Trending
I watch all the hijinks here on the LI and am continually amused by the never ending drum beat of 'reach'. I don't know about you but if I never hear the word 'impressions' as justification for burning money again...
Here is the simple idea if you don't want to read any further: ask your clients and your best centers of influence/referral partners what they are doing the rest of the week in their business on Monday/Tuesday and then, if you missed them earlier in the week, ask them on Thursday/Friday what they did during the week. Deeper explanation later in this article.
If you own a professional services firm that requires judgement as the end product that creates the clients favorable outcomes (like financial advisors, accountants, attorneys and consultants/coaches), you might want to consider using judgement about how you find those same clients.
After all, how much does endlessly interrupting them with 'marketing' actually share the value of what you actually do?
Thankfully, there is an ongoing marketing system (thousands of years old and counting) that still works amazing for non-commoditized businesses like yours: referrals aka word of mouth. The challenge is the same for any other form of marketing: how predictable/forecastable is it?!?
Very.
All marketing (as opposed to 'branding') is ultimately measured by its ability to clearly generate sales results. There are many ways to try and avoid this ultimate accountability, but, they all run out of steam when the revenue doesn't come in. Embrace this reality up front whether you are buying and/or producing the marketing and you will be far better in the long run for having done so.
Let's get really practical and dive into our earlier concept.
Research is incredibly undervalued/understood in sales within the professional services space. For example, if you are working with a marketing agency to ostensibly produce ideal client appointments...you are in great measure paying for their ability to research where your idea client prospects are and how they can be contacted and convinced to meet with your firm.
The easiest way to research for referrals isn't online...it's in your conversations with your current relationships. Think about it: your current ideal clients interact with other potential ideal clients for you on a regular basis. The challenge with referrals (and any other marketing system) is having them (a) notice that they are talking to someone you want to meet and (b) remember you and (c) take the time to attempt to introduce you.
That is a passive system and will deliver equivalent results and confidence in revenue forecasts.
Let's flip the script. Instead of being passive, let's be active. I recommend to my clients and anyone I talk to a simple process of regularly asking what is going on in the professional and personal lives of people you care about.
Early in the week, at the end of a normal conversation, ask what else they are doing that week. This is a never ending research opportunity for myself and my clients. Often, my client/referral partner discloses meetings or projects that I was unaware of and that are either interesting and/or contain a relationship I would love to begin with an ideal client prospect. The reality is that we are all too busy to remember and think about who and how to help others.
Instead, help them share with you who they are working with that week and then take notes. The names you discover in this simple and safe conversation are one's that you will add to a follow up conversation where you go deeper. Here is a simple example of a way to follow up: "I remember you mentioning that you had a meeting with Joe at Joe's plumbing when we talked last week...how did it go? Would you ever be up for taking about whether you might be comfortable introducing me to him at some point?"
If you miss them earlier in the week, reverse the focus to what significant and/or interesting things happened.
None of this is guaranteed to make you a 'business mogul', but it will over a year of normal conversations add dozens of names to the top of your sales funnel that you can pursue by referrals as a human being. Often, you might be able to add another referral partner to the mix and execute a multiple introduction referral process to ensure success.
So, get out there and have conversations within conversations you should already be having.
Be curious and be discrete (don't immediately 'pounce' when you hear a name you covet and instead be patient and come back later) in how you do your sales research while being a human being that people want to talk to. How to make this really work? Put it into your calendar and plan for your conversations each day to add in some questions that might fill up your pipeline.
Make sense? I hope so. Let me know any questions and/or concerns.