You might have an amazing service, and your contact might think it’s the perfect thing for his company, but chances are it’s going to take more than that to close the sale. More likely than not, many more people are involved in the buying process and several decisions must be made before your contact signs on the dotted line. The secret is to facilitate the process, says Sharon Drew Morgan in this week’s RainToday podcast, Stop Pitching Your Services and Facilitate the Buying Decision. Help them bring together all the parties involved and get questions answered quickly.
Listen to these sales and marketing secrets (Photo by Skelekitten)
If you do that, not only will you make that sale, but you will enable your firm to become a real business. And that’s something Suzanne Lowe says firms need to do if they want to survive in today’s economy. In her article Consulting Firms Must Become Real Businesses to Survive, Lowe explains how firms cannot just hang out a shingle and expect to have a successful business unaffected by economic or technological shifts. If leaders of today’s professional services want to transform their firms in real businesses, Lowe explains four factors to guide them.
Growing your business also comes from building marketing relationships, says C.J. Hayden in her article, Grow Your Business by Building Marketing Relationships. Take time to understand your audience, share your ideas, listen to their concerns, and ask for their opinions. Doing so will help build their trust in you—and build relationships.
One person who has mastered the skill of relationship building is Jeremy Epstein, explains Mary Flaherty in her case study, How an Independent Practitioner Built a Business in a Recession. Before Epstein launched his firm, Never Stop Marketing, he already had a network of contacts and was in touch with them regularly. When he started his firm, those relationships helped him get clients and speaking engagements. Those, combined with the packaged services he provides, helped make the firm a sustainable business with revenue of nearly a quarter million dollars.
Before you try to do what Never Stop Marketing does, however, you have to make sure your marketing strategy matches your business objectives. One thing you need to ask: do you want to acquire new clients or generate leads? Randy Shattuck says in his article, Lead Generation or Client Acquisition: Which Do You Need? that there is a difference between the two and not understanding that leads to confusion and inaccurately aligned marketing campaigns.
It takes work—and may even require stepping out of your comfort zone—but these secrets and strategies can help your firm overcome the current economic challenges and not only survive but also thrive.
