In his article ‘Why 8% of sales people get 80% of the sales’ marketing expert Robert Clay reminds us of the importance of good ‘follow up’. His research shows that only 2% of sales occur at the first meeting; the other 98% will only happen once a certain level of trust has been established.

Incredibly, only 20% of sales leads are ever followed up – that’s a shining pile of potential opportunity lost without a trace. You may be well aware of the power of keeping in contact but it’s often hard to know where to start. After that initial enquiry or sales meeting how exactly do you keep in touch? What information should you send? What tools can you employ to prove that yours is the solution that your prospects need?

Many companies get follow up badly wrong and lose the good will of potential customers in the process. Effective follow up does not mean pushy closing and constant demands for orders or appointments. It takes a different mindset: an ongoing dialogue; gently building rapport and proving your expertise, not bashing down doors.

At the heart of this approach is good content - meaningful, useful communication that helps to build trust in the eyes of your potential customers, keeping you top-of-mind.

Here are 5 examples of useful content you can use to keep in touch.

• Articles: get your expert opinion and ideas down in writing - on the web, in magazines, on blogs (your company blog and/or other well-respected blogs in your field). Write for your customers: write articles that show them how to solve their business problems. Include these in regular newsletters or emails to keep in touch.
• Newsletters/e-newsletters: inform and educate your contacts on a regular basis with valuable content – news, views, research and case studies that they’ll find of interest.
• Educational case studies: show how other customers have benefitted from the type of approach you’re proposing. These powerful sales tools help you capitalise on past success. They turn your claims into evidence and open the reader’s eyes to what is possible if they work with your company.
• Whitepapers: somewhere between an article and an academic paper, these persuasive documents contain useful information and expert opinion, promoting your company as a thought leader and helping solve customer issues.
• Third party evidence: send your prospects articles and research by others that back up your proposed approach and lend weight to your argument.

This is where good marketing can really help sales. Develop customer-focused, helpful information that customers will find valuable. Your sales teams can use these to keep contact with potential customers until they are ready to buy. This is the most powerful way to build trust and warm up the relationship with your prospects: prove your worth and boost sales success.

This is a guest post from talented wordsmith and Valuable Content associate Sharon Tanton. It gives some brilliant tips to improve the quality, clarity and accuracy of your business writing for better business results. 

The case for promoting your business with clear compelling copy is already won. No one would argue that it’s good to be waffly and confusing.  Likewise the need for accuracy. Spelling and punctuation matter, because getting them wrong makes your communications  look unprofessional and this reflects badly on your brand. You know that already. 

But how do you do it? 

Here are my top six tips for creating a clear business voice. 

1.  Short sentences are better than long ones. Really, they are. For example, if you’re reading this hoping to discover the reasoning behind my implication that the length of both word and sentence impacts upon the readability of said article, or web page, then by this point you might be becoming a little weary of it, wondering aloud to yourself, maybe quietly, maybe not, when, oh when, will it ever reach a conclusion, and I might say to you, maybe quietly too, or I might shout it, or even sing it as an operatic soprano might, in top C, that it’s not going to. 

So, short and sweet is better. Cut sentences down. Be ruthless. Don’t be frightened of full stops, they’re your friends, so use them.  

2. And it’s the same with words. Don’t say ‘facilitate’ when you mean ‘help.’ I’m not saying limit your vocabulary, English is full of beautiful words, but if there’s a simpler way to say it, then use it. Your aim is to be clear and easily understood. Get potential clients from A to B without losing them on the way in a maze of confusing words and meandering sentences. 

3. Create a team.  Your voice should reflect your brand. If you’re more than a one-man band use ‘we’ when you’re talking about what you do. We help our customers like this. ‘We’ is inclusive and engaging, and can put you on a level with your potential client. But….read on…. 

4.  Look lively. Get some energy into that copy to engage potential clients. A good trick for creating a compelling business voice is to look at the first words in each of your sentences and make sure they’re different. Long lines of ‘we’s are dull; ‘we do this,’ ‘we do that.’ Yawn, yawn. Throw in some new ones. Shake it up a bit. 

