The Sales Recipe School THINKTANK Phase Three
/
For those of you reading this blog for the first time or if you need a reminder the THINKTANK blogs are self starter projects that I am working on and building from the ground up.
I show you in phases the processes of my creations and activities and what is working and not working.
The goal is for you to get a better grasp on how to create your own things for this world, put a substantial focus on people and purpose in your digital marketing, understand what can be turned into passion projects/side hustles/full on businesses, and ultimately you creating a lifestyle around fulfilling work that impacts the world in a positive way!
I am focusing my blogs on telling the stories and steps of four different projects that I am currently working on for the rest of this year.
They are as follows:
- Volunteer Projects THINKTANK
- Hashtag 59 THINKTANK
- Publishing a Book THINKTANK
- The Sales Recipe School THINKTANK (Consider this one the sunset for now!)
If you missed phases one and two of the Sales Recipe School you can check them out HERE.
In phase two I wrote about my next steps for the Sales Recipe School. I have created the slide deck and action worksheets and wrote the video scripts that I had included as next steps. These were two of my key items that I needed to accomplish.
Next up was building an interested email list and getting feedback on the interest for it.
Guess what happened?!?! I was unable to attract email sign ups based on three different target audiences that I believed would be most interested.
This is the other side of the THINKTANK; when things that I am testing don’t wind up working as planned or hoped. While I have had success with the free kids basketball camp and Hashtag59 the data has come back and told me that for the work involved to make the final steps occur for this sales school (creating and editing videos, taking the hours required to do office calls, running the webinars, etc) that there was not enough demand for a sales school from Marketing Fun With Mike.
Why not?
There could be a number of reasons. One is perhaps a saturated market. There are TONS of sales schools out there that already exist and while I felt that mine was a unique and different angle it doesn’t mean that others do.
Another reason I believe there was a lack of overall interest is that salespeople believe they already know everything about sales. They don’t need to take an online course. Most of my business in the “sales training” world has actually come from management who wants to hire me to speak to their team in a workshop format. Not from actual individuals who believe in paying for further professional development out of their own pocket.
The individuals thrive once we get into the working mode together at a speaking engagement or workshop but they are not the ones taking the step required to hire it out.
The final reason is that maybe my experiences are not enough or sustainable that someone believes they would pay money to learn from me in it. Just because I have sold hot dogs, radio, crowdfunding campaigns, industrial design, and basketball camps does not mean I am the official and only credible source on sales. I have been selling professionally since I was 19 but to some 15 years is not enough. They might prefer to use someone who has been doing it for three or four decades instead of just one.
People also can teach sales techniques to themselves or get a lot of information online for free.
How do I know all of this this?
I ran ads directing people to a page promoting that you would receive a free gift and get more information once the school was ready.
People simply weren’t converting at any type of rate that would make the school sustainable.
I crunched numbers, hours, and possible revenue and it didn’t shake out to where it made sense to continue.
Was the work I did a waste?
No absolutely not! I have used the program I created for success in my own career that has resulted in getting other clients and speaking engagements.
The slide decks and action worksheets can still be utilized when I am hired by a company to speak or work with their team.
I also have a great partnership with Hutchison Media and as my focus shifts to more work with them when it is directly involved with advertising and marketing we will be able to utilize this material and share it with our clients.
What would have been a waste was not testing this out early in the process and spending hundreds of hours of time and large amounts of money for the online pieces necessary to create this school.
What’s next?
The online Sales Recipe School work is being halted and this THINKTANK is officially closed. My time and energy get to be on my latest book, the creation of Hashtag 59, and my clients with both Hutchison Media and Marketing Fun With Mike.
I have the groundwork completed for a valuable and beneficial half day workshop for managers looking for a sales training program for their company.
I hope by showing you the phases of a THINKTANK like this that is not successful will still provide a nice guide for you to understand when to fold the cards and walk away from the table.
Life has too many opportunities to tread water with something that doesn’t have the output you were hoping for.
Thanks again for being here and reading this. Shares are most welcomed and once again the Sales Recipe is and will always be available as a half day interactive workshop for sales teams or companies looking to have a keynote delivered to their team or at an event.
Email me at mike@MarketingFunWithMike.com and we can talk further if interested.
If you are ready and interested in learning more about building your own ideas like The Sales Recipe School, and understanding when to call it quits on them, then get my Efficiency Recipe HERE when you sign up for my newsletter.
Thanks for being here!
Related Posts
1. Hashtag59 THINKTANK Phase Four
2. Volunteer Projects THINKTANK Phase Nine
3. The Defiant Ones...and more!
Spread Good Vibes, Demand the Best from yourself, Carpe Diem
Mike