Episode 18: How to Generate More Leads and Sales For Your Business

Welcome to episode 18, Dawn of a new era, the podcast chronicles of a serial entrepreneur with myself, Dawn Grauer. Now in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the most fundamental aspect of business today. And this is all about how to get more leads for your business. And what you actually need to be focusing on because often with marketing and traditional marketers, you see one thing, and that is that there’s a focus on brand and communications and all of the lovely things that build the marketing mix. Now, the problem is, is that if there’s a generic approach to your marketing, in terms of just kind of increasing online visibility with no purpose, then your efforts will be in vain because today’s business world means that with online business on a marketing and social media, that the fast pace technology and tools, trends, insights available in the ever evolving world of digital marketing, then the speed of marketing is different.

But also there is a more of a focus around actually connecting sales and marketing. And really there’s this duo should go hand in hand as a team. Now, when we look at results driven marketing, what this actually means for a business, and this is especially true for SMEs is that there needs to be some form of action. It needs to be result for the efforts because there are less time and resources available. What you can actually achieve through online marketing means you don’t need vast amounts of budget and resources and team members to get really valuable results. Because the thing is, is if you identify who your target audience is and you have this clear picture of the actual living human being, not a generic market, not an industry, but a real life person, what their characteristics are, their traits, things they do day to day, their lifestyle behaviors, what apps do they download, what sources of information do they turn to day to day?

What tools are they using within their business? Then you start to build this really clear picture and it becomes so much easier not just because you have this clear focus of who your target audience is, but the most important thing, how do you reach that audience? Now, you can only reach your audience if you have a true picture of where that audience is hanging out. And this is really, really important, because think about it. If you look at your ideal client, this is somebody who you empower, who really kind of makes you buzz. The world goes round and is a happy place. And this person is profitable to your business. You know a lot about that person in terms of their personality, what’s important to them. And the more research you do with your existing customers, the better you’ll have on a handle of who you want to actually come to your business and work with you.

Be it buying products, be it buying services, be it a business to consumer or business to business. The same is true. So often I speak to people and they say, we’re targeting this industry. We’re targeting this particular niche. We’re doing this. You are targeting a person, the decision maker. People buy the product or service, the business doesn’t buy it. The people are the decision makers. And you have to think about who the influencers are for those decision makers too. So it would be like, let’s say apprenticeship business and the younger generation, the people who are like 16 to 19, of course, they will be involved in the mix. Now they’ll probably be what we would call the specifier, the person who’s gone, Oh, I really want to do that course. I want to be an apprentice in X, Y, and Z. I want to become a digital marketer, whatever it’s going to be.

Then the next thing that they would automatically do is they would go to their parents, the influencer, the person who is going to be influential in that decision making process. So there has to be two trains of thought around the marketing. And this is so true. I run a business retreat, which is all about strategizing and energizing. Now the first thing that happens generally, when I speak to one of my clients about coming on the retreat is that they go, let me talk to my partner. So whether they have to go to their husband, the wife, the boyfriend, wherever the girlfriend, that person is an influencer. And one of the pieces of marketing we actually created, and this was a little bit of fun as well, is how to convince your partner and a guide all about going to the retreat. When it talks about the fact that it’s fully tax deductible, it looks at different things that it will give that the person attending and also the partner.

So you have to truly understand the person. And this is something that probably a day doesn’t go by that I don’t talk about this because when you’re marketing, if you get caught up in what we call channel marketing, you’re going to be a very busy fool because going and building things like websites, doing communications, doing magazine articles, blogs, you name it. They’re all great content. But unless that content is absolutely helping you achieve the business goal and every time you do something in the world of online marketing, if it’s taking you one step closer, then great. So you have to pick your promotional methods really wisely. So in order to generate leads, you need a promotional plan that’s not only going to get your products and services in front of that target audience, but you need to think about what’s going to be the most effective, the most efficient way. And that’s going to give you the best return on investment.

So being everywhere is fine, but focusing in on what is working right now, is there something that you know is absolutely brilliant in your business? Something that’s making ripples and is actually driving people in who are purchasing. Now, if you understand what the purchase journey is or the customer journey, then you can focus on really enhancing that customer experience and really driving that experience further forward. And what I mean by that is when somebody is looking at your business and they land on whatever the persuasive piece of content is that converts them, you need to think about what goes through their mind and how do they come up with I’m going to buy this. Now there’ll be some items online. There are impulse buys. Yeah. They’re the things that you don’t necessarily need, but the things that you want. So you could be scrolling through Facebook, you could find a product or service and you’ll go and buy that particular thing.

