Do you know what it means when a buyer touches their mouth during a presentation?

These days it isn’t enough to throw things out there and hope something sticks or that buyers take a bite. When it comes to marketing your services and developing new business, you need a targeted approach. And that starts with knowing who your buyers are and what their pain points are.

As Vickie K. Sullivan points out in her article Instant Guru: 3 Branding Models that Stand Out in Crowded Markets, everyone has an expert opinion and wants to share it. The result is a muddled wall of sound where few people stand out. One way to get buyers to notice you is to become the leader of a movement or a cause.

“Buyers like causes for two reasons. First, causes give them clarity about what the expert provides and how to use their perspective. Second, it makes the thought leader a “messenger” for a bigger cause that the market can adopt,” Sullivan says.

But before you take the lead for a cause or begin diagnosing a problem and provide advice, you have to know who your audience is. What type of buyers do you hope will follow you?

Targeted Marketing

Targeted marketing is always important, but it’s critical when firms are preparing for partners or leaders to step down, says Sharon Berman in her article Marketing: A Succession Planning Tool for Professional Services Firms. As a firm moves towards succession, it needs to develop a strong foundational marketing strategy. Marketing only when you have time is not an option. It must be done consistently, and it must be focused.

That same focus applies to presentations you make. As Tom Kennedy explains in his podcast interview 3 Essential Elements of Successful Sales Presentations, your audience always comes first. You want to know where your audience is coming from and what you can learn from them, he says.

“It’s always about them. The ‘I/me’ talk is terrible. The ‘let’s start with about us’—they don’t care about us. They don’t want to hear about us … unless [it's] about us and what that means to them,” Kennedy says.

Once you know your audience, then you determine what result you want to accomplish and what your message is. Define those things first and then build your presentation around them, he says.

Reading Buyers Correctly

Buyers will accuse sellers of not being truthful, but sometimes buyers withhold information or don’t answer questions truthfully. Often their body gestures provide clues, and it’s up to you to read them correctly, writes John Boe in his article The Truth about Your Prospect’s Lying Gestures.

Sometimes this happens because buyers have difficulty saying no and will tell you they’re interested in order to avoid conflict.

“As the pressure of making a decision builds, prospects will frequently use half-truths or lies to either stall or disengage from the selling sequence,” says Boe. “While their words say yes, their body language indicates no. By being able to recognize the inconsistency between your prospect’s words and his gestures, it is often possible to flush out their concerns, overcome their objections, and make the sale.”

Then there are times when buyers will do something during a presentation that indicates they don’t believe what the person is saying, he says. They might cover their mouth, which means they don’t believe what’s being said, or touch their eye, which means they don’t believe what they see.

“When you encounter one of those gestures during your presentation, it is a good idea to gently probe the subject matter with open-ended questions to encourage your prospect to voice his concern,” Boe says.

Successful selling and marketing starts with knowing and understanding your ideal buyers. How well do you know yours?

Photo by Stuart Pilbrow

There's money to be made in social media if you sell the right way.

There’s money to be made in social media if you sell the right way.

There’s this age-old problem with selling: If we could only get more people to pay attention to us, we could build relationships that lead to sales.

Fortunately, social media offers an amazing source of business opportunities. If you approach it the right way, you can build many relationships that could be crucial to your business growth and success.

This article is about successfully selling (not marketing) with social media. And by selling, I mean the “two people getting to know each other and starting up a conversation that might go somewhere” kind of selling.

Here are eight ways to strike up social media conversations with people you want to meet:

1. Boil the Frog

There’s an old wives’ tale (some truth to it) that says  if you put a frog in boiling water, it will sense the heat and jump out. But put a frog in cool water and turn up the heat slowly, and the frog will hardly notice.

When reaching out online to people you’d like to meet, don’t come on like gangbusters. Nothing screams “jump out of the hot pot” more than a blatant “let’s talk so I can sell you something” message.

Start cool and warm up slowly. Comment on their blog post. Retweet them thoughtfully. Compliment something they wrote. Become familiar to someone—even if they don’t engage you right away—and it’s more likely that they’ll engage you in the future.

For example, this person wrote to me personally, said something pleasant, and left it there. Nice start!

Dr. Rachna Jain, who studies the psychology of social media, says, “When people see you more, they like you more. The shorthand is that familiarity breeds likeability. Especially if you’re seen as giving them value or good content or information.”

2. Givers Gain

The world of social media changes faster than the Clippers change coaches. But some things never change—like the golden rule of networking (social or otherwise).

The golden rule? Givers gain. (Bet you figured that out from the section header.)

As Dr. Jain said, “…especially if you’re seen as giving them value or good content or information.” How? Share a white paper. Share a relevant piece of research. Invite them to a private local business event.

Remember, starting relationships can take many touches. Do this right, and people will perceive you as valuable even before you interact with them personally (which we’re getting to), and you boil the frog at the same time.

3.  Make Henry Kissinger Proud

There’s an old story that’s been told and retold about how Henry Kissinger approached getting the best out of his staff. Before reviewing anything from his people, he’d ask, “Before I look at this… is it your best work?” and the staff would go back and keep working until they could say yes.

When reaching out through social media, give it your Henry Kissinger effort.

RAIN Group and  RainToday have about 160,000 subscribers and followers combined.  And they reach out to me fairly regularly and want to connect.

Many of them remain strangers because they made no effort to relate to me. A standard “my products would be of value” overture does not catch anyone’s attention. No personalization… no genuine connection. Even something better than bad would be good.

But every once in a while, someone reaches out with real effort, energy and thoughtfulness—the kind that would make Henry Kissinger proud. Here’s an example of how one gentleman started a conversation:

This example goes on with several more paragraphs explaining our connections and reasons for why we might both be interested in connecting. This contact effort was obviously customized and it resonated well with me.

4. Be Brave

Call reluctance is common on the phone. It happens online, too. People don’t reach out online because of some kind of fear. “They won’t respond.” “They’ll say no.” “They’ll be angry with me.”

