My guest blogger today is Robert Weese. Robert is a Managing Partner of B2B Sales Connections, having been with the firm since inception. He brings over 30 years of direct sales, management and executive level business to business experience.

 I attended a meeting with a new prospect this week and asked him to define his best target prospect. Once again the answer was, “we sell to everyone”. While I can agree they may try and sell to everyone there is still a profile of their best potential prospect that they need to identify.

As I began to question them in more detail about their current customers, they soon realized they had been very successful in three specific markets but were not focusing on connecting with other companies who were in the same market and fit the same profile. Instead they were using a shotgun approach to marketing, firing information all over the place in hopes of finding a new customer.

What should you do to improve your lead generation?

1)    Examine who is currently buying your products/services and determine if they share any common traits (vertical market, size of business, geography, demographics, gender, age, social/economic, etc.)

2)    Look at the amount of time it takes a prospect to move from researching a product to making a purchase. Many companies have mistakenly focused on the major accounts which involve long buying cycles only to pass over the low hanging fruit that buys more frequently and faster.

3)    Fish were the fish are. Find out the best place to carry on a meaningful conversation with that person or company in your target market and make sure you are communicating with them using their language.

4)    Offer knowledge and unbiased information. If prospects comes to you looking for information, advice or recommendations based on your “expert” status then you are more likely to convert them to customers

5)    Be patient. You need to be involved with the prospect early in their “buying cycle”. Keep your brand and contact information in their mind and when they determine it’s time to buy you will be top of mind.

6)    Make it easy. When you send out sales or marketing material make sure you include multiple ways for the person to contact you. If you sell product that can be purchased directly from your website then have a buy now feature.

It’s important to have a clear picture of who you should be targeting and where you should be spending your time and marketing dollars. You may have the best fishing tackle money can buy but if you don’t use the right bait in the right place at the right time you may just be wasting your time and money.

For more than 20 years, Robert has done volunteer work with disabled and able-bodied athletes. An avid competitive fencer himself, he is the founder and head coach of the Ajax Fencing Club, and currently sponsors one of our Olympic hopefuls. He is also a member of the Ajax Pickering Board of Trade, as well as an Ambassador for the Toronto Board of Trade. Robert Can be reached at 905-426-3394 or visit his website at www.b2bsalesconnections.com.

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