Lead Generation Secrets

Many times entrepreneurs are disappointed by the results they achieve with their marketing.  They spend the time, energy, and money and yield little to no results.

After several missteps most business owners or sales people give up on using marketing techniques to grow their business.

Unfortunately this can be an expensive mistake because if used properly marketing can be one of the best ways to grow a business.  Proper marketing offers tremendous leverage.  This article today will focus on a key component of marketing.  The “offer.”

The first thing that must be in place for proper marketing work is some sort of “offer.”  Now most people mess up here and think that this “offer” must be either a “sale” or an appointment.  This is not true.

Sometimes, and this depends on your situation, you must nurture the prospect along or “date” the prospect before you can progress.

There are many reasons for this including people reluctant to talk to a sales person, skepticism, and more but just remember that your “offer” does not have to “go for the kill” immediately.

In direct marketing there are generally two types of campaigns.  They are called “1 step” and “2 step”.  A “1 step” campaign is where you are going “for the kill” in the marketing piece.  The kill can be defined as an appointment for a sales presentation, a phone call presentation, or the sale in and of itself.

Two step is where you are just offering information for your target market so that they will respond and you can sort out the people who are more interested than the people who are not.

So, the idea behind 1 step is:  Call today for a free estimate, or a free meeting.

Idea #2 would be more like:  Call for a free report that will show you XYZ. “No salesperson will call ( optional).”

You then collect their contact information and then you add this to your database.

What are the advantages of a “2-step” versus a “1-step” campaign.  Well, generally people are more open to looking at information before talking or meeting with a salesperson.  Two, you can segment your leads down and focus on the ones who are more interested.  Three, you can also afford to spend more money on the leads who are interested.

Now what do you send the person who raises their hand for more information?  Well, the goal is to send information that will educate them on why they should do business with you versus someone else.  You can also educate them on the mistakes to avoid in business.

The goal is education and positioning.  You want to position yourself in their minds as the expert in that subject.

“Two step” allows you to build a relationship (via media or in person later on) with these prospects.  You can continue to mail things, to send them items for information, and to follow-up.

Why do you go to this trouble?  Because ultimately the person has raised his or her hand and is interested in your product or service.  Therefore it makes sense to focus on those people versus other leads that are not interested.

Now this is not to say that the people who didn’t respond to your original offer of more information should be thrown away.  They might just need to see another “2 step” offer from you.

Now a question I often get is after you send the free information the person requested what comes next.  Well, there are many possibilities here.

First, you can follow-up with a phone call (and you most certainly should). You can also send more information down the road.  Really, there are endless possibilities.  The key is you have a database of prospects who are somewhat interested in your product or service since they have responded.

Other ideas of information you can send is:  Interviews of happy clients.  Case studies of successful sales.  Frequently asked questions of your product or services.  Questions to ask before you buy a product/service.  And on and on it can go.  You can chop these up.  The important thing is to quantify how much money the deal is worth to you, and then devise a system that will continually stay in touch with these people.

Few people buy on the first time because they are skeptical, and are not always ready to “buy now” and are often times just looking.  So you can capture more market share by following up with these people.

If you implement these steps and start small by testing, you’ll have a lot more success in your marketing campaigns and will generate a lot more money for your business.

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