PAUL POTRATZ SHARES SOME SIMPLE TIPS FOR GETTING THE RIGHT MESSAGE TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE
I get a lot of emails every month with marketers and business owners asking me. “What should I be doing to increase leads and sales?” I always ask a few questions then share one or two strategies that would benefit them with the least amount of work and effort. I also share ideas that won’t cost them thousands. In this article I decided to pull seven things you can start doing immediately that will generate significant increases in your leads and opportunities.
- KNOW YOUR CLIENTS. Create a swipe file and document every question a client or prospect asks you. These questions should be reviewed and answered weekly at your sales meeting. It’s important the entire team has the same answers. When you take the time to review the questions and work collectively formulating the proper answers, you will eliminate costly mistakes, build confidence in your team and respect with your clients. Do it every day and use the information for social posting instead of relying on worthless chatter. Become a resource to your current and future clients. Don’t forget to use this information in your monthly email newsletters.
- JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION. Now you have all of these questions from clients why not become the topic of conversation? Become a resource and be the authority with your current and future clients. Post a FAQ section on your website and augment it with audio or video. Some people like to read while others prefer to listen or watch. This type of content rarely becomes dated so it’s a great practice to start doing weekly.
- GREATNESS DOES NOT GO ON SALE. Start referring to customers as clients. Professional services like medical doctors, accountants, attorneys and personal trainers are consultants and have clients. Retail stores like BestBuy and WalMart have customers. Customers are driven by price while clients are loyal and pay more for a professional service. Clients also refer their trusted advisor more often than a store with cheap prices.
- WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition and think of a client’s needs and wants, not your own accomplishments. A unique selling proposition should focus on free car washes, free loaner cars, no cost maintenance, and discounts. When developing the USP don’t forget you will need different ones for sales and service.
- KNOW YOUR BUSINESS NUMBERS. Every website has various conversion rates that you should know every month. (Number of Unique Visits divided by Leads), (Number of Return Visits divided by Leads), (Number of Unique Visits divided by Chat Leads), (Number of Unique Visits divided by Phone Calls). It’s important to track all four of these metrics each month. Learn from them and work to improve the conversion of your website. This will require the creation of landing pages, improved site navigation, test of colours, and creation of content. Base all of your decisions on the numbers from A/B testing. A/B testing is an easy and inexpensive process and with a Google search you will find several to choose from. Most don’t require any coding ability, if you can use MSWord you can do A/B testing.
- MINIMIZE PEER PRESSURE. Dump the social links and any link that takes a shopper off your website. The vast majority of dealers websites have social links prominently displayed which redirects visitors off the site… Stop It. Your website is your virtual dealership and Facebook and YouTube is used to drive traffic to your website. It’s the same as TV, Radio and Print was used to drive traffic to your dealership. Repeat after me “Don’t Ever Take Anyone Off Your Website with Links”!
- HAVE A QUALITY EMAIL STRATEGY. Despite what some self-proclaimed experts might say, email is not dead. That being said, you shouldn’t abuse it either. Every company needs a quality email marketing strategy. A strategy with valuable content that is a resource. A strategy where the subject line is well-written and consistent with the content of the email. Minimize the sales pitch, links and images in an email and it will make it to inboxes at a much higher rate. If you are thinking of utilizing your CRM for email marketing, Think Again. A CRM is to manage your clients, not for a mass email strategy. If you are going to spend the time creating a great email then don’t skimp on the delivery tool. Look at programs like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, and others that will ban a company from use that has high opt-out, bounce and spam rates. Email is where you want to do A/B testing. Create an email with two or three different subject lines. Send the email with subject line A to 500 people and send the other with subject line B to 500 different people. Review the open rates for both and go with the high performer. You can even do this same process with the content of the email and see which one performs better with click through rates. Yes it’s more work but isn’t the goal to get the best return possible? If you goal is maximize conversion and opportunities it takes more work otherwise you are simply “Spraying and Praying” — wasting a lot of money and losing a lot of opportunities.