5. Seize the power. Your choice of words can put you in control or shuffle you onto the side-lines. Using an active voice gives your words authority. Don’t say ‘the report will be delivered,’ say ‘we’ll deliver the report.’ Much more powerful. 

6. But our business is different.  What we do is highly technical and specialized. I can’t explain it in simple language. Potential customers need to see how you solve problems for people like them.  Expertise can be a stumbling block if you just dump it in somebody’s path.  Take a step back and get some perspective on what you do. Ask your clients what they like about you, and I guarantee it won’t just be your technical know-how.  If you’re good, it will be your problem solving abilities, the fact you keep your promises, the way you use your skills to make their businesses run more smoothly.   

A powerful business voice communicates these qualities first, and lets the expertise speak for itself. 

Sharon Tanton

{Beautiful balloon image © Lizzie Everard 2010 www.lizzieeverard.com}

Getting down to doing writing is difficult if you’re running your own business. Most of us don’t have the luxury of dropping everything and getting away from it all to focus on writing alone (wish we could!). Here’s an article to help you find the focus you need to get your writing done despite everything else.

This is a guest post from my client Jane Northcote, author of the fantastic Making Change Happen book. We worked together to produce her book whilst Jane continued to run her busy consulting practice. She describes the process and discipline that worked for her to ensure she made time for her writing:

How to stop thinking about it and get your writing done

If you’ve researched your story, you understand your audience and you know what you want to say, then moving to action and starting to write should be utterly straightforward and require no particular effort. Right?

Not so. All writers, whether scribing for books, blogs or whitepapers, know only too well that sometimes this just isn’t the case. Getting down to the physical act of writing can take a herculean force of will.

Distractions crowd in. Secondary objectives suddenly become appealing. Shall I place that grocery order? Read my email? Clear out my desk drawer? All of these suddenly seem more attractive than just logging on and starting to write.

How can we get ourselves to stop procrastinating and move straight to action?

I’ve just started a blog and recently finished writing my first book. Here are a few ideas. They work for me!

1. Remember why you are doing this; write this down first.

Remind yourself what this chapter/article/paper will do for you and your business when completed. This action is taking you in a direction you want to go.  Remember this objective and write it down at the top of your To Do list.

2. Stop using energy thinking about it. Redirect energy into doing it.

Just do it. Walk into your office; open your computer and start.

3. Remember that actions are finite.

Anticipate the end. Once you’ve done it, it’s done, and it won’t have to be done again. So get on with it!

4. Ask someone to manage you.

Tell a peer, a friend or your boss that it will be done by 3 pm. If they are a real friend, they’ll drop by a while before the deadline to check that you have started.

5. Tell a large number of people you’ll do it.

Trap yourself. If you’ve made a commitment to a lot of people then the shame of saying you didn’t try will outweigh the effort of doing it.

6. Find something in the action you enjoy; give yourself a treat.

Write in a pleasant place – a favourite coffee shop or library or a room overlooking the sea (as I’m writing from now). What ever it takes: wear favourite clothes or special socks – like athletes do!

7. Do nothing else.

Allow yourself to do nothing else until you’ve completed your chapter/paper/article. To finish, here is Raymond Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe and author of novels and screenplays, writing about how he gets himself to do things.

‘The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at least, when a professional writer doesn’t do anything else but write. He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it he shouldn’t try. He can look out of the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor, but he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, not write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks. Either write or nothing.’

What works for you? How do you get your writing done? I’d be fascinated to know.

You will find Jane’s book Making Change Happen on Amazon: Making Change Happen – a practical guide to implementing business change. (Stunning illustration and design by Lizzie Everard www.lizzieeverard.com). This article was originally posted on www.copyblogger.com – www.copyblogger.com/getting-writing-done.

The ultimate symbol of expertise

Hiring the services of a consultant or professional advisor requires a high degree of trust. Clients need to be confident that you are an expert in your field before they will consider engaging your services.

There is no better way to prove your expert status than to write a business book. In terms of valuable content, a business book is right there at the top of the pile: the ultimate symbol of expertise. As a respected author you will be perceived as an authority and that gives you a huge advantage when it comes to sales. This kind of thought leadership can turn your business around.

