Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I preach and teach and continually refine my own ability to stimulate more and better referrals in addition to helping my small business and professional services clients do the same. 

Although I am not a referral expert - check out my pal referral marketing expert Michael Goldberg for that - I am indeed a referral enthusiast. 

A client of mine - a consultant with a midsized firm - asked me a great referral question.

After reading this post, YOU will see where your own referral generation process may be stuck - and how to fix it. 

My client said to me, "David, I don't seem to have any problem generating referrals. In fact, my clients and colleagues are always very generous and forthcoming with referrals. The problem is not with QUANTITY - it is with QUALITY."

She went on, "No matter how successful my referral source may be, they seem to always refer me only to losers. I hate to say that - but you know what I mean. People who can't afford what we do, folks who are not decision-makers, or folks who for a variety of reasons are simply not the right fit."

Her question: "How can I get out of referral jail?"

Here are five ideas to help YOU get out of referral jail and put YOUR allies, advocates, friends and fans in the best and most likely position to refer you to the right people for the right reasons with the right fit. 

1. Ask for what you want. 

Be specific. "Business owners" is not specific. "IT managers" is not specific. "Front line salespeople" is not specific.

• "CEOs of 20-100 person companies in the food distribution industry in the Northeast US" is specific.
• "Female sales executives in the technology industry" is specific.
• "IT managers in Canadian call centers" is specific. 

Some of my clients also like to include a "phrase book" in their referral description. This means the phrases to listen for that indicate someone may be a good fit as a referral to you.

The WORST kind of referral request is, "I'll talk to anybody who needs [your product/service.]"

Stop making dumb referral requests and you'll stop getting dumb referrals.

2. Show them names, companies, and proof that you can make those people happy.

Let's face it - the reason people don't want to give you referrals is because they're putting their own relational capital (aka reputation) on the line. And that's risky.

If you can remove the risk of the referral, you will open the floodgates to getting more and better referrals for life. 

Hint: They won't believe YOU. They WILL believe your clients, past referrals, and people who have given you money and been thrilled to do so. 

Print up a sheet called "Referral Success Stories." Put in 5-7 specific referrals you've gotten over the last 12 months. Put in TWO kinds of quotes from both:

a. Clients who were referred and eventually hired you (Client success)
b. Your referral sources who are quoting how good they looked for making the referral (Referral success)

3. Tell them exactly what to say or send.

I hate to repeat myself so let me simply point out this post on the power of referral blurbs. Follow the templates given here to create your own referral blurb and START USING IT.

4. When a bad referral comes in, give some referral coaching.

When you get referred to a dud, diplomatically tell your referral source why it wasn't a great fit AND how they can tune their radar better next time.

Here's the template you can adapt to your own situation, style and tone. This is a delicate communication so you will want to re-word this carefully. Definitely not a cut-and-paste cookie cutter response but here's your starting point: 

===

Michelle,

I've kindly and gently turned down the opportunity to pursue a business relationship with [referral name.]

Too many red flags and especially after listening to his concerns, he's just not a good fit for us.

Thank you very much indeed for the referral - and in my book, it still counts. (EVERY referral counts no matter how it turns out!!)

If this causes you any strain in your relationship with [referral name] (and I doubt it will), please accept my apologies in advance.

For the record, his PROFILE was perfect - [DESCRIBE 2-3 ideal qualities about the referral.] The disconnect was in OUR FIT with his expectations and [lack of budget, lack of need, lack of authority, whatever was missing] -- two factors over which YOU had no control.

Always appreciate your advocacy, guidance and friendship.

-- David

===

5. Ask smart Referral-GIVING questions to generate smart Referral-GETTING answers. 

If you want to increase both the quality and quantity of your INCOMING referrals - the fastest way to do that is to increase your OWN track record of GIVING high-quality referrals. 

And to do so, you need to stop guessing and start targeting. 

Become a referral detective.

Learn to ask consultative questions of your current clients, vendors, partners, suppliers, friends, colleagues, and networking associates -- anyone to whom you wish to GIVE more targeted referrals. 

