More Clients - the Online Marketing Newsletter
for Independent Professionals
from Action Plan Marketing
and Robert MiddletonIn This Week's Issue: How do you follow-up with a prospect and set an appointment once you've made that initial connection?
The Dreaded Follow-Up Call
When preparing for a series of Marketing Action Groups this spring, I asked participants what their main issue or concern was about marketing their services.
The response was unanimous: "How do we get in front of more decision-makers who can buy our services?"For today, I want to put aside (to some degree) all of the things that help you "develop" prospects such as doing networking, giving talks, getting published, generating referrals and forming joint venture relationships.
All of those are really at the heart of InfoGuru Marketing. They are what give you visibility and credibility and ultimately provide the connections to potential clients.
But once you've met someone, used your Audio Logo to get attention, engaged in an initial conversation, sent them an informative article and directed them to your web site, what the heck do you say and do to end up sitting across from them in their office exploring the possibility of working together?
You need to make that "dreaded follow-up call."
Here are the steps that I've found to work consistently to get appointments with qualified prospects:
1. Make sure you've covered the marketing groundwork first, that is, do whatever you can to make sure your prospect is already well informed about your services and the results you produce.
Quality articles, case studies and other information on your web site will do the job, just make sure it's top notch - well-written and well-designed to highlight your professionalism.
2. Find out more about your prospect before you call. Check out their web site. Ask your business associates or the person who referred you. Knowing the fundamentals about their company will set you apart from an uniformed cold caller.
3. The introduction when you call will depend on how you first connected. First is the strong referral, second is a follow-up from a talk you gave, and third is someone you met through a networking encounter. Just adjust your approach:
"Hi this is Betty Halpern, our mutual friend Sally Davis asked me to give you a call. She said you'd been discussing issues around teamwork effectiveness and I sent you my article on "The Ten Biggest Mistakes Teams Keep Making.""Hi this is John Blythe, you were at the talk I gave last week on "Project Management Breakthroughs." I like to give a follow-up call to those who attended and requested my article on "Project Management Myths" and learn a little more about their situation."
"Hi this is Samantha Williams, We met a few days ago at the Strategic Planning 2004 Conference and I sent you a copy of my article on "Getting Your Strategic Plan Implemented."
Sending valuable information ahead of time can warm things up and make it easier to call. But the information had better be good, well-written and contain very relevant, actionable ideas if you want to get your foot in the door.
4. You want to transition quickly into finding out more about the situation, needs, problems and aspirations of your prospect.
Remember, you need to find a balance between the two following realities: 1. You have something very valuable to offer that has made a big difference with past clients and 2. You have absolutely no idea if your service is right for them. Your approach should be one of pulling, not pushing.
"I know a little about your company (tell them what you know) but I don't know a lot about your specific situation. Can you tell me about - how teamwork is developed - how projects are managed - how strategic plans are implemented - in your company?Your goal is simply to learn more, to see if you really have anything to offer them.
5. But what if they want to know more about your services first? They might say, "Before I tell you about our company, I had a question. Those examples in your article about implementing a strategic plan were pretty impressive. Can you tell me more about how your services work?
Don't take the bait. That is, don't go into depth with your answer. This is a little like a patient asking a doctor: "Can you tell me all the things you do to cure your patients?"
Instead, answer briefly and then direct the conversation back to them:
"I use a variety of approaches that include our Strategic Acceleration Model, coupled with group and one-on-one sessions. My goal is to give our clients the tools so they can implement strategy themselves. But I really don't know yet if this approach is for you; can you tell me more about..."6. Your objective in this conversation is to learn more about the prospect, communicate some valuable information and develope a certain degree of trust and rapport. At some point you're going to have a sense of whether or not you can help this prospect and the prospect is going to have a sense about whether or not they'd like to explore working with you.
You've already sent information, so the next logical step is that all-important face-to-face meeting. It's great if they suggest it... "Betty what are the next steps?" but sometimes you need to take the lead:
"John, from what you've told me, I think there's a good chance I could help you dramatically improve the teamwork in your company. And it sounds like the objectives you want to achieve are very close to those of my other clients. What I suggest is that we set up a time to meet. Let's look at our schedules."7. Once you've set up an appointment, don't stop there. You'll have a better appointment if you give the prospect something to do. After all, you're taking valuable time to prepare for this appointment. It's good if they have some skin in the game as well.
"Great, I really look forward to meeting with you and your executive committee. There are a few things I'd like to ask you to do before we meet. Can you please copy and circulate the article I sent on "The Ten Biggest Mistakes Teams Keep Making" to those on your team?"And I also have a brief "Teamwork Scorecard" that will help me understand your underlying teamwork issues. I'll send it by email. Can you and your team members please fill this out and get the results back to me by the 10th?"
Follow these seven steps as closely as possible and I guarantee you'll not only get more meetings, you'll have better meetings with more qualified prospects excited and ready to explore working with you.
More on "The Dreaded Follow-Up Call" in Marketing Flashes below.
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www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marketing Flashes on "The Dreaded Follow-Up Call"
Here are five big mistakes you can make when following up with prospects.
* Ask if they read the article you sent. What if they didn't? You put them in an awkward position. Just assume they read it and continue with the approach outlined above.
* Fail to have a good opening and transition line. This can be the hardest part, and you don't want to fumble it. So think it through, write it down, practice it out loud and even do a role play with a friend until you feel comfortable.
* Forget to do any research on your prospect. This can make all the difference. You'll impress them and make them feel you care because you've taken some time and effort to learn about them. This really doesn't need to take a lot of time.
* Get sidetracked by talking more about your business than finding out about theirs. It's very easy to blab on and on about what you do, but that will get very boring to them. Every time you give away some information, ask for some in return.
* Not asking for the appointment. Remember, that was the main objective of the call. If after talking for awhile, you sincerely feel you can help them, let them know and suggest that you get together. It's not as hard as it looks!
Until next week, all the best,
Robert Middleton
ACTION PLAN MARKETING
Helping Independent Professionals Attract More Clients~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
210 Riverside Drive
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
831-338-7790© 2004 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the More Clients eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:
"By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert's web site at http://www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses."
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