Many business professionals think about writing a book (along with 81% of the population apparently!). I asked well-known author Charles H. Green for his pearls of wisdom on the subject. The generous advice he gives below is invaluable to any would-be author.

Charles is a consultant, speaker and educator focusing on the nature of trust in business relationships. He is the author of Trust-based Selling and co-authored the best-selling The Trusted Advisor with David Maister and Robert Galford. Charles runs a consulting firm, Trusted Advisor Associates and blogs regularly on Trust Matters (well worth reading).

Charles H. Green on the benefits of writing a book:

SJ: What inspired you to write your first book? Did you always want to be an author?

CHG: “I had thought about writing a book but it wasn’t something I’d dreamed of forever. It was absolutely in the rear view mirror. I was running a programme with Robert Galford for Deloitte with the Kellogg and Columbia Business School on the notion of a trusted advisor. Robert and I ran the programme for six to eight months and started to think: ‘You know, there’s a book here’. We ran across David Maister, who I’d known a decade before at Harvard. He said: ‘I’m basically writing the same book so why don’t we partner up – as long as I’m lead author.’ We thought for a nanosecond and, being as he had three books to his name and we had none, we said: ‘Welcome lead author!’ It was a good decision.”

SJ: What has being an author done for you and your business?

CHG: “It has been transformative for me - that’s amazing isn’t it, in this day and age of instant publishing? It’s mechanically very simple to assemble a book but somehow your fame, your respect goes up considerably if you have a book to your name. If you give someone a book it’s five dollars of paper and cardboard marked up triple yet somehow it has this patina of ‘Oh my gosh, that’s wonderful! You gave me a book! Thank you!’ People respect it and it really helps your name become recognised.

In my case, The Trusted Advisor has done pretty well. It still ranks in the top three to four thousand on Amazon, which for a ten year old book competing against the likes of Harry Potter is not that bad. You know, we don’t make a lot of money on it though. We’ve spent more on promoting it. But if you’re a speaker or consultant or trainer it is more than worth its expense in terms of what it brings in for your business. I would join you in recommending it to your consultant clients as a very good thing to do.“

SJ: “So do the books bring in business for you?”

CHG: “They do. I would say that maybe half the people that come to me come because of the books. Particularly in the case of the Trusted Advisor – it’s a book that is relevant to anyone in the professions of law, consulting or accounting. When you get to the mid level someone will say: ‘You need to go read The Trusted Advisor’. So that’s worked out very nicely. Trust Based Selling has sold much less but it is a rifle shot for people who get it. I do get calls from people saying: ‘Oh my gosh, that was a total eye opener. Why has no-one written that before?’ A couple of my consulting clients have revamped their whole programmes around it. So there is a smaller audience but passionate, and that’s wonderful too.”

SJ: Did becoming an author change your business model?

CHG: Very much. If I didn’t have a book I’d have a hard time getting represented by a speaker bureau of the quality of The Leigh Bureau. They also represent Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point) and Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize Winner for Economics) so if I’m up with those guys, I’m doing great and I wouldn’t be there without the books. A book gives you something to hand out at events. There are a lot of cases where I will just give out books because people value them, as I said, far in excess of their intrinsic cost and it’s a very good marketing vehicle. A book is the best brochure or website you could ever hope for.”

Charles’ advice for first-time business authors

SJ: “Do you have any other advice for consultants and advisors to motivate them to write a book?”

CHG: “I do have some advice for them:

