BΞDiscerning: ALL Leads are not GOOD Leads!
Some leads attract clients you don’t want.?
I’ve been thinking about writing a post on this topic for some time, and Ian Lewer inspired me to make it the top of my list.
When Garth Holmes and I started BeResponsive Media almost a decade ago, every lead was a much-needed lead. We just needed revenue. So, we would work for any client on virtually any budget and timeline.
In our first three years, we were still figuring out who we were as a company and the greatest value proposition we were bringing to our clients. Then we met Merv Symes and Matt Symes . Symplicity Designs challenged us to define our offerings, targeting, and pricing. This was a long process over a three-year journey, but one that has transformed who we are as a company today.?
Most businesses need a clearer picture of their clients' value and the value they bring to their clients. We had the same problem. We were trying to be all things to all clients. We had not learned how to properly identify our ideal client profile(s). This process was a lot more difficult than you might imagine, but it was definitely worth the work.
You must look at who you “WANT” as a client, not just who you currently “HAVE” as a client.
BΞAttractional
You may have wondered when you saw this post…what do sales leads have to do with a hummingbird??(Yes, I took this picture.)
When I put this hummingbird feeder up at my home, I did so to have great encounters like the one you see in the picture and the video(on my post). The challenge, however, was to attract ONLY hummingbirds. You see, initially, I was also attracting ants, earwigs, bees, and raccoons. This is NOT what I intended - these unwanted guests were impacting my results. So, I had to put some processes in place to ensure I kept the PESTS away.
To be clear, I am not calling clients pests. However, if you are attracting leads that are not an optimal fit for your business, you and they will ultimately be frustrated.?
FIT MATTERS!
You want the RIGHT LEADS and RIGHT TYPES of CUSTOMERS.?
Let me give you an illustration.?
We determined early on that many of the clients we ‘had' at BeResponsive had two similar characteristics.
WRONG FIT: these clients did not value our expertise and wanted everything fast and cheap. They were demanding (not valuing our time) and had small budgets (wanting high quality/return for little money).
NOT PROFITABLE: When we started tracking the time we spent providing services for these clients and the money we were making…it quickly became evident that we were working for minimum wage.?
Merv Symes once told us, “You guys have a nice hobby here. Do you want a hobby, or are you trying to build a business?”?We definitely wanted to build a business! We had work to do!
THE SOLUTION: SALES PROCESSES
We started to build a business based on our expertise.? Over a year, we created a sales process that included these items:
B2B/B2G Marketing:
We consciously decided to focus our expertise on businesses selling products and services to other businesses or government agencies. B2B marketing is very different from B2C (Business to Consumer) marketing, and B2G (Business to Government) marketing also has some unique identifiers and processes.?
Target Sectors:
We identified three target sectors to become experts in.?
领英推荐
Ideal Companies:
We outlined the characteristics of companies that are ideally suited for us to maximize our marketing skillset.
Target Avatars:
We created ideal client profiles for the people we were selling to, most importantly outlining their objections and our responses.
Value In Advance Content:
We created tools to help prospective clients discover our expertise through the free insights we provide for their business.
CRM:
We started using a CRM to track leads at all sales funnel stages.
Sales Sequences:
We created sequences to provide ongoing communication and follow-up so we could always remain top of mind during long sales cycle times.
Do we have the perfect sales process? No.?
Is it working today? Yes. Yes. Yes.
Are we refining it constantly? Absolutely!?
GREATER IMPACT
You know what has happened?
As we built and refined our sales processes, we have connected with clients who are a better fit for us, and we are a better fit for them.?
Better for them – Better for us!
IMPACT: We provide more value, and they get better results.
Now our company is more stable in our project scheduling, resource utilization, and, ultimately, financial performance.?
So, are all leads good leads? Without all this work - no.? With all this work on detailed sales processes...YES!
BΞDiscerning: The process of creating a sales process helped us discern who we wanted to work with and to whom we could add the most value. You see, everyone wins when you find your sweet spot by doing the hard work of developing and refining good sales processes.
FEEDBACK?
I realize this is a BIG topic. I welcome your thoughts and shared experiences to fill in any gaps I may have missed!
Accomplished Non-Profit Fundraising Leader and Sales Leader. ?? CSM Guy AND - ?? ?? AI FX-Bot : Smart Pilot & Tradewise Sales Agent
3 个月David, Great article. I love how you outline your process to refine how your marketing and sales processes have evolved, worked together, and continue to grow. You mention defining your 'dream client Avatar'... I really like this process. So very important. I've been using ChatGPT recently to help with this exact process. Once I've created a few very targeted Avatars, I've asked ChatGPT to develop appropriate marketing materials to appeal to these 'dream potential clients.' It's remarkable. Again, thanks for sharing :) Ian
Strategy, Execution, Scale, Healthspan, and Family
3 个月Not all revenue is good revenue. We ask all of our clients to clearly identify the top 5-10% of their customers. We also ask them to look at the bottom 5-10%. There are rarely bad customers. But there are sooo many bad fits between what the customer thinks they are buying and what the company is offering to deliver. The wider the gap, the more friction we create. And with ore friction, we generally have less success and make less profit per hour. Most importantly, we do not create the impact and raving fans we all need for our businesses. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. :) It's been amazing to watch your growth in the past few years. The Focus is admirable and awesome to see!
?? Evangelist | ?? Missionary | ?? Innovator | ?? Strategist
3 个月When you create youtube content views and viewers count is not so important as who is watching your content. Because if you bring wrong viewers it can even be damaging. So I do understand your point, that's a great topic, thanks for sharing your experience openly. It was very beneficial for me.
How did you go about refining your sales process to filter out the less desirable leads?
BΞResponsive Media, CΞO
3 个月Joyce Ding and Basam Murtaza Tahoor Your questions related to what a startup should do are good ones...and difficult ones at the same time. When you are a startup (as we were), you are trying to find your place. There are sooooo many logistics to manage and decisions to navigate. The starting point is clearly defining your target customer. If you could only sell one service or product to one type of person, who is that person? What kind of company? What is their greatest problem that you can solve better than anyone else? What would be their objections to your solutions? How can you prove to them that you can do what they need done? If you can start with this type of laser focus, that will show you the path of truth regarding whether people will buy what you are selling. You will learn so much while focusing on these core elements that it will refine your offering and your approach to selling. This will confirm if you are attracting the right leads and acquiring the right customers for your business.