The fact of the matter is most customers believe salespeople don’t reach out enough. In the online world, there’s a heavy emphasis on the concept of inbound marketing. I think inbound marketing is a great approach. But that doesn’t mean proactive outreach—the online equivalent of cold-calling—is either dead or bad.

When you find a particular person you want to connect with, reach out.

As long as you keep points 1, 2, and 3 in mind, you’ll be fine. As business guru Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Be brave. Take shots.

5. Be Positive and Pleasant

When some people gear up their bravery for outreach, they think, “I’m about to reach out to a big-time person. I need to seem big time too!” So they puff out their chest and brag about how awesome they are.

Who made the rule that “important” people should be temperamental and full of themselves? Not endearing. I’ve had the good fortune of interacting with lots of guru types and most of them are pleasant and humble.

Don’t try to come off as the BMOC. The fastest way to come off as inconsequential is to keep saying how influential you are.

Todd Schnick says it so well:

“Actions make you influential. Not your words or tweets. People who serve, people who help others, people who share the cool things that others are doing… those are the actions that make you influential.”

Right on, Todd.

6. Prepare for Window Shopping

When you reach out to people, expect that they’ll check you out. When someone writes to me and I’m curious, the first thing I do is Google them and see what comes up.

Make sure that when the people reaching out to you search for you online, you’re portrayed exactly how you want to be. Determine how your personal brand and online reputation come across, as they’ll greatly affect people’s impressions of you.

7. Release your Inner Battlestar

People build relationships with people they like. If you want to build relationships, be endearing. And the best way to do that? Let your personality shine through.

We’ve received tremendous feedback since publishing Rainmaking Conversations about the core content of the book. But the people that got the most kick out of it caught all the Battlestar Galactica references in the chapters. Geeky? Yes. Me? What can I say.

Boring is forgettable. Personality is memorable. And social media outlets are the perfect place for you to be yourself.

For example, in my research for this piece, I came across articles by Amy Porterfield. I visited her website, and saw her nifty little description of herself:

I BELIEVE in:

• Hard work, but that you have to be able to throw it all away for love and family.
• No drama. Really… not even a little!
• Acceptance. No judgment lives here.
• Wearing my heart on my sleeve.
• Embracing whatever’s next.
• But most of all, I believe that social media should be something you enjoy, not dread.

No drama. Not even a little. I love it!

Now that’s letting your personality shine through.

8. Take It Offline, When It’s Time

Social media outlets are great places for starting conversations, but they’re not the only place to have them. When the time is right, take the conversation offline.

You can start with a phone call or go right to face-to-face (assuming you’ve boiled your frog correctly). In any case, take the leap.

Selling is a contact sport. After you’ve begun your conversation and built rapport, find a good reason to take the conversation offline and see where it takes you.

And a little bonus…

There are so many social media tools available now it can be difficult to keep up. Here are a handful of tools that are helpful for lead generation and sales:

• Google Alerts and Twitter Alerts help you find reasons to create conversations by following trigger events.
• SocialToo can help you keep track of new and lost followers.
• GeoChip is good if you need to focus on a specific geography.
• TubeMogul can help you spread the word with video.

TubeMogul is a video advertising and analytics platform that connects advertisers with highly targeted audiences.

• Twellow finds people you’re looking for with a sort of Yellow Pages for Twitter.

Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts to help you find people who matter to you.

• SproutSocial helps if you’re getting serious about this whole thing. And, of course, the three biggies: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If there were a ninth way to succeed in building relationships and selling with social media, and you were to add it to this article, what would it be? Leave your comments in the box below.

*No frogs were in any way harmed in the process of writing this article.

Don't confuse buyers. Clearly and boldly state your purpose.

You can have the best looking website, ad, proposal, or email template, but unless you have a strong value proposition and state it clearly and boldly, no one is going to pay attention.

Buyers are deaf to marketing speak. They have no patience for a jumble of buzz words or praise and promotion about what you or your firm has done. They have real problems, and they want to hear how you are different from all of the other providers and how you can improve their lives.

As Michael W. McLaughlin says in his article State Your Perspective As If It Were a Tattoo on Your Knuckles, we look for shortcuts when processing new information. So, if someone visits your website and doesn’t see information immediately how you differ and can help, they will soon be on their way.

“You’ll have more success in all your marketing and selling efforts if you state boldly and confidently what your practice stands for. No one wants to hear boring claims about how you help organizations ‘manage change.’ To grab and hold clients’ attention, show them your compelling sense of purpose,” McLaughlin says.

Beth Carter, author of this week’s RainToday article Does Your Website Follow This Wrong Advice? agrees you need to be smart about what you say on your website. Also important is how you say it, she says.

“Visitors to your website are there for a reason; they’re not there just to browse around. They’re looking for specific information. Maybe they’re trying to determine if you offer the particular service they need. Maybe they want to know if you have the credentials to back up your claim. Maybe they want to know where you’re located or your hours of operation. These are specific goals,” Carter writes. “Your job is to help visitors easily accomplish those goals—with as much copy as it takes to get the job done: no more, no less.”

The need to clearly state your ideas and perspectives applies to conversations as well. Successful networkers are adept at this, writes Ivan Misner in his article 10 Traits that Make You a Master Networker—and Grow Your Business. They know that if they want to receive referrals, networking partners must clearly understand what they do and how they’re different.

“The faster you and your networking partner learn what you need to know about each other, the faster you’ll establish a valuable relationship. Communicate well, and listen well,” Misner says.

Buyers Are Users Before They Are Customers

With prospects’ increasing reliance on websites to do buying research, as well as make purchases. Business owners must make sure they meet the needs of those “users,” says Aaron Shapiro, author of Users Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Business.

“We’re at an inflection point that’s happening right now, which is that the majority of sales that are happening are because of digital,” says Shapiro in his podcast interview Why Users, Not Customers, Are Key to Business Success. “What we expect to see is the pace of acceleration is speeding up where all of a sudden companies really need to think about a digital strategy as the way to become successful.”

