The Forgotten Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is the nemesis of most business owners. Many business owners I speak to in Langley, Surrey and Greater Vancouver are very frustrated with results they get from their marketing expenditures and write off ineffective activities with comments like “at least I got our name out there.”

Unless you are Coca-Cola or General Motors most small and medium size businesses cannot afford to just “get their name out there.”

We need results that actually pay back in cold hard cash.

The single purpose of any marketing activity is to produce leads. Not to sell but to produce opportunities to sell. To produce leads many small business owners go to networking events, spend all kinds of time and money on social media and throw some print ads in various publications hoping that they will be showered with leads.

Although the above strategies will produce some leads, very few businesses are able to build their entire business on them. So what’s left?

The forgotten marketing strategy is the direct outreach strategy aka the sales prospecting call. Coca-Cola spends enormous amounts of money on advertising yet they still have armies of sales people in the streets calling on retailers to place and sell their product. Why do they do this? Because it WORKS!

Here are a few ideas on how to start selling and improve your marketing strategy

• Don’t treat a sales call as a sales call. Think of it as a business conversation where you are introducing yourself
• Pick 50 ideal clients you would like to do business with. Either send them an introductory letter or drop off information if a business. Be sure to get the right contact information.
• Follow up in 24 to 72 hours to arrange an appointment so you can have a real sales conversation. Depending on your effectiveness on the phone you should be able to get 2 – 5 appointments. Now let the games begin.

An effective sales prospecting program will grow your business more cost effectively and more quickly than any other marketing program.

It amazes me how many small business owners start a business but don’t want to sell. Perhaps it is fear of rejection or lack of sales training. There are many great books and sales training programs out there providing information on how to sell. Investing in one of these programs may be the wisest investment you ever make in your business.

If you want to develop a sales prospecting program or get sales training but don’t know where to start don’t hesitate to contact me directly. I would be happy to meet with your for an hour at no charge to work on a sales prospecting program or any other business challenge you are currently facing. Feel free to contact me at 604.374.5934 for email tony@empoweredbusiness.ca.

Happy selling!