Your questions might include: 

1. Who is your best client and why?
2. How did they come to you? 
3. What situation were they in? 
4. What did they say or do to show interest? 
5. How could you tell they were a great fit? 
6. How have you tried to get more just like them? 
7. What should I be listening for? (Ask for details and specifics)
8. What's the DNA of a great prospect for you? (Ask for details and specifics)
9. What phrases, key words or problems should I be listening for on your behalf? 
10. What wants, needs, desires, and aspirations do your best clients have in common? (Ask for details and specifics)
11. What heartaches, headaches, obstacles and challenges do your best clients have in common? (Ask for details and specifics)
12. If I programmed my GPS to home in on perfect prospects for you, what would those settings look like? (Ask for details and specifics)

As a marketing coach, clients often ask me about getting featured and quoted in the media. 

My short answer is simple: Subscribe to PR Leads (at $99/month, it's the best money you can spend on PR, bar none.)

Second question clients ask is, "How do I get the journalist to email me or circle back with me once the article is published or posted online?"

The short answer is - forget it. Journalists need you as a source and then they move on to their next assignment, hardly ever looking back, much less following up with egomaniacal entrepreneurs who drool over seeing their name in print (or electrons).

So you can chase these poor reporters and the only thing you'll do is ensure they NEVER use you as a source EVER again.

OR you can offer to help them.

Here's the template:

===

Mike,

Wanted to circle back with you to see where things landed with your fabulous story.

Is it live online or could you send me a copy?

Let me know anything else I can do to promote, tweet, link to, and share your work.

Thanks!

-- David 

===

Guess what? This gets a response. 

Every. Single. Time.

Use it - share it - and please use the COMMENTS area below to share your experiences leveraging PR to help you grow your business. 

p.s. Want some expert help to get you started on article marketing and PR? This program might be exactly what you've been looking for. 

Have you ever been rejected out of hand by a prospect who not only doesn't understand what it is you DO but - as a bonus - also told you they already have it taken care of in-house? 

It's like they're saying, "Uh, I don't know what that is, but we already have that here."

This is what I call rejection by ignorance (RBI). And it is one of the most frustrating things you'll run into as a marketing or sales executive - and certainly as an entrepreneurial business owner. 

Quick example from my world - and let's see how this story applies to YOU and YOUR products, services and value proposition...

First, a bit of background to set the context. As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I market and sell to two audiences. 

1. For marketing coaching, I market to speakers, consultants, coaches, and independent experts.

2. For speaking, I market to conferences, associations and various industry groups. 

After reading this post, you will pick up some tools for marketing YOUR products and services better, smarter and faster - and you'll also see how to avoid one of the STUPIDEST sales rejections ever. 

Ready? Strap in - this could get ugly...

Oh, wait...

First, let me share a really good speaker prospecting letter with you. I use this one to get back in touch with speaking clients and also to cross-sell and upsell along the geographic hierarchy (local - state - regional - national) of organizations I've already spoken for.

(All names changed to protect.... well, you know!) Here it is: 

=====
Dear Glenda,

I'm hoping you can help me. I'm trying to get in touch with the person responsible for selecting speakers for your [insert organization name] national conferences for two reasons:

1. To invite them to a conversation with me about exploring our possible fit for your speaker roster in 2013 - I presented an extremely well-received keynote at the regional [insert organization name] last year and would love to do more for [insert organization name].

The conference promo from last year is attached for your reference and the special welcome video I did for your group is here: [Youtube link]

2. If a high-energy, high-content marketing program is not a fit, I can recommend several other outstanding professional speakers to you because of my active involvement and leadership roles within the National Speakers Association.

Please do get back to me and let me know your thoughts.

-- David Newman

[Signature block]
=====

So far, so good. And please DO use this letter template above if you're a speaker, consultant, or a professional who uses speaking to generate leads and revenue for your firm.

(And yes, you're very welcome!)

And now here's where things get stupid...

A very nice person forwarded my note to their national HQ. I got this 3-line email from HQ. Please keep your eye out for the aforementioned RBI - rejection by ignorance.

=====

[Nice person] forwarded your email to me. I work with our conferences and events. Because of our arrangement with [corporate HQ], we do not have marketing speakers on our programs. [Our organization] has their own marketing division and provides the marketing support to all offices in the country, so it is not part of our professional development portfolio.

=====

As best as I can tell, she's telling me, "Uh, we have a department that does that."

That's funny because I've spoken for clients like IBM, Microsoft, TD Bank, Merrill Lynch, and Accenture and I'm pretty sure THEY all have marketing departments too!

