Listing Prospects- The Scientific Way
| Category: Marketing | Date: 2003-05-29 |
Any business thrives on relationships. More the number of people you meet, the more they know you and your products. And people you know are more likely to buy your products than cold callers who just surfed in. So how do you tap this vast resource of prospects lying before you. Easy- make a list. And do it the scientific way. Here's how:
1) Make a list of every person you know. It might be someone who mailed an enquiry or someone who answered your query in a forum or someone in the address book provides by your ISP. Save your addresses in a notepad or a spreadsheet like Excel to have a better view of things.. Do NOT exclude anybody thinking they don't need the particular service or product or they won't be interested. Please do not make decisions for them. They may recommend you to someone they know; someone who may be in need of the service or product you sell. There will be more people than you imagine, who will ask for your services once you go through the next step.
2) Identify their needs for your product/service. Each person has different ideas, living environment, priorities and hence different needs. What you need to do is identify the need for your product with regard to each person on your list. For example, if you provide a "Virtual Assistant" service, a certain business professional may need your services just as an extra hand. A Work At Home woman may need it from time to time when she has other priorities like a sick child or a family gathering or a surprise vacation and is left with no time to handle the daily affairs of a business
In the above example do you think the Work At Home Woman would have realized the need of a Virtual assistant service? Certainly not. Or at least, most of them would not have thought of this. So, what does this teach you? It teaches you another important lesson!
CREATE a need for your product! It is YOU who has to make people believe that they just cannot do without your product or service.
Once you do this, It is not difficult to close a deal, Right! So now you know why I said that bit about this step at the end of the last step. It really works. And if it doesn't, nothing else will ! Once a person realizes that he needs your product, you get the upper hand. NOW, HE wants your product. See how it works ? It just cannot fail. But once you identify the needs, how do you get it through to them? Read along step 3 for that.
3) The last step has probably made you realize the importance of using a spreadsheet for listing purposes. You can easily add a
column for describing the need of your product to a particular person beside his name and e-mail. Once you have the "NEED" column filled up, you have to start grouping people with a similar needs. You will find many people with similar or almost similar needs for buying your product or service. Make a group of such people. Of course, there might be people who might not fit in your group. Keep them separately at the end. Remember NOT to group all those people who do not fall into any group in a new group! Let them maintain their Individual status.
Now for each group and EVERY Individual person who does not fall into any group , prepare what can be called, in some sense, A SALES COPY. What you need to do is put it in simple, yet effective words, what products or services you provide and how THEY NEED YOUR SERVICES. Remember to write it in a way that promotes their benefits. What they gain from it? (For better business writing, read my Article series- SELL YOUR WORDS). read it one for yourself to see if it is effective or better still, ask someone to test it out. And by someone, I don't necessarily means your wife or your husband. they are most likely to shower unlimited praise or criticism, both of which won't help you. Get a honest review of what you have written. Once that is done, You are almost there. E-mail each group and individuals with the specially designed text content. Remember not to spam people. E-mail only those people whom you know and are quite certain that they wouldn't mind getting mails from you. Another important thing is that no matter how will you know do not forget to mention at the end of EVERY e-mail that if they are not interested in receiving any more e-mails from you, they can reply to the mail with REMOVE in the subject. And please remove such email addresses if any, as soon as you get them. But, If you were careful enough when preparing your list there will be very few such mails. And if your copy was well-written enough, then you will find new clients to sell your products and services too! And that does not stop your List-Building, you ask. No, there's one more step that stills remain. Read on.
4) Have you heard about the concept of 'GOING CONCERN'. It means that every business is meant to be carried on consistently and not closed down after a few deals. So, what does that have to do with this? I am coming to it. You certainly do not expect to make profits by serving your existing customers for your life. You need more customers-new ones. And where do you get them? Just where you stared groups enquiries etc. But, Now you have much better resource to find new prospects your existing customers! Yes, Just ask your existing customers to give you at least 10-15 references of people who might be interested in using your products /services. And never under estimate the power of a referral. When you are backed up by excellent references, people more than not, accept you willingly. That is because they have developed faith in you due to the fact that their friends have referred you to them.
Keep this cycle of new references going on. Your regular and satisfied customers are the pillars of your Relationship-Building process. And you must have understood by now that the process of ' Listing Prospects' never comes to an end. In fact, continuous listing will become the best sign of the growth of your business, if you carefully follow each and every every step mentioned in this article.
And do not forget to mail me your success stories! I will only be too glad to read them!
About The Author.