1. Plan on losing money; don’t worry about it. Do not plan to make a lot of money out of your book. In fact, plan to lose money on the book. The economic model of a book publisher is essentially marking up paper and ink and hope you sell enough in volume to cover all the fixed costs. For them, there is no compensating revenue. For me, or one of your clients Sonja, most likely there is some compensating revenue  in terms of speeches or seminars or consulting that comes in because of the book. We have a much fuller business model from which to subsidise the cost of a book. A publisher doesn’t have that, so what that means is that they are not going to spend any money promoting you – they’re just not! My last publisher McGraw Hill is quite honest about that. You have to promote the book yourself, because it’s sustainable in your business model, not in theirs. Plan on losing money and don’t worry about it.”
2. Start by writing articles and blog posts. Some other wisdom I’ve learned is how to write one. I still find it very difficult to write a book. I’m good at writing blog pieces. I can do article-length writing but it is very hard to do book length stuff. The best advice I got was from David Maister and it’s what I used in Trust-based Selling: start by writing articles and blog posts. In David’s case, he got a contract to write a year’s worth of articles for American Lawyer, which meant that he had to write them – one a month for 12 months – and having done that he realised: ‘I have the makings of a book here’. Just throw the articles up in the air, let them land on the ground and arrange them until you have a book. That was pretty good advice.
3. Don’t start at the beginning. Collect material that you’ve done before, come up with a sensible organisation e.g. parts one, two and three. Don’t be trite and come up with oblique references as chapter headings. It’s a business book so tell people what the chapter is about through the name. People have short attention spans these days. you can’t expect them to waste time tyring to interpret what you mean.
4. Promote, promote, promote. There are book publicists out there but few of them are savvy in terms of social media promotion and I’m convinced you need to do that.”

SJ: And for you Charlie? Any more books to come?

CHG: “Maybe one or two more to go. The next one is most certainly going to be The Trusted Advisor Field Guide – a much more practical focus than The Trusted Advisor. I’ve almost settled on a publisher so I’ll be conservative and say that should be coming out within a year. It’s still in my head – it’s 80% there but it isn’t written yet: the painful process is still to come!”

SJ: A lot of people these days seem to publish chapters as they go along and test their ideas via their blog. What do you think of this kind of public publishing for authors?

CHG: “I do that in some way, not so formal but I’m always working out the material that goes in my books in my blog. I don’t think this keeps people from buying the finished product. If anything it probably publicises it. This way, you have a chance to be influenced by people. They write in and tell you what they think and it’s tremendously valuable feedback. I think it’s good stuff.”

 SJ: I’ll watch your blog with interest Charlie to see what’s going to come up in the next book.

 CHG: You’ll see it, for sure!

Hi all,

Thank you very much for checking out my new site. Like most web projects it has taken time, effort, a lot of soul searching and some very late nights to make it happen. There is still work to do but, playing by the 80:20 rule, I thought I’d launch now and tweak later.

Why change to a blog-based site?

In the past I’ve had two sites: a ‘corporate’ website and a separate blog. With this new site I’ve amalgamated the two. My intention is to place content that is valuable to my clients at the very heart of the site – to make it more useful hub and less ‘me, me, me’ sales pitch.  With this in mind, regular blog articles on all things content now march upfront, with supporting information bringing up the rear.

I’d really welcome your feedback

What I’d love to know is whether this works for you. I wrote an article last year on the four elements that people look for in a business website (see The 4 Pillars of a Successful Business Website). Based on this approach:

• Value: does it provide content that is of value to you – information that would help you solve your business problems?
• Trust: does it build up a better picture of me – my background, experience and credibility?
• Usability: Is it easy to find your way around? Can you get to the content you want?
• Presentation: does it look professional?

I’d really appreciate your feedback. You can leave a comment below, email me sonja@sonjajefferson.co.uk or tweet your ideas www.twitter.com/sonjajefferson.

What do you think? I look forward to your views.

Thank you to…

• Chris Pearson for the fantastic Thesis theme for Wordpress that powers this site
• Web designer Iain Claridge www.iainclaridge.co.uk for tweaking the theme to fit my (sometimes demanding) requirements
• Lizzie Everard for the lovely wave header: www.lizzieeverard.com – it cheers me up and makes me dream of the sea
• Sharon Tanton www.sharontanton.co.uk for her ideas and interview questions for the tricky ‘About Me’ section of this site
• Ian Brodie for the original inspiration to create a blog-based site – I really liked his: www.ianbrodie.com

Sonja

In our internet-driven business world content is king. The quality of the information you put out across the web will directly affect how successful you are at generating leads and closing business. But what type of content do you need to provide and what should you write about?

