I saved a recent unsolicited email I received because it perfectly illustrated a flaw that I believe is behind almost all failed marketing attempts.  Let’s call it the “core flaw” — talking about products and services as if that is what their prospective clients want.

Here are the contents of that email (with name and services changed to protect the guilty).

Hi Andy,

Hope you are doing well,

I am following up with you to see if you have availability for a quick call sometime in the following weeks.

Our Services Include:

1. Service #1
2. Service #2
3. Service #3
4. Service #4
5. Service #5
6. Service #6
7. Service #7
8 Service #8
9. Service #9
10. Service #10

[No joke, 10 services were listed.  The email then goes on to talk about *how* the above services are delivered and closes with the following.]
Please do let us know if there is anything we can help with on any of the services we provide.

How about a call next week? Please suggest

Look forward to hear from you,

Thanking you,

First name Last name
Head of Inside sales
Some Company
Address
Ph.: 650 — – —-
firstname@somecompany.com
www.somecompany.com

Just another reminder of what not to do.  So even though using unsolicited emails is somewhat of a last resort, this approach would have been much more effective if the beginning, middle, and end all had to do with me and the results that I am seeking (vs. the “stuff” this sales person wants to sell).

Here is a good exercise for this week:  simply create a list of your products and/or services and write down next to each one a result that your customer will experience if they buy it.  See how it goes!

I talk a lot about having an effective and compelling message as the basis of your marketing. Without it, just about every aspect of your business will be frustrating — poor reaction to campaigns, prospects who “need to think about it,” sales people who complain that leads are poor quality, price pressure, and on and on.

Here is a short video post I did a few months ago on this topic.

I recognize, however, that the way I explain the importance of this issue — the words and examples I use — won’t do the trick for everyone.

So I scoured the Internet for additional insight.  I encourage you to check out the articles below. There really is no more important issue than building your marketing and selling system on top of a message that grabs your prospects and draws them in like a magnet.

K.I.S.S!  Jeff references the same issue that kicks off my “How to Get Your Ideal Prospects to Stop Ignoring You” webinar – that fact that we are inundated with thousands of messages each day – so simple, plain language is best.

Simple Slaps: The Guide to Effective Marketing Messages

Scott Smith, a Bay Area PR expert, has a great 3-part series on his blog that gives you a roadmap for developing a “message down” communication plan to help your business or product become top-of-mind among press and your target audience.

How-To Capitalize On Messaging

A good reminder to focus on the results our clients and customers want.

How to Deliver an Effective Marketing Message

How important it is to use emotion in your message.  Sid’s analysis of why the Southwest Airlines advertisements are effective will help you understand how emotion plays a critical role.

The Anatomy of an Effective Content Marketing Message

Short article that points out 3 potential issues with your marketing message and how to improve upon it.

Effective Marketing Message Importance

I feel this issue is so important that I also put together a webinar on the topic that runs a couple of times per week (see “How to Get Your Ideal Prospects to Stop Ignoring You“ to the right).

I hope you find the articles I reference, and the webinar if you choose to attend, helpful in creating messages that help your business break through the clutter and earn a flood of new opportunities. Questions? Recommendations for additional material? Add comments below so we can all improve. Cheers! Andy

I figured out this week that I’ve had a handy feature for automating sales and marketing tasks. Sometimes the most simple solution is the best one. Check out this video for a quick tutorial on a feature you can use right now to make your life much easier while you increase sales!
 

There’s one change you can make that has the potential to instantly improve the effectiveness of all your marketing — improve how relevant, targeted, and compelling a message you use.  If you are a small business owner seeking more high-quality leads, this should be one of the first things you review.
 

When should I follow up?  How often?  What do I say?  If you’ve ever been a business owner, in sales, or otherwise responsible for nurturing business relationships, you have grappled with this issue.  How often is “just right?”

Just like Goldilocks and Papa Bear’s porridge, you’ve probably been burned a few times when your follow-up approach was too frequent or pushy – “don’t call me, I’ll call you” (or some more polite version of the same).

And just like Goldilocks and Mama Bear’s porridge, you’ve probably encountered a chill when your follow-up was too slow or soft – “we already made our purchase, we’ll keep you in mind for next time.”

So how can you avoid these two extremes?  How can you follow up in a way that is just right?

I gave a presentation to a group of business owners last week and the topic of proper follow-up extended from that seminar into a private meeting this week with one of the attendees.  So I thought I would share how our discussion went and the “rules” that emerged. 

See below – please share your thoughts too!

