Clients and contacts of mine have heard me say this many times "Marketing is not about the glossy, it's about the process"
Let me show you what I mean:
About eight months ago a client recommended me to a contact
of hers. Having thanked the client I emailed the said contact
offering my free Marketing Healthcheck and
she was kind enough to reply saying that they had just started working on
a new project but would be better placed to talk to me in four month’ s time.
After four months I contacted her again saying I hoped that
their project had come together and reminding her of our previous e-mail
conversation.
She was delighted I had remembered them and said that
funnily enough they had recently had a conversation about getting some
marketing help.
My first meeting for them is now in the diary.
So what have I demonstrated about the marketing process so
far? Well firstly, it's essential to HAVE a process and secondly that "luck" is about creating an opportunity. Here's the five things I did to make me lucky:
1. I had clearly explained the marketing proposition
of my free Marketing Healthcheck such that a client could recommend me.
Have
you made it easy for clients and contacts to recommend you?
2. I thanked that client immediately, promising to
keep her posted having gone to such trouble to recommend me
Do
you say thank you enough? You should
REALLY appreciate anyone who effects an introduction
3. As soon as
I had the referral I got in touch
Do
you strike whilst the iron is hot? If someone has gone to the effort of
referring you the least you can do is act upon it – sharpish.
4. Having heard that she had no need of my services
at the time. I diarised a suitable opportunity to get in touch again (but
meanwhile had followed her on Twitter and added her to my newsletter list)
Do you ensure that you have taken steps to stay in touch with everyone
who goes across your radar screen?
5. I e-mailed her again and mentioned my previous
e-mail but saying I hoped that the project and gone well.
A no is not a no forever, so diarise a follow up and do it but do it in
a way to show that you care about what has been happening in their lives…
What else could I have done?
If she had been local to any networking groups I would have
got in touch with her suggesting that she might come along
My final questions are these. Are you doing EVERYTHING you can to
get business? And actually, what else do YOU do?
Thanks to @Doug88888 on Flickr for his pic
Nice piece--I concur. People love to be remembered, and I should say that a significant portion of my business has come about as a result of tapping people on the shoulder whom I hadn't heard from in awhile.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting Angela. I think that's something we often forget in terms of previous clients too. Daft really, they say it's six times less effort getting business from a previous client - you've already done the know, like, trust bit!
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