Category: Lead Generation

How to Sell to New Prospects

We’ve all experienced the excitement and anticipation of attending a crucial industry networking event. With limited time to spare, we understand the importance of maximizing every opportunity to secure valuable customers. From meticulously selecting the perfect attire to ensuring your business cards are flawless, you leave no stone unturned. However, amidst all the preparations, the question lingers: How can you truly excel at making an outstanding first impression?

Let’s dig into this. Before you put together your approach, you’ve got to be crystal clear on who you want to work with. If you go in with a “spray and pray” approach, you won’t stand out to anyone. First, take a look at your notes and the research you’ve done about your prospects, your target audience. Then, decide which ideal prospect will be the easiest to approach for this event.

 

Position Your Business 

A great way to start, and separate yourself form your competition is to make the first move by creating free educational content to teach your ideal avatar something that will get them out a pain point they have. Next, build trust by answering their questions and ask them to reach out to you with other questions on your contact form. This genuine relationship building is essential for your future success.

You can also create a free e-book or online course to offer to your leads. This gives them the information they need to solve a pain point from you, the expert. When you create this freebie and market your free giveaway, it should be easy and automated. But, most importantly, your freebie needs to get the person receiving this valuable information on your email list.

 

Compile Your Prospect List

Start with your lead generation of email leads you’ve made using your freebie giveaway. You’ll want to compile a list of companies you’ve been considering if you’re a B2B business. You never know who will need your service, so send out an offer to everyone on your list that has been identified as your avatar. Don’t overlook obvious choices, whether they are big or small. Even small companies could be big fish in the future.

 

Considerations on Who to Contact First

Once your list is narrowed down, you need to decide which is the best fish to start with. You need to consider a couple of things:

  • Which have the most purchasing resources to spend?
  • Does their company vision complement yours?
  • What are their employee incentive programs related to your products/services?
  • What’s the company’s real need for you?
  • Will the partnership lead you to new clients and prospects?

 

Steps to Selling to Your Prospective Clients

Now you should have a target in mind to start with. Then, it’s time to plan your approach and execute that plan. Here’s the step-by-step plan to help you make a good first impression:

  1. Build and analyze your database. Divide your leads into three different categories: hot leads, great fits, and secondary leads.
  2. Send introductory mailings to your target to introduce yourself, your company, services, products, and your vision. They need to be short, clean, and concise. 
  3. Follow up with your first phone call 2-3 days after they would have received the mailings. During the call, find out to whom you need to be speaking in the future and try to set up a meeting with the right person.
  4. Follow up your phone call with another mailing that thanks them for speaking with you and offering more details about your products/services. Use this letter and the opportunity to set up a meeting to do a presentation.
  5. Follow up the letter with another phone call a couple of days after they would have received the letter. This phone call will help you further develop your relationship with the prospective client. You should also be able to set up a presentation meeting with them. 
  6. Call again a week later if they haven’t agreed to a meeting or presentation. Ask if they received your creative letter and if they have a minute when you can stop by and introduce yourself in person.

Now, don’t be upset if you don’t seal the deal right away. Some people simply take a little longer to woo. This can all be a little intimidating at first, but you can’t go wrong when you know you are offering a quality product/service.

Once you’ve gone through this process and made first contact (and hopefully a good first impression), it’s time to put your best face forward, which means sending the right salesperson to seal the deal.

Unleash Your Business Potential: The Path to $1MM in Revenue Awaits

Today, I had an epiphany while writing this blog post, realizing that what I had planned to share might not be what you truly need to hear right now. So, allow me to take a different approach that I hope resonates deeply with you.

Let’s set aside the noise and focus on Web2 — the powerful realm of social influence that holds immense potential for your business. As a small business owner, the social aspect may have been unintentionally overlooked. Take a moment to reflect on your website. Does it simply resemble an online business card or, dare I say, an outdated Yellow Pages ad? If so, it’s time to shift gears.

Consider this: the conversations your prospects have with their peers carry more weight than any message you can create, regardless of its brilliance. Recent research confirms that peers have become the most trusted individuals globally, making their trust and endorsement crucial for the success of your product or service. This holds even more significance as we navigate an AI-driven world. Building authentic relationships and cultivating social proof will be the key differentiators that set you apart from the competition.

