Free Marketing Strategy : Lead Generation In Public

You are enjoying an alcoholic beverage at a party or a network event and someone asks "What do you do?"

Most business people in this situation will say something like "I’m an accountant", or "I’m a gardener", or "I have a gift shop in …"

A response statement like that will result in a nod of approval from the listener and that’s about it. But, in fact the business person has missed a golden opportunity to create interest and a possible lead.

What’s needed is what they call an ‘Elevator speech’

An ‘Elevator speech’ is a short 30-60 second statement – essentially something that could be said in the time period of being in an elevator going from one floor to another – hence the name.

Here’s how you construct your own ‘Elevator speech’…

Say:

1. THE PROBLEM YOU SOLVE – for people or how you benefit them directly.
2. WHO IT IS YOU CATER TO – your target market.
3. THE SOLUTION : WHAT YOU DO – or what your company does.
4. OFFER FREE INFORMATION IN EXCHANGE FOR CONTACT DETAILS

Start with one of these statements

I’m sure you’ve seen…
I’m sure you’ve heard about…
I’m sure you know that…
You know how…

<the problem>

Well… what I do is…
Well… what our company does is…

Example : Accountant

"You know how most businesses frantically try to reduce their tax bill in June each year by spending up on extra business expenses. The problem with that approach is that the business owner is still missing out on even more deductions and rebates from the ATO. Well… what our company does is publish a quarterly report entitled "Free Money – Government rebates that every small business owner know about!"

"If you like I can send you a copy…"

The response you’ll now get is…

"Yes, please"

Then you smile and say …

"Sure, I’ll get my secretary to send you a copy. Is your postal address on your business card?" or,
"I’m happy to send you some information. Is your postal address on your business card?"

Then the listener will hand you their business card – effectively giving you permision to follow-up with them.

Now you’ve generated a warm lead – all in the space of 30-60 seconds. How’s that for effective marketing?

P.S. After the party or function, don’t forget to add that lead to your follow-up system when you get back to your office. If you promised to send them something – do it straight away.

Getting More Customers – Fast! (part 1)

Often business owners contact me because they need more customers – and more cashflow – today!

So how do we achieve this goal for our clients? The answer : We start with our Kinetic Media & Marketing ‘INSTANT CASHFLOW’ checklist!

One item on the checklist is the break-down of sales process into two components : The enquiry (lead, store browser) and the conversion of that lead into a paying customer. Often most businesses get enough enquiries, but it’s their sales and follow-up processes that are lacking. It’s easy to work out which area is the problem – we ask the business owner (and staff) to record how many enquires turned into sales. This becomes a percentage – sales conversion.

Funnily enough most business owners think their conversion is around 70-80%, but when we measure it, it’s often only around 10-40%.

It’s common for us to review the sales and follow-up systems for a business and make changes to improve sales conversion. I’ll give you an example :

A building material manufacturing company we worked with had a conversion from inbound calls to sales of only 18%. By reviewing ‘what’ they said to potential customers on the phone and then improving their telephone script, the sales conversion increased to 27%. The increase in percentage doesn’t sound like much but when you apply it to a half million dollar ($500,000) turn-over business – it equates to a massive $251,000 increase in sales.

Would you say it was worth it for this business to hire our consulting services? Hmmm, dumb question.

Summary

Improving sales conversion by examining inbound phone calls is one good marketing strategy to get more customers fast. In part two I’ll reveal another – watch this space…