By this logic, no Fortune 500 company would hire a sales speaker because:

They have a sales department.

No large organization would hire an outside training company because:

They have a training department.

No multi-national corporation would use a recruiting firm because (say it with me, now):

They have a recruiting department.

So what should YOU do to avoid (or recover from) RBI?

Acknowledge it - love it - embrace it.

Corollary: If you can't market and sell to ignorant people who give you stupid excuses, you're going to have a very brief career in sales.

Oh, damn... was this microphone on?

Back to the show...

The tricky part is you never know when you're going to run into this particular brand of stupidity so I don't recommend doing anything differently up front.

Once RBI rears it's ugly head, your best chance at a recovery is what I call CSI. This stands for Complement and Supplement In-house efforts.

Here's a sample phone conversation or an email reply back to little Susie Creamcheese* at the global HQ of the Moron Corporation above:

=====
Susie,

Thank you for your note. I understand completely.

Most organizations that I work with also have a robust marketing department.

They value the programs we collaborate on precisely because I help them with strategies, tactics and tools that complement and supplement what they're already doing in-house.

I'm attaching a brief overview of the program I'm proposing along with 5 testimonial letters from clients in your industry who have a strong central marketing function AND who had great things to say about the results of our work together.

Worth a 10-minute phone conversation? Let me know either way and thanks in advance for considering it.

-- David Newman
[signature block]
=====

BOO-YAH.

Eat that, Jack.

RBI has met CSI and it's game over.

Hope that was as good for you as it was for me.

* Little Susie Creamcheese is a favorite saying of my speaking colleague, David Yoho. Hire him. He's awesome.

* * Grab this free "Sell More Speaking" web training>> 

You may have already heard about the upcoming Expertise to Empire Bootcamp Webinar Series produced my good friend and National Speakers Association colleague Shari Alexander.

This 6-Session Weekly Bootcamp includes information, materials, and coaching on:   

• How to create your personal Brand that puts your competition to shame
• Strategically navigating the world of Social Media so that it doesn't eat up your life and your productivity while still generating leads 
• The business of Public Speaking; learn what the top speakers are doing in today's market to get gigs and build their list
• The ins and outs of the fast-changing Publishing world. Discover which method of book publishing is right for you. Then put the steps in place to successfully execute the book you've been dreaming of
• Insider secrets of a successful Product Launch. Get more product sales in a shorter period of time with these tested and proven techniques
• Find out what the masters are doing for their Market Research.  Get the edge in your business plan right from the start by implementing these easy and quick techniques

As with most well-marketed, well-delivered programs, naturally you get some nice bonuses in addition to the Early Bird pricing that is now in effect.  

As a marketing concept, it's hard to find a more basic one than this: 

Get. Off. Your. Ass.

Yes, you!

Yes, right now!!

Here's a quick test to see whether or not you might benefit from APPLYING this revolutionary marketing concept: 

• Are you tired of endlessly chasing prospects and "tire kickers"?
• Do you get frustrated because your clients just don't seem to listen to you?
• Have you ever worked all day and felt like you got nothing done?
• Let's be real...have you considered packing it in and just getting a J.O.B.?

If this sounds familiar, then I have a solution for you.

Want to know what it is?

Are you sure??

You may not like the answer...

Ok..here it is.

You have to Get Off Your A$$ and Make it Happen!

(See, I warned you.)

Here's the good news. My friend Sean Carroll has a program that will show you exactly WHAT to do and HOW to do it, once you make the decision to Get Off Your A$$ 

By taking advantage of this FREE video training series, you will:

Marketing Concept: The Power of "Because"

Guest post from Sales Speaker Ron Karr

Imagine you have been waiting on a long line for the cashier in a supermarket. After 20 minutes your turn is finally approaching and out of nowhere someone cuts in front of you.

What would you do?  

Depending on your personality and values, the answers would vary from being quite physical to saying, “Hey buddy, the line starts back there.”  

Now imagine the same scenario, this time the person who cuts in front of you says, “Would you mind terribly if I cut in? I need to because __________”  

The reasons after the word “because” can vary from the person needing to get back to a child or animal in a car, needing to get home for an ailing person, being late picking up his kids, being late for work, not feeling well, etc.  

