One mistake a lot of people make in lead generation is they have content out there, but the content doesn’t go anywhere. It’s like a pipeline that just goes into nothing. You’ve got to make sure that all the free information is set up and designed. The follow-up is set up and designed to sell the next step, which is the phone call or the consultation. Getting a lead is only the first step to truly succeed.
To get new clients, you must sell the appointment.
All content, whatever it is, must contain strong sales copy that sells, booking an appointment. It needs to be clear, and it has to be compelling. And here’s the key, there needs to be a clear, compelling benefit for the meeting with you, even if they don’t buy. Right now you might knock on doors and you say, “We sell IT, and we’re really good at it. Do you want some?”
And you get told, “No, thanks, we’re fine.” If they’re in a good mood, you get told worse things. If they’re not or most of the time, you just get ignored. This is the challenge I would have for you, is why should they meet with you? If I don’t have an inherent known need, if my hair is not on fire right now, maybe I’m a little unhappy with my IT company. I need to know, “Why should I meet with you? What’s the benefit? Why? What am I going to learn? What am I going to gain by meeting with you? I’m going to sit in a room with you for 30 minutes while you try and sell me IT services and talk geeky to me.” It’s not very exciting to me if I’m not actively looking. So that’s why we do an offer for a free audit or an assessment.
If you want to get more appointments, you’ve got to make the appointment have more value than a sales meeting.
That’s why we don’t call it a sales meeting. That’s why we call it an audit or an assessment or a level one cybersecurity risk assessment. It needs to be marketed properly. That’s the key thing, you don’t just slap “free assessment” on your site and they don’t all jump on it. You’ve got to sell it properly. But if it’s marketed properly, a free assessment is going to have a high perceived value, even if the prospect doesn’t buy, if it’s done right. The other reason we do an audit or an assessment is it transcends immediate need. So unless I’m ready to buy right now, an appointment to get a quote for IT services is a leap too far.
So right now you’ve got people who are not thrilled. Maybe they’re not so unhappy with their IT provider, but they’re not thrilled. They’re kind of neutral.
Getting people to switch companies is painful. It’s disruptive. It’s a lot of work. They don’t know what they’re looking for. What if you’re worse than the guy they have? So you have to overcome all of those objections, all of that resistance. So by offering an audit or an assessment, you can transcend immediate need.
For example, I just had my birthday and Midas sent me a coupon in the mail for a free oil change. Very exciting. The problem with that is I had to use it in the month of April because it’s my birthday month. In direct response marketing, anytime you’re selling anything, if you can tie it to a birthday, an anniversary or some key personal thing, responsiveness always goes up. In the skincare cosmetic industry, any time that they can mail or email, they’ll get a better response. A skincare anti-aging product, for example, on a milestone birthday, they get double to triple the response. So if they’re selling anti-wrinkle cream, if their theory holds true, if they send it to me on my 50th birthday, they’re going to get a triple response versus if they send it to me when I’m 48. So they’re marketers, they understand it.
So Midas is sending me something for my birthday. I open it. I notice it. I probably do need an oil change, I think. I don’t know, but I’m busy and I’ve got to use it in April so I don’t have an immediate need. So that offer got noticed, got me to open, got me talking about it, but I’m not going to respond because I don’t have an immediate need.
So when you come up with a reason for somebody to meet with you, it has to transcend immediate need.
And if the only reason they’re going to meet with you is to get a quote for IT, they are not going to accept the appointment because they’re not there yet. If you can understand this, this is big.
The other reason we do an audit or assessment is it allows for diagnostic consultative selling. It allows you to diagnose and build the need before you prescribe. Like Daniel Amen, if I went to his website and he said, “Opt in for my newsletter so I can sell you supplements,” he might get some takers. I don’t think he’ll get zero, but nowhere near as much as if he says, “Take my brain quiz. Let’s find out what kind of brain you have and let’s talk about your life, mood, your busy brain.” Apparently, I’ve got a very busy brain, and so I apparently have problems with anxiety. Not really. I don’t think so. But, according to him, I do. “So here’s a supplement that you take at night, and it calms down your mind.” The point is it allows him to start to diagnose; then he’s prescribing.
Now again, if I go to the website and they’ve got a special today on supplements for people with busy brains, I don’t even know if I have a busy brain. I don’t know that I even have a problem. So again, by taking the quiz, he can give me a problem and say, “Here’s who you are and here’s what you’re probably like, and here’s some things that can help you with your mood.”
So an assessment is the same thing. When we give you the audit, the assessment, the level one cybersecurity risk assessment, the network assessment, whatever you want to call it, that’s why we’re doing it.
It gives you ammunition to wedge out the incumbent and overcome the “We’re fine.”
Your initial assessment, this is a sales event. I want to be clear that this initial phone call is a sales event. You’re getting a prospect on the phone saying yes to the assessment. This is a sales event. Prove the need. You need to prove the need because they don’t know they have a problem. They think they’re fine and they’re not fine.
For more tips on getting new sales, including 1-2 managed services clients a month, watch a special presentation here.
