The Sales Generator

A Furniture Shopping Trip Any Kid Would Love

2007-11-11T05:51:00.000-05:00

As a kid, I remember being carted around by my parents on various weekend shopping sprees that I absolutely abhorred. Every time we would head out to the grocery store, the greenhouse, or the auto dealer I would wince at the thought of spending hours tailing along behind my mom or dad, bored out of my gourd, wishing I could have stayed at home.

Perhaps worst of all were trips to stores filled with room upon room of bedding and casegoods. Boy did I hate those furniture-buying trips! With so many interesting places to run and hide, it's not that I disliked the furniture stores themselves. It was the scoldings I got from my parents, who quickly grew tired of "losing" me in labyrinths of sofas, bookshelves and dinette sets. As much as I disliked the experience, I know now that it's a parents' nightmare to have to try and keep sight of their children and focus long enough to make a decision on which floral pattern best matches the drapes.

This weekend I learned that at least one furniture store has found a solution to this common family problem. Ashley Furniture on Capital Circle NE in Tallahassee, FL has set up a counter lined with television monitors and game systems, and stocked it with the latest video games. While parents shopped, kids were quietly and intently focused on the games, under the watchful eye of a store employee who gave parents an added sense of comfort by making sure that the kids stayed where they were supposed to. Parents shopped; kids played. For a brief period of time, as is well in the world.

This makes great sense, and I predict that we'll see a lot more of this and time goes by. Stores that cater to buyers' needs will do better than those that fail to lower shopping barriers.

Need Leads? Try Sticking It To Homeowners.

2007-04-29T11:24:00.000-04:00

Shortly after moving into my new home, I returned from the office to find the following sign stuck in my lawn at the end of the driveway:

I wasn't the only one, either. All up and down the street I could see several of these stuck into my neighbor's lawns, as well. While most people likely either called to inquire about TruGreen's lawn care service or threw the signs away, I was struck by the ingenuity of the approach and took mine inside to study it more closely.

This is a clever lead generation idea for several reasons. First, it delivers the message in a way that makes it stand out from the stack of direct mail offers already filling the mailbox. You simply can't overlook these signs. They demand some sort of attention, if only to pull them out and toww them into the trash can.

In addition, this kind of promotion is highly targeted, inexpensive and easy to do. You can focus in on precisely the neighbourhoods and specific homes you want to reach without the cost of having to blanket a larger area than you intend to reach.

Finally, the row of signs up and down the street make quite an impact not only for the targeted homeowners but for anyone who drives up the street. Think of it as a series of mini billboards places exactly where you want them. There's no way you can travel on the street and not get the message.

TruGreen's yard signs are a truly great example of streetsmart targeted lead generation.

But that's not all. TruGreen's approach is just the first part of a well-composed lead generation system. In addition to simply providing a quote, the sign lists the address for the company web site. A visit to the site shows that they have their act together when it comes to lead management as well. They do a great job of engaging visitors with tips and resources for better lawn maintenance, and position themselves as experts "in the field". (My apologies for this opportunistic pun.)

The TruGreen site (http://www.trugreen.com/) is clean, attractive, and easy to navigate. Information is well organized and a rotating series of images of beautifully-kept lawns help to maintain the perception that TruGreen knows how to care for lawns.

Located prominently on the home page is an offer promoting a free lawn care analysis. The copy reads, "Start your service with a thorough evaluation of your lawn. Get a FREE Lawn Analysis with no obligation. It's your guide to a greener, thicker lawn."

Offering complimentary services is a well-known and proven technique for qualifying prospects and advancing the sales process. Homeowners who respond and requests the free analysis are essentially "raising their hand" and identifying themselves as prospects for paid services.

TruGreen knows what they're doing when it comes to lead generation. Although it clearly works well for lawns, this technique can be used in countless other applications including all sorts of home services. Like TruGreen does, be sure and follow up with a well thought out web strategy and a web site that encourages prospects to make contact with you.

Kenny

2007-03-27T07:13:00.000-04:00

"Hi how are you?" inquired the backpack-toting 20-something college student, while sidling up next to me in the student union at Tallahassee Community College. "Are you a student here? I don't usually see many students dressed in suits and ties."

Kenny, as I learned his name to be, then proceeded to recruit me for a "business opportunity" for which he is seeking sharp, talented business people. I told him what I do for a living.

Undaunted, Kenny went on to ask if I'm keeping my options open. Curious at how this approach would develop, I listened to his pitch and agreed to meet with him if he would call me at my office. We traded cards (the caption under his name read, "Private Business Franchising") and I asked him what year of college he was in. He told me that he's been at the college for three years, and is hoping to transfer to Florida State University if he doesn't just finish up here and then retire early.

You can't deny his spunk.

So what are lead generation lessons here? First and foremost, this is proof positive that cold calling is not dead. In fact, few other methods can give us direct access to and immediate feedback from our prospects.

Kenny also exhibited tenacity, a fundamental skill in selling. After I told him that I was gainfully employed, he opened the door for me to continue our discussion by asking "Are you keeping your options open?" Brilliant! Never turn your back on a potential deal. Let your prospects make the final decision about whether or not to move forward.

I have no doubt that Kenny will do just fine in business and in life. He's personable enough, bold enough, and driven enough to succeed. It doesn't hurt that he's still a very young man and has his whole life ahead of him, either.

We can learn a lot from the Kenny's of the world.

Make An Impression That Really Sticks

2007-03-11T08:21:00.000-04:00

Val Fox is a Licensed Massage Therapist in Tallahassee, Florida, in the U.S. Like many professional services providers, Val has added vinyl graphics to her vehicle (a very eye-catching bright yellow Scion) that display her business name and phone number.

What's unusual, however, is that she has also plastered the back of her vehicle with business card-sized magnets listing her name and contact information. Of course she knows that people will take them. In fact, I'm sure she also parks in the most visible, accessible parking spaces she can find in order to maximize visibility of and access to her mobile billboard and business card dispenser.

Very clever, Val.

An Oldie But A Goodie, Baby!

2007-01-21T09:16:00.000-05:00

Looking through some things I had stored away I found a small blanket box containing a soft knit baby blanket. On the box cover was a beautiful soft-pencil sketch of a mother and father holding a baby. Bold text beside the sketch reads:

To You

and

Your Family

with best wishes

compliments of

Brockville Drugs Limited

My mother had given me this many years ago, and I had completely forgotten about it. Presumably, this was a gift from the drug store to my mother at the time I was born.

Think about what a sensible thing it was for the drug store to give these blankets away. Hospitals seldom allow commercial advertising to be placed on their premises. But this is different. It isn't really advertising; it's a gift. Like a Trojan Horse, the gift box penetrates new mothers' defenses and introduces them to the drug store in a way they may never have thought about prior to becoming a mother. There are few better ways to reach new moms at the exact moment that they are likely to be thinking about all of the blankets, bottles and bottom-wipes they suddenly realize that they'll need.

In addition, as persuasion expert Dr. Robert Cialdini would point out, the approach takes advantage of the principle of RECIPROCATION. People tend to give back the kind of treatment that they receive. Even a simple gift has the power to ingratiate the giver in the mind of the receiver, causing them to want to reciprocate.

Do today's drug stores continue this approach? I don't know. Most of the old-time corner drug stores have disappeared, and the big box stores that have replaced them seem so corporate and impersonal to me. It's seems unlikely that they would get this involved with individual customers or families.

It's a shame, though. For those who want to reach new mothers, however, a short visit to the maternity ward with a present like this would seem to be a practice worth adopting.

Book 'Em, Dano

2006-11-19T09:19:00.000-05:00

It's common knowledge that third-party referrals and testimonials have greater inherent credibility than company-sponsored advertisements. That's one reason why product placements in movies and TV serials have become so prevalent of late.

While product placement on the Big Screen and television are typically only viable options for larger companies with deeper pockets, there are ways for smaller firms to get company or product mentions. Why not offer to pay authors to place your company, product or service in their book?

Although product references can work well in novels, you're not limited to the fiction racks. In fact, non-fiction titles can give you great targeting capabilities. For example, if you sell a product that would be perfect for antique automobile restorers, try negotiating a deal with an author of books for that market.

Whatever market you are trying to reach, there are books that can help get you in front of prospects. With the right references in the right books, you and your products can be positioned better than nearly anything you can do on your own.

Here's to your lead generation success!

Robin.

ps - If you're looking for another way to generate more referral business check out my $14 Guidebook "Building a Referral Machine", available on my website (http://www.robinjohnston.com/books.htm).

Is Your Addiction Eating Away At Your Business?

2006-10-17T22:07:00.000-04:00

As Americans we love our junk foods. So much so, in fact, that our blind obsession with all things sugary has earned us the title of "World's Most Overweight Nation."

Recently as I was waiting to board a plane, a very pretty woman sat down across the aisle from me in the waiting area. She was twenty-something, fashionably dressed in faded bell bottoms and a pair of well-worn cowboy boots, and had a slender figure.

