DETOX YOUR MARKETING! Stop fishing – Start Hunting!

DETOX YOUR MARKETING! Stop fishing – Start Hunting!

Prospecting is key to the survival of business in this day and age. With Pattons fresh in our minds, it is a reality that for any business their largest customer could fail tomorrow and there is never a guarantee of payment from even your best customer. So we all need to prospect for new customers to spread our business risk.

Great you say. Let’s send some emails…

STOP! The time has come to Stop Fishing and Start Hunting!

1)      STOP FISHING!

Firstly google is filled with information about business tools designed to help the small business owner to market themselves very cost effectively.

Unfortunately, it is not the tool that creates the success. It is the strategy! Sadly this is where business owners fail miserably.

Many abuse free tools such as email marketing and scattergun their marketing messages far and wide, waiting for someone to bite. My issue with email is that we have become too passive. We send out emails and social media messages and expect the business to flood in with people knocking our down to get our special offer, to enter our competition or to ‘Like’ our facebook page. Unfortunately, business is not a popularity contest and popularity does not pay the bills.

This is not marketing this is fishing!

2)      START HUNTING


Any one can write an email and send it out to hundreds of people. The skill is writing an email, letter, postcard etc that is relevant to the person receiving it. You need to use your hunter skills to track that person or small group of targets down.

The advanced version of the art of targeting is to not only to send it to the person who is interested, but also at the TIME when  they’re interested.  More about “triggers” in the next article.

Detox your database and focus on a specific sector/niche that you KNOW you can help.

3)      UNDERSTAND YOUR PROSPECTS’ PAIN

You need to understand what problem you are resolving for your prospect. One solution does not fit all problems, so unless your prospective client can identify why your product/service can help, they may not understand what your solution is and why it is relevant to them.

When you understand their pain, tell them how you know. Then tell them clearly how you’re going to take the pain away and finally, don’t forget to tell them what they need to do to start the process off using a strong call to action. Often this will include an offer but scarcity can work just was well.

4)      FOLLOW UP

We have all become lazy. We expect one email or letter to generate business.  B2B marketing is about building a relationship along the path of three phases:  Know, Like and Trust.

• First the prospect needs to know you to consider you
• Secondly the prospect needs to like what they see of you
• Thirdly they need to trust that your business is the partner to solve their issue

Was a single email or letter ever going to achieve all that? Even with an excellent offer and call to action?

It takes skill, patience and a good list to target a sector or niche and turn your database into sales. Follow these four steps and see how this will make a massive difference to your success rates!


Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net