Tag: customerbase

How to Sell to New Prospects

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

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.

Three Essential Marketing Components for a Reusable Marketing Plan in 2023

Posted on by Amanda Bedell

Marketing campaigns can be exhausting to think about, let alone create each month. Then you need to come up with marketing content, create the copy, and post or schedule your marketing content. If you want to simplify the process and spend less time planning and implementing your marketing, consider these five essential marketing components reusable each month for your digital marketing plan in 2023.

 

Let’s review the five essential keys to a successful and reusable marketing campaign launch. 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. Once you have these basics down, you can use them repeatedly.

 

Essential Marketing Component #1: Define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Take the time to ask yourself some questions from the perspective of the customers/clients. What would it take to get your attention? What needs do you have that need to be met? What are the promises you want to be fulfilled?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can develop a plan to meet these needs. Then look at what USP your competitors use to help you develop your USP. Your USP is what you are “promising” your customers/clients. This is what’s going to set you apart from your competition.

 

Essential Marketing Component #2: Put a compelling sales offer to work

When marketing, ensure that your prospects have all the information they need to make an informed and confident decision. Buyer’s remorse can quickly tarnish your reputation and slow your business growth. To develop an effective sales plan, you need to:

  1. Put together an attention-grabbing headline
  2. Share the benefits of your products and services, speaking from the customers’ perspective
  3. Identify the specific needs met by your products or services
  4. Share your specific sales proposition
  5. Motivate with a call to action

 

Essential Marketing Component #3: Build Your Customer Base

To generate leads and prospects, you’ll want to tap into a repeatable action that your ideal avatar can buy into when they see your offer online. Some ideas for building your customer base include:

  • creating a lead magnet with a free offer to your prospective leads
  • Build your database with a contest on social media or email
  • Create a consistent email marketing campaign

 

Block out time each month to make a formidable marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be complicated – you can start with simple, easy-to-use steps for your marketing plan; however, you’ll want to start. No matter how small your digital footprint is, start with what you have and build out your digital marketing from there.