Your “Plan B”… or lack thereof…is the biggest factor in determining the total return on your marketing dollars.
Two realities…
1. Appointment setting prospecting efforts MUST schedule enough appointments that convert to sales of sufficient size and profit margin… within a reasonably short time… to justify the cost and aggravation in the short term. No work today for money way down the road.
Prospect. Meet. Close. Cash the checks. That has to happen.
2. But, but, but… the reality is, if you are prospecting for major sales, where a prospect might only consider a new vendor every few years or more… even if you do everything right as far as calling… the cold hard reality is that it won’t be the right time for most of those you communicate with to meet with you…
yet…………………………… many of those you speak with will end up buying from someone else within 6-18 months.
So what do you do?
Most of your costs are upfront.
Major revenue streams are just below the surface of a meeting.
Having already made the prospecting investment, how do you get these people into your sales pipeline at a level lower than a meeting, so that when they are ready… they call you, they know your value, you have credibility in their eyes…and guess who is well positioned to get that sale?
You do that by having a Plan B.
A drop down offer, which puts them into an automatic system of touches and communication that, you do not manage on an individual prospect by prospect basis.
You communicate with groups of like suspects consistently and multiple times consistent with the Rule of 7.
Those who are working a total system of prospecting have the simple coding systems and tools to follow-up frequently and automatically once the prospect has given permission to do so.
There are many options for Plan B’s. I have seen Email, letters, CD’s, postcards and other marketing tools used and work well in all sorts of formats and variations.
The marketing tool you use is not the most important thing. What counts is automatic consistent frequent follow-up.
Compared to the cost and effort of making your calls, Plan B is cheap, easy and pays much larger dividends.
Best wishes for sales success,
Scott Channell
copyright 2007-2012 Scott Channell
