Most CLEC/ITSP/ISP/WISP do little marketing. And Branding isn't even in the picture. Heck, something as simple as having an updated website seems beyond the reach of some service providers.
What most execs don't grasp is that most sales are moving online. Buyers do research before they buy. They check reviews. They ask their networks on Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, Google+. All of this online.
If you are not online - or worse your image online is awful - sales will be hard to come by.
I think one issue is that service providers don't have a grasp on who they want to market to because they think everyone is a prospect. WRONG!
Your marketing should target the most profitable prospects with the most profitable services.
Don't worry it isn't just you. I read this article yesterday, "Most entrepreneurs have NO idea how much they really need to be marketing in order to effectively and consistently attract more clients and make more money. You need to be really clear on what you want to accomplish that will make you happy with your progress."
Do you have a monthly sales goal? Do you know what/who/where that will come from? [i.e., from two medical offices at $750 per month for Internet and Hosted PBX.] This gives you a target prospect and a product bundle.
What is the average dollar amount each client is worth to you each month? What is your ARPU?
next we do sales math. How many prospects do you talk to? How many proposals to you send? How many contracts get ink? Closing Ratio = INK/proposals
More sales math: Your closing ratio times your ARPU is your monthly revenue. So if you want 2 sales and you close 10% of the time then you need to do 20 proposals and that means talking to XXX prospects OR talking to 40 qualified prospects.
So how does Marketing come into the picture?
You want to have a certain message go out to your marketplace, especially to your most potential prospects. Email, website, social media, networking, direct mail, webinars/seminars, trade shows, search marketing (SEO/SEM) and guerrilla marketing are all possible tactics. The strategy is to reach the targets that the message and product bundle will resonate with. The fact is that it takes a lot of touches to make an impact on a prospect. That's where the tactics come in.
So you need to identify your best prospects.
What will they buy from you?
Why would they buy from you?
How will you get this message to them?
How do those messages convert to sales? Branding a consistent message to your best prospects means that sales will be more targeted and if you have the right message, product and target --> KA-CHING!
Need help with this? Give my office a call at (813) 963-5884
FYI, these slides sum up what I said.
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