Two Skills You MUST Master in 2010

Now that we’ve gotten past the first week of the new year, I know that you’re starting to get back into the swing of things in your business. If you want to put more cash into your pockets…here are two of the most critical things you need to focus on in your small business marketing strategy in 2010:

1. One way of generating leads
2. One way of converting leads

If you master those two things, you will get new customers and increase sales and revenue in 2010.

Now I have a question for you. What are you currently doing to generate leads in your business? What specific actions are you taking to cause a suspect to become a prospect?

I define a suspect as someone who doesn’t know you, like you, or trust you. They may want or need what you’re selling, but if they don’t know that you’re alive and breathing…it ain’t happening.

Once they know you’re alive, you have to tell them why they ought to do business with you instead of any other option that’s available to them.

Just last week, I went out and invested some time in talking with other business owners as I focus on developing joint-venture relationships and strategic alliances. In the process, I saw more empty storefronts than I have in a long time. One gentleman had just sold his customer database to a former competitor whom he was now going to work for. Yes…you heard me right…he’s going to work for the person who used to be his competitor. His exact words to me were, “as a country, we’re in survival mode”.

Grant it…numbers are down in many industries. Because sales are down, small business marketing budgets are being cut (by those who don’t know how to make their marketing work).

Here’s a tip:  THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO CUT YOUR MARKETING AND ADVERTISING (unless you are testing and tracking what’s working and what’s not in order to know what deserves to be cut).

Small business marketing that focuses on identifying a hungry market, finding out what they want, and communicating a benefit-rich message to that market using the right media will make many people rich…even in this economy. Will you be one of those people?

As an independent professional, a great way to generate leads is to create awareness of the value that you’re delivering to your market. Here are three tools you can use to do that:

1. Write articles
2. Start a blog
3. Create free reports

The reason you should create those types of ‘information widgets’ is…they position you as an authority in your industry. Once you have expert status, it’s a lot easier to get your clients to take action on your recommendations. Not to mention that experts don’t have to negotiate their rates.

If you will focus on marketing information about the value that you deliver, you can begin positioning yourself to be found when people are looking for solutions to their problems.

When your prospects find you as they search for solutions to their problems, they have a much higher tendency to see you as someone to listen to. In PR, it’s what we call the halo effect. If you’re an IT professional who writes an article with good problem solving information that gets placed in a trade journal for accountants (assuming you are targeting CPAs), then you have a good opportunity to be perceived in a very good light in that community because of your published article. Now you can position that article on your website as an endorsement!

What unique insights do you possess that will save your ideal customer time or money?

What are you doing that no one else in your industry does?

Is your service better?

Are your guarantees more comprehensive?

Do you have a wider selection in your inventory?

I’ve spoken to numerous business owners who have really good points of difference that make them valuable. Their problem is…no one knows about it. I’m working with a CPA right now who has one key point of difference, but her marketing wasn’t communicating that message.

Those points of difference are what your articles, blog posts, and free reports should be about. If you market problem solving information to ideal prospects, a certain percentage will respond if you’re speaking to a place of pain in their lives. Help people remove the pain in their lives and you’ll make a lot of money in the process.

An Example of Problem Solving Information

Small business owners who are operating as an LLC will be assessed a self-employment tax (~15% according to my CPA) by the federal government. Well, he told me of a work-around that allows an LLC to be taxed as an S Corporation.

Tell me that insight doesn’t solve a problem. Heck…15% on $250,000. is $37,500.00. That’s a modest salary for some people, and college tuition for others.

What information are you sitting on right now that could be putting cash into the pockets of your prospective customers if they knew what steps to take. The key is to use what you know to position yourself as trusted advisor. Lead generation can be fun and profitable if you really have the goods that people want and need.

Got some unique insights and not sure how to capitalize on it? Contact my office to set up a marketing audit, and I can help you to generate more leads in 2010. Click here and go to the bottom of the page for more information on the marketing audit.