The actual reason matters, but it would not mean anything if the word “because” did not precede it. The word “because” signals a justification, a reason why something should be done. In the example above, not many people would... 

Read the rest of this post on Ron's Sales Expert blog here. 

Like you, I struggle with email.

You probably find yourself...

a. Getting too much email (Duh!)

b. Spending too much time on email

c. Getting sucked into long sessions of email reactionary time (aka swatting email flies)

d. Confusing your all-important business productivity with the amount of email you read, reply to, and process in a day

e. Wondering what happened to all those high-priority money-making tasks that you promised yourself you'd get done today

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I know that email is simply a reality of how you do business, how you serve your clients and how you make a living.

And you're probably like most of my clients and audiences in that you've tried dozens of ways to loosen the grip that email has on you day and night - at your computer, on your smartphone, on your iPad and even in your brain cells.

That's right - email is even stuck in your brain. C'mon, admit it - you've had dreams about your inbox.

Sad but true. There's no shame in it - and you're definitely not alone!

Over this past weekend, I made a commitment to stay OFF of email.

Bad news - it didn't work.

Good news - I found 5 great workarounds for USING email without getting SUCKED IN.

Here are the 5 specific strategies you can use to laser target your email activity - and get some important things done in 5 minutes or less without the distraction of looking at the hundreds of messages hopelessly piling up by the minute in your inbox:

1. Targeted Search. Use your email program's search feature proactively when you want to find something in particular. I recall having gotten an email last week from Staples that I had some Rewards bucks that were going to expire soon. I jumped into the search box, typed "Staples.com" and in 60 seconds, I was printing out my discount coupons and on my merry way to the Staples website and AWAY from my inbox! Like an email commando - quick in, quick out.

2. Send from the Hip. On Saturday, I wanted to send a quick note to a client about our next appointment. Your usual routine is probably like mine - we send from the inbox screen. And there are ALL those distracting messages clamoring for our attention.

It doesn't have to be that way.

This time, I opened my email and immediately hit the Compose button. The new blank email filled my screen. I addressed the email, popped in my subject line, typed out a short note to my client, hit send and immediately closed out of email. Like an email ninja - Silent but deadly!

3. Rapid Reply. Ever get that nagging feeling that you have some unfinished email business - but you just can't quite remember what it is? Then it hits you in the middle of the night: reply to Bob about his pricing question! So you pad downstairs at 2am, sit down in front of your email - and pretty soon it's 4am because you got sucked in.

It's not unusual for folks to spend 2 hours on email, get up from your desk, and realize that you forgot to take care of the original issue that you sat down to email about in the first place. Yikes!!

Here's the answer - and it builds on the targeted search technique. First, search for Bob's email address. If you can't remember it, search for his company name, the word "pricing" or anything else you recall from your last email exchange. Your search results should fill your screen and replace the inbox view.

Once you find the email in question, hit reply, compose your answer, attach any needed documents, and close out of email.

The goal is to use the Rapid Reply technique without looking at your inbox contents - or if you do catch a glimpse, deploy some self-control and consciously do not LOOK at your inbox contents for the few seconds they may be visible on your screen. Good job!

4. Deep Dig. I wanted to find a specific Wikipedia tip that I remembered was buried in an email newsletter I receive. This newsletter is one of about a half dozen that I've subscribed to for years and read regularly. The content is so good that I keep most of the back issues in an email folder I call "Research."

When I sat down to find this tip over the weekend, I did NOT want to get sucked into email. So again, my starting place was the Targeted Search technique (above). But then because these newsletters are so content-packed, I also needed to search the body text of the emails that came up in the search results. Also because I knew this email was almost surely in my "Research" folder, I limited my search to that location.

I tried searching for "Wikipedia" only to realize that this newsletter editor frequently references that site for additional info on the topics that she covers. Then I searched for a few more key words and short phrases. Finally, I remembered the person who submitted the tip and used the above search criteria in combination with his name - bingo! Two entries found. One from 2009 and one from 2011. The older one contained the gem I was looking for. 

Did I spend some "deep dig" research time? Yes indeed. Did I waste any time getting SUCKED IN to email hell? Nope - and you won't either if you stay focused.

