Lead Generation

Welcome to the start of your new business via the secrets of lead generation.

Tip 1 - Don't Market To Everyone "You can't be all things to all men."
I know this may come as a shock to you, but it's true. You cannot hope to market your products to everyone, even if you think everyone needs your product. I'm not saying you can't be successful doing this, but you are limiting your potential by not focusing on select groups of people or businesses. These specific groups are called "niches."
By focusing on one or more niches you're able to connect with these people at a much higher level, and consequently you automatically gain more business. I'm sure you've heard people say things like, "This person really connects with me, they really understand my
business." This is what you do when you choose to market to these different groups.

If you were to start a new business tomorrow and you had the choice of two accountants, which one would you use? One that markets to everyone (a generalist) or one that focuses on start-ups and new businesses? Do you even have a choice? I doubt it. That's the power of niche marketing. By concentrating on specific groups, you can achieve very high market shares in that particular category because people automatically come to you.

You'll "own" the market. You are viewed as the only choice because your product is
'designed' to solve the specific problems of those people. Identifying the people or businesses that have a want for your product, can afford your product and can be easily
reached is your goal. Find the 'starving crowd' and you'll be rewarded handsomely!

Once you've defined your target market(s) everything else you do will be easier to accomplish, and as a result your sales and profits will increase. This is perhaps the most overlooked strategy that new businesses can use. Don't worry about 'restricting' your market. I hear this concern from many people. Believe me, if you focus on one or more carefully selected niches you'll be amazed at your results.

But how do you know if your chosen niche(s) is BIG enough to make you wealthy? Good question. Now this is only a guideline, but it will give you a good benchmark for assessing the size of the niche…

1. Calculate the total size of the chosen niche (if you've selected more than one niche just add the numbers together).

2. Now calculate the average order value of each customer (i.e. if you've got 20 customers, and they each buy from you three times each year, and the total value of all the sales is £6,000, then the average order value is £100.

3. Then determine how many times they'll buy your product over the duration of the relationship (i.e. how long they keep buying from you). If we take the above example, let's say on average customers buy from you 3 times a year for 5 years. That means on average they buy your product 15 times. You also need to include referrals here - but to keep the
math simple we'll leave them out for now - but understand when you put a referral system in place (yes, you can systemise referrals, the results can be staggering).

4. Now you can calculate the value of the customer, which in my example is £1500 (15 times they order x £100 average order value)

5. Now calculate your gross profit on each sale to give us the 'Lifetime Customer Value (LCV).' Let's say in our example our gross profit is 60%, giving us a LCV of £900 (£1,500 x 60%)

6. Now assume over a 3 year period you'll get 25% market share of your niche (often it will be much higher when you apply the tools and strategies contained in this course, but let's be pessimistic at this stage). So if the market size in my example above is 5,000, the total customers we could acquire is 1,250 (5,000 x 25%)

7. Now calculate the profit from this market share and decide if this figure is enough to make you wealthy? In our example above we'd generate £1.125m over a 5 year period
(1,250 customers x £900) Remember this is a guideline. But if you use it wisely you'll be able to gauge the potential of your chosen target markets and their ability to bring to you the rewards and wealth you seek.

Tip 2 - You Must Have A Unique Perceived Benefit(UPB)
UPB or (Unique Perceived Benefit) is the one thing that differentiates you or your product from your competitors in the minds of your customers and prospects. Your UPB is what makes the difference between a very powerful and sustainable lead generation system or NOT! and ultimately having a truly outstanding business - or a faltering one. Often your UPB can be found in your business or your product - you just need to articulate it in a way that makes you stand out from the crowd. I can't stress enough how important this is to you.

How can you expect your customers to be able to choose you, over and above any of your competitors, if they can't quickly see what it is you do that is so unique? The good news is You don't have to have something that's truly unique. As long as your competitors aren't communicating this uniqueness it is perceived as unique - and when it comes to sales and marketing - perception is REALITY! Other outstanding businesses have been founded on a UPB alone. For example, here's a very well known UPB...