In her hands was a cup of Edy's ice cream: Vanilla. With chocolate sprinkles. And she was engaging it with the commitment of a chipmunk packing away the last acorn of Autumn.

In this day and age, the consequences of poor dietary choices and bad eating habits are well known. "A moment on your lips," the old saying goes, "A lifetime on your hips." Yet, with spoon after yummy spoonful, this woman seemed oblivious to the long-term effect such indulgences often have.

Don't misunderstand me; I'm not against a treat now and again. And I'm certainly not the health and fitness fanatic my wife would love for me to be. I enjoy a candy bar or chocolate chip cookie or six at least as much as the next guy. But it was obvious watching this young woman devour her cup of ice cream that for her this was more than a passing fancy.

This woman was clearly addicted to sweets.

What about you? Is your business addicted to sweets? Are you, as a professional, addicted to sweets?

What I mean to say is, "Are you engaged in some indulgence or activity that, while thorougly enjoyable today, is gradually eroding your business or professional health?"

We are all suscepible to this. Every one of us has a time-wasting achilles heel; a soft spot or vulnerability that can bring us to our knees and render us ineffective from a time management perspective.

Among other things, I'm a competetive chess player. This means that several times every year I travel to play in weekend-long state or regional tournaments. I absolutely love the game. The history and dynamics of one of the world's oldest strategy games has a positively intoxicating effect on me. At times, with a strong player across the board from me, my heart can get to racing like that of a twelve year old on a sugar high.

But tournament play isn't my problem. I also have an acknowledged weakness for online chess. For me the temptation of always-available chess is a strong one. Sometimes the pull is incredibly strong. If I don't exercise discipline and self-control I can quickly pass a whole day away getting little else accomplished.

So... what's your addiction? And when are you going to belly up and do something about it?

Think it over. There's help out there.

BNI And Other Stories: How one marketer uses networking clubs to find good leads

2006-09-15T09:34:00.000-04:00

When it comes to reeling in prospects, Mike Stipanov knows exactly where to drop his line in the water.

Mike is a member of a BNI chapter, a professional networking group in which members meet weekly to share business leads. Guests are permitted, and members are encouraged to introduce new people to the club. There are strict rules, however, about new members' professions. By charter, each club allows only one person from each profession. This serves to eliminate "competition" for leads from members who might do the same job.

Like most BNI members, Mike tries hard to come prepared with the names of a few people who he thinks might make good prospects for his colleagues. Some weeks he brings a few names, and other weeks he comes empty-handed. But every week he hopes his colleagues have turned up a few leads for him.

Mike has another angle, however, that makes his membership in BNI work for him. While most of his colleagues shuffle restlessly, hoping that the next lead passed will be for them, Mike turns his attention to the guests. In fact, he takes an especially active interest in prospective new members, and for good reason.

You see, Mike sells financial services. And he knows that some of the best prospects for the investment tools and retirement plans he offers are people between positions. He also knows from experience that BNI and other networking groups tend to be a magnet for people between positions, or those who have recently landed a new position. Accordingly, Mike keeps a keen eye out for new members and makes sure that they leave with his elevator pitch on their minds and his card in their pockets.

In doing this, Mike is employing one of the most powerful approaches in the marketer's arsenal. He is focusing on his clients and prospects, and planning to "get in their way" and intercept them at precisely the right time in their lives to be introduced to his services.

Can you learn from Mike's approach? Where do your prospects go, and what can you do to get in their way?

The Power of Choice: How one copywriter uses a free offer to get the inside scoop on his market

2006-08-13T09:08:00.000-04:00

Just last week I received an e-mail newsletter from copywriting expert Alan Sharpe (www.raisersharpe.com). Alan is a talented direct mail copywriter, coach and newsletter publisher who helps clients in a variety of industries.

In his newsletter, Alan asked if I would take a few minutes to complete a brief survey. In return he offered to send me my choice of one of several handbooks he has written. He included a link to a page on his web site that provided descriptions of each handbook and showed pictures of the covers (http://www.raisersharpe.com/handbooks/index.htm).

Being a perpetual student of copywriting, I took the bait. And I couldn't wait to complete the survey and get my handbook.

The survey itself was painless. In just a couple of minutes I answered the few short questions Alan asked. Apparently I wasn't the only one to do so, either. As of 6:30 this morning, Alan reported that he had received the following response:

Number of opt-in subscribers who received the e-mail: 2,772
Number who opened the invitation: 790 (28.5%)
Number who clicked on the survey link: 405 (14.6%)
Number who participated in the survey: 342 (12.3%)

That's a decent response by almost anyone's standard!

Of course, getting 342 people to fill out a survey and send you feedback is good business. It will surely give Alan a good feel for his current market. But that's not the real genius of his approach.
What was really clever about Alan's offer was that, in asking completers to review his library of handbooks and request the one of most interest to them, he caused a significant and immediate spike in web site traffic and got current and prospective clients to look at his books.

Furthermore, he learned precisely which copywriting issue is most important to each respondent. With a broad range of topics to choose from, the handbooks that people select reveal exactly what problem they feel most motivated to address. Prospects self-identified their area of greatest need, and Alan gained great insight into how to help them solve their problems and achieve their goals. What a wonderful prospecting and pre-qualification device!

Very impressive. Very impressive indeed. But what else would you expect from someone who claims to have milked a cow. And traveled with the circus. And taught children with disabilities how to downhill ski. Climbed the Swiss Alps, lived in a snow hole, preached verse-by-verse through The Gospel of Matthew, built a root cellar, eaten a penguin egg, lived in Jane Fonda's old house in Paris, found his wife on the Internet, walked Ken Thompson's dog, adopted two boys who have Down syndrome, slept through a live performance of Swan Lake, photographed terrorists from bushes, scuba dived with leopard seals, and had his clothes inspected by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Suffice it to say, he has a unique perspective on a lot of things. If anyone could have thought of this powerful approach to lead generation, it would have to have been Alan Sharpe.

Brilliance in Book-Selling

2006-08-11T17:06:00.000-04:00

Leave it to Amazon.

The giant bookseller is always finding ways to outdo itself. In my inbox this afternoon I found an e-mail message addressed personally to me. Rather than promoting any old book, it was pitching one that, based on my purchase history and Wish List contents, Amazon was reasonably certain that I'd be interested in.

What's especially interesting about this particular e-mail is that it wasn't just a pitch for the book. It was a notification that the book had just been reduced in price. This takes Amazon's already-strong recommendations function one giant step further. Specifically: it adds a call to action and sense of urgency. Who knows how long the book will remain available at this low, low price?

Anyhow, the e-mail I received is copied below. How can you use this idea in your business?
----------
Subject: Your Price Drop Notification

Dear Robin,

We track items that you may be interested in for price reductions so that you don't have to. These additional savings on top of our everyday low price may only be available for a limited time, so act now to take advantage of this alert. Prices can go back up at any time and may never be this low again.

You can improve your recommendations and increase the number of products we watch for price reductions by rating items or adding them to your wish list on Amazon.com. We hope you like these timely price notifications and would love to hear your feedback on them at pd-feedback@amazon.com.

Price reduced from $19.99 to $13.59 (32% reduction).

Primal Branding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future by Patrick Hanlon
List price: $19.99
Our previous price: $19.99
Our new price: $13.59

Suggested because you expressed an interest in Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant.

Power Networking

2006-07-25T07:54:00.000-04:00

We all know the value of networking. Personally meeting prospective buyers, learning about them, positioning ourselves and the work we do and leaving them with our business card is one of the tried, tested and true starting points to productive business relationships. This is block and tackle stuff. But how many of us do it effectively and consistently?

Crystal Flaman (www.crystalflaman.com) does, and she has found a way to make an impact in a cost-effective and memorable way. Crystal has developed a series of small cards that resemble fortune cookie messages. Each bears an inspirational messsage that she wrote. The two I received say "Focus on the best and it will manifest," and "The people you need most will cross your path now."

While the cards themselves are unique, the real magic in Crystal's approach is in how she distributes them. On an excursion during a recent professional association meeting in Orlando, Florida, she walked down the tour bus aisle and stopped at each seat with the cards fanned out in her hands like playing cards. She asked acquaintances and strangers alike to take two cards each - keeping the one that speaks to them and promising to give the other to somoene else some time during the conference. In effect, she turned everyone on the tour bus into her sales team.

Wow!

Crystal - whose separate "ordinary" business cards describe her as an "Entrepreneur, Professional Speaker, Ironman Triathlete, 100k Ultra-Marathoner" - is, above all else, a humantarian. When I asked her why she decided to participate in a punishing 100 kilometer Ultra Marathon, she told me that she and a friend did it to raise money for families in Africa.

The world needs more Crystal Flamans.

Three Great Quotes

2006-07-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

We all fall down. That's part of life.

Hopefully you realize that it's not the falling down that defines failure, it's the not getting back up.