1)      Follow up starts during the current conversation.  I have coached several clients through this.  If in the current conversation you commit to delivering a proposal or other document that will require their review, establish a meeting to discuss it and answer their questions right then and there.  Sample script:

“Great Jim.  So I’ll be putting a proposal together.  You’ll have that in your inbox by Tuesday.  I’d like to give you a day or so to review it, but I also want to make sure that I address any questions you may have.  What’s your calendar like on Wednesday or Thursday?  Let’s go ahead and schedule that next meeting.”

2)      Follow up on the heels of offering value.  This is where your web and social media efforts weave together with your follow up practices.  Especially for each blog post, email piece, or article that your company produces, identify people who would find the information helpful and send them a copy with an individualized email.  Now you’ve set the stage for a follow up call:

“I hope you’re doing well… I wanted to make sure you noticed the article I sent you.  When I saw it I thought of you…”

This approach assumes that there is no active opportunity, but you have an interest in nurturing the relationship.  One of these kinds of personalized messages per quarter is a good starting point for frequency.  Check out this post for further ideas Sales Venture Capital Style. 

3)      Sometimes it’s o.k. to just “check in.”  If you are concerned about being a nuisance, don’t worry as much about the frequency as the content of your messages or conversations.  If you always have a self-serving agenda – like you want to meet or get names of others you should call or find out where they are in their budgeting process – then your prospects will find you annoying and avoid your calls.  Whenever you can, have something valuable to offer, as described in 2) above.  Whatever you do, don’t base your reason for calling on YOUR needs:

“If we get your order this week, we’ll make our quarterly goal” – I hate this tactic when I am in a buying position. 

If timing is an issue for THEM, you have something useful:

“I know you wanted to get this project launched by [X date], I want to support you in meeting that objective.  What steps are left before you would be ready to get started?”

Having “flawless follow-up” (the FF piece of the Profit Generating Machine) is critical to your business success.  There are 5 more critical pieces, so if you have not yet claimed your free copy of The Profit Generating Machine, request yours to the right.

In a 1/2 day workshop I conducted earlier this year, one of the things that most intrigued the participants was how I manage my email.  Since this skill is CRITICAL for effective follow up (and therefore more sales) I decided to pull together a video and share it with you.

Link to “Getting Things Done” by David Allen

In the last post we covered the first element of what it takes to capture more of the sales that you deserve – a mindset of delivering profits. Think like the prize patrol and you’ll feel a lot less self-conscious about the following up with your prospects.

One more mindset comment before I move on to the other three essential elements: behave as though a sale to the prospect yours to lose. Think about it, you and your competitors have equal chance to win the business (and be the one to deliver the benefits) once a prospect has “raised a hand.” Follow up better than the others, and all the business that you deserve will be yours. For those opportunities that aren’t a fit, at least you had the chance to determine one way or the other.

O.k., so how do you follow up better than your competitors? Keep in mind just 3 key points: irresistible, immediate, and persistent.

1. Irresistible: if you take a cold, hard look at what you offer as a “next step” to a prospect who’s indicated interest in what you provide, is it truly irresistible? If it is not something of obvious benefit to them, you have room for improvement.
2. Immediate: a prospect who has stepped out of anonymity to contact you is likely at a peak point in their need. Letting their interest cool off serves no one – except your competitor who might be able to engage the prospect before you have a chance.
3. Persistent: remember, you’re the prize patrol. You are doing your prospects a disservice by not persistently pursuing the chance to see if the value you can deliver is a match for their needs.

I’ll be providing specific tips in upcoming posts to help you capture more of the sales that are yours to lose. For now, I encourage you to think about how well you do the above in your current follow up process. Any obvious areas of improvement?

You know about the Publisher’s Clearing House Prize Patrol, I imagine.  They get to go around and give out big checks to sweepstakes winners.  Kinda cheesy I know, but I want you to think about one aspect of that job – do you think the prize patrol folks ever worry about intruding on the winners?

If your job were to go around giving away money or simply assisting those in need, would it ever occur to you that your help may be unwanted? Sounds silly, right?  If you were clearly out to deliver a benefit, you wouldn’t stop to wonder if you were imposing.

As a business owner or sales person, we often do feel like we’re imposing when we follow up with a prospect.  Why?  Because we’re only thinking about our side of the equation – the benefit (profit) we receive on each sale to a customer.

But wait, what is the customer’s side of the equation? Think about it as a consumer. Do you ever buy something that is worth less than the money you spend on it?  Hmm.  Probably not.

I know it can be hard to “calculate” the benefit of a good meal, a new laptop, or a freshly steam-cleaned carpet, but wouldn’t you agree that we’re always comparing the price of something to the benefit we’d receive?  If the price seems too high, we hold onto our money.  If the price seems lower than the value of what we’ll get in return, we spend.

