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Archive for the ‘sales leads’ Category
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
1. Any blog about Twitter that explores alternatives, critical points of view, improvements, or anything helpful that is not 100% Pro-Twitter rhetoric.
2. Political bias in social media.
3. Life after Twitter or Facebook.
4. Terminology: “Social Media” versus “New Media”. Social Media is the preferred term yet many Web 2.0 tools clumped into this umbrella are not inherently “social”.
5. Generating sales via Social media (Not personal branding, resume blasting, SEO, website promotions, or any other bastardization of sales, SALES as in direct B2B/B2C sales!)
7. Critically examining the media surrounding the social media industry itself. What are the goals, motivations, and purpose of people who write about social media?
8. Are too many bloggers regurgitating the same ideas and stories they read on Mashable, TechCrunch, and other popular blogs?
Feel free to share links to articles that explore these topics or suggest other topics you think deserve attention.
Posted in sales leads | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Whether you’re conducting a formal survey or chatting with a client, there are certain questions you need to ask . Get serious about generating new sales leads and find out what your clients really think.
1. Are you satisfied with the quality of my services?
2. Would you refer me to family or friends?
3. What can improve?
Ignoring these questions for fear of undesirable answers is the worst approach. You need to regularly ask these questions if you are serious about growing your business.
Can you recommend any other questions?
Posted in sales leads | No Comments »
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Referral marketing is an essential strategy for most small business owners. Effectively managing your referral is one of the easiest ways to increase the quantity and quality of your sales leads.
A Contact Manager
Contact management may seem like an obvious necessity to good referral marketing but you’d be surprised just how many people assume their “gmail” is the best way to manage their contacts. The best marketers keep notes and classify contacts into categories that make sense for them i.e. friends, colleagues, referral partners, clients, prospects, U.S., Canada, …..
Throwing your contacts into one e-mail list puts you at a real disadvantage.
Referral Tracking
Referral tracking is one of the most overlooked stages of the referral process. It can be relativity easy to network and find people with need professional services however, it is tracking those leads that will truly help you drive revenue. From the moment you receive a sales lead until after you have closed, you should use a tool that can help answer these fundamental questions:
Do you think the referral will result in a sale?
Did the client expect you to contact them?
Who did this referral come from?
Did the referral result in a sale?
When did you follow up with the prospect?
When was the referral sent?
Was the referral qualified?
Was the referral timely?
Reciprocity Reports
Reci…what?!! Reciprocity reports let you and your referral partners understand how you view your professional relationship. In other words, you may get a lot of business from Dave the realtor and maybe you don’t send Dave an equitable number of referrals. Perhaps, you forgot, didn’t think Dave wanted new business, or just haven’t had an opportunity. Whatever the reason, this relationship will eventually break down because it is imbalanced.
A reciprocity report asks both parties to rate their referral relationship as either “balanced”, “I should send more referrals”, or “I should receive more referrals”. If either person indicated an “imbalance” in the relationship, both parties will be made aware and encouraged to open a dialog.
Surely, you can think of at least a few professional relationships that have either become inactive or sour because either person didn’t feel the relationship with balanced.
Tags: sales lead generation
Posted in referral marketing, sales lead generation, sales leads | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
You consider yourself a fairly internet savvy small business owner, don’t you?
You know what a Tweet is, you’re swapping sales leads on Referral Key and you think MySpace is “so last year”. But, have you studied your social media demographics lately?
Every marketer knows that it’s important to understand the demographics of your target customers. It’s also important to understand the demographics of the people whom use the medium through which you deliver your message. Ask Proctor and Gamble to tell you about the people who watch the shows in which their commercials air and you’d be surprised just how much they can tell you.
Social media, as a marketing tool, is so new that there aren’t any definitive demographics.
Over the next few days, we’ll be discussing the future of demographic trends in social media.
Men and Women
According to a study conducted by Cone, a well-respected Strategic Consultant Agency, Men are twice as likely as women to interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media (33% to 17%, respectively).
“The ease and efficiency of online conversation is likely a draw for men who historically do not seek out the same level of interaction with companies as women.” says Mike Hollywood, Director of New Media at Cone. He goes on to say, “The ease and efficiency of online conversation is likely a draw for men who historically do not seek out the same level of interaction with companies as women.”
You can find the full study here.
What Small Businesses Will Want to Consider
The benefits of marketing through social media is still a hotly debated subject but if you do find social media is worth your time and effort, then you’ll certainly want to consider your demographics just like you would using any other marketing medium.