Here are three quotes to consider when you lose your way. Hopefully they can help you get back on track, as they always seem to do for me.

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming... WOW! What a ride!" – Anonymous

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." – Teddy Roosevelt, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris, April 23, 1910.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain

To your success,

Robin.

How to Earn Long-Term Loyalty

2006-06-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

Wow! I've just got to share the following e-mail with you. This appeared, unsolicited, in my e-mail in-box this past week.

I don't know how you feel about it, but my immediate reaction upon reading this e-mail was one of great appreciation and increased loyalty. With this one simple act I suddenly feel ingratiated to Bryan and Jeffrey (and I haven't even received the book yet!).

Take a look and make up your mind for youurself:
----------

From: Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg

To: Robin C. Johnston

Subject: We Want to Thank you Again

Dear Colleague,

Please keep your eyes peeled, the next Amazon box landing on your doorstep is a gift from us.

Thank you so much for your interest in our 2005 book, "Call To Action". The book exceeded our wildest expectations, due in no small part to the support of individuals just like you. It landed on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller lists.

You may have already heard about our newly released book, "Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?". To show our deep appreciation for your support, we delightfully sent you a gift copy. No strings at all. Your book should arrive within the next two weeks.

Happy Reading,

Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg
Future Now, Inc.

----------

The feeling of loyalty created here is based on the principle of Reciprocity. To learn more about this, seek out and read the work of Dr. Robert Cialdini. Dr. Cialdini is an expert on the science of persuasion. He teaches that when we do something for or give something to another person, they will naturally want to reciprocate. We're programmed to want to repay in kind.

Can you use this approach in your business? Of course you can! And just think what it would do for your customers' loyalty.

Set Up a Fishbowl

2006-06-17T11:07:00.000-04:00

The “fishbowl” technique is hardly new. For decades – maybe longer – retailers have put out a bowl with a sign attached asking customers to leave their business card in return for an opportunity to win some sort of prize. Why do they do this? The offer is not entirely altruistic.

The real idea is to collect patrons’ names and addresses. Aside from building a mailing list (known in direct mail circles as a “house” list), fishbowl card collections help retailers determine and map their trading areas. This insight provides many benefits, including the ability to refine promotional targeting when using “blind” mail drops or buying outdoor ad space.

There’s nothing difficult about setting up a fishbowl, and the technique doesn’t need to be costly. To drive response, you will need to offer a desirable incentive. Although some “fishbowl anglers” choose items completely out of the blue, the best incentives are something related to your business. This way, the pool of prospects you develop is more likely to be semi-qualified. Typically, only those with some level of interest in what you have offered will leave their cards. Once you’ve decided on your offer, simply set out a container for collecting the cards, and put up a sign asking visitors to leave their card in return for a chance to win the item you’ve promised.

To get things started, you may wish to drop in a couple of dozen “starter” cards. Mark these cards on the back with a distinguishing mark, so that you will know to remove them as you sort through the cards you have collected at the end of your collection period.

Fishbowls are often seen in non-retailing environments as well. For example, they can be used at public events or club functions such as trade shows, Chamber of Commerce events, or civic club meetings. While fishbowls used in this way tend not to be as useful for trade area mapping, they can still serve to generate a tidy mailing list of prospects.

Buy Pay-per-Click Search Engine Listings

2006-06-10T08:51:00.000-04:00

ayamxSearch Engines are the number one way that people find web sites. A shocking 41% of Internet users find sites this way. They are used much more often than simply guessing the URL (28%), word of mouth (13%), online advertising (10%), or print advertising (10%).

A key aspect that makes search engines a "killer app" for marketers is the fact that people only use them when they are looking for something. When someone searched for "Chicago museums,” it is pretty clear what they are trying to find. There is no better way to reach people who have a direct and current interest in what you have to offer.

But simply being listed on an engine isn’t enough. As searchers seldom scan down past the first page of listings, it pays to pay to be a top-ranked site.

Pay-per-click engines allow us to do just that. Simply put, pay-per-click let's us choose exactly how high we want to be in the search engines results listings.

The price we pay for the rank we want is determined by auction, and depends on how much competition there is for the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to our businesses. Whatever you do, make sure that you bid enough to be the first- second, or third-ranked site in Overture’s pay-per-click search engine listing. If you are, your site will be carried over to a number of other search engines as well, dramatically increasing your exposure.

To get started with a pay-per-click campaign, take a look at Overture[1] (overture.com). They are the leading PPC engine, and an excellent place to get started. You will find clear instructions there about what to do first.

Here are a couple of web resources that every search engine marketer from the neophyte to the aficionado should know about: Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch (searchenginewatch.com), and Bruce Clay’s site (bruceclay.com). They both provide plenty of information about all types of search engine strategies.

[1] Now a Yahoo! company.

Join The Chamber Of Commerce

2006-06-04T08:09:00.000-04:00

Nearly every city or town has its own Chamber of Commerce. These groups are not-for-profit organizations set up by local business leaders to promote business growth, provide personal and professional development opportunities, and affect local public policy decisions.

Some Chambers flourish and provide many events throughout the year. Others are less active, counting monthly member meetings among their only regularly scheduled activities. In any event, the majority are worth joining if one of your goals is to generate new business.

Chamber membership can be effective for any company, but those serving small and mid-sized businesses have found membership especially rewarding. Sooner or later, most new companies join the Chamber. This is what makes the Chamber the place to be.

But there’s a catch. It’s not enough just to join the Chamber. That’s like buying an exercise bike and expecting to lose weight without riding it. You have to actively use your membership, in order to turn up leads.

Take advantage of the many programs your Chamber offers. Go to the new member orientation. Sign up for management and personal development classes. Attend the luncheons and picnics. See, and be seen!

If you find the Chamber to be a good source of prospects for your business, volunteer for a leadership position with the Chamber. As with volunteer positions with service clubs and not-for-profit agencies, there’s no better way to help people get to know you than to meet with them regularly, and lead them in some activity.

You don’t have to be a board member, either. There are plenty of other volunteer opportunities available, and most offer the chance to work closely with others. Membership coordination, event planning, and member communications are all worthwhile volunteer positions to seek out and hold.

Selling Mark Twain

2006-05-28T08:23:00.000-04:00

Do you remember reading in "Tom Sawyer" how young Tom talked his friends into giving up their time and their adolescent treasures to take turns doing one of his least favorite chores: white-washing his aunt and uncle’s fence? It was sales genius! For anyone who knows a little about Samuel Clemmons (the real name of well-known author Mark Twain), it's easy to see that sales is a skill that Tom Sawyer came by honestly.

Clemmons was a sales genius in his own right. In fact, while he was alive, his books were made available only by subscription. An uncommon practice today, subscription selling was once popular, and conferred many advantages to book sellers.

Subscription selling permitted publishers much greater control over their profit model for each individual book they published. As printing would not commence until orders flowed in, printing runs could be based on actual instead of estimated orders. This allowed those concerned with production costs to make profit-maximizing decisions based on real information.

As a result of the personal interaction during the sales process, subscription selling also resulted in higher sales and profits for publishers and authors. Quite often, the same texts were made available in as many as five or six different bindings. With proper representation, book agents could easily sell the better-quality bindings to more affluent buyers. Sensibly, the more elaborate bindings were offered for higher prices and, accordingly, commanded higher margins.

Another advantage of subscription sales is that it brings with it the ability to connect with an audience that does not shop through conventional channels. Clemmons recognized that the vast majority of his books were sold to a more “democratic” audience; one that did not visit bookstores as often as book retailers, publishers and authors would like. By sending agents out into the community, awareness for Clemmons’ books was much higher, and he could realize much greater distribution for each book.

The agent's tools were his prospectus and his pitch. Each book agent would be well trained in how to carry his samples, speak about, and illustrate Clemmons’ work. Deviations from the system were not encouraged. In Clemmons’ subscription sales model, book canvassing includes 5 progressive steps taken in the following natural order:

First: Thorough preparation

Second: Securing influence

Third: Gaining a hearing

Fourth: Creating a desire

Fifth: Taking the order

Samuel Clemmons built an immensely successful writing career on the subscription selling system. Can you make it work for you?

Do You Do The Two-Step?

2006-05-20T08:16:00.000-04:00

Time after time, I see managers in all types of organizations make the same mistake in pursuing new business. They spend money and waste time trying all sorts of things to get leads, but they neglect a fundamental piece in sales process management. What are they doing wrong?

The simple truth is: they try to do too much all at once.

It's an easy mistake to make. You see, when it comes to our own goods and services, we all inherently "get it". We understand the value of what we have to offer, and naturally think that others will, as well. Anxious managers assume that all they have to do is reach prospects with their message, and they will be ready to buy. Of course, there are probably some number of prospects out there who will respond to the right message. But for selling to the rest of us, it's usually not quite that easy.

