Day 20: Building An Agency From Scratch — Sales Options Galore & The Plan
By: Shane Ketterman
Tags: Social Media, Entrepreneurship, Agencylife, Startup

In case you are new to this meaty little series, I’m documenting everything (raw and real) out in the wide open as I attempt to build a highly focused social customer service agency, work several jobs, deal with anxiety, and fear of the unknown.

It’s been a wild few days. I’ll be honest. I know I’m doing some things right and I know I’m doing some things wrong. I’ve had many conversations with some great folks from Medium. I’ve pondered things. I’ve taken it all in.

I’m learning that there’s a lot of opinions. There’s a lot of sharing of experience. There’s a lot of people that really care to lend a helping hand.

A long time ago, I was wishing for a mentor and I feel like I’ve been getting that in a round about way.

The truth is — and this is not to discount anyone’s advice — I need to make decsions for me because that’s really the thing that matters in the end — unless I have a business partner who is investing…in that case…I listen to both of us…ha!

One thing stands out more than anything else:

I NEED TO FOCUS ON GETTING CLIENTS (caps because it’s true)

I NEED TO REALLY DEFINE WHAT THE HELL SOCIAL CUSTOMER CARE IS (caps again)

FINALLY, I NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT I’M REALLY SELLING HERE

I get it. I hear it. I know it. I feel it.

In fact..perhaps I shouldn’t even be spending the time writing this post because I need to be talking with people. I hear that too.

So if you are in this boat — and feeling like me — then here’s the options I have at my disposal right now:

Define what social customer care is — working on that right now

Get A Client — prefer it to be a paid client but just get a client

Refine my service set so it’s easier to understand what I do and why a business needs this — i.e., adding in reputation management

I want to focus on #2 for a moment. I’ve listened to a lot of folks and had many chats. I’ll be honest…I’m feeling very overwhelmed at the moment and literally want to just scream with frustration. Regardless, here’s how I can approach #2:

Go the Online route — sending InMail, Joining groups, doing some direct messaging on Instagram and Twitter — introducing myself basically. This category involves the emailing I am doing as well.

Go the physical route — I could try to find leads online and just make a phone call and see if I can talk to someone. Also known as cold calling.

Go the route of having a class — yes, this costs money but I could advertising my class and run it for two days and see if I get any takers first — then I’ll get a venue (which for 20 people is about $200) and do a class and see what happens. This is risky and costly but has it’s potential postitives.

I could do all three and perhaps maybe I should

UPDATE: I sat down and defined what social customer care is. I was impressed to be honest with what I came up with. I’m posting it below.

I feel really good about this. It looks a bit messy but it’s really actually a great start to depict what SCC is and what it does. So that’s my mindmap all done and now I’ll write an epic post on my website blog that will explain this in lay terms and hopefully help cement what it is and why it is a need.

As I was writing this, something ocurred to me. I’m afraid. I’m just damn afraid to pick up the phone or send a message off. I’ll openly admit it right here. I’m scared to death of rejection, making myself look like an idiot, and success. Yes, I fully believe I’m afraid of something actually happening. You might not admit it to yourself but I bet that what holds us back is fear of what we want the most.

So now I have to dig deep inside my adult self and get over that fear. But I’m telling this out in the open because it’s the damn truth. I feel pathetic that I can’t be like Gary V and just go crush it. He has something I’m missing right now and I better figure out how to get that.

Alright — confessional over.

One other thing is that I started a free trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator — it’s really kind of cool becuase I had no idea how detailed I could get with leads. Now I need to refer back to my strategy and decide how to engage with said leads.

So it’s Day 20. I cannot waste more time on graphs and planning. I cannot feel any pity or angst. I just need to find that little tiny spark of a client who will trust me and let me take off.

Right now I’m standing at the bottom of a mountian, feeling like I made it to the mountain, but I’m looking at the top and saying, “How the hell to I get there, what’s the right path?, How did others do this, and what happens if I do get there?”

I have my options and also thanks to Nick V for sharing his texting method.

My goal for my next update is to share what I put into motion, not what I haven’t.

P.S. I mentioned the podcast I did and so that’s another thing I did accomplish to get myself out there. Here’s the episode on Socially Supportive.

Socially Supportive Podcast Episode 116

Day 20 hasn’t been a loss. I’ve actually accomplished a lot in terms of getting my sales ducks in a row. I have had so many great converstaions with people from Medium so I had to take all that and process it because I never discount the help people are willing to give.

Rewire Digital Stats

Feeling: tired if I’m honest, spunky, hopeful

Spend: $1,400 (i’m doing good on not spending a lot)

Emails Sent: 12

Clients: 0

-SJK