Walt Goshert » lead generation

What’re Your Numbers?

Walt Goshert — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:15:07 +0000

Here’s where smart marketers who really understand website optimization separate themselves from the ordinary guys.

None of this is sexy, cool, or exciting – in fact, it’s detailed, hard work. It requires tons of patience and persistence.

Unlike Home Depot, Fidelity, GM, and McDonalds, you don’t have a billion dollar ad budget. You can’t afford to settle with “getting your name out there.” You must be careful with your marketing dollars.

You don’t have enough time or money to play the brand name recognition game with your competitors such as GEICO or Lowe’s.

You will lose…and it will cost you thousands of dollars in ad costs, not to mention lost sales.

Your marketing must be surgical, laser-like precise

And you must know to-the-penny, what it costs to bring in a client.

You must know with precision the lifetime value of the clients.

You must have systems in place to track and measure all your marketing.

And here’s a little side bonus benefit from tracking and knowing your numbers

You’ll find that what you measure automatically improves. Whatever you stop measuring automatically decays and gets worse.

So you see, you DO want to maximize the power of your advertising dollars, get the most bang for your buck, figure out where to spend your time, money, and energy, investing in and finding out what works, and doesn’t work.

Now, if you don’t mind blindly spending money, wasting tons of time, hope and pray that something…anything…works. If you’re a short-term, tactical, pick-only-the-ripe fruit thinker, and you’re simply not interested in building a profitable business that frees your time, then just skip this testing stuff.

This testing and knowing your numbers isn’t complex

However, it does require work, and the guts to change and ditch the wrong stuff that you worked hard to implement, and perhaps spent gobs of money on.

Just for starters… here’s a few key numbers you need to know:

Your per lead cost from ALL lead generation sources.
Your cost to land a client
How much you can afford to spend to get a lead, to get a client
Your Return On Investment of each and every ingredient in your marketing mix.

Lots of people are afraid to ask these tough questions so they ignore them or pretend that having a vague idea is good enough.

It’s troubling to know that what you’re doing isn’t working and face the fact that you got to do something else. (especially when you’re not quite sure what really will work )

Your clear mandate is that your marketing must be held accountable for concrete, measurable results. The “hope and pray” approach is not going to cut it.

Pinpointing exactly what works…and doesn’t work…and constantly tweaking your marketing systems and processes, will position you for incredible growth. Not doing it, makes your business a crap-shoot.

And here’s the good news…

97% of your competitors don’t test their advertising. 97% have no clue about their numbers.

Imagine your clear advantage over your competition you have in knowing your numbers.

What are YOUR Numbers telling you?

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Flickr Photo Credit: James Cridland

Yes, Your Local Business Website Sucks

Walt Goshert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:32:06 +0000

Let’s have a brutally honest chat today about your local business website…

Your website looks great, everyone tells you it is great. Employees, friends, family. Even you’re convinced. “Yep, my website looks great, how can prospects and clients NOT be impressed?”

But guess what?

It’s Sucks!

Yep, in reality, it’s little more than a static electronic brochure with a couple nice pictures, a bunch of boring boiler-plate product/service junk, directions to your office, or the lame “Call for a Free Consultation”.

You see, very few-probably less that 1% of small businesses- get this…

The Internet is a dynamic, interactive media

You have with a website a powerful communication tool. Most Local Business Pros sense this, yet struggle with tapping into this power. Mostly, it’s because graphic designers and website builders- those folks you no doubt hired to build your site- don’t have a clue about marketing and the sales process.

With the Internet, information can flow back and forth. You can share tons of information about you and your business with your prospects…

* Pictures
* Audio
* Video
* Free download reports
* e-mail
* e-mail courses
* and more…

And, get this, your prospects can easily tell you what they want.

All of this information – tons of information – is rather inexpensive compared to print.

And, you can automate and put the sharing of this information on auto-pilot.

You’re able to segment, target, and attract visitors via searches, keywords, links, and pay-per-click campaigns.

And with Web 2.0 tactics… such as blogs, social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, videos at sites such as YouTube and Google Video… with a bit of time and effort, you can position yourself as THE Expert in your market… and ATTRACT targeted Ideal Prospects to you.

And, here’s the biggie: you can track, and test everything quickly and inexpensively.

All in all, the Internet is a marketing dream come true media, but it is over-hyped, confusing, and mis-understood.

And here’s the secret to tapping into the power of the Internet.

The key in using the Internet is not tactics, tricks, or tweaks.

It’s a major shift in your thinking

Stop using the Internet to market your products and services.

Use the Internet to market information about problems that your prospects and clients have that you are uniquely qualified to solve.

How’s Your Local Business Website Working Out?

Is it a Lead-Generation machine?

