Where are all the great clients? How do you attract them? How do you find the ones who are ready to buy? How do you engage them? How do you turn them customers? Running a business can be frustrating without a predictable way to get clients.
In 2006, I found success as a Marketing Manager for a tech startup in Toronto, Canada. But my new found success in marketing was because of a failure in sales.
Prior to becoming a Marketing Director, I’d spent 10 years selling high ticket products;
- 10K Lincoln welding machines
- 120K imported luxury SUVs
- 12K pre-arranged funeral services
- 10K IT contractor and placement services
- $60 per square foot imported hardwood flooring
- Enterprise hardware and software.
When I first started working for a tech startup, my employer didn’t have a website or marketing materials. They had a complex hardware/software solution that few understood. So, I had to struggle to get sales the old-fashioned way (cold calling), without marketing support.
After six months of trying with minimal sales results, and almost ready to give up, I convinced upper management we needed better marketing. So, I was given the additional role of Marketing Director. I created the company’s website, case studies, and an online webinar.
"Your products and services are what your customer gets. But your real product is your entire business. Your brand purpose is a key part of that. But it's tricky to figure out."
The day after launching the new site, I was contacted by the third-largest public mass transit system in North America. The buyer wanted a free demo and said my marketing materials had pre-sold them on our brand.
Within a few weeks, I closed the largest sale in our company’s history. The customer was a huge corporation with 761 million in annual revenue. When I picked up the check from the decision maker, he said their firm had never made such a rapid purchase.
For me, it was the easiest sale I ever made. The only effort required was a 15-minute product demo. Problem was, I wasn’t sure how to repeat those results. My journey into how to get repeatable marketing results had begun.
After successfully directing the marketing for a tech startup, I started my own marketing business called “Predictable Results.”
But I soon realized that predictability hinges on a deep understanding of your customers. This was the secret to my success (If you want to call a secret).
Telling stories is the great skill of the salesperson. So I had unconsciously evoked stories that brought the content to life. Telling stories helps create an emotional bond with customers that puts them at the center of your messaging.
Crafting a few relevant stories is a practice that will pay dividends. But how do you craft a good one? What stories should you tell? Here are some ideas…
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- How did your business get started?
- What’s your case for change?
- What’s your vision of the future?
- What do you stand for and why?
- Which customers do you serve and how do they benefit?
- How did a customer successfully use your product? (the hero’s journey)
- Why is your product different and better?
- What’s your business philosophy?
- What can you teach potential customers?
- And more
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Contact me about getting interviewed on my podcast. I use the elements of story structure and journalism to help you develop an interview plan and a few good stories. Who knows, they could become your most valuable marketing assets.
Do you make decisions like I do? Then we should work together.
- Driven by trusted base relationships
- Built on a small focused audience
- Designed to maximize long-term sales
- Multi step-by-step process and longer sales cycle
- Aimed at building brand identity based on trust
- Focused on educating your target audience
- You make rational buying decisions based on business value
- Aimed at generating demand and leads
Copy is where the rubber hits the road for your marketing. This requires planning, researching, structuring, and revising based on your goals and target audience.
My background of drawing TV commercial storyboards (for some of the world’s largest advertising agencies) gave me fundamental storytelling skills I still use today.
Do you struggle with these lead generation challenges?
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- Product too complex for prospects to understand
- Innovative product or service that seems risky
- Unbearably long sales cycle
- Too much competition
- Finding it hard to stand out
- High cost per lead
- Not enough sales
- Can’t attract the right customers
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Why it’s difficult to generate leads on demand…
It’s usually only a small percentage of the market that’s actively looking to buy your product – if they’re looking at all.
So, if you focus on active buyers, you may be looking for a long time or competing for a very small market. And in that case, you’re also competing for the same wallet as everyone else.
Business Growth Insight
New products are introduced with publicity and maintained with advertising. To sell a new product, you need to sell the problem first. Once your product becomes known by a category you must finad a way to preferentially stand out. Or else you may have to compete on price.
Here’s the solution…
A better lead generation strategy is to focus on the 99% of the market that’s not actively buying. More sales can be generated by building relationships through content. Do this affordably and you have a system for predictable growth.
My POV is there’s no such thing as ‘creating demand.’ It either exists or it doesn’t. But you can get a conversation going around the issues or challenges prospects have that your services solve. This can enable you to ‘build a tribe.’ Build a tribe and you’ll be in a position to nurture a community. The leads will follow. This requires advanced planning, consistent effort, and time to implement. But if you do it right, you can create an endless supply of leads and can achieve a much higher return on investment. And of course, you can create significant business equity. And one day, if you want to, sell your business for a lot of money.
To generate leads effectively you must have strong marketing. I provide coaching and consulting to help your marketing succeed. Learn more.
LinkedIn is the channel I currently recommend to most of my B2B clients. Done right, you can use LinkedIn to pinpoint your target audience and reach them consistently with high quality content at the lowest cost.
I’m experienced and trained on how to use their advertising platform. And my Knowledge and skills are continually updated with the latest best practices.
Get done-for-you services or coaching on how to do it yourself.
What You Get
- Innovative marketing strategies
- insightful questions
- Entrepreneurial passion
- Results driven content
- Reliable & friendly service
- Professionally trained experts
- On-time delivery, deadlines met
- Portfolio quality work
- Content best practices
