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Market Saturation?

by wilder1047
21 replies
Do you guys think that the offline consulting space has become over-saturated?

Are we becoming a bad-taste in business owners mouth, sounding like a broken-record, calling, mailing, advertising in front of them non-stop??

Orrr... are the vast majority of people on here taking zero action and leaving a massive slice to the select few who choose to jump on board this incredible opportunity??

Thoughts?
#market #saturation
  • Profile picture of the author wally247
    1) Nobody is taking action


    2) Of those who are, many* are offering SEO only, leaving tons of other types of marketing wide open.


    *= in my area
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  • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
    Anyone that comes in here and says its over saturated is clueless, lazy, an excuse maker or a combo of all 3
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    • Profile picture of the author Irish Intuition
      Over-saturation is not the problem, pathetic lead generation
      is the problem.

      Most offline consultants are bad at advertising
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      • Profile picture of the author Marlin Winters
        Originally Posted by Irish Intuition View Post

        Over-saturation is not the problem, pathetic lead generation
        is the problem.

        Most offline consultants are bad at advertising
        I agree with Irish Intuition...
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  • Profile picture of the author wilder1047
    Legitimately just asking for peoples thoughts.

    I get on the phone everyday, but I wonder how many of the "No's" are fueled by the fact I'm 15 calls too late?

    There's obviously still opportunity out there, just personally curious.

    Haha I'm well aware the true entrepreneurs will never allow something like market saturation get in their way. If that ever is the case it's about crafting a better offer and outsmarting your competition.

    Still just curious on peoples thoughts.
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    • Profile picture of the author smallbusinesstoolkit
      Originally Posted by wilder1047 View Post

      Legitimately just asking for peoples thoughts.

      I get on the phone everyday, but I wonder how many of the "No's" are fueled by the fact I'm 15 calls too late?



      Still just curious on peoples thoughts.
      That maybe because you`re cold calling ,people usually do not react well at the first time , they don`t know you and don`t care about you.
      Might be good idea to send some mail shots on nicely printed headed paper to "warm up" the leads and follow up with phone calls few days later.
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      • Profile picture of the author edman78
        In my opinion the web design market is WAY oversaturated and I'm getting ready to get into it LOL

        but...I am focusing on designing websites for businesses that I know stuff about. I'm going to focus on being the specialist not the generalist that takes every project that comes his way.

        People say "don't turn anyone down you can outsource that" Yes I'm sure you can but then you are depending on someone else delivering a great product and If they don't your reputation goes down.
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        • Profile picture of the author edman78
          Lots of the market is oversaturated because you have to remember this isn't the only forum where this business is talked about. There are 100s of high traffic marketing forums online talking about this very subject.

          I don't really care about it though. Many markets are saturated yet new companies jump in all the time. For example Vodka companies! How many damn Vodka companies do you see on TV!
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    Here is my view from the other side aka I'm one of the people being pitched.

    1. I think very few are taking real action. Most of what I get is cold emails and bad ones at that.
    2. The action they are taking is not targeted or tested. Tossing out 10k emails and hoping to make money is so 1995 people.
    3. We are turned off by the average "offline consultant"
    4. The average offline consultant clearly has no clue what he is doing.

    This is good news for the rest of you. Because if you can learn to pitch well you can close well. We are not being pitched by real companies offering real value.

    Here is the breakdown of what I get over the year (%s estimated)
    Cold Emails: 95%
    Cold Calls: 4%
    Cold Direct Mail: 1%
    Cold Walking: 0%

    This is why I say be different. So to be different you want to avoid cold emails or at least make them stand out.

    Choose a niche: I always suggest local because that allows you to cold walk which is what the big companies do.

    Choose your medium: Google, Facebook, Utility companies, and other major players do not cold email. The local ones cold walk or direct mail. The ones not local direct mail and cold call. If you choose to go for a niche that isn't local do what Google and Facebook do and direct mail with follow up direct mail and phone calls. If you go local either jump to cold walking or start with direct mail. Never ever ever cold email. It is worthless IMO.
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  • Profile picture of the author WeavingThoughts
    Crappy services are a saturated sector to some extent perhaps, in terms of low rates only not in terms of customers. Quality services are rarely opted for by many companies ATM.
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  • Profile picture of the author wilder1047
    Yeah the cold e-mail garners very little results. The funny thing is, I've had people FLIP out on me for a cold e-mail... but I've yet to have somebody truly FLIP out on me over a phone call.

    Not to mention, even GOOGLE has said they receive e-mails promising front-page results!
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    • Profile picture of the author PeacefulCalamity
      Originally Posted by wilder1047 View Post


      Not to mention, even GOOGLE has said they receive e-mails promising front-page results!
      Oh, the irony.
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  • Profile picture of the author socialbacklink
    I agree with several on here that the market isn't at all saturated. Not in the sense you are thinking. Most don't take action. If they do it's not for long and they quit. The ones that are taking action aren't targeted and they are literally just throwing out pitches like the business owners are meat. I just posted something about this the other day. All I hear is "you need facebook, SEO, etc, etc.". It's not at all answering the questions they have. People are just talking at them looking for a sale.

