Dec

Do You Have an Effective Marketing Funnel?

By Emily

As a small business owner, it is critically important that you have an opportunity to remind your clients and prospects of your services repeatedly.

How many times have you met a client or prospect who is interested in your offer, but not ready to make a decision, yet? If you’re actively prospecting, this type of client is probably the norm… how do you keep in touch with him or her?

If you’re like most of us, you probably let that client slip right out of your fingers, nine times out of ten. It’s easy to have great intentions about following up, but unless you have a great contact management system, and are religious about entering all your prospects into it, it’s easy to follow up once or twice, but hard to stick with them for the seven or more contacts it may take before they decide to make a decision to work with you.

#1 Challenge – Following Up 7+ Times With a Prospect

What I noticed in my real estate investing business is that I would market a lot when I had no deals, but once I had a property under contract, it took all my time and energy to focus on it, and I let my marketing fall by the wayside. When I had finished locking up a new property and renting it out, I would find myself flat-footed with no motivated seller leads to be found. Just crickets chirping loudly in the background.

#2 Challenge – Making People Feel Like It’s About THEM, Not About ME

The other thing that I have found challenging with prospecting is making each step of the follow-up process, a caring contact focusing on the PROSPECT and THEIR NEEDS and not ABOUT ME, and WHAT I HAVE TO SELL THEM.

That is a critical distinction because people hate to be “sold” and if they feel you are following up just to get the sale, it can easily turn them off, especially in a relational business like real estate or insurance brokerage. People remember how you make them FEEL, so make sure you leave them with a good feeling about you and your services, rather than a smarmy, “I’m being schmoozed so she can make money off of me,” feeling.

Avoid Making Your Clients Feel They Are Being “Schmoozed” so YOU Can Make A Sale

How Can We Show We Care?

Call each prospect on a regular basis to check in, WITHOUT mentioning your company or it’s products. If they know and remember you, they’ll know where you work without having to be told… You can still sell from time-to-time on the phone and through the mail, just don’t sell EVERY time. Take opportunities to focus on the relationship, and put your client at ease by making him feel that you’re “off the clock.”
Take notes about personal things that are going on in clients’ lives. For example, kids’ graduations, new babies, anniversaries and other important milestones. These can be great opportunities to send personal cards with well-wishes.
Create value. Find ways to give them something that they want, even if it has nothing to do with your service. Great new restaurants, recipes, an honest car-repair company, etc. Go out of your way to be the “friendly neighbor.”
Even better, create value with RELEVANCE. In real estate, we call people in our farm area with “interest generators.” These “interest generators” are juicy tidbits of information regarding what is going on in their neighborhoods – recent sales, new listings, zoning changes, etc. Think about what your prospect would be interested in, research those topics, and then go out and share the news!
Be a connector. My friend Thomas is a pro at this. He knows people who know people, and he always goes out of his way to mention possible people I might want to meet and offers to arrange introductions. He’s almost like a business relationship broker. It’s not his main line of business, but it’s a service that provides value to everyone involved, and keeps him at the top of mind for his clients, colleagues and contacts.

Remember, at the end of the day, sales professionals and small business owners HAVE to sell in order to make a living. There’s nothing wrong with that. We should sell, and sell aggressively.

However, as we construct a sales funnel and work on building relationships and creating experiences for our clients, we must always look at the situation from the other guy’s perspective. If we always call to benefit ourselves to the exclusion of our clients, clients will recognize that and stop looking forward to talking with us. If we always put our clients’ needs first, even if there’s no short term gain for us, the profit will come in the long-term value and the loyalty of the customers we create.

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