1. Keep your name in front of customers, clients & prospects.
People still buy during tough, uncertain and times of recession. Keep your name in front of them. Send new business cards, notifications of new addresses, email addresses and new mobile numbers.
I recently heard of a person who bought a second mobile and sent the new contact details to all of his clients, customers and prospects. He used it as an opportunity to tell people about his current specials, new offers available and asked people what they were looking for. His responses were quite amazing.
2. Get to the right person.
Never address mail to “The HR Officer” or “Dear Occupant” or such addressees. It is weak. It will be the first to be discarded. Getting in contact with the right person you want to do business with must be your prime objective in your contact strategy.
Check websites, ask for annual reports, use google or make scout calls to the company asking for the type of person you want to contact. The receptionist can be an absolute mine of helpful information when used the correct way.
3. Identify other prospects in the same organisation
Just because you deal with the purchasing manager in silo X in a company doesn’t mean there are not other people who do the same job or have similar responsibilities in other departments. These prospective users or buyers can sometimes be better purchasers than your current contact.
4. Prospect on Logic; Sell on Emotion
Logically people do need your products, services and ideas, but they do not buy on logic alone. Buying is generally an emotionally charged action.
Discover why people want your services from an emotional perspective. What need does your service fulfil? Ask people what would prompt them to own your offer. Tie an emotional need to your offer then fill in your patter and presentation with emotional phrases and words.
5. Be enthusiastic and positive with your customers.
Tell them people still purchase your products, services and ideas in all economic climates. Share with them some of the rewards for purchasing now or making decisions to move forward.
For example, a risk writer went all out in June offering his clients the opportunity of a tax deduction on income protection insurance. His slogan was “What the ATO don’t tell you and your accountant may have missed about tax deductibility on income protection”.
6. Be pre-emptive with your prospects
Tell people you are going to call on them. Tell them the date, month or day of the week. Ask them to have their orders ready or to have an open mind on a new product or service offer you have.
Use expressions like, “Somewhere, sometime some how you will need our products, service or idea”. “We will always be there”. “Call me before I see you to discuss how I can save you money today”
7. Concentrate on what your customers want.
People don’t care about recipes, pictures of your staff, industry jargon or what award you may have won. Determine what the customer wants. Discover their needs.
Find out the “burn” factor in their life. Ask them how they expect to solve their problems. Listen to their answers. When they tell you what they want and you can
deliver it, then your product or service will be in demand.
8. Get your elevator speech down pat.
A good elevator speech tells people what you do, how you can HELP them and asks them to act NOW. So often people say to the public what their occupation is. That is OK on your tax return or credit card application. However it does not set you aside from the rest of your competitors does it?
An example of an elevator speech might be “We help people to have enough assets in retirement by saving/investing today. Ask us how to start this pleasant journey for you TODAY”
A good elevator speech asks, “So how does that work?” It requests action by people asking for more information or an explanation. Effective elevator speeches have the word HELP in them.
9. Be remembered and memorable
When people are ready to act or purchase, be the one they remember. How tragic is it to hear the words “Oh we did that only a couple of weeks ago. Sorry I never thought of you!”
The trick is to be in the forefront of the prospects mind when they are ready to buy. That means building awareness. This can be as simple as sending news articles or other relevant clippings with yellow stickies on them asking questions about the content of the article.
11. Ask questions when you talk to people rather than make
statements
Use simple interactive questions like:
What’s your opinion on this? Have you seen this?
How do you feel about this idea?
Does this article help you on (insert concept)?
What other info would you like on this?
Can you please give me a call on this?
Questions deliver involvement through dialogue. Statements can be
static and non interactive.
11. Be persistent in your prospecting.
Persistence pays off. Stick with a prospecting plan long enough to produce results. Develop a consistent contact management plan. Set yourself achievable targets. Have a measurement regime that plots your activity against your weekly call budget.
It may be 40 letters a week to new prospects. It could be 100 emails to selected prospects a month. It might be to contact 25 C or D class clients. It could be collecting 15 new phone numbers from mobile businesses. It could be accessing 20 new names from the pages of your local paper. It could be receiving a regular amount of referrals per month from centres of influence or other professionals
12. Analyse where your successes are coming from and then
replicate them
What does your ideal customer look like? Create this profile by mapping your 12 best clients. Do they have certain common characteristics? Are they from a specific area, postcode, profession, industry, referral source or ethnic group?
When you know what your ideal client looks like then you can start to specifically look for. Circulate your ideal customer profile amongst you’re A class clients and referral partners.
A particularly successful mortgage broker has a visual he leaves with all people he speaks to that sim[ly says “Do you know this person?
13. Be creative in your contact words
Use power words like new, helpful, simple, easy to understand, safe, secure or trustworthy. Give the ordinary a new meaning. Make your company different from others in your profession.
Go to the yellow pages or websites. Look at the names that stand out amongst your competition. See what they are doing to draw business and attention by the use of interactive and attraction words and phrases. Learn from the action words they are using.
14. Develop a range of prospecting methods.
The single most important daily activity in any business is prospecting. It should be a continuous process. It should be measurable. It should be monitored and analysed.
Ask yourself:
Where do my major sources of prospects come from?
Where else would I like to prospect?
What types of prospecting mediums are you using now?
Where else would you like to prospect?
Who can help me in this prospecting task?
How do other people in my profession access prospects?
What ways can I get people to contact me?
15. Regularly market yourself.
So many people only turn to marketing when they need to increase their sales. Marketing should be a regular, reliable part of what you do.
Communicate your message in new and interesting ways. Whether it is sponsorship, radio, billboards free reports, knowledge sharing or, case studies, free online calculators or press releases have a variety of ways to reach different types of prospects.
Marketing is an ongoing process. Getting potential customers and prospects to understand how your product or service can help them is an integral part of what you do.
Make sure you are seen as the prime source of the information you market. There is such a prolific amount of information available to dispense to potential clients today.
Information becomes knowledge when it has value for the recipient. Always say with the compliments of Mr Adviser. Take the credence of being the deliverer of the good news.
For more resources, visit Jim Prigg's website at www.financialservicessalesacademy.com.au
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