Out of desperation, salespeople in service industries are often tempted to buy a custom-built marketing system. Sounds so good just what you need to get things going. The problem is that the system was developed by someone else for someone else, not for you. It doesn’t necessarily fit your business and you don’t know how to implement it the way it’s supposed to. therefore, you don’t get anywhere near the results you expect to get.
There is no quick fix to get rich. The only people who get rich from get-rich-quick solutions are the people who sell them. Instead of trying to take a shortcut and end up on a long detour road, you’d be better off learning how to develop a marketing system that’s specific to you and your business.
You need to develop your own marketing system to generate your own leads. It doesn’t do you any good to buy internet leads that are also selling to 50 competitors. When leads are yours, you’re much more likely to win some business.
As a professional sales coach, I have found that the fastest way to generate real leads is to show my clients how to build a marketing system that is specific to them. For many, this is strange and scary territory. For others, it’s small changes to what they have that result in the quantity and quality of leads they seek.
Your sales success is directly related to your ability to attract the right leads. As you develop your marketing system, you need to do it in a way that forms a message that matches the market and filters the market for the people you want to work with. This means you stop wasting time on activities that don’t produce results, you have fewer appointments and more business because you don’t meet with long shots hoping to convert them into buyers, and you have time to enjoy your work and your clients.
If you can’t enjoy your clients, they can’t enjoy you, and that means less client retention, few or no referrals, and more work for you. Everything comes together in a smooth flow. First, you have to attract and attract the attention of the right people. Next, you need to have them contact you. You then qualify your leads for ready buyers and focus your energies on them.
Long-term success in service businesses is determined by their ability to develop long-term relationships with their customers. A good marketing system will get the right prospects into your sales funnel, a good sales process will help them become customers, and a good referral system will keep them loyal to you.
It takes work and time to develop the systems necessary for business success. But it takes much less time than cold calling and acquiring low-value customers who don’t stick with you. Once you understand how to put it all together, business becomes fun again, and you’ll have the time and financial freedom to enjoy the fruits of your labor.