Not many sellers like cold calling. They may be forced into it but they go kicking and screaming, avoiding it with any excuse. Unfortunately, they think it’s the only approach to prospecting, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

John was a managed services provider looking to grow his company. He created a cold calling plan to reach three different micro-segments that he’d identified as his hottest opportunities. Together we put a strategy in place with a dynamite approach. He learned how to tailor his message to different companies, tips to get past gatekeepers and techniques for leaving gripping voicemails.

John was excited! He spent weeks perfecting everything, holding off on any calls until he felt he was fully prepared.

And then it was time to execute.

After two weeks of failed attempts, John fessed up. He didn’t want to pick up the phone.

He’d convinced himself that this was the right way to prospect. John assumed that all successful sales people did it, and if his business was going to be successful, he had to master it, too.

Not true.

Cold calling can be one of the most inefficient ways to find leads. Unless you have a list of specific contacts you want to reach, it simply isn’t your best technique to fill your funnel.

I’m a passionate believer in alternate ways of prospecting, especially when you’ve got a big region you’re attempting to cover and you’re strapped with a large number to sell. Instead, you need a plan that’ll bring leads in the door in a manner that’s comfortable for you.

It’s time to change your prospecting strategy. Here are some ideas for you.

Start an email campaign. Afraid of the spam laws? Keep your list small and personalize your emails to participants’ needs so it feels as if you sat down to write them an individual message. Send a series of 3-4 emails three days apart to encourage a response.
Know your target market. John knew where to look for his hottest opportunities. You want to do the same. Keep your micro-segments small, 20-125 contacts at a time, so you can be more personal in your communications.
Hold an on-line event. Sound time consuming and expensive? You can run one practically for free so don’t let the price stop you. If content or participation is your concern, remember that you’re the expert. Make your topic relevant to your target market’s top issues and they’ll want to hear what you have to say. Share recommendations based on work you’ve done with other clients. Offer something at the end that’ll separate hot prospects from warm leads.
Use social media, press releases and / or articles to get noticed. They’ll keep you in front of your target market where they get to know you as an expert. You’ll begin to create a relationship even before they require your assistance.
Create a mini-campaign by linking email, events, social media, and articles together to keep you in constant touch with your micro-segments. As a seller you don’t have time to run a complicated 6-month campaign, but you can run a simple one over 6 weeks that generates new leads all along the way.

Some people love cold calling. But if you aren’t one of those people, relax, breathe a deep sigh of relief and change your prospecting strategy.

Not only will you build your funnel, you’ll also create awareness for yourself and your company through consistent exposure. When your target prospects have a need, they’ll remember you and reach out. And isn’t that so much more inviting that interrupting their day with a cold call?

If you want to stop cold calling, uncover qualified leads immediately and fill your funnel join me for the 3-part Breaking into SMB Companies Without Cold Calling audio conference series September 17 & 24, and October 1. Check it out at: http://www.klagroup.com/events/SMBA/audioconf_LeadGen.cfm

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment. Ms. Lee is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. To find out more about the author, read her latest articles, or to subscribe to her newsletter visit www.klagroup.com or call +1 303.773.1285.

There can be few tools in your marketing kit that are as powerful as the Sales Letter.

That said, so many are written without sufficient regard to a persuasive call to action. It’s a shame because after all it’s how we motivate our reader to take the next step that’s the key to getting the response we required from our direct mail.

It’s crucial to keep in mind exactly what it is we want our reader to do. This is why it’s important to construct captivating offers that will trigger the prospect to move in the desired direction.

Wouldn’t it be great if a single unsolicited sales letter to a cold prospect galvanised them into picking up the phone and hiring you instantly? It happens but not to order.

Unfortunately, this is the biggest reason that people give for their sales letters not working; they often write one letter and give up. Only to be expected really!

What you need to realise is; it’s all about building relationships so we need to take things step by step. We need to build confidence in stages by and we do that by being less demanding in the beginning and by making a reasonable request that moves the relationship forward.

There’s always the possibility your sales letter will arrive at the desk of a prospect that’s in desperate need of your services but you can not build a firm marketing strategy around this kind of luck.

So what you’re aiming to begin with is a sales letter that intrigues your reader and to generate a level of curiosity that will be remembered when your follow-ups are received. Because in the early stages they will be wary of your sales pitch even despite being interested in your services.

At this stage of building your relationship the offer of Free Information is the perfect building block that generates confidence. So what they’re looking for here is some additional information, something interesting that supports your expertise such as your website, where your offer should be prominently displayed.

It’s at this stage you should be looking for opportunities to gain further contact points such as email addresses that can be fed into your system. This is key to your strategy because your services should be marketed within a system with each step of the process leading to sequential components that lead to an enquiry and ultimately to the meeting.

If you would like to discuss having this service working for you and put your products and services ahead of the competition, email us.