Does it help you automatically deliver information and help you build relationships with prospects and clients?

What questions or challenges do you have in making your website work?

Flickr Photo Credit: The Nothing Corporation

How your business can use blogging (socialpress.co.za)
AWR Expands Social Networking Presence to Include LinkedIn (eon.businesswire.com)
Intro to Social Networking (slideshare.net)
2 plans to integrate your Social Web presence (socialmedia.biz)

Marketing Systems Set You Free

Walt Goshert — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:55:18 +0000

“If you got a problem, make it a process, so you don’t have a problem.” – Ben Feldman

(Note: Ben Feldman is widely regarded as the most prolific salesperson in world history. Ben sold Life Insurance.)

Your online marketing success – and the ultimate success of your business is directly proportional in your willingness to invest and get effective marketing processes and systems in place.

Website optimization is a system. It’s an automated process that delivers information about your local business to your prospects who are searching for it.

A marketing system is never just one thing. It includes…

Lead Generation
Lead Capture
Prospect Lead Qualification
Converting the Lead into a Client
Client Communication, Fulfillment, and Earning Referrals

It’s a never-ending, dynamic, evolving process that you are constantly working to improve. It’s all these areas – with built-in, auto-pilot, cost-effective, and timely follow-up, the coordination of ALL these things working together.

It’s not one thing. It’s lots of everything.

And it’s best described with this savvy marketer’s creed:

“I don’t know one way to get 30 new clients a month, but I do know 30 ways to bring you 1 new client a month.”

And, to do that takes processes and a really good system.

Here’s the one thing to wrap your brain around…

The cold, hard truth about your business is this…you can live in denial or face the fact:

“Marketing is more Important than Mastery”

You can be the very best mortgage broker, kitchen remodeler, financial planner, or auto mechanic… offer the best, top-of-the-line products, provide superior service,

But… if you flat-out SUCK at…

Getting your WORD and your STORY out, and getting people to RESPOND…

You will never succeed in building a business that sets you FREE.

Period.

What are you REALLY selling?

Let’s say you’re in the Financial Services game- mortgage broker, insurance agent, investment adviser, CPA- to make a point here.

Are you selling a home refinance?

Or…

… are you helping a family free up money for investment in a college fund and eliminating stress and pressure of too little monthly money?

Are you selling H.O. Insurance?

Or…

…are you providing peace of mind and a friendly helping hand… assurance that if your client’s most prized possession burns to the ground, everything will be OK?

Are you selling a mutual fund portfolio?

Or…

… are you saving your client time and aggravation of rolling over his 401k funds during a hectic career change?

Are you selling tax advise?

Or…

… are you again saving your client’s precious time, while preserving profits in his business that he can ear-mark for expansion and hire two new employees rather than write a big check to the IRS?

Think of your business not as selling loans, insurance, investments, or tax advise…

Likewise if your business provides non-financial services…

Learn how to MARKET INFORMATION about solving problems that prospects have and desires they want to achieve.

When you make the commitment to this habit, when you view website optimization as a process, as building a marketing system, you will discover that you’ll create an effective marketing system solves a number of your most troubling business problems.

You have a wealth of leads automatically flowing into you. You pick and choose the clients who match your capabilities, rather than taking whoever you can get.

You are in a position to negotiate and get your price because you can easily and safely walk away, knowing you got plenty of leads.

Clients respect you because you didn’t chase them down or pressure them to work with you.

You can predict and foresee fluctuations in your cash flow and open up or tighten your marketing and sales funnel as needed, rather than always scrambling at the last minute.

You avoid altering your delivery processes or systems to accommodate clients whose needs don’t match what you do best and most profitably.

Your time with clients is spent productively, because when they call you, they already know exactly what you do, what’s unique about you, and how you can help solve their project needs.

You are able to focus on and pick up the subtle signals your clients communicate, solve their problems, build personal relationships, rather than worrying about closing the deal.

Your marketing is far more process-oriented and systematic, than creative.

Now, it’s up to you.

Do you know the number one problem of unsuccessful businesses?

They don’t take action.

There’s a whole bunch of reasons for this, but usually it boils down to they don’t know what to do, or have the guts to do it.

Successful businesses take action.

I’m not talking about the day to day actions of your business. What I am getting at are those actions that move your business into and beyond the realm of ordinary success.

The RIGHT ACTIONS

This means taking steps – however painful and difficult – to find the answers to the problems your business is facing, and then implementing the solutions. Because even if you have the right information – if you do nothing with it – nothing changes. You’ll stay stuck in a haze of inactivity, frustration, and will never reach your potential…and realize your dreams for you, your family, your employees, and your business.

Success comes from taking the right actions.

