somewhere so I could talk to the owner. >> Yeah.

So, so you you went through like the Chamber of Commerce list and but you haven't explained exactly how you decided what businesses you were going to reach out to and target >> and and and I and I I'm going to, you know, give you props on this one because I kind of understood the fact that this is not I mean I I would tell people that it's a mixture of home improvement and lifestyle businesses, which it fundamentally is. I mean, at least that was my mix. I didn't want to go after strictly, you know, contractors and roofers and all the rest of that because not everybody has need of that stuff. But if you throw in a restaurant, you throw in a med spa, you throw in a, you know, pizza joint or something like that, that gives the card stickiness. And I will say, by the way, after the card went out, I talked to quite a number of people that I knew that got them.

And I said, "What'd you do with it?" He says, "It's sitting on my kitchen table. I'm not going to throw that thing away >> because they may want to use the card to go out to dinner. They may want to use the PE." I mean there were any number of reasons for them to hang on to it.

And that was part of my my story I would tell to a business owner that that might be you know an HVAC company. I would say look at let's in the interest of like setting the right expectations. You may not get a call from this right away. You may not get but but if the card stays around there's a higher probability they're going to think of you when the time comes. And that's what these things do.

Absolutely. And you've proven it by talking to these people and the card is sticking around because nobody wants to get rid of all of these like solid offers from local businesses. So, how'd you design the ads? I assume >> it was actually some there were probably three or four businesses that that did their own design and they submitted it and it was it was acceptable. It wasn't probably, you know, like Michelangelo, but it was it was it was decent.

It was it was uh fitting the the message and what they wanted to do. I used your guy for probably I'm gonna say maybe half a dozen of them. He was great. He was super. I don't know if he's the only one you got, but he was very good.

And uh I would go back in one or two instances I had to do, you know, we had to tweak it based upon them wanting to change something, color, wording, you name it, but but it was mostly that. But there was a combination of the business providing the ad and I did a couple myself. I'm pretty adept at Photoshop. >> So, if I if I thought there was an opportunity for me to quickly do a mockup that would get them to commit, I would jump on it myself. But most of the ones I outsourced.

>> I love it. So, did the ads have a lot of offers on them? Most of them have offers. >> Um, not as many as should as as should have had to be quite honest with you. I mean, there were Yeah, there.

And I I stressed when I talked to him, I said, "Look at you want the phone to ring. You want somebody to come in. You need to induce people to do it." And that's going to be with either, you know, buy one get one, 20% off, something, free consultation, you name it. But you want to do offer something that's going to get people to come in the door.

Otherwise, it's not they'll never call you, but it's the probability is substantially diminished. And there's an attorney who went for this whole thing who did not put together anything in the way of of an offer. I mean, it's it's he's a very reputable attorney in town. Very popular attorney, but I'm I'm not 100% sure he's going to come back for round two because he doesn't so far think he got any businesses from it, which is it's only two weeks into it. So, that may be a little bit premature, but >> the offer is important.

>> And you also set proper expectations up front, like you said, you talk to them about how, you know, they want to be the plumber, for example, that people think of when they actually need a plumber. So, it might not necessarily be that everybody in town needs a plumber immediately. Everybody receives the card and they just call up the plumber. It's going to be similar for the attorney. Um, but it can be a fantastic branding play because if they wanted to own this neighborhood, they'd have to spend like $3,000 to do it themselves.

Whereas on your card, they're still the only attorney. they get to own the neighborhood for $500 or >> it's a it's a great point and and I I'm not I can't I don't know if this is unique to where I live or this is this is these things are popping up all around the country but but billboards have made a huge comeback in terms of of advertising and I live right off of I95 you know you probably runs up your neck of the woods I'm sure in Connecticut and there's a there's a stretch of 95 where like every I don't want to say every quarter mile probably every you know inch every every two or three inches on the highway. There are giant billboards and most of them are promoting attorneys, accident and injury attorneys. It's just it's insane. And I I often think these people are actually contributing to accidents because they're they're so is so distracting.

But the point being that even even like realtors and a lot of other companies and businesses locally are using billboards. And I don't diss those, by the way, but I but I know how expensive they are. And I always talk about, all right, look it, what you're depending on with a billboard is somebody driving by and in the moment looking up and seeing your, you know, your smiling face or your ad and and remembering it because they're not stopping their car in the middle of the highway to write something down or snap a picture nine times out of 10. >> So, there's got to be a lot of repetition on that for that ultimately to sink in. When they get this thing in their mailbox and you're on it, hey, maybe they also saw your picture on a billboard, too.

But this is one thing that's going to tie everything together and make you top of mind when they think they need a realtor, when they need a pizza place, when they need a, you know, you name it. So, and I I always say kiddingly, I said, "Look, if you had all the money in the world, you should do a media saturation campaign. You should be everywhere. Billboard, radio, magazine, you know, social media, you should be everywhere because you want to be the one they think about when the time comes." But I don't think you have all the money in the world.

