Fish where the money is…
Infamous American bank robber Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks quipped, “That’s where the money is”.
So what’s the difference if you’re looking for clients?
Fishing makes a great analogy.
Every fisherman knows you go where the fish are. Different fish swim in different ponds. And they’re attracted to different bait and you need different methods to catch them.
The legendary and late marketer Gary Halbert put it best.
You need to find a starving crowd. One that wants what you have to sell. You have to know where they are and be able to get in front of them. Having a wonderful product and great marketing message is useless if they never find out about you.
We’ll get to the bait and hook in later articles… Today let’s focus on where your prospects hang out.
Years ago we ran a promotion selling “Plumber’s Profits” a high value coaching package to, you guessed it, plumbers.
Armed with a list, we called, faxed and emailed our offer. There was negligible response. Our partner in the venture was a tradie himself and knew there was a market. We just weren’t getting our message in front of them correctly.
Until we tried SMS messages directly to their mobiles. Suddenly we got over 12% response – almost unheard of for a first pass.
Think about it. Tradespeople live on their mobiles. So that was the best way to get our message in front of decision makers.
No matter what you sell the same principle holds true.
There’s no point in opening a hamburger stand in the middle of a Buddhist Vegetarian retreat!
There are two ways you can get your message into your prospect’s hands.
Go spear fishing or cast a line or net.
Spear fishing means you identify your target and directly contact them with an offer. Casting a line or net attracts them to you where you can hook their interest and start the selling process.
Which you choose depends on your target.
A Migration Lawyer recently told me she’d be happy with just 5 high value clients who consistently brought in professionals on 457 Visas.
This is what I recommended.
- Identify high growth technology companies who need to recruit internationally to meet their growth targets.
- Find appropriate decision maker(s) and target them with lead magnets and bait.
- Follow up and start the sales process.
- In addition hook up with international recruiters. Why? If the recruiter can’t get the person a visa, there goes their commission. So it’s in their interest to tie in with a reputable Migration Lawyer.
That’s spear fishing.
A Stock Broking client throws out a net by appearing on Sky Business News, being published in the Financial Review and Stock Trading magazines. His prospects are all experienced and active traders who watch these shows.
While he could advertise in Investment Magazines, that’s an expensive exercise for likely little result. Remember, all marketing comes down to your ROI.
A photographer client runs his 7 figure business through Facebook advertising. He has a couple of very specific markets which can be effectively targeted through Facebook. So he casts a wide net.
Now regardless of whether you use a direct approach or cast a net you need to get your prospect’s interest and get them to take action. To do this you need a lead magnet and lead bait. Which we’ll go through in the next article. So look out for it.
In the meantime if you’d like help identifying your marketing and where they’re likely to hang out, call Rashid on 0414-913-334 and we’ll help.
