911 means emergency response.
The sooner, the better.
You get there quick or the patient dies.
As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I encourage my clients and seminar participants to UP the urgency of their marketing and sales response times.
Why?
Well... Do you know the lead follow-up time that maximizes your sales for online leads that come through your website or email? Or your leads/prospect inquiries that come in by phone?
Do you think it's:
a. 48 hours
b. 24 hours
c. 8 hours
d. 1 hour
e. 15 minutes
f. Whenever we get around to it - they can wait
Research from MarketingProfs and Hubspot proves that the lead follow-up time that maximizes sales is e. within 15 minutes!
What does that mean to you, your marketing efforts, your sales team, and your own personal schedule as a business owner or entrepreneur?
Simple - when it comes to responding to leads, the mantra is "Now or never."
Bad news: Your leads won't wait - they're SEEKING a solution NOW. You are not the only service provider they are calling. Not by a long shot.
Good news: A lead converted to a prospect FAST (meaning you had a conversation within 15 minutes of first contact) is much more likely to stop looking. Once they connect with a real live human being who conveys the fact that they understand the situation AND they are in a position to help... the frenzied dialing and emailing stops. All the previous unanswered calls, emails, and web forms go by the wayside and YOU HAVE YOUR SHOT.
So don't blow it. Don't be tempted to start waxing poetic about how great your product, your service, your program and your people are. STOP.
A conversation that is mostly listening on your end is much more likely to build trust and rapport on their end.
But the point is speed. Why? Because responsiveness in the sales process equates to responsiveness in the business relationship.
The bottom line is that your leads CANNOT wait.
Your prospects won't wait.
Think of your own buying behavior. You leave a message - you keep dialing. Someone answers, and you're problem is 80% solved and it's THAT salesperson who gets the chance to win your business.
The only exception to the 911 rule is a publicity lead. When a reporter calls, it's NOT a 911...
It's a FIVE ALARM fire in your pants.
So if 911 is emergency response, putting the fire out in your pants would be a critical right-now drop-what-you're doing this second response. Reporters' deadlines are expressed in hours, sometimes minutes. They have sources coming at them all day, every day. If a reporter wants to feature or include you in their story - RUN, don't walk to the nearest phone or internet connection and get them what they need. Otherwise, you're toast.
And you looked so good in those pants, too. A real shame.
Remember - whether it's prospects calling you to do business or journalists responding to a press release or interview request, speed KILLS (the competition!)
p.s. There are over 100 small business marketing and sales tools, templates, scripts, and strategies waiting for you in the Simple Marketing Success 10-Week Virtual Bootcamp experience. The program is open by application only. Let me know you're interested (email or call me 610.716.5984) and I'll forward you the application materials and program guidelines right away. You can still get in on SUPER Early Bird Savings if you apply today and we start the program September 5, 2012.
As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I've seen firsthand that there are three kinds of service business owners and independent professionals - which one are YOU?
1. You may have NO thought-leadership products and wish you did (audios, ebooks, high-value binders,client-pulling premium special reports, etc)...
2. You may have a published book through which you're selling your life's work for $20 a pop and you realize that's not smart professionally or financially...
3. You may have a mix of professionally published and self-published work both electronic and hardcopy but you want a NEW high-value information product that better reflects your current niche, expertise, or opens up an entirely NEW market for your services...and you want it FAST!
Good news...The NEW Product Development Toolkit 8-week group coaching program kicks off on May 10 and you're among the first to hear the details...
http://www.ProductDevelopmentToolkit.com
Somehow, some way, you want to grow your business so you get:
- MORE Leads
- MORE Clients
- MORE Consulting Work
- MORE Professional Services Engagements
- MORE Profits
- MORE Passive Income
- and 100-300% MORE Revenue...
Which will in turn, help you generate:
- MORE Cashflow
- MORE Control
- MORE Products and Services
- MORE Subscribers
- MORE Time Off
- MORE Leverage
- and dramatically MORE Freedom...
Just like YOU, I know what that feels like!
And as a marketing speaker, marketing coach,and former VP of Product Development for a $5 million revenue infopublishing company, I want to show YOU how to enhance your cashflow, grow your client base, and increase your leverage by helping YOU create your NEXT information product FAST.
http://www.ProductDevelopmentToolkit.com
The Product Development Toolkit is perfect for:
1. Experts who have finally realized that givingaway all their information in $20 books iskeeping them broke;
2. Executives fed up with the rat race, who want to start a business built on their personal orprofessional experience and expertise;
3. Professional speakers who are stuck in thebroken business model of chasing after a different audience for speeches every week;
4. Consultants who are stuck in the trading-hours-for-money trap;
5. Independent professionals who want to build their practice, establish their brand, and break away from the pack of "Same-o, Lame-o" competitors.
You'll get a customized product CREATION *and* product MARKETING toolkit that FITS, WORKS and LASTS... and you're also getting the help and support you need over time to IMPLEMENT it to create RESULTS.
Details and application information is onlinefor you here...
http://www.ProductDevelopmentToolkit.com
I look forward to hearing from you if you're one ofthe FEW smart, brave, and committed entrepreneurs who want more leverage, more momentum, more clients, and more fun in your professional services business...Not someday - but right now.
SPECIAL DEAL: As a reader of this blog, you're also getting a $100 discount on Dan Janal's Guaranteed Press Release Service where he will make sure your press release appears on at least 40 media sites with links pointing back to your site -- or its free! Normal price: $795. Your special price: Only $695. For info, go to www.PressReleaseSender.com and put "David Newman" in the "referrer" box and you'll be mailed a check for $100 for your discount.
Not sure about sending a press release? Get Dan's free report on "How to Get Guaranteed Publicity with Press Releases" at http://www.pressreleasesender.com
What better way to position yourself as a thought leader than to have 40 or more high-traffic media sites SHOWCASE your expertise?
Hope you'll take advantage of BOTH of these opportunities to significantly boost your thought leadership platform!