5 easy tips to drive referrals for your business in 2010

You know how to use direct sales and marketing methods to grow sales but how can you superpower referrals if that has proved most successful to your past business growth?

Most of our clients in the B2B services world (technology, marketing, advertising firms) find that the majority of their new clients come from referrals. A client asked me today, “How can I drive more new business if most of my business is referral-based?”

I just read an article from www.ianbrodie.com, a consultant who helps service firms grow their client base in the UK, that gave me a fresh, new look at the whole “asking for referrals” process. In Ian’s article, he suggests the following to increase the number of high value referrals:

1. The concept of "Superpleasing" introduced by David Maister in Managing The Professional Service Firm. Invest time with your clients to overdeliver and exceeds expectations. Asking these pleased clients for referrals should provide a number of high quality results.
2. Help your referral sources (clients and others) understand exactly what a strong referral looks like for your company. Describe a project done with a recent client in a story format: client’s challenge and the end results they achieved from working with you. Kind of like a mini case study.
3. Let your referrer know which specific firms with which you’d like to meet. This is often easy to research ahead of time through LinkedIn since you can determine which of your network contacts already know someone within that company.
4. One method to help referrers identify situations where your services would be of value is to educate them about the "trigger events" which cause a need for your services. Things like executive staffing changes, dramatic increase or decrease in sales, new product introductions, etc.
5. You need to help your referrers make the introduction to your service sound attractive to the potential client. Maybe your referrer can share a case study, report or an invitation to a monthly panel discussion you run. Something their client might find of value BUT without relying on them having an immediate need. This enables your referrer to add value to her or his clients at the same time.

These tips make it easy to add a “referral channel” to your more traditional sales and marketing channels to drive sales this year.

When You Need More Sales NOW. Speeding up the sales process.

We expect clients to come to us because they want to grow their sales. However, when their sales haven't been where they have wanted them to be for 6-12 months or more, they have a tremendous sense of urgency to create sales revenue now.

Here are ways you can speed up the sales process:

1. Right message to the right people at the right time? Making it the right time. You can put all the lead generation tactics into place (contract salesperson, CRM, target lists, messaging, etc.) pretty quickly. However, you can't "make" people buy. What you can do is heavily leverage the "right time" piece by identifying trigger events at companies in your target market that make them more likely to buy: new executives, growth, new product introductions, etc.
2. When is the money coming in? Keep in touch with them until they are planning for their new fiscal year or until they get an infusion of cash from investors. And while you're waiting...
3. Build credibility now. Can they find you? Until they have the need and/or the money, it's your job to build your company's credibility via thought leadership so that when they're ready, they already know you. And it's not just about pushing this information out to your prospects. They, like you, are doing their own searches for solutions and ideas. Make sure they can find you. To find out how, see our next post coming up soon.

Top 5 ways SMBs expect miracles in sales growth and why the miracles don’t happen

Why do SMBs have so much trouble driving revenue on a consistent basis?

1. Their expectations of sales results are high but their willingness to participate in the success of this sales growth is inversely proportional. They are happy to hand over the sales duties to someone (one of the execs, a salesperson, an outsourced biz dev firm) but do not put a priority on staying involved, incorporating it into their business processes or supporting the process with resources or time.
2. Because their company is their offspring, they are blind to any shortcomings of the child. Does this affect sales? They believe their child is better than anyone else’s. But other parents (i.e., buyers) know better. The SMBs need a reality check to assess the real value they bring to the marketplace.
3. They are of the “tell them about it and they will buy” philosophy. “Our service/product is so much more fill in the blank than our competitor’s solution, as soon as prospects hear about it, they will want to buy!” There is no miracle solution that will make buyers stop in their tracks and hand over their money. Sales occur when you provide the right message to the right person at the right time.
4. They don’t put a value on using a CRM tool to track sales activity, monitor performance, manage their pipeline, make effective sales projections or maintain a central repository of highly valuable business intelligence for the company. How will they ever know where they stand at any given time?
5. They don’t see the value of investing in up to date prospect data to drive their biz dev campaign. “We have a list from a trade show we attended last year. We want to use that.” If the list is more than 8 weeks old, it’s too old. The players you are targeting are constantly moving whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Does the list have email addresses? Without email addresses, it’s useless. Are people sitting by the phone waiting for you to call? No, but they catch up on their email at 10PM. Pay for a list.

Sales Insourcing for SMB's: It's like pushing the "easy button."

Our specialty is working with firms in the $2 to $20 million in revenue space. What is their biggest challenge for driving new revenue? Lack of a consistent, effective sales operation. Companies of this size are built for sales one of two ways: 1) They have a dedicated full-time salesperson...or 2) The principals of the firm are charged with business development.

If you have a FT salesperson, is that person being managed and supported? Are they able to drive revenue? In most cases, they are hired and told "Go get 'em!" And as an executive, you walk away happily and think to yourself, "Great! Now we have someone to do sales." 6 months down the road, you wonder why nothing is happening in sales.

