Bill Gluth's Creative Business Strategy Blog

Make Sales and Marketing One Strategy

I visited a prospect yesterday to talk about their marketing and sales program. Their business was down, marketing was not working and they didn’t know exactly what to do about it.

After reviewing their Web site and some promotional materials one thing was very obvious. Their marketing coversation was focused heavily on the business instead of their clients.

Worse yet, the business identity leads prospects to believe they were yet another entry in a very crowded market niche. There were hundreds of companies just like them, all competing for the same business.

The bigger challenge, however, was their marketing was a onetime event. It did not open a sales conversation. If a marketing piece fell on deaf ears, no other follow up was scheduled.

And that a sales secret you may not be using either.

Create a plan where marketing is followed up by sales with the goal of setting an appointment for in-depth discussions.

Marketing is step one of any business building activity. Its only purpose is to attract a qualified lead into your sales pipeline.

Qualify People Out to Increase Sales

As counter intuitive as it may seem, the first job of sales is to eliminate people who are not interested or qualified to do business with you. The quicker you can do that, the more time and money you'll have available to focus on more productive sales opportunities.

Start by analyzing the traits of your best clients.

Once you know who you’re looking for, go on a mission to get rejected.

Make contact with people who are most like the clients you enjoy working with now and ask permission to communicate.

An eBook, White Paper, audio, video or Article of interest to your niche are all great tools to open a conversation.

Follow up your initial communication to find out what they thought about the ideas you shared. 

For the people who have no interest, qualify them out quickly and take them off of your follow up and marketing list.

You'll save hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars from this one step alone.

Sometimes you’re reaching people at a bad time.

The script I like is, “Does saying no now mean that the timing is just not right and I should check back later or this is something that is not interesting to you ever.”

More often than not, timing is an issue. Checking back later reaps great results.

For every appointment you want to set, you’ll need four times that many NO’s. Give it a try.

Follow Your Feelings to Make More Sales

Recently, I attended a weekend seminar. I almost didn't go, but I had a feeling that it would be a good idea to attend. 

I arrived at the last minute to find about 500 people in a large hotel ballroom.

I generally like to sit toward the front, but unfortunately, I arrived at the 11th hour and had to sit about half way back.

Sitting in between two groups of women, one of the ladies on my right asked, "What do you do?"

I told her I was a commercial writer and sales process strategist. Then asked, "How about you?"

It turned out she was in the HR business and needed copy for a new Web site written.

We exchanged cards, I followed up the next week and we began a buyer-centric Web copy project. All because I had the 'feeling' that I should attend this event, even though I was a bit resistant to going the day of.

Follow those feelings and see remarkable things happen in your life more often than not.

Send a Card to a Soldier This Holiday Season

My friend, the Money Master, Jeff Fagin, sent me an email asking for my support of a program that lets our wounded soldiers know that we are thinking of them and appreciate their sacrifices.

Here's the message Jeff sent:

GREAT  IDEA! When doing your holiday cards this year, take one card and send it to this address.  If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these wonderful special people who have sacrificed so much would get. 
 

Holiday Mail for Heros
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

This effort is provided by the American Red Cross. Over 600,000 cards were delivered to deserving service men and women in 2007. They hope to break the record this year, but all cards must be sent by December 10th to make the deadline.

I would encourage everyone to take a short break and send your appreciation to these deserving women and men and spread the word among your tribe.

Thank you very much for participating.

How to Make Money by Caring

The fact is small and micro businesses that do well in tough economic times are those that are consistently using personal and relevant marketing touches followed by a well thought direct sales process to drive business growth.

The most affordable tactic to use is consistently demonstrating that you genuinely care about your existing clients and the prospects you can help most.

It’s easy to show clients and prospects you have their best interests in mind. Here are a few ideas:

Call, write (not email) or have lunch or coffee with every client on your list monthly.

Find out how they are doing. Talk about their successes.  Share a story and a word of encouragement. Then ask how you can best support them in their business.

Touch new, qualified prospects at LEAST 12-times over the course of sixty days.

Start by having the mindset of qualifying people out as quickly as you can when you prospect for new sales opportunities.

For the people who are qualified and interested in the value you provide, provide new ideas that can help them reach their goals consistently. Be an outstanding provider of relevant information.

Set clear and focused follow up times when asked to call back.

Call and leave a message if your prosepect is not there and follow up your message with a written communication.

Send an eBook (that you are allowed to share) or a print book you enjoyed. Send a greeting card, post card, thoughtful gift or other marketing touch that educates. This 'live touch' process can even be automated.

Sharing your knowledge demonstrates that you care about the outcome people in your market niche gain. Your goal is to be an information catalyst to your clients and prospects.

In today’s economic climate, caring enough to share the value you’ve created is your most profitable business building tactic.

The catch is you have to really be passionate about wanting to help your fellow human beings gain what they want in their business and life.

An Economy of the People and By the People

In today’s Weely Address from President Elect Obama, he outlined ideas for helping America recover from the economic challenges we are facing today. All were excellent ideas.

 Another way to spur jobs is for people who have a talent, passion or idea to gain the skills and resources they need to launch a business of their own.

For the first time in history, launching a new 'micro' business is cheaper and easier than ever thanks to technology.

A business today can be successfully marketed for less than $100 per month. The income from that endeavor can go to the $40,000.00 to $100,000 per year revenue range in a very reasonable amount of time.

