A strategy for finding the Sweet Spot
So I recently attended an online webinar run by a self proclaimed marketing guru, who advertised his webinar as the Top Tips for lead generation. So if you are a start up, or established business, read to the end of the article and note my comments about this strategy.
So if you are like me and don’t like cold calling then what is the best way to generate leads that may eventuate into a new client. There is an assumption on his part you already have a website, that had robots, could be found on search engines, and was mobile responsive and user friendly. That was a given. (If you don’t have these pick up a phone and call me).
Here are his tips, starting with 10 first, as it holds your attention for the duration of the webinar, and you don’t get number 1 until last and that is when the sales pitch happens…
10. Referrals – now most marketing people will tell you a personal recommendation is the very best kind of lead, as its a qualified lead, because there is trust established, and if you trust the person giving the referral then it follows they can trust you the person being recommended. It only ranked 10 in his scale.
9. Press release. As a consultant I am always keeping up to date on latest ways to help my clients so I attended “publicity for profit workshop” or two in the
past month. I have to say I found them both to have value. But how many press releases can you write in a year? They may give you an enormous leg up but are you really going to be doing that every month? That said I would recommend them.
8. Closed FaceBook page: why closed? It creates an online community from which you can offer webinars to the community once a month as a live event. From a live events you can expect to generate some quality leads. (bear in mind this was a live event and a webinar).
7. Surveys. This was in fact the means by which this guru discovered the theme of his webinar, by asking members of last webinar to take a 5 minute survey. The results of which gave him the details of what potential clients want to know about and that he could deliver. Surveys are the most common form of market research. As a mentor with the Just Start It program I currently mentor students in High Schools on how to start a lean start-up business and take the students through the process of idea through research, product development, costing to pitching to investors.
6. Public Speaking. So most people name public speaking as their number one fear when quizzed. The advantages of public speaking is it gives you one to one rapport with your audience that you don’t get from running webinars. Story telling is the best way to communicate a message and if you speak from personal experience the audience will connect with you on a personal level.
5.Linked In is the fastest growing social media platform for developing a know, like and trust relationship. So learn how to use it to promote your skills, services and events.
4.Write a book – a physical book not an e-book. His recommendation:Why? Because in order to mail out a copy you need to get an physical address, phone number and email contact and get the book free but pay the postage. His opinion is e-books are over used and passe , but they do generate email address you can re-market to. It is called data mining a topic I’ve written about in other blogs. The quality of the physical book connection is higher in his opinion because you don’t send it out unless someone asks for it which indicates they are really interested, interested enough to part with money (pay for postage) to get it. Guess what – he has written several books too.
3.Past clients. Mine your existing client base by going back to them with special offers for their loyalty showing you appreciate them, by rewarding them, and they in turn will refer friends to you.
2. Webinars – high quality blitz. In order to attend, they have to sign up, show up and log on at the designated time. The advantage of webinars is they can be delivered globally. Guess what he has been doing to get new clients? You guessed it, running webinars!
I think he lost me when he stated the last webinar he ran he generated $70,000 in course sales, which he said with a certain self satisfaction. At that point I felt like I was being played and he lost my respect and trust something he only had by association, read the number one tip…
1. Other peoples Networks: The only reason I was on that webinar was because this guru had tapped other people’s networks. In other words, he paid, or did a contra deal with someone else I had connected with (someone famous so I wont name names) and used that famous persons network to extend his reach. As a result, he garnered trust by association. One can only guess what the famous guy got out of it? Possibly access to this guys Network and database? We wont ever know.
Now I have to admire his skill, as at the end of the webinar came the usual sales pitch and call to action.
Basically if you wanted a one-on-one personalised discussion about how he could be of service or you could tap into one of his many courses you could go to his website, or how you may use any or all of the information in the webinar in your business he would give you 45 minutes of his time at the discounted rate of not $750 (his hour rate is $1000 per hour) but for just $100.! Bargain right?
Just hit pause for a second to think about this: you are paying him for the opportunity to vet you as a prospect, to see if you have the money and means to become one of his high dollar paying clients and for every prospect he interviews you pay him $100 for the privilege, so if you turn out not to be a prospect he got paid to talk to you anyway.
To use one of his terms that really is a sweet spot!
