We’ve compiled a five item checklist of things that we feel you cannot get away with cutting corners.

Cheap vs Low Cost

Before we present our list it’s important you understand that, by cutting corners, we don’t necessarily mean going ‘low cost’ we mean going ‘cheap’ as-in, doing it yourself, not doing it at all or hiring your ex-buddies-girlfriends-sisters-friend to do it on the fly. Many things in this list can be done in a professional manner for very little or even no money – but they must be done correctly.

1. A Logo

A logo is the first impression and often last that someone will have of your business, a bad logo – or worse yet, no logo at all – says that you don’t care about your company enough to spend less than a happymeal on giving it a brand. Get your butt over to fiverr.com and get a logo done there, it might not cost much but it sure can earn you big bucks over time.

2. A CRM

The days of the Rolodex or worse yet – filing cabinet, are long over. A good CRM doesn’t have to break the bank and will empower your business to be able to hypothetically have more than one person working sales at a given time – and that person will be sane. Check out Free CRM if you are on a budget.

3. A Mobile Presentation Device (Laptop, Tablet, Netbook – whatever)

Walking into an in-person presentation with a printed pitchbook is cool – if its a backup item or your clients are very old-school. If you want to make a professional impression, you need to be able to convey ideas in a modern way – so get with the times. Amazon.com lists the Elecost Android tablet for less than 120.00 – and it looks just fine to conduct demos in person.

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7V7L66/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_15?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1U53BLLPEDLDS

4. A Microphone

If you have to hop on a demonstration and it’s online with someone located somewhere far far away the odds are you will be using a platform like Zoom.us or Join.me and will be sharing more than your desktop – you’ll likely be using audio. Combine this reality with the fact many businesspeople use skype and your mic becomes an important part of your business arsenal. A good mic doesn’t have to cost you thousands of dollars or even hundreds, but dropping a few bucks on a noise cancelling headset on Amazon.com can save you a ton in lost business.

5. A real email address & Phone number

It’s painful to watch entrepreneurs try to conduct business using Gmail accounts and Gtalk numbers – yes, it can be done, but someone else told me Ernest Shackleton spent a winter in Antarctica once and that isn’t advisable either. It is important to put your professional foot forward and invest a few dollars a month to get an email address associated with your domain name – literally a few dollars. Lastly is a phone number – skype service can be had for under 10.00 a month that gives your business a dedicated number – check it out: www.skype.com

Before explaining why being the cheapest guy (or gal) around is a bad idea in the web dev world, let us clearly differentiate something. When we write about low prices being bad, we are not talking about teaser rates, discounts, low introductory pricing, give aways or any kind of marketing or sales technique one might employ to entice business. When we discuss the bad side of low pricing, we’re discussing the clients...

Clients?

The people who will jump ship and go with one web developer over another based on price alone are a unique kettle of fish. These are not value shoppers, these are not the price conscious, nor are they the coupon-crowd, these are the know-nothing crowd – and you had better be careful. Wow, way to group a bunch of people together and prejudge them huh? Well, let us give you an analogy that will clarify.

Imagine a man (or woman) who has a toothache decides to shop for a dentist not based upon professionalism or track record, but upon price. He or she visits a dentist and learns it will cost a bit to repair said tooth, on the way out the door a creepy looking man approaches with a pair of pliers and offers to pull the tooth for the price of a bottle of rum.

Now, ask yourself, what should this person do? A: Run really fast or B: Go with the creepy guy, at least he’s cheap!?

Now I know, you are probably grinning, but this funny analogy truly is directly analogous to the business owner who entrusts their brand, reputation, future earnings not to mention passwords and other sensitive data to a company based purely on price. The fact is, these type of shoppers are ignorant and see the price and not the value of the service.

Now, a strong argument could be made that if you educate such shoppers, they will change their tune and suddenly wake-up, however experience has taught us that this isn’t the case. Shoppers who ardently pursue low prices in the web development arena have already gotten quotes from numerous professionals – to compare – and you can bet your bottom dollar that each and every one of them tried their best to educate them – and failed. The fact is, the prospect who is price shopping and comparing different companies in an effort to find the cheapest is likely very entrenched in their opinion that price is all that matters and you wont change this.

Another thing experience has taught us is that there is an inverse correlation between the amount a client pays and the difficulty of working with them. The clients who fight for low prices are also often those who will fight for the most work for it – a double edged sword.

