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Sales

Generating ROI: The other 95%

by RandallCraig on May 31, 2013

Filed in: Blog, Business Development, CRM, Make It Happen Tipsheet, Strategy

Tagged as: , , ,

How do you determine the ROI on your marketing and sales investments?

The standard formula is simple: divide the return, less investment, by the investment. A marketing campaign costs $1000, and reaches out to 1000 prospects. Five per cent of these respond, generating $1000 profit, for an ROI of zero: (1000-1000)/1000.  If the profit is $1500, then ROI is 50 per cent, if profit is $500, then the ROI is negative.

Unfortunately, this calculation makes a fundamental error: what about the other 95 per cent that don’t respond? What can be done about them?

Traditional marketing suggests one solution: work to improve the conversion rate. An increase from five to six per cent flows directly to the bottom line. Yet making this change (which is important), only changes the question to what about the other 94 per cent? 

So what about this group? Why did they choose not to transact?  Three answers:

  1. They didn’t have a strong enough relationship with you yet.
  2. They didn’t know enough about your service or product.
  3. They weren’t ready to purchase at the precise time that you were ready to sell.

The real marketing question is about the 95%: what investment is your organization making to resolve these three questions? (The answer for many, is not much.)  Yet a simple marketing automation concept – drip marketing – can  change the equation, and close the gap.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Identify all of the “funnel” entry points. Examples include web lead generation forms, trade shows, networking meetings, or even telemarketing campaigns.  Any source where a prospective client identifies as having an interest.
  2. For each source, identify 12 no-cost, high-value items that both educate and help solve critical problems. These can include white papers, infographics, videos, webinars, and books (real and electronic).
  3. Every 60 days, send one of these items to the prospect. This helps educate them, improves their trust in your organization, and most importantly, keeps your name in front of them. When they are ready to buy, they’ll think of you first. (Of course, doing this assumes that you have permission to reach out – if you don’t, the unsolicited interruption may have the opposite effect.)
Once a drip marketing plan is in place, the ROI calculation can be made for the other 95 per cent – the only difference being that the time horizon is longer – sometimes several years.
This week’s action plan: How are you handling the other 95 per cent? This week, look at your marketing investment, and answer one question: is the investment split between marketing to the 5 vs 95 appropriate? If not, do something about it.
Marketing insight: Drip marketing yields an important additional benefit, even before the prospect commits to a purchase themselves: they’ll often refer you to others.

Looking for more?

  • If you are interested in observing how I use drip marketing, fill out the form below. Each month or so, I will send out a value-added white paper or other resources. As you receive them, notice that there is never ANY sales pitch or “marketing” brochure.

 

  • If you are interested in looking at the CRM system I use for marketing automation, click here.

Note: The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

PS:  My firm now publishes a no-spam high-value monthly newsletter, the one-o-eight.  It’s filled with more content and news you can use.  To subscribe, fill in the form here.

@RandallCraig (follow me)
www.RandallCraig.com
www.108ideaspace.com
www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

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Prospecting on LinkedIn

by RandallCraig on March 1, 2013

Filed in: Blog, Career Planning, Make It Happen Tipsheet

Tagged as: , ,

Most people have a LinkedIn profile.  And most people understand the importance that relationships play in building a business, making a sale, or getting the job.  But most people are mystified when it comes to using Social Media (and LinkedIn in particular) pro-actively.

Of course, there are active strategies that are a play on content marketing: putting something “out there” in the hope that a person or organization will happen upon that content (or happen upon your profile), and then reach out to make contact.   Examples of this include creating a robust profile filled with keywords, periodically sending out new status updates, or contributing meaningfully within LinkedIn groups.

If you are doing these things, then you are fertilizing the soil, but not planting any seeds. To grow business, you need strategies that are even more pr0-active.  Here are six of them:

1) Before you meet anyone in the real world, search for them on LinkedIn. If you have very little time, doing this will expose at least some of their background.  And when you do meet, you can ask them about common connections.  If you have more time, call the common connections first; you’ll not only strengthen that relationship, but you’ll arm yourself with invaluable intelligence for your meeting.

2) Check on who is viewing your profile.  Reach out and say hello, asking them about their interest in you.  You can offer to send some more background, or perhaps schedule a short phone conversation. Hint:  See who you know in common, and reach out to them first.

