Dilbert Cube Escape Plan: Rainmaker

It was terrifying to leave the “safety” of the Dilbert Cube. I couldn’t help but remember all the times before, when I was attempting to sell and recruit. Back then I would *always* miss my monthly goals.

Yes, my new post-Dilbert Cube life was much more promising. Still I had to overcome my old Fear Of Failure. It was sooooo easy to imagine my post-Dilbert Cube life being the same as before.

Plus this was right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and nobody was spending money on anything then. <GULP>

So I make a list of literally a dozen things I can do, all of them for other companies.

My first opportunity is at this company in Arkansas. They have a new product they want to start selling. I spend half a day with this CEO and I pummel him with questions.

“If you combine your advertising, plane trips, trade shows, booth babes, software demos and everything else, how much $ do you spend to get 1 new customer?”

He thinks for awhile.

“Fifty thousand dollars.”

I say, “If I could reduce that number to $15,000 would that be good?”

“That would be great.”

“Then that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll put together an action plan.”

I send him my plan. I’m going to write him a white paper, a lead generation page for his website, and place 2 magazine articles for him. It’s going to take 2 months and I’m gonna charge him $7500 per month.

He accepts it. 19 days into my post-Dilbert Cube life, I have my first client.

That’s how I replaced my income in 19 days. No regrets, never looked back.

[Did you notice??? I just gave you a HUGELY powerful technique, right here. Somebody who read this story will have made $10,000 from this by the middle of next week, if not sooner.]

When you consult, you really sell MONEY AT A DISCOUNT. If you know what their numbers are [and by the way *they* usually don't, you have to help them] and what the new numbers need to be, you can find a piece of the pie that makes sense for you.

Personally I believe that you should offer assurance of tangible results. Not just a huge list of things that your client should do that hopefully might someday make some customers have good feelings about them.

Don Crowther has been making a living as a marketing consultant for something like 10 years now and he “sells results not procedures” to his clients. He’s assembled a module in his course on “How to be a social media consultant.”

(Which in Don’s world is, uh, not the same as somebody who goes to parties and blabs about Twitter.)

Perry

About the Author

Entrepreneur Magazine says: "Perry Marshall is the #1 author and world's most-quoted consultant on Google Advertising. He has helped over 100,000 advertisers save literally billions of dollars in Adwords stupidity tax."

He is referenced across the Internet and by The Washington Post, USA Today, and the Chicago Tribune.