Get Clients Online

New data: sell now or nurture?

Posted byIan Brodie on February 24th, 2015.

I came a cross an interesting new study yesterday.

It was based on an analysis of 250,000 “sales emails” sent cold by sales reps to potential clients.

Not my area really, but it highlighted something I've been obsessing about for the last 12 months or so.

In the study they found that the best response (in terms of replies) to emails happened for brand new leads.

The second best response was a tie between the remaining leads that were less than a week old and leads that were over a year old. 

The response from leads in between was often less than half that of the extremes of new and old.

Seems strange in a way, until you realise something critical. Your potential clients are not all one homogeneous lump that all behave the same way.

People often argue about whether it's best to try to sell immediately to new prospects or to nurture your relationship with them. The truth is it's not either/or its both/and.

Some new prospects will be ready to buy right away. Probably not something big, but the whole reason they found you, visited your website or signed up for your emails was because they were ready to take action.

These are the ones driving up the response of fresh leads in the report.

On the other hand, many potential clients will be earlier on in their decision process. It will take time to build the credibility and trust needed before they'll be ready to buy. And the level of urgency of their issue will need to grow too.

That's why when it comes to email marketing I say that you can (gently) sell all the time. You never know when someone is ready to buy.

But to make it work you have to lead with value. Give people something great, then show them how they can get more of it by buying from you or hiring you.

That way the people who are ready will consider your offer. The people who aren't ready will appreciate the value you gave them and will be more ready to buy next time.

Don't think either/or when it comes to sales. Think both/and.

Get Clients Online

2 website mistakes I hope you’re not making

Posted byIan Brodie on January 12th, 2014.

Tick, tick, tick…

Here's what happens when someone visits your website…

0-0.05 seconds: “Is this place safe?”

Google recently did a whole bunch of user tests that showed that visitors form their first (and often long lasting) impressions of a website in the first 50 milliseconds they see it.

Mistake #1: Amateurish looking web design.

Of course, there's the “Susan Boyle” factor. Sometimes someone or something completely surprises us after the first impression and we change our mind.

But most often we don't. Usually our first impression biases how we interpret all further information.

So many websites of solo professionals (especially coaches for some reason) look like their nephew built them back in 1997.

Sometimes clients will look beyond an amateur looking website. Sometimes they'll already know you or you'll come with a strong reputation that lets them see beyond their first impression. But usually they won't. Usually they'll be secretly thinking “how can they be any good, they can't even get a half decent website”.

0.05 – 2 seconds: “Am I in the right place?”

Next, the conscious brain kicks in. Whatever reason they came to your site for, they want to see if they can meet that goal.

If they googled “sales training” to look for trainers near them they better see in that first 2 seconds that you do sales training, you do it for people just like them, and that you're nearby.

If they came from a link on a blog that recommended the useful articles on nutrition on your site, they better be able to see that's what they'll be able to find.

Mistake #2: No headline, or a “clever clever” one

For someone to know what your website's going to give them, to know that they're in the right place and they'll get something useful, you have to tell them.

And in this case, a picture isn't worth a thousand words.

You need a headline (or strapline – call it what you will). A sentence or two that explains what they'll get from the site.

Clearly.

Then they'll know whether they should stick around or click back and move on.

Now isn't the time for puns or plays on words. And it's not the time for you to try to compress what you do into three words with dots in between.

Not · Gonna · Work.

It just doesn't give enough information to a busy visitor to let them know if they're going to get something of value here. Do you work with people like them? Do you solve the problems they have?

It's not time yet to try to “persuade” them either. They don't care about how great you are or how different you are to your competitors until they know you work with people like them on the sort of issues they care about.

Not easy to do. You've got to think about it – hard.

You've got to decide whether you want to focus on people who're coming to your site looking to buy and are checking you out from that perspective. Or like me, whether they're coming earlier in their decision process and are looking for useful information.

Whichever way you go, clarity of communication is key.

The exact same thing is true when you're appearing in the media. Or speaking to people face to face.

You need to get across your message succinctly. And it needs to hit the right hot buttons for your listeners. Answer the questions they have right now, not what you want them to know. That comes later.