The need for a strong digital presence continues after the sale, he adds. Online customer service is critical to maintaining customer relationships over time.

Successful Digital Strategy

SingleHop, an Internet-as-a-Service company, understood that the faster their users could get something implemented or installed, the better. So it built a platform where “customers could use an online interface to order the services they needed. Instead of waiting for days for new servers to be manually installed, customers could access services from virtually any computer or mobile device,” writes Gwen Moran in her case study IT Hosting Company Differentiates in a Highly Competitive Market to Propel Growth.

The on-demand aspect of SingleHop’s automated services, which required no human involvement unless the customer wanted it, helped the company stand out among the thousands of other hosting providers. To further differentiate it from the crowd, the company allows buyers to purchase only what they need—an a la carte-like menu.

To get the word out about its services, the company partnered with area businesses. High visibility combined with clear explanations of what it does resulted in 60% of its business to come from word of mouth.

The result: SingleHop grew 7,034% in just three years and landed the #25 spot on the on the 2011 Inc. 500 list.

Photo by Guudmorning!

We all love a bargain. We love when we can get something of value for less. And reductions in price pique buyers’ interest and can create cash flow for a company. So, you might think lowering your price would be a win-win situation. Not necessarily.

As Mark Hunter points out in his article The Dangers of Discounting Your Price to Create Cash Flow, reducing your price can have negative repercussions on your firm. For example, if you cut your price for one customer, other customers and prospects could find out and also want a lower fee.

“If all of your current and potential customers are going to find out, then all you’ve done is move yourself into a permanent state of always having an issue with cash flow. The reason is simple: you’ll now be selling everything at a lower price,” Hunter writes.

Not only that, but if your competitors find out, they could also lower their price and then you’re caught in a “pricing death spiral.” Everyone cuts their prices until one goes out of business or leaves the marketplace to focus on something else.

Lower Price, Lower Value

There’s also something to be said about your perceived value if you have low prices. For example, Advanced Technology Consulting, Inc. (ATC) started out working with anyone and often gave information and time for free. When it tried going after larger clients, those buyers were leery of the free services, writes M. Sharon Baker in her case study Consulting Firm Attracts Large Clients, Grows Revenue 50% Using Implementation Fee and Guarantee. They also worried about ATC’s size and its ability to deliver.

To fix that and show larger companies that they had their best interests at heart, ATC started charging an implementation fee and spelling out exactly what ATC was going to do to earn that fee.

“With the agreement, we show companies that we have some skin in the game so we become true partners rather than just a company peddling services and begging for someone to give us a chance,” says David Goodwin, co-founder of ATC.

Are You Doing a Thorough Job Selling?

If prospects aren’t buying at the price you set, there’s a good chance you aren’t doing a thorough job selling, adds Hunter.

“A thorough selling process means you need to ask enough questions and follow-up questions—and listen—until you are certain you understand what the customer wants. The more you focus on the fact that what you have to offer is of value to your customer, the less appealing discounting becomes as the only way to close a sale,” he says.

And don’t get caught up with the idea that there’s a secret sales technique or process that will help you close sales, warns Michael W. McLaughlin in his article You Don’t Need a Sales Technique. You Need Creative Ideas. Your expertise and creative ideas will get you farther than any three-step plan or technique, he says.

“Every hour you spend learning about the latest sales “secret” diverts your attention from what really matters: building the expertise that your clients want and need,” McLaughlin writes. “If you want to speed your sales efforts along, let your expertise, creativity, and ideas lead the way.”

Showcase Creativity and Expertise

One of the best ways to demonstrate your expertise and creativity is through content: articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, etc. You can write about challenges your prospects might be facing, offer advice, and show how you helped companies overcome those challenges.

You can post that content on your website or in your blog, but you can also use it in advertising, says John Jantsch in his podcast SEO, SEM, and Advertising, Oh My!

“I still believe that for most businesses this idea of advertising content, advertising the ability for people to learn about something or to get information that they want, is really the most effective way to promote with advertising—as opposed to trying to promote your business or sell your products or services,” he says.

But in order for content-based marketing and advertising to succeed, you have to know who your ideal client is, what type of content they like, and what websites and social media networks they visit, Jantsch says.

Help Buyers through the Sales Process

Not only can you use content to pull potential buyers to you, but you can use it to nurture the relationship and help buyers through the sales process, writes Joseph Riden in his article Using Content to Propel Buyers through the Sales Process.

“High-quality expert content is the magnet that pulls clients onward through your sales process,” he says. “Your offers are their stimulus to move ahead. Publish continually. Send appropriate content to each phase group. Broadcast a steady stream of thought leadership themes.”

You should also use content to maintain current client relationships, Riden advises.

“Content for this phase keeps you top of mind. You can send polls and surveys, price comparisons, information about giveaways, research findings, upgrade enticement, your ratings, reviews, testimonials, information about webinars, training, success stories, case studies, and handy device applications and software tools,” he says.

You can also give clients content to share with referrals, Riden says. Such content includes polls, surveys, research, recorded seminars, and success stories.

When your content-driven sales process is in full motion, it’s only a matter of time before you have a fully referral-driven practice, he says.

Photo by Tim Parkinson

“I’m not interested.”

For many consultants who are making cold calls to sell their services, those words are more than enough to justify hanging up the phone and moving on to the next prospect.  After all, you can’t make a sale to someone who’s “not interested,” right?

But what if we told you that “I’m not interested” is just the first of three common cold calling objections that can be overcome and turned into new business?

If your initial attempt to capture attention and create interest on a cold call doesn’t work, don’t just wilt! It’s easy to say “OK” and move on, but then again, it’s easy to fail at cold calling.

All is not lost. You can overcome common objections and make saves.

Here are the three common cold calling objections you’re likely to run into, along with examples for how you can turn them from objections into opportunities.

Cold Calling Objection 1: “I’m Not Interested”

Prospect:   “I’m not interested.”

