Welcome to week 3 of the MetroSculpters Consulting Actionable Business Advice Series.
Today, we are going to examine the ways to increase revenue through prospecting, or the process of identifying prospective customers or clients from the general public; how to identify your business target audience or demographics.
It is these specific audiences or demographics that will become part of your prospect list, and upon making a purchase of your product or service, be migrated into your customer or client list – that money-making machine every entrepreneur seeks to discover and tap into.
In week two of our MetroSculpters Consulting Actionable Business Advice Series, we discovered the essence and value of our prospect list, and how to set up the list. We discovered that prospects are prospective buyers of our products or services.
We have made initial contact, or they made the contact, to the initial conclusion that we now have their contact details. These contact details might be in letters, emails or phone contacts, etc. We learned that we must initiate regular and consistent communication with this list. We could mail them personal letters, email form letters, proposals, sales letters, ad infinitum.
In due course of this regular (preferably weekly) communication to the list, we should expect feedback, responses, and lo! demand for our products or services. If you do the steps, this is inevitable.
For those of us with inadequate prospects on our list, this week’s advice is predicated on how to scout for and obtain prospects. Remember that increasing our prospect list is the way to increase our customer or client list, and the surefire way to increase sales and revenue, and business success.
Well, the success part has a required factor: if we structure our business into a well-organized enterprise. Okay, let’s get started.
We are going to examine three ways to increase our prospect list.
1. Referrals
The first and most effective, which more often than not results in immediate sales, is referrals. In referral, we asked for and received names of prospective buyers of our product or service from our current customers or clients, partners, suppliers, friends, associates, and members of our staff. We would miss the boat if we did not ask one’s lists (customers or clients, partners, suppliers, friends, associates, and staff) for referrals. There is a law at play here: “Ask and you shall (may) receive.” If we abide this law, we are almost certain to increase our potential customer or client base.
We should design a simple referral form to be sent out to every individual on every of our lists. In the form, we will ask for the contacts (name, phone number, email address, knowledge of interests, and goals of the person being referred) from anyone who the prospective referrer might know who might need or be interested in our product or service. In the form, include a section for the referrer-individual to include their name, phone number, and email so you can track who sent you what.
Of course, the benefit accruing to the referrer must be stated clearly in the form. In most cases, it is a small commission due to the referrer upon successful purchase and payment (minus refunds) of a product or service.
The contacts referred are then processed into a pre-prospect list. Next, we will need to prepare a professional-looking personal letter with information as to our source of their contact, and make an offer or proposal that promises to meet their needs or wants.
In promotion and marketing, consistency and regularity are what pay off. Write to this list often, but not too frequently, and surely not done once, or twice, and abandoned the effort.
2. Pubic promotion
In public promotion, we will need to design a leaflet or promo piece with clear, focused, and factual information about one product or service to offer. The leaflet or promo piece must be simple, and neat, and its message must be easy to comprehend at a glance. It preferably should be in graphic form. However, the graphic must not obscure the message. Make sure the leaflet or promo piece has 1) a phone number, 2) an email address, 3) a website URL, and 4) a contact person’s first name bold and clear that people can make contact with.
In distributing the leaflets, we should get all staff and others that we can reach involved. We should coordinate the distribution of the leaflet or promo piece to people in target areas around our business, going as far as twenty kilometers radius or as we determine reasonably. Distribution points could include your office, car parks (with the leaflet or promo piece stuck to a wiper of the windshields of cars); handed out to people at event venues (such as religious, entertainment, social, etc.); hotels and entertainment facilities (obtaining approvals of facility owners to distribute leaflet or promo piece to their patrons); and the general public on the streets, etc.
Do not forget to get the leaflet or promo piece online, on your website and your social media profiles. Encourage your staff, especially, and others, to share and make favorable comments on the posts.
Again, let’s remember that it is the consistency of the promotion that pays off. Promotion cannot be done once, or twice, and abandoned. This must be done, say weekly or monthly, but consistently and continuously, for the benefits to roll into your business.
3. Online scouting
The third way is scouting online for contacts. The Internet hosts virtually all your potential corporate customers or clients through their websites. And virtually all your individual customers or clients have a social media presence. So, get online and social.
Search for the websites of businesses that may have a need for your product or service. Curate these websites for contact details, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and physical business addresses. Have these contacts formed into another pre-prospect list.
Then, write a form letter, or send a form proposal, sales letter, etc. to the list. The larger the list, the better. And trim the list as you may have people who asked that you remove them, etc. Those who responded with questions, etc. are transferred to your prospect list proper.
For social media, scout profiles and posts for people who might belong to your demography, or might be interested in your product or service. Obtain their contact details and add to, process and handle as in the pre-prospect list above. And treat as above.
Let’s conclude with the admonition that there must not exist any factor that will prompt you to stop or slow down your consistent, regular, and continuous promotion to all your lists, including your pre-prospect lists derived from using the three ways above.
Thank you, and best regards.
Babatunde Odutola
MetroSculpters Consulting
(Pre-legal Documentation | Business Documentation | Joint Venture Advisory | PPP Advisory | Project Consulting | Corporate Structure Design & Implementation| Human Capital Enhancement Services | Revenue-Generation/Enhancement Services)