Lata Budhrani is a Web and Graphics Designer and the CEO of Elements Web Services. She specializes in Website Promotion and also publishes an ezine 'Web Elements' to help webmasters promote their websites effectively.
lata@elementswebservices.com
http://www.elementswebservices.com
1) Make a list of every person you know. It might be someone who mailed an enquiry or someone who answered your query in a forum or someone in the address book provides by your ISP. Save your addresses in a notepad or a spreadsheet like Excel to have a better view of things.. Do NOT exclude anybody thinking they don't need the particular service or product or they won't be interested. Please do not make decisions for them. They may recommend you to someone they know; someone who may be in need of the service or product you sell. There will be more people than you imagine, who will ask for your services once you go through the next step.
2) Identify their needs for your product/service. Each person has different ideas, living environment, priorities and hence different needs. What you need to do is identify the need for your product with regard to each person on your list. For example, if you provide a "Virtual Assistant" service, a certain business professional may need your services just as an extra hand. A Work At Home woman may need it from time to time when she has other priorities like a sick child or a family gathering or a surprise vacation and is left with no time to handle the daily affairs of a business
In the above example do you think the Work At Home Woman would have realized the need of a Virtual assistant service? Certainly not. Or at least, most of them would not have thought of this. So, what does this teach you? It teaches you another important lesson!
CREATE a need for your product! It is YOU who has to make people believe that they just cannot do without your product or service.
Once you do this, It is not difficult to close a deal, Right! So now you know why I said that bit about this step at the end of the last step. It really works. And if it doesn't, nothing else will ! Once a person realizes that he needs your product, you get the upper hand. NOW, HE wants your product. See how it works ? It just cannot fail. But once you identify the needs, how do you get it through to them? Read along step 3 for that.
3) The last step has probably made you realize the importance of using a spreadsheet for listing purposes. You can easily add a
column for describing the need of your product to a particular person beside his name and e-mail. Once you have the "NEED" column filled up, you have to start grouping people with a similar needs. You will find many people with similar or almost similar needs for buying your product or service. Make a group of such people. Of course, there might be people who might not fit in your group. Keep them separately at the end. Remember NOT to group all those people who do not fall into any group in a new group! Let them maintain their Individual status.
Now for each group and EVERY Individual person who does not fall into any group , prepare what can be called, in some sense, A SALES COPY. What you need to do is put it in simple, yet effective words, what products or services you provide and how THEY NEED YOUR SERVICES. Remember to write it in a way that promotes their benefits. What they gain from it? (For better business writing, read my Article series- SELL YOUR WORDS). read it one for yourself to see if it is effective or better still, ask someone to test it out. And by someone, I don't necessarily means your wife or your husband. they are most likely to shower unlimited praise or criticism, both of which won't help you. Get a honest review of what you have written. Once that is done, You are almost there. E-mail each group and individuals with the specially designed text content. Remember not to spam people. E-mail only those people whom you know and are quite certain that they wouldn't mind getting mails from you. Another important thing is that no matter how will you know do not forget to mention at the end of EVERY e-mail that if they are not interested in receiving any more e-mails from you, they can reply to the mail with REMOVE in the subject. And please remove such email addresses if any, as soon as you get them. But, If you were careful enough when preparing your list there will be very few such mails. And if your copy was well-written enough, then you will find new clients to sell your products and services too! And that does not stop your List-Building, you ask. No, there's one more step that stills remain. Read on.
4) Have you heard about the concept of 'GOING CONCERN'. It means that every business is meant to be carried on consistently and not closed down after a few deals. So, what does that have to do with this? I am coming to it. You certainly do not expect to make profits by serving your existing customers for your life. You need more customers-new ones. And where do you get them? Just where you stared groups enquiries etc. But, Now you have much better resource to find new prospects your existing customers! Yes, Just ask your existing customers to give you at least 10-15 references of people who might be interested in using your products /services. And never under estimate the power of a referral. When you are backed up by excellent references, people more than not, accept you willingly. That is because they have developed faith in you due to the fact that their friends have referred you to them.
Keep this cycle of new references going on. Your regular and satisfied customers are the pillars of your Relationship-Building process. And you must have understood by now that the process of ' Listing Prospects' never comes to an end. In fact, continuous listing will become the best sign of the growth of your business, if you carefully follow each and every every step mentioned in this article.
And do not forget to mail me your success stories! I will only be too glad to read them!
About The Author.
Lata Budhrani is a Web and Graphics Designer and the CEO of Elements Web Services. She specializes in Website Promotion and also publishes an ezine 'Web Elements' to help webmasters promote their websites effectively.
lata@elementswebservices.com
http://www.elementswebservices.com
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