Do you? If they say no, I say I'm good because I was just about to ask you for a [laughter] but that's the, you know, the comic relief part. But I say, so this is a way to affordably get your face, your business in front of, you know, 5,000 people, potential prospects in your town. It doesn't get much better than that. >> Yeah, there there's no question that uh our we provide a ton of value.

There's no question about that. >> So, what were you what were your pricing structures looking like? What did your >> I followed your lead on this thing. I did for the 3x4 it was $500. For the 4x6 it was $900.

>> 500 and 900. >> Yeah. I mean like for the for the the the display ad I call it. I said you got the smaller one or you get the display ad which basically takes up two two spots side by side. And I had um I had two two but I also had one business.

It's an HVAC company that also does plumbing and heating and they wanted to take out two separate ads promoting those. I'll show you the car those, you know, each of those things separate but not on the same ad. So, they did well. There we go. Here's one.

That's the air conditioning. And on the other side, here's the other one. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, they basically took out two two 4x3 3x4s, but I gave it to them for the same price as if they did a 4x6. >> I just I charged them.

I gave them I knocked off some money to put them on the card and for two ads versus one single ad. So that that was fine. They were they were okay with that. >> That makes sense. Yeah.

>> Yeah. >> So what what did your dayto-day look like? Obviously you took a couple months to sell the card. What was your general schedule? How much time did you spend on this?

>> Longer than I thought I would [laughter] because I've got I've got other things that are that are part and parcel of what I do during the day to facilitate some of the other consulting things. So, this was this ended up being a bigger consumer of time than I thought it would be. Not not that it was bad because it still worked out well, but I was probably between emails and I did some phone some phone stuff, but mostly it was getting in my car and driving out and mapping out a route where I knew I was going to be able to stop in and hit a number of businesses within a certain area. I I put good chunk of time into this >> in a given week. I probably it wasn't 40 hours for sure, but I probably put a good, you know, 10 15 hours in the course of a week into this in varying at varying time slots.

>> Do you have lead scout? >> I don't. >> All right, I'm going to give you lead. >> Is that your is that I'm sorry. Is that your the CRM or the thing that does you can scrub by the I don't my bad.

I use that a little bit in the beginning, but I didn't use it a lot. >> Gotcha. That the the helpful thing about that for two things that you've mentioned is that'll pull the owner's name. It reads their website and if the owner's name is in that website, it'll find it. And number two is the route mapper.

>> I'm not sure if how efficient you were with your mapping, but you can just click on the businesses you want to visit and it'll automatically create the most efficient route to go because then you know which business comes first and then second. No, that's a good and and I I will I mean as I go back and and do round two and round three and whatever, I will probably use that more, but I didn't use it as much as I could have the first go around because I I know that I well, let's put it this way, I got to know the town better. I've only lived here like going on six years, but I got to really understand some of the the side streets and the back roads and all that to get to where I I needed to go to to make the the necessary face to face with people. Yeah. >> Yeah.

Well, speaking of round two, what's what's your plan for the future? Oh, I'm already working on the second card for Milford, which is tenatively scheduled to go out at the end of this month. And I've already uh started working on another adjacent town that's actually it's a town I lived in for about 35 years before I moved to Milford. So, I know a lot of businesses in that town. I done business with a lot of businesses.

So, I've already made inroads to probably half a dozen businesses that have shown interest in the card there. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do them both simultaneously because that may mean juggling a bit more than I'm um prepared to do right now. But they're going to come out one after the other hot on the heels of each other. And the nice thing is is even going to the other town, I can show the Milford card now >> and it's only it's only, you know, 10 minutes down the road. It's not like it's 50 miles away.

They know of Milford. So I can say see this is and they're like they probably know the businesses in many cases. So >> yeah, this the social proof is massive when you are have already put out a card that has businesses that people um trust. So after the the first card's a grind and but obviously you're showing that the second card is going to happen a lot faster and you're already, you know, going to have your third card soon after that. >> Are you doing anything differently?

>> Well, yeah. I mean the the what I did is again I sent out this is this was an email campaign. So the uh the once this card was out after I mean I obviously reached out to all the folks who were advertisers and I and I kind of kept them up to date is just because it because it was taking longer and I had some people who back in April paid 500 bucks to be on it. It was like I'm sitting here kind of starting to sweat bullets thinking god is this thing ever going to is it ever going to come out? But I they were most of them were very accommodating.

They weren't like busting my stones because it was taking so long. But when it finally went out, I I did a series of emails following it up like, "Hey, it's you know, it's out. It's good." And all that and I let them know when it would happen. But I also within a matter of like probably a week to 10 days, um I put I sent out an email with a subject line, "A sequel is in the works and just told them I said, you know, it's been a couple weeks."