Valuable content – 5 top tips:

1. Adopt the right attitude when thinking about creating content. Produce information that is of real value to your customer base. Your position should be NOT “look how great we are” (as in a traditional brochure) but “look how useful we are – we have the answer to your problems.” Create content that is genuinely useful to your customers. Make yourself indispensable.
2. Pick the right tool. There are many different types of content to choose from: articles, newsletters, webinars, online presentations, audio, video, whitepapers, case studies, ebooks…the list goes on. Select the tools that your customers are most likely to engage with. A variety of methods often works best.
3. Informative articles are a great starting point; and the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to get them published and out to your customers is via a business blog. Sign up to Wordpress or Blogger; link the blog to your corporate website and start writing useful, education articles.
4. Think like one of your customers. What questions do they ask when selecting products or services in your field? What problems can you help them to solve? Listen carefully to your customers and create helpful content just for them.
5. Make your website a resource hub. All this valuable content will start to transform your site from a flat, online brochure into a living, breathing resource for your customers. Update your content regularly to keep it fresh and invite your customers to sign up for newly added information.

Valuable content is a win-win for you and your buyers. They learn what they need to help them with their challenge and you demonstrate your expertise and build the trust that leads to sales.

Valuable content heros of the small business world:

• Mel Lester produces a fantastically useful monthly ezine for his architecture and engineering clients: an amalgam of his best blog articles, industry news and trends plus insight from others in the field www.blog-bizedge.biz
• Heather Townsend – a well respected business coach – sends out useful fortnightly efficiency tips on a Monday morning as a reminder to get organised and stay on track www.theefficiencycoach.co.uk/blog
• Bryony Thomas and her company Clear Thought Consulting have created short video tutorials for their B2B clients with tips on all aspects of marketing www.clear-thought.co.uk/10_minute_tips

What would help your customers? What valuable content can you create? I’d love to hear.

Hope this has been useful

Bristol-based recruitment firm RSG Sanderson is relatively new to social media but they’ve cottoned on fast. As well as a variety of Twitter feeds and a well-established LinkedIn presence they now publish 10 separate blogs – yes, 10! Here is the reasoning behind that strategy.

An experiment in social media

RSG Sanderson is a long-established independent recruitment consultancy for IT and Business Change professionals here in the UK. In the last 12 months Sanderson’s senior team and consultants have taken a brave leap into the world of social media. Along with extensive LinkedIn and Twitter activity they have set up a veritable fleet of niche business blogs including:

• The Company Blog
• The Sanderson Business Change and Transformation blog
• 5 subject matter expert blogs covering Software Development, Testing, Project and Programme Management, Infrastructure and Service Management and Business Change respectively
• Intelligent Consulting blog
• Jonny’s Recruitment Hub blog

RSG Sanderson’s approach is pioneering. Whilst LinkedIn use is fairly widespread in the UK recruitment industry, blogging as a business development tactic is very much in its infancy. Most recruitment companies still prefer to blanket bomb beleaguered IT directors with cold calls or direct mail/email (to such an extent that I know of one IT development consultancy that has unplugged the office phone!).

10 blogs: 6 reasons

I asked Sanderson’s MD Nick Walrond to explain the thinking behind his prolific blogging strategy. In his own words:

1. “Blogging and other forms of social media have enabled us to take our knowledge-based niche focus online. It’s an advancement of the core business strategy that Sanderson has held for the last 30 years. Our 100+ recruiters are organised into specialist teams, each focusing on a particular vertical market, building knowledge and networks of contractors and clients in their field. Each vertical market has very different interests so a one-size fits all approach to communication just won’t work. Each of our 10 blogs is aimed at a particular market and we aim to write content that is relevant to those customers’ particular set of needs.”
2. “Blogging helps to prove that we are subject matter experts worth talking to. Most of our recruitment consultants have been working their niche markets for a long time. They’ve built up a lot of knowledge over the years which until now has been mainly in their heads. Blogging gives them the opportunity to share their expertise – to get it out there and make a difference.”
3. “Blogging increases our credibility and helps to build trust amongst our networks. By publishing useful articles on our blogs we hope to prove that we know what we’re talking about – that we are passionate and knowledgeable experts in what we do.”
4. “It’s personal: people like to do business with people. Our blogs and social media activity such as Twitter help to show the human side of our company, opening conversations and dialogue with our contractors and clients.”
5. “Regular blog articles help us maintain contact with our networks in a way they find valuable. Our recruitment consultants are tasked with sending out relevant articles to their network. This helps to keep us in their field of vision so that when an opportunity comes up they remember us, without continually hounding them on the phone. Their feedback tells us that they far prefer this type of communication!”
6. “Our blogging activity helps to give us a competitive advantage in a crowded market. We want to provide valuable support for our clients and candidates, helping to solve their resourcing problems. As well as developing existing relationships it helps us to add new clients and contractors to our networks and to bring in business.”

