Listen as I take you through how we perfected a client generating strategy and how you can too.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
Enjoy!
Resources:
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
Listen as I take you through how we perfected a client generating strategy and how you can too.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
Enjoy!
Resources:
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
H ey guys. Welcome to the podcast.
Shannon Stone:Super excited to jump into this episode. Today we will be talking about how I perfected a client generating strategy so not just a lead generating strategy one that's actually shown to generate clients, which is what we all definitely want. It's all definitely needed in businesses. So really excited to jump in and share this. My goal with it is that there'll be some things here that hopefully you can apply in your business, some things to sharpen your strategy, some things that maybe you haven't quite looked at in this particular way, as well as sharing some of the things that have worked for this particular client and their strategy. Just very briefly before I jump in. If you don't know what I do, I'm a business and marketing consultant and I work one-on-one with that particular business. So if it was your business, for example, first we always look at, well, what is the goal that you have? Second, well, I will very personalize and it's me myself, it's not a contractor or anyone else jumping in, but I'll come in, I'll audit your business, kind of get a lay of the land, and then I'll start to develop some ideas and some strategies in order to achieve the goals that we set out for in the beginning. And what I will often do with this. There's no limit to kind of where I go with the strategies. There are some they're not boundaries, but it's all tailored to the particular business. So I'm never just saying here's my stock standard strategy that's going to work for any service-based business. It's highly tailored to that particular business.
Shannon Stone:And what I love is that I would definitely get my hands dirty when it comes to finding out what is that client generating strategy. So, as you'll maybe start to hear in this episode, some of the things that really helped with this particular client, where I'm working out what the strategy is until we get it to the point where it's working. It's me jumping on the phone with their prospects. It's doing some of their sales calls and lead generation calls and it wasn't any kind of cold calling but there was some warm base calling involved in this. So I like to get my hands dirty with it and get a real feel for what is happening so that I can help craft the best strategy for other clients. It might be listening in on their sales calls or helping them to lead their sales calls. It's all highly personalized to what's required for them and especially around surrounding the results they're looking for, what we're kind of working with. But I thought I would share that because I think it's important to know that it's never just one stock standard way of doing things. It's about what is really going to work for your particular business. So I could talk about strategies for days, but let me share top level what are the things that worked or the approach to take, and then a few other helpful things that would be important to know as well. So number one is everyone needs a strategy. So with this client, or any client, the strategy always comes based on research, so diving into that business, reviewing what has worked, what hasn't worked as well, because that's really important as well Trying to understand who they're wanting to work with, who they're targeting. Where are those people? So part of creating that strategy is really doing your homework ahead of time rather than just like jumping in deep and throwing anything out there, and one of the mentions that I did put down is to share that.
Shannon Stone:A big reason why this strategy worked or we got to the point where we found the client generating strategies because so much of it was sniper like precision, so wasn't throwing anything at the wall and just seeing what works. It was really. Who are we targeting? Where are those people? Where are the people that actually have a need for what you do? It's like I don't and and this is like almost like a rule of thumb of anything that I do in my business or with my clients Like we don't sell to people who don't want to work with you. We want to find the people that have a demanding need for what you have so that it makes the rest of everything so much easier. It's like if there was a room full of people with the problem that you could solve, versus a room with the people full of the problem you can solve, but they really want it solved right now. Like, who are you going to choose? You're going to choose the ones who have more urgency to getting it solved. So that's why I mentioned sniper-like precision was part of that making sure we're finding and we're targeting the right people.
Shannon Stone:Part of developing the strategy as well is bringing forward your industry know-how. So this particular client is in an industry that I have never stepped foot in. I will say they're still a service-based business, but the background of this industry and what they've done to create their service offering is not an industry that I'm familiar with and there are a lot of pros to that. There's a big reason why I will work with clients in abstract industries or industries I haven't been exposed to. It's that fresh perspective, it's that outsider perspective. Sometimes, if you're so in the know, you just end up being out of the know Sounds counterintuitive. But that's where the collaboration of the two parties yourself with your industry know-how, myself with my sales, marketing and strategy approach bringing that together, right people, right questions, right focus can really produce a whole lot of magic. So that's what we found to happen.