So here we have clients who generally hold the entrenched opinion that ‘all development is the same’ whom want to pay the least, while also expect the most. This is the worst kind of client situation anyone in development could find themselves in.

Good clients

Generally speaking good clients are those who understand there is truth to the old saying “you get what you pay for”. Good clients will scrutinize details, they will ask engaging questions, they will worry about how much BENEFIT a service will bring to them BEFORE worrying about its cost. Cost is a real consideration for everyone, but generally speaking, even a 150% price difference is not large enough to change someones mind when the cost of the service is minimal compared to its value. Trying to win by being the cheapest works in commodities, where qualitative difference matters very little, but it doesn’t work in professional services – and never, ever will.

Often resellers ask a lot of questions SURROUNDING the sale of services but never ABOUT the sale of services. They ask how to get bigger deals, how to get more leads, how to find better prospects, how to handle intake meetings better – it’s endless questions that don’t get to the heart of the matter. The reason resellers miss the point is because they are looking at the sale of digital marketing services in the context of growing their businesses all wrong.

Selling digital services is checkers, not chess.

Okay, well, its checkers THEN chess. Marketing (assuming its properly executed) is mostly numbers, but we already know that. What isn’t numbers is what comes after, the presentation, the pitch, the sale, the close – that stuff is where resellers need to focus if they want to increase sales.

This while effort however, needs to be put into context.

When you have more sales, you have more money to buy more leads or market to get more leads, money solves the marketing problem. Business in its purest form is math, marketing is the perfect example. Marketing math is simple math - Spend X on marketing to get Y in sales, if Y exceeds X than you scale. The way to get money is to get more sales – pure and simple. So how do you get more sales?

Let me ask you a quick question, really quick.

If you had 5 leads, just 5 and you KNEW from past experience that the odds are out of them two were potentials to close, what would you do?. Would you pitch all five the same as you would if you had 50 leads? Of course not, but you are probably doing it right now.

Most resellers we know, they will handle 5 leads the sale as 50 and 50 the same as 500 – they need to wake up.

If you are currently selling digital marketing services than you need to wake up and recognize that the leads you have – however many – are gold. These leads represent the growth seed of your business and each and every one should be handled like it were a precious gemstone in your hands.

The way to increase sales then, should be obvious – improve your demonstrations.

The best way we know to improve demonstrations - and this is assuming everything is spot on with the WAY you present – is the personalization. Personalization is lacking in about 99% of sales presentations made in any given industry of any given product or service, but its proven time and again to be the No.1 way the increase sales – bar none.

Research

If you don’t believe us, please go and try this out and see if it works, if not, dump it – you wont. Try doing your homework on the business, the businesses model of operation, key industry players and real competitors and go into your presentation armed with this information. When you sit down to talk business with the businesses owner or executive there, talk to them about beating X Y or Z company who competes with them, talk to them about the competitive advantage, talk to them about how your service will improve their business because it will help with their business model – let them know, that you know how they operate, that you have legitimate and relevant knowledge of their business.

Now, we’re not advocating you spend 5 hours doing research on Google either. We’re saying to take 20 minutes or a half hour – per demo you have set, and do your homework. Every consummate professional should learn to do this. Not doing this kind of research, not learning about prospects businesses, not taking the time to be able to deliver relevant information, is a huge, HUGE mistake.

Walking this extra mile for your prospects is the only way you will go from zero to hero. Stop whining about the leads, stop searching for the next ‘new thing’ in closing, do the work you should be doing and you will see your sales ratio go up.

They don’t call it the 80/20 rule for nothing, do you want to be the 80 or the 20? Your choice.

Guerrilla is a French word and it means a small force taking on a large force, in the context of business it means, essentially, how to market without a big (or any) budget. There are many ways entrepreneurs can market themselves without a huge budget and we’re going to explore just a few here and try to shed some light on them, and hopefully give you some useful ideas.

By far the easiest way to Guerrilla market is locally. At a local level you have access to businesses, organizations and people who can help you to grow your presence and engage with prospects. What a lot of resellers are not aware of is just how easy it is to do.

The first thing you need to realize is that all around are businesses that serve other businesses and most importantly – have databases of their clients. If you play your cards right with just one of these businesses, you can wind up benefiting tremendously from that data. Here are a few ways to do it:

A question that often gets posed to us at Rocket Driver is who is the ideal candidate to become a partner with us, while there is no single answer, I’d like to address just one group who seem to ask that question a lot – the people who are looking to work from home.

