Good morning Reader, We are 3 weeks into the Ultimate Sales Plan. |
- Week 1 – We now have a target of what we want to achieve. Let’s say it’s £200,000 in new business.
- We also have a target market that we want to focus on for this campaign. Let’s say it’s Head of Client Management or Advisors at Investment firms with 20+ advisers.
- We now have a target list of people and companies to engage with. We have secured a list of 500 names, email addresses and contact numbers.
PS – The above is from my own campaign which I use to generate leads. Yes I drink my own champagne 😃 🥂🥂
We are in business you might think. We are ready to go and win some new deals.
We are but steps 4 and 5 in the process are vital ones. I know I have said that they are all important but this one REALLY is key if you are not to undo some great work so far.
By the way, I would love to hear if you have been following the plan and starting to implement some of the actions and steps. How are you feeling now about your plan?
I uploaded a really simple 20-point Sales Plan Checklist to my Sales Plan video (which now has nearly 70,000 views) but you can access it HERE.
So, what do you do now?
Many companies make the fatal mistake of now just reaching out to the list of potential customers they have. Let’s get started they say.
They then send HORRENDOUS emails or social messages like this…
Oh my. I hate it when I see 💩💩 like this.
Please note – This is NOT the email or social message you should send. This type of email doesn’t work. It is selfish, without value and a waste of time and energy to create. Asking for time in the next few days as well (laughing faces smiley)
I believe it will hurt your brand and reputation more than help it.
If anyone does reply to an email like this, then they are either doing it in sympathy or because they are bored. Or you just got very lucky.
At this point in the process, we have to respect the fact that this list of 500 prospects (it might be more but let’s start with this list) are going to fall into some different categories.
- Some are not going to have an issue with the problem you solve
- Some don’t know that they have an issue right now but they have. They are oblivious to it
- Some realise they do have the issue when someone talks about it with them. The ‘Ah yes that does ring a bell moment’
- Some know they do have a problem but don’t know how to solve it.
- Some know they have a problem but haven’t looked for someone to solve it. Yet.
- Some know they have a problem and are actively looking for someone to solve it
The mistake that many make is that they think the number of people in category 6 is a big number.
It’s not. In a list of 500 prospects, less than 3% will know they have a problem and will be looking for someone to solve it. That’s just 15 prospects! Can you afford to base your whole Sales Plan on hoping to engage with 15 people at the right time???
No, it’s not a sensible strategy. Which means 97% of the addressable market needs convincing.
- They want to see that you understand their issue and can empathise with their position.
- They want to see an insight that makes them think ‘Wow I didn’t know that’ or ‘That is interesting’.
- They want to see how you have made those problems go away and the methods and ideas you use to achieve this.
- They want to see examples of who you have made that problem go away for that is similar to them.
The kicker to all of this is that right now (unless you have been embarking on a major advertising campaign in their space) they don’t know or trust you.
This is why it is vital that you create CONTENT that talks about the problems (or desires) of your target customer before you start to engage with them. You also need different types of content.
TOFU, MOFU and BOFU content to be exact. I wrote an article on this exact topic a few months back and I would really encourage you to read this if you don’t know what I am referring to.
Basically, you need to create content for different stages in the prospects journey. Content for those at level 2 and 3 (from our table above) that makes them think ‘Oh this is interesting’ and content for those at level 4, 5 and 6 that makes the prospect think ‘wow these guys could be a really good option for us’.
When you do that, it elevates you. When you become seen as a person or company in your space who are knowledgeable and insightful then it has a massive effect on the way in which you engage and try to sell.
I recently bought an online course called Unignorable (which was great by the way) from 2 people Neal O’Grady and Katelyn Bourgoin. I bought the course after seeing different forms of their content that made me really think ‘wow these guys are interesting’.
I have had numerous people reach out to me wanting to buy my new courses (I launched one this past week – take a look here) because they have engaged with my content.
In fact, here is a video below that shares why it’s so important for you to create content when you are in sales.
So let’s go back to that email now which you are nearly ready to send.
Instead of that terrible selfish offering, imagine reading an email like this
An Email which talks about a problem and provides value! And yes, it’s one that I use in my own Sales Plan.
Now consider both of these emails.
Which would you respond more to if you were the buyer?
Yep, I thought so.
Content is king. It is vital. It creates value. It positions you. It works for you when you are sleeping.
It’s why you must have it in place and why it’s such a critical part of our sales plan work.
But once you have content, how do you then use it?
How can you ensure that great content starts to get great results?
Stay tuned for week 5 to find out!
Until then, keep smiling and stay focused on becoming a fly on the wall of the brain of your buyer.
James
