This week I have a Marketing Reality Check in the form of a scorecard for seven key marketing activities/skills.
This will help you determine the current viability of your marketing (and ultimately, your business). Score yourself on how well you are doing in these seven key areas.
1. Do you have an active mailing or email list? Do you have from 500 to 2,000 on this list? If so, give yourself 1 point and then an extra point for every additional 2,000 on your list.
Your Score _____
2. How often do you contact this list? Ten points for monthly or more often, five for every two months and three points for quarterly. No points if you haven't been in touch for over three months.
Your Score _____
3. Do you have a good, working web site that gets serious inquiries from prospective clients that turn into appointments? Ten points if you do. If you have a web site up but get no inquiries, two points, and zero points if you don't have a site or if it's incomplete.
Your Score _____
4. How many 'live prospects' do you have in your marketing/sales pipeline? This is anyone you feel has a good chance of becoming a client in the next year. One point per prospect.
Your Score _____
5. How many sales appointments do you have lined up (in the next month or two) with qualified prospects ready to explore working with you? Give yourself five points for each one.
Your Score _____
6. Your sales appointments to new clients ratio. Ten points if 75% or better. Five points if 50% to 74%. Two points if 24% to 49%. Less than that or no idea of your ratio? Zero points.
Your Score _____
7. How many of your past clients have given you a written testimonial or case study? Two points for each.
Your Score _____
What is your total score? _____
How well did you do? Rate yourself below:
80 to 100 (or more) points - You should have all the business you can handle. Congratulations.
60 to 79 points - Your marketing is doing very well. Keep it up.
40 to 59 points - Not bad, but you have some real work to do.
20 to 39 points - You're struggling and need to do a lot of work.
0 to 19 points - Your marketing is barely on life support.
No matter what your score is, we all need to work at increasing both our activity level and abilities in all seven areas. Let me tell you why this is so important.
1. Mailing/email list. This IS your business. Your ability to reach out and communicate with your list will often determine your income. Work tirelessly at building your list.
2. Contacting list - If you have a list and you aren't contacting those on it at least every month, how do you expect them to remember you? An uncontacted list is as good as no list at all.
3. Web Site - This is your marketing hub that communicates the value of your services. The better, the site, the more business you tend to get. Sites with poor content and design don't help much.
4. Marketing/Sales Pipeline - This indicates your marketing activity. The more activity, the more prospects in your pipeline. Networking, speaking, and publishing all work to fill the pipeline.
5. Appointments Set - This shows how good you are at follow-up activities and setting up appointments with prospects. This is the biggest fear of Independent Professionals. You must conquer it.
6. Appointment to Sales Ratio - This is a measure of your sales ability. If your closing rate is low, you need to work not only on sales skills but on attracting more qualified prospects.
7. Testimonials - This shows both your level of client satisfaction and your commitment to increasing that satisfaction. Remember, past clients are your best source for new clients.
No, these aren't the only indicators of marketing and selling success, but they are the key ones. If you want to survive in a down economy, let alone thrive, you need to constantly be working on implementing and improving these seven skills.
To summarize: Seven key marketing activities/skills:
1. Build your list
2. Contact your list regularly
3. Have a good web site
4. Engage in marketing activities
5. Follow up with prospects
6. Turn prospects into clients
7. Get stories from satisfied clients
Where do you need to start?
The More Clients Bottom Line: None of this happens accidentally. It's time to go to work to implement these activities and to build your skills in these seven vital areas. Once you do, you'll have a solid marketing foundation that is recession proof.
Which of these seven activities/skills do you need to put the most work into? Please share on the More Clients Blog.
hi,my name is Patrick and i have a small money transfer business in London,what i find difficult is how you apply your advice and ideas to my business when i cant see quite how it relates??...
please help
Posted by: patrick | November 12, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Many years ago I worked in a corporate wellness program with a wonderful salesman named Jack Stephens who use to talk to the non-sales people among the staff about how to promote the program. I still remember that one of his favorite themes was that the last four letters of enthusIASM stand for "I Am Sold Myself!"
Posted by: Will Kenny | October 28, 2008 at 08:01 AM