Trying to go "all the way" in one fluid motion is not your most effective strategy for at least two reasons. First of all, you will have to sift through a far greater number of prospects to find those few that are ready to buy today. This will always will cost you more and take you longer. Secondly, you miss the opportunity to identify and keep in touch with prospects that may not be interested in or able to buy today, but for whom the situation might change in the near future.

If you are not getting the response you think you deserve from your promotional efforts, try using a technique called the two-step. Divide your sales process into two sub-processes: (1) acquiring prospects, and (2) converting prospects to customers.

Admit that it's okay for prospects to talk to you, and not buy right away. Then make sure that you focus the efforts of any mass-delivered communication (advertising, writing, speaking, direct mail -- whatever fits your business best) on getting potential customers to identify themselves and voluntarily jump into your prospect pool.

Here's the key: Don't try to sell anything, just yet. All you are looking for at this point are those few traits that indicate that a person or company would be a good prospect for you. The best way to do this is to offer something of value to induce candidate customers to "self-identify" their interest in what you have to offer.

Once you have filled the prospect pool, move on to customer conversion. Start the process of identifying those prospects closest to making a buying decision, and lead them into your formal sales process. Whether you are a software sales executive, a banker, a recruiter, or a real estate agent, the goal is the same. You are trying to develop a systematic way to move people from a state of acknowledgement of interest to the point of making a buying decision.

Have a clear plan for what you need to say, show, or do in order to get prospects to buy from you. If your sale is a complex one, plan multi-step follow-throughs to qualify prospects and advance them slowly but surely through your sales process. Offer low-risk ways for prospects to get started, and help build their confidence that your solution is a good fit for them.

Do the two-step, and don't waste any more time or money trying to sell to that vast mass of people who are unqualified and who may never have the interest, authority, or money to buy from you.

Hold A Contest

2006-05-14T08:35:00.000-04:00

In the mid-1980s, the California Closet Company launched a national campaign to get leads. With masterful execution, the company held a series of contests to find the messiest closets in America. With the promise of a free closet design for all of the winners, homeowners were encouraged to send in pictures of their closets and storage spaces.

The contest was a massive success and generated tremendous publicity for California Closets. But that’s not even the best part of the story. Even more valuable than the publicity were the hundreds of leads that streamed in from coast to coast. The company ended up with an instant mailing list of qualified homeowners who had self-identified themselves as being unhappy with their current storage arrangements. Talk about a great way to get semi-qualified leads!

The beauty of this approach is that the respondents have not only identified themselves as having a particular problem, they have also indicated a desire to fix it. This inherent needs qualification is half the battle. The other half, of course, is making sure they can afford to do something about it.

Although it works best in business-to-consumer environments, this approach can be harnessed effectively by a wide variety of businesses. The key lies in the offer: it has to be perceived to be valuable enough to warrant submitting an entry.

Write A Book

2005-10-10T18:43:00.000-04:00

Few things can enhance your credibility more effectively than authoring a book. Authors are frequently perceived as subject matter experts in their fields. This notoriety leads to a range of opportunities to generate leads and close new business. Most books provide only modest revenues, but they can help launch a speaking career and get you in front of audiences ripe for your message.

For most people with something to write about, the only thing standing between them and writing a book is time. The best way to get started is simply that: get started. Set aside a few minutes each week for writing. Thirty minutes, an hour, a morning each week. As much time as you can afford. The key is that you start today, and make every effort to keep the writing dates you set with yourself.

Perhaps you want to write, but you really don’t think that your writing is up to snuff. You can always have a book written for you. This is known as ghost-writing, and it is more common than many people realize. With your guidance, a competent ghost writer can research and write a book in your subject area in a relatively short period of time. Prices and terms can usually be negotiated. Most ghost writers will quote a flat fee for their work. You set the prices and keep any monies from selling the book.

Although it can take months or years to find a publisher who will work with you, you can always go the self-publishing route. This means that you will not automatically end up on the shelves of your local bookstores, and you will have to manage the distribution of the book yourself.

You do not have to print hundreds or thousands of copies of your book at one time. Some printers will print your book on demand, one copy at a time. An example is Café Press (cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/books.aspx). For just four-and-a-half cents per page for printing plus a $4 binding fee, you can get your work printed and saddle-stitched. This means that a 150-page book will cost $10.75 to produce. What you charge your customers over and above that price is completely up to you.

Set Up A Web Site

2005-10-09T09:59:00.000-04:00

The Internet’s role in promoting and enabling commercial activity is undeniable. And it’s power grows with each passing day. For example, Internet use has recently surpassed TV as the media with the greatest number of hours used per week, for the average person.

Especially if you’re trying to reach a younger audience, there are few media better to make sure that you hit your mark. Statistics released in early 2004 show that 8.8% of girls and 12.2% of boys aged eight to 12 years old have their own web sites. Even more remarkably, according to a BRANDchild study, 22 percent of tweens (kids eight to 14) have already purchased online!

Without question, the Internet will play an even more important role in commerce as these kids grow into income-earning consumers with a full range of interests and responsibilities. Whether your business sells to consumers or other businesses, you can’t afford to ignore the Internet.

There are five basic steps you must take as you put your web site together:

1. Develop a Site Strategy

Figure out who you’re trying to attract
Script out the steps you want prospects to take
Plan how to move prospects through these steps

2. Prepare Your Web Site

Choose and register your domain name
Set up a visitor tracking system

3. Use Search Engines and Directories

Do keyword research
Optimize your web site
Submit your site to the major engines
Deploy a pay-per-click campaign

4. Build 1-to-1 Customer Relationships

Drive traffic to your site
Show off your products or expertise
Get permission to contact them by e-mail
Promote to them regularly

5. Continuously Test Various Traffic-Drivers

Change the Channel

2005-10-08T22:10:00.000-04:00

Though it may seem counter-intuitive to the uninitiated, a strong customer relationship is often much more important than a good product or a low price. If you don’t have the relationship yourself, you may be able to “buy” it using channels.

Effective use of channels – distributors and resellers of your products or services – can open the door to sales that would be impossible to reach on your own.

There are three generic points on the distribution continuum: intensive, selective, and exclusive. Generally, intensive distribution is for commodity products, selective distribution is used where there is moderate differentiation between competing brands, and exclusive distribution is used for specialty goods, where a high-quality image is supported by limited product availability.

Select channel members carefully. Remember that your ultimate customer often sees your partners as an extension of your business. A manufacturer or service provider that prides itself on providing products or services of the highest quality must be very careful about the kinds of channel members that it chooses to sell its offerings. If its products were to be represented by low-status channel members, there could be long-term consequences for its reputation. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but how good could a Porsche be, if it was bought off a Chevy lot?

In evaluating potential channel members, consider candidates’ credit and financial condition, sales strength, product lines, reputation, market coverage, sales performance, management succession, management ability, attitude and size.

Your channel strategy must be compatible with your product, price, and promotional plans. And these must be compatible with your overall goals and objectives. Achieving this kind of balance is what professional business management is all about, and also what makes resounding success such an elusive target.

Create An Audio Program

2005-10-06T12:35:00.000-04:00

If you can speak for an hour about a topic related to your business, then you can create an audio program.

Putting your words on tape can help build your business in a number of ways. First of all, it provides a low-cost way to promote your business to potential customers. Once the program is recorded, it costs very little to make additional copies of the tape. Many businesses use tapes as a bait piece to get prospects to identify themselves. It stands to reason that anyone who requests your tape has an interest in its subject.

Another benefit of developing audio programs is that they are an easy cross-sell to customers who have just purchased other products or services. For example, someone who enjoys your seminar might easily pay an additional sum to buy an audio tape that discusses additional points on a subject of importance to them.

The first step in creating an audio presentation is to decide for whom you will create it. Audience selection is of paramount importance, for it influences everything from topic selection to program length to the creative approach employed. After you have chosen the audience, you must select a topic that is of sufficient interest to that market.

Once you’ve selected your audience and nailed down an appropriate topic, create a program outline. An outline is essential to keep you on track and within the time you have selected for your program length. Without one, it is far too easy to start into a rambling, directionless monologue that fails to deliver the impact you intend.

Don’t rule this avenue out just because you don’t think you have the voice to make an audio program. There are plenty of resources around to help produce a quality tape. And it makes no difference that the voice your prospects hear isn’t your own. What matters is that they get to know a little bit about you, you establish credibility, and they think of you when they have a need for the services you provide.

Launch An E-mail Campaign

2005-10-05T17:20:00.000-04:00

The Internet has changed a lot of things. The most dramatic among them is how we communicate with each other. Although the Internet is used for research, gaming, and a wide variety of other purposes, the leading Internet activity for both personal and business users is sending and receiving e-mail.

Done right, e-mail marketing can be a highly effective way to get new business. Done poorly, you can quickly alienate an existing customer base, discourage new prospects from ever calling you, or even end up in very expensive lawsuit!