“It’s early days yet and we’re still feeling our way around the blogosphere. My challenge is to keep up the momentum as my consultants get busier in the recovering market. I want to develop our corporate website into a better hub for all this communication, to better integrate this type of social content with the rest of the site. I’d love to get our contractors and clients more involved in the blogs as guest bloggers and regular contributors too. You’ve got to play the long game with blogging – the value is building all the time.”

Learning from Sanderson

• Know your customers - understand your different ‘buyer personas’ and publish relevant content just for them
• Don’t keep your expert knowledge in your head, get it out there; use it to help you generate leads
• Start a business blog – at least one!

Your inbox (and head) is no doubt brimming with good advice & resolutions for the coming year. If you are still grappling for clarity on the marketing aspects, here are a few recommendations to build into your plan:

1. Make your web strategy bigger than your website

Your website is a vital marketing tool but it’s not the only place on the WWW that needs your focus. Most businesses put all their web energy into their company site and wonder why they don’t get much benefit from it in terms of leads. “75% of your focus should be on what is happening outside your website,” say Halligan and Shah in their brilliant new book ‘Inbound Marketing’. They recommend an increase in general web activity in order to draw people back to your website. Good advice. For 2010, consider social media, posting articles on affiliated websites, contributing to related forums, pay per click campaigns & email newsletters; all with links back to useful content on your site. For maximum exposure: ”make sure you and your company’s DNA shows everywhere, across hundreds of sites” (Seth Godin).

2. Produce useful, informative content

The purpose of marketing is to connect with potential customers. Marketing literature that simply screams ‘We’re the best!’ is no way to start a relationship and build trust. Instead of shouting at your customers, try connecting with them. Create useful, informative content that helps solve their business problems. Become a useful resource: the attitude should be not ‘Look how great we are!’ but ‘Look how useful we are – we have the answer to your problem’. In terms of content, there are many options open to you: articles, ‘How to…’ guides, whitepapers, case studies, webinars, videos, e-books – the list goes on. Whatever medium you chose, make the content valuable to your buyers: help them: educate them; prove your expertise and earn their trust until they are ready to buy. Valuable content sells.

3. Think niche

Struggling to position your company effectively and generate leads? Step back: stick your stake in the sand and target your marketing efforts at a particular niche. The more precisely you can describe your customers and address their issues the better. This is a contentious subject as Guy Kawasaki describes: “Many entrepreneurs are afraid of being ‘niched’ to death and then not achieving ubiquity. However, most successful companies started off targeting specific markets and grew to great size by addressing other segments.” If you want to sell successfully, you can’t be everything to everyone. What do you want to be known for? To make your life easier start by identifing a target market and develop your service to be ‘remarkable’ in that niche. Anchor your pitch by telling your chosen customers how you will solve their specific problem. Don’t be afraid to turn people away.

4. Get into social media

Face it – social media is now mainstream and for good reason too. Sites like LinkedIn and Twitter are immensely valuable business tools for professional businesses and consultants. Used effectively they’ll help you to build your community of contacts & extend your reach; they are easy-to-use broadcast channels for your ideas and content; they open up a dialogue with other experts, customers and contacts, refining your own expertise. Social media enables buyers to ’see who is talking sense’ in the sector they’re interested in, giving information to build knowledge and trust before entering the sales phase. NB: This route is most effective when combined with a business blog (to share your ideas) and a newsletter (to maintain contact).