Or you or one of your partners is charged with doing business development. In all honesty, is that being done? Is dedicated consistent time being allocated weekly to reach out to the marketplace? Then 6 months later when you lose a major client, you look up and say, "Hey, we need more sales!"

In either of these cases, sales insourcing makes for a much better solution. Why? Basically you have a sales outsourcing company insource the sales solution within your organization. They do everything for you. You just press the "easy button."

Ask yourself, are you willing to do all the activities listed below? Are you able to do them effectively? Do you want to spend hours weekly doing this or does the love reside with other executive duties?

From training someone on your team to more effectively handle this role...or having them recruit another person (and we HIGHLY recommend for SMB's that it's a part-time person)...to setting up your effective, low cost CRM...building your CRM database with the right companies to call for your target market...identifying the right markets...developing the right messaging...and managing the salesperson (which honestly you know you don't have the time, interest or patience to do), a sales outsourcing company insourcing your sales operation makes sense, doesn't it?

Who wants to be on the receiving end of an email blast?

We're often asked about the effectiveness of email blasts. Let's evaluate from an "end user" point of view. At the front end of the biz dev process, you strive to show your prospect that there is potential value, or a reason, they should start a dialogue with you. You are trying to engage them in an exploratory relationship which by definition is a personal thing. So, starting a relationship with an email is not personal. However, salespeople are under a lot of pressure to mass connect with prospects in order to generate required sales revenue. The best solution marries the personal with technological efficiency.

Here is the process: 1) Using your favorite online data gathering approach, determine your prospect company's current initiatives that align with your service deliverables. 2) Approach your decision maker by phone first, being ready to quickly comment (if they pick up their phone) on their initiatives and your firm's examples in similar situations of enhancing those initiatives. 3) If they don't pick up the phone, briefly share the information in #2 above via a voicemail message and let them know you are sending them an email with further information. 4) Building on an email template you have crafted and housed in your preferred CRM system, customize this email to your prospect's particular initiatives and send it on it's way.

Again, the best way to evaluate a sales or marketing tactic is to think, "Would I feel comfortable or positive about it if someone did it to me?" If someone took the time to research your company's initiatives and checked in with you to see if their previous successful experience with your situation could be of value, what would your reaction be?

Not in sales "officially"? Rainmaker = job security.

If you add business development to your "given" role in a company, even if you're not officially in sales, you are driving growth for your firm and giving yourself a healthy dose of job security.

But I find it amazing as we work with consulting and other professional service firms that very talented, well-connected, high level people on their teams don't see business development as something with which they feel the need to be involved.

So during economic times like this, or even when their firm has aggressive growth projections, their response is "hire a salesperson" and then they sit and wait for the results to roll in.

What a waste of talent and connections! We all know that referrals and word of mouth will create opportunities faster than cold outreach. Smart firms in this professional services space require everyone to be a marketer and a salesperson.

Launch today. Refine later.

When you start a new business or even as you grow your business, you want everything to be just right: your website, your marketing material, how you'll deliver your services, your business plan, etc. But waiting for perfection on all of these before you go to market means no cash is coming in, right?

A recent posting from Guy Kawasaki's blog has advice that resonates for entrepreneurs who, as we all know, are all about cash flow. http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/11/25/the-art-of-bootstrapping/#more-421

"Perfect is the enemy of good enough. When your product or service is good enough, get it out, because cash flows when you start shipping (delivering your service). You'll also learn what your customers truly want you to fix. It's a trade-off: your reputation versus cash flow, so you can't ship (deliver a service that is) pure cr--. But you can't afford to wait for perfection either."

So jump in and let your interactions with your clients be the driving force for the evolution of your service and quality for as long as you run your company.

Inaction is the Riskiest Response: 3 Strategies

In the February Harvard Business Review article, Seize Advantages in a Downturn, they say that "Inaction is the riskiest response to the uncertainties of an economic crisis." A natural reaction of many business owners right now might be to put the brakes on. However, you need to rally against this tendency in your gut, forge forward and allocate your resources differently this year.

1. They suggest that you "reallocate marketing spending to bolster immediate revenue generation rather than long term branding." This is something that small business owners tend to do anyway as their eye is on short term, top line revenue generation.


2. They recommend looking at your pricing models. Can you make adjustments to make it easier for your clients to buy? Break down services into "a la carte" vs. bundled?


3. They talk about offering a new service that is not only more affordable but better meets the strategic needs of your clients at this time.

These reassessments are driven by the economy this year but looking at these three factors every year enables you to stay close to your changing market.

No Cost Sales Team Expansion

“I’m not flying. I’m falling with style.” (Buzz Lightyear. Toy Story.) When people network, they do stumble upon “power partners” who would make great referral sources. Instead of falling into these relationships, make a plan to deliberately seek them out and build them. There’s a way to do this so that it works.

Here are three easy steps to extend your sales reach this year without hiring a salesperson:

1. Establish two strategic referral relationships weekly. Identify who sells to your target market that obviously isn’t a competitor. Ideally, they are companies that complement the service you provide and would add value to your own deliverables. You do a deep dive into what they do and vice versa.