- Are your networks mostly made up of men or women?
- Who do you interact with more often, men or women?
- Is your product/service gender specific? If not, could your message be tweaked to more intimately appeal to a specific gender?
- Is it possible that you could be alienating or even upsetting a particular gender and not even know it?
- Are you making sure you’re networking with your target market, not just the kinds of people you personally find easiest to interact with?
Tags: sales leads, small business, social media marketing
Posted in sales leads, social media demographics | No Comments »
Friday, April 17th, 2009
We proudly present Fable Fridays. This weekly installment will draw parallels between referral networking and some of society’s most cherished moral tales: Aesop’s Fables.
You could go to expensive seminars and buy up every book on referral marketing, but it doesn’t take a marketing genius to realize that Aesop got it right nearly 3,000 years ago.
See more Fable Fridays
The Bundle of Sticks
A father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks.
When they had done so, he placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it.
He next opened the bundle, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons’ hands, upon which they broke them easily.
He then addressed them in these words: “My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this bundle, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks.”
“Union gives strength”
The Bundle of Small Business Leads
A small business CEO had a Sales Team, a group of IT Specialists and several Marketing Consultants who were constantly blaming each other for poor performance. When the team was unable to meet revenue expectations for the quarter, the CEO decided to teach his team a costly lesson in the power of union.
- He gave his Sales Team a budget to buy expensive marketing programs, attend big-ticket seminars, and fly all over the country seeking the secret to sales success.
- He gave his IT Specialists an allowance to spend on a pricey Pay-Per-Click campaign to gain ad placement by outbidding competitors twice their size.
- He gave his Marketing Consultants the funds to launch an experimental social media campaign whereby a group of 10 people would be paid to blog 24 hours a day.
At the end of the quarter he gathered his team together and asked them how they had done. Neither the Sales Team, the IT Specialists, nor the Marketing Consultants were able to claim any net profit. They were unable to offset their spending and therefore unable to break last quarter’s revenue drop.
He then said, “I want each of you to write down the names and contact information of 20 professionals you know and trust; then combine your networks and figure out a way to send each professional a few qualified sales leads.”
By connecting the right service providers with the appropriate prospects, they were able to create an incredibly efficient network. They increased the quality and quantity of their inbound referrals, they had also become an integral source of revenue for others; making their word of mouth reach phenomenal.
“Network glue equals revenue”
Tags: Fable Fridays, small business leads
Posted in Fable Fridays, referral marketing, sales leads | No Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
If Clear Channel called you tomorrow morning and said they had an unused billboard and that they’d like to let you use this advertising space for free, you’d be a fool not to act on the offer. While this scenario is unlikely, you’d be surprised just how many small business owners shell out big bucks to be in antiquated directories such as the Yellow Pages, but overlook the easiest and (sometimes free) advertising opportunities available to them.
Online business directories are used by millions of consumers and businesses to find service providers. If you aren’t actively taking advantage of an online business directory, then you’re really doing yourself a disservice. Right now there are probably thousands of potential referral partners and clients seeking services you provide. If you aren’t listed, you don’t exist.
A great place to start is the Referral Key business directory. It’s free and easy to list your business.
1. Create a free account and click “My Profile” in the charcoal navigation bar.
2. Take just a few moments to describe your services in a compelling way.
There are thousands of clients and referral partners searching the directory. By listing your services, you can be confident you are taking the right steps to ensure a stronger business network and more sales leads.
Tags: advertising, b2b directory, Business Directory
Posted in business networks, sales leads | 26 Comments »
Friday, March 13th, 2009
As intimidating as investment bankers may seem, they can be a key resource in your referral network. Although you may not see it now, investment bankers are good people to know especially, if you decide to sell your company. Here is just one example…
Network Wisely
Terra Kinder of First Choice Business Brokers in South Carolina is a business broker who happens to get many of her referrals from small investment banks. Just walking through the doors of an investment bank can create unexpected opportunities for mutually beneficial referral relationships. Your investment banker knows brokers like Terra Kinder and when it comes time to sell, she is the kind of player you want on your team. By working together, Terra and the banker help generate quality sales leads for each other while at the same time helping you, the small business owner, achieve your goals.
Building the Right Referral Relationships
Networking with a professional at a boutique investment bank, who often works with other small business, can be a hub of referral activity.
Building referral relationships with a banker early on, can lead to a better deal with a broker when you need their services.
Tags: business broker, investment banker, referral, sales leads
Posted in Referral Network, referral, sales leads | 1 Comment »
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