Now, let’s explore the essence of our discussion: how can this understanding propel you toward achieving $1MM in revenue with a high net profit?

  • Clarity: The first step on this transformative journey is gaining a crystal-clear vision of your desired outcome and truly comprehending your market-dominating position. When you possess unwavering clarity, everything falls into place.
  • Focus: Once your vision is defined, it’s time to narrow your focus. Identify the ONE pivotal task that will make everything else on your plate either easier to tackle or entirely irrelevant. Honing in on this priority will pave the way for significant progress towards your revenue goals.
  • Consistent Action: Success isn’t born out of sporadic bursts of effort but through a steadfast commitment to taking consistent action. Remember the sage advice: “Consistency beats talent every time.” Embrace the power of daily, purposeful actions that align with your vision.
  • Results: Armed with clarity, focus, and consistent action, you hold the keys to building the business of your dreams. The transformation you seek is well within your grasp.

You might think, “This all sounds great, Amanda, but how does this work for real?!”

Imagine you set a goal to lose 20 pounds. You have a crystal-clear vision of wearing a specific dress at the upcoming summer family reunion (clarity). You know precisely what steps to take, such as cooking more meals at home, adding exercise to your daily routine, and creating a schedule (focus). And most importantly, you take consistent action (consistent action). When we set out on a goal, the first days are great! But the middle days, like days 17, 18, and 19, can feel discouraging – they last forever, and you feel like you get nowhere. But, if you persist, you’ll reach days 30, 31, and beyond while watching pounds melt away (and a need to buy new jeans!).

Let’s apply this concept to your business efforts to sort through the chaos. What can you do differently over the next 30 days to test the concept? 

Simply reply with how you’ll test this out, and I’ll hold you accountable for the next 30 days.

I hope these insights resonate with you and offer a fresh perspective.

 

P.S. I’m beta-testing a new program, Flash Coaching— a streamlined system designed to accommodate your busy schedule. It provides a unique blend of self-paced learning through targeted videos and unlimited, high-impact one-on-one 15-minute coaching sessions.

This is a perfect way to dip your toe into what it would be like to have a business coach on your side. Intrigued? Let’s connect >>

Who is Your Target Audience?

Some business owners feel that they need to sell their product or service to everyone – anyone and everyone listening. While that may make sense to some, think about your last purchase. Do you believe that everyone in your family, town, city, or state purchased the same product as you? If they purchased the same product or service, did they also purchase it for the same exact reason?

 

Why You Want to Have a Targeted Audience

This is why you need to figure out who your ideal avatar is for your business. If you waste time trying to target everyone, you’re targeting no one. It’s like the business owner who hands out business cards in a circle to everyone they meet. Almost no one calls that person because they don’t know what they are about or who they serve. This is how you’ll distinguish your company from your competitors’ services – even if you do the same service. Targeting a specific demographic of who you serve is vital to having a marketing plan that is effective for both your time and money.

 

Who Should You Target?

The most important aspect of marketing is to know who your ideal client is and why they are your ideal client. Is your ideal client a mom of four who is strapped for time or is it a single woman who has more free time on her hands? These are important elements of your ideal avatar you’ll want to know so you can target your marketing.

What are their purchasing habits? Are they buying products or services from Instagram or do they hangout on Facebook? You need to know who has influence over purchasing, who does the actual buying, and how they buy. 

 

Ask Your Audience What They Want

Figure out a way to get in front of your ideal audience before you spend money on an ad campaign or a new website. Poll them via email, a phone call, or on social media. Ask them questions that will help you refine your website, your products, or your services. Your name needs to be at the top of their list to buy from so they go to you first. But you need to know why your name is there, and polling your ideal clients is the best way to find out. 

 

Use Your Avatar’s Lingo

Advertising to millennials is a different game than advertising to Gen Z or zoomers. You need to learn your avatar’s unique language and communication methods. These can include buzzwords and even the nicknames they have for their pets.

Five Marketing Pitfalls to Avoid When Planning Your Digital Marketing for 2023

Do you feel like marketing is a mystical creature that some people have seen, but every time you try to find it, it doesn’t show up for you?

Many small business owners feel this way because no matter how hard they try, or how much money they spend, marketing doesn’t work for them.