2. Nurture the relationship with a monthly meeting. This won’t work over just one cup of Starbucks. Have an agenda when you meet: discuss recent clients, share your success stories, strategize on collaborative biz dev approaches, etc.

3. Establish an outreach touchpoint system for staying in touch. Treat this dedicated referral network just like you would your direct prospects. Keep them informed and keep your company top of mind. If they can’t remember who you are and what you do, how can they refer people to you?

There are rich opportunities hiding in the business cards on your desk. Pick two that make strategic sense and get going.

Sales opening? Why part-time is better.

In our business development work with small business owners, we hear the same story over and over again. They had multiple salespeople sequentially over the past few years who didn’t work out. One stayed for 6 months. One stayed for 18 months. None of them produced revenue.

At first, when some let an unsuccessful sales rep go they feel a wave of relief as they have gotten rid of a “problem.” Or when a salesperson leaves on their own, they feel frustrated and wonder what went wrong. Lastly, they often console themselves with the thought, “We (owner, partners) can handle the sales ourselves,” and they think of all the money they are saving without that added salary.

The risk to small business owners of having one or more full-time salespeople is high due to the following oversights:

1) The monthly overhead investment of salary, benefits and commission.
2) The management time required to monitor and support a salesperson to success is vastly underestimated.
3) Lack of business development infrastructure (CRM, targeted prospect lists, high impact marketing collateral touchpoints, etc.) required by a sales rep for success.

There’s a better way. With the vast amount of part-time professional talent available in major markets like Chicago, there is no reason for a small business owner to hire a full-time salesperson. Hiring an experienced (10 years+) sales executive on a part-time basis provides an owner with the following benefits:

· Better ROI. High experience level with lower monthly investment.
· Less management time required due to rep’s advanced skills.
· Input on biz dev infrastructure requirements. A senior sales executive will let you know what they need to produce the revenue you desire.
· The ability to build a team of part-time sales executives with varied backgrounds and strengths leads to dynamic contributions you would miss if only hiring one full-time person at a time.

For 2009, think part-time.

The 4 ways biz owners get in the way of their firm's sales growth.

Without knowledge of their actual sales acumen, business owners unwittingly impede their firm’s growth. Here is what we have found in working with B2B small business owners all over the country. Which one describes your firm the best?

Biz Owner Sales Profile #1: Principal(s) never held a sales role.

Impact: If none of the principals have held a sales role, the company is operating at a distinct disadvantage. They initially grow through previously established relationships but can’t grow beyond those. Without an experienced sales leader, the firm fails in three ways: 1) Inability to develop a credible sales plan; 2) Inability to execute an effective business development effort; 3) Inability to successfully follow through on sales opportunities to closure.

Biz Owner Sales Profile #2: Principal(s) has held a sales role.

Impact: While this seems to be ideal, when a key executive has a sales background and is then charged with biz dev for the firm, they mistakenly think they have the time to consistently sell along with their other duties. Even with the best intentions, this just doesn’t happen. They find this inconsistent sales activity leads to inconsistent sales results.

Biz Owner Sales Profile #3: No knowledge of ineffective salesperson.

Impact: We’ve worked with a number of firms to support one or several salespeople with outsourced lead generation programs. Qualified leads are provided but are not taken effectively through the sales process. Working with an outside firm sometimes provides the first indication of skills gaps in the sales team.

Biz Owner Sales Profile #4: Principal(s) don’t know what they don’t know.

Impact: Frequently biz owners think they have a pretty good handle on sales and how they need to go to market. They find out this isn’t the case when they get an outside expert to take a look at their sales systems and processes. Until then, lack of sales results would be the primary indicator that this is an area of weakness.

There are many cost-effective solutions to each of these Biz Owner Sales Profile challenges and they don’t require hiring a full-time salesperson. For more ideas, visit http://www.sales-onsite.com/.

You’re not selling “expertise.” They're buying your personality.

Harry Beckwith, author of Selling the Invisible which has a special focus on marketing for service firms, talks about how companies selling expert services (consulting firms, professional services firms) believe their clients are buying expertise.

http://www.beckwithpartners.com/sellingtheinvisible.aspx

No matter how many case studies and white papers you provide, can they really assess your level of expertise? No.

When one of your prospects chooses your service firm, Harry says, “They are not buying the firm’s credentials, reputation or industry stature. Instead, like the high schoolers we continue to be throughout our lives, (your) prospects buy the firm’s personality.”

Since our company provides biz dev support to service firms all over the country, our biggest challenge is when we work with a client whose executives have amazing credentials but are not extroverted enough...not relationship builders. Since there is no substitute for that ability to engage people, in that case we recommend that they hire someone who can bring that personality element to the team. That is the only way that type of firm can grow.

As Harry Beckwith sums it up, yes, you need to be professional but to grow your firm, it’s more important to be personable.