You: “OK. I’m curious to know, though, what could I have said about this topic that might have actually interested you?”

Prospect: “Nothing really.”

You: “Then if I hear correctly, it’s not that the topic’s not interesting to you; it’s that you’re not interested in talking at all right now. You’re focused on something else.”

Prospect: “You got it.”

You: “Then let’s not talk right now. But is it your area to focus on improving marketing returns at your company? Are you the person that would fall under?”

Prospect: “Yes, I am.”

You: “Well, when I speak with companies, even those that don’t think there’s the ability to increase their email marketing efficiency by 10% at least, the opportunity is usually there. Whether it’s there or not, I think you’ll get some value out of the conversation because I’ll share with you some best practice research about how it’s been done at places like (big industry player name here). Can we talk at another time, maybe on Friday at 2 or 3? That way you can give me a few minutes to pique your interest, and if I don’t, all you risk is the time in exchange for insight.”

Prospect: “OK, sure. Let’s talk at 2 p.m. this Friday.”

Cold Calling Objection #2: “Now’s Not a Good Time”

Prospect: “Now’s not a good time.”

You: “Do you mean for talking about it, or is it that increasing your sales performance isn’t a top priority right now?”

Prospect: “Neither.”

You: “Why is that? Sometimes when that’s the case it’s because the company isn’t looking to grow revenue for one reason or another. Is that it?”

Prospect: “Oh, we’d like to grow revenue, but it’s just been so tough with the merger happening that all of our attention is focused there.”

You: “You mean merging the two sales forces from Caprica and Kobol, yes? I saw that on your website. It’s one of the reasons I called. Has that been a challenge?”

Prospect: “Yes, it has, and we’re having a heck of a time moving past ‘merger mode’ and into ‘action mode.’”

You: “I’m going to guess that one sales force is still selling their old area and same with the second, yes? And perhaps there are other issues distracting the sales forces and making them focus less on sales and more on, well, internal gyrations.”

Prospect: “That and more.”

You: “We focus on sales force integration with mergers. Again, that is the reason I called. It’s common that two sales forces, when merged together, mix about as well as milk and Pepsi. At least at first. But we’ve been able to turn that around. Would you like to hear how?” (PAUSE)

Prospect: “OK, well, it’s still not a good time, but later in the week might work.”

Cold Calling Objection #3: “We’re Already Working with Someone”

One of the most common pushbacks is, “We already work with another provider to do this, and they’re doing well.”

In this instance, many just say, “Thanks for your time. I understand. Have a great day.” And they move on to the next prospect, marking this one as a “no” because they’re locked up with a competitor. However, you should know that buyers switch regularly, and often the buyers are thinking about it when you call.¹ They’re just not saying it.

Your job is to start planting the seeds of why this prospect should buy from you. Here are three ways you can respond to the “we work with someone already” cold call objection:

1. “Good to hear. I’m curious, what do you think makes the relationship work so well?”

This is a relatively nonthreatening way to get key insight into the buyer’s mindset. It gets the prospect talking. And based on what he says, you can probe further and uncover areas where there may be issues with the current provider or holes in the current offerings that you can fill. After the prospect talks for a little bit, you can ask a series of “I’m curious to know” questions.

Let’s say you’re selling network and data security technology to banks. You can say, “Great to hear. I’m curious to know, though, if they have 24-hour support if something goes haywire on you?” or “I’m curious to know if they talked with you about the best papers from the last industry conference and the trends that are sweeping through the industry?” or “I’m curious to know if their most recent release will allow you to access all of your intrusion detection data in real time?” If you get any “no” answers, that leaves you room to explore more.

You might ask, “What topics do you cover in your monthly meetings with your current provider?” In most cases, the answer to that question is going to be, “We don’t have monthly meetings.” This gives you an opportunity to demonstrate how working with you is different. For example, you might say something like, “Oh, I didn’t realize that. Would you like to know what we typically cover in the monthly meetings we have with clients?

2. “It sounds like things are pretty good. But you didn’t say they were doing an amazing job. What would it look like if a company was doing an amazing job by your standards?”

By asking that question you get the prospect thinking about where the current provider may not be meeting expectations. It also gets them thinking about what it might be like if they did switch.

3. “Glad to hear that things are going well. While I am not too familiar with their process, I do know it’s always worthwhile to have a second set of eyes to look things over. The next time you have something like this, I’d be happy to give it a quick review to see if we’d approach it any differently. If nothing else, you’ll get a different perspective, and we may even be able to find you some additional improvement.”

When you offer to be a second set of eyes, it helps deepen the relationship and allows them to experience firsthand your service orientation and expertise.

The idea is to start building the relationship even though there is an incumbent. Remember, many prospects are looking to switch providers in a year or two, but they don’t start the call off by mentioning that. By building the relationship early, you give yourself the inside track for when they do switch. And you can create the impetus for making a switch happen now, not later.

If you want to get this far, though, the first thing you need to do is talk now, not later. Overcoming these three common cold calling objections should help quite a bit.

¹ In our How Clients Buy research, we asked several hundred business to business buyers if they would consider switching to new providers in the next two years. While results varied depending on the seller’s industry, on average 52% of buyers indicated they were open to switching.

Photo by: Howard Lake

How many of you have taken to the social networks when you’ve been unhappy with a company’s service? Posted on their Facebook wall when you couldn’t get someone to respond to you? Tweeted your unhappiness? Or posted comments on Yelp? I suspect a lot of you have. And if you’re doing it, you know your customers are also doing it.

We’ve been given so many venues to connect with people and share our thoughts and opinions, and we—as well as our customers—are increasingly vocal about our experiences. That’s a great thing when customers say good things about you. But when they say negative things, watch out. The picky, fickle, and vain customers of today will quickly leave you when not satisfied, and they’ll tell the world about their unhappiness, causing others to not even consider you.

What you must do, then, is turn those “wired and dangerous” customers into “wired and loyal” customers, write Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson in their article, Turn Picky, Fickle Customers into Loyal Clients.