Let’s face it, starting a business with a whole pile of venture capital, an office and employees from day 1 is by and large an antiquated and academic concept of business – most businesses start small and grow, by small I mean they start from peoples garages, hobby shops and – you guess it, their homes. Having said that, it makes it perfectly normal to start a business from home and if you are starting a business from home, is there a more perfect business than the one of reselling digital marketing solutions? More precisely, websites.

I would argue that unique skills, talents or circumstances not withstanding, there is no more perfect business to launch from your home than the business of selling websites – why?

Let’s go through my reasoning:

1. It’s low overhead & Low investment

Everything you need to start a website sales business (besides the nominal business setup fees) you already own already – you have a PC? Check!, you have the internet? Check! You own a mobile phone? Check! Can you open and edit text documents? Check!

2. It requires little travel (or none at all)

With many types of business you have to invest enormous time traveling locally or nationally and that means time behind the wheel, away from family adding costs, stress and pressure. With website sales you can sit on the couch making calls and conduct demonstrations of your technology from the comfort of your Laptop, PC or even Tablet or Phone – there is little or no travel necessary, it’s optional.

3. You can start part time

With many kinds of business it is an all-or-nothing proposition, you either invest 120 hours a week at it or zero hours – no middle ground – that is not so for digital marketing services where you can start and run your business according to your own time table, spend 5 hours one week, 20 the next and 10 the next. Due to the low overhead costs and lack of pressure, you have ongoing and infinite flexibility – this matters because the lack of flexibility in most businesses alone is a major barrier for many people.

4. You can scale without risk

Want to take on 5 clients? How about 10? how about 100? whatever you decide to do, you have the ability to scale without taking on major debt, liability or risk. For many types of business scaling up means risking losing everything because of the need to roll the dice each time a new location is opened, branch office is opened or employee is hired – not with this business, since development is being done by someone else (us) you can scale without worry.

5. You don’t need partners

Many times would-be entrepreneurs want partners and find them out of a desire to build a business with someone else and it works out just fine, however for many others this isn’t the case. Many unfortunately partner out of the necessity to share financial responsibilities early on in developing their companies only to find down the road that the person they partnered with was not a good choice – ending their business in ruin.

This is not the case with website sales, the cost of entry is affordable and the liability so low that almost anyone can launch on their own and sustain their business indefinitely, negating the need for partners.

6. You can pause at any time

The great thing about website sales is that you are under no pressure to constantly sell, this isn’t a business with a massive overhead to carry, so you are free to pause the business at anytime and take a vacation, take a break or focus on something else – it won’t go away, its not going to fall apart, you have the ability to start anytime you want.

7. You can get out clean

With a lot of businesses, going into them all things smell like roses and this leads to unrealistic optimism, debts are taken on to carry the load of the business, contracts are signed, leases are signed, clients are signed up for multi-year contracts – all of which become major liabilities if the business does not succeed. With website sales this is not the case, since there is no minimal commitment and minimal investment and minimal overhead, its very easy to decide to do something else and even sell client contracts to other businesses – no mess to clean up.

It’s not often we write something negative – we try to stay positive every time we write and we try to maintain objectivity as much as we can. Obviously we are in the white label business and in the development industry – we build sites, thousands of them, so of course we have opinions.

We also run an entrepreneurial program and interface directly with many dozens of individual resellers of our services on a daily basis. We hear their perspectives, the perspectives of people struggling to build businesses, make sales and juggle payroll at their companies on a daily basis.

The people we interface with live in the real world where they make sales to real businesses and need to put deals to bed quickly without a lot of drama. The clients of our resellers want sites put up quickly, they have the typical gripes, typical concerns and typical expectations of all web dev clients – they want the site to look good, function and they want it done FAST.

This is where we have to voice a direct opinion against so-called white-label-toolmakers. In case you aren’t aware there exist numerous, shall we say “popular” or “mainstream” platforms that tout solutions that “Anyone can master” to build websites. These companies also run white label programs where they claim anyone can ‘resell’ their ‘websites’ to people – this is highly deceptive. You see, these companies do not actually build anything – except tools. They rely upon people paying money to gain access to their platforms and then utilizing their own talents to produce the actual websites.

In theory, this makes no sense and in the real world it spells absolute, abject disaster for probably 90% of their clients – gee, who woulda thunk it?.