Like any direct marketing approach, e-mail marketing depends upon three fundamental components: the list of recipients, the promotional text (known as “copy”), and the offer. Of these, the most important aspect by far is the list. A bad offer to a good list will always draw more response than a good offer to a bad list.

A mailing list that you compile for your own business’s use is referred to as a “house” list. Because the names on your house list are familiar with your business, house lists are more likely to contain good prospects than rented lists.

One issue of e-mail marketing that you must address is SPAM. In the pyramid of permission marketing, the pinnacle is double opt-in. This is the level to which all professional marketers should strive.

Building a house list through double opt-in permission e-mail marketing consists of the following steps:

Potential respondents are offered an opportunity to join your list, and voluntarily elect to join (opt-in)

Respondents receive an e-mail confirmation stating that they or someone else have requested that they be added to the mailing list (confirmed opt-in)

The confirmation e-mail also asked respondents to reply to the e-mail to confirm their intent to join the list (double opt-in)

Sponsor Someone Else’s Web Site or Portal

2005-10-04T21:53:00.000-04:00

One of the keys to successful promotion is finding ways to get in front of prospective customers. With enough money, you can force your way in front of them. If you’re like most businesses, however, it’s not that easy. You’ve got a budget you’ve got to stick to, and it never quite seems to be enough.

Rather than trying to go to them, why not let prospects come to you? In other words, find out where your prospects go when they are looking for information related to what you have to offer, and be there! One way to do this is to sponsor a web site or portal.

A principal advantage of this approach is that you can take your time and review information about a site’s visitors before you select which sites you sponsor. As a result you have complete control, and can literally choose the prospects you want to reach.

Start by determining exactly whom it is you want to reach. If you are a consumer-oriented company, how old are your typical prospects? Are they male or female? Are they married or single? If you sell other businesses, what sort of company is your best prospect? What is the typical title of the person who makes or exerts significant influence over the buying decision?

With this information in hand, put yourself in your prospects’ shoes. Think about where they go when they are looking for information related to what you have to offer. If you sell supply chain management systems, for example, you may be able to sponsor the e-commerce portal on E-Commerce World (ecomworld.com). Many sites such as this allow companies to pay to sponsor e-mails, pages, or whole sections of the site. Doing so not only gets your message front and center before your prospect, it can also lend an air of credibility.

Buy Pay-per-Click Search Engine Listings

2005-10-03T05:53:00.000-04:00

Search Engines are the number one way that people find web sites. A shocking 41% of Internet users find sites this way. They are used much more often than simply guessing the URL (28%), word of mouth (13%), online advertising (10%), or print advertising (10%).

A key aspect that makes search engines a "killer app" for marketers is the fact that people only use them when they are looking for something. When someone searched for "Chicago museums", it is pretty clear what they are trying to find. There is no better way to reach people who have a direct and current interest in what you have to offer.

But simply being listed on an engine isn’t enough. As searchers seldom scan down past the first page of listings, it pays to pay to be a top-ranked site.

Pay-per-click engines allow us to do just that. Simply put, pay-per-click let's us choose exactly how high we want to be in the search engines results listings.

The price we pay for the rank we want is determined by auction, and depends on how much competition there is for the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to our businesses. Whatever you do, make sure that you bid enough to be the first- second, or third-ranked site in Overture’s pay-per-click search engine listing. If you are, your site will be carried over to a number of other search engines as well, dramatically increasing your exposure.

To get started with a pay-per-click campaign, take a look at Overture (overture.com)[1]. They are the leading PPC engine, and an excellent place to get started. You will find clear instructions there about what to do first.
Here are a couple of web resources that every search engine marketer from the neophyte to the aficionado should know about: Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch (searchenginewatch.com), and Bruce Clay’s site (bruceclay.com). They both provide plenty of information about all types of search engine strategies.

[1] Now a Yahoo! company.

Negotiate Reciprocal Link Exchanges

2005-10-02T10:28:00.000-04:00

If you have a web site, a fundamental goal should be to get more visitors. Although you should promote your site offline as well as online, it is often far easier to get someone to your site if they are already sitting in front of their computer and browsing the Internet. If you can make it easy for people to click over to your site without having to type in your web site address, you’re a step ahead of the game.

One way to do this is by developing a series of reciprocal links. Take a good look at other web sites frequented by your ideal prospect. In return for a link to your site, offer to provide one to theirs.

When other site owners create links to your site, they create opportunities for more visitors to find their way to your site. It’s really that simple. The more links that exist, the more ways there are for visitors to find you. Think of your web site as you would a physical store. You wouldn’t want to be the only business down a dead-end street, would you? Neither should you want to have only one way into your online store.

There are other reasons to seek out link exchanges. Some search engines - notably Google, the 800-pound gorilla - base their decisions about how high to rank sites on link popularity. In essence, the more links that exist to your site, the more likely it is to out-rank competitive sites that the search engines believe are not as popular.

Be judicious in your choice of partners, though. Just getting traffic isn’t enough. The key is to get links from sites that are visited by the people you would most like to have visit your site. Ask prospective partners for the nitty-gritty details on who visits their site, how often, where they come from and whether or not they buy. Only then will you be informed enough to make the best decisions you can for your unique site and situation.

Give A Book Review

2005-10-01T10:55:00.000-04:00

From a book-buyer’s perspective, one of the best parts of leading online bookseller Amazon.com is the many customer reviews that accompany most book listings. An invaluable supplement to the authors’ own descriptions of their works, these third-party critiques add insights from others who have read the books, and often help buyers decide if the book will be of interest to them.

They also provide an opportunity for the reviewer to get a little bit of exposure. For example, at the time this Handbook was written, the following bio appeared as a book review for the book “Influence: The Science of Persuasion” by Dr. Robert Cialdini:

“Name: Michael Netzley
Reviewer Rank: 7906
About me: Michael is an independent communication consultant and management communication faculty member living in Asia and Europe. He currently serves as the President of GoldPoint Strategies, Inc. GoldPoint offers its clients an international perspective on communication strategy issues.
Michael also serves on the faculty of Singapore Management University, the Helsinki School of Economics (Finland) and the Bled School of Management (Slovenia). Michael specializes in communication strategy and persuasion …”.

You get the idea.

Book reviews build your credibility in two ways. First, your own words give you an opportunity to illustrate your critical thinking ability. Second, you gain credibility through your association with a good author or book.

Although any book review will get you some exposure, it makes the most sense to focus on reviewing books that are relevant to your field, and likely to be of interest to your target market. You can get started writing reviews today, and write as little or as much as you like in each review.

Send Out Press Releases

2005-09-30T17:50:00.000-04:00

The venerable press release is a staple item in an effective business promotion kit. Despite its history, however, companies often fail to use the press release to their best advantage. Consequently, they miss opportunities for exposure.

A press release is a story sent to the media for possible use. The goal is to catch media attention and get part or all of the release to appear in a publication, or on the TV or radio. Unlike advertising, which carries an inherent bias, media references, commentaries and articles have much higher credibility. Press releases can trigger all sorts of publicity, ranging from modest references to in-depth articles about your company, products and services.

An effective press release has three basic parts: contact information, the headline, and the body copy. Identify your company and put contact information where it can’t be missed. It is essential that editors and program directors know how to reach you quickly.

The headline should briefly explain what the release is about. Its sole purpose is to get the attention of the editors to whom it is sent, and cause them to read the release. Keep it short, but make it potent!

The line or two that often appears just below the headline is the sub-head. Although not essential, you can use it to provide the “next level” of detail about the content.

The release should be less than two pages long. Start the first paragraph with Kipling’s “Six Serving Men” – answer Who What, When, Where, Why and How – and tell the story as quickly as possible. Anything you write after that is supporting detail.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the release is not the release itself, however. Where most press releases fail is that they are not sent to the right media contacts. As a result, adequate exposure is virtually impossible. Keep an up-to-date media list handy at all times. This way, you will be able to move quickly and reach the right people when the time comes that you have a story to tell.

Make Friends With An Editor

2005-09-29T19:02:00.000-04:00

News happens fast, and when the media need information to help put together a story, they usually have little time to interview potential subject experts. That’s why it makes sense to build relationships with media editors covering your area of expertise.

Start by identifying the editors that cover areas related to your business. With most publications, editors are assigned to specific coverage areas, known as “beats.” You can usually get a full list of editors and their beats from the publication’s web site. If they are not listed on the Internet, just call the main office number; beat assignment information is no secret, and is freely shared.

Once you have identified the appropriate editors, start a file to keep samples of some of their writing. This will help you get to know each editor’s particular writing style and approach to news coverage.

To stay top of mind when the need for an expert arises, send a media kit containing the following:

§ backgrounder on your business
§ personal biography detailing your areas of expertise, and explaining why you are qualified to answer questions in the area of your expertise
§ two or three recent articles and press releases that exemplify your knowledge of the subject
§ Rolodex-style cards in two formats: one with your area of expertise as the header, followed by your name and contact information, and the other in the “standard” business card format of your name or the name of your company first, followed by the rest of your contact information.

