Where do I get my clients from?

Let’s start out by pointing out how important advertising is to a small business owner.  Anytime you can get someone else to do your marketing work for you, in circles of influence that you cannot reach, this work is invaluable to you!  That is what advertising does……Marketing day and night for you in other circles of influence, bringing in new clients for your business. Also branding and top of mind awareness are invaluable once a customer makes the decision to purchase.

Many of business owners look to advertising as if it can provide all of their new clients.  This is a fallacy, an old wives tale.  Advertising, whether it is on the web, in print, TV, radio, or any other form, can only provide a steady (sometimes slow) stream of new clients to your business.  Let’s suppose for a moment that the above statement is factual, if the statement is true, it leads me to ask one major question;

How then can I add more clients to my business at a rate that will allow me to sustain or grow my business?

While owning my advertising businesses I have come to realize that most small business owners lack the ability to market.  Or maybe I should say they lack the knowledge to market, because everyone has the ability given the correct tools and ideas.  This has lead me down the path of training my advertisers how to market!  Thereby insuring that when the advertising works they know how to take full advantage of it.

What do I mean by the above statements?  Well let’s take a closer look.

All of us know between 150 to 250 people.  Don’t think so?  Take a minute put down your mouse and pick up a pencil and start writing.  Remember your brother, mother, father, sister, aunts, and uncles.  For that matter all your relatives, your spouse’s relatives, and all your friends.  Do you know any of their family (your friends).  Now all your work associates, all of your church associates, and who do you know in all the other clubs and organizations that you belong to?

I think you get the picture….You know allot of people.  Most of all your clients will know many people as well.  That is wonderful!  Why?  Why is it so wonderful?  Well let’s say you own a water skiing shop that specializes in all the water skiing equipment.  Your perfect client ultimately will love to water ski, and so will his friends.  Get the picture?  This is the law of attraction at its best.  If you love to do something you naturally attract individuals who also love to do the same things.

So if your advertising brings in one new individual to your business then you have a new market (150 to 250 friends, relatives, and business associates) of potential new clients.  All you have to do is figure out how to access and attract that market.

I am sure you are thinking to yourself, ya right Owen, you make it sound simple, but, how do you propose we do that?

Well now that you understand the basic concept come back to my blog in say a few days and I’ll start posting ideas to help you with the concept of penetrating into your client’s circle of friends and family.

10 Essentials: Company Brand vs. My Brand

The final in a series ten posts titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

Representing the Company Brand

Every company has a brand. That brand stands for something. It means something. One thing a brand does for a company is to separate it from its competitors. It differentiates. Great salespeople represent their company’s brand. They tell the story of what that brand means, what the company stands for, and how it is different. They understand how to use this differentiation to win deals.

10 Essentials: Sales Acumen vs. Business Acumen

The ninth in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

Sales Acumen

Acumen doesn’t mean knowledge. It means something more. It means having an insight, a perception, a sharpness. Great salespeople have sales acumen. They have the basic sales skill sets like overcoming buyer resistance, asking great questions, presenting solutions in the form of a dialogue, and obtaining commitment. But they also have something more than that; they know how all of these moving parts work together to make deals come together. It is something that is developed over time.

10 Essentials: Knowing My Business vs. Knowing My Customer’s Business

The eighth in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

I Know My Business

Great salespeople know their business. They have a deep understanding of their products, their service offerings, and their company’s capabilities. They have a command of the features and benefits when they meet with their prospects. As you might imagine, this knowledge is critical in presenting ideas and solutions to prospects and customers. When a salesperson is really great, they understand how their product or service stacks up in the marketplace; they know their competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. Great salespeople spend time studying their company, their business, and the competitive landscape.

10 Essentials: Selling Outside vs. Selling Inside

The seventh in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

I promise this is not an episode of Theater of the Obvious. Of course the salesperson’s role is to obtain customers by selling outside their company. Or is it that simple? As this series has pointed out in a number of posts, the salesperson’s role is to create value for their customers and, by doing so, create value for their company (I know some people have this backwards. I am trying to change that fact).

10 Essentials: Commissions vs. Customer’s Success

The sixth in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

Commissions

Great salespeople make great money. Many of them take a position in sales because it allows them to earn a compensation based (in part, at least) on their personal efforts and abilities. This compensation is almost always paid in the form of a commission or a bonus for production. Without using a calculator or a spreadsheet of any kind, most can tell you within a few dollars in one direction or another what their expected bonus is on a deal. Even though it’s not in fashion, nor is it popular to say, these individuals normally care about making money.

10 Essentials: Adaptable vs. Prepared

The fifth in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

Adaptable

Once you step through the prospect’s door there is no telling what you may encounter. The prospect could throw out concerns to test your responses and your ability to respond. Maybe he is a little adversarial because so many salespeople before you have wasted his time and has decided to make you prove your mettle before going too far. The prospect could also be faced with a business challenge that you and your company have never seen before, leaving you wholly unprepared.

10 Essentials: Great Communicator vs. Great Listener

The fourth in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

If you have not seen the first three seasons of Mad Men, buy them from iTunes, go to the library and borrow them, or set up your DVR to record them. It is one of the best ever television shows on sales and selling. The main character, Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm), is a great communicator. The character has a tremendous ability to communicate ideas that persuade the prospects and clients of his advertising firm, Sterling Cooper, as evidenced here.

10 Essentials: Persistent vs. Respectful

The third in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

Willie Sutton, an infamous bank robber, was once asked why he robbed banks. Sutton replied: ” . . . because that’s where the money is.” It makes sense to me that, if you work in sales, you’d follow Sutton’s rule and call on the people who have orders that they could give you.

10 Essentials: Closer vs. Opener

The second in series of ten posts in a series titled: 10 Essential B2B Sales Rep Attributes (and their 10 Essential Opposites).

No one will ever forget Blake’s admonition to the real estate salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross: “A-B-C. A-Always. B-Be. C-Closing.” Blake was the salesperson, brilliantly played by Alec Baldwin, sent to improve the sales results of a group of under-performing real estate salesmen. One of the reasons Baldwin’s character is so appealing on screen is that it so closely matched the sales behaviors of many salespeople in the past. This is what was taught and what was expected.