Lead Generation is the lifeblood of any small business, whether you are a self employed business owner or large multi national.
But how does it actually work, what is the process of Lead Generation and how is that done in 2017?
My Obsession With Honda Moped Engines And Your Business Lead Generation.
As a child I was always obsessed with finding out how stuff worked. I was that kid taking apart Honda moped engines in the kitchen on a Saturday when my mum popped out shopping, this ended up in later life with a compulsion to deconstruct stuff – to find out what was going and how or why it worked.
My mum was always a bit vexed with me – as there was nearly always a pool of oil on the kitchen floor when she returned to the house after a few hours at Tesco. This obsession caused me some problems in later life when I discovered computers, I actually really enjoyed taking them apart over the weekend. No just apart but in bits.
Once, when working for Commercial Union I dismantled the ‘company laptop’ and was forced to take it back to the office on Monday morning with a blank face “I dunno why it won’t turn on it just won’t” – I never did take an employers machine apart again. That was 1991 and a Toshiba Laptop was an expensive bit of kit.
What Has This Got To Do With You And Lead Generation For Your Business.
Leads, new enquiries, potential customers putting their hands up to say ‘yeah I’m interested in that’ is a fundamental part of your role as a self-employed or small business owner.
My bet is that you are currently spending money on promoting your business, this money, often hard earned has been taken and used by a third party. Which on the face of it seems a fair exchange, you handed over some cash and expected something in return, my bet continues; the money you have traded will not have produced the results you expected.
Has your phone rang since you placed the ad in the paper, and if so has in rung in proportion to the spend on advertising – has the number of leads gone up since the ad appeared?
What about your online advertising? If you are using a directory listing or pay per click or even some kind of social media marketing. Is it working – is your phone ringing more since you started doing this?
Generating Leads For Your Small Business Has Never Been Harder.
I’ve been around for long enough to know that things are changing, the 80/20 rules for getting new leads is now 90/10 or even 95/10. Social networks are taking more and more attention from conventional media.
Kids are now able to get sponsership deals worth many hundreds of thousands based on an Instagram account, but your small business is struggling to make the phone ring – that’s the shift. Modern day marketing has to adapt to some age old principles and not be replaced with modern tactics.
- Principles are fixed and don’t change that often.
- Tactics change all of the time.
Why I Love Taking Things Apart – And Why That’s Good For Business.
When I left Commercial Union (now merged with Aviva) I moved to manage my own teams (still with the habit of taking things apart) and spent hours testing options like the phone and direct mail with different members of sales staff, and testing all sorts of things in order to generate leads. Of course some of these would not work now as we have different approaches but without testing you just don’t know.
Breaking things is not a good way to learn about solving mechanical problems, yet without taking things apart there is no way of know how it works, dismantling and rebuilding your existing processes is a great way of truly understanding where the pinch points and problem areas are.
The need to test stuff and work things out has led me to here and now . With such a range of options to develop business, many business owners are sucked in by parasitic media sales people who are just pushing the same stuff they always have.
If you Google ‘marketing for small business’ there are million options – most want to sell you widget, an instant fix. These are the Kamaki of the modern business world; when you actually need a system, a series of processes.
A true guide, with some hand holding and assistance to build effective systems. Which is where I come in.
If Your Are Not Testing You Are Not Marketing
I know you are not testing your advertising and I know the medium you have chosen to get your sales message is not working as well as it could. You may well ask how I know!
The answer is I don’t know, but I have made a reasonable assumption, was I right?
Your key to understanding this is part psychology, in that many people behave in very similar ways, therefore I’ve made the assumption that you are making the same mistakes with your small business marketing, that I see others making.
By testing all of your marketing and lead generation you can find out what actually works, and prove it works, and then do more of it. Actually knowing what works, in a scientific proven way, is a powerful way to grow and develop a business.
Testing and Tracking Small Business Leads
At the moment you probably have no tracking of your customer as part of a ‘lead generation process’ and this is costing you sales. How do I know this? I am the guy who has deconstructed most things at some point and now it’s how I earn my living. Not engines or laptops but sales processes and marketing systems.
As I write this in 2017 the choices you have in relation to getting your sales message out to the market is just amazing, probably overwhelming! And that’s a problem because the more complex the options are the less decisions people make.