After sending your package to an editor, call to introduce yourself and make sure they received your materials. Ask what sort of articles they are currently working on, and offer any information you can that might be of help.

Hold A Contest

2005-09-28T19:13:00.000-04:00

Join A Trade Association

2005-09-27T21:06:00.000-04:00

As the old saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together”. Similarly, businesspeople in all industries tend to congregate with those most like them. Trade associations exist to facilitate this, and allow businesses to share information and discuss ways to address the challenges confronting their industries.

While this means that there is probably a trade association for your industry, it also means that there are also likely to be trade associations for each of your major customer groups. This presents a much greater opportunity for you in terms of lead generation.

Joining your customers’ trade associations puts you right in the thick of things, when it comes to getting your customers’ attention. There are many benefits. You get to know the main players in your target industries. You get an opportunity to network and bring attention to your business. And you get to learn about the full scope of challenges your customers face.

This last benefit is the most important. It is this deep level of awareness and understanding of customer problems that will set you apart from many of your competitors, equip you to answer customers’ chief concerns, and establish you in your customers’ eyes as someone who really has their interests at heart.

Don’t be surprised to find that some trade association membership rules prohibit non-industry members. Some industry groups have been inundated with imbedded “outsiders” in the past, and are more than a little hesitant to have their members affronted by deal-hungry salespeople at every industry event.

Give It Away

2005-09-26T18:53:00.000-04:00

Direct marketers have this one down cold. They know that one of the best ways to develop a pool of qualified prospects is to offer something for free.

We’re not talking about the logo emblazoned coffee mugs or cheesy baseball caps that are forced upon us at trade shows. We’re suggesting that you give away something much more potent, much more powerful: Information.

Providing information benefits the giver in a number of ways. Most notably, it is an easy way to build credibility, and gain trust. The concept is “Show, Don’t Tell”. Prospective clients can assess your capabilities much more readily when you show them what you can do for them than when you simply tell them.

But there's an even more important reason to give away information that can help your prospective clients. When someone downloads a report, registers for a white paper, or writes in for a free book, that's a good clue that the information relates to a present or potential future need. The very act of requesting the information qualifies your prospect as a candidate client.

The best information items to give away are white papers, reports, and practical guides on how to solve common problems. Excel spreadsheets are also popular, if your services have a quantitative element. For example, one DC-area CPA offers a series of spreadsheets that help clients in a range of areas, including estimating corporate valuations, or creating a balanced scorecard model.

You may think it impractical to give away information for which you could charge clients. Though not uncommon, this worry is unfounded. If all of the value you have to provide can be summed up in a 10-page report or spreadsheet, you probably don’t have much worth selling, anyhow. On the other hand, leading prospective clients into an environment of mutual trust is the way to develop a business that bears plentiful fruit, season after season.

Create An E-mail Signature

2005-09-25T08:02:00.000-04:00

Faster than any medium before it, e-mail has become a standard for communications of all sorts. As the leading reason that most people use the Internet at all, e-mail is now firmly a part of our culture. And in the business world, it is an absolutely indispensable tool.

Most of us fire off dozens or hundreds of e-mails each day, and receive an equivalent number. And yet, a surprisingly few businesses have established a policy for the content of the e-mail signatures that many users include at the bottom of their messages.

E-mail signatures are the few lines of text that follow our name, at the end of all of our e-mail messages. They are unequalled in their ability to get a message in front of those with whom we communicate regularly. Best of all, it costs nothing to slip a message into an e-mail signature.

Here are a few pointers to help make your e-mail signatures more effective lead generation tools:

Keep ‘em Short – most people do not want to read through lines and lines of additional text, after they have read the content of your message itself. In addition, long e-mails are very discourteous to the visually impaired, and can also create problems for some e-mail clients.
Include a Positioning Statement – all e-mail signatures should include a concise, to-the-point statement about the purpose of the business.
Make an Offer – provide some sort of incentive to engage prospects and encourage them to make contact with you. Many organizations include a link to their web site and an offer of some reward or information.
Use Consistent Signatures – make sure that all employees use the same e-mail signature format. An eclectic collection of e-mail signatures conveys an attitude of disorganization.

Hire A Lead Generation Firm

2005-09-24T09:30:00.000-04:00

For a variety of reasons, it is not always feasible to set up your own telemarketing department. Sometimes there are no staff resources available with the skills or time to manage a telemarketing effort effectively. In other cases, the need is a short-term one, and doesn’t justify establishing a permanent call center. In these situations, it may make sense to hire a lead generation service.

There are thousands of firms in the U.S. alone that will make cold calls for you. These companies are known by a variety of names, including telemarketing or lead generation firms, outbound call centers, and rainmakers.

The best telemarketing services have a structured system in place to learn about your business, products and services before they start making calls. While you may be hesitant to invest in this level of preparation before you see what the results could be, the results will clearly be less than they could be, with a well-prepared telemarketer on the end of the phone. Like anything else in life, preparation pays.

You also want to make sure that you engage a firm that has adequate experience in your industry. It is important that those people making the calls are familiar with your industry, its products and competitors, and that they are comfortable calling on the decision-makers that they will need to call. Ask about the ages and professional experience of the people hired as telemarketers for any business you consider working with.

Insist on weekly or semi-monthly reporting. Some agencies will provide monthly status reports, but this is usually too infrequent for you to be able to make changes to the pitch, or focus in on a different audience.

As mentioned previously, there is no shortage of lead generation companies to call. Here are a few for starters:

Corporate Rain (corporaterain.com )
Technology Sales Leads (tsleads.com )
BuyerZone (buyerzone.com )

Hand Out Bookmarks

2005-09-23T05:34:00.000-04:00

A freelance writer in Toronto, Canada once wanted to build a business consulting to aspiring writers. He reasoned that most writers are also avid readers and, therefore, they were likely frequent patrons of that city’s public libraries.

To reach them, he developed a simple yet elegant device that readers and potential writers would want to pick up and take with them; a bookmark.

The pieces were about 1-3/4” wide and 8” long, and printed on both sides. The “front” side made a clear pitch for the seven-week e-mail course, while the backside provided supporting testimonials, along with a brief bio of the writer.

The results were astounding! In just a couple of months, the writer grew a very large mailing list of qualified prospects, sold several subscriptions to his e-mail course, and even landed a few personal consulting engagements. The success of this simple and cost-effective device was well beyond the writer’s expectations.

How can you use this in your business? Maybe you can’t. That really doesn’t matter. The point is that there are as many communications options as you choose to imagine, and put in place. If bookmarks don’t fit your image or can’t reach your intended audience, think of something that does.

Trying to reach school-age children? Create and hand out textbook covers. Do you serve a particular religious community? Sponsor a church bulletin. Need to get to computer users? Everyone needs mouse pads.

The key attribute of a good communications media is that it gets the attention of your target audience. After that, it all comes down to the message.

Hire a Telemarketer

2005-09-22T18:26:00.000-04:00

If you know how to get prospects to react over the telephone, consider teaching someone else how to do it, too. There’s a lot to be said for tried and true. With the right tools and a little organization, a telemarketer can deliver as many as 10,000 4-minute presentations each year. That’s why leading companies in a wide range of industries including financial services, home alarm-monitoring services, and long distance telecommunications continue to employ in-house telemarketing staff. We may not like to get cold called, but the simple truth is that it works! Take care to stay on the right side of the law, however. In the U.S., recent changes to federal legislation let consumers add their names to a Do Not Call list (donotcall.gov). Calling on people who have opted out can result in steep fines.

Hiring and training a telemarketer to make calls for you can free up time for you to work on other tasks. Also, once you’ve developed a model for teaching people how to develop leads, it is a relatively easy next step to scale the model up to produce a greater volume.

Make it as easy as possible for telemarketers to succeed. If you’ve found a pitch that works for you over the phone, write it down and make telemarketing staff study it and learn it word for word. Track their results, note their stumbling points and any common objections they encounter, and refine the script until it sells consistently.

Don’t underestimate the commitment it takes to supervise telemarketers. Running a good telemarketing operation is not a simple matter of showing telemarketers the ropes and letting them do their thing. They need constant motivation and encouragement, and regular performance check-ups to make sure that they stay on target.

When you get to the stage of having three full-time telemarketing staff, you may want to consider hiring a dedicated telemarketing manager. Hiring, training, motivating, evaluating, and rewarding a telemarketing team takes a lot of work, and doing it effectively can easily consume more time than you had anticipated.

Enter Contests

2005-09-21T18:18:00.000-04:00

Everyone loves a winner. And in the competitive world of business, it is not uncommon for prospects to lend winners a sort of “expert” status, simply on the ground that their product, service or organization has won some sort of award.

Expert status implies credibility. And credibility supports sales. That’s why it pays for you to enter industry-related competitions. The best ones are those that you know are held in high esteem by your current and prospective customers.

You don’t even need to take first place in order for this tactic to produce benefits. Even an honorable mention can draw the right kind of attention.

