(Image by Mohamed Ibrahim)
The uncertain economy is making it difficult for many firms to break out of the economic doldrums that have been sitting over us for what seems like a really long time. Every once in a while we get a peek at the sun coming out from behind the dark clouds, but the clouds won’t move completely out of the way. The result is worried professionals trying to get business from companies whose leaders are also worried, stressed out, over worked, and bombarded with offers.
What does it take to get through to those buyers, who don’t see an end in sight to the chaos? It calls for analysis, planning, and old fashioned hard work. No one is going to give you a magic wand to wave.
You want to start by acknowledging your buyers’ predicament. They are, as Jill Konrath writes, suffering from “Frazzled Customer Syndrome,” and you need to approach them differently than how you have handled other prospects and leads in the past. In fact, “traditional sales strategies actually create insurmountable obstacles that can derail your sales efforts,” Konrath writes in her article, What to Do When Clients Suffer from ‘Frazzled Customer Syndrome’.
Following Konrath’s SNAP Rules, however, you can change how such prospects react to you. Start by keeping it simple. Make it easy for them to buy from you, she says. You also want to show that you’re invaluable, align what you do with what they want to achieve, and raise priorities.
Colleen Stanley adds that successful selling starts with having the right intent. Enter each sales call with a sincere desire to understand and help your prospects and clients, not simply make a quick sale.
“A salesperson who enters a sales call with a sincere desire to understand the prospect’s business and challenges will close more sales than the articulate, polished, lower-priced competitor,” Stanley writes in her article, The #1 Factor to Increase Sales Results. “Human beings are wired to sense dishonesty and lack of authenticity. Likewise, they can spot a person who is genuine and desires to do the right thing. Whom would you rather do business with?”
If you follow Stanley’s advice, not only are you more likely to win that sale but chances are high the client will refer you to others—the sweet spot for generating new business. They key is to make sure they’re quality referrals, which can be more challenging, writes Daniel Kehrer in his article, 7 Steps to Better Client Referrals. And that calls for first implementing a referral-generation plan, Kehrer says.
“Referrals aren’t automatic. Some business owners assume that a great product or terrific customer service will generate referrals by default. Not so. You have to learn to ask, and make sure employees are on board as well,” Kehrer says.
Follow that with giving clients some ammunition to help them refer you: business cards, brochures, link to your website or blog, he says.
If those items are content from your thought leadership platform, that’s even better. Those pieces of content—blog posts, white papers, bylined articles, articles in which you are quoted—help establish your authority.
You can also use those content pieces to build up your brand and become a go-to person in your industry, says Craig Badings in his podcast interview, Stop Practicing Random Acts of Content. But they must be part of a thought leadership platform that your entire firm adopts, says Badings, author of Brand Stand: Seven Steps to Thought Leadership.
“If thought leadership is not a part of corporate culture, then that thought leadership campaign is going to limp along and will never really achieve any great height,” he says.
Doing otherwise is just a PR campaign to drive coverage that is dressed up as thought leadership, Badings says.
What Do You Have to Say?
Have you been able to generate new business during these stressful economic times? What strategies have worked well? Which ones flopped?
