Wouldn't it be just fantastic if in the first quarter of this year you acquired a new sales force for your business? Now I'm not just talking about 1 or 2 new people, I'm talking about hundreds or even thousands of new sales people all out there in the market place spreading the word and selling you and your business. Mobilising an entire army of raving fans all bought into you and your business and the difference you make in the market place.
What impact would this new sales force have on the growth of your business? Could this be the break through your looking for in to order hit double or even triple digit growth this year?
A pipe dream or a reality?
Well actually it could be a reality – I've seen it done many times with our Clients; let me tell you how?
Firstly it requires you to take a leap of faith for a moment and think differently about your business. You've spent a great deal of time, effort and money in attracting and building the loyalty from your existing customers and clients – True?
Those customers and clients have bought you – they've bought your business brand and as long as you're delivering on the promise and engaging in the appropriate retention strategies then they'll remain loyal to you forever! (We'll talk about retention strategies in a future issue of the Business Accelerator Ezine coming soon).
These loyal clients are the 'ideal profile' of client for your business. They;
STAY! SAY! And PAY!
- Stay for as long as possible
- Say great things about you
- Pay on time…every time!
Now it's the "SAY great things" part that I want to talk with you about today. Because in saying great things about you – you can create a torrent of referrals through the front door of your business!
By just being pro active v re active, by thinking about this strategy from a different prospective you can turn your clients into your Silent Sales Force!
Think about it for a moment; there already bought into you and your business, there passionate about what you do and how you do it, there loyal, talk about you and your business with enthusiasm, understand your products & services probably better than some of your own people because they are actually using them! WOW aren't these the traits you'd look for in recruiting a new sales person. And perhaps the sting in the tail;
As they are your 'ideal profile' of client who do they shake and move with both professionally and personally? Yes – other like minded individuals similar to them, and most importantly for you similar to the profile of clients you want to attract to your business and… FAST!
Now I'm not just talking about referral capture here on an adhoc basis – I'm talking about a Systematised Referral Process where you go back to the well on a regular basis and have a structured process.
Let's look at the numbers for a moment by taking a generic model; our ABC Limited or as I prefer to say 'UnLimited' – the only limiting factor being our mindset about what we can and cant achieve in our businesses.
Imagine in our ABC business we have 500 Customers. Taking the 80/20 rule – the top 20% are the 'ideal profile' of client. So we focus on the top 100 Clients as our Silent Sales force.
On average we pick up just one referral from each of those clients (I say on average as I have a number of thoughts on the number of referrals we should ask for; a discussion for another day) that would now give us 100 prospects.
Now I don't know what your conversion rates are in your business at the moment. What I do know however, and I'm sure you'd agree is that referral business converts at a higher rate than any other form of lead generation activity.
So – in this example I'm going to work on a conversion of 1:10 (I'd probably expect it to be more like 1:5) this would equate to 10 new clients from your new sales force.
Now – if we systematised the process and went back to the well on a quarterly basis this would generate 400 new prospects; at our conversion rate of only 1: 10 = 40 new clients per year!!!! How much would this be worth to your business?
I'm sure you could run your real numbers in terms of number of customers and conversion rates through the formula I've used above, and calculate precisely what impact this strategy would have on the growth of your business?
So there you have it! How to create a torrent of Low Cost/ No Cost Leads through the front door of your business and turn your key clients and customers into your Silent Sales Force!
Written by Royston Guest, Sales & Marketing Director Pti International. Please visit http://www.http://www.pti-worldwide.com
Royston Guest is Sales and Marketing Director of Pti International. For more information please visit http://www.pti-worldwide.com/?p=Conference+Speaking
No comments:
Post a Comment