last time I wrote about the importance of a Sales Process, and immediately one of my clients (a new client!) asked me how they could go about getting the leads they need. A common question! Although common it is not always an easy question to answer for many of my clients. Not because there are not many ways to find leads, but because we as business owners find it difficult to do the obvious ones.

Let us start at the beginning. In any business there is a structure, and if you are a one person show or small business this structure often gets forgotten. The basic structure is as follows:

To explain this structure, you as the business owner are responsible for the smooth running of all these boxes! You are the person responsible for doing the Admin (ordering stock, following up on purchases, making sure that invoices are issued, making sure invoices are paid in time, making sure that goods and services are delivered and correct, etc). You are also responsible for the Finance of the business (is money flowing into the bank account, is there enough money to pay the bills and salaries, debtors and creditors control etc). Marketing is the next on the list. This is where most small businesses start to go wrong! We tend to have a really great product or service and so we expect that customers will flock to our doors! In no time we are going to be rich! Unfortunately that is not going to be the case unless you are very lucky. Marketing is about getting as many potential clients to know what you can do for them with your products and services being the solution. It is this aspect that I will discuss further in the rest of this article. After you have the leads you need to make the Sale. This is where the money comes from so it is a very important aspect of your structure and where the Sales Process I wrote about in my last article fits in. Lastly it is the Operations, the actual product or service, which we need to do to satisfy the client/customer. We, as small business owners, often get caught up in this and so neglect the other aspects of the structure of our business.

I will discuss all of these at a later date, but for now let us focus on the lead generation process or your marketing efforts.

Have you defined your Ideal Client? Or your Unique Selling Proposition? These are important for defining your Niche. Because for effective marketing to take place you should be marketing directly to this niche. By doing this you will attract the clients/customers that you want and who will allow you to grow your business and create the income which you deserve. To illustrate this I will mention the age old question often asked: How do you make R1000000-00? The Answer? By getting 1000000 people to spend R1-00 or by getting one person to spend R1000000! Or some combination in between. Which would you prefer? I personally would prefer fewer larger clients. That means I have started to define my niche! It is also a start to defining my ideal client. I want a client that is able to pay me a certain amount of money for my services. This amount is a substantial amount which means I don’t need to have a million clients to make a million Rand. In defining the Ideal Client You need to look at who the people are, where you would find them, what issue you can resolve for them or what solution you provide,  and how they want you to communicate with them. 

So now I know who my ideal client is and how I can service them. This leads to me looking at what my Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is. This is what I do that is unique to me and my business. This could be actual or perceived. The example I like to use was the Ola Margarine adverts of the 80s. The Manufacturer claimed that Ola had 0% Cholesterol in their margarine! This was true, margarine has no cholesterol in it. But was this different to all the other margarine producers? The answer is no! No margarines have cholesterol in them! Ola was the first to claim this and by implication the others must have cholesterol! It was a perceived difference.

The coaching firm I worked at previously use a “money back guarantee” as one of their differentiating factors. Many other coaching firms (including me) give such a guarantee. They however were the first to say this.  Another one is to claim you are Number 1 in your field. All of these give your business a certain amount of credibility. And as such make them more saleable because they are different! This is their USP.

So now we know who our market is! Now we can decide how best to market to them. So what is the purpose of Marketing? Basically it is to make as many of your prospective ideal clients aware of who you are and how you can fulfil a need that they have. The more prospective clients are aware of you the greater the pool of people who you can convert into customers.

But this costs money you might say and yes, you are correct. However there are some relatively inexpensive methods you can use. Here are a few:

Facebook: It costs you nothing to open a Business Account on Facebook. It just requires your time and some effort to post regularly. You can boost these posts organically by sharing to various relevant groups or you can pay for your posts to be boosted. This is relatively inexpensive and can lead to your posts reaching thousands of people. If you make your posts relevant and call people to action you may find that you not only boost your brand but also gain enquiries (prospective clients) or even get sales. The key is to post regularly and to post relevant content. A client of mine in the tourist shuttle business came up with Black Friday packages and it has lead to an increase in clients over a slow period in her business. Her campaign was mainly conducted on Facebook and relied on the lodge owners participating and sharing on their Facebook pages.

Instagram: I can’t say I am an expert at Instagram but know that one of my clients swears by this as a means to gaining both exposure and clients. Again this is a good way to gain visibility and build your brand. Content must obviously be relevant and aim at creating interest in your products or services.

LinkedIn: This seems to be a good way of approaching your target market as you can discover relevant people who fit your client profile. If you are a caterer you can find people who organise meetings like PA’s or if an events planner you can link up with Dress makers, caterers, wedding décor people, hire companies etc. I would look for small business owners.