Done correctly, the classified advert can be the best advertising you will ever place. However, not every one uses them to their fullest potential.

Wherever they are used, classified ads are created to fulfil two key functions:

1. To generate interest
2. To drive traffic to you or your website

It can be daunting writing small ad copy; after all there’s not much space and you want to get as much across as you can but always remember the golden rule; never try to sell anything from your small ad or links.

The 4 essential components of writing a profitable classified ad are summed up in the acronym A-I-D-A, which stands for Attention-Interest-Desire-Action this is an elementary advertising principle employed by all professional copywriters and described in the following:

Attention: Goal number one is to generate attention, to stand out amongst all the other ads and get noticed by anyone scanning the ads and attention is created by your headline. The headline should put the brakes on your reader so they will stop and read your ad copy, which makes it the most important element of your ad.

Interest: Once you have gained their attention, you must get them interested. If your ad is good enough and your headline is good enough, it could well get their interest too and it needs to do this by building upon the initial impact.

Desire: The next step is creating the desire in your reader to find out more about your offering. This means driving them to your website or to contact you in some way for more information; in other words step closer to you.

Action: This where you get you prospect to make that connection either by clicking through your link or contacting you. This is your call for action, the reason why they would want to visit you – now!

Remember! You don’t need your prospects to buy from your small ad – you merely want them to ask for more information by clicking through your link or sending you an email.

Some of our favourite examples might be:

Headings: “4 Things You Must Know Before Writing Your Classified Ad” or perhaps “How To Write Really Great Classified Ads”

If you wanted to write a classified advert these would get your attention and probably get you interested too.

Action: Click Here To Learn How It’s So Easy. Clearly asking them to click here or visit this website are possible action I want them to take and the action of clicking through or visiting will reinforce the interest and desire elements of your ad.

Once they have taken action, you are free to make your full sales pitch but you do need to wait until the right time otherwise your prospects won’t play.

If you want to discuss having this service working for you and putting your products and services ahead of the competition, email us.

So just what is referral marketing and how can to promote your business in front of everyone else’s?

It’s basically a systemised approach that turns every single sale into the buying power of many. This is done by establishing a specific set of strategies and tools designed to bring you new customers, clients, leads, and repeat business without other advertising methods. However, when combined with other systems such as advertising and direct mail, you will have a very powerful system of customer generation.

There are usually two things that stop small businesses from working referral marketing consistently and powerfully:

1. Lack of system
2. Fear of rejection

If you provide a product or service that helps solve problems and meets the needs of your customers or clients then surely you owe it to others to spread the word.

If you think about the act of referring it really comes down to these two simple things:

1. Provide a product or service that is liked and needed
2. Administering the referral expectation

If you’re not already convinced you should be actively employing referral marketing then here’s why you need to do this:

• Referrals are credible right from the start. When a trusted friend or colleague tells you about a business you transfer that trust to this company…even if you’ve never heard of them before.

• Research has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that people who are referred to a business tend to spend more money. It’s probably because people tend to refer those that are ready-to-buy and not merely price shoppers.

• Referrals are extremely cost-effective and even a fraction of what you might pay in advertising costs in some cases.

Referrals are essential to your business so don’t overlook them.

To get your referral system in place and multiply your customer base contact us today.

Many businesses fall into the same trap with email marketing; it’s not merely a case of sending and an email to a list of targets and hope they will visit you or your website – great if it were.

Simply presenting your products or services even to targeted prospects is useless unless there’s a convincing motive for them to buy your offering right now. Without that reason, those prospects are in control of when they buy and if they don’t hear from you again – when they are eventually ready to purchase, you will be forgotten!

That leaves the important question to ponder – does your product or service present a compelling motive to purchase, now? Here’s where you need to be creative with your offer because generally many products and services will only sell to the right buyer at the right time.

So what’s required here is a structured programme of time-release emails or notices designed to keep your prospects interested and more importantly, engaged until they buy. A key element of this process is also to constantly and proactively prospecting for more future prospects.

Capturing your visitors email addresses requires you to also capture their attention and this requires an informative and well-designed website that instills trust which is fundamental to building customer confidence.

Methods employed for capturing email addresses need careful thought because your audience won’t be prepared to give your their email address lightly so make sure you give them value. If you can educate them they will be interested enough to return as long as the information is good. Also make sure you have an opt-in box on your website that offers them something of value in exchange for signing up.

Once you have your list you must schedule regular mailings and ensure they’re not too frequent or your contacts may opt-out again; once or twice a month is fine and a great offer here and there will hopefully get them back to your website often so ensure your site is kept fresh with interesting content that inspires and entertains.

But remember! Not to hide your sales message with your information. You must still make it easy for them to buy from you.

To get your email marketing strategy in place and increase your customer base, contact us today.