The reason this spells disaster is that, barring the fact most people have the design talent of pet rocks, most people do not own, nor can they operate, the graphic design software necessary to produce high quality graphics. Most people do not have the slightest idea how to utilize the tools they provide and although they may put something basic online – it isn’t fair to call it a website. No, most people who wade into these platforms wind up digging themselves deeper and deeper into a quagmire they cannot pull out of. How do we know this? We literally clean up these messes for a living, when we can.

There are fantastic platforms that exist, however, they require advanced training in things like vector graphics, video editing, graphic design and CSS – to produce great results. There is no canned solution that can produce ‘great’ - no matter the marketing hype.

To take things a step further, you have resellers who signed up for these platforms to attempt to build businesses atop them, only to struggle and ultimately fail when they realize they are responsible for the construction of the sites themselves, cutting deeply into their time and throwing them into a labyrinth of software and technologies that bewilders them. Assuming a reseller does know how to use the platform – what about the endless other issues that arise when untangling entrenched obsolete websites and upgrading them? Dealing with cpanel access on servers? Changing cname records? Getting email moved over? - on and on and on this stuff goes.

We consider ourselves a true white label provider, our partners come to us, get a quote from us – a hard quote that doesn’t fluctuate – and then, if they sell the deal, pay us and we do the work – all of them. We design, develop and deploy sites from scratch, test on all platforms and perform security and maintenance as necessary to keep the sites live. This is what a white label development company can and should do and this is what a business can be built upon.

If you consider the toolmakers, consider using the tools.

Entrepreneurs are naturally people drawn to adventure, they are go-getters, they are people who have goals, ambition, vision. These attributes fuse together and get behind or perhaps more aptly put, underscore, something else - dreams.

Dreams are what we strive FOR they are the WHY the dream is the end-place, the status beyond where we are now, they are what we seek - and sometimes find. Dreams are healthy, dreams are good, dreams motivate, inspire and keep us going forward. Fantasies on the other hand are something different, something sinister and something that all of us need to be aware of.

The difference between a dream and a fantasy is that dreams can be accomplished, they are plausible, they have potential; Fantasies are neither plausible nor potential, they are imaginary, illusory and fantastical - they are not reality. When fantasies become reality - it’s a miracle, when dreams become fantasies - it’s a tragedy.

How come fantasies are so destructive?

The destructive influences of fantasies come in a wide variety of forms, if a person is deluded into thinking that they will earn 1000,000.00 a month in six months, they might second mortgage their home today, they might max out credit cards they cannot repay, they might do all sorts of things based upon this idea - things which cannot be undone. If a person believes that they will make 500 sales a month based on phony arithmetic than they may focus on building an infrastructure - while sales don’t get made to support its costs. We could go on and on, but the fact is, fantasies, delusions, false expectations - call it what you will, carry the potential born in them.

The way to combat false expectations and to win every single time is to keep a grounded perspective upon things, to always look at what IS concretely a fact and to not let your hopes mutate into facts until such a time as their seeds have germinated and born the fruit of reality - you cannot turn anticipation into fact just because you want it bad enough. Being enthusiastic is a great thing, we all need it, we need motivation to get us up every day and fight the good fight, its great to be excited about what we do, we are excited as well, but keeping a balance is key.

Having spoken on this subject to some people, some say that this limits their potential, that it makes them feel boxed in, they might accuse us of putting a cap on their ambition - this is categorically false; Far from putting a cap on someone’s ambition, what we suggest is that dreams are not fixed places, they change, once attained new dreams take their place - we can always climb higher, but we need to always respect gravity.

To all our partners are out there, keep yourself focused, keep grinding, keep working and keep selling - you will accomplish more than you know if you stay the course and work building your businesses brick by brick.

At our business we are in the unique position of having a close relationship with our many partners, this one on one relationship gives us key insights into what works and what doesn't and we're tireless in trying to pass this information onto everyone else, that is precisely what I'm going to do right now.

Over the years we've seen many strategies attempted by members, some working some of the time, others working most of the time but rarely do we see a strategy work nearly 100% of the time - except for this one, it does, so read carefully.

We call this strategy the "Give-to-Get" or GTG for short, basically what this strategy is, is a new take on a rather old tactic we've advised partners to use for many years and here are it's steps, broken down for you:

1. Find a local organization or business in need of a website

2. Approach them and play "Inside baseball" with them, let them know you'll give them a site at-cost in exchange for them helping you to market.

Now, in case it didn't stand out for you, the operative part of this strategy is 'helping you to market' - I purposely left that vague, because it is vague, because you are free to broker any type of arrangement you want, need or desire to help market your business.