Shannon Stone:So in developing the strategy and this, I think, can be a flaw when you work with and I never like to like really stereotype but say, if you went to a marketing agency and said, hey, I just need a marketing plan that you guys execute and here's what we do, here's our product or our service and you run with it. Now, if they come up with a strategy like without you, very isolated, where is that industry know-how? Because there will be things that you know that would benefit whoever is developing that strategy. So that's always really important. If you ever work with anyone, make sure it's a collaboration. Yes, they can still do the work. Yes, they can still execute it, but you have a wealth of knowledge that is going to enhance the strategy. So, even if you're developing the strategy yourself or with your team, bring your industry know-how to it, but also keep an open mind a little bit as well.
Shannon Stone:I find you know sometimes if you know too much, you know too much and you can shut down ideas way too quickly and in modern times particularly, it's like something that didn't really work or resonate with your industry 5, 10, 20 years ago maybe really resonates now. So that was the first thing. It is developing that strategy. It's based on research, it's on reviewing what's worked, what's not worked and all those other variables that we discussed there, your industry know-how, sniper-like precision, so that is your strategy. That's always got to be there first up Now, once we have a strategy now we've kind of seen the lay of the land, worked out a bit of a plan, how we're actually going to find the clients or the leads that will then become the clients.
Shannon Stone:We have to test it, and test it doesn't mean we're going to dip our toe in. I think that's like the wrong way to look at it. It's like going we're rolling it out now, because otherwise strategies can be very imaginative until you start testing it out. So, after you've got the strategy, step one, step two is to start to roll it out. So and it can be messy, it's not going to be perfect, especially if it's something that or an approach you haven't tried before. But we definitely have to test it, and we have to test it in the market, real time, with the real people that you want to get amongst. And what I did find with this client as well and it would be any client, it would be yourself as well we will make mistakes. We're not going to find the perfect way right at the beginning, so you have to be okay that when you test a strategy, it's not going to work to perfection from the get go. If it does and you hit the ball out of the park, that is amazing and that does happen as well. But just keep it in mind that in most scenarios it doesn't always work and it doesn't always work to the best of abilities, which brings us to step three, which is to refine it.
Shannon Stone:So step two was to test it. Get the ball rolling, trial out your strategy that you've put together and, based on what's been happening in real time, you want to refine it. You want to see what's working, what's not working. So, with this particular client, part of it was first up, knowing that sniper-like precision. Who are we targeting? Where are we finding them? Who are the people that raise their hands? Who are the ones that have a real need? So you have to find where your demographic of people are. And then after that, we reached out to them in a very genuine way.
Shannon Stone:But what we did find in that process is it wasn't clunky, but the response wasn't as high as it could be, and I'm someone who doesn't want to just accept good. I definitely want to go for great. Or I at least, want to push the boundary and see well, if we trial this step a little bit this way, or we change the messaging or the language, or change it from an email to a phone call is that going to change anything? So when you are rolling out your strategy and you're testing it, and then you want to refine it, these are some of the things that you can look at. It's like, maybe it is your messaging, or maybe it is the language that you're using, or the timing as well, or is it that you do email, is it that you do phone, or is it you do social media messages? Like what is it?
Shannon Stone:But this step number three is all about refining. It's like you've tested it. We've kind of done a bit of a field study in real time in the market. Now, what have we learned from here and can we take it from good to great? And so your strategy is rolling out, you've tested it, we're refining it, we're making it better, and then the fourth and final step is to refine it again.
Shannon Stone:So, again with my point on taking things from good to great, or pushing the boundary to see, can we squeeze a little bit more out of this. Can we increase the conversions a little bit more or a whole lot more? And that's just that reviewing and reflecting and refining again and again until you really see these conversions are really getting up there. So this week I found with this particular client by adding in a phone call and it's one of those things of like this almost sounds too good to be true, but adding in a phone call caused 100% of conversions just this week alone. Now, as we increase the numbers, I guess the marketer or the data person within me says, well, it's not always going to be 100%, or the pessimist, but I'm not a pessimist, I'm definitely an optimist, but it has been a great feeling or great to see that it has hit 100% conversions just by refining a little bit further, just by seeing well, let's go from good to great and let's see what happens, and then, based on that, we can figure out, like, how we perfect that strategy.
