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Chapter
1. Getting Ready: Research & Planning © 2002 - Jody Hornor |
In
This Chapter: --Target Marketing --Positioning for Profits --The Sales Process --Assemble Your Tools --Avoid Costly Mistakes --Involve The Troops --Book Table of Contents |
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The 5 Phases of the
Sales Process
1. Lead Generation This is usually the high visibility media coverage that has the most sex appeal and seems to stand out in the minds of all marketers. In this phase, you must make an average of nine impressions on your prospect in order to get a prospect to take action, make an inquiry. You can make an impression through any method of marketing communication, from a feature article in a publication, paid advertising in any media, a seminar presentation, presence at a trade show, a telemarketing phone call, etc. When you're marketing without money, you'll want to focus on the following:
This phase could take weeks or months to achieve, depending on the aggressiveness of your marketing communications plan. Although any of those methods can help you make an impression, and all are excellent choices, we easily remember the glitzy TV commercials used to promote major consumer products. Some cost millions of dollars to produce. In fact, because they’re so good and so well-tested to be sure the message they contain truly speaks to their intended market, they’re an excellent educational resource for you. Instead of channel-surfing during the commercials, watch and learn from the commercials. Determine the demographic and psychographic groups they’re addressing. Then observe a few minutes of the program they’re in. Are they well-matched to the characteristics of the program’s viewers? You’ll find most of the commercials from large, national advertisers are well-targeted. Then observe some spots that are locally produced. Even though they can’t afford as much glitz, is the message well-crafted? Does it reach its intended target effectively? Make the same observations and evaluations about all the advertising you see, and you’ll learn a great deal about what works and what doesn’t. Take direct mail for example. Observe what elements it must possess to get your attention, and what gets trashed immediately. Study display ads in newspapers and magazines. What makes one ad more compelling than another? And even though you don't have enough cash at the moment to utilize some of the more expensive marketing communications methods, this is an area that, if you learn it well, will serve you in all of your free and low-cost methods of communication as well. You’ll learn more about the components of good advertising later. Phase 2: Inquiry Handling When someone is interested in a product or service, he or she must take an action: pick up the phone and call, stop by your location to visit, fax a request for information, or take some other decisive action. Within the linear time frame of the sales process, the inquiry only takes a moment. You should note here that nearly half the people who express an interest in what you do will actually buy the product or service they inquire about — but not necessarily from you. Who they buy from depends on how well they’re treated at this phase and throughout the rest of the buying cycle. The actual statistics, according to the Inquiry Management Institute, show that 26.6 percent of inquiries resulted in a purchase within three months. An additional 21.6 percent were likely to buy in the future. Please don’t let the words "buy" or "purchase" confuse you here. Even if you don’t have a physical product or service product for sale, and you just want to get people to embrace a certain idea or change their behavior, the principles remain the same. You’ve got to "sell" them on the new idea or behavior, and all the psychological rules for selling physical products still apply. Back to the main point, however. Each inquiry must be handled appropriately if you want your prospect to continue moving forward in his or her decision making process. Inquiry management and prospect service (follow-up) are such important issues that two chapters, chapters 3 and 4 are devoted to each of the processes necessary to make these phases successful. Phase 3: Prospect Service / Lead Follow-up Here’s where most organizations blow it, so let’s learn from other people's mistakes to avoid repeating them. As I've said before, and I'll say again in this book, you simply can't ignore the fact that inquiries are proven to lead to sales -- if they're handled correctly. According to the Inquiry Management Institute study, poor response systems substantially hurt sales. Following up on inquiries is critical to your success. When you don't have any money, it's the "process" of marketing, and walking someone through a complete sales (or buying) psychology that will make you successful, and nothing else!!! Depending on the nature of your product or service, this process could take anywhere from days to months, and in some cases years. Phase 4: Make The Sale Again, this phase takes only moments on the linear time frame, but every other action taken in earlier phases of the sales process, leads the "buyer" to a favorable decision. When you're marketing without money, learning, embracing, and using every step of the sales