Unfortunately, this is compounded by the availability of not-so-good marketing advice, especially when you’re a newbie or not familiar with how SEO works.

 

Digital Marketing Basics to Know

There are basics of digital marketing you’ll want to understand before you jump into planning your marketing for the year. First, you’ll want to list your digital marketing assets, such as your website, blog, email list, and social media platforms. Next, you’ll want to create a digital marketing planner to map out what you will do for the month and year. Then you need to create content pillars or themes you’re going to talk about for the month ahead.

 

Avoid the Marketing Pitfalls

Especially if you’re new to entrepreneurship or digital marketing, you’ll want to avoid marketing pitfalls to skip wasting time and effort on marketing tactics that won’t work. Here are the five biggest marketing mistakes you’ll want to avoid in 2023.

 

Marketing Pitfall #1: Forgetting Set Goals for Your Business

You’ll want to establish a goal first before you start marketing. Depending on your niche and lane, your goal could be client or product oriented. You may also have a sales goal. Whatever your profession, think of a relatively easy goal to achieve and write it down. Make sure your goal has a due date. If your goal is big, break your bigger goal down into micro-goals, so you have smaller checkpoints along the way to see if you’re on track to reaching your goal. If you’re not, you can scale back or decide to take a different marketing route to achieve your goal.

 

Marketing Pitfall #2: Marketing without a Plan

Many people will randomly post on Instagram, create a blog, or send out email marketing without any type of plan. Without a plan, you’re basically throwing mud against a wall, hoping it will stick. You want to create a plan with a theme for your monthly marketing, even if it’s simple. Make all your digital marketing content around that theme so you can track your data and see what’s working.

 

Marketing Pitfall #3: Assuming the Needs of Your Ideal Client or Customer

You may assume you know what your customer wants, but is it true? The only way to find out for sure is to create a survey asking your potential clients and leads what their biggest pain points are for them in their business. Then you can formulate a plan to help solve what they need.

 

Marketing Pitfall #4: Using Social Media to Sell

While social media platforms are a great way to showcase your products, your team, you, and your company culture, you’ll rarely sell your products on social media unless you’re specifically running an ad. Instead, use social media to familiarize your clients with your products, how they can solve their pain points, and show your brand personality so they make an emotional connection to you and your business.

 

Marketing Pitfall #5: Failing to Use Email Marketing

Email marketing, although it’s been around for a long time, is still the best way to market to your fans and leads. While email marketing is very popular, it’s also one of the few ways you can get your client’s undivided attention. First, showcase your products or services, educate your avatar, and include a freebie to download to show your appreciation. Then, make sure you choose a platform, such as Convertkit, to upload your clients’ emails and start sending them emails regularly.

 

When planning your marketing, and you want to be successful, make sure to avoid these marketing pitfalls. Then, think through your marketing for 2023 and devise a plan that makes your marketing a big success!

 

How to Keep Your Clients Satisfied and Generate More Leads

If your customers aren’t satisfied, you’ve wasted all your marketing resources and the chance of a positive word-of-mouth advertising, Google review, or client referral. Instead, you can satisfy your clients by ensuring you provide them with the basics. Find out what you can do to keep your clients returning for more of your products and services!

 

Provide Quality Products and Services

In today’s world, having the ability to hire cheap labor from overseas can seem like a daunting challenge for anyone in the services industry. However, providing high-quality customer service and services gives you an edge over others who cannot compete with a higher-quality product. Your clients will come back for more when you provide a superior product or service. Even though your service or product may be pricier, you can provide your clients with time-saving services that they value and appreciate.

 

Give an Informative Sales Experience

Don’t just sell when you’re trying to sell – educate! Giving your potential and current clients the ability to learn from you, the expert, is a great way to build trust and competence with your lead or client. Educate and give them value, so they can see the expert thinking you can provide their business.

 

Offer a Guarantee

While some services may not be able to offer guarantees, if you can, this is a great way to ensure that your client will have a good experience. You can offer another or repeat your service and make what’s wrong right for your client. Keeping your clients satisfied with your work is important to uphold a good standing in your community and among your clients.

 

Generate More Leads

To generate more business, there are a couple of simple techniques which you can employ in your business.