Now here is where it gets fun, assume you find a business, get them setup with a website at-cost, now you have to decide how to get them to help you market, how should you? Well, let's look at the obvious stuff first:

1. Get them to agree to act as a telephone reference

2. Get them to make you a YouTube video

3. Get them into your literature - testimonials

You can even go further and get them to post positively from their account to your social media account.

What about the not-so-obvious ways you can get your new friendly client to help?

1. Share information about your business to their facebook friends, twitter followers, linkedin contacts

2. Get them to email their database (if they are B2B) pitching how great your business is.

3. Get them to give you direct referrals - something 90% don't do!

How much business could this drum up for you? You would probably be shocked by it. Research has shown there are six degrees of separation between all humans alive on earth, getting just 1 business to let you give them a website at-cost and then utilizing that relationship to get them to market for you can literally change your business.

If one give away like that ends up getting you 3 or 4 or even 5 or more sales, imagine what 2 or 3 give aways could do?

I am not suggesting you chronically give away free websites, but what I am suggesting is that, as a new partner with RD, you should consider this strategy - it works the most often of anything we've seen.

In today's world, as a leader, you need to do a whole lot more than just throw together presentations that feature you showing off your vocabulary. You need to know the nuts and bolts of what you do, and you need to set goals that help you reach your objectives. It's best to focus on what you need to do get one up on your competition and think about how you are going to execute the plan that makes it a reality. You are a leader, not just a representative, and when times get tough, you need to dig deep and find the inspiration, passion, and drive to discover outside-of-the-box solutions.

Here are some tips that will get you in the right mindset and onto the correct path that every successful leader should be walking.

Look At The Big Picture, Always

While others are busy scurrying around worrying about insignificant details, you should always be looking at the bigger picture. Great leaders look at the ups and downs of any situation and are good at making connections that others don't. Pulling back emotionally and taking all sides of a matter into consideration before making a decision are the hallmarks of an excellent leader.

Simplify Everything

Some people are good at making the easiest of tasks complicated. That is not you. As a leader, you should always be making sure that the standards of your business are met by taking the simplest path, possible. Produce quality, always, but simplify the process that creates it, as often as possible.

Always Have Goals In Mind

Never take on unnecessary tasks and spend exorbitant amounts of energy on them. A leader always has a set of goals they are following, and there should be a reason for everything you are doing. No loose ends; no waste of energy or resources. Your reward should be like a bonfire lit up ahead that is guiding your every action. Always know how what you are doing will benefit your business and yourself, and stay focused only on strategies that will help you achieve your goals.

There Is No Such Thing As Perfect

You can run around like a chicken with its head cut off for days on end and weeks at a time if you are always chasing perfection. A good leader knows that there is no such thing as perfect and that there will always something that can be improved. While it is not a bad idea to improve things that can be, you must take action when it is time to take it. If you have a project or task that has come due, give it your best and fix whatever breaks down along the way.

  There Are No Stupid Questions

One of the best ways to learn about something is to ask questions, and a knowledgeable leader is one who has the guts to ask questions when others are afraid to. If you want to stand apart from the rest, find out as much as you can about anything you are involved in. Successful leaders have a knack for digging to the heart of a matter and understanding every angle of it. They do this by asking questions.

Take Calculated Risks

 Too many people who consider themselves leaders take the sit and wait for everything to come to me approach. While this may seem like a great idea in order to avoid complications, it also guarantees that you will never reap the big rewards. When taking risks, true leaders have already calculated the risk versus reward and know that it is worth the effort. If an idea or action fails, the downside is not so big that they can't rebound or try again.

Think Before You Speak Or Act

Good leaders distance themselves from a situation before deciding to speak or act. They reflect upon different people's emotions, perspectives, and thought processes before moving forward. Once they feel like they have as much of a complete picture as possible, they make their move. Until then, they gather more information.

Don't Think You Know Everything

No person is truly an island unto themselves, and two heads are almost always better than one. Real leaders know that they do not know everything, and they also recognize the strengths and talents of other people. One of the best actions that a leader can take is to put their ideas in front of others and have them comment on them. This can help expose flaws or other holes in their thinking they have missed. It takes humbleness to practice this on a daily basis, but the payoff can be monumental, in the end.

Wrap Up

It takes time to become a great leader, but with patience, perseverance, and adherence to the principles in this article, you will be well on your way!

If you are a leader looking to take your life to the next level financially, you might want to consider an entrepreneurial partnership with Rocket Driver.