I says, "Getting ready to do another one. If you're game for being on it, would love to have you be on it, but just understand that if you're not, I'm cool with that. But, you know, some of your competitors might be." And I didn't [clears throat] say it exactly that way, but I alluded to the fact that, you know, I'm not going to hold a spot for you if you're not going to be on it. So, there might be another plumber on there.

>> Yeah. >> Way it goes. >> I love it. Did Did you have many renewals? >> Um, I've got right now.

I mean, I I haven't I've I've not gotten confirmation one way or the other on probably h for half of the people at this point. Nobody said, "Don't ever call me again." But a couple said, "I'm going to have to, you know, we're going to have to pass this time around." And I get it. It's not a small sum of money for a business to shell out 30 days later, but um most of them I think would be open to like maybe two months from now like the next one, the third one, let's call it probably, you know, re-upping so to speak, especially if a card goes out that doesn't have their business on it and has a competitor on it.

>> Yeah. And a sometimes the businesses kind of want to prove the concept. So they'll join the first month and then there's a little bit of lag because they just want to see how things go. Yeah, >> but then the social proof you have for the second card kind of balances that out. So the second card is also fast, but then eventually you just have a whole ecosystem of advertisers that are joining the card.

Maybe they come back a couple months later, they join again. Yeah. >> So yeah, >> I'm assuming Mitch and and you might you could either verify this or not, I suppose, but I'm assuming that it's probably better if you can have some variety in each successive card, not have the same. I mean, I get where from the the business standpoint, they'd love to be on every single one of them, but I think from a from a consumer standpoint, if they get, you know, the same I mean, the same card, not exactly, but it's like, okay, they've seen this and they're then they're more inclined to to dispose of it versus, oh, these are who are these people? These are different ones.

>> I agree actually. That's a good point. It on the consumer side, they would much rather have variety. And because of that, it's better for the businesses, too, because the consumer is more likely to hold on to it. >> Yeah.

Yeah, I I I kind of wrestled with that a bit initially. And the only I mean, you know, the o the not the only, but one of the downsides, of course, is that it's in some respects it's going back out and doing the same work all over again. But the good news was there were a lot of businesses I spoke to the first time around who were like, not just not now, not great timing, but if you do another one, okay, well, I'm coming back to you because I'm doing another one. Yeah. >> So, that doesn't it's not cold calling at that point.

It's kind of like, you know, warm calling. But yeah, >> how are you keeping track of those leads? >> Um, I've got well, I've got a CRM that I I mean, it's actually a marketing automation platform that I've been using for years that I that is kind of like my go-to my go-to system and I I have them all in there and I'm updating them with conversations today. We talked about this and XYZ and all that. >> And uh that's that's my my current way.

I'm not saying that's ultimately the way that's going to that's going to win out, but that's my current way to keep track of everything. Yeah, I think >> frankly anybody who's doing this and doing it seriously, you're either your system or something, they need a system to manage all this. It's way too much data to to try to figure out just, you know, top of your head or even scribble down on notepads. You got to have it organized. >> I was just going to say that at the very least uh Google spreadsheet.

Um but that's not going to remind you about a prospect that told you call me in two months. So that's that's the benefit of a CRM for sure. Well, and not not just I mean yes the CRM but but again if you take it up a notch and and I have not explored yours enough to know if the capabilities there but having some sort of um having like a marketing automation where you can actually set up campaigns and reminders and all that where it's like hey you know I talked to Mitch today he said call and then putting in a reminder where you're going to get notified in two months or or two weeks or whatever it is that you have to circle back with this person. That's critical. I mean, I don't know anybody who's got their together, pardon my language, anybody watching, enough to uh to do that without some sort of technology assistance.

That's just way too much to manage. >> Absolutely agreed. Yeah. So, obviously, you're killing it with in person. And I hope people wrote down your whole the way you structure it.

You typically send the email, you join the Chamber of Commerce for social proof, you send the email. If you don't hear back, maybe you'll send another one, but you'll probably visit them in person. If you see the receptionist, you kind of go incognito and say, "Hey, is the owner in?" And usually you try to get the owner's name. So, you're saying the owner's name.

>> They'll usually say, "He he might be busy. What what's going on?" And you say, "I'm just trying to follow up on an email I had sent him. I wanted to finish that conversation." >> I'm I'm I'm really a fan of of name dropping.

I mean, not like just frivolously, but if you but if you've got a name that you you can associate with the business that is a person in authority and you've had you at least attempted to reach them through email, I have no problem doing that because it gives it gives you uh it eases the communication a bit and they the and nine times out of 10 the person I'm going to say the gatekeeper has no idea whether or not you sent an email to that person. They don't know. But when I say look at I'm I'm actually circling back on an email I sent Mitch two days ago about a particular uh an initiative I thought he would be interested in for the business that would expand the audience a bit. What do you mean? What this?