5. Remember your existing customers and contacts

“Stay in touch,” advises smart marketeer Mick Dickinson. “Too many businesses chase new business when existing customers and contacts are far more valuable.”  Too true. If you want to make life easier and more enjoyable this year, don’t just focus on trying to wrestle strangers through the conversion process: devote more time and effort into communicating with your current contacts regularly, in ways they appreciate and find useful.  It’s the most effective route to consistent sales. If you communicate regularly in ways they appreciate, they’ll reward you with referrals and new business. A monthly email newsletter is a very effective way to do this – Mel Lester, a US-based management consultant I follow on Twitter, produces the most valuable, targeted newsletter I’ve seen to date: see - http://tinyurl.com/yenvzqd.
 

I really hope these 5 suggestions help you. As ever, I’d be fascinated by your feedback: how are you going to promote your services this year? Anything important I’ve missed off the list?

A very happy and prosperous 2010 to you all.

Sonja

 In these still uncertain times most professional service businesses are thinking hard about how to attract new customers and win business. Many companies had no burning need for a formal approach to marketing in the boom years. They comfortably relied on repeat business and referrals and their companies grew very successfully as a result, thank you very much.

Times have changed. The old methods of lead generation are no longer sufficient. If you want your company to survive this downturn and come out of it stronger, you need to get serious about marketing.

Looking at the problem from the client perspective is a good place to start. If you understand how they approach supplier selection you can implement an informed marketing strategy with the greatest impact on your ability to win new clients.

I’ve recently bought the Raintoday 2009 Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Selling. The results of this comprehensive survey give a fascinating insight into how clients buy, and what they look for in potential suppliers. It’s a compelling read for any professional business who wants to market effectively.

Here are the highlights…..with a few comments from me:

How clients initially identify providers

Raintoday asked buyers, when searching for potential providers of consulting and professional services, which methods they use to identify and learn more about them.

• Unsurprisingly, referrals come out on top.  Referrals from colleagues and other providers remain of critical importance to those looking to purchase services of any kind…..The challenge is to make yourself ‘referrable’ – do your contacts know what you do, who you do business with and the value you bring? Can you increase your pool of contacts?
• Referrals have been joined at the top of the list for the first time in 2009 by ‘Personal Recognition or Awareness’. Buyers want to buy from companies they feel they know: name recognition and reputation are increasingly important…..Get your name out there and make yourself known.
• Seminars and presentations are a popular method, as they give buyers the chance to evaluate providers in action, face-to-face. They help to position you as a leading expert in your field and are a great way to generate good leads…..a worthwhile investment.
• ‘Influential content’ is becoming more important. Useful, educational content, disseminated via the web, is shown to be a critical element in the new lead generation mix. In the past, the only way that a potential buyer could find out about your company was via a direct approach from a sales representative. Now, prospects research you carefully before deciding whether or not to meet…..Invest in content marketing – make sure you give them the information they seek – articles, case studies, whitepapers and books – promoted via the web.
• Social media has joined the list for the first time – c. 1/4 of buyers were somewhat or very likely to identify and learn about service providers through online media such as social networking sites or blogs…..Ignore social media at your cost.

The growing influence of the web

 ”83% of buyers said that the service provider’s website influenced their decision to engage in initial discussions with that provider (compared to 65% in 2005).” Raintoday report.

No debate; the first stop for potential clients is now a visit to your company website. The results show that buyers are increasingly influenced by websites when deciding who to contact and do business with. Your website is the place where buyers go to interact with your brand…..It’s never been more important to make sure that your website is up-to-date and reflects your brand effectively (see previous article on ‘The 4 pillars of a successful business website’ for some tips).

How Buyers Decide to Hire Service Providers

What factors are most important in a buyer’s decision to choose a service provider?

• Buyers want firms to demonstrate how their services would add value and deliver results for the client business.
• Companies tend to prefer companies who have direct experience in the field in which they work. They hire the firms that seem to best understand their problems and needs…..Demonstrating expertise and understanding in the client’s particular niche is vital.
• Cost and fees are seen as increasingly important…..In the current climate, expect a ‘dogfight’ to win new business.