Have you ever been into Starbucks or Costa and tried to order a coffee? The Barista normally looks at you like you have dog shit on your shirt, and then points to a list of over twenty coffee’s behind him.
You are exactly the same when deciding to use a marketing medium for your business – there are just too many options, so you stick with the first thing that comes to mind and it sucks.
You forget that lead generation is a science and an art.
The normal starting point is running some ads in the local paper. Does local newspaper advertising work? Ff course it does. But there could be far better mediums.
By the way most local newspapers end up in the bottom of the Guinea Pig cage – all paid for by you.
Even if you were to make a choice for your marketing, which one do you choose? You could call a specialist, social media, pay per click, SEO, PR, web designer, graphic artist. The list goes on and on, yet none of these have ever created a sales and marketing campaign and often have never sold anything, let alone deconstructed a Honda moped engine, laptop or a sales process.
Which is why I always start my work by focusing on what you have and teaching you how to max out on these before you spend another penny.
Because until you have found out what actually works in your market, until you have tested and grown a number of systems you will never know what is going to work. Growing your business, by increasing leads is never a straight line up, there are just to many variables. Once you accept that, things will start to change.
I work with self employed business owners who want to make more sales, and I help them alter, adapt and change what’s going on. Without breaking what is currently working – that way sales can only go one way … up!
Nearly all businesses do one or two types of lead generation and rarely cross-sell other products or services, or even cross market – those that do (think Amazon as the best at it) end up being massive businesses.
There are also partnerships and joint ventures? This had made millions for Airlines and still produces millions for the magazine industry, it could for your business.
One Thing To Improve Profits and Leads For Your Business
Have a process for cross marketing – is one way of ballooning profits!
Small business sales and marketing is formulaic; it’s a process, in that it’s possible to have in place a series of things that you do (parts of a formula) that come together as a whole which gives you a full process to work with.
Importantly this business success formula can be outsourced or handed over to staff or a third party – freelancer in order for them to work parts of your system which frees you up to build your business.
Most of the work you do can be done by someone else if you follow a formula and the processes contained within it, importantly which is where it gets really sexy is that it can be AUTOMATED – no human hands at all.
So what is the secret? There are a couple, but this one is for free.
FUMP + A = Follow Up Marketing Processes + Automation. This is the thing that set’s the men and the boys apart. This is the biggie, the one that changes everything. Whether your’e buying in leads via Facebook at .50p a pop or doing email marketing via a joint venture partner.
FUMP + A is a game changer.
It is now possible to track your customers movements and actions and provide them with information and education when they want it – without you touching it. Importantly the systems you need to put this in place are so easy to implement (once you know how). What I show and teach (and construct) is sustainable and is easy to replicate and is guaranteed.
I can also help you getting your car to start on cold morning – but that’s not for now.
Call me today for 15 minute conversation and let me give you some free pointers as to how I can reduce your spend and increase your results – without having reducing your current results.
If you like what I can deliver for you we can schedule an hour in a Borrow My Brain session – could be worth many tens of thousands to you
You can get on my advice list and apply to become a Self Employed Ninja
Scientific Small Business Lead Generation On A Budget.
Get in touch today in order to secure your slot.
Short audio below.
Call today on 0774 007 6226 or email admin@therichardsmith.com giving me your name, business website address and a good time to call. My PA is called Loraine and there is voicemail if we are out/busy.
Richard Smith 0774 007 6226
PS Don’t forget – change is coming whether you like it or not and you have a simple decision to grasp it now or be left behind.
Final Bonus On Sales and Business Development Is Below.
Important
During the late 1980’s I studied for a Diploma in Management Studies at Henley, this was to lead to an MBA. During that time there was a real state of flux around business with a good number of ‘management guru’s’ telling us how to start, run and manage a business.
Most of what was taught then is ignored now, save one thing and that is forgotten and it’s this.
There are only three ways to grow a business.
- Get more customers
- 2. Increase the value of sales to those customers
- 3. Get clients buying more often.
The easiest way by far to grow a business is the use of 2 and 3 and 1 needs to be tested to be effective, however with the right plan it can work wonders.
For number 2 and 3 think Amazon and McDonalds two of the most successful business on the planet. It’s these that I focus on with my small business clients. “Going Large” increases profits by about a third!
Get in touch when you are ready to get moving on this.
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