To get started, look for appropriate competitions in industry-related journals and web sites. Don’t forget to check out your competitors’ sites, as those who have won awards previously will probably be promoting their success on their home pages.

Although procedures will vary widely from contest to contest, entering is usually pretty straightforward. Simply familiarize yourself with the entry requirements, and submit your entry.

Caution is in order, mind you. Not every competition will be worth your while. And some can be downright dangerous. It is not unheard of for unscrupulous competitors to run their own contests, simply so that they can trick unsuspecting rivals into sending them what would ordinarily be confidential information.
Remember to promote any award you receive to your current and prospective customers. Some competitions provide a crest or seal that winners may display on their web site and marketing materials. If you win, make sure you find out if some form of recognition logo is available for you, and wear your badge proudly!

Get Customer Referrals

2005-09-20T20:14:00.000-04:00

Many people have difficulty asking existing customers for referrals. And yet, as no one knows our value better than those that have already bought from us, there isn’t a better source of leads! Learning to ask for referrals effectively and consistently is an essential part of building a business.

When customers refer others to your business, your business benefits from an instant credibility boost. Like a newspaper editorial about your business, this is far more valuable than any advertising you could do for yourself.

To get referral business, start with providing excellent service. The first step is to make sure that the person you are going to ask for a referral truly believes in what you have to offer.

Once you’ve got an advocate, the next step is to “ground them” on the specific value you provide. Ask two questions. First, “How did everything go with the work I did for you?” Follow this with, “What were the best parts?” Suppose that the referrer says that what they really liked are A, B, and C. At this point, you’ve created a common basis of positive experience. Now simply ask, “Would you give me the names of three people who might also benefit from A, B, and C?” It couldn’t be easier than that.

If you still can’t make the ask, there are a few impersonal ways to generate customer referrals. They can range from simple “Tell-A-Friend” appeals to more sophisticated programs that track customer referrals and reward those that consistently introduce new customers to the business.

On the Internet, organized customer referral programs are also known as “viral” marketing. Like the organisms that inspired them, these campaigns proliferate very quickly, and can easily reach many times more people than might be reached with a company-directed campaign.

Get on the Radio

2005-09-19T19:04:00.000-04:00

We’ve all heard professionals and business owners on the radio discussing some aspect of their work. Doctors get air discussing new techniques in coronary surgery. Attorneys are asked to discuss the importance of wills and estate planning. And business owners are given the chance to discuss the impact of new tax rules. But have you ever stopped to wonder how they got there?

Like print media, radio stations exist to provide content for their audiences. To get high ratings, they must provide a steady stream of information of interest to those who tune in to them. One way to do this is to bring in guest “experts” to discuss topics of interest. With the right approach, you can be that expert.

The best thing about getting on the radio is instant credibility for you and your business. Most people don’t understand how the broadcast media works, and automatically think that the station sought you out as a well-known expert in the field. While that can and does happen, that’s not the only way to get on the air.

The truth is that it’s not that difficult to get invited in to do a talk segment on the radio. One of the main reasons many people do not pursue radio programs is that they are simply afraid to try! In many cases, just the thought of being broadcast to many thousands of listeners petrifies people.

There are several types of programs on which you might appear, including general interview shows, interview/call-in shows, panel shows, and specialized programming. Topics you can address include trends, how-to information, or what’s new in your industry.

To get your “fifteen minutes of fame”, prepare a pitch letter to sell the producer on your idea for a radio show. Pitch letters should be as brief as possible; never more than two pages. E-mail your letter to radio station program managers and call to follow through a couple of days later. When you call focus on the story, not on the pitch letter. With a good story idea and a little tenacity, you’ll get the chance to make it on the air.

Go to Your Customers’ Trade Shows

2005-09-18T10:07:00.000-04:00

When you set up an exhibit at trade shows for your industry, you face the challenge of differentiating yourself from your competition. As your customers walk past row after row of vendors, differentiation tends to blur, and customers come away with a sense that there are several options that might meet their needs.

If your company sells to other businesses, try attending your customers’ trade shows. There are several benefits to doing this. First, as few companies put forth the effort to do this, you can easily differentiate yourself by being one of the only firms to make the effort to go to meet at these venues.

You can also observe how your customers interact with their customers. Depending on what you sell, this can be valuable information indeed. And your customers will certainly recognize and appreciate your interest in helping them achieve their sales goals.

Keep in mind the reason why your customers are there in the first place. This is their opportunity to reach their own customers, and sell their own products. Therefore, it is essential to make your entry in a respectful and non-intrusive way.

The best way to do this is to make the rounds late on the opening day of the show. Your objective at this time is simply to introduce yourself and “press the flesh”. Let them know why you are there, tell them that you will drop back in to see them at the end of the show, and wish them a successful show. Then get lost for a few days.

When you go back to visit the customer at the end or the show, spend the first few minutes discussing the show itself. Find out if your prospect met their objectives, and how this event compared to events at which they have exhibited in the past. This will help get you in alignment, and make your actual sales call much more productive.

Play Tennis or Golf

2005-09-17T19:05:00.000-04:00

There’s something to be said for sweating it out together.

Despite golf’s overwhelming popularity as the businessman or woman’s game of choice, there are alternatives that can work just as well, for those who don’t favor the Scottish national pastime. Tennis is a good substitute, as are squash and racquetball. The key is that you’re out of the office, away from distractions, and spending time with your prospect in a friendly yet competitive environment.

What is it about these activities that make them valuable in the game of business? Some advocates say that you can tell a lot abut a person’s business style by observing them at play. Others hold a more practical contention, claiming that interaction in sport brings people closer together, and makes a productive working relationship easier to attain.

Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that an investment of time on the links or on the court can pay off handsomely in business.

Look for a club that matches the style of the people with whom you would like to meet. If your potential customers are upscale, check out upscale clubs. At the same time, it is important that you are comfortable meeting and competing with your prospects, so make sure the club you choose feels right to you, too.

Advertise in a Card Deck

2005-09-16T17:15:00.000-04:00

A card deck is a package of advertisements enclosed in an envelope, and sent out to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of businesses or consumers. Most decks are sent out on a monthly basis, but some are sent less frequently.

Perhaps the most well known of all consumer card decks, Val-Pak has been serving American marketers since 1968. There are more than 220 franchises serving regional markets in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, and most people have received their blue envelopes filled with advertisements and coupons for dozens of local and national businesses.

Do these really work? Yes! If not, the whole card deck system would have shut down long ago. But they do work better for some businesses than others.

The most important thing to remember when planning a campaign is to zero in on your target market. Many decks offer opportunities to target your promotion to the neighborhood level. This gives you more control over who receives your offer, and lets you attract customers from outside your trading area, without the cost of providing discounts to your existing customer base.

Another key to using card decks effectively is to provide a strong enough incentive for prospects to take some sort of action. Don’t try to sell your product or service directly, however. The objective is to get potential customers to identify their interest in what you have to offer. If you offer a “free” report on how to do something or other, and people register to receive it, you know they’re a good candidate for products and services related to the subject of the report.

One last thing. People like to respond to offers in different ways, and people have different means to contact you. Therefore, your card should include as many ways as possible for prospects to contact you. Don’t assume that simply providing a toll-free number is enough. List your physical address, web site and an e-mail address, too.

Join a Leads Group

2005-09-15T19:10:00.000-04:00

How many times have you heard someone ask, “Do you know a good attorney? Dentist? Accountant? Chiropractor?” It happens all the time. For just this reason, a number of groups have emerged to keep professionals and business owners in contact with one another, and stimulate the exchange of leads.

Most professional leads groups will only accept one member from each industry or professional group. For example, an optometrist who belongs to a leads group can be assured that he/she is the only optometrist in that particular chapter or club. This prevents conflicts from occurring when a member brings a lead to a group where two or more people provide the same product or service.

The format of most leads group meetings is similar. There is typically a welcome by the club president or other executive officer, followed by 30-second or 1-minute “mini-commercials” given by each member. Then there is a slightly longer “program”, during which one member does a more detailed introduction to their business, and explains the type of lead that would be best for him/her. Sometime during the meeting, leads are formally passed to members using pre-printed lead sheets.

There are several leads groups that have grown to international proportion, and boast hundreds of chapters with thousands of members. Some of the more popular leads groups include Business Network International (bni.com) and LeTip (letip.com).
A benefit of joining a well-organized group like this is that, if you travel for business, you can often contact chapter presidents for the cities you are visiting, and arrange to attend as a guest. Provided that what you offer can be sold to people in this new area, this lets you extend your trading area into new regions.

Run a Classified Ad

2005-09-14T18:27:00.000-04:00

You may never have bought anything after reading a classified business ad, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work. Somebody buys from them, or they wouldn’t have enjoyed the success that they do, and been able to command so much space in major daily newspapers, year after year after year.

Classified advertising is commonly divided into four categories: real estate, automotive, recruitment, and general public advertising.