  • Build your database with a contest
  • Email your clients with educational articles, discounts, or other incentives
  • Offer a free online course, e-book, or another incentive for people to join your email list

 

As long as the reward is directly related to your product or service, you can get more people interested in your business by generating excitement around you, your product, and your services. So why not get started today?

Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs Part III

Here we are! The last in my series of marketing tips for entrepreneurs! 

If you haven’t read through the last two blogs, grab those takeaways here Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs Part I and here Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs Part II.

Now, the most important piece is this: of all these tips, what is ONE thing you can use to grow your client base this week? Send me a note of what you decide on so I can keep you accountable.

 

Create a Great Marketing Plan

A great marketing plan doesn’t need to be complicated. I understand marketing can be elusive and a little intimidating. But, I promise that you don’t need fancy technology or an all-in-one solutions…. You can start simple and you can start manual.

Pick up a regular paper calendar. Decide how many days per week you want content to be posted. Remember, you can start small! There’s no need to create content every day of the week or send out multiple emails. Maybe it’s simply dedicating 1 hour a week to social media, posting twice a week, and an email one time a month. 

Once you know what content you want to begin with, simply take that calendar and color code days of the week. Each color represents a pillar from your content pillars document. (If you haven’t received my content pillars template, email me and I’ll send it to you, for free!). 

Remember starting small is OK; you can always build on your marketing plan when you get into the habit of consistently creating content for your business. Fine-tune and refine your marketing plan based on your data and feedback.

 

Make Sure Your Marketing Fits Your Branding

There’s nothing worse than hiring a marketing company for your mountain-town vacation rental for them to post a picture of a couple walking along a beach! Ensure your social media, newsletter, lead magnets, and blog content have the same look and feel. The voice and style should make your brand recognizable among all your platforms. And, you’ll want to ensure your marketing and advertising fit your company image, products, services, and quality.

 

Review Your Current Marketing Plan

Remember the 80/20 rule? For business, the principle states that 20% of what you do is generating 80% of your income (revenue). With this lens, review your current marketing plan. What is bringing in clients? What isn’t? Make a plan to improve on the things that are working and drop the ares that aren’t. You don’t want to be spending money on marketing that isn’t giving you a good ROI (return on investment).

 

Educate Your Clients and Leads with Value-Driven Content

People don’t buy because of your fancy logo or cute tag line. If your materials aren’t addressing the problem your prospect has that they don’t want and doesn’t provide a result that alleviates the pain they are in, the marketing simply won’t work. Rather than pushing your company name and bio out to prospects, consider develop all your ads, campaigns, and sales materials with attention to compelling and factual information that solves pain points for your readers. Don’t worry about giving away too much information – when you’re in service of your audience, the right customers will be attracted to you.

Business Pitfalls to Avoid When You’re an Entrepreneur

When you’re starting a business, especially as a first-time entrepreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of building your business, such as making your new website, your new company branding, and creating business cards. However, many new entrepreneurs fail to plan, which is why 80% of start-ups fail in their first year. To avoid failing in your new business, you’ll want to make a plan after you come up with your new business idea and before you start to make your new logo. This way, you can avoid many of the pitfalls that new businesses make when they start out.

 

Start Your Business with a Business Plan

The first mistake many business owners make is to start a business without a plan. 

Ignore market testing and push on with an inaccurate plan. When you lay out a plan for your business, you have steps to take that will make your business grow more rapidly and run smoothly. 

You can purchase many business planning books if you’re unsure where to start when building a business plan. Start by reading through one to three books. Find takeaways that appeal to you and use those for your personalized business plan. 

 

Make Sure to Recognize the Problem and the Solution for Your New Business

Your new business is exciting, and you’re ready to go! However, do you know the problem you’re solving for your new potential clients? If not, then you need to step back and figure out what the problem is that you’re solving and if this is a problem that people are looking for a solution to. You can find out by surveying people online to see if your services or products offer a solution that people are looking for. If so, does your product or service offer many of the features that consumers or other businesses are looking for? These questions need to be answered before you start investing in a logo or a website.