5. Do a Money Pass. This final technique I've imposed on myself to specifically combat getting sucked in to email. When you have a backlog of emails waiting in your inbox (for example, my count right now is 226 because I wanted to write this blog before getting sucked into email!!), you need to put on your money goggles.

With those money goggles firmly secured over your eyeballs, go bravely forth into your inbox. Ruthlessly ask yourself this question over and over as you survey your inbox contents: "Will replying to this email make me money?"

For example...

a. Is it a current paying client?

b. Is it an active prospect moving through your sales process?

c. Is it a past client who has paid you money?

d. Is it a referral or other note from one of your advocates, allies or partners?

e. Is it a new lead or opportunity to sell more products, services or programs?

Once you do your Money Pass, you can relegate the rest of your email processing to some down-time or other non-peak "admin" time.

As my friend Marsha Egan says, "Email is not your job."

Put that up on your wall where you can see it clearly from your computer! VERY big insight, if you ask me.

Finally, here are two excellent resources if you want to go further with your inbox management and overall personal productivity:

1. Marsha Egan's awesome InboxDetox program.

2. Franklin Covey's personal productivity tools.

Using these 5 strategies plus some intentionally applied will-power (which will become easier the more you use the 5 strategies!) you will take back control of your time, your day and your life!

p.s. If you'd like some personalized help - and your very own customized marketing and sales toolkit PLUS an easy-to-implement small business marketing game plan with 1-on-1 guidance for 90 days, get all the details here.

Marketing Concept: Your home page is your calling card. 

Question: Are you communicating everything that you need to on that all-important home page to get people engaged with you and your products and services? 

Let's back up one step. Before you can answer that question, a better marketing concept to explore is the key question: 

What IS the main purpose of your home page? 

Multiple choice answers for you to choose from: 

a. To create a cosmetically appealing "cover page" for the rest of your site

b. To concisely summarize all your product and service offerings

c. To showcase your primary offering that you want to highlight (your flagship product, current promotion, etc.)

d. To create an easy-to-navigate roadmap with multiple ways to access the key pages of your site

e. None of the above

And the answer is... 

Wait for it...

Hang on... 

Alright, you win - it's e. None of the above.

Why? Because the main purpose of your home page is to convey two (and only two) key marketing concepts:

1. We know what you (the prospect, reader, website visitor) are going through.

2. We can help.

Here are 12 home page must-haves according to our partners over at Hubspot: 

What do you think? Please share your insights in the COMMENTS section below and..

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

As a small business marketing speaker and small business marketing coach, I know you're probably wearing lots of different hats in your small business, and it's tough to keep all the areas of your business running smoothly all the time.

Think spinning plates or juggling balls. What's worse is that when time is tight, your least favorite tasks (often marketing and sales) get neglected, and your business suffers.

To keep your business running smoothly, don't rely on your memory or your never-ending to-do list.

You'll thrive or starve by three calendars: an Editorial calendar, a Marketing calendar, and a Sales calendar.

If you set up these calendars and then rely on them, your business will hum along, growing and thriving as you regularly accomplish all you need to.

Let's take a look at each of these three calendars to find out how they work their magic.

Editorial Calendar

As you know, content is king when it comes to today's inbound marketing environment. To get noticed and to be recognized as an authority in your industry, you've got to produce timely, quality content, and you've got to do it regularly. Set aside a time on your calendar for each of the following tasks:

Email Newsletter. An email newsletter lets you communicate with customers you've already tapped into. These customers will be your repeat business if you stay fresh on their minds. Quality email newsletters include articles and news that your customers can't get anywhere else like invitations to exclusive events, industry updates, valuable resources, and timely articles that offer real value.

Blog. An updated blog tells your customers that you're an authority in your industry, that you're with-it, and that you are responsive to their needs. One of the greatest benefits of a blog is that you can build a genuine two-way relationship with readers. They can comment and ask questions, and you can show your knowledge and responsiveness as you reply.

Offline Publications. Your internet presence is priceless, but don't discount offline publications. Articles in national trade publications, association magazines, industry journals and major newspapers may reach an entirely different audience than your blog and social media. 

Guest Posts. Writing guest posts for outside blogs is a great way to reach more people and send more traffic back to your own website.

Article Marketing. Once you've written an article or paid a writer to write one for you, use it to your best advantage. Syndicate it so that it appears on many different websites, increasing your web presence and generating more traffic to your business website.