And you haven’t considered it beforehand. It was just an impulse buy and clothing and fast fashion falls into this category. But for things that you don’t know that you did need often, there’s a, this whole sort of a stage of awareness and evaluation and research that goes into it. So you have to understand what is the compelling event or the persuasive content that actually triggers how they become a customer. So when you create a sales funnel and you probably hear this term banded around a lot, some of you may have sale funnels or lead funnels within your business, but I don’t know any successful business that doesn’t have this. For me it’s the foundation and it’s also the critical success factor. If you have a sales funnel, this is basically looking at how do people come into your business, or how do you generate a prospect or lead?

And then how do you actually get that person to buy your products and services? So what is the whole evolution, that journey and how do you nurture them through to a paying customer? So one of the things you’ve got to think about is what could you give somebody, your target audience to really kind of grab their attention, first of all, and get them to understand why they need it. So your marketing nowadays has to be really straightforward to the what’s in it for them. Now, if you think about how people’s brains work, the first thing that happens is if you get excited about product or service you could find an agency out there who you’re thinking, Oh my goodness, this company could solve my problems. They could take over my Facebook ads or my marketing, whatever it’s going to be. Then you start running the sales objections in your head, why it wouldn’t work.

And you look at your experiences, be it true or false experiences that you have in your mind about why it wouldn’t work. And those are the key times when you have to get involved in your customer and really kind of use your marketing and communicate that you know what they’re thinking and relate to them. By utilizing marketing and saying to people in that marketing, we might be thinking it costs too much. You might be thinking it will drain your time. You might be thinking we won’t get results. So actually facing up to why people or what sales objections people might have, that they wouldn’t consider your products and services. Sometimes people develop a perception that, they think something in their head about a product or service because the communication, the proposition isn’t clear enough. And then having this one stab attempt at converting a person into a paying customer.

Well, if someone has never known about your product or service, you can’t think that one post, one email, one communication is going to convert everybody. Yeah you might get between one and 3% who it’s relevant, it’s time specific to them. And yes, they could be further down the decision making journey. But if someone sees your content, has no idea who you are, what your brand is and what you stand for and why they need your products and services, they will take time and you’ll have to build that relationship. So, that takes me onto the final thing. The hub of making this really, truly work for you, which is building nurture series. Now, if you’ve not heard this term, this just basically refers to the process of utilizing email to really create desire, to answer frequently asked questions and to really sort of head off at the past any sales objections.

So think about how you can use email in that journey. An automated email is so powerful because it really does enhance the customer journey because each individual, every time they come into your world, every time they come into a funnel, they’re getting their very own bespoke journey at the time that is relevant to them. And no one else is having to get involved in the business. The resource level needed to do this is so low, but it’s such an effective tool, but why do people walk away from it? Why do people not utilize it? Well, I’ll tell you why, because it takes time to set up. And anything that takes a little bit of time and effort people want to shy away from, and this is a huge opportunity.

So if you think about this, if you think about how to get leads into your business and how to generate sales, then these are the tactics that you need to sit down and consider and spend some time on. Now, leveraging social media to connect and engage can further strengthen those relationships. And if you think about it, it’s always going to help you reach a vast audience and, but a very targeted audience, because there are tools and tactics you can use on social media to really gear and get your content and your brand in front of the business leaders, influencers, and decision-makers that you are trying to contact.

So if you enjoy today’s podcast, I will see you on episode 18 next week, where you can go back and listen to any of the podcasts. We have got worksheets for all and there’s always an activity that is geared to really help you in these challenging times to be effective in the world of business and marketing. And we’ll be looking at obviously the key components for me, the three core pillars, marketing, motivation, and mindset in every episode. So don’t forget to subscribe and hop on over to dawnmcgruer.com and you can look up all of the other podcasts. Take care, have a good week. I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode, and don’t forget I’m going to be with you each and every week. So download and listen on dawnmcgruer.com or on iTunes and come and join us in our Facebook community, too. All the details are on the website and I’ll see you next week.