Finding new buyers is critical if you are to grow your business and to avoid being a Prisoner of Hope as I shared last week.
Some want to grow. Some don’t.
I mean, settling for what you have is ok right?
Yes, to many it is.
Sadly, I have a mindset which doesn’t let me stop. Not sure why but I am always pushing for more. Can’t help it.
If you recognise this feeling then read on. This week’s and next week’s emails are perfect for you.
If you are hungry to drive sales and business growth in your business, you have 2 ways to find leads.
There are no other ways to do this.
- Inbound Leads – You drive new opportunities to come to you.
- Outbound Leads – You go and find the ideal customers for you.
There are many similarities between the approaches to take (adding value, being helpful, sharing insights etc) but there are some subtle differences as well.
Let me outline a simple model to use to drive Inbound leads this week and I will then share a model to use in next week’s email to drive outbound leads as well.
Most people will prefer this method as ‘reaching out to people you don’t know’ is hard and no one seems to like doing cold outreach anymore.
But let me be clear.
This method can take longer and is more expensive in my view. If you also combine this with digital marketing spend (in areas such as Google or Facebook advertising) then it can cost much more.
So much so that I think you should understand your Long Term Customer Value and Customer Acquisition Costs properly before spending too much here. Not sure what these are? Here is a link to a glossary of Sales Terms I did a while back.
So let’s discuss generating Inbound Leads. Here is a simple acronym to use for this.
This 7-stage process works and I have used it with a range of customers such as Trade Nation and Green Hat to drive significant growth in their businesses.
Before we get into the process itself, the starting point of ANY growth process is ‘Why does someone want to buy’ and this is all about either a Problem or a Desire. My podcast this week covered this in greater detail but you have to know this if any outbound campaign is to work.
So let’s assume that you KNOW what problem you solve for a specific audience of people…
HOW CAN YOU GET NEW INBOUND LEADS?
C - Stands for Content
You MUST create valuable content that talks to the problem that your audience faces. What are their key challenges and what is the impact if they don’t solve these problems? You don’t have to give all of your knowledge away with content but you want to give 1 or 2 ways in which the person can solve an issue. The goal here is to make them feel you are valuable, helpful and a company they want to engage with.
The better the content, the more viral it will go and the less you will have to spend to promote it.
O - Stands for Obtain
N - Stands for Nurture
V - Stands for Validate
E - Stands for Engage
R - Stands for Reaffirm
T - Stands for Transact
The final part of turning a potential buyer into a customer!
The bit where we close effectively and get money in the bank!
There you have 7 simple steps to drive Inbound leads for your business or area of business. Not complex but a fail-proof method to generate opportunities.
The whole journey can take time, but its something you should have in place at all times.
If you are struggling for leads and want opportunities to come in sooner than this then you need to do outbound lead generation. If your ship doesnt come in then you have to swim out to it! Want to know how to do that? Only 7 days to find out!
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