Using direct response marketing is one of the fastest way to build a list of prequalified prospects. What amazes me is how few actually use it as a source of leads. In this post you will learn how to use direct response marketing to target your ideal prospect.
So let’s get started.
Of everything you will learn about business, this is the number one most important thing to learn because sales and marketing are the number one most important thing you do in business.
Everything else is second. To get sales, you need good marketing so the marketing needs to become the lifeblood of your business. You need to understand that marketing is going to be your life. If you get good at marketing you will be as successful as you will ever dream so it needs to become your goal now to learn how to effectively market your products and services so that you do not have to beg for work, AKA bidding.
Before we can target your ideal client we have to define who that is and who it is not. This is just a synopsis on defining your ideal client.
The sales funnel is the key to generating endless amounts of leads. Frankly I don’t like to refer to it as a funnel as much as it is a sales filter. A filter only lets through what you want to come through and leaves behind what you don’t want to come through. If you want 5 times the profits and massive success with endless numbers of qualified leads, you must filter out all of the leads that do not fit your customer profile. An ideal customer for me is a contractor or business owner who has been in business long enough, typically 3 years or more, to have experienced the pain of employee costs, overhead, sweating payroll, always chasing low bid, who works all the time and is looking for help because they know they can’t sustain the path they are on. They must also believe in themselves, their business and their ability to learn.
For instance, I could easily work with startups but they drain too much time, they don’t listen because they don’t have the experience of all the pain associated with doing it their way and falling on their face a lot. They need to fall on their face a few thousand times before they are ready to be my client. Clearly defined? I should say so.
You must define who your ideal client is, what they want, what obstacles they face, what opportunities they have for growth and what gives them and advantage in the marketplace. Ultimately once you have clearly defined these characteristics, then you will filter them from prospect, to suspect, to client to evangelist and as an evangelist they will refer you to additional suspects skipping the prospect step.
Start defining who your ideal clients are because you need to begin targeting them and getting them to buy from you.
But Dave, I’m not in sales. Let me clear this up right now, if you are in business you are in sales and if you don’t think you are, you are delusional and you are going to fail. If you don’t sell your products and services, you will go out of business.
Not too long ago I ran into an electrical contractor at Starbucks. I knew he was an EC because his name and company logo was on his shirt. Nothing wrong with that, I like and believe in branding. He was clean cut, well shaven and I had a hunch he was the owner by the way he carried himself with the 2 other guys that were with him and because he paid at the counter. We began to chat and after a few minutes of small talk about his company I determined he was the owner and I asked him what types of things he was focusing on at the moment to increase profitability per sale. His response is why I had to add this.
He arrogantly boasted, “I am not in sales I am an electrical contractor. I bid a job and if my price is the best I am awarded that job. I don’t sell.” How’s that going for you I asked? His response, “Sometimes its feast sometimes its famine.” I almost walked away at that point but my hard head wouldn’t let me because I know where he’s headed. I said, you don’t need to live like this I quipped; you can stop bidding and start living. He looked at me like I was the idiot. How? He asked reluctantly.
- You must have constant incoming leads generated for you at as low of a cost as possible that generate high margin jobs.
- These jobs need to have high margin products mixed in so you can make 4 to 5 times more profit per job.
- You must stop doing all the work in your business yourself and start delegating and outsourcing everything, or at least most everything.
- You must improve your cash flow by getting paid in advance for jobs.
- You must isolate profit, eliminate debt and build reserves.
- You must start now.
Look, just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it is easy. You are in sales and these 6 steps can change your life and make you more profitable then you could imagine. How you manage those profits will determine your future. He was not remotely interested which told me he has not fallen on his face enough yet to seek help. I gave him a card because I know that one day he might be ready or he might go on like this forever. It’s no skin off my back but I only work with the willing. You can’t push a rope as they say.
This is part 2 of a 3 part series. Watch for my next blog post for part 3.
To your lifelong prosperity,
David Mulvaney