    People are always telling me they blew a bunch of money on PPC with no results. Because it wasn't a targeted campaign.Then, they try other approaches where they don't pay out of pocket like email. It bombs because once again they didn't target the campaign or test anything. Aaron's right. It's not 1995. That stuff doesn't work anymore. I say as long as people are doing this sort of thing it just makes it aware to business owners that they need to market. Then, when they talk to people that care about their needs and answer the questions in their head they get a client started. So, keep on pushing junk at people. Just makes my job much easier. However, if you really want to get clients just listen to them, talk to them and not at them, and do a very targeted campaign providing real solutions and benefits. You'd be surprised at how well that works.
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    • Profile picture of the author CageyVet
      Originally Posted by socialbacklink View Post

      However, if you really want to get clients just listen to them, talk to them and not at them, and do a very targeted campaign providing real solutions and benefits. You'd be surprised at how well that works.
      This is the exact point I was thinking in my head as I read through this thread.

      The market is completely saturated with very bad Internet Marketers supplying sub par services using even worse sales/advertising methods.

      The market is completely Open for any good Internet Marketers that actually want to provide value to the customer in the first place and give the customer what they need instead of what easily sells/makes money.

      If you want to do anything in regards to the Internet in the future, you have to start thinking of what you are doing as a business and not a "quick money, bend the system, do it till it does not work and then move on to the next thing". To many people in this industry are looking at the past and even some of the present where you can game the system into making you an amount of money by taking advantage of "The Internet". People used to get by with just a website, then it was spamming keywords, then it was spamming backlinks, now it is spamming social signals etc etc etc. You could easily charge a pile of money to a company to get them traffic, customers, followers, higher rank etc etc but in the end people were trying to take the path of least resistance to the path of most money.

      People say SEO services are sooooo saturated. If you sit down with a business, find out what their business is about and what their customers are all about. Then help that business develop a long term SEO strategy as well as explain alternative methods they may employ. Then you are adding value to that business and I guarantee that by doing this you can get tons of work. This will get you way more work than just telling a client that you will get them to page 1 of google for these 3 keywords for x amount a month.

      Then it all comes down to your sales/advertising methods, which I my eye still goes back to adding value. If you are spamming emails with a line pointing out what they are doing wrong or missing out on and they a line about how you can help them for a fee. That is not providing any value. It is super easy though and a numbers game. Spam enough and you WILL get a few responses....

      Instead of spamming, add value...Host a free seminar workshop, a meetup.com group, create a video for each potential client about how you will provide them value, etc etc. Yes this takes WAY more time than creating 1 form letter cold email that you spam to 5000 businesses that you scraped from yellowpages.com.

      The point of this post is that anyone that mentions things are saturated is not providing enough to a potential customer in order to garner their business. Businesses that revolve around the Internet have to provide MORE, plain and simple. If you are not providing more, then you are going to be left behind and find your self posting on warrior type forums trying to find a solution to your lazy business acumen that you will never find.....
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  • Profile picture of the author digichik
    The market isn't saturated. What I find is, the market is full of '3-day wonders' who rip-off prospects or who make calls for a while and then give up. Both of these types can make it a little more difficult for me, when I come along behind them. However, I have sold long enough to know that if they don't buy from me today, or schedule an appointment, it doesn't mean they won't buy from me 2 months from now.

    Most of them won't even remember talking to me, so they are like new prospects when I call again.

    Offline takes discipline, most people aren't self-disciplined. Most of the people who 'try' offline don't have the backbone to stick with it, take rejection and keep on pushing through to the next 'YES', they give up first.
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  • Profile picture of the author rockong
    When there's "oversaturation" in a market, then you just have to become more creative.

    However, never assume that it is oversaturated..that's just a recipe for inaction and never finding out what's out there!
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  • Profile picture of the author CageyVet
    Edman78, the web design market is not over saturated yet.

    Just this week, I have had 8 new website design quote requests from all different verticals and 2 re-design quote requests.

    Now if you are talking about crappy no content wordpress sites that get charged out at 295 and some month maintenance fee. Well there are tons of that crap on the market for sure....The thing is, I have actually done 5 re-design jobs in the past few months for people that had exactly that done. After speaking with them about general things to do with Internet Marketing, they were quite quick to have be re-design their website to actually HELP their business instead of just having a website that does nothing for them but be a some text/images at a domain name.

    It still goes back to giving value to the clients. If you can provide actual value for a client in terms of a new or re-designed website, then you will get work.

    A saturated market is one that a general or typical business will have a harder or impossible time to break into...and it requires either a lot of money or a competely new concept/business strategy to achieve even limited success.

    This by no means is the case with any/all facets of Internet Marketing....

    You can easily start up a typical web design, seo, consulting, etc etc etc company and get clients as well as grow a business. As long as you provide value and attempt to grow a "real" business with real business practices..then you will do fine**Disclaimer, it is still hard work**
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  • Profile picture of the author sethczerepak
    "The Market can become easily oversatured with a bad one, but never with a good one."

    Henry Ford said that. It's true. Go for quality and you'll be fine. Saturation will become your friend because people will be relieved to work with someone who creates real value.
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    /\ What the guy above me said (+ Irish Intuition). There is really no better way to say it. The problem is not saturation its saturation with garbage and because of that there will ALWAYS be a "gap" in the market.
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  • Profile picture of the author FIP
    Wilder1047

    Your question is a good and valid one. Aaron Doud nailed it.

    In my opinion (and i've done a lot of cold calling in a past life so i know what it is and how hard it is to get on a level with people in that context) too many unprofessional newbies who are sold a course go out and do a lot of damage with business owners.

    I STRONGLY recommend the personal touch. You also need interpersonal communication skills and a genuine, warm friendly approach that guarantees that you will at least get a good reception.

    You need to know your stuff. Offer real solutions. Stop talking sales speak. Talk with them - not at them.

    Thats a good starting point
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