and marketing process will be your ticket to success. That's going to mean some study and practice on your part. It'll mean reading more than just this book -- you'll pick up everything you can get your hands on about sales and marketing and devour it. And, you'll more than likely have to work very hard to break some old, and possibly bad, habits. When you're marketing without money, you must work smart every step of the way. Is your job done when the sale is made? Absolutely not. In fact, it’s really just begun. Phase 5: Customer Service This phase literally takes a lifetime. We must view customers for their lifetime value, not just the immediate value they bring when they make one purchase. It’ll cost you more to get that first sale, than it’ll cost you to get a second sale from the same prospect. In fact, it’ll cost you 80 percent less to get a subsequent sale from a customer than it did to get the first. Consequently, customer service must be an active part of the marketing communication and sales process. To nurture this concept, you'll want to communicate with ALL your customers at least once per month! This might be a post card, a phone call, a thank you note, or some other contact. Experience has shown me that most business owners sell the customer one or two products or services, neglect to tell them about others that can help them, and the customer often goes elsewhere to buy them -- when they could be buying from you. Proactive phone calling and other customer contact can add tremendous profits to your bottom line. And it doesn't have to be pushy. A call could be something along these lines: "Hi Joe. I haven't talked with you for a while. Are the services/products we're providing you working out well? Have I told you about our [product] that works well with the products you already have? Let me come over and show you...." A once a month call like that to each customer has been shown to double sales results with consistent use. Wouldn't it be nice to get a 100% raise, just by employing this simple technique? Let's go back to the sales process chart for a minute.
I'm not sure why, but business owners, out of lack of knowledge, or old
habit, tend to put the bulk of their budget into the lead generation
phase of the sales process. Yet, the facts you've just learned, suggest
that it should be just the opposite. Take a look at what a typical
budget looks like, and how you might adjust your approach to provide
more cost-effective results.
Budgeting for the Five PhasesWhen you considering budgeting as a small organization, it's important to note that we're not just talking about money. We're talking about time, money, and energy -- all of which are at a premium in most small businesses. That's why it's vitally important for you to optimize the results of your budget. The following depicts what type of budget most organizations have (even if it isn't a written budget, this pretty closely represents their "spending" pattern) in relation to the 5 Phases of the process. Typical Budget
Yet, we know that finding a new prospect and closing a sale with a new prospect is the most expensive way to get new business. If they've already inquired, they are far more likely to buy, if we just provide them with some well-developed "Prospect Service". And, if we can create more sales from existing customers for only 1/5 the amount we'd pay to get a new customer, then it certainly makes sense to make customer service "proactive" instead of "reactive" which it is in most organizations. In some organizations where they've made a concerted effort to call or communicate is some form with their customers every month, they've seen as much as a 300% increase in sales. So, what may make far more sense to you is to:
So, a better way to look at where to invest your budget of time, money and energy, might be like this: Suggested Budget
Don't have a budget? Doing everything yourself? Even so, then your budget is time and energy, and you only have so much of that to go around.
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"High-equity companies were much more likely to
obtain the desired behaviors from their stakeholders... they simply
'spoke louder' through advertising and other communications."
Join a leads group like LeTip. These clubs are usually made up of noncompetitive businesses and are designed to help members learn about each others business so they can refer business to other members. Contact LeTip International at (800) 25LeTip for a group near you.
"To fully exploit the market opportunity...
salespeople must follow up all
qualified inquiries. If you don’t, the inquirer could feel
"snubbed" and become a negative force in your
marketplace."
"When
you don't have any money, it's the "process" of marketing, ...
walking someone through a complete sales (or buying) psychology... that
will make you successful, and nothing else!!!"
You'll save 80% of the cost of getting a new customer when you get additional sales from an existing customer. Calling each customer once a month has doubled sales in some businesses.
Resources: FREE Downloadable WorksheetsYou MUST sign in to have access to these -- once you've signed in, bookmark the page from which you download to avoid having to sign in every time you access them. Marketing Plan
Worksheet |
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