Marketing Calendar

Like your editorial calendar, your marketing calendar will ensure that important tasks are done on a regular basis, including your least favorite tasks. Make sure you have the following items on your marketing calendar:

Email. Nothing kills interest like unresponsiveness. If you don't respond quickly to emails, potential clients and customers will turn to someone who does respond quickly. Checking and responding to email should be on your marketing calendar every day.

Promotions and offers. Regular promotions and special offers keep you top-of-mind. Put your promotions on your marketing calendar, and use your editorial calendar to inform readers and customers about upcoming promotions.

Outreach. Put your business out in the community regularly by setting up booths at targeted trade shows or sponsoring events aimed squarely at your target market. Outreach may show up on your calendar much less frequently than other marketing tasks, and that's fine. But if it's on your calendar, you're much more likely to make the preparations necessary to participate in such events.

Web. Web marketing, whether it's paying for Google ads or finding appropriate blogs to comment on, takes some time, and it's very easy to push this task aside. Assign an hour or so each week to web marketing. Track your web marketing success over several months to see if you need to spend more time on it.

Sales Calendar

Developing and using a sales calendar will help you to stay on top of more personal tasks. Coordinate your sales efforts with your other calendars.

Calls. Set aside some time each day to make and return phone calls. If you work in an office, warn your co-workers that you'll be unavailable during this time.

In-person meetings. Even though phone and video conference work well for catching up, there's nothing like an in-person meeting for solving problems and getting on the same page. Put these meetings on your calendar as frequently as you think you need them.

Follow-ups and Decisions. Schedule a time for following up on leads and for collecting decisions from prospects you've had initial conversations with. By scheduling this time, prospects will meet your deadlines more often, and your sales funnel will operate more reliably.

It may seem intimidating to set these calendars up, but once you do, you'll find that you feel less stressed and more able to meet the demands of your day when you abide by them. With slots for each important task, you may even feel that you have more time for your favorite tasks - like running your business and serving your clients.

p.s. If you'd like some personalized help - and your very own customized marketing and sales toolkit PLUS an easy-to-implement small business marketing game plan with 1-on-1 guidance for 90 days, get all the details here.

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I read roughly 100 marketing, sales and business development books per year. My company is 10 years old, so that makes about 1,000 books so far, give or take a few dozen. 

And in almost every one - you'll hear something similar to these bits of advice about sales follow-up:

• "The fortune is in the follow-up"
• "If you don't follow up 5-7 times, you'll lose the sale"
• "Nobody ever EVER buys on the first, second, or third appointment"
• "Most sales are made after the 8th contact, but most salespeople stop after the 3rd contact"

I have good news: This advice is horse doo-doo. (And it's probably making you needlessly tired, frustrated and depressed.) 

I also have bad news: This advice is STINKY horse doo-doo that is costing you face time with REAL decision-makers.

Here are 7 reasons you're wasting your time with follow-up: 

1. If you're exclusively focused on prospects who are actively SEEKING to solve the problem you're positioned to solve, you'll get their attention on the first or second attempt. If you don't - then you need more targeted and relevant prospects.

2. We're marketing in an era where everyone - including (and especially) your prospects - are lazy, busy, and befuddled. Life moves too fast for follow-up. You're either an immediate priority or you're invisible.

3. Leave non-prospects the hell alone. Continuing to "check in" for no good reason when you're in the invisible column gets real annoying real fast. You may even damage your chances at future sales when you're a current pest.

4. Decision makers make decisions. If you're stuck in follow-up hell, you weren't dealing with a real decision maker in the first place. Following up with someone with no check-writing authority is like trying to teach a Labrador Retriever to drive. It may be fun for a short time, but then someone is going to get bitten.

5. "Short attention span theater" rules the day. If you follow up with today's "hot prospect" next month, chances are excellent that your prospect will say, "Who are you again? We talked about what? When? I'm sorry - I'm just running to a meeting... Bye!"

6. Alpha dogs BUY - Sheep dogs BARK. Chances are that no matter what your product or service, if you're selling to a decision maker, that person has an "alpha dog" personality. They are a Driver (D on the DISC profile) and they make fast decisions with a very low threshold of patience for dickering, bureaucracy or delay. If you want to make a fast sale, the REAL buyer is your best ally to make that happen. Or not. But "following up" to drag out the process will simply turn them off. 