The secret is to take action, start the business and consistently sell the value that business creates in the lives of others every day. It's a mission and not a job

Once an American with a passion and idea has the tools, resources and information they need to act successfully, no power on Earth can stop them.

 For people who lack an idea of their own to be passionate about, companies like Send Out Cards (http://www.sendoutcards.com/6315) provides a proven path way to success, including all of the training, direction and resources needed to build a successful home based business.

See the Oct 2008 edition of Success From Home magazine for more details.

 President-elect Obama is 100% correct. We CAN and WILL rebuild but it will take new and consistent action. Opening the door to 'micro' business will bolster the economy in ways that has not been seen since the turn of the 20th Century.

Why 30-Days is plenty of time to build a Brand Strategy

Our new company, Next Level Strategic Marketing Specialists, is built on a compelling promise.

We will build a compelling sales and marketing story as well as a finished brand image in 30-days or less. That means marketing narrative (brand story) and logo (brand image) all created in one month or less.

To the untrained eye this may not look all that impressive. The fact is, companies struggle with creating a brand for months and months the majority of the time.

Why did we pick 30-days as our promise benchmark?

First of all, business owners expressed frustration at having to wait several months for their marketing strategy and branding package to be done.

While they were waiting, sales were slipping out the door.

Through experience of doing these projects we found that 30 days is an ideal amount of time to build a solid foundation and brand identity if you are following a consistent plan of action.

The reason brand development takes longer is the companies doing the work are not leading the process. They are allowing the client, who has limited experience in doing this type of project, drive the development cycle, which leads to slow progress.

Let’s face it, the sooner you are able to implement a new brand strategy the sooner you’ll be able to start recapturing the ROI you deserve.
 
 How does the Next Level process work?
 
Because we’ve done this work frequently the steps to accomplish the result we’re looking for are codified and streamlined for quick and effective results. 

Next Level combines story (marketing narrative) with look and feel (brand image creation) so cohesion and cooperation between strategy and design is achieved.  Everyone is on the same page and understands the core objectives right from the start.

Having worked with hundreds of businesses over the years helps us get good at these processes. Practice makes perfect is the mantra here.
 
Check out Next Level Strategic Marketing Specialists and let us know what you think of this new business.

Just click “Comment” at the end of this post to give us your feedback.

Sales are Made When You Don’t Give Up

I was reflecting today on all the emails I receive from various places of interest. The area that never ceases to amaze me is in the area of Internet marketing information sales.

These people never give up until you do. They touch and touch and touch some more until you opt-out or purchase.

If you opt-out they remove you right away and don’t bother you anymore. If you buy, you move into a new level of messaging that continues the process of marketing their next level products or services.

The lesson is; keep sending marketing touches until someone tells you NO!

One of my favorite marketing cards I send often has this saying on the front:

Sales Statistics; 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect. 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop. 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop. Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts.

2% of sales are made on the first contact, 3% of sales are made on the second contact, 5% of sales are made on the third contact, 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact, and 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

If you would like me to send you this powerful sales reminder, just email me at bill@creatingwordsthatsell.com with the Subject: Sales Stats Card

I’ll send you the actual card in the mail as my gift to your sales success.

Rainmaking ideas that work

I've long been a fan of Jeffrey Fox and his excellent books, including How to Become a Rainmaker.

In a recent interview with MONETARY INTELLIGENCE Magazine Jeffrey was interviewed about his ideas in How to Become a Rainmaker.

One idea he shared that is of help to us all is below.

“I don't blindly accept all the myths. For example, for fifty years sales people have been told that you have to open up a conversation with the customer with some sort of ice breaker. But do customers like icebreakers?

“If you've examined a thousand sales interactions, you'll find the answer is "no." They react to "how much is in it for me," "what am I going to get," "is it worth it"-those kinds of things. Those kind of basic customer orientations are what I focus on. I focus not only on the seller's side but also on the customer side as well.”

As Jeffrey points out, clients and prospects want to know, "What's in it for me?" Talking about your company no longer works. The reason is clients simply don’t care about you.

Subscribe to Jeffrey Fox’s newsletter at http://www.foxandcompany.com

How to Create an Easy to Follow Marketing Plan

Marketing is one of those misunderstood areas that often throws business owners for a loop. Without marketing, however, closing deals becomes extremely challenging.

I’ll bet many of you have a business plan, which outlines marketing ideas that hasn't seen the light of day for a number of years.

I've found the most important thing to realize about marketing is that it's directly tied to your sales process.

Marketing is the way you "attract" qualified leads into your sales pipeline.

Before developing a plan, you’ll need to articulate the value you’ve created with your business in a way that shows how your concept benefits other people.

The most efficient way to accomplish this, without guessing, is to simply ask your clients for help. Find out the greatest value they receive from doing business with you.

This is the basis of your marketing story (formerly called a marketing narrative).

To make planning as simple as possible, follow the advice of Jay Conrad Levinson in his flag ship book Guerrilla Marketing.

Answer these seven questions.

1. What is the purpose of marketing?
2. What is the prime benefit you’ll stress?
3. Who is your target audience?
4. What tactics will you use to spread your message?
5. What is your niche?
6. What is your identity in business?
7. What is your marketing budget?

Now that your plan is completed, the most important two words to remember are “Integrated marketing.”

Mix up your tactics to touch clients and prospects consistently and often.

Consider marketing tactics such as postcards, greeting cards, letters, email, phone calls, live visits, press releases, articles, eBooks, online methods and social networking in combination.