MSP Marketing Blog

The Power Of Giving Thanks To Your Prospects And Clients

It’s a short week for many of us as we prepare to spend time with our families and celebrate Thanksgiving. So this week I’m going to share a brief, but powerful lesson: USE HANDWRITTEN THANK-YOU NOTES!

We send Jamie and Emily (my eight- and five-year-old kiddies) to Roots Academy for singing lessons. I recently received a handwritten note after Emily had her first trial lesson. Very, very well done. Even included some stickers Emily had mentioned were her favorite.

I’ve spent 100X the money with other companies and never got so much as a thank-you e-mail. LOTS to learn from this.

Jack Daly, international expert in sales and sales management, has spoken at several of my events. A few years back, he talked about his “money bag” idea. It was a simple bag he carried around with note cards, envelopes and stamps. When he met with a new prospect, regardless of the outcome, he’d write a handwritten thank-you note and drop it in the mailbox closest to their office to ensure it was delivered within the next 48 hours. Read full article and comment →

How To Get Appointments With Big Check Writers (A Muffin Story)

Whoever is going around teaching people to use “grab a coffee” as a reason for getting entrance to a meeting with them needs to stop. Worse yet, “I’ll buy you lunch,” as if they’re doing me a HUGE favor. Last month I received multiple SPAM e-mails similar to the one below:

Hi Robin, my CTO and I will be in your area in August so how about we grab a coffee or sync up for lunch if the timing is good?

During 2018 we helped dozens of companies like Technology Marketing Toolkit to speed up their development process and accelerate revenue flow with the help of team extension of exceptional software engineers that were working closely with head office.

Want to jump for a quick 10-15 minutes intro call this week so either I or my CTO could share the idea with you?

Johan

PS: Oh, please let me know if you don’t want to hear from me ever again and I’ll make sure that it never happens.

No one, and I do mean no one, is going to take time out of their insanely busy day to have coffee with a complete stranger who wants to sell them something. Further, e-mail is one of the lowest-trust ways to communicate with a prospect.

But you know this, right? Me hopes so… Read full article and comment →

These Costly Mistakes Will Tank Your Direct Mail Results

Most dabble and sloppily, hastily put their campaigns together – but direct mail is NOT a media you want to be careless about due to the work and costs you’ll put in. Better to invest the time in getting it really, really right and dialed in before you launch. Read full article and comment →

An Often Overlooked Marketing Method That Can Make You Millions

This week and next, we’re taking a look at a marketing topic I know really well AND have made millions from: direct mail.

Yeah, I know. Pfui. I just lost about 80% of the readers who saw “direct mail” and went back to scrolling Facebook or Instagram. So sad. If only cat memes put money in the bank…

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have learned direct marketing for prospecting and making sales early in my career, when social media, paid searches and even e-mail weren’t what they are today because direct mail is an excellent disciplinarian.

Get it wrong, and you can lose a considerable chunk of money fast; but, of course, if you get it RIGHT, you’ll have a media to play in that your competitors are too cheap, too lazy and too shortsighted to use.

So first, a SHORT list of the primary reasons why you want to use direct mail in your marketing mix: Read full article and comment →

When Is It Good To Scare Your Customers And Prospects?

Halloween is upon is, as is my final installment of scary business stories. This week is a lesson in spooking your own clients. Because the need for IT services can be easy to shrug off until you’re faced with disaster.

A force of nature hits and they’re not properly backed up. A “ghost” clicks a link in a phishing e-mail (because no one ever wants to admit they did it).  Michael Myers goes digital and hacks their network. Read on the for the “Tale Of The Sales Call Coming From Inside Your Business.”

People who think opportunistically get a bad rap – but EVERY tragedy carries with it big opportunity, and there are two sides to every coin.

As an IT firm, YOU benefit every time a new ransomware attack makes headlines, a new regulation goes into effect for data protection or a vendor announces they’ll discontinue support for their software (Windows 7).

But do you quickly do everything you can to capitalize on the opportunity such tragedies and problems may present? Read full article and comment →

4 Ways To Keep Your Marketing Out Of The Graveyard

What does every SMART marketer dream of? An offer so good it brings in quality clients in droves.

I recently received a piece of mail that came SO CLOSE, but, alas, their campaign fell short of what it could have produced. This week I share with you the “Tale Of The Dead Marketing Campaign.”

The postcard was mailed in an “invitation”-type envelope from our local Bentley dealer. I’m assuming they got my name from a visit to the dealership a few years ago, or perhaps targeted by zip code for high-end homes. The offer is a good one: they’ll give you a Bentley to test-drive for two days. VERY smart.

However, I called and left a voice mail and e-mailed them my interest but never received ANY follow-up, as in ZERO.

This is such a waste, it’s painful. As a marketer, I know all too well how damned difficult it is to get prospects to respond, so you HAVE to be ready with fast, aggressive sales folks who will take those calls and follow up, follow up, follow up. Inbound leads are tiny sparks of interest that need to be fanned, nurtured and fueled carefully like smoldering kindling when building a fire. Read full article and comment →

Are You Scaring Away Potential Clients With These Mistakes?

As a lover of Halloween and all things spooky, my favorite time of year is here. But there are things that truly frighten me, like bad business practices. So gather ‘round for the “Tale Of The Lost Prospect.”

Often we’ll get this e-mail from a member: “I ran the X campaign and got Y leads, but none of them closed and they’re all thinking it over. What can I do to get them to buy?”

Tough question. The true answer is to get in a time machine and go back to the beginning of the sale and not screw it up.

The “I need to think it over” response is code for “I’m not certain about buying from YOU.” Not price, not terms, not anything, although that is the way a prospect will articulate their reason for not buying. Or they’ll simply tell you they need to think it over and then proceed to ignore your calls and e-mails.

Once you’ve met with and quoted a prospect, it’s enormously difficult to UNDO their opinion of you. Certain judgments have already been formed and an aggressive follow-up can make things WORSE by making you appear needy and desperate, pushing a prospect further away. Read full article and comment →

Five List Management Tips That Will Make Your Marketing And Your Business More Valuable

Last week I revealed to you that the secret to above average results in your business is the care, development and management of your list. Now that you know the secret and you’ve had some time to think about it, you’re probably wondering what you can do to make your list a true asset.

Here’s a quick list of disciplines for list management that you might post up somewhere as a reminder to you and your marketing team:

1. GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE STAYS. Someone needs to own the cleaning, updating and segmenting of every new lead that comes into your organization. This is especially true if you’re doing a lot of marketing and generating any significant number of leads. Otherwise your list will be full of duplicates, spam, not-right-fit prospects and other useless contacts, giving you false numbers, slowing down your sales team and clogging up all marketing efforts.

Read full article and comment →