I recently read a quote from General Norman Schwarzkopf, “Shined shoes save lives.” What he meant was the habit of being lazy, sloppy, and undisciplined about the tiny, seemingly unimportant things ends up creeping into the bigger, more important things.
The General was referring to the battlefield, but in business (and particularly in marketing) this statement is every bit as true - especially now, when opportunities are getting thinner and sales getting harder to come by.
There is a LOT of mediocrity in selling and marketing practices for IT companies. During good economic times, companies that are sloppy, unorganized, and inept can still eke by - but when opportunities dry up, these folks are the first to die off. That's because they have no process or “formula” for generating new opportunities, fueling referrals, or closing sales. Once sales slow down, they're stuck trying to find a quick fix - a magic bullet - to turn things around. LOL.
So if you are one of those businesses that has been horribly neglectful about your marketing in the past and desperately needs to fill the sales funnel, what do you do? Where do you start?
Square one is to document the systems and processes you have (er, should have) in place right now. After all, you cannot improve and manage what you don't measure. On a basic level for any IT service business, you should have documented processes and plans for:
* Asking for, following up on, and closing referrals. After all, referrals are the #1 source of new clients. NOT having a documented system in place to maximize them is sheer stupidity. Start here. (Note: A big part of fueling referrals is having a referral reward system in place. Make sure you are not neglecting to truly thank people for sending you referrals.)
* Following up on unconverted leads. When you get a “no” from someone or run into a sales “stall,” what do you do? Do you give up, throw the paperwork away, and never contact the prospect again unless it's entirely by accident 6 to 12 months later? Do you try to negotiate a better deal? More favorable terms? How many times do you follow up? What do you say? One client I consulted with years ago had a database FULL of old, unconverted leads. When I suggested they do an aggressive reactivation campaign, they argued against it, saying that the sales people had already followed up and marked them as “worthless.” Fortunately, they caved in to my persistence because one campaign resulted in 34% of these old leads buying. Fix your follow-up by adding more steps, more aggressive bonuses, and documenting and measuring the process.
* Increasing the number of leads you convert to sales. When you get a new lead or referral, what do you do? How do you follow up? WHEN do you follow up? In 1 hour? 1 day? 1 week? What do you say to get the appointment? When you get the appointment, what is the process to close the sale? Do you even HAVE a process? One of the cheapest ways to increase sales (and profits) is to increase the closing percentage of the opportunities you already have. If your closing percentage is already at 100%, chances are you aren't generating many new leads and are basically securing the low-hanging fruit…which brings me to another point…
* Generating new opportunities (keeping the funnel full). This is one that stumps most people. If I held a gun to your head, how many ways could you think of to generate new leads? Probably dozens. I have a list of 84 ways to generate more sales and profits in an IT business in a short period of time, but the BIG question is how many have you actually implemented? Can you name at least 5 to 7 things you've done over the last quarter to fuel sales? If you've done one or two (or none at all), why didn't you get more done? And I don't buy the “I'm too busy” excuse. You have to be smarter than that. If sales are down, you should be LESS busy than before. Besides, I don't believe that 100% of your days are booked solid with projects and action items that are important and necessary. If you were managing your time and efforts that well, you probably wouldn't be in a financial crunch right now.
Bottom line, these tough economic times call for even tougher strategy. If you own a business, it's your butt on the line. That being the case, you need to be very aggressive in holding yourself and every process, strategy, and employee accountable for results. There is no time for procrastination. Now more than ever you need to get a grip on marketing your business and do everything within your power to learn “best practices” for getting more sales in the door.
The good news is that success leaves clues. You don't need to stumble around in the dark wasting time and money trying to figure it out on your own.
About the Author:
Money Whisperer Robin Robins is an independent marketing consultant, sales trainer, and author of the Technology Marketing Toolkit who specializes in inexpensive and highly effective marketing strategies for small to medium VARs, Systems Integrators, MSPs, Solution Providers, and IT consulting firms. You can find out more at
http://www.technologymarketingtoolkit.com Robin can be reached at:
ask@technologymarketingtoolkit.com
www.sellmoresolutions.com
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363
Date Published :
Jan 24 2009