Shannon Stone:In the end, part of refining a strategy even more as well, which will be something with this particular client that we'll be doing, is reducing the time spent to achieve the same goal. So this week, with the new refined rollout, there was 100% conversions of every single person that we spoke to. Now it did take a lot more time because we're hopping onto the phone, probably having the same conversation with lots of different people and, yes, we are achieving the result that they're looking for. But again, to go from good to great, to push the boundaries a bit more, could we refine it so that we're looking for? But again, to go from good to great, to push the boundaries a bit more, could we refine it so that we're spending less time to achieve the same goal? So an idea that I have in mind is, instead of talking to people individually, is to set up a weekly or a bi-weekly multiple person session. So bring, say, three or four people, or even more, to the same call, have the same conversation and see if the conversions can stay pretty strongly even if they drop below 100%. Yeah sure, that is okay, but if it allows us to reach more people, then maybe that's a really good decision to go with.
Shannon Stone:So kind of looking at it from all angles. It's not always just. This is why I say it's not just marketing. There's so many other things to it. You know, could you run ads to do this, where you're just so hands off, you don't have to do a phone call. Yeah, sure you could do that. That's if you can get that, that strategy, working. But if you kind of look at it from well, we're kind of happy to do anything and everything in order to achieve the goal that we're looking for. And in saying that, we'll be very open-minded to what the strategies could be. It's not just marketing, it's like maybe some other bits and pieces that you can bring into the mix as well. So these are the four things.
Shannon Stone:There's a couple of other bits and pieces that I will share as well, but number one is your strategy. In order to have a client generating strategy, you need to figure out what is your strategy. Like I said, base it on research, based on what's worked, what's not worked. If you have that strategist streak within you, I'm sure you can come up with a strategy, using these other steps to help support that as well. But if you are not, find yourself someone with that strategy know-how. But yeah, number one is that strategy. Number two you've got to test it. You've got to test it in the market and we're not dipping our toes in. We have to try it properly in order to make some informed decisions. Number three is to refine it. And then number four is to refine it again, and I think that refining stage is continuous and you're always going to be refining. You're always going to be looking for ways to make it better, smoother same result in less time. Now a couple of the other bullet points I jotted down here to share.
Shannon Stone:We talked about having sniper-like precision when it came to the targeting. With that was a lot of it was around finding the people who have the problem, who want the problem solved. And if you just ask yourself that question, like where are the people with the problem who want the problem solved, especially that last bit, I'm sure you can figure out or find, or at least a starting point find where these people are. The last point is really really important. The people that actually want the problem solved are. Instead of pushing a rock up a hill, you're going to have so much more success if you can find the people that actually want the problem solved, so keep that in mind.
Shannon Stone:Another thing that worked with this approach is having a genuine approach to reaching out to the people. So when we identified where these people were, still it's not enough to say, well, here's the people who do want their problem solved. Everyone's being sold to all the time. We know this, especially as business owners. So you still have to find a genuine or a authentic way to reach out to them where it doesn't come across that you are selling to them or that you're just there to take and not to give. So what is that genuine approach?
Shannon Stone:Another thing that I did put down, because we did introduce phone calls to this strategy. There's a couple of. Essentially you would call it a sales call, so it's like jumping on the phone with leads. Essentially it's a sales call, but I found what really worked was being conversational, being a conversational seller, so not just hitting them with a script. And there was no script. There were points to cover and knowing what the sales points were to hit, which is like the benefits of what it is that you do.
Shannon Stone:But another quick little thing I'll add in here and it was unique to this or personalized to this particular client but making this conversation in a manner where it's going to benefit both of us. It's not that here's what we have. Do you want it? It actually came more from the angle of tell us about what you do or tell us about you. Let's vet you as a prospect and based on almost them selling to us how good they are. Part of the. The conversation was we would love to have you part of this, and it was just like a little switch of like we're not just presenting our thing and asking the question of, would you be interested in this? It was flipping it the other way around to to almost have them sell to us. So just by asking a, a couple of questions around them, sharing a bit more about them and what they do and that kind of thing, and based on them just opening up, having that conversation, we were able to say we would love to have you and people like you join us on this thing. So just kind of switching it that way, that was actually quite the catalyst as well.
