Commercially smart business owners understand the concept of leverage and the 80/20 rule. Concentrating 20% of your effort to give you 80% of your results.
In sales this translates to 20% of your prospecting efforts will produce 80% of your qualified leads. And 80/20 is fractal which means that 4% of your effort will lead to 64% of your results.
The question is how to rapidly get to this point. You can’t do this by randomly prospecting. Throwing a lot of dirt against a wall, hoping some of it will stick.
So step one is to be very clear on exactly who is in your target market. Be as narrow as possible. For example a financial planner could target middle aged, recently divorced women who need to manage their financial settlement.
You must know exactly what makes you unique if their eyes. What do you bring to the table that your competitors don’t.
Do they have the money to pay for your advice? Do they need it right now and will they take it?
Now write a marketing message which speaks to this audience. The issues they’re facing and the aspirations they desire.
This forms the basis of your prospecting and advertising.
Once a prospect expresses interest, don’t immediately jump into a sales conversation.
A lead is just that. A lead. You have no idea if they’re going to be a suitable client. So your first step is to have them qualify themselves in or out.
Have a questionnaire which they fill in before speaking with you, allowing you to further qualify them quickly.
Then only speak with the small percentage who meet your criteria and are likely to be good clients.
For example, a long term client of ours in the financial planning space has this down to a fine art.
They are very well positioned at the top of their field and are only looking for clients with significant investments to manage.
Potential clients who contact them are first screened by front line staff. Then are asked to fill in a comprehensive questionnaire. If they’re deemed suitable, they’re invited in for a consultation which is charged for.
The result is the principal financial planners only spend time with qualified prospects. This is the 80/20 rule in action.
The better you get at pre-qualification, the more efficient you will be and the faster you will grow your business.
Wrapping up. If you’d like our help in putting together a marketing and sales system which attracts the right prospects and improves your conversion rate, give me a call.
Our “Effortless Selling” program will help you do just this. Contact me for more details.
Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