There are a few things you can do to make that happen and keep customers from abandoning you, all of which revolve around giving exemplary customer service, say Bell and Patterson. Start by monitoring all mentions of you on the web and take all comments and complaints seriously. Catching and resolving issues early is essential.

“Research reveals a strong relationship between effort and satisfaction,” Bell and Patterson say. “When a client found an experience to be both satisfactory and effortless, they were three-and-a-half times more likely to say they were loyal. It means the concept of ‘first-call resolution’ may need to take a back seat to ‘first-contact resolution.’”

Become Irresistible

Customers today are also “crazy busy,” says Jill Konrath. They’re going as fast as they can to produce products, provide services, meet deadlines, resolve problems, and keep their businesses going. But you can capture their attention—and their business—if you can understand their thinking and show how you can help them, she says.

For example, buyers won’t listen to you if you present them with complex ideas. They don’t have time to sort it all out. They also won’t change anything if they think it will inhibit their careers. And if your service looks the same as what they currently use, they won’t switch. But they will pay attention if you keep things simple, demonstrate a strong business case, and minimize the risk of working with you, says Konrath in her article, How to Make Yourself Irresistible to Crazy-Busy Customers.

You must also be prepared, adds Konrath.

“If you aren’t prepared, you aren’t credible. In fact, you’re just like every other self-serving salesperson. Make sure every meeting with you is well worth their time,” she says.

Don’t Depend on Gravy. Get Out and Prospect

A little “gravy” in your sales diet is a good thing. New business simply falls into your lap. But if you rely on that easy business, or go on the “Gravy Diet,” you could starve. Successful salespeople know they have to take control of their future and have a system for getting new business, says Landy Chase in his article, Want to Lose Sales? Try the ‘Gravy Diet’.

That means you have to prospect for new business or potential customers will pass you by. You could provide a fantastic service that’s unique compared to nearly everyone in your field, but buyers have no idea. You need a system that includes marketing, referrals, branding, networking, and integrity, Chase says.

Generate Referrals

Referrals—absolutely, you think. That’s how you prefer to generate new business. But are you asking for referrals, or introductions, the right way? Or are you inadvertently pushing clients away and causing them to not refer you?

If you ask for a referral with an open-ended question—such as “Who else do you know?”—you will cause the client to resent you, says Colleen Francis in her Q&A, Avoid this Mistake When Asking for a Referral or Testimonial.

“Clients resent it when you go to them and ask them to do a whole bunch of work for you,” she says. “Asking for a referral in that open-ended statement won’t get you any referrals … because your clients have other things to do.”

Instead approach your client with the names of specific companies you would like to work with whom you think your client can help with, and say something like, “I was thinking that these engineering firms in California—A, B, and C—would be a really great fit for our business. I’m wondering if you can help me with an introduction,” Francis says.

Consider All Possibilities, Not Just the Tactic of the Week

We’ve said it before, the strategies you use to attract new customers depends on what your buyers prefer. If they actively use social media, then you need to network with them there. If they respond better to email, then you need to communicate with them via that platform. You can’t adopt a strategy or tactic simply because it’s new and sounds exciting.

In fact, when EPIC Translations needed to generate new business it went back to a marketing tactic many businesses have dropped since the explosion of online marketing—direct mail. Only it added an online twist to its campaign, writes Mary Flaherty in her case study, Firm Combines Direct Mail with Online Features to Increase Sales.

The company sent a postcard to a highly targeted list, and on the postcard included an online call to action so that it could better track responses. The postcard directed prospects to a specific landing page, and it had a QR code that people could scan to get information.

Imran Virk, director of sales at EPIC Translations, said he decided to explore direct mail because he noticed not many companies were using it.

“Don’t be afraid to be different and try tactics that have worked in the past,” he says. “What can actually get somebody’s attention now? Believe it or not, people do pay attention to something that they receive in the mail. I know I certainly do.”

Photo by kymillman

Leads, leads, leads. Once the referrals and the circle of family and friends aren’t enough to keep your firm growing, it’s all about the leads. Yet, when it comes to generating leads, consulting firms get it all wrong in 10 very common ways.

Top 10 Lead Generation Mistakes

Avoid these common lead generation mistakes and you’ll start to see your pipeline fill.

Lead Generation Mistake #1: Spending on marketing activities that don’t produce ROI or are “vanity exercises” (e.g. excessive graphic design and image advertising).

Open up your local business journal, and without a doubt you will see an advertisement for a consulting firm trying to “generate awareness.” This organization is “generating awareness” among the 25,000 readers who may (or may not) be targets for its services.

Meanwhile, the funds to create the ad (and to run the ad week after week) can surely be much better spent by reaching out to the smaller, more targeted pool of, say, 1,600 key prospects your firm wants as clients. For the most part, spending on general awareness ads produces a very low ROI if any.

Focus your lead generation efforts and dollars on tactics that are going to produce strong ROI.

Lead Generation Mistake #2: Expecting marketing tactics to produce results without a clear call to action.

I recently saw an ad in Harvard Business Review for a major consulting firm touting the nature of the firm as offering “solutions” versus just “services.” Many people saw that ad—and did nothing because they were asked to do nothing.

If, however, the ad had focused on new research in intellectual property protection for technology companies that could be downloaded as a white paper, the ad could have been used to generate leads for the firm.

People will accept an offer—white paper, case study, article, book, research, sales call—from an ad. They will rarely, if ever, pick up the phone and go from ad to becoming a new client.

Have a goal and clear call to action and offer for each of your marketing tactics.

Lead Generation Mistake #3: Not implementing any lead generation tactics because of inefficient decision making.

I can’t tell you how many times I have met with a consulting firm to talk about lead generation, and these companies are hot to trot with their lead generation efforts—they want more leads and they want them now. Then, six months go by, a year goes by, three years go by, and they still have done nothing.

