Hey, Jay here,
This blog is about how small to medium businesses can create successful ‘lead generation systems’ to create more sales from better qualified (ideal) clients, in a more efficient and effective way.
The process of generating new business leads begins with you defining your target market. Whilst that may seem difficult, it is a relatively simple process.
1. Define your target market (designing a customer centric business from scratch):
An organisation (no matter how large or small) must have a defined target market; which can best be described as the identification of the most probable (or ideal) customer, in order to produce the best results for the business; for the purposes of marketing and sales. Your most probable customer – your primary target market - will become the focal point of your sales and marketing strategies. This has been termed as targeted marketing by Michael Gerber, Author of the E-Myth series.
Michael Gerber in his book E-myth Mastery says, “By dedicating your business to the satisfaction of that customer (and their needs), you set the stage for success in the market, financial well-being, and competitive advantage.”
Defining the businesses target market is perhaps the most important strategic task (from a sales and revenue perspective) to be undertaken. It (by definition) determines how your products/solutions will be marketed, packaged and sold (according to the client’s requirements, of course):
A. Set up a product Grid for the businesses products/services that you offer (with the products listed down the left hand side (as below)
Product a
Product b
Service a
etc.
B. List products/services in the order of preference, as defined by your customers buying habits (by what sells best or what brings in the most revenue etc.)
C. List your various customer types on the bottom axis of the grid (eg. consumer, small business, corporate, one off, consistent-purchaser etc.)
D. Complete the sales (services sold) and profit margins (revenue/income) for each segment over the past 12 months (+ other demographics as required)
E. Design primary and secondary target markets from your evaluation of the data
F. Design a demographic model from the evaluated data by identifying the ideal target customer, their size, segment type, their location, the average revenue per deal, the effort to attract and retain them, their desirability (emotional), the ease of execution, their financial status (payment history) etc. These are common business characteristics known as demographics.
The other angle to consider is psychographics (buyer behaviour); looking at when people buy, why they buy (what core issues are being resolved through the purchase) and determining why a customer would buy your services at all, and then over your competitor’s offerings.
2. Define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP):
Your USP is nothing more than a short statement that defines ‘what is unique about your business?’. This must be stated from the customer’s perspective (it must be customer centric). The USP should speak to the unconscious mind of the customer as well as the conscious mind- E.G. Apple Macintosh; ‘Give your child a head start, give them an Apple‘. This statement presupposes the unconscious link to apples (the fruit) and their health giving properties and therefore their VALUE to your children. It is also very simple!
The key to a good USP:
A. Make it short, keep it simple
B. Leave room for imagination
C. Keep it positive
D. Give it impact!
E. Define it as a solution and not a commodity
F. Focus on the customer benefit aspects (put yourself in your customer’s shoes)
G. Be persuasive and innovative
After defining your USP, you then move to defining your businesses ‘core story’ or stadium pitch (Chet Holmes) and the lead generation strategies (both inbound, like a web campaign, and outbound like a calling and mail campaign).
3. Stadium Pitch or Core Story
A stadium pitch is really a core story that informs you of how to focus your marketing activities.
Chet Holmes says that ‘designing a great pitch is also called setting the buying criteria in your favour’. The stadium pitch has to be designed to motivate and influence your targeted buyer. It is therefore often controversial in nature (to help create a unique position) and is driven by your client/issue-based research (see research below) and the USP.
The question to ask yourself at this point is, ‘what information (and supporting data) would set the buying criteria in my favour?’ As Chet Holmes says, data makes your information work harder for you.
Your stadium pitch should be written out and memorised (with passion) by all your sales/client facing people and used in the presentation phase of the sales process.
4. Market-based research:
Market Based research is the data that makes your information work harder for you. The trick with Market Research is to identify a trend or piece of data that supports your Stadium Pitch and USP, and positions you above your competition. It could be trends that show why the market for your services has grown ahead of other similar services etc. The Bureau of Statistics (in your country) is a great source of data, as is Google, Google Analytics, Google trends, Google Knol, various SEO tools - (http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php) and many other similar resources. You can also commission your own client surveys to identify your industry trends, frustrations, needs and key issues.
