Today I am going to talk about the boring part of marketing i.e maximizing you marketing resources. In working with smaller businesses for the past ten years, I have learned that a lot of time, energy and money was being wasted because the underpinnings of a marketing system were not in place.
Many years ago, I chose to enter the field of marketing largely because it looked like fun. You got to go out and meet all kinds of interesting people. Having been in both field sales and staff marketing positions, the work was both creative and analytical which I find very satisfying.
A company might have great brochures, a sophisticated logo, an advertising budget to be envied, and direct mail campaigns with an investment in creative effort, budget and time resources. Yet, sales were not reaching their expectations. The ball is usually dropped after the ad has run or the mailing is sent.
Many of you will say to yourselves, “Well, I know that.” Yet, how many of you did not have enough sales leads. It could be that you have more than enough leads if you knew how to get the most out of them. There is a lot of good news here and several points which seem to surprise many people.
Surprise #1. Every contact is a potential sale, even the ones who say “NO”
Surprise #2. Everyone that you know, knows someone who needs your product or service.
Surprise #3. The easiest sale to make, is to someone you already know: clients, customers, friends, business associates, clubs, churches, etc.
Looking at the three surprises, you can see a couple of important points right off the bat.
- First of all, successful selling is a lot more than getting in front of a prospect and telling your story or getting advertising or other informational material in front of the prospect. It is relationship building. Think about the relationships in your life and all of the effort that goes into them: spending time together, talking, exchanging information, helping each other out, sending Christmas cards, and so forth. Turning a “cold” prospect into a client or customer isn’t much different.
- Secondly, in looking at all of the people you know, all of your customers, clients, family, friends, that’s a lot of information. Even if you are only recording very basic information like names, addresses, phone numbers. When you add to that things like when they were contacted, what transpired, personal interests, business description, business needs, etc. then you have a huge amount of information to keep track of – even if you are a very small business.
In order to build these relationships, you need to be aware of a few rules of thumb related to selling. These are rules that tend to hold true across the board but will vary some depending on factors such as the type of business and the skill of the sales person.
Let’s how many of these you already know.
- How many times does a prospect need to be exposed to a product or service before they are ready to make a “buy” decision?
- If you are “cold” calling to arrange sales appointments, how many calls do you need to make to get an appointment?
- On average, how many face-to-face presentations do you need to make in order to make a sale?
The answers:
Individuals need about 6 or 7 exposures to a product or service before they are ready to make a “buy” decision.
If you are making “cold” telephone calls to arrange a sales presentation, you will get 1 appointment for every 40 calls and maybe 1 appointment at a later date on a call back.
Out of every 5 sales presentations you make, you will get 1 sale and, perhaps one who will buy later on a call back.
In other words, you need to make 200 calls in order to get 1 sale. But, if you are good at keeping track of things and at “working” your prospect list, you can quadruple your results! This is where the infrastructure part becomes so important.
Marketing infrastructure =
It’s just amazing how many people forget about timely call backs, usually because they don’t keep track. Using the numbers shown here, you can increase your sales from 1 out of 200 cold calls to 4 out of 200 calls just by following a routine for keeping in touch with your prospects. If success in closing a sale depends upon your prospect getting to know you well enough to increase their comfort level, what will you do with the 199 prospects who said no?
Call again, send more information, start to build a relationship. What will you do with the one prospect who said yes? Treat like him gold. The easiest, cheapest sales are to people who have already purchased from you is maintaining these relationships. Next easiest and cheapest, to people who you know.
Maintaining the relationships for maximizing you marketing resources.
By maintaining these relationships, you are effectively reducing your cost per sale. This is an “ecological” system. You remember the environmental mantra: Reduce, reuse, recycle. Well, that is exactly what a good marketing tracking and follow-up system does.
The problem is that most small business owners wear too many hats. That is part of the charm of being in your own business but it is also one of the weaknesses. Many believe that they can do it all and that the clients will come from them simply getting in front of prospects and telling their story. Which is partly true. Your passion about your business goes a long way in a sales presentation and prospects and clients love knowing that they have the attention of the owner or president. However, most business owners I have encountered fail to take full advantage of each and every contact because they simply don’t have the time because they are busy running the company.
Fortunately, much of this can be resolved utilizing methods which are easily maintained and clerical in nature. To do this well, you must have good records and management reports which will enable you to know exactly what information was given to a prospect, when it was given, who made the contact, what the response was, etc. No way are you going to remember exactly what happened with 200 prospects for maximizing your marketing resources.
Management reports aggregate the information so that you can see at a glance whether you are reaching your marketing goals and if your methods are being effective. To keep from re-inventing the wheel every time you make a sales call and to take full advantage of the time, energy and money efforts you have already put forth, you must have your processes, record keeping and management reporting in place and maximizing you marketing resources.
Process
Let’s take a quick look at the process. First, you have a universe of possible prospects. You might have a mailing list, or purchased data base, or you might be using names you have gathered over time from organization lists, publications, referrals and so forth. Or your universe might be all consumers or all businesses.
Next, you will have some sort a way to zero in on your most likely customers – those who either want to use your product or should use your product. This is the criteria by which you qualify your candidates so that you are not spending your time trying to sell “ice cubes to Eskimoes.” Then you devise a means for making contact.
You might utilize direct mail, telemarketing, advertising, networking. That’s contact or exposure number one – of the six or seven exposures that need to be made in order for the prospect to make a “buy” decision. So, you need to track responses and you need to track non-responses and plan your next contact.
Now, let’s look at record keeping. For most businesses, what is kept on the data base is driven by customer billing.
They maintain information which includes for Maximizing Your Marketing Resources:
- Company name
- Names of key personnel
- Address
- Phone, fax, other contact info
- $ owed, last paid
A data base that is marketing driven will include prospects as well as clients and will also include information such as:
- History of purchases (what and when do they purchase)
- Description of their business: products & services, distribution area, number of employees, other locations, business structure, management structure
- History of contacts including phone calls, letters, newsletter and other mailings, meetings, etc. and what transpired if applicable
- Professional associations and interests
- Personal interests
- Birthday, anniversary
- Family Information
I am not advocating that you go out and grill your prospects and clients. But you should make a note of information when it becomes available. Every one of these items is an opportunity for you to cement the relationship, to make additional connections and make the relationship grow. There is nothing mystical about successful selling. It is basic human relations and communication. Some of us are very good at that and others of us are not. Having these procedures in place and following them will help anyone’s selling effort become more effective.
