[Fredslist] Marketing Glue

Thu Dec 17 11:32:37 EST 2015

Hi Gothamites,

I encourage you to read this article by Robert Middleton, another marketing
Guru whose work I admire.

The Marketing Glue that Attracts More Clients

postdateiconMonday, 14 December 2015 20:52

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

http://actionplan.com/images/dividing-wall.jpg

You know what it's like when you're trying your best to put your marketing
into action.

You're calling to book speaking engagements, networking at your local
Chamber of Commerce and putting together a webinar with help from a few JV
partners. 

But haven't you found, that despite your best efforts to work on these
marketing activities, that your results are coming up short?

People simply aren't responding in the numbers you'd hoped for and you're
not turning as many prospects into paying clients as you'd like.

What's missing? Is it your message, your website, the promotion itself or
perhaps the wrong offer?

It's the Glue

When I talk to new clients, I discover, even though they've  invested so
much in their marketing, one thing seems to be missing.

It's Effective Follow Up. And follow-up is the glue that keeps your
marketing moving forward. For independent professionals, it's often the one
ingredient that makes the difference between marketing success or failure. 

Let's look at a few common marketing scenarios.

Speaking: You give a talk at a conference and communicate valuable ideas
that stimulate your audience. You collect a number of cards at the end from
a few people who you think would be ideal clients. But nothing happens. 

Networking: You meet someone at that same conference and get a sense that
you could help them. You exchange business cards and ask them to take a look
at your website and some articles with your core ideas. You never hear back.

Webinar or Teleclass: You manage to get 30 or 40 people to a teleclass
promoting your new program. You prepare for hours and do the best
presentation. You invite them to sign-up within a day to get your
pre-program discount price. Two people sign up. 

What is missing here? You seem to be doing all the right things, but oh,
yeah, what about the follow-up? Maybe you'll get to that later. But first
you want to get another talk booked.

Why follow-Up is like marketing glue

In all of those scenarios, follow-up via email and phone could have glued
those connections into conversations. But nothing stuck, because you didn't
apply the glue. Perhaps you were waiting for the prospect to contact you.
But it rarely happens. But why?

Why you don't follow up

Perhaps you're a little shy, afraid of how your prospect might react. They
may not be interested after all. And you wouldn't want to be an interruption
or have them think you're pushy. 

Or you don't have a system for follow-up. You only have a handful of cards.
You don't know what to say, the best time to call or whether you should
leave an email or a voice message. So you put down your follow-up glue gun
and promise yourself that you'll give it a shot later that week. But you
never seem to get around to it. 

Connections + Follow-Up = Conversations 

The first thing to understand is that all you want to accomplish with
follow-up is to have another conversation with your connection. And it's the
simple act of following up that glues these two things together. 

One conversation leads to the next conversation and then to a deeper
conversation. The next conversation may be a selling conversation, and the
last one a confirmation conversation. And before long you're working with a
new client. 

But not without the glue of follow-up. My 7-Step Follow-up System.

This is what I tell my clients to do. It works.

1.     After you've had an initial connection with someone who may be a
prospect and deserves follow-up in any number of the scenarios mentioned
above, create an intention to follow-up. Don't hope it will happen, but set
very focused goals to make it happen. 

2.     Ask yourself exactly what you want to get from the follow-up: Is it
an introduction? A short meeting by phone? A longer strategy session? Or
something else? Whatever it is, it should be the next natural step in
connecting with that person. Be clear, even visualize yourself following up
successfully. 

3.     Now script out what you will say on that follow-up call and what you
will say in your follow-up email. Just make it conversational, simple and
short. Practice it out loud until it feels natural and easy. By the way,
I'll often leave a message first and then follow that up with an email.
Short, sweet, simple.

4.     Make sure your message includes your Ultimate Outcome. That's what
gets attention. It answers the "What's in it for me?" question. "I'd like to
talk about your needs" won't be perceived as very valuable. But, "We help
our clients be more effective in these five essential areas," is more likely
to get a response. 

5.     Then screw up your courage and reach out. If they don't get back to
you, what does it mean? It usually means they are crazy busy, so don't take
it personally if they don't get back to you right away. And try at least
three times before moving on. 

6.     And what's the worst that can happen? They may not be interested in
your Ultimate Outcome or it might not be a good time to talk now, or several
other legitimate reasons. So don't sweat it. Move on - there will be other
opportunities. 

7. Make follow-up a habit. It's one of the most important and effective
marketing habits you can ever develop. And if you follow this plan, it
really won't be nearly as hard as you think it will be. In fact, believe it
or not, it can be fun, especially when your conversations turn into new
clients. 

Start adding the follow-up glue to your marketing and you can expect your
results to increase dramatically. I've seen it happen with my clients over
and over again. 

Cheers, 

Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing

Alan Siege, Principal

Small Business Management Consulting

Phone/Fax - 718-768-1672 - www.sbmc.biz <http://www.sbmc.biz/> 

----------------------------------------------------------------

Building Your Business Through Story

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.gothamnetworking.com/pipermail/fredslist/attachments/20151217/02091057/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 990 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.gothamnetworking.com/pipermail/fredslist/attachments/20151217/02091057/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image006.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 30253 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.gothamnetworking.com/pipermail/fredslist/attachments/20151217/02091057/attachment-0001.jpg>