Smarketing Commentary: Maybe We're Just Not That Into You
Do you want any customer, or the right customer?
I've had some interesting conversations in the past couple days, and some of the things I've been hearing have made me pause and think:
- Your lead follow-up approach is too aggressive. (Good. See below.)
- You send a lot of email. (I guess we just have too much content to share!)
- Your LinkedIn photo looks unprofessional.
- You're talking above most people's heads.
Call me a wise-ass, but there isn't too much we do around here that isn't deliberate. We don't expect everyone to get it, or like it. (But those who do have made great clients.)
We are not the right fit for everyone. We are ok with that.
Business Development: We Practice What We Preach
For example, take our lead follow-up. If you sign up for one of our webinars, you can expect a phone call or an email asking if you got what you needed out of it, if you have any more questions, what we can do better next time, and if you would like to have a conversation with us.
Now, last time I checked, it was no secret that webinars are lead generating content. The whole point of doing a webinar is to provide useful content to potential prospects. Why wouldn't I want to follow up with them to make sure they understood the material and (especially) to find out if they have a problem I can help fix? Didn't you have a question or problem you wanted an answer to?
But it turns people off, right? People don't like pushy sales people. OK. So what part of, "Did you get what you needed out of the webinar?" is pushy?
How is it pushy to ask if someone wants to have a conversation?
Smarketing Analytics: You're So Predictable
Mark Roberge*, VP of Sales at HubSpot, spoke to this morning's HubSpot User Group Maine meetup about the types of behaviors that prospects who convert to customers typically engage in before buying. It turns out, people who are likely to become customers behave in predictable ways - and we can understand if they will become a customer, no, an evangelist, based on those observations.
On the flip side, people who are UNLIKELY to become customers also behave in predictable ways. In our experience, they're sensitive, secretive and lash out when they feel uncomfortable. They push back whenever we make a recommendation, because they don't trust anyone. Sometimes they're downright rude, even when they've paid us for advice. If a relationship starts out that way, it's probably not going to change just because you've swiped their credit card. In fact, it's probably going to get worse.
So instead of trying to qualify leads, a smarketing approach actually tries to disqualify leads. We talk and walk the way our ideal clients do, and we don't compromise for anyone else. We look for the right match, not just any match. Why? Because we don't just want your business, we want your loyalty. And for the right match, we are willing to earn it.
Do you want to grow your business?
*Incidentally, I learned something really interesting about Mark this morning. He chooses to pronounce his last name differently from his dad, our smarketing guru, Rick Roberge. My point? We are all like snowflakes. And like customers, no two snowflakes are alike.
So, how do we know if a prospect is an ideal match for us? How do you identify your ideal prospect? When do you give up trying to get someone to call you back? Are you so afraid that you will offend someone you sit back and wait for them to come to you?
It is really very simple. We ask a lot of questions, and our favorite one is why.
Tell me then, WHY do you want to grow your business?
