Ever wonder why more people aren’t buying, online or off?
Last week I was talking with George, who provides health insurance. He’d placed an ad in the local paper that was generating leads. His phone was ringing, but he wasn’t converting his prospects into clients. He asked me what he was doing wrong.
George had a sales rep call each lead back, and then… Well, then nothing. He had no plan for what to do next if he didn’t convert his prospects during the first conversation. And that was rare.
Whether you market your small business online or off, the principle is the same; if you want to convert a prospect into a client, you can’t rely on a one-step, or even two-step selling plan. You need to keep feeding your prospects the information they want so they get to know you, trust you and want to buy from you.
It’s like providing a full meal.
Say you’ve recently moved to a new part of town. You’ve decided to invite the neighbors over for the evening. So you call around and get twenty RSVPs. Then you greet your guests when they show up at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. on the appointed Saturday night, and point them to the drinks table.
And that was all you provided, drinks!
A couple of hours later, you’d have trouble. By now your guests would be hungry, grumpy, and inebriated to boot. Not a pretty picture, especially when Stephanie falls off your deck into the flowerbed or Fred starts pumping your keg of beer into your hot tub. And everyone’s starving.
In reality, you’d never make a mistake like that, would you?
You’d have a plan for the evening that included appetizers, dinner and dessert. You’d have the grill set up, the burgers and buns ready, bowls of salads in the fridge, and plates of brownies to bring out later, so the party would flow smoothly and your guests would go away full, happy and eager to come back.
(Not like some dinner parties I’ve been too where I come home still hungry and pop a pizza in the oven.)
Small business marketing strategy is the same – if you want it to be profitable you need to have a plan to succeed.
Why?
On average most of your prospects spend weeks, if not months to make a decision. Imagine you provided web hosting services, it’ll take 30-60 days to get a prospect to buy. Or in the case of my client George who sells health insurance it takes 30-120 days.
Do you have a small business marketing strategy for what you’re going to feed your prospects to keep them interested and keep them from starving before you close the sale?
Small business marketing is about building relationships with your prospects, helping them get to know you and see the value in your products and services, and getting them to convince themselves of the importance of taking action and becoming a client. That’s a big job, one that in reality takes weeks, if not months, depending on what you sell.
Just as you’d plan a full course menu for your dinner party, plan your marketing follow up so you get to know your prospects and they get to know you with the result that you build a relationship, one that leads to a sale. Without a menu of follow up activities, your prospects will starve and go looking elsewhere to satisfy their hunger.
Of course there is no perfect meal. It depends on who you’re serving. Similarly each follow up marketing plan will vary depending on your target market.
Keep these guidelines in mind:
1. Save your pitch for dessert. Even then, to close the sale, get your prospects to sell themselves. For example if you’ve made some sumptuous brownies, all you need to do is put them on the table and people will ask for them on their own. The same is true if you’ve done a good job creating a perception of need with your marketing for your product or service.
2. Use questions to get your prospects to tell you why they’re interested in your services. Let them tell you what they want and need.
3. Focus on finding common interests and building a relationship.
4. Contact your prospects at least every other week.
5. Map out the type of communication (email, phone, direct mail, etc.) and the content (the questions you’ll be asking and answers you want to get).
You can either put a lot of effort into generating leads and hope that some of them remember you 30 to 120 days later, when they’re ready to buy.
Or you can create a simple follow up strategy to systematically convert those hard won leads into sales and see your profits increase by 300% or more >>
Remember that 80% of sales are lost due to the lack of follow up, when prospects are starved for information.
How often do you follow up with prospects?
What content do you provide to keep them satisfied and make them eager to buy?
Is your follow up an improvised, seat-of-your-pants affair or a well-planned menu that you’re constantly improving?
Ready to close more sales online and off?
Find out the system that thousands have successfully used to increase their profits by 100 to 200 percent. Click here to get the details >>
– Charlie
P.S. Without a follow up small business marketing strategy, you’re losing 80% of your potential sales.
Do the math; multiply your average monthly sales by a factor of four to determine your ultimate profit potential. For example, if you’re now making $30,000 each month, you could be making $120,000 monthly with a systematic way of following up on prospects.
P.P.S. Yes, setting up your follow up system will require some work, but once it’s set up, it will run essentially by itself, multiplying your monthly profits. Find out how here >>
P.P.P.S. Gotta go. Writing this made me hungry.
