Lots of Small Business Pros sense that their advertising doesn't work. But they have no clue about how to fix it. So they dump their useless, money-sucking advertising…and think…
"Ok, I know what "will" work:
I'm gonna put all my effort and faith into word-of-mouth marketing.
We hear this one a lot- "All my business is word-of-mouth. I have been around so many years. Everybody knows me".
Usually when we have a real, honest, heart- to- heart talk, the truth comes out…
"Yeah, I get my share of referrals, but I could always use more…and well, some of 'em aren't all that hot".
It's an ego thing. It's a rationalization. You tried advertising, trade shows, direct mail, but it didn't work. You got burned. So now you convince yourself that you got all the business you want, all from ideal clients, and you're hauling money to the bank in wheelbarrows.
Yeah Right.
You can build a great business from referrals, but it doesn't happen by accident, and done right, it is not free
Here's an effective referral business-building process practiced by the top financial advisors in the
1. Identify your "Top Ten" dollar projects/income from clients last year.
2. Determine the "Similar Seven"-type of home, neighborhood, type of project, income, age, occupation, family stats, lifestyle, buying trigger event, etc.
3. Using the "Similar Seven" analysis, construct a description of your Ideal Prospect:
- Where do they live? Neighborhoods?
- What do they do? Income levels?
- Family Status? Children? Age Range?
- What do they fear, desire? Who are they trying to impress?
- How do they typically make decisions to hire you?
- What event cause them to seek and buy your product/service?
- How long do you typically "court" them?
- How you found lead?
- Communication prior to project/engagement?
- Communication during consultation/project?
- Prepare it in a print presentation or CD/DVD presentation. Keep a digital version on your website.
- Have a system to share it with clients / prospects that fit this description.
- Share your Ideal Prospect description your centers of influence, suppliers, and strategic partners.
- Ask past clients who do they know who fits this Ideal Prospect description.
5. Send an intro from the client. A personalized, hand-written note from your client introducing you works best.
6. Invite the prospect to subscribe to your newsletter, download a free report, or attend a project Open House /Free Consultation. Get the prospect in your marketing funnel and begin telling your story to them.
Bottom-Line: Without a well-planned strategic process for Referrals, you’ll experience “feast” or “famine” results, and you’ll only realize less than 10% of your return on investment in time, effort, and money.
Coming up… your phone is ringing.
What you do in the next 3 seconds determines if you book the appointment.
Walt Goshert
Make Your marketing Work
Walt@Make-Your-Marketing-Work.com
4 comments:
that sounds very focused and regimented, and it might work, but the people I've met are too "shoot from the hip" to go through all that work. which makes me ask "what kind of psychological thinking or training of your brain do you need to go through to get yourself to take this regemented, consistent action?
You need to develop the "Tiger Woods" mindset. He's the most mentally disciplined athlete around. His workouts , practice, and preparation for tournaments are very focused and regimented.
It all starts with Tiger's burning desire:win more major golf championships than Jack Nicklaus.
The winners, whether in golf or financial services, don't "shoot from the hip"... ever!
They put in the work and train their brains to win!
Hey Walt,
Good timing, I'm about to start a clinic in a new area.
Your demographic todo list makes an excellent, ready-made, research tool, to present to the clinics operators for researching their local clientel demographics.
Catchya,
Francis
Thanks for the comment Francis.
It goes beyond demographics. It includes psychographics and purchase trigger events.
The investment you make in digging in and truly understand your market rewards you over and over again.
Drop me an email if you have any questions.
Walt
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