"Red hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less- guaranteed."
Tom Monahan of Domino's Pizza created one of the most successful fast food businesses in the world from the strength of this UPB. Another is "When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight -FedEx. "

Please don't dismiss the importance of UPB. I guarantee your competitors are unlikely to have a UPB. This will make a massive difference to your business. There are other VERY IMPORTANT factors to consider...If you are viewed by your customers and prospects to be the same as your competitors, what do you think becomes the important criteria when they want TO BUY your type of product? That's right - PRICE or FEES. If you're one of those people that thinks their industry or customers are price sensitive - you must ask yourself if
that's because YOU don't differentiate your products and your support services from your competition. It's rare that price is ever the motivating factor in any market.

There's no hiding the fact that as soon as you create your UPB, you automatically take your business out of the "price war" and into the nirvana of higher prices - and less competition! (Or at the very worst you keep charging the same - but you win most of the business!). That's the power of UPB.

Tip 3 - You Must Use A Multitude Of Lead Generation Strategies

It amazes me that people say things like, "I'm just not able to grow my business. I've tried lots of things, but I just can't seem to generate the volume of leads I need." The first question I ask is this, "How many lead generation tools are you using at the moment?"
The reply is often like this, "Well we do some Yellow Pages advertising and send some letters out." Now I'm not saying you can't have enormous success just from using the likes of Yellow Pages advertising and sales letters, because you can, but just think what you could do if you used 5, 10, 15, 20 or more lead generation tools to grow your business? What effect would this have if each lead generation tool was working well for you?

I've identified 43 proven lead generation tools you can apply to your business right now. How many are you using at the moment? Here’s my list in no particular order:

Follow Up, FREE Special Reports, FREE Tip Sheets, Press Releases, Endorsement Relationships, Networking, Joining Clubs and Associations, Books and Articles, Newsletters (on-line), FREE Consultations/Estimates/Meetings etc, Make It Easy for Your Prospects to
Buy from You - Credit Cards Accepted etc, Profit on Repeat Sales, Email, Seminars, Direct Mail Sales Letters, Direct Response Classified Adverts, Direct Response Yellow Pages Adverts,
Direct Response Fax Broadcasts, Newsletters (Print), Telemarketing, Direct Response Inserts Direct Mail Postcards, Direct Mail Postcard Decks, Direct Response Print Advertising, Direct Response Radio Commercials, Free Gifts, Gimmicks and Incentives, Special Events, Web Site
Take-One Boxes, FREE Samples Of Your Products, Trade Shows, Business Name and Product Name, Window Displays, Reprints of Adverts and Publicity, Posters, Signage, Questionnaires
Gift Vouchers, Letters of Thanks and Appreciation, Speed, Interior Décor, Business Cards
Audiotapes and Videotapes

This is as simple as it seems. The more lead generation tools you use - the more income you'll generate. The key however is to use productive and proven lead generation tools. Tools that give you a return on your investment (ROI).

Many lead generation tools were originally developed years ago. You must adapt the way you use them to be successful when marketing your products. When you use more lead generation tools you stabilise the growth of your business. If you're using 5 or 10 lead generation tools, and one of them starts to fade, you've still got numerous other tools working tirelessly for you. On the other hand if you're using one or two lead generation tools and one of them fades, your lead generation system is cut in two - making your business less stable!

How to market a product

Basic Principles

You will find proven sales and marketing strategies here that are simple but have the ability to dramatically increase your sales and profits! The problem is that most people in businesses selling products have no idea what they're doing when it comes to marketing their businesses. But don't beat yourself up if things aren't going as well as you hoped or planned. It's not your fault. Here's why...

Almost all the information available to people running businesses is written by people who don't know what they're doing. It's like the blind leading the blind. You see selling and marketing products in 2005/6 and beyond (as I'm sure you're well aware) is very different to selling and marketing products 10, 20, 30 even 50 years ago, yet people keep persisting with tired worn out strategies that were okay back then - but not TODAY! In other words, 'traditional' sales and marketing strategies will never yield the return most people product based businesses hope for, or deserve! If you want to stay ahead of the 'game' and build a business that gives you the freedom to choose how you live your life, you absolutely must have access to the best and most up-to-date information available anywhere and apply this to 6 Important Fundamentals Of Marketing Your Products.' Understanding these concepts will help you appreciate why so many businesses don't achieve the results they should. Each fundamental principle is based around the problems of using 'traditional' sales and marketing techniques. Techniques that you are using now. Techniques your competitors are using. Techniques that were originally developed for businesses years and years ago. Techniques which simply don't 'cut it'...