3) Groups:  After developing a reputation in a LinkedIn group as a contributor, ask another contributor if they wish to get together for a short phone meeting or a  coffee.

4) Third party introduction:  Review the connections of one person that you know well at a “target” company, and ask if they could help set up a coffee meeting with a specific individual on their connections list.  After the coffee meeting, ask that individual if you can be connected within LinkedIn.

5) Improve your 1st degree relationships. Review all of your connections; compile a list of people that you don’t know that well, and reach out to each of them for either a phone call or in-person meeting.

6) Comments:  Instead of a generic comment on someone’s post, ask directly if you can “connect” in the real world. Sometimes a simple “can we connect over the phone?”  will work wonders.

What is the common thread between each of these pro-active prospecting strategies?  Each one aims to transform an online relationship to a real world one.  Whether you are looking to close a deal or get a new job, most people will not commit without spending real time together.

This Week’s Action Plan:  If you’ve already made the investment in a Social Media profile, and you’ve made the investment in learning how Social Media works, it’s now time to get a return on this investment.  This week, leave the passive world behind, and execute at least one of these active  prospecting strategies.

Marketing insight:  The Relationship Curve suggests that a sale is not made without first moving through awareness, preference, then trial.  These prospecting strategies are all designed to move people from one stage, into another.

The Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

Randall Craig

@RandallCraig (follow me)
www.RandallCraig.com
www.108ideaspace.com
www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

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Black Friday

by Randall November 23, 2012

If you are an American, you know precisely all about Black Friday: it is when herds of people get up early, head to the stores, and shop.  It occurs the shopping day on the Friday following Thanksgiving.  If you live anywhere else, you probably have noticed an interesting and recent local phenomenon: Black Friday sales [...]

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Social Attention Span

by RandallCraig August 10, 2012

How long is your attention span?  How long is the attention span of your clients, colleagues, or kids?  The conventional wisdom is that it is very short – 30 seconds – the length of a typical TV commercial.  Supposedly, the attention span of a Gen-Xer is even shorter. Thankfully, both of these urban legends are [...]

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Attraction and Conversion

by RandallCraig June 29, 2012

Are you one of those thousands (millions?) who build a social profile, only to find that you have very few friends? Maybe you are one of those millions (or billions?) of businesses that have built a website, but have found that no one is calling? Or no one is buying? If this sounds familiar, there [...]

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Three Marketing Models

by RandallCraig June 6, 2012

Model One: One of the most powerful real-world networking techniques is called “give-to-get”. You  meet someone, find out what they’re interested in, and then find a way to give it to them. If you do this periodically, eventually they will return the favor. Model Two: To compete, an organization must do so on Price, Expertise, [...]

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Is Social Networking supposed to sell?

by RandallCraig May 16, 2012

Consider these Tipsheets: there are over 300 of them, and they certainly don’t “sell” anything.  Each week, I give away a small nugget of information, and tie it to an immediate action.  These non-salesy Tipsheets, like the vast majority of blogs, are designed to credentialize expertise and build trust, slowly over time. Interestingly, I recently [...]

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Trust Takes Time

by RandallCraig November 3, 2011

How long does it take to make a sale?  And is it faster using traditional marketing and sales techniques, or Social Media-based ones? In traditional marketing and sales, advertising informs prospective customers about a product or service. Those who have a need show up and make their purchase. In the more sophisticated business-to-business sales process, [...]

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Backwards Thinking

by RandallCraig June 22, 2011

How often do you crack open the instruction manual for the new TV, car, or piece of software? If you’re like most, the answer is never. Reading through an endless list of functions is both irrelevant, and incredibly dull. In other words, a colossal waste of time. Why then, when it comes to social media [...]

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Suzanne Stevens interviewed by Randall Craig on www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

by RandallCraig August 17, 2010

Click to Play Suzanne Stevens interviewed by Randall Craig on www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com

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No Objections

by RandallCraig January 20, 2009

Everyone is in sales because everyone is selling something to somebody. You may be selling your recommendations to your manager. Or you might be trying to convince your family where to go on your next vacation. Or if you are applying for a new job, you are selling the ultimate product, yourself. Sales professionals have [...]

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