Flyers: What a waste of time you say! I know a very successful business owner who only uses flyers as his marketing tool! He has four teams who go out every day barring public holidays and hand out flyers/catalogues. He is very successful and has a multi million rand business. How does your business compare to that? Granted it seems that the return on investment on handing out flyers may seem like it is a waste of time but let us look at the calculations.

Cost of flyers x 1500                                                                                            R2000           

Cost of four people to hand out flyers for one morning:                            R1000

Total                                                                                                                         R3000

Let us presume your product or service that you are selling costs R1500 and you get one interested person who becomes a client. This client buys from you 6 times in the next 12 months. Meaning total sales from your flyer day is R1500 x 6 = R9000! Your profit from the Flyer day is now R6000! Is that worth it? I have tried and didn’t even get one sale you say! Well analyse why it didn’t work and try again! Remember it takes a number of interactions with a prospect to convert them to clients.

Cold Calling: Whether by physically knocking on doors or telemarketing this takes a special type of person and not all of us are cut out to do this. But it is something which costs us no money except for our flyer or prospectus which we hand to the people we meet. I have always said to people who don’t like this to not see it as selling but rather introducing yourself to someone who is a prospective client and at the same time finding out about their business. That part is always interesting! I have had clients who have had good results by going and introducing themselves to the business owners in the surrounding area.  They head out armed with flyers; brochures etc and go knocking on the doors. “Hi I am from (Business name) just up the street. I want to find out what businesses are around me and who the owners are. By the way here is my (flyer, brochure, prospectus etc) so that you know who I am. Please if you would like to know more let’s meet over coffee and if you need my assistance with (product/service) then just call. I am just up the road.” Leave the brochure/flyer and head to the next business. If possible collect a business card for the owner and add him/her to your database. How unpleasant can that really be? Is your expectation to make a sale? Maybe in the future but not right then and there. Maybe it happens and they say “funny you should pop in! I have been looking for (your product or service), let’s talk!” Great, now you have exceeded expectation! But the more people who know about you the more likely you are to get a new client! The database you build in this way becomes the basis of one of the other methods of marketing I will speak about.

Networking: Ivan Misner, founder of BNI (Business Network International), speaks of a survey he did which shows that top business people claim that as much as 90% of their business came to them through networking. No I am not talking about multi level marketing schemes! I am talking about meeting with like minded business people and helping them to help you in your business while you help them with theirs. There are many networking groups where like minded people congregate. These are both formal business networking groups and social groups who gather together for a common purpose. BNI is a worldwide group and is very formal in nature. There is a cost to belonging and strict rules to be followed. It is made up of chapters and follows the philosophy of Givers Gain. The concept of giving to others and receiving in return. There are less formal groups where you can meet business people but all of them are based on the concept of meeting with like minded business people, forming a relationship with them and passing business between each other.

Social networking is something we do every day as we meet with people in our everyday life. When we meet people at the hairdresser, the Bike Club, our children’s netball match, church groups, weddings, funerals etc. One of my clients is very good at this. He bought a BMW motorbike and immediately joined the club. I think he said it is less than R500 a year. Based on this membership he can enjoy events organised by the club such as weekend rides, breakfast runs, training events etc. On his first introduction to the club he made a contact who signed up as a client the next week! He has since made other contacts and gained more clients. All this while enjoying riding his motorbike! His first client has paid for his membership fee in their first payment and each month he reaps the benefit!

Email Campaigns: With tools at your disposal that allow you to mass mail from a data base you can do targeted email campaigns where you send out emails to prospective clients introducing them to your business, products and services. Again these are things that business owners say don’t work. But how much does it cost you? A bit of time to compile the mail and some time to send it out. Do potential clients really read these mails? Some do and some don’t. But when they need your services you will be first in mind and they will know where to find you. If they are compiled right they can end up being a great source of new business. I recently read an article which said that this is still one of the highest return on investments you get in the advertising world.

Website and Google Adwords: Not exactly a free source of leads but once you have gone to the expense of creating a website it can continue to lead prospective clients to you with very little effort. However, if you combine it with Google Ad words to direct people to your landing pages it can continue to be source of very good leads. Personally I believe that this is best left to a professional who knows what they are doing as it is something that needs constant tweaking and attention.

Many of these are more effective when used in conjunction with each other as they can all drive traffic to landing pages and websites so increasing your ranking on Google.

Is this an exhaustive list of inexpensive ways to grow your business through effective marketing? Of course not but there are plenty of things to consider and start with.

Remember the purpose of marketing! You want to fill your funnel with prospects so test and measure all your marketing activities. Do more of those things that work, discard those that don’t and try new ideas.

Not sure what to do next? Contact me on michael@a2mconsultants.co.za and let’s meet for a complimentary session where we can discuss these concepts in relation to your business.