 

Build Your Own Website with a Domain Name that You Own for Your Business

Many people feel the need to be on social media, even more so than having their own website. This is a huge mistake to make when you’re a business owner! Why? Because a social marketing platform can take down your social media page without warning, leaving you without a site or a place for your clients to contact you. Even if you’re a brick-and-mortar store, this can hurt your business. Think of the many hours of time you’ve spent on your social media page (as your only source of an online website) that’s lost because someone on the social media platform didn’t like your content. That’s not a chance any business owner should take!

Make sure you have your own website with a domain name that you’ve purchased. Gandi is a great site to purchase your domain name from, which you can migrate to any platform on which you’re building your website. Whether you’re using a drop-and-drag website or an online marketplace, you want to own your domain so that you can control your content 24/7.

 

Build Your Email List After You Have Your Website Built

Many people mistake building their social media channels and completely ignoring their email list. Did you know that your email list is the BEST marketing tool out there? Even though it’s one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, sending messages out to your email list regularly is the best way to get in front of your ideal audience.

Make sure to know the basics, who your audience is, and do the legwork of data collecting to find out if your business idea is a needed asset to consumers or businesses. Once you’ve achieved that goal, then start your logo, branding, website, and email list.

Four Essential Keys to Marketing Success Part I

Marketing is a word that scares many business owners but is a necessity to bring in new clients. Whether creating digital or traditional marketing, you can always repurpose or reuse your content. However, use these guidelines to create a successful and reusable marketing campaign that you can duplicate with minor adjustments – making less work for your small business in the long run!

 

Four Essential Keys to Marketing Success

While there are many details to successful marketing, we’ll be going through the four essential keys to a successful and reusable marketing campaign. Once you have these basics down, you can use them every year, making minor changes for new ideas you have to add to your marketing campaign. We’ll go through each of these, so you can see exactly how to use them and how they all affect the overall outcome of your marketing campaign.

 

Marketing Essential #1: Define Your Unique Selling Proposition

Your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP, is the perspective your clients who hire you will have about your business. To find out your USP, take the time to ask yourself questions from the perspective of your current favorite customers and clients. What gets their attention? What needs are you meeting? Which pain points are you solving for your clients? What promises are you fulfilling for the people you provide a product or service to? Why are they hiring your services? Once you know the answers to these questions, you can start putting together a plan to meet the needs and wants of prospective clients.  

Next, take a look at the USP of your competitors. Then, utilize the components of the USP they are using to help you develop your unique USP. Your focused USP is what you are “promising” your customers and clients. Your unique selling proposition will set you apart from your competition and distinguish what you do and who you serve as a small business.

 

Marketing Essential #2: Putting an Effective Sales Offer to Work

You’ll want to take the time to develop an effective sales plan for your business or platform. If you don’t plan, your marketing efforts could be as effective as throwing spaghetti against a wall, hoping your efforts will pay off. Often, a good marketing plan will not only give you a sense of satisfaction. Still, it will pay off in more income and profitability for your company. Check out our weekly blog for a future post about how to create an effective sales plan and for more detail on the steps to take when making a sales plan for your business.

With a sales plan, you’ll combine what makes your products and services unique and stand out among your competitors. Your sales plans should compel customers to buy. The plan you come up with should make them feel they need to buy, even if the product doesn’t cover a basic need. Your sales pitch should answer a question, solve a problem or feed an obsession with your ideal client.

 

In your sales pitch and plan, you’ll want to provide your lead with all the information they need to make an informed and confident decision. When you do, you’ll be sure to land the sale and make a new customer! 

 

Check back for this series on marketing essentials, as we will post part II at the end of this month! 

Strategic Steps to Take For Business Growth

Strategic Steps to Take For Small Business Growth

The first step to creating a more profitable business is to consider the 80/20 or pareto principle. This rule states that 20% of your actions result in 80% of your results. This is true, no matter what vertical or category your small business falls into. Now, consider this. If you multiply the 80/20 rule by 4; it states that only 1% of what you do generates 50% of your business income. Imagine what would happen to your business if you found that 1% activity and focused on it relentlessly. Would you agree you would have one profitable business?  

