I am getting ready for a big push on the writers dojo sales.  July 1 will be my pitch day.  I will give my pitch to twenty five different people, all in one day.

I have had enough practice.  I’m ready to make some serious money.

Jeff, over at the Writers Dojo, is putting together a project called Why St Johns.  Its about why people do business in St Johns, and what makes the community unique.  It’s local, it’s exciting, and it’s going to launch on September 1.  My job is to get as many people as I can to sponsor it through web advertising.

I make a nice commission off of the sales, and I have put together some pretty sweet prospecting plans.  I have walked up and down lombard, but thats only going to get me so far.  As Brian Tracy says, “If you go fishing for minnows, eventually, you will have a bucket of fish.  If you go hunting for whales, you can get a shipload.”

I’m hunting whales.

I want some big advertisers to pay five grand to sponsor a 4 minute web video.  My contact at Wedien + Kennedy will look into getting Starbucks on board.  I know another freelance ad salesperson who has plenty of contacts that spend money with her already, and I will subcontract her out.

I’m putting together  a clever campaign to get a frisbee manufacturer on board.  I;m going to give the sausage / frisbee vendor at Pier Park a clipboard and twenty bucks.  He has to collect email addresses of everyone who wants to be entered in a raffle for three frisbees of their choice and a walking bag.

Just giving an email address does not constitute an entry into the raffle, though.  They have to forward on an email I send to them and cc me for the entry to count.

Here’s what the email will say:

“Dear [frisbee manufacturer],

I love your frisbees.  I love to throw them at the excellent course in Pier Park.  And I love St. Johns, the neighborhood where Pier Park is located.

That’s why I’m asking you to support the Why St Johns project.  It is a multimedia, web-based documentary about what makes St Johns special.  They need sponsors for their 4-minute web videos, one of which will be about unique sports in St. Johns.  Email [email protected] to help this great project get off the ground.”

Each email address will correspond to a specific brand of frisbee.  By asking for email addresses and ‘Whats your favorite kind of frisbee?’ I will have marketing data that I could share with advertisers.  If they want to know how many people out of 200 (or so) respondents thought their frisbees were the best, they have to sponsor an ad.

I’m going to design the clipboard sheet now, and schedule out the plan of attack, for this and other sales techniques.