>> And that's it. I mean I I would not say this. I hold up and I turn it around and nine times out of 10 their eyes get kind of big says what's that? Glad you asked. >> Yeah.

And then [snorts] you go into it, not excessively because that's not the decision maker, but more often than not, they're going to go, "Okay, well, let me see if he's available." I mean, they're going to help you get get to the person you want to talk to because it's impressive. They've never seen anything like it. >> I I've never There was not a single person I talked to that had ever seen one of these things. >> Exactly.

>> Yeah. >> I call it a unicorn. It's a unicorn. >> Yep. Yeah.

>> Yeah. So, a lot of people watching this are probably pretty nervous to go in person. What would what would you say to them? >> Get over it. [laughter] >> I mean, that sounds stupid.

I realize that cuz it's it's a it's a natural thing, but I I'm very fortunate in that for most of my life, I've always been anxious to get in front of people. I mean, I when I train with Sandler, I'm in front of rooms full of people. I love being in front of people and having an opportunity to educate them or inform them. So I I generally don't have a problem with it and that's that's innate. I'm not going to say that's a necessarily a learnable skill, but just get used to it.

I mean, rejection is certainly going to be a part of it. Happens happens in life. That's not just business. It just happens. People don't always like us for any number of reasons.

So um I just always try to remember look at I I choose I'm the one that chooses how to feel. You can't make me feel a certain way at all. >> Absolutely. You know, if I if I'm going to be rejected, it's going to be because I choose to be rejected. >> Exactly.

And I think it's it's important to prime yourself in understanding that it definitely you're going to experience rejection. So, be ready for it. Um, and it's a learning experience. Not only does it just make you tougher or whatever, but you get to learn what causes these rejections, and you you can improve it every single time you go in person. So rejections very important.

>> What what I discovered because it I'm not going to say there were not rejections. Of course there were. And there were a couple couple businesses or you know business owners I dealt with who were you know I said a few things under my breath when I [laughter] when I left the the office or the place of business that were not very flattering. But but it's like it's it's interesting like you don't know what you don't know. And for somebody I mean I can only feel sorry for anybody who dismisses something without really knowing anything about it.

>> That's just unfortunate. And >> you know that's more a reflection of their I hate to say it stupidity than it is any any failing on my part. So okay fine have a great day. Good luck staying in business. >> Yeah.

>> Say that. But still. Yeah. >> Honestly just feel bad for them. They're missing.

>> Yeah. I mean it's like I don't lose sleep worrying about it. But I'm not going to pretend that there aren't certain encounters where you kind of like, you know, you got to clench your grit your teeth and clench your fist a little bit because somebody's being so, you know, pigheaded or obstinate. They are truly for me anyway, they were truly in the minority. Most people were open.

They were they were into talking for a certain amount of time. And I'd say, "Look at I know you're busy. You're obviously at work. I don't want to monopolize this. Is this worth us having a follow-up conversation?"

And then they either say yes or no. >> Absolutely. Well, this has been a tactical master class. Let's say I deleted it. [laughter] >> I deleted I deleted the entire thing and you only have 30 seconds to speak to somebody who this might be their first video or second video.

Um, what do you have to say to them? >> Well, um, look, it it's you have to want it first of all. I mean, you have to have a compelling reason for for wanting to do this because there's there's work. This isn't like, you know, ice skating. this is you're going to do some work and you're maybe going to suffer a little bit of rejection and all the rest of that, but but I will tell you for the for the amount of work that was involved, it's probably one of the more profitable things I've ever done for the for the relatively small amount of time I put into it to, you know, to to net, you know, four to 5,000 bucks.

Um, yeah, I'll I'll do a couple of those every month if I can. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. [laughter] And and the beauty of it is is as you as you get your head around it, you you start to systematize it. It starts you start to know what you need to do and and it becomes less work, a little bit easier.

But I fully expect to be cranking out a couple of these every month here in the next couple two or three months. So yeah. >> So as long as they have a reason to want four or $5,000, I guess they should get started, huh? [laughter] >> Yeah. And if you don't have a reason for it, then just send them to me and I'll sell your cards for you.

Okay. Well, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on. >> Enjoy it and thanks for the opportunity to share. >> I told you to take notes and I hope you copied down that script that he talked about on how to get through the receptionist because that will be killer for you.

And now we do have a step-by-step course, the course that he learned from in the community that he's a part of and posts in. So, if you want access to a community of 2,900 other 9x12ers doing this all around the country with the step-by-step course to support it, templates, free software, and tons of other resources, then the link to join that is in the description of this video. And if you're not ready to join yet, that's totally fine. Just watch this video here because motion creates momentum, and momentum will get you one step closer to selling out your first postcard. Just watch this video right here.

And as always, I love you. Peace.