OK, lets get our wish list here set.
- We want more really good leads- leads that sales people are eager to follow up on.
- We want a steady supply of leads- even be able to turn up or down the number of leads
- It would great to have more leads in the off season when you are not as busy
- We want better conversion rates. More signed contracts per 100 estimates or proposals.
- We want to serve our customers better- faster, more responsive service that really amazes them.
We can do it. It takes clear objectives. It takes planning and implementation of strategic marketing and sales processes. The battle is won with careful attention and persistent execution of the strategy.
If we create a plan and implement it. If we fine-tune and improve it from real feedback- we are on the short path to a no sweat building development system.
We are going to start at a arbitrary point here but, in reality you would start with the easiest piece that gives you the biggest return for the effort and then build in a continuous circle of improvement.
1. Before we worry about getting more leads, we want to make sure our turf is very attractive to prospects. Why invite people over before we are ready to put our best foot forward (what does that mean? – funny cliche) when we are not ready?
Being attractive in this context means we have an easy to use and attractive website. It means we have attractive content.
We operate in a world where 90% of prospects go to the Internet for information and the vast majority of them make buying decisions based on information they gather on-line.
Content is a broad term covering information provided in audio and video and articles and PR and blogging and on website pages…
2. Now we are ready to get more leads. We can get them through smart PayPerClick- we can get them through strategic understanding of Search Engine Optimization, we can get them through effective Social Networking. We can get them through the Yellow Pages. (although I would suggest some smart strategies to set you apart from the generic) We can get them through direct mail. We can leverage any of these ideas through leveraged partnerships and collaborations…
3. We are prepared to nurture and develop all leads. We direct all traffic to our website. We have a variety of special offers which are attractive to people at different stages of the sales process, and which connect them to us in a nurturing role that helps our prospect move along the path to a future sale.
People responding to us are either ready to make a buying decision now or in the future. We cater to their wants- we give them value at whatever stage they are.
We have follow up systems to stay engaged with clients and customers.
Existing customers are so valuable. They trust us. They will hire us again. They will refer us to their friends. They will participate with us in community activities.
We also have systems to draw in and build a neighborhood of people who trust us. We help our neighbors who are not getting cared for well, who are not being offered content of value and we are inviting them over to our neighborhood.
Our competitors might call this rustling- customers they think are enamored with them and put up with about anything, are suddenly gone – gone to greener pastures. We call it watching out for the neighbors. This is a particularly powerful business builder working in collaboration with chosen partners.
4. We continue to deliver value to our customers after the work is done. We survey them aggressively to make sure they were delighted with our effort. We want to know the nuance of how they perceived what we did. We interview customers, we interview people who bought from a competitor.
We want to know why – We want to understand what the key buying factors were, we want to know the perceptions of customers. We take nothing for granted.
5. We continually test for for results. How did people respond to our freebies? We have a control. We come up with a new version and test against the control. When people respond to specific offers we know they have an interest in the subject. We can nurture that interest into a sale. We believe in and use direct response marketing.
6. Enlightened leadership is a key component to this business development process – our employees play such a critical part of our success. They need to be engaged and empowered. It pays to involve them in the success of the business and let them be a part of designing and implementing the business objectives.
Transparency and trust pay off here. They must know the plan. Everyone in the company can play a key role in this process to get more leads, create more conversions and deliver better more responsive services to our clients.
As owners we need to be aware of myths that impact how we see our talent and how we utilize talent. You need slack because you are the enlightening element to your inside team.You are the coach. You are the facilitator.
People need room for slack – they need the space to move from busy work to substantial work. Everything in our strategic mission to get more leads- to get more conversion and to deliver more robust service- requires change and innovation.
Enlightened leadership is the key.
7. We improve conversions at every stage of the process.
- As our keyword research improves,
- As our ability to understand what people want when they use particular keywords- improves
- As our understanding of customers and prospects grows
We are able to sharpen our content. We are able to improve our offers. Our conversions improve because we are more relevant to our visitors desires and our offers better match what is attractive.
Because our systems nurture our community of customers well- because our offers attract great prospects well matched to our offers- our sales people are relaxed and more effective, because are never pushy, just helpful. Our great tools help keep our prospects engaged.
Our cloud technology lets leadership see what is happening, lets leadership contribute to the level of value offered, and contribute to the effectiveness of our business development systems. The result is more conversions.
8. We are able to extend our work season because we have a continuing conversation with existing customers and with our prospects who have estimates in their hands. We can make any number of special offers to push work outside our busy period and into more slack periods. People who want value at a lower price will be willing to wait.
We can also create special offers that appeal to people that work well- later in the season. We have the tools for getting leads. We have the processes in place. We just find something special to talk about that works well in the season available. A perfect example is the house painter making special offers for inside work to be ready for the holidays in December. Makes perfect sense.
9. We can regulate the number of leads they get by parsing our PayPerClick campaigns - to better focus on our strengths - to better focus on the best jobs for our talent pool- We are able to do this as we better understand the market, better configure our content and better configure our offers.
Did I miss some key details here?
Do you feel like I made some big jumps here that seem lighter than air?
Do you have a question that was not addressed here?
Feel free to comment or call or email and we can talk about it.