For a customer to buy, the benefit must be greater than the price. 

Value flows from the seller to the customer.

We, as sellers, deliver a benefit, just like the prize patrol.

There’s one more lesson to be learned from the prize patrol – Sally Smith doesn’t get Jim Johnson’s check.  Not everyone is a winner.  Not every prospect you meet is interested in, or capable of receiving, the value you provide.  Following up diligently with a process that allows both you and your prospect to determine if there is a fit is critical.

Not sure if you have a good follow up process in place?  Be sure to request your free copy of The Profit Generating Machine by simply providing your name and email address to the right.

Let me put one doubt or fear out of your mind. It’s not that you don’t have valuable products or services to offer.

Unfortunately though, the problem certainly isn’t them. You know the phrase “it’s not me, it’s them, right?” Well, it isn’t them, it’s you. More specifically, it is how you are communicating.

As the potential for our prospects and clients to be in a state of “information overload” only increases, it becomes that much more important for us (as marketers) to communicate on “their side of the river.” What do I mean by that?

I mean that we (as marketers) must let go of our need to talk about us, our experience, our products and services… before eventually getting around to the benefits and results we can help our clients achieve (and ideally doing or communicating something that actually gets them closer to those results).

So if the challenge our typical client faces were truly a fire, our attempts to get their attention would include things like:

• an e-mail news tip “3 inexpensive strategies for keeping a fire from spreading”
• a series of videos that visitors to our website receive when they opt in to our e-mail news list “FirePROOF: A 5-Video Series for Fire Battlers Who Want to Squelch Any Fire Without Getting Burned”
• case studies that show our clients’ success in putting out and avoiding all kinds of fires…

Notice I haven’t spoken at all about our years of experience, the products we use, the list of services we offer, etc. Our clients don’t care about those things until later.

For more ideas about how to get the attention of your ideal prospects, and what to do after that, claim your free copy of The Profit Generating Machine: Owner Assembly Instructions, and gain instant access to the video tutorial too, by using the form to the right.  You will learn ways to instantly improve your message and get a better response from your efforts. Cheers!

In the last post I talked about the risks of trying to launch or fiddle with multiple marketing strategies at the same time. I personally believe this is an essential lesson to embrace, so I want to make sure I am communicating this concept well.

If my stalled car analogy left you scratching your head, please call, e-mail or click on chat below. I sincerely want to help you understand the benefits of putting your energy behind one thing at a time – this lesson alone has the potential to transform your business.

I feel so strongly about this that I am devoting a second post to the same idea.  So (assuming that the whole stalled car idea made sense), let’s take a closer look at the downside of jumping from one project to another – The Calendar Effect.

Let’s say you have just 3 different projects (marketing strategies in our case) that you could work on, poke at, fiddle with, whatever your favorite term.  Your tasks may include things like:

• doing research to purchase a list or find alliance partners you could work with
• writing new copy to describe your product or service
• working with someone to help put together a flyer
• preparing a series of communications that will be used in e-mail or social media

And of course, you have to plan time to follow up with your initial leads from this new strategy, make adjustments to the marketing you put in place, measure results…  When you break down what it takes to launch and properly follow up on just one marketing campaign or new strategy, it takes real time and effort.

Moreover, we all know the world doesn’t stop while we put together our marketing. Often a series of tasks that in theory might take a few days of work can truly take weeks to complete.

For simple numbers, let’s say that each of our 3 marketing strategies would take 4 weeks of effort to research, implement, and properly evaluate. If we were to give into temptation and switch from idea to idea each week, rotating from one project to the next, this is what would happen:

We’d be working away for 10 weeks before even one of the strategies was producing good results! 

Have you picked up on the other flaw in this plan?  Think about my prior post (and the reason I say “in theory” on the table above).  Coming back to each project every 3^rd week means we’d be pushing on a stalled car every time – attempting to figure out where we left off, questioning decisions that seemed clear before, trying to coax others (vendors, friends, partners) who were previously helping us to move off of their project-of-the-moment to pay attention to our project-of-the-moment…ugh!

In the real world, the 3 “4-week” projects handled in this momentum-killing, juggler fashion, would take many more weeks to complete.

Now let’s look at how a focus on one project at a time would look on the calendar:

So would you prefer to have momentum work against you while business-getting strategies remained hidden from the light of day for weeks and weeks?  OR would you like to have momentum work for you, with business-getting strategies out in the world working on your behalf as soon as possible?