This is just a brief overview of some of the results in Raintoday report. They surveyed 200+ buyers in 8 service areas (including accounting and financial consulting; architecture, engineering, and construction services; human resources consulting; IT consulting and services; legal services; management consulting; marketing, advertising, and PR; and training services). 

The research was carried out in the US and it would be interesting to know whether buyer behaviour is similar in the UK. My gut feel is that the same principles apply.

What are your thoughts? Does this reflect your experiences of how clients buy your services? Any surprises?

I hope you find it useful.

Stick your head in the sand, do nothing and hope for the best!

 

What is marketing?

“I wasn’t that into marketing, but I was into communication, and hanging out with customers, and answering questions, and making the product work better for them.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that all that stuff was marketing.”

Sonia Simone, author of the brilliant ‘Remarkable Communication’ blog

At its simplest, marketing is the process of keeping in touch with customers and contacts, motivating them to buy your services or refer you on. Here’s a nice practical definition from John Jantsch, the down-to-earth author of Duct Tape Marketing:

“Marketing is getting people who have a specific need or problem to know you, like you and trust you.”

I’d add that it’s also a way of getting them to remember you so they think of you when an opportunity arises: regular communication to keep you in their field of vision.

Why is marketing so important? In a nutshell, it makes the process of selling so much easier. It will help you generate a consistent stream of new leads and warm up old ones, bringing in repeat business and those all important referrals: more clients, more quickly.

What’s the difference between marketing and sales?

The sales versus marketing dilemma is another point of contention that muddies the waters. “Aren’t they the same thing?” ”Where does sales start and marketing stop?”

These are good questions. My view is that sales and marketing are intrinsically linked; they can be carried out by the same person, but they are separate activities with different objectives.

• Sales activity starts when someone wants to explore working with you: when they pick up the phone to you or agree to meet you to discuss a real opportunity. Sales begins when you have a lead to follow up.
• Marketing is everything you do to warm your contacts up before that point. Marketing, as John Jantsch states, is about getting people to know you, like you and trust you enough to explore the possibility of engaging your services to help them.

Marketing generates leads. Sales turns leads into business.

Here’s a basic 4 step action plan to get your marketing started and generate sales:

A. Define your target contacts - who do you do business with?

Your target audience can include companies you want to approach, past clients, past prospects – companies where you have pitched before and been unsuccessful, people you’ve met through networking (off and online), contacts likely to refer you on.

Make a list of these contacts.

NB: Marketing is a process so a good system helps. Find a way to record your contacts and your interactions with them, and track your results: a decent Excel spreadsheet or Outlook-based system will do; ACT is a great contact management tool for small companies and doesn’t cost the earth.

B. Work out the problems you solve for them

Think niche: why do your customers come to you? What expertise do they buy? What specific issues do they want to solve by using your services? Ask them. 

Match this with the expertise you provide them: what do your clients get from you? What benefit do you deliver?

Use all this information to develop your marketing message.

C. Decide on a plan – how will you make contact?

Make a plan: how will you keep your contacts in the loop? Decide how you’ll communicate your message and reach your target contacts. What marketing methods will you use? Options open to you are many and varied, including:

• Case studies that show them how others have benefitted from your services
• Informative articles and whitepapers that demonstrate thought leadership and show them how to solve their most pressing problems
• Useful resources: related research, presentations, books etc.
• Events in their/your field of interest
• Regular newsletters including a combination of the above

Put your genius on display in a way that you feel comfortable with and your customers find most useful.

The attitude should be not ‘Look how great we are!’ but ‘Look how useful we are – we have the answer to your problem’.

D. Take Action – start communicating

Once you’ve worked out who you are targetting, the problems you solve for them, and how you will approach them, start to communicate. Develop content and materials and get them infront of your contacts: by email, by post, via social networks.

Don’t wait for the perfect strategy – take action. As my wisest client often says:

‘A good decision taken quickly beats a brilliant decision implemented slowly.’

Take these 4 easy steps and start building some relationships. Don’t be an ostrich: get your head out of the sand and start marketing.

What stops you from getting going with your marketing efforts? Are you confused about what marketing is really all about for small businesses? Does this help? I’d love to know.