5. Designing your outbound sales strategy:
Point five is about designing some powerful strategies (the how) to get you in right front of your target market.
Once your target market has been defined, the key to targeting your marketing efforts is to identify the very best buyers in that market. Again, market research here can help guide your marketing efforts. Who is buying the services (that you offer) or requires the services (that you offer) in your defined target market? And why?
Best buyers can also be defined as your ideal clients.
Once defined (you can use a list provider to provide the contact details), these organisations become the ultimate targets for your targeted outbound campaign. Choose 200 - 500 of them (Chet Holmes calls these your ‘dream clients’) and focus all your efforts on getting your message out to these people.
Your marketing message can be in the form of a targeted letter, an email, a blog link (like this one), brochure or advert (etc.) that is sent to your begins to ask and answer questions that these people are asking of themselves (key issues). It could be an invite to attend a forum or breakfast session, or an invite to trial your services at a special rate, etc. It could be tickets to industry speakers at a trade show you are attending…. It could be an invite to attend an evening of experts talking about the services that you yourself offer…
Your marketing must be focused and repetitive (although the key message changes regularly) and designed to capture the interest of those buyers.
Once you have decided on your campaign, and have begun sending your message out, you then follow up with a phone call (no more than 1 week later), newsletters, more white papers etc. highlighting some key issues as well as some solutions (see the ‘how to write a white paper’ link below for more details).
6. Defining your inbound web strategy:
Your inbound web strategy will take time and resources to design and implement. It is often best done well over time. That way, the revenue that the website brings generates can help fund the future expansion and required resources.
Your web strategy begins with a call to action written into the home page and subsequent pages (see how Penny Marshall does that at http://perrymarshall.com/whitepapers/). It also includes the design of some simple white-papers (that are attractive to your target market), links to and from social groups like Face Book, Linked In, etc. as well as lots of activity on blogs such as wordpress, google knol etc. (approximately 2-3 pages long) on topics that will be of ongoing interest to your target market.
This leads us to the obvious question of ‘how do I know what will be of interest to these people?’ The simple answer is to ask them. I suggest you commission an online survey, cold call your target market and ask them 3 quick questions about what they would like to see or know in relation to your services.
Once the white papers have been written, .pdf them and place them in your online (web) library, on your social pages (Linked In) and on your blogs etc. Repetition of key words is critical (it is imperative that you identify the key Google search phrases that your target market are searching for); see SEO Tools for more details (http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php), where you can find out what people are currently Google-ing* and you can use these keywords in your articles. That way, the internet-bots or spiders (webcrawlers) will pick up your articles and display them in the organic search section of the key search engines. This however is only one way of driving inbound traffic. There are also many other ways to do this and you are best off consulting a professional web optimisation company (SEO) to assist you in executing your strategy.
Next you must ensure that your pages are set up so that when someone wants to download a white paper they MUST input their details (name, company, email, phone, position etc.). These details then need to be linked into your customer database for future contact (newsletters, mailers, letters etc.). If you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, the inbound contacts can then be managed and regulated through that system, which is even better. If not, there are many free online CRM systems that can help (E.G. Zoho - www.zoho.com and Etelos - http://www.etelos.com/).
Other ideas that you can explore are creating Vodcasts (moving picture speak a thousand words), Audiocasts, the design and production of online Services Guides, FAQ documents, online Web Forums and online Conferences (E.G. edna.edu.au, Google conferences etc.), which can be promoted from your site.
7. Other inbound strategies
Other inbound strategies include striking up strategic alliances with other non-competitive organisations that market to your target customer (audience). This extremely powerful when done well and very cost effective (swapping customer data-bases, co marketing etc.). You can also form strategic alliances by identifying non-competitive tools and resources that your customers are searching for and bundle them with your products/services. Many top organisations have been doing this for decades (airlines/car rentals – telcos/electronics companies, food/beverage companies, consultants/survey providers etc.)
Other ideas include sponsoring business award programs, joining your industry’s speaker’s circuit, writing articles for industry publications, joining expert panels etc.
I hope this helps!
Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments - all are welcome.
Thanks, Jay
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