PDQtips™
PDQtip ™ #1 – The Value of Customer Testimonials
For many people, it’s hard for them to “blow their own horn”. Most people don’t like to brag. Ok. Don’t. Let your customers do it for you. Ask your customers to email you and explain how you, your services, or your products have helped them. Ask them to give you specific numbers: sales made, calls returned, or time saved. Decision-makers want specific, measurable results, so forget the fluff. Get permission to use their testimonials in the custom message area of your You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™. Also get permission to use their full names and company names (makes the testimonials more legitimate) and let them know that some people may try to call them and verify they are real and that they did make the statement.
For example, here’s a testimonial from one of our customers: “Simply amazing results! I have increased the amount of Vienna branded Chicago Eatery businesses that opened on the East coast by at least 25%.” – Jim Silverman, Director of Eastern Sales, Vienna Beef Ltd., Atlanta, GA.
It’s not bragging if the customer says it. And their testimonial carries much more weight than any slick advertising you can dream up.
PDQtip ™ #2 – Persistency
People always want to know how many times you should contact a new prospect before giving up. If they’re using my competition, I never give up because that tells me they have a problem and they need a solution. I know that things will change and that if I position myself to be the #2 vendor on their list, I’ll become #1 some day.
But if you feel you must give up, consider these statistics: 44% of salespeople give up after the first call; 22% give up after the second call; 14% give up after the third call; and 12% give up after the fourth call. Yet 70% of prospects won’t make a decision until after you get past the fifth call. If there is a magic number for when to give up, it would be five.
Marketing professionals have found that if you’re going to interrupt someone it better be with something that’s entertaining. By using the You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ you can make all five contacts in an entertaining and fun way that will always get you welcomed back for the next call. And with each email postcard you send, you increase the chances they will remember you, like you, trust you, and buy from you.
PDQtip ™ #3 – Customer Retention
Did you know that 90% of companies don’t even have a customer retention program? Mostly because they don’t know how to create one. What can you do? Stop by and see the people? What if they live in other states or in other parts of the world? Do you send them a letter every month? Yeah, right. How about a call once a month? Get real. At best 20% of your customers provide 80% of your sales and these are the only people you’ll have time for. The other 80%? They’re prime picking for your competitors who are hungrier than you are. I’m sure they see your customers four times more than you do.
You know that customer retention isn’t a job just for the salespeople. Why aren’t your service people helping to retain your customers? They’re responsible for your company’s bottom line too. And your managers? Why aren’t they calling on your customers? If your salespeople ever leave and your managers have no relationships with your customers, who do you think your customers will be loyal to? (Was poor manager-customer relationships the reason why “no-compete” contracts were created?)
Relax. You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ is your new, easy-to-use, no-brainer customer retention program. The beauty is that everyone in your organization can use them: sales, service, and management. Your customers want to feel loved, so you might as well spread the love around.
You gotta’ do something to keep the customers. Even if they don’t make you a profit, they’ll pay your overhead. And better yours than your competitors.
PDQtip ™ #4 – Advertising
Most small businesses don’t have the money to do extensive advertising. Passive, non-intrusive advertising in the yellow pages is sometimes their only marketing strategy. Direct mail is out: too expensive and unproductive. Newspapers? Are they still around? Radio advertising? Are you doing it now? Why not? Exactly. Of course forget about television. Cold calling is a good way to advertise. But you know the salespeople aren’t going to do it. It’s too darn scary. And what a waste of time! (Or so they try to convince the sales manager.)
So how can you advertise without it costing you an arm and a leg? Say – for $20/month? Funny you should ask. Have you ever tried sending You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ to everyone in your database? You don’t have to pay for an advertising agency; no postage costs; and no printing costs. Heck, you don’t even need a marketing department if you don’t want one. (If you’re in marketing, disregard that last statement.) Send 10 or 10,000 email postcards to every customer and prospect as often as you like. Repetition is the by-word of advertisers and what better way than email postcards? (Research has found that people have to see you, see your name, or hear your name 6-10 times before they will trust you enough to buy from you.) We don’t care how many email postcards you send or how often you send them. We just want you to have their permission so the spam police won’t arrest you and we’ll never see or hear from you again.
It bears repeating: you’re going to have to do something this month to reach your numbers…so you might as well do something that’s fun and that works…D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ from You’ve Got Contacts. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
PDQtip ™ #5 – Your Marketing Sucks
No, not yours. That’s the title of Mark Stevens’ great book. Use the custom message area of your You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ to introduce new services and products in order to cross-sell to your existing customers. Stevens found that there are three reasons why we don’t cross-sell: (1) we just don’t think of it; (2) it’s too “pushy”; and (3) it’s not “professional” or your staff feels uncomfortable doing it.
You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ eliminate all three reasons. You can’t cross-sell if you don’t have a plan. Here it is.
PDQtip ™ #6 – Creating Sales Opportunities by Increasing Referrals
Put every contact you meet in each account on your customer list and send them your You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™. Include company executives, office managers, receptionists, administrative personnel, service people, warehouse personnel, and salespeople. They may not sign your contract, but they influence those who do. And they’re always in a position to help you get your calls taken and returned.
Joe Girard (listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for four years as the #1 salesman in the world and creator of the Law of 250) discovered that everyone knows 250 others well enough to invite to their wedding or funeral. He proved this gives you tremendous leverage for getting referrals simply because every person you know, knows hundreds you don’t. They’ll forward your You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ to their co-workers, friends, and family. Besides, you never know who will get promoted or move to another organization and can take you with them. Joe sent 13,000 cards every month to every customer and prospect. His purpose was to get them to think of him first whenever they were ready to buy; or if they were talking to a friend who could buy. He said he only wanted to get his name in front of them for one second each month in order to sell himself first.
The more referrals you get, the more selling opportunities you create. But you can’t get referrals if you don’t have a program. You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ is your referral program.
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