7. If you relentlessly focus on the right prospects at the right time for the right reasons, you'll spend a whole lot less time "convincing" and "persuading" fence-sitters and a whole lot more time focusing like a laser beam on the buyers who are ready, willing, and eager to do business with you. No followup needed. 

Two quick examples for you: 

Dave - The No-Followup Sales Champ

When I was working for a large enterprise software firm, I sat across from one of our top inside salespeople on the days that he and I were both in the office. Those days were a rare treat because I could overhear Dave's sales calls in between my own work and meetings. Talk about free sales training - Dave was masterful. 

Dave would call hand-selected leads who were, more often than not, Fortune 1000 Chief Information Officers (CIOs). His opening question after a 7-second introduction of his name and company went something like this: 

"I don't know if you're currently evaluating options for enterprise software but if you are, I can offer you some insights and recommendations in less than 15 minutes to help you make a better decision, whether that's with us or not. Is ERP software on your agenda for this year?"

Yes. No. Boom. He opened conversations with about 70% of these prospects. The other 30% politely disqualified themselves and he never called them again. If you're not looking to invest in this category of software BEFORE Dave called you, nothing he said by way of "follow up" would make you dig into the corporate budget and come up with an extra 1-2 million dollars, which was our average sale.

Dave made a note in his CRM database to call them next year. Sometimes he would get the same CIO. And sometimes he would connect with the new CIO because the previous guy botched the ERP installation they bought from someone else. In any case, each annual call was a qualification call - a yes/no filter and NOT a "follow up."

Colleen - The Superachiever Coach with the No-Follow-Up Sales Letter

My pal Colleen Bracken and I started our speaking and coaching businesses within a few months of each other back in 2001. In her early days, Colleen specialized in what she called "Superachiever" coaching - working with CEOs, government leaders, and other top dogs in the corporate and non-profit world. 

We worked together on crafting a "no-follow-up" sales letter. Why? Because Colleen had ZERO interest in chasing prospects and she wanted to make this clear in her sales process because she also knew that the alpha dogs she was selling to felt the same way. (See points 1-7 above!)

Here is a portion of the letter we put together: 

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If you know someone [perhaps someone sitting in your chair?] who is ready to embark on the short, fast, exhilarating ride to the next level of success, STRAP IN and call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX or email colleen@superachiever.net. We’ll set up your no-risk no-obligation 15-minute SuperAchiever coaching call. You’ll be amazed at what we can do in a quarter of an hour.

Finally, I need to answer your unasked question: Why should you work with me? After all, we’ve both been doing just fine without each other so far, right?

1. I’ve handpicked you as someone I specifically want to work with.  

2. I’m a REAL professional coach. I’ve received my PCC certification which means that I’ve studied 250 hrs, coached for 1000 hrs and have been designated by the International Coach Federation (the world governing body of the coaching profession). Only 275 other coaches (out of 35,000 coaches worldwide) in the world have met this standard.  

3. Clients I’ve worked with have had this to say about our professional relationship:  

[Three of Colleen's most powerful 2-3 line testimonials from other Alpha Dogs the recipient would respect.]

Invest 15 minutes with me – no-risk, no obligation -- then decide for yourself. What’s the worst that could happen? You spend 15 minutes getting my best ideas, questions, and tools around what you’re working on right now, and we part ways.  

Or... throw this letter straight into the recycling. Only you know if you’re ready for this personal, powerful, unique stuff and the breakthrough successes that come with it.  

-- Colleen

[Signature block]

p.s. You're working at 100mph and so am I. For this reason, I won't bother to follow up with you. In my experience, SuperAchievers make fast decisions. So I figure I’ll be hearing from you in the next 3-5 days. Or not at all.

p.p.s. It's your move. 

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Between this approach in her letters, emails, and personal networking, Colleen built her extremely successful leadership coaching, training and speaking business. 

The moral of the story? Screw follow-up. You hate doing it. They hate receiving it. 

Instead, do everything in your power to market, sell, and profit from people who are eager to open the door for you when you knock!

p.s. If you'd like some personalized help - and your very own customized marketing and sales toolkit PLUS an easy-to-implement small business marketing game plan with 1-on-1 guidance for 90 days, get all the details here.