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| Ride The Elephant To More Revenue For Your Business |
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This single strategy (if executed correctly) has put $100,000′s of dollars in my clients pockets. So pay attention here… Most all businesses I work with have what I like to call “power partners” that they are either working with now or can identify very quickly with a 30-60 minute exercise. The key here is to get real clear about who your “power partners” are in your local or online markets. After you are clear, it will be much easier to identify the “Elephants” to target directly for joint venture opportunities or referrals. Let’s walk through three (3) steps to identify your the “Elephants” you can ride all of the way to more revenue and profits for your business. Step 1 – Get Clear, Identify your Power Partners. Set aside 30-60 minutes and go through this exercise. It is important that you get clear on potential partners, and also industries that align well with your business. Start writing down Industries that can potentially refer you business, then make another list of businesses that you can refer business TO. Remember, the whole goal here is to create VALUE for the Elephant first. In order to find that one “Elephant” you need to be clear on what industry they exist in first. Ok good, we have our list and we can move on to step number 2… Step 2 – Create The List This step takes a little more research. But hey, we are talking about growing your business here. This might take you 3-4 hours initially but well worth the effort. Take your list, pull open your web browser and start searching for businesses in your city, state, or region that are potential partners in the key industries that you identified in step 1. Try to focus on the top 3-5 largest in your area. Dig deep here and try to find key contact information for each organization. You may have to call to ask for the person responsible for referrals. One strategy I have used is call a business and say, “If I wanted to refer business to your company, who would I need to call?”. See what we are doing here…? We are creating value first, then building a relationship.. An example would be a house painter. I might build a list of contractors, plumbers, electricians, and basically any other trade that might reach my potential prospect. Step 3 – The “Magic” Bullet Ok, so here’s where the real magic happens… For each contact, you want to write a quick letter and email to introduce yourself, then follow-up with a few key questions to open the conversation. This is very powerful! 1) I am looking for a partner to refer business to in the <Profession> industry in my area. Who is your ideal client? 2) What is the best way to refer you business? If you want a sample email I use, click here to email me and I will send it over to you. Just like any marketing system, it may take several contacts to get in touch with the right person. With a little sweat and persistence you will find the Elephant in your market. All you need is one, that’s it! Now get out there and take some action. The tip I gave you today is enough to grow many small businesses by 10%+ if you do something with it…That is always the key, you have to take the action. Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
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Tags: | 3 Lead Generation Tips For Your Business |
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Are you short on leads? Do you need a system to create leads on auto-pilot for your business? Sure you do… I have small business owners consistently ask me how to generate more leads for their business. While these tips aren’t a shortcut to a successful lead generation system, they will kick start your efforts… Here are a few lead generation ideas for your business: Tip #1 - Ask More Questions - Head right over to search.twitter.com and start searching for keywords related to your product or service. Find those conversations that are already occurring and send a Direct Message to the person and ask them how you can help. Ask them what they like and dislike about your particular industry, product, or service. Focus on adding value to them. I guarantee if you make this a habit you will grab a couple new clients in the process. Tip #2 - Yelp! For Help - Customer service sites like yelp are making it possible to eaves drop on your customers. Although we are more likely to say things on the net we would not say face to face does not mean your customers will say it on your site. Companies like Yelp encourage customers to come to their websites and lay at the good, the bad and the ugly of other companies. You may find it worth while to visit these sites to find customers that are satisfied with your company and reward them or find customers unsatisfied and try to make them happy again. Trolling these sites should defiantly be part of your market strategy. Tip #3 - Be a Connector – If you want more leads for your business, give first. Here’s what you can do. Target one business in your network that you think you can promote to your list of clients or even prospects. Send an email or highlight that business as a business of the month. I guarantee if you do this once a month, you will start getting referral leads back into your business like never before. Remember, if you create value for others first you will always win. I am testing a few strategies using this technique. They are already yielding some great results. More to come on my little experiment soon… These are just a few quick tips I thought will help you if you are stuck. As always, let me know if I can help you. My purpose is to help you and your business make more money faster with proven lead generation and marketing systems for your business. |
| What Is vs. What Should Be |
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Not to mention balancing family life. I know you can relate… We often times get stuck in the “What Should Be” vs. “What Is” mode. We start looking at things through rose colored glasses, especially when it comes to our marketing efforts. Many small businesses stop measuring and just sit back and assume that leads will pour in. Sound familiar? You launch a one off promotional effort, then wonder why the heck you aren’t getting any leads. The copy was killer, the graphics were spectacular, and still little or nothing in return. When you start looking at “What Is” you start doing things like measuring your results. You look at how each marketing dollar is returning value to your bottom line. You stop “wishing” that leads would come in, and you start actively getting on with testing, tweaking, and seeing results. You stop doing one time promotional efforts, and you build a marketing plan and marketing system. Marketing is a contact sport. You have prospects that you have to move into motion and take action from a dead stop most times. You need to capture their interest, create desire, and then get them off their a@@ to take the next step with your product our service. I’m gonna bet that you are spending time or money in areas that are promotional that you aren’t getting any results from. You keep “wishing” (there’s that word again) that some day that ad will yield results. Again, What Should be vs. What Is. I am as optimistic as you, and quite honestly don’t enjoy what is all the time. But quite frankly there really isn’t a choice. “Should” isn’t going to help you reach your dreams and your goals in your business. Now… Go Target, Attack, and Profit.
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| Before You SWOT… |
 SMOT Analysis Marketing If you aren’t familiar with a SWOT analysis, let me give you high level explanation. It it basically an exercise to identify your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. If you look at the image I have provided, you can see that they are built in quadrants to help you isolate areas that are internal assets or external assets and/or threats to your business. How the heck does this relate to your marketing strategy? In my opinion, there are few things you should consider before you dive deep into the SWOT analysis. If you have a better understanding of these things, you will be in a solid position to gather the data for the SWOT analysis and it will be more relevant. Let’s get started… 1) Who’s Your Target or Ideal Client? – Wouldn’t it make it alot easier to find your threats, strengths, and weaknesses if you knew your target or ideal client? I think so…I like to use an exercise to dive deep into who my target or ideal client is. Take 30 minutes and really get clear on who it is you are marketing to. How old are they? What are their pain points? What does their day look like? Give them a name if you can, and make them real. Now that we are clear on who we are targeting.. 2) Market Research – Sit down and identify all your potential competitors that are targeting your ideal client specifically. As you find competitors that are targeting your exact client identify them as threats. More specifically, how are they a threat. We are basically preparing our data for the SWOT to tie all this togther later. 3) Identify Your Assets – Now that we understand our competitors and our target market you need to take inventory. Take 15-30 minutes and write down all the assets that you have that you would consider strengths in targeting your ideal client. Consider all of those things that are shortfalls in your assets to target your ideal client. When I say assets, I am talking about things like credibility, testimonials, messaging, newsletter lists, partnershipts, etc..Basically anything that will help you reach your target market effectively. Now you are ready to SWOT… I find that doing just this small amount of pre-SWOT information gathering gets me clear on who I am trying to reach. Gaps in my message or approach. And a very clear picture as to who else is competing for the minds of my prospect. Now… Get to work
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