I don’t know who said “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” but it has never been more true. Every week of this ‘new’ economy, contractors call or question, “How can I get more leads?”
Yet, in that decidedly ruthless way that shocks the inquisitor, we are trained to respond: “What are you doing with the ones you have now?”
By that we mean 7 ‘main things’ to extract full, cash-rich value from your current lead flow. It’s right there under your nose…
1. Where’d they come from? (Market source via media.)
2. How big is this target source? (What we call “universe”.)
3. How many bought what? (Closing ratio per item.)
4. What did they pay? Upsell offered? (Transaction size per ratio.)
5. Do they have friends? (Referral follow up chain.)
6. What about the ones you didn’t close? (Follow up closing efforts)
7. What system will keep all these customers and prospects coming back to you?
Because to us, we can make the phone ring again. But if you’re not maximizing the lead value, then it’s only marketing heroin. More is not always better.
Those questions are in order too. The top one is the most important. A mediocre ad to the best target will outperform the best ad to a mediocre target. Yes, as an overpaid copywriter, I just said that. Truth is, we can usually kick your mediocre offer AND help you find the best list because that serves both of us.
Then “target” in to wherever your offer is aimed. From your customer list to your web visibility, which includes SEO, AdWords, and even your radio demographic, Cable reach, and in house prospect list. These are ‘segments’ you can define and have a reachable quantity. That leads to #2.
Is this your current list, dated list, big ticket buyers, referrals, church bulletin, little league parents, chamber of commerce? I mean, you’ve got to know the size of the pool. To answer whether its even worth fishing the pool, #3 comes into play…
Do they close well? Or are they a bunch of mealy mouth price shoppers? Maybe they’re affluent, rabid for image and product ‘z’ supports that image. Closing ratio must intersect with ticket and gross profit to be meaningful. Then to #4…
Are they high transaction sales that can make your month? Or low transaction that must sustain volume to be profitable? On either, is there a more profitable upsell you’re not offering? Before you leave them…
Number 5 relates to finding a better ‘target’ than going back to the ‘pool’ again. Plus, no marketing dollars to find their referrals. The neighborhood, church members, business people in same category, seek commonalities and target your presentation accordingly.
And for #6 and #7 that most contractors miss severely…
What happened to those who didn’t close? You think they were window shopping you for fun? Find out why they didn’t buy and that’s the key to a fortune right there. Resolve that, go kick bootie with a far higher result from #3 - #6.
For #7, this is my age-old but more solid-than-ever (thanks to the economy) “Retention” message. The commonality among contractors doing well and those, um, “not” is powerful retention. Those who didn’t fill the pipeline and then build a high-sided inescapable pool into which it flowed are quite sorry. They had customers in there, but they escaped. Now they get to go back to #1, spending new marketing dollars to recreate what was lost. Not exactly ideal.
Yes, that’s how we multiply your efforts and results from your “existing” incoming leads. And you thought we were magic. All we can really do for you is a) Create a better message to make the phone ring, b) Make sure we aim it at the better targets, c) Let you extract full measure of the results.
Sound like a plan? Go back to your list of incoming leads now. Ask yourself the 7 questions. If you need us to help you fish them deeply, regularly, and to extract full value, that’s why we’re here. Otherwise, you’ve got plenty of bait in this article to catch a boatload.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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