Shannon Stone:And the final step that I've got here a bullet point is that the sales process overall is really really important. People actually genuinely underestimate that. Like I mentioned, it's not just marketing. So marketing plays a piece. We have to be able to find the people. We have to know what we're going to say to the people, but we also have to know what do we do when we talk to them. What happens next? What if they say no? What if there's some objections? What if you're coming up with like tech issues as well, and people these days are concerned about all sorts of things Privacy Can they trust you getting onto the phone with someone? Are you a scammer or telemarketer, something like that? There's so many variables to think about, so it's not just the marketing, it's sometimes the other variables that you do have to explore and make sure you've got contingencies in place or messaging or addressing them, and so it's almost like this small thing actually is a really, really big thing. It's not just about the strategy, but hopefully the pieces here around the strategy can really help you.
Shannon Stone:Before we jump into the action steps, if you would love to see how I can help you create a personalized client generating strategy, my calendar link is always there in the show notes, so you're welcome to book a call. It's a discovery call and generally what I do is I find out what your goals are, find out more about your business and just have a chat to see if it's something that I can help you with. So yeah, that link is always in the description. Any questions? Or if you can't find the link, just reach out or my email. It's just my name, shannon. At shannonstonecomau. You'll find me there. But let's get to the action steps. So there's two of them here for you. Number one if you're a strategy hooked person by this point, episode 36 is choosing a strategy that sticks. So if you want to dive even more deeper into more strategy stuff, I do suggest that you go and listen to episode 36. It ties really nicely with this episode.
Shannon Stone:Now the second action step is to have a look at a strategy or marketing approach in your business that had shown signs of working, even if it was small small signs, small signals, and even if it was slow. So you've already got something that works in some capacity. Maybe it just wasn't at the speed or to the degree that you wanted. After listening to this and maybe listening to it twice and looking at the transcript as well you should have some ideas around how you can make the strategy better. But I would strongly encourage that you bring that strategy or that marketing approach back to life and you really get behind it and you test it again, you refine it.
Shannon Stone:You see how can you take it from good to great, because I find so many people will drop strategies way too early, and I did this myself, I remember and I must have done this I 100% did. For many years. I had all sorts of strategies working. I just thought they weren't working enough and I think until maybe it's experience now, maybe it's knowing more now, whatever it might be but I always thought 100% conversion needs to be the goal and if we're not hitting that, then we're not hitting what we need to do. We're not doing good here, but even though this week, like I said, we were hitting 100% conversions, that has actually worked well for me now that I did have that naivety.
Shannon Stone:But 100% conversions is not always going to happen. Even a 20% conversion can be really really strong. Even on websites it's like a 3% conversion can be really really strong. Even on websites it's like a 3% conversion. So if you have a strategy or a marketing approach or something that has in the past shown signals that it had been working, even just a little bit, I would encourage you to bring that back to life, test it again or refine it first. Test it again because you've already used it in some capacity and let me know how that goes. So my whole invitation there for you is to try something that has already worked for you, even if it was in a small piece and see what happens from here. I'm sure you're going to see much more uptake on it.
Shannon Stone:But if you have any questions, if you just want a little bit of bouncing around of your idea someone is sounding bored definitely reach out, but that's what I have for you today. This is a huge strategy conversation. It had sparked another podcast episode that I'm considering doing, but do we want to do multiple strategy ones back to back? If that's a yes, please do tell me. But at some point I'll share more strategy ones, but they're very not that they're heavy, but it's like there's a lot to do when you listen to a strategy episode, as you're finding.
Shannon Stone:So if you have to listen to this one back, check out the transcript as well, because that will be helpful, and I just can't wait to hear how this one goes. Anyway, have an amazing week and I'll chat to you very soon.