All too often in consulting firms there are too many decision makers who can’t get on the same page and decide what to do when it comes to marketing and lead generation. So, they end up doing nothing or even worse running another awareness ad in the business journal.

If you find yourself complaining about a lack of leads, yet unwilling to move forward with any lead generation campaigns, either stop complaining or do something about it.

Lead Generation Mistake #4: Not being able to sustain implementation over the long-term.

As much as you might like to shorten the sales cycle, buying complex, trust-based services takes time. Leads need to be nurtured over the long term so you are top of mind when the elusive time of need arises.

All companies want more leads and want them now. As a result, they plan and implement a lead generation campaign, but they impatiently dig up the roots after two weeks to see if it’s growing yet. (This is not a good way to grow a tree or to generate new leads.)

Lead generation efforts must be sustained over months to make them 1) work and 2) improve over time.

Lead Generation Mistake #5: Relying on one tactic only.

In Managing the Professional Services Firm, David Maister lists “first string” marketing tactics, which include small scale seminars, speeches at client industry meetings, and proprietary research. Maister calls direct mail and cold calls “clutching at straws tactics.” By themselves, they are. Very few prospects will go from receiving direct mail, an email, a cold call, or even a first conversation straight to being a client.

But the best way to get people to take advantage of those “first string” offers is a combination of “grasping at straws” tactics.

Lead Generation Mistake #6: Poor implementation (e.g. poorly written marketing copy and poorly designed or poorly targeted campaigns).

Let’s say you decide to run a small-scale seminar (a “first string” marketing tactic). You spend months preparing the content, practicing your delivery, putting together the invitations, and booking the facility. Then, the day comes and two people show up. So, what happens? You give up on seminars and declare, “We tried that, it didn’t work.”

On the contrary, seminars can and do work, you just implemented the marketing of the seminar poorly.

A number of tactics can be successful to generate new leads for your consulting services. Know what it takes to successfully implement each tactic. And if you don’t know what it takes, get help from someone who does.

Lead Generation Mistake #7: Dropping leads and failing to nurture leads.

According to a research report by BPM Forum, over 80% of generated leads are never followed up on, are dropped, or are mishandled. Professional services businesses are particularly adept at neglecting the leads that they already have in-house, just waiting to be called.

It’s also been our experience that with proactively generated leads, 25% are short-term leads while 75% are long-term leads. If you’re focused on the short-term, you might be missing out on three-fourths of your opportunities.

Don’t let leads fall through the cracks. Develop a long-term nurturing plan to win your fair share of the 75% of prospects who are not ready to buy right now.

Lead Generation Mistake #8: Not communicating your value in marketing.

We often hear from our clients that they want their prospects to perceive that they are credible and distinct, so they end up writing marketing messages that say, “I’m credible and distinct.” Or, “I’m trustworthy.” Or, “I’m innovative, yet solid.”

If you want your clients and prospects to believe you are credible and distinct, you must demonstrate that you are credible and distinct. You can do this by providing value directly in your marketing and selling efforts. When you interact with a prospective client, or send any message to them, that prospect is evaluating what it might be like to work with you. Help them understand that working with you after they become your client is much the same as what it’s like working with you before they become your client.

Lead Generation Mistake #9: Not integrating various marketing tactics well.

Lead generation is a multi-step process. It takes multiple touches to draw prospects into the seduction of your services. These touches need to be well-planned with a consistent message, at the right frequency, and with the right mix of offers. Not all prospects will be interested in attending a seminar or reading a white paper. While others will want to do both before engaging a conversation with you.

Consider this: do you think a prospect will accept a meeting with you from a cold email? Probably not. But will that same prospect provide you with their contact information in exchange for a new white paper that is relevant to their business? Probably. And will they accept a follow-up call to discuss the content of the white paper or an in-person meeting to discuss how the topic applies to their business and situation? More often than not, the answer is yes.

Integrate your lead generation efforts for the greatest success.

Lead Generation Mistake #10: Planning poorly for lead generation.

Value in marketing. Consistent messaging. Integration. Targeting. Lead nurturing. All of that is for naught if it is not well-planned, measured, and tested.

Planning for lead generation is not the kind of thing that happens one time and is forever etched in stone for the year ahead. When it comes to marketing and lead generation, some tactics work better for some companies than others—and you never know which ones work best for you until you test them.

Avoid these top 10 lead generation mistakes and you won’t end up waiting for the new leads. You will already have them.

Become a better prospector using these lead generation practices

Last week we were teaching a client of ours and 100 or so of the folks on their consulting team about prospecting.

It was really quiet. And this group isn’t usually so quiet.

It finally livened up when one guy—a very experienced consultant and leader at the firm— said:

“It ain’t you guys. It’s us. Speaking for myself, I’m great at what I do. But when
it’s time to pick up the phone—or do whatever I’m supposed to do to bring in leads—I need a medic alert because I
feel like that old dude.

“I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”

Everyone else started to nod in agreement, “Me too…me too…”

If you’re there on the floor with them, looking around for that button, let us break it down for you to its most simple steps.

First off, let’s take a page from direct marketing and its age-old formula referred to as AIDA. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Think of prospecting as the process of creating attention and interest—enough interest to win a conversation to explore the subject area more deeply.

The goal of prospecting is to create interest and convert that interest into a conversation.

Note that we didn’t say that the goal of prospecting is to find someone currently looking to purchase your particular services. For most, this is not what you want to do because it doesn’t work often enough.

When prospecting you will find people who are already in the Desire Phase (someone interested in solving a particular problem or purchasing a known type of service) or the Action Phase (someone already in the process of searching for a solution to the problem). But if your approach is only to look for these people, then you’re in for a number of rude awakenings:

• Find someone who is already looking to buy, and they likely have a front-runner in mind. This front-runner is not you.
• If you don’t sell a commodity, it’s likely that the buyer isn’t considering buying what you offer because he doesn’t know much (if anything) about it, let alone how it works and why it’s worthwhile.
• Find someone who has the desire to solve a problem and hasn’t yet started looking into how to do it, and you’re in luck! But finding these people will be like finding the proverbial needle in the proverbial haystack.