Fundamental 1: Traditional Marketing Techniques Don't Work For Product Based Businesses
'traditional' marketing techniques were developed years ago. They have been "modified" and "updated" but they fall short of the mark. The difference between using proven current marketing techniques as opposed to dated and worn-out techniques is as far apart as the North and South Poles. Some traditional techniques like advertising and direct mail work extremely well, but the application needs to be very different if they're going to work today. The reality is most SME’s cannot afford the costs of traditional marketing. Our system is based on ensuring you maximise your opportunities!

Fundamental 2: Traditional Marketing Techniques Don't Use The 3 'Success Keys'
This is the number one reason why most businesses aren't as successful as they should be.
Traditional marketing ignores using ALL the Success Keys. Each Success Key is a crucial part of the 'success jigsaw' that determines the scale of your business growth and each Key must be combined to produce the optimum results.

KEY ONE - Lead Generation
Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business. You must have a system in place for generating a constant stream of high QUALITY leads. (Notice the emphasis on 'quality'). Without leads your business will eventually get smaller and smaller until it exists no longer! Why? Because every business - no matter how good it is will lose customers for a host of reasons and to replace these lost customers you need to first generate leads. No leads means no more customers - it's as simple as that!

KEY TWO - Sales Conversion
Once you've generated high quality leads your next task is to convert these leads into sales and new customers. Sales conversion is the simple system you use to logically 'move' the prospect through to becoming a customer. There are some easy identifiable steps you can take which will help you convert up to 90% of leads into sales.

Lead generation and sales conversion are intertwined! There's no point in being able to generate dozens and dozens of high quality leads if you can't convert them into customers. Conversely there's no point in being very good at sales conversion if you can't generate any leads. These two Keys go hand in hand! Typically traditional marketing techniques rely heavily on lead generation. And as a result you are 66% less effective.

KEY THREE - Re-Selling
Now you've managed to convert your prospect into a customer, you need to retain their business and maximise the income and profit from each customer. I call this process 'Re-Selling.' It is by far the easiest and most rewarding stage because once you gain a customer it's very easy to sell more and more products back to them - as well as getting referrals from them. Although Re-Selling isn't intertwined with Keys 1 it helps you get maximum profits for the least time, effort and cost.

Fundamental 3: Apply Proven Sales And Marketing Techniques For Businesses Selling PRODUCTS
You must apply proven sales and marketing techniques created to sell products today (not years ago) and apply them to each fundamental key.

Fundamental 4: Create A 'Seamless' Sales And Marketing System
For years, traditional marketing techniques have been applied on an ad hoc basis. Even if a marketing plan or strategy is in place, a system, which maximises your efforts, is often neglected. Do you have a system in place? Many people view sales and marketing in isolation, rather than as part of the same business building process. Because of this, much of their effort and their money is wasted. You must dovetail sales and marketing into one another as a business building system.

Fundamental 5: Traditional Marketing Techniques Don't Explain The Virtues Of 'Preparation'
I'm sure you've heard the saying, "if you fail to prepare, you're preparing to fail." I truly believe in this statement. I used to play professional football. Prior to each match on a Saturday afternoon, we would train 10 to 12 times between Monday and Friday. We would also watch videos, discuss tactics and focus on our opponent's weaknesses. We had strict diets. Preparation was a religion with 6 whole days of preparation for an 90-minute match on a Saturday afternoon. We won most of our matches each season. How do you think we would have faired if we'd turned up to the match on a Saturday afternoon without all this preparation? You must be this clinical in your preparation if your business is to grow at the rate you want it to. Far too often we rush into doing things without planning and preparing. And then we wonder why our results were so poor.

Fundamental 6: To Achieve Maximum Success And Results For Your Business, Each Fundamental Principle Must Be Addressed
By understanding each fundamental principle, it's easy to see why so many businesses NEVER reach their potential. The key is to positively address each fundamental principle in
an easy to use growth system

As you read through this course you'll often find yourself thinking - that's obvious - I know that, what's so remarkable about that? When you sense yourself doing this STOP yourself and ask 'Am I using this strategy in my business right now?' Don't close your mind and think, "that won't work for my business." Believe me we have seen these strategies work for EVERY business types without failure!