There is a self-qualifying aspect to classified advertising. Specifically, most people who take the time to read through the listings are in the mood to buy, and are looking for a way to satisfy a current need or want. Therefore, most people who respond to your classified ad will have a genuine interest in what you have to offer.

The key to making classifieds work for you is testing. Test everything about your ads; publications, category placement, headlines, the offer, and your call to action.

The headline is by far the most important aspect, and is estimated to account for as much as 70% of the success of any ad. Make sure your headline is bold and that it relates to your prospects’ most pressing need or problem. Remember that most people who read classifieds do so in the hopes that they will be able to satisfy a current need or problem. What matters most to them? What do you have to say to get their attention, and lead them to read your ad instead of the ones before or after it?

People who read classified ads tend to screen out ads they have seen more than two or three times in a period of time. To offset this, you should adopt a practice of devising a few different ads for each offer, and rotating them every couple of days. You will stand a better chance of getting through to ad skimmers with your message.

Help Their Fingers Do the Walking

2005-09-13T18:24:00.000-04:00

For some businesses, there’s simply no better way to get in front of prospective buyers than through that time-tested shoppers guide, the Yellow Pages. If yours is the type of business that consumers typically search for in this grand-daddy of all business directories, it would be a horrific mistake not to be there.

There are few other media that offer the pre-qualification afforded by the Yellow Pages. People do not usually look through these huge volumes unless they are looking for providers of a specific product or service. Therefore, you can be reasonably well assured that callers have at least a superficial interest in what you have to offer.

But being there and being the first one that prospective buyers call are two different things. It takes more than a good page position to be the one that breaks through the cacophony of ads and compels buyers to call you.

If you’ve got to be in the book, follow these key tips:

Choose size over color – As larger ads usually out-pull smaller, colorful ones, spend any extra money on the increasing the size of your ad

Hit hot buttons – Use a bold headline in your ad that focuses on your customers’ key benefit

Sell everything, and be thorough – List all products and services you have to offer, referencing brand names, where possible. Also, make it easy to contact you by providing your full address, phone numbers, and web site.

Finally, never reference your Yellow Page ad in your advertising. In driving potential customers to your Yellow Pages ad, you put them directly in front of your competitors’ ads, as well, making it easy and virtually encouraging customers to shop around.

Plan a Blitzkrieg

2005-09-12T06:32:00.000-04:00

Blitzkrieg is the German word for “Lightning Strike”. This is a concentrated period of intense and continued attack directed toward a specific objective. In business, that objective is usually a burst of sales resulting from an extraordinary number of customer contacts made in a short time period.

An effective blitzkrieg can develop as many leads as would normally take months to develop. Not only can this add a much-welcomed shot of revenue, but it serves as a tremendous motivating force to recharge and realign discouraged sales team members.

Good planning is essential for a sales blitzkrieg. Determine exactly what is to be accomplished by the attack, who is to be contacted, what interested prospects need to do next, and how long the blitz will last. Measure your success, and compare results of everyone making blitzkrieg sales calls. Also be sure to track results from campaign to campaign, and create a benchmark that you can use to estimate the value of future blitzkrieg campaigns.

The best way to ensure a successful campaign is to build your blitzkrieg around a strong hook or message. Tie your call in with a new product or service offering, store opening, sale, or other special event. If there are more people than just you calling, motivate your team by providing incentives for developing certain numbers of leads or reaching pre-determined sales volumes.

Strategize for Organic Search

2005-09-11T08:36:00.000-04:00

If you’ve got a presence on the Internet, you’re missing the boat if you haven’t geared up for organic search. Although there are more “sophisticated” ways to divert search traffic to your site, the vast majority of search-initiated leads come from this more pedestrian approach.

The terms “organic” or “natural” search refer to the traditional practice of search engines “spidering” pages and returning to fill their indexes with data. Regardless of how well you’re doing with your other traffic driving activities, it’s worth your time to prepare for these arachnid visitors. Here are some reasons why:

“Online shoppers are nearly three times more likely to find what they want on the Web by using search engines versus responding to advertisements.” -- WorldPay - Feb-2002

“According to Google, more than 55 billion searches were conducted on their search engine alone during 2002 and nearly 80 million searches ‘of a commercial nature’ are being conducted each day.”

It would be much too ambitious to try and lay out all of the details of how to prepare for organic search here. However, the following are some “Do’s” and “Dont’s” that will help you take care of the basics and steer clear of some of the common trouble areas.

Use Meta Tags: Both Description and Keyword tags
Use Page Titles
Use IMG ALT Tags
Use Flash Pages Sparingly
Include Keywords in Site Content
Avoid Frames
Get Listed in the Open Directory
Get Other Sites to Link to You
Don’t Use Redirects
Don’t Hide Keyword Text

Give ‘Em An Earful

2005-09-10T11:29:00.000-04:00

Despite the Internet and advances in telephony, we all spend time in voice mail holding patterns every now and then. Sometimes we hear nothing but a periodic “please stay on the line” message. Sometimes we get the radio. And sometimes – just sometimes – we get offers for additional products and services for the company we are calling. Although it does nothing for prospects that aren’t already calling you for one reason or another, an on-hold marketing program can dramatically lift sales of add-ons or ancillary products or services.

When developing your on-hold program, it is helpful to refer to the following simple process. Start by creating an overall outline for your program. Decide how long the entire audio loop will be, and determine how many segments will fit in that time. Keep in mind that each segment should be no longer than 30 seconds. This helps ensure that you keep listeners’ interest all the way through each segment, and also increases the chance that listeners will make it through at least one entire message before the party for whom they are waiting picks up the phone.

After you have mapped out the overall program, decide what subject categories will be explored in the various segments. There are several categories you might wish to test, including:

• Product or service benefits and recommendations
• New product introductions
• Sale and promotion announcements
• Information regarding upcoming holidays or hours

Finally, count the number of words you can comfortably say in 30 seconds, and then pencil out a draft script for each segment.

The field is getting crowded with companies providing on-hold marketing services, but the leader is still Muzak (muzak.com). Best known for the adapted tracks playing in elevators everywhere, Muzak provides turnkey on-hold marketing solutions that fit nearly any budget.

Create a Hotline

2005-09-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

“Free” is a powerful motivator. Almost since the telephone first appeared, savvy marketers have been using it to offer information to prospects in expedient and cost-effective ways. One way to do this is to set up a free telephone hotline. Some hotlines play pre-recorded messages, while others use live call center operators.

There are countless examples: horoscopes, lottery numbers, weather reports, and traffic delays are just a few. Some businesses encourage prospects to call and ask questions about how to use their products, or suggest a product or service they'd like to see offered. Others allow prospects to ask questions about problems they have encountered, and offer solutions on the spot.

The main advantage of hotlines is that they let you keep in touch with your customers. Aside from staying top-of-mind, each contact gives you the chance to sell something. Because the hotline is free, the media will be more inclined to give you free publicity because of it. You can also tell reporters you'd be willing to share with them from time to time the top five questions people are asking. Information such as this is valuable to the media, because it can be a good tip off to emerging trends.

One example is the Butterball hotline. This service is designed to help even the most inept cook prepare a perfect Thanksgiving dinner. Butterball gets fabulous publicity by telling reporters about the most outlandish questions it receives such as "How do I turn on the oven?"

Implementing a lead generation program doesn’t get much easier than this. Of course, the first thing you have to do is set up your hotline. Once you’ve got your message recorded, send a few press releases out to key influencers at radio and newspapers in the geographic areas that you target. The novelty of this idea almost always compels the media to call. If your hotline is set up to provide valuable information, the media will get the word out for you.

Set Up a Fishbowl

2005-09-08T18:24:00.000-04:00

Pay ‘em Off

2005-09-07T19:44:00.000-04:00

How much are you willing to pay to get a new customer? For low-value, low frequency items or services in industries where there is a little loyalty and no switching costs, likely not very much. If your business doesn’t match that profile, however, there is a seldom-used tactic that might be just the thing to sway some business your way.

When it comes right down to it, the root cause of most hesitation to try a new vendor is some sort of risk. Something – often risk of financial loss – holds prospects back. Instead of spending your money on sales or marketing campaigns, why not give the money you would have spent to generate leads and make sales calls directly to your key prospects, so that they can try your products or services at no cost? Eliminate the risk and you often remove the most significant barriers to trial.

To make this work, the first thing you will need to do is to calculate the lifetime value of a customer. How much does one customer spend with you over time? Next, figure out how much you can afford to spend to acquire a new prospect. With this knowledge in mind, all there is left to do is let your potential customers know what you’re planning to do, and then just let them try your products or services. Send each prospect a personal letter telling them they already have an account with you, and that it contains some amount of money that they can use at any time this year.

This tactic is not common, but it is done. Some of the most popular online trading services around today use this very same tactic. They send you a letter telling you they have opened an account for you with $75 or so in it. You get the money when you do your first trade.