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How to leverage a million in sales!

August 23, 2008 by Jim Connolly

I am going to show you a simple, high leverage way to generate stacks more sales super-fast; WITHOUT you having to invest a penny more on marketing! This is a step by step guide that anyone can follow, which can generate an almost unlimited amount of sales for you; with very little effort on your part.

Leverage leverage leverage…

When you study the the world’s most successful businesspeople and salespeople, you will see a word popping up again and again. That word is leverage.  Leverage, when referred to in marketing or business development terms, is all about getting the maximum return on everything you do.

I use leverage to get results in every area of my business and I want you to start doing the same from now on because the rewards are stunning!

Leverage an extra £500,000 in sales – for free!

Allow me to introduce you to a few people who can easily help you leverage your best sales, profits and turnover figures ever. These people have the attention of hundreds or thousands of new potential clients for your services – possibly even more!

You already know these people. . . they are your Accountant, Business Bank Manager and Company Solicitor.  How many local businesses does your Accountant work with 500 or 5,000?  And what about your Solicitor – another 1,000 or so?  Ok, what about your Company’s Bank Manager – 5,000 or 10,000 local businesses?

Of these thousands of local businesses, how many have a potential need for your services? If you are in a service industry; Recruitment, Insurance, Internet, IT or Training – there is potential for you to supply your services to almost ALL of these thousands of local businesses!  If you provide a product or a range of products, you will quickly know roughly what percentage of these local businesses are likely to have a need for your offering.  In either case, the potential here is massive!

Getting referrals and recommendations!

Speak with any group of businesspeople or salespeople and you will quickly learn that one of their most pressing marketing problems is winning new, high quality clients or customers on a regular basis.

Despite this, very few of them have actually held a meeting with their Accountant, Solicitor or Bank Manager to specifically request leads from their massive client base!

Business owners and entrepreneurs usually make the costly mistake of assuming that their Accountant, Solicitor and Bank Manager will ‘automatically’ recommend them and their services to their masses of clients and contacts. This is seldom, if ever, the case!  Accountants, Lawyers and Bank Managers are extremely busy professional people and unless there is some motivation for them to proactively pass leads to you – they won’t!

Leverage in action

What you need is a strategy that leverages the motivation of these professionals; making it easier for them to provide you with referrals than NOT to – and here it is!  These three great questions should be asked, preferably face-to-face, in the exact order they are given:

Question 1: How many clients do you have?
Question 2:
How many of them do you think use (whatever you offer)?
Question 3:
So, how many leads do you think you can pass to me over the next 30 days?

What these three questions do is extremely clever. Here’s the science behind each one:

Question 1: How many clients do you have?

This is what I refer to as the ‘foundation’ question. It forms the foundation upon which the rest of the questions stack.  People are proud of the size of their client base and are only too eager to show you just how hard they work and how successful their bank or practice is.

Question 2: How many of your clients do you think use (whatever kind of service/product you provide)?

This is what I refer to as the ‘focus’ question.  It causes the listener to focus on the profile of his or her client base and the nature of your product or service, before joining the two together. They know that you will have a very good idea of how many businesses, on average, have a requirement for your services or products – so their answer to you has to be realistic.

Question 3: So, how many leads do you think you can pass to me over the next 30 days?

This is what I refer to as the leverage question.  It causes the listener to review the two answers they have just given you and then give you a number.  It also sets up a time-scale and as the old saying goes; “what gets measured gets done!”

At this point you have just leveraged their motivation – making it far easier to pass you leads and far harder not to. Even if they fail to give you a definitive number, it is no longer easy for them NOT to provide you with regular introductions, referrals or leads. Now that there is a time-scale for when you will be expecting to have received some leads, they will find it easier to help you than ignore you.

Your Bank Manager, Accountant and Solicitor are trusted professionals and their recommendation is extremely valuable.  They will also know all about you and your business and they will know that you offer a great product or service – so there’s no barrier to them recommending you.

Each of these hard working professionals will be keen to help their other clients, and if they believe that your service will benefit their other clients, it’s only natural that they would introduce your services to them!

If you find it a little ‘awkward’ asking these questions, ask them in a playful way!

Amazingly, even if you ask these questions with a big smile on your face, as I always do, the impact is exactly the same!

Some numbers you will find interesting

If only one business in ten, on average, has a need for your type of product or service, it’s likely that your; Bank Manager, Company Solicitor and Accountant combined will have access RIGHT NOW to A THOUSAND new clients for you and your business.

If you only sold £500 worth of goods to these people each year, that’s a half a million pounds a year increase in YOUR turnover!

A quick million

If you work in any of the industries I have already mentioned in this free guide; that figure will be closer to a million pounds a year in new business for you and your business!

Filed Under: General marketing Tagged With: accountancy sales, insurance sales, leverage, Marketing, marketing leverage, marketing seminars, motivation, profits, psychology, recruitment sales, sales, sales skills, sales technique, small business, turnover, web design sales

First impressions count – even online!

August 23, 2008 by Jim Connolly

How many times have you heard that; “first impressions count”?  Well, it’s true – first impressions count for a great deal – especially in marketing.  This is because, the first impression a business or a person creates with a potential client, is what forms the foundation of their relationship with them.

If that relationship is built on a bad foundation, it will fail.  After all, no one buys from a person or business that they have a ‘bad feeling’ about.

For example

I was contacted online last week by a total stranger via my Twitter account.  This person’s initial message to me wasn’t an introduction or even a simple hello – it was a full on sales pitch!  What was this person trying to sell?  I have no idea!  I just deleted his message as soon as it was clear what he was doing.

Approaching a total stranger with a sales pitch, instead of a friendly introduction, demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of how sales and marketing works!

Affiliates beware

Sadly, this kind of shoddy marketing is used by the huge majority of small, online businesses.  I get emails on a daily basis from strangers who want me to become ‘an affiliate’ of their latest ‘wonder product.’  Even though these people have not bothered to call me or build a relationship with me, they expect me to attach my good name to their business and product – neither of which I know anything about!

If you want to make a stack of sales online or offline, make sure YOU focus on creating a great initial impression in the mind of your target market!  Then, ensure that everything you do builds positively upon that strong foundation.

By the way, you can contact me on Twitter any time.  My username is @jimconnolly

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: communication, first impressions, Marketing, referrals, sales skills, sales technique, small business

marketing advice, marketing help Hi! I'm Jim Connolly and I help business owners to make more sales, boost their profits and build amazing businesses. You can find out more here.

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