If you are the one who can capture Attention and stimulate Interest and Desire, you will be the front-runner, you will shape the prospect’s understanding of the importance of solving a particular problem, and you will be in the position to persuade them into Action.

If you really want to be a successful prospector and fill your pipeline with leads, here are the six keys to lead generation success:

1. Targeting

The foundation that underpins sales prospecting success is the strength of your list and the precision of your targeting. Consultants often call too low in the organization and try to start a groundswell by working their way up. Reach high to the decision makers. Make sure your list is clean and ready to go before you start, or you’ll find that your day is lost in fits and starts.

2. Value in Every Touch

When you sell, no one wants to hear your capability pitch, your history, or your life story right off the bat. They’re looking to find out how their lives can be enriched by working with you.

When you think about providing value, don’t just think about the value you will eventually provide when they buy from you. Think about the value they’ll get just from speaking with you. Eventually you’ll sell your company, your offering, and yourself. At first, sell the idea that the prospects’ time will be well-spent if they elect to speak with you.

3. The Right Offer

Your ultimate offer might be a particular type of assessment, operations plan, or marketing tactic. But the interim offers—the offers you make and they accept before they buy from you—must be crafted with the utmost care.

4. No Tricks

Plenty of business success awaits you with your high-integrity approach. There is no need to use tricks, bend the truth, or cut corners to generate an initial conversation. Leave out anything that you wouldn’t feel comfortable telling your children about when you tuck them in bed at night.

5. Multiple Touches

It takes more attempts than most people think to get through to top prospects. It can often take seven, eight, nine, or more touches to get through to someone. That number goes up and down—across different industries and when you reach out to different titles. What’s always true, though, is that it takes more attempts to get through to your targets than you think.

6. Variety of Touches

Cold calling works well alone, but it works even better with mail (yes, we are talking snail mail here) and email touches. Use a variety of touches to reach out and warm up your prospects. And make sure each touch has value in and of itself (see #2).

Adhere to these six keys, and you’ll be well on your way to lead generation success. At the very least, you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of the consultants out there who will not prospect at all.

Photo by Tony Oliver

Selfish jerks don't win sales

The economic climate seems to be improving, but many businesses continue to fight for every client, every dollar. Increased competition for hesitant buyers combined with increased operational expenses can worry any firm. But there are things you can do to make client acquisition easier, as well as keep expenses from getting out of control. Here’s a look at four:

1. Stop Being Selfish

If you are concerned only with making a quota or concerned only about what you can get from a buyer, then you will fail. If you’re a selfish jerk, no one will want to do business with you, says sales coach Dan Waldschmidt in his podcast interview, 3 Things that Sink Most Companies.

“Our sales forces and our marketing forces are full of selfish behaviors. It’s all about me. From our basic sales training we’re taught to trade commitments—that I will do for you after you do for me. I will give you a demo, if you promise to make a decision when I’m done,” Waldschmidt says.

You need to be giving, you have to be kind, and you have to uncover your buyers’ biggest concerns so that you can help them.

2. Have Quality Conversations with Buyers

Skip the old-fashioned sales pitch that’s all about you and your services. During meetings ask questions that get buyers talking about issues that concern them, and then listen—really listen.

Don’t go into a meeting with a set agenda and refuse to stray from it. If a buyer opens up about something, let them talk. Only after you understand their concerns can you craft a solution that’s right for them. Resist the temptation to interrupt a prospect because you haven’t yet talked about your services.

“Life is hard. People don’t have time to care about you and what [services] you’re selling. They care about themselves. They’re trying to survive. They’re trying to live,” Waldschmidt says.

Before you go into a meeting or even pick up the phone to set up a meeting, you should know something about the prospect, their interests, and their concerns. Perhaps a “trigger event” has occurred that will ease the conversation—maybe the company recently merged with another or it has moved to a new location.

If the person’s contact information came from a conference, it might shed some light on what the prospect is interested in. People working the booths need to gather information about the prospects who stop by, not just scan their badges or accept their business cards. Ask them why they stopped by and what challenges they’re dealing with. Doing so will not only help determine if they’re a qualified lead, but it will help when sales follows up with them.

Virtual events can automate the process. Using tracking and recording technology, you can see what presentations they attend, what booths they visit, what experts they talk to, and what they talked about, writes Joerg Rathenberg in his article, Virtual Business Environments a Perfect Match for Service Firms. You can see clearly what their interests are and how to position your services to help them.

3. Don’t Do Things Just Because Everyone Else Does Them

There’s so much pressure to do something because “everyone else” seems to be doing it. Virtual events, social media, webinars—whatever the new trend may be, don’t do it unless it makes sense for your company.

There are two reasons for this:

1. If you do what everyone else does and don’t differentiate in any way, you will be lost in a wall of noise. No one will take notice.
2. The expense of doing something may not generate the results you want. You will have spent time and money on something that didn’t give you anything in return.

Writes Bruce Marcus in his article, Marketing: ‘But Everybody Else Is Doing It That Way’:

“Selling without a context of marketing, simply because that’s what some others are doing, denies the value of everything we’ve learned about marketing professional services since Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, as well as the value of pre-selling with a good marketing campaign. This is usually done when the marketing is dictated by an accountant or lawyer who doesn’t have marketing experience. Yes, it may get a few new clients. But no, it won’t build a sustaining practice and shape it to your specifications.”

So, when someone in your firm says your marketing team should be using Twitter, for example, because a competitor is, research the pros and cons before jumping in. And if you do jump in, do it with flair and originality so that you don’t look and sound like all the others.

4. Consider Hiring a Third Party to Help

It would be great if every company could have a full staff to do everything in house—IT support staff, website developers, human resources professionals, etc. But for small firms, that’s simply not possible. Often outside providers can do for you at a lesser cost what it costs a full-time staff to do.