Let Me Hold Up A Magnifying Glass To What Makes Up That 20%

The five elements of business that make up the 20% of activities that are making you the most money in your small business are leads, conversions, transactions, pricing, and profit. When you look at these components that make up your 20%, seek out one action item in each area. Focus on your best lead generation effort, tighten up your conversion rate, add value to create another point of sale for your customer, examine your pricing structure, and audit your costs; if the cost is not making you money, get rid of it. That’s just a few options out of literally hundreds of strategies. Even a small shift of 1-3% can make a big difference to your bottom line. Would you like to see how compounding works, visit my free Profit Simulator >>

How to Make the Right Marketing Decisions for Your Business

Okay, so we know that we all HATE being sold to but we do LOVE to buy stuff! Each time we purchase anything, we are looking to either solve a problem, create certainty, or have a meaningful experience.

With more than 10,000 messages per day bombarding consumers online, how do you get your message to stand out among your competitors with your marketing?

You’ll need to find your voice and narrow down what you’re saying to your prospects with focused messages. To break through the noise and create a message so compelling it’s like a dog whistle to your superstar client or customer, you’ll want to get down to the fundamentals of what your message is for your business (also known as your market dominating position or unique selling proposition). Really, what separates you from everyone else selling what you sell? Besides examining the inside of your company or its services you also need to know who your target customer is for your business. 

Your Target Customer is More than Just Demographics

Instead of looking at typical demographics such as age and gender, I coach companies to dig deeper and find out more about their ideal customers. When you’re only marketing based on common demographics, you’re only scratching the surface. Instead, I want you to think about the process people go through when they buy anything. The buyer’s journey is where 99% of prospects that consider buying what you sell are in the investigative stage. They are considering reasons to buy a product/service and overcoming objections to the purchase. It’s not until the very last 1% that they are considering WHO to buy from. 

To dive beyond simple demographics and create this compelling message, we need to tap into the emotional reason for your customer to buy. 

How Do You Know What Your Superstar Client Looks Like?

To identify your superstar clients/customers, you need to do nothing but look at your most loyal customer or the easiest clients you work with. You know the ones, who jumped at your offer, are excited to become customers, love what you do… really in their eyes, you do no wrong. The relationship is fluid… you’ll hear me say, in Changing the Sales Game Podcast, “If you feel goosebumps talking to someone, they are close to your ideal client.”

To find out more steps you can take to grow your small business, listen to my interview with Connie Whitman here >>

 

How to Bring in New Customers with Incentives

While offering incentives to new clients to generate business isn’t a new concept, it is a process that has worked in the past and still works today. Even in a digital world, incentivizing your offerings gives your client base more ways to buy from you and more reasons to purchase your services.

There are several ways to turn a prospect into a customer. Look through these types of incentives and choose an incentive that works for your vertical and speaks to you. If you’re not interested in creating a specific type of incentive, you won’t follow through. In business, the fortune is in the follow-up, including creating, publishing, and utilizing any of the incentives you choose from this list!

 

Incentive #1 Offer a special price for a beta test

Beta tests are soft launches to test out the idea of a product or service. In a beta test, you can get feedback from your testers on what you’re offering. This way, you can improve upon your original creation and put more marketing dollars and time behind a better product or service when you launch.

 

Incentive #2 Offer affiliate commissions

Offering an affiliate commission is common to have others refer you for work. When others refer you, you kick back a percent of the sale to them as a “thank-you” for the paid referral.

 

Incentive #3 Free or inexpensive first product to build trust

Lead magnets, newsletters, and other freebies are a great way to get people onto your email list. Once you have them on your email list, you can sell a low-cost entry-level product to them, such as an ebook. In addition, you can also offer a low-cost ebook as a direct sell on your website.

 

Incentive #4 Package deals and bundling products or services

Bundling packages for your clients to get a better deal is a great way to upsell or get your clients to purchase from you. When you bundle, you can show the savings they get by purchasing the bundled product. In addition, the package price clearly shows how much they are spending, so they don’t have to continually purchase an add-on product.

 

Incentive #5: Trade-up or upgrades

Offering a trade-up or trade-in is a great way to get your client to buy from you or purchase the next-level product. You can offer these in any vertical, and they make for a great upsell incentive.

Incentives are an excellent way to persuade your followers to buy from you, regardless of your vertical. First, decide which one best fits your business and start there. Then you can see what works the best. When you find the incentive that takes off, utilize that specific incentive in your marketing to optimize your sales!