My name’s Jake Tegtman, and I started Third Loft Marketing about a year and a half ago (as of the time of this writing). It was initially meant as a way for me to track income from a few very small clients who I was working for on the side from my regular day job.

Now, Third Loft isn’t my side-gig, it’s my full-time work. Or, full-time income at least.

Third Loft Marketing provides free basic marketing plans for small businesses. My clientele is mostly business owners who experienced some degree of early success in their business which then leveled off into a plateau along the lines. So, keep that in mind when you’re reading this. But most companies that I’ve written marketing plans for this year have had one common, very major element missing from their marketing efforts: face-to-face sales calls.

 

My Experience In Sales/ Business Development

A little more background on me as a quick interruption. I got my start in sales during college, selling various items to strangers, family, and friends for a little extra cash. I eventually went into insurance sales, then transitioned into business development for a property restoration firm. I’ve made my income for the past 4 years exclusively from sales and business development. I also increased the property restoration firm’s open market volume from $100,000 to $700,000 using face-to-face sales calls.

 

Many Smaller Companies Avoid Sales Calls

Back to companies and their need for sales calls. Most small companies don’t make sales calls. Should they? Almost invariably yes. Do they? Almost invariably no.

Here’s an example of a family of companies that typically don’t market themselves, and why: CrossFit gyms. They tend to not market themselves well because CrossFit HQ has done an amazing job of promoting CrossFit nationwide. As a result, CrossFit gyms tend to believe that if they have the best gym around, with the best programming and instructors, they will always grow.

Wrong.

CrossFit is growing right now in large part because of CrossFit HQ and the work they’ve done for their “franchises.” CrossFit has become a national “wave” that is still rising for now but will eventually level off. Once that happens, no more automatic growth.

There’s a million ways to market. Ads. Online. Blogs. Twitter. Newspaper. Radio. Billboards. PR. They all have their place.

 

Generating Long-Term Business

If you rely on “purchased leads” for your business, in which category I would include most all paid advertising, you are probably not generating loyalty right off the bat. You’re paying to get people to give you a shot. Which is still good, but not stellar.

A lot of small businesses also have a limited marketing budget (or no marketing budget at all). Since they either can’t advertise, or can’t advertise very much, they wait for customers. Waiting for customers is one of the best ways to go out of business.

We’ve probably all seen (or experienced) companies failing. There’s almost never a straight answer for what one single thing they could have done differently to succeed. However, I think there’s very few who would argue that beating the streets every single day to pull in business would have contributed to an organization going out of business.

If you get a new referral source to start recommending people to your business, you automatically start with that person’s credibility. If the new customer who gets referred to you truly likes and trusts the person who referred them, you’re already generating loyalty for your business. It’s also free if you do the work yourself (which you should do, even if you don’t see yourself as a “sales person”). And the business is consistent. If someone refers business to you, and you do a good job for their customer, they’ll start referring more and more work your way.

When I started doing business development for the property restoration firm I worked for, I made, on average, 20 sales calls per day. Granted, I was hired as a business development rep. so it’s not like I had any additional responsibilities common among small business owners (running payroll, performing services, returning phone calls, etc.). However, it is possible even as a business owner, even if you run the entire show, to make 5 sales calls per day. I made 20 sales calls per day, and visited the same potential referrals sources every month, for 6 months. The business we got from that effort is still reliably coming in month-after-month today.

 

Make Your Daily Sales Calls & Thrive

Over time I’ll post more about exactly how to do that and make it effective. But for now, even if you have no clue of what to do or how to make sales calls, if you aren’t making sales calls already, just start by visiting 5 businesses per day. Find companies who work in a similar industry or who could potentially refer you customers, and ask for business. It will change your entire company over the course of 3-4 months.