Focus Your Best Marketing Into Free Presentations By Busking Out
Sell to small groups of your most qualified prospects
Every time a coin landed in my guitar case, I smiled and sang, ‘Do you have a couch for me? I’m looking for a couch for free.’
In 1997 I lived as a street musician for a year. I hitchhiked across North America and survived off of the kindness of strangers. Unlike many of my fellow hobos, I had a craft: I could play the guitar. Every day, I spent a few hours playing music in a public place. This earned me enough money for tacos and cigarettes for the day. Sometimes, playing guitar introduced me to people with couches.
Because I had a musical instrument, I could attract people who liked to hear a stranger play music. After a song or two, I would let them know that I was passing through town, and looking for a place to crash. Instead of sleeping outside every night, I often slept in spare bedrooms or on comfortable couches. I was busking out to my target audience.
If I had held up a sign on the side of the road that said ‘looking for couch,’ I would have slept outside more often than not. Instead I offered value and made an impression first, before making my pitch. In sales terms, this enabled me to close more prospects in smaller numbers.
