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Four Overlooked Ways for Uncovering Top-Notch Prospects
In real estate it's all about location, location, location. When it comes to professional services marketing, it all about targeting, targeting, targeting.
We all work hard on identifying the right industries, companies, titles, and individuals based on our specific targeting criteria. However, in professional services, we do not have access to the large databases that product companies have, which store every bit of consumer information a marketer could ever want. Thus, we must make certain assumptions and hypotheses on what makes the ideal prospect. If these assumptions prove incorrect, our marketing efforts suffer.
Even if a professional services firm wants to quantitatively segment the marketplace, spotty data creates spotty results. The simple fact is that data houses have not paid lots of attention to professional services. The number crunchers can tell you about Aunt Sadie with insomnia in Topeka. (Think Lunesta would be interested?) But identifying the managing partner of a mid-sized law firm facing marketing challenges in Topeka is nearly impossible.
This leaves us to our own devices: making assumptions and hypothesizing. We all have a good sense of the basics: buyer title, influencer title, revenue range, applicable industries, and geography.
However, there are a number of guidelines that may not be all that obvious. In fact, many are downright counter-intuitive, but have weathered the test of time and have continually produced dividends. For those brave and unconventional souls who are willing to experiment, take heed of the following four qualitative, and often overlooked, targeting tips.
1. The Best Prove To Be The Best
Top performing companies make great candidates. Many think underperforming firms should be selected first as they are the companies that could use your services most. These underperformers typically remain underperformers because of a disinterested corporate culture. It is the companies that strive to be the best, the ones that are always looking for information to improve, that are going to be the ones that are interested in your value proposition.
Think about it. Consistent underperformers are consistent underperformers for a reason. They typically do not embrace change, are often insulated, and have a closed corporate culture. These attributes do not make for pleasant sales conversations.
The top performers, on the other hand, are consistently seeking an edge, are open to new ways of approaching old problems, and generally embrace partnerships and collaborations. All this makes for a great prospect.
2. With Change, Timing Is Everything
Many marketers act on change (a new VP of Marketing, a merger, new product, etc.) immediately upon hearing the news. Often this is too early. Intuitively, one would think that being the first one there makes you the preferred resource. But this is often wasted time because your new prospect is still finding the way to the restroom, still clarifying objectives, and still focusing on assimilating into the culture. With no set strategy, there is no firm need...yet.
Change makes for a chaotic time during which your value proposition will not garner attention. The prospect may have interest in your service and you may be in a position to help, but you will never get the chance if you approach the prospect too early. During the early stages, a string of frenetic events has captured the collective brainpower of your target and his team.
You can give yourself the best chance to succeed by investing in a little "covert intelligence." Don't worry, you don't have to skulk around in the dark peering into windows. Just feel out the situation by making friends with the AA and getting a sense for the best time to pounce.
3. Take A Step Up The Corporate Ladder
The higher the level of your targeted prospect, the more success you will have. True leaders take interest in a compelling value proposition. Leaders want to be informed. They seek out innovative thinking and will engage you in a conversation if you provide value. Creating a champion high up in an organization offers a great opportunity to leverage that contact throughout the firm.
That does not mean all leaders are great targets. It's the entrepreneurial-minded ones that seek knowledge and improvement. The ones focused on the status quo, like those in the underperforming companies mentioned earlier, are the corporate ostriches that never seem to get their heads out of the sand.
On paper this sounds great. Everyone would like to sell to the boss, but in reality, few can. Few succeed because their value proposition offers little in the way of value. To do so, you need a good sense of what is happening in the marketplace and how that relates to the targeted company. This requires an investment, but it is well worth the time.
4. "No" Makes A Great Place To Start
You have targeted what looks like a good prospect and have started a tiered mailing program to her. It's time to make the sales call. You do, and she says "no." Respect that no, but don't necessarily drop the prospect.
People change, strategies change, growth goals change. If the company looks like the right type of firm, and if, based on your call, you feel you can provide value to the firm, nurture the lead from afar and touch base on a quarterly or semi-annual basis.
Good prospects are hard to find. If you have invested the time in qualifying the prospect and have a good sense that you can assist them with your services, stay with them over the long haul. Many of the firms I work with now started out with a "no." I put them into the "respectful nurturing" pile, to whom I continually provide knowledge and value. When the prospect's need arose, I was the first they thought of because of the investment I had made.
Use Your Head
Who makes the best prospects? With information scarce in professional services, you must rely on gut and intuition to supplement traditional targeting criteria. This is not necessarily a bad thing. You just have to apply a little creative thinking and invest in experimentation.
Wireless Business Solution Zee Tawasha