Replacing bad, unhealthy habits is never easy.

But it is simple.

Do something, change your habits.

“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” – John F. Kennedy.

What ACTION will you take TODAY to Make Your Website Work for Your Business?

Do You Know What You Must DO?

Do You Have the GUTS to Do IT?

Flickr Photo Credit

The “Sales is a Numbers Game” Lie

Walt Goshert — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:55:06 +0000

“Sales is a numbers game” is one big, fat, lazy, misunderstood lie.

You hear it said all the time to boost slumping spirits.

Your telemarketing to prospects isn’t delivering the leads or the appointments? Call more. “Sales is a numbers game.”

Prospects calling asking for more information? Keep mailing more. “Sales is a numbers game.” Something will pop.

No calls or leads from your website? Run more pay- per- click ads. Pay for search engine optimization, get more traffic because… “Sales is a numbers game.”

Driving all over town delivering in-home quotes and proposals at all hours of the night and then never getting folks to call you back? No problem… crank out more free quotes next month… because… “Sales is a numbers game.”

The truth is sales IS a numbers game.

But if you’re smart, if you do your homework…

YOU get to decide what those numbers are.

What would you rather do… work yourself to the bone chasing down 10 people a week to do free in-home “quotes”, or have three qualified Ideal prospects schedule a paid Consultation in your office during normal business hours?

Marketing- more specifically, direct response marketing that targets your market, makes an Irresistible Offer, includes a Call to Action, and is tested, monitored, and measured- is your sales and profit multiplier, and grunt work, frustration, and useless, wasteful advertising expenses divider.

Better numbers. Less grunt work. Much greater return.

Now that just makes sense, doesn’t it?

What are you doing to make your sales numbers work for you?

What sales and marketing bottlenecks are getting in your way from making your sales numbers work?

Flickr Photo Credit: Jan Tik

Hello… Hello… HELL-O?

Walt Goshert — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:17:32 +0000

Let’s imagine all your Internet marketing for your local business actually WORKS.

You’ve figured out the Google Game.

You’re getting traffic from the search engines.

Even some social marketing traffic from your Facebook Page, Twitter, and LinkedIn find their way to your website.

You actually have a website that DOES NOT SUCK.

Ideal Prospects… lots of them, in fact, more than you can handle… with honest-to-goodness problems, that you solve, people interested in the products / services you offer… interested in working with you are finding you, learning about your business.

Your visitors are excited, they’re engaged, they’re ready and want to do business with you.

Now…

Picture in your head, your Picture Perfect Potential Client, sitting in his home or office, his computer fired up, looking at your website.

He (or she) reaches for the iPhone, punches in your number…

On the other end you hear…

Ring… Ring… RING.

NOW….

Before you grab that call…

Listen Up

This is a key moment in your marketing and sales process.

It’s at this moment that marketing hands the ball off to your sales. All the marketing was practice, critical and important practice.

NOW… it’s game time!

Prior to this, your marketing was on auto-pilot, running without direct human contact. Ads, newsletters, free reports, website visits, maybe even a print mailer.

Now, you’re going to talk one-on-one with your prospect.

Your Picture Perfect Potential Client is gonna size you up in less than 3 seconds.

Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer for The New Yorker, in his New York Times Number One Bestseller, “blink” offers a fascinating study of what happens in our heads during these crucial initial 3 seconds and writes:

“The instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important, and occasionally, really good.”

It’s here many times, in that first quick impression, HOW you answer… or even fail to answer the call…that determines if you win or lose a client.

This is one of those little things that is a big deal. You must have a process, a script for exactly how you’ll answer, greet, and handle a new prospect inquiry. Your best phone person must be trained in exactly how to handle these calls.

Understand this: Your local community wants to support your local business.

But…

They won’t support you if you don’t get this basic business expectation down. Or, if the Big Box chain does it better than you, greets callers consistently better than you, you’re in trouble:

This is Your Local Business Wake-Up Call.

Now, if you’re a small one-man show, tied up all day long meeting with clients, make sure your voice mail works and leaves the right favorable first impression with your prospects. Or, even better, consider investing in a live voice answering service

You only get one chance to make a first impression.

Return all calls promptly. Best thing to do is ask (and include this in your voice message) people the best number and time to reach them. Then call them at that time. It creates that initial impression that you are organized and on top of your business.

Oh, and one final thing…

While it’s important to make a positive first phone impression, it’s best to figure out a way to have someone other than you, the owner, The Expert in your field, answering that initial call. If you answer that first call, you lose all the critical positioning with the prospective client.

And… to land profitable long-term, Ideal Clients, on your terms, at your price, you need positioning, you want positioning.

Your phone’s ringing…

What do YOU you say?