One area firms are considering outsourcing is marketing. With website providers stepping up their game in the world of online marketing, you might not need a full-time marketer, writes Brian O’Connell in his article, Do You Really Need a Full-time Marketer?

Services a website provider could perform in place of an in-house marketer include advertising and promotions, newsletters, client communications, copywriting, and graphic design, O’Connell says.

“If you’re a service provider trying to find ways to cut costs, check with your website provider. You might be delighted to see how much they can help with your marketing,” he says.

What do you think? Is outsourcing marketing a good idea? What other ideas do you have to help businesses compete and succeed?

Photo by Wes2theG09

For most people, prospecting for new clients can be challenging—not to mention intimidating. While I’m not involved in sales for RainToday.com, I face a similar challenge when it comes to finding people to interview on our weekly podcast show. I need to make the calls and send the emails to people—highly regarded and influential people—and hope they don’t reject me or RainToday, that they’ll return my call or email and want to learn more.

Lining up podcast interviews might not seem like a big deal, but for an editor who prefers to work with words, it puts me out of my comfort zone. I feel vulnerable putting myself out there—networking and reaching out to complete strangers. And waiting for their replies is a nerve-wracking experience. Then when they do reply, a whole other set of nerves kick in. I think, “Yes! They replied! But what if they said no? I bet they said no. But they could have said yes. Do I want to read the email now? Of course I do, just go read it.”

It’s so much easier when potential interviewees come to me, asking if they can be on our show. They know about RainToday, our podcasts, and me. I don’t need to convince them of anything because they already know about us. The hardest thing is scheduling the interview.

The same can be said for prospecting and business development. If prospects come to you, rather than you having to seek them out, the process is so much easier and less stressful. So, how do you do that?

You can do what Joseph Riden suggests in his article, Don’t Push: Create a Content Marketing System that Pulls Buyers to You.

With content marketing, you set aside traditional prospecting methods in which you push information about you and your services onto prospects. You publish quality content online so that when prospects have a need and begin researching solutions, they find your content—advice, explanations, possible solutions, etc.—and call you to learn more.

“Content marketing holds the key to entering easy, natural dialogs that build trust and connections with potential clients,” Riden says. “Content distribution enables you to sell by simple demonstration, without self-conscious sales calls or pressurized closes. Your content stream is like a tastefully decorated store window. This approach not only brings more billable hours, but it positions you to pick and choose clients you most want to work with from inbound inquiries.”

Putting the Content in Content Marketing

Your content can include white papers, case studies, research, advice columns, and podcasts.

Your podcasts can simply be you giving advice and tips. But if you interview people, people you’d like to do business with, you have a very good chance of turning those interviewees into clients. That’s because the interview helps you develop rapport with the person, says Todd Schnick in his podcast interview, Get Prospects to Come to You–Start Podcasting.

“They gave us an hour of time, and they spilled their guts and said all kinds of things during the broadcast that was wonderful information to gather and use as you begin to articulate and craft your sales pitch,” says Schnick as he describes his experience with podcasts.

“And the real beauty was how we built an immediate relationship because all of the sudden all of you are friends—you survived the broadcast together, they begin to trust you, you have immediate rapport, and it just became very, very easy to transition to the conversation that you really wanted to have with that person,” Schnick says.

Then, as more people hear about your interviews, they want to be interviewed for your podcast show. Soon you have people calling to talk to you instead of you trying to get in touch of prospects. Pick the people you’d like to interview, and use the interview as a way to get to know the person and their company better while at the same time giving them an opportunity to talk about their news—a new book, research report, white paper, etc.

Schnick says not to worry about the number of subscribers you have or the number of times your interviews are downloaded. Your concern should only be with the conversation you’re having with the person.

“The only audience I really care about is that prospect sitting across from me in the studio because I’m using this as a vehicle with which to generate a relationship, expedite a relationship with this prospect,” he says.

Getting the Word Out

As Schnick happily discovered, word about his radio show podcasts spread and it didn’t take long for people to start coming to him to be on the show.

There are other things you can do to get people talking about you and wanting your services, adds C.J. Hayden in her article, Promoting Your Business with People Power.

For example, you can find people who are centers of influence—those individuals whose recommendations carry weight with many others—and connect with them on a regular basis. The idea is to develop a relationship in which they automatically think to refer you should they come across someone who needs services like those you offer.

“The best way to begin creating this kind of buzz about your business is to identify a core community of people who might become champions for it. Your current and former clients, colleagues who admire your work, and any centers of influence you already know are ideal candidates for this. Get in touch with your community often to share your excitement about the work you are doing,” Hayden says.

You should also ask them to introduce you to other people. Even better, ask if they will pass on information about your business to those who might be interested, Hayden says. For the most part people like to help, and will happily do what they can to spread the word about you. But you can’t wait for it to happen, you have to ask.

Check Your Attitude

No matter what you do, successful prospecting and business development starts with the right attitude. You have to be committed to networking and reaching out to people.

It also helps if you are optimistic, says Colleen Stanley in her article, Your Bad Mood Is Affecting Sales. There is evidence that shows optimistic salespeople make more money, she says.

Psychologist Martin Seligman “followed the progress of the new sales hires [at MetLife] for one year and found that salespeople who scored high in optimism sold 33% more insurance than those who scored low. After two years, the optimistic salespeople were thriving in their positions,” Stanley writes.

How optimistic is your organization? One optimistic trait is that you learn from adversities you face and recognize that such challenges are temporary, not think that they are the end of everything.

“If business is a little slow, optimistic salespeople speed it up by taking care of their best assets: existing clients,” Stanley says. “They invest more time in consistent prospecting. They know the economy will turn, and when it does, the prospect will call them, not their competitor who has been sitting in his office comparing sad stories with his pessimistic colleagues.”

Optimism is a choice, Stanley stresses. You can choose to do something good in your day and in your business or you can take the doom-and-gloom approach and think nothing you do will make things better. Misery loves company, but it will do nothing to help you succeed. Resist it.

Photo by Josh Fassbind