Bill Gluth's Creative Business Strategy Blog

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.

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.

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.

The Basics of Writing a Sales Letter

For the majority of small business owners, writing a sales letter is a fairly difficult task.

The reason why is they do not know the sales letter formula.

Before you ever write the first word, be sure to identify what you want the letter to accomplish.

Your next step is to profile the intended recipients.Who are they and why should they care about your offer?

Now we have the ‘why’s’ and ‘who’s’ established, we can begin to write.

Tell me the greatest value the buyer will receive by reading further, in one sentence. This is your headline.

Use the first paragraph to address their greatest pain point. If the first paragraph talks about your company your buyer won’t care and will stop reading.

Wrap up the letter by reemphasizing the pain your buyer is facing and how you'll take it away.

End with a call to action.

Close the letter with your signature and be sure it is written in blue and not black ink. Over the years, blue signatures have received better response by significant margins.

Add a PS to recap the value of your offer and the call to action. Most people read the headline, maybe the first paragraph and the PS.

Letters have always been a mainstay of marketing, but have been ignored due to the popularity of email. With spam blockers becoming more efficient, you’ll see a rise in mailed correspondence as a way to communicate your message effectively to both prospects and clients.

Jack and Suzy Welch's View of the Barak Obama Victory

Melissa Sylvester of Trylon SMR was kind enough to email me a link to an article Jack and Suzy Welch wrote for Business Week.

It outlines their view of the reasons for the Barak Obama victory and what small business and other corporate leaders can learn from it.

More food for thought on marketing, business development and clear and focused messages are on Business Week.com. Simply click here> to read the full article.

Great ideas Jack and Suzy. Thank you for sharing them.

Photo of Jack and Suzy Welch courtesy of www.welchway.com

Congratulations President-Elect, Barak Obama

WOW! As American’s, we just witnessed an amazing feat of marketing, based on a message of caring, that propelled a candidate with a story of change into the White House.

When you’re watching it all unfold, it’s often hard to realize what you’re looking at. I think Seth Godin, in his new book Tribes, tells us how Barak Obama achieved, what for some people, seemed impossible.

On page 76 Seth notes, “In an era of grassroots change, the top of the pyramid is too far away from where the action is to make a difference. It takes too long and it lacks impact. The top isn’t the top anymore because the streets are where the action is.”

The Republican candidate saw the world from the top of the pyramid down. What did Barak Obama do?

He went on a massive mission, took his message of hope and change to the public through various “Human Touch” channels and won the presidential election.

Barak Obama took a new direction, empowering everyday people to take responsibility and participate in grassroots style outreach.

President-elect Barak Obama demonstrated how caring, human touch and believing in a mission strongly enough to stand up and lead those who will follow in an entirely new direction, gets real results.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, take note of what you've witnessed

You have seen history made in both politics and marketing. Large scale grassroots marketing was a major element in winning the 2008 presidential election.

Now think about how you can apply these same ideas to your business today. It’s the wave of the future and it’s only just begun.

The Power of "Checking In"

I had a great opportunity to realize how important caring about client outcomes and staying in touch really is.

I did a check in call yesterday with a client whose project had finished. She had a couple of questions and reported excellent results with the sales attraction process we created together.

Then she asked about the next step, which would be client relationship management. As a result of that call, we'll start moving on creating a consistent CRM process and completing her sales strategy program.

Caring about the outcomes clients receive and staying committed to keeping in touch is so important. It's also the first thing that most business owners fail to do consistently.