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Bridging the Gap Between You and Your Prospects
With today's influx of competition in almost every industry,
timing is crucial. The follow up from a sales meeting, catching
that prospect at their buying moment, and staying in contact
with your customer base just enough to keep top of mind but not
so much as to be bothersome.
There are three groups or categories of prospects and each has
it's own unique challenges:
• Cold Prospect -
o You've got to get noticed from amid the crowd.
o You chase them so you can introduce them to your products and
service.
o You hope you can catch them at the right time when they're
ready to buy what you're selling.
• Warm Prospect -
o You've had your first meeting but they're not a quick sale.
o They want time to think about it.
o You need to be poised when they're ready to buy.
• Hot Prospect -
o There's no guarantee, but you've got a good chance of getting
the sale.
o You've got an opportunity to get a referral.
o With a job well done, you can nurture a long time repeat
customer.
Each one of these categories needs to be handled with follow up
mechanisms that are both adaptable to your current business
strategies and easily administered on a consistent basis.
A delicate balance of staying in touch without being overly
obtrusive is the key to keeping your business on the first call
list with customers and prospects alike. Even if they're not
interested in your service right now, sending your information
via email allows your prospects the flexibility to retrieve it
later when needed, or forward it on to others who might need
what you're offering.
The sales cycle is shortened when we can duplicate ourselves
with personalized follow up procedures. A telephone call is
best, but if we're busy or, heaven forbid, unorganized (none of
us fits in this category, I'm sure) then we might very well miss
that small window of opportunity to make the right impression.
Mailing a thank you card is memorable when sent after the sale
but if we need to expedite the message, say after the sales
presentation, then this form of communication can be too
unpredictable when time is of the essence.
This is where email follow up can be used in communicating with
our customers and prospects, especially when we personalize our
messages. By having pre-drafted letters that can be easily
edited for each prospect and/or customer, email marketing
supports sales efforts and improves:
Customer Loyalty - Companies spend ten times more to
acquire new customers.
Follow-up - Eighty percent (80%) of sales require up to
eight contacts before the sale closes.
Sales Cycle Efficiency - The speed at which a prospect is
converted into a customer affects the bottom line.
Lead Quality - A warm lead is a stronger lead.
But how do we use email to get to prospects that we've never met
before? With all the SPAM laws and regulations now, it's getting
increasingly more difficult to use email as a legitimate
advertising medium. However, email campaigns that are targeted
towards customer advocates using compelling incentive offers
that can be forwarded on to others, bypasses traditional
advertising methods by getting your brand message out to
prospects who
1. Could never be reached before
2. Are semi-pre-qualified
This is called permission-based emailing and it's really the
only legal, ethical way to get your company's info out to a warm
online audience. Permission emailing breaks through the barriers
by offering a safer platform with which others are introduced to
your service. Your message is sent to others via their personal
contacts, offering a better quality lead. Statistics show that a
warm lead is 64 percent more likely to do business with you than
a lead that has never had any introduction at all.
Permission emails bridge the gap between you and your
prospects so that you can
• Stay in touch more efficiently and consistently
• Get your message out quickly and cost effectively
• Support customer advocacy more personally
No longer are you one of the millions of businesses out there
advertising in a sea of hopes that the right prospect, at the
right time will find you. With a consistently executed email
program, your business' sales cycle will be shortened when you
can reach out to prospects and stay better in touch with your
customer advocates.
About the author:
Diana D'Itri is the Exec VP of Ravebiz, a leading referral
marketing and technology company. She's a key driving force
behind educating clients on how to generate more quality
referred customers through practical applications and an
automated, web based system called the Rave APG eReferral
For a free download "31 tips for boosting referral
business" go to www.ravebiz.com. Diana can be reached at
(866) 284-3020 or email her