Apply these seven secrets to your marketing and see a 200-400% increase in sales per lead.
According to one industry publication, over 99% of small businesses do not consistently follow up with their prospects and customers. Why? Because they don’t have a system, they don’t have time, they don’t know how valuable it is, or they don’t know how to follow up!
Learn from the best minds in direct response marketing, people like Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert and Jay Abraham. These guys are masters of the direct response marketing profession and they know how to maximize sales.
There are only three factors that influence the profitability of any marketing effort. The smartest marketing minds on the planet have sifted these factors down to this simple, but powerful formula:
1. Send The Right Message… To The Right Market… At The Right Time
Most businesses miss one, two or all three of these factors, and as a result, their marketing and advertising results are ineffective. This costs millions in missed sales every year!
It is CRITICAL that you follow up with your leads repeatedly, incorporating a variety of media such as mail, phone, fax, e-mail messages, and voice broadcasting!!! Automate your system to methodically, repetitively and consistently follow up with your leads – or you’ll be wasting a lot of leads or a lot of man hours!
2. The Three Types Of Leads
Your marketing campaigns will produce leads in three broad categories:
· Hot Leads – those that are ready NOW
· Warm Leads – those that aren’t ready now but will be soon – these leads are CRITICAL to your success; and
· Cold Leads – that may never be ready
But how do you know which is which?!!! Most businesses follow up every lead once or twice and focus on leads that look like they’re going to close – ie they ‘cherry pick’ the ‘low hanging fruit’!
That’s fine, but the problem is that, too often, all those warm leads slip through the cracks! You must have an automated system to follow up with these leads like clockwork. And with an on-line business, you can use an Autoresponder very effectively.
3. Timing Is Everything
Never forget the simple truth: “People will buy when THEY’RE ready, not when you’re ready to make a sale.”
So you have to be in front of folks when they’re ready to buy – in other words, you have to follow-up with them… religiously! Because if you don’t, someone else will land that business.
So, again, you must follow-up if you are to ‘be there for them’ when they’re ready to buy.
4. Transform Your Sales from Outbound Hunting To Inbound Harvesting
This secret is critical to your success because it increases conversion rates and lands customers quicker. When you’re always chasing prospects in “hunting” mode, there’s resistance at every turn and you can waste tons of time working with leads who simply aren’t ready.
On the other hand, when you’re in harvesting mode, you’re working smart and focus on leads that you have already ‘warmed up’ with your earlier follow-up. If you close the gap between “getting the lead” and “closing the sale”, you’ll make the shift from hunting mode to harvesting mode… and your profits will skyrocket.
5. Maintain A Living, Breathing Customer Database
You can do this most effectively by sending relevant, valuable information to EVERY PROSPECT on a scheduled, recurring basis – using a variety of methods – communicating efficiently and logging all contacts with the prospect in an organized fashion.
6. Use Education, Repetition and Variety In Your Follow-Ups
Education: Your follow-ups must inform and educate your prospects. You need to provide valuable information and convince your prospect that you are on their side and deserve to be trusted. Customers WANT to trust you, so give them information they need and you’ll earn their trust.
Repetition: Human beings have to hear the same thing over and over before it ‘clicks’. Your customers may not “get it” the first time they hear your message – and don’t make the mistake of thinking that if a prospect heard the pitch once, they understood it. Chances are, they didn’t. Tell them again, and again and again.
Variety: You need to consistently tell your message, but your follow-up delivery needs variety. Different people respond to different stimulae, so follow-up with a multi-step sequential campaign that incorporates e-mail, direct mail, phone, fax, voice broadcasts, and other media!
When you begin to properly follow up with your leads and customers using Education, Repetition and Variety, your numbers will absolutely shoot through the roof. You will be completely amazed!
7: Personality, Genuineness and Entertainment
Your prospects and customers need information. They need repetition. They need education. They need variety and frequency. They need to hear the right message at the right time.
That’s what they need. And if you provide it, if you practice the six secrets, you’ll see great improvement in your business.
But if you want phenomenal results, you need to give them what they want.
What they want is YOU! They want your personality. They want you to be real with them. They want you to be straight up, helpful, sincere. They want your spin, your angle, your advice, your perspective. They don’t want corporate dribble. They want YOU!
Give them what they want, and combine it with what they need, and you’ve got something spectacular, even entertaining. You’ve got permission to converse freely with your prospects and customers, to help them with the things they need, to offer them the products and services you provide that make their life easier, better, more successful.
Only you know how to be you, how to be real but you can inject personality into your follow-ups using conversational language, not corporate speak; by laughing at yourself and your mistakes; discussing the “stuff” of your personal life with your prospects and customers; talking about what you like, what interests you, what annoys you; and so on. View your prospects and customers as friends.
Now, if you’re telling yourself, “I can’t do that,” then I want you to do three things:
Slap yourself for allowing that negative thought to take root in your brain and your heart who knows how long ago;
Resolve to give it a shot, realizing that it’s a learning process; and
REMEMBER that while you’re learning how to do Secret #7 well, the other six secrets will drive tremendous results for your business.
But if you want phenomenal results, you need to give them what they want.
What they want is YOU!
John Thornely
© John Thornely www.johnthornely.com 2008
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