Clients rarely buy what you have to offer on first contact.

In fact, let me rephrase that; clients NEVER buy what you have to offer on first contact.

Spontaneous purchases are usually low-risk and low-cost; the kind of purchase you may make whilst wandering up the aisle of your supermarket or when checking out on Amazon when they tempt you with a last minute “suggested product”.

Yes, I am sure you’ve heard a story from a friend who just happened to find themselves at the local BMW dealer and decided to splash out on a new car (they’d only gone to browse). Or you know someone who just decided to book a 7 day trip to New York one Friday night (the red wine had nothing to do it, apparently!)

But does that mean that kind of emotional purchase would happen in your business? I’m guessing not (unless of course you sell nice, shiny BMWs or shopping trips to New York!)

So why is it that you are hoping that one day someone will find your website or talk to you at a networking event and say “Hey, I love the sound of what you do … here’s a cheque for £2,000. Let’s do some work together”?

Because if all you are offering is what you have to sell, that’s exactly the strategy you’ve got in place.

Let me explain by sharing this great example of a marketing system that landed on my doormat yesterday.

It’s a postcard mailing that came from a local estate agent. And I just love the way they’ve laid out their sales and marketing process so clearly.

There’s so much for you to learn and implement from this.

What they are selling are houses, quite obviously. But they rarely ever make this the offer in their initial marketing. In fact, in a previous month I got this postcard from them. Yup, they are “selling” the Open House.

Selling your Lead Offer

This is a classic example of a Lead Offer; something you give away for free, which still has value and generates a lead for you to follow up and nurture. (If you been learning about digital marketing then you may call this your Lead Magnet, Ethical Bribe or Opt-In Offer.)

The Open House is an event and what I love about events is that there is a natural and authentic scarcity value. It’s a fixed time and day so you either turn up or miss it.

Lead Offers don’t exclude buyers who can’t take up the Lead Offer. For potential buyers who can’t make it but like the look of the property, there is every chance they’d still make contact and see if they can arrange a viewing on another day. The Open Day provides the opportunity for someone to “raise their hand” and provide a lead for Kelway Law to follow up.

Multiple communications

Look closely at the bottom of first postcard – at the flow of activity and marketing communications they made.

1 date
18,000 leaflets
103 emails
63 phone calls
13 viewings
2 offers
Sold in 21 days

The leaflets went out door to door to a cold audience, so they had to go out in their thousands. I’m pretty sure (although I am guessing here) they would have known which roads to drop, choosing by value and size of properties. So although still cold, they would have calculated a better conversion rate by sticking to roads where their target buyers would live.

The emails – I am again assuming – would be going to a warmer list; people they had registered on their database. The same with the phone calls; picking up the phone people works so you can see they were NOT relying on emails and letters alone!

They got 13 people along on the day and converted 2 into offers, with one of those offers being accepted. Can you really see how much went into getting that one offer?

How does this apply to you?

Now let’s bring this back to your business and make sure you’re not thinking “but I’m not an estate agent”.

Absolutely, an open house for your business may not be appropriate. But what events could you run?

Trainers and coaches are primed for running half day “taster” workshops to capture potential clients’ interest. I know several of my clients who have successfully done this over the past few years and, when they’ve got the pre-event, event and post-event systems and process set up right, a low-cost event can generate thousands of pounds of business.

Webinars are a fantastic way of running a free event at very, very low cost. OK there’s quite a bit to get your head around if the tech feels overwhelming, but they are like driving a car – once you know how the gears work, had a few lessons, it becomes a subconscious skill.

What about the follow up process?

Can you see how many phone calls and in-person meetings had to happen to make this one sale?

Check your diary and count up how many in-person conversations you’ve had in the last 4 weeks (and facebook messages or tweets don’t count!).

Getting on the phone, skyping and meeting face-to-face is critical to most businesses sales and marketing processes. But because of social media, most of those same businesses kid themselves that a few emails, being present on Facebook and a regular tweeter is enough to bring in the clients they want.

And finally, can see the system that Kelway Law has worked out. I know it looks bloody obvious now that I have dissected but when you have a clear sales and marketing system mapped out, it means you can run it over and over without having to scratch your head each month wondering where your next clients are coming from.

Proven marketing systems – rinse & repeat

With a proven marketing system setup, you can simply run it again and again, whilst keeping track of what’s working and ensuring you are finding the holes to plug up to improve your conversions.

The focus is more on how you can get 13 people to visit the house on Open Day, rather than how to make that one sale. And believe me, once you really get this point you will find the whole process of marketing so much more fun, easier and simpler!

So where does this leave you?

Can you really make sales easy?

If you start with your Lead Offer, then yes you can.

In my brand new programme due out real soon, I take you through in detail how to create and set up a marketing system around your Lead Offer, Nurture Offer and Core Offer.

But for now, work out what your Lead Offer is; the equivalent of Kelway Law’s Open House. That’s the place to start and to ensure you have something that your prospects can show their interest rather than just wait for that impulsive buy that is never really going to happen.

Because once you have an offer that creates leads, the selling becomes easier. And the more your prospects get to know, like and trust you by taking up your Lead and Nurture Offers, you can turn your selling process in to a buying experience.

Your thoughts and comments

How does this case study help you in your marketing? I would love to know your thoughts and comments. And if you are brave enough, share the number of in-person calls you’ve had in the past month 🙂 Leave a comment below.