I’m sure you’ve heard phrases like…
“Content is king”.
So you write articles, create videos, put posts on every form of social media in the hope that prospects will contact you and become clients.
Does it work? Sure. Is it quick. Unlikely.
Content has its place. Done well it establishes your positioning as an authority in your field. And is an essential part of your marketing mix.
However it’s not enough.
To be successful you must proactively directly reach out to possible prospects and nudge them. Find out if they have the issues you solve and are interested in having a conversation around solving them.
If you sit and wait you could be waiting a long time.
Which is why when working with our clients we emphasise three distinct activities. All of which must be aligned.
Marketing, prospecting and selling. And yes, they are very different skill sets.
Starting with marketing.
Think of marketing as any activity which educates prospects and encourages them to come into your orbit.
You accomplish this through publishing your content where they’ll consume it. And freely give away IP in return for their details so you can follow them up.
For example you can access a number of valuable resources covering our marketing and sales methodologies at revealedresources.com.
But the fortune is in the follow up.
The vast majority of our clients have come from relentless follow up after they’ve downloaded one of our resources.
The follow up calls build a relationship. Some are ready to do business now. Others may take months, even years before becoming clients.
However, marketing alone isn’t enough.
At any time say 3% to 5% of your prospects are actively looking for a solution. These are the people who potentially find you, consume your content and get in touch.
But what about everyone else? Some of whom could be a good fit if only they knew you existed?
Which is where prospecting comes in.
Prospecting involves identifying potential clients, proactively reaching out and finding out if they have issues you can solve and their level of interest.
You could use any combination of phone calls, emails, SMS, physical mail. The more the better.
For example, we send a “Gold Bar” with valuable content. Other clients mail physical reports. Some send emails and SMS combinations. All of them follow up with a phone call.
Once a prospect shows a level of interest and is willing to continue the conversation, the sales process begins.
Sales involves honing in on what your prospects want to achieve, highlighting what’s stopping them and showing them you have a solution. Done well and you never have to use pushy sales tactics. Your clients recognise your ability to solve their issues and want to buy.
Obviously there’s more to it than that, which is why we drill and skill our clients in the process.
However, the real power comes from combining all 3 activities. Marketing which positions you. Prospecting which actively reaches out and sales which converts prospects into clients.
We’ll be holding a series of webinars on how to attract more clients in 90 days without pushy sales tactics.
It’s especially suited to Professional Firms – consultants and coaches who get great results for their clients, but aren’t getting enough clients to meet their growth targets.
We will cover how to effectively combine your marketing, prospecting and sales efforts to attract and convert prospects into long term, high value clients.
So if you’re not completely happy with where you’re at with your client growth, contact me and we’ll work together to put together a client acquisition system which will bring in new business within 90 days.