Introduction Tool
Getting others to introduce you to their co-workers and friends, to other department heads and branch managers, gives you the inside track to rapidly grow your sales.
Here’s how. Three words. Contests. Horizontal marketing.
Contests . Whether you’re a salesperson acting on your own, or the company’s head honcho, you can conduct contests to increase your sales and grow your list of people who want to receive your marketing messages. As a result referrals will increase, customers will stay, and cross-selling opportunities will multiply.
Horizontal marketing . You know what vertical marketing is. That’s when a salesperson is assigned a particular industry (banking, attorneys, doctors, state government, car dealerships, software manufacturing, biotech design) and works that one industry exclusively to become an expert in that arena. Horizontal marketing, though, is getting your contacts in your current accounts to introduce you to other department heads so you can sell more within the same account. You’ve got to penetrate those accounts.
Combine your contests and horizontal marketing under one umbrella. Create your own contests with drawings once a week, once a month, or once a quarter. Everyone on your list, everyone in the company, is eligible to win, whether they’re responsible for buying from you or not. It can be the president, office manager, receptionist, sales manager, salesperson, bookkeeper, warehouse supervisor or even the delivery truck driver. Anyone can enter and win. The requirements are simple:
- Each person enters with their email address. Once they’ve given it to you, they’re automatically entered for future drawings without having to enter again.
- You’ll notify each entrant with your You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ who the winner is and introduce the prize for next month’s contest.
- If they know others within their organization (or friends or family at other companies) who would like to enter, tell them to forward your email postcards to them. For their friends to enter, they need to reply to your email address and on the subject line include “Enter contest”. You’ve just added a new contact to your database while getting friends to market to friends for you.
The reason anyone in a company can enter is because anyone can influence the decision of whether to buy from you or not. They can help you get your calls taken and returned. They may get promoted to become the next decision-maker. They may be assigned to the new branch being opened and can take you with them. They may change jobs and tell their new employer about you. You can never have too many names from the same company on your list because every contact counts.
Between contests send another sales & marketing email postcard to everyone on your list. Pass on Good Advice, Just A Thought… ™, Snippets of information, Snapshots of American History ™, or Quotes from the Past. Have fun with it. Be sure to include your special marketing message.
Look at what you’ve accomplished. You’re getting your repetitive marketing messages to people who have given you permission to contact them. You’re creating top-of-mind awareness so when they’re ready to buy, they’ll think of you first. And you’re getting them to forward your name to others within the organization to increase your referrals.
Sending You’ve Got Contacts D-I-Y Sales & Marketing Email Postcards ™ is like giving friends your electronic business card to pass on to their friends who trust them.
(For more detailed information on how to have contests and use horizontal marketing to work for you, download my free ebook, Selling without Cold Calling? – the Holy Grail of Selling, and read the chapter “Money Laundering”.)
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