gr_reportgetting new business clients
Post on 05-Apr-2018
219 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
-
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
1/8
How to Create a Steady Stream of New Clients
Quickly. Easily. With No Cold Calling.
Gentle Rain
Gentle Rain Marketing
720 Rio Grande Drive
Alpharetta, GA 30022 www.GentleRainMarketing.com
(770) 643-8566 2007 Gentle Rain Marketing, All rights reserved.
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/ -
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
2/8
Thank you forrequesting this
special report.
We hope you
will find it to be
both interestingand helpful.
We begin with an overview ofGentle Rain and some informationabout how the process wasdeveloped. As well discussfurther, Gentle Rain is based oninterviews we conducted with 179business owners and senior leveldecision makers on whattheyconsidered to be the mosteffective methods for developingnew business relationships. Since1992 over 1100 clients have usedGentle Rain as their preferredmethod for new businessdevelopment.
The second part of the report
covers the 5 steps involved inGentle Rain.
Lets begin.
2 Gentle Rain Marketing www.GentleRainMarketing.com
How This Reportis Organized:
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/ -
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
3/8
Ultimately the success of any
business depends upon having a
consistent flow of newprospective clients.
Unfortunately, far too many
individuals rely solely upon their
existing clients and referrals as
their primary methods for
getting new business. While this
may prove to be a successful
strategy short term, it invariably
leads to the feast and famine
roller coaster that so many
companies experience.
Since 1992 we have focusedon assisting our clients develop
and implement a system for lead
generation and conversion. The
Gentle Rain methodology
requires no cold calling and is
specifically designed for
companies that are seeking to
build long-term relationships
with their clients.
3www.GentleRainMarketing.com Section One
SECTION ONE:Background & Overview
Like most everyone else wetried networking, speaking, mailingout our brochure, you name it. What
we never had was a systematicprocess that enables us to marketour services on a consistent basis.Now we do.
Herman ODonnell,Partner, Operations/Supply Chain Consulting Firm
Alexs company relied on re-peat business from existing cli-ents and referrals. That workedok, but the unpredictable na-ture of relying on those twomethods never enabled Alex todevelop a consistent stream ofnew clients. Realizing heneeded to get better at busi-ness development, Alex beganto dabble, trying a lot of differ-ent approaches. I gave a
speech but while everyone ap-plauded, I didnt get any newbusiness. I tried networking but Ieither couldnt find the rightkinds of organizations orcouldnt seem to break into theinner circle. I even made somecold calls to introduce myself toprospective clients but wasntable to get past the gatekeeper. Six months later, tiredand discouraged, Alex felt he
was no closer to finding themagic answer than he waswhen he started.
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/ -
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
4/8
4 Section One www.GentleRainMarketing.com
The Gentle RainProcess
The Gentle Rain process focuses on:
1. Targeting a hyper-responsive
group of prospective clients.
2. Identifying the issues that are
of most importance to this group.
3. Motivating them to self-nominate themselves as being
interested in learning more about
your products or services.
4. Moving them along a sequence
of steps that encourages them to
take action.
Although the goals of marketing are
simple, implementing a process to actu-
ally achieve these objectives is anything
but simplistic. You will find that Gentle
Rain enables you to seamlessly move
prospects from curiosity to taking action
through a series of planned (and largely
automated) steps. Gentle Rain is used by firms andcompanies working in such fields as:
General Management
Strategy
Financial Services
Human Resources
Information Technology
Law
Materials Management
Operations
Research and Development
Sales and Marketing
Executive Search Healthcare Energy and Utilities
Retail and Consumer Goods
Transportation
Hospitality
Construction
Insurance
Communications and Media
Manufacturing
Commercial Real Estate
Food Service
The Most EffectiveMethod For DevelopingNew Relationships
Background ofGentle Rain
In order to better understand
how important new business
relationships are best devel-
oped, we interviewed 179
business owners and key deci-
sion makers. In these interviews weasked the following question:
Suppose a company wasinterested in establishing abusiness relationship withyou, but had no experienceworking with your companyand didnt have a relation-ship with any members ofyour inner circle.
What would be the bestway for them to get on yourradar screen?
The number one method for building new
relationships (out of the top five) was the
use of a one-page letter. 82% of those sur-
veyed said that ifthe letter communicated
that the writer specialized in their industry
anddiscussed an issue that they were con-
cerned about, the letter would get read.
However, while the letter is a powerful tool
for gaining initial awareness, it is limited in
what it can realistically motivate the
reader to do.
The executives were clear that a letterwould be unlikely to stimulate them to call
the writer to discuss their services. It also,except in rare circumstances, wouldnt
make them particularly willing to schedule
an appointment and meet the consultant
face-to-face. However, if the letter refer-
enced some additional information that
could be requested, the executive was
likely take that next step.
Thus the initial step in Gentle Rainfocuses on utilizing a carefully constructed
series of one-page letters, which are de-
signed to motivate potential clients to self-
nominate, themselves as being worthy ofadditional follow up. Of course one never
wants to rely solely upon one lead-
generation method, thus the letter sequence
is often supplemented by direct-response
space advertising in specialized trade pub-
lications, and through the use of paid
internet/pay-per-click strategies. Both of
these have proven to be highly successful
for increasing visibility, awareness
and interest.
If you are interested in learning
about the other strategies for devel-
oping important new senior level
relationships you will find our 2-CD
audio program enormously valu-able. You can find out more about
the program What the C-Level
SaysSenior Executives Reveal
How to Build Professional
Relationships with Them at
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com
/product_clevel.html
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/product_clevel.htmlhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/product_clevel.htmlhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/product_clevel.htmlhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/product_clevel.htmlhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/ -
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
5/8
Too often this is given only a cursoryconsideration. Since we all operate onlimited marketing budgets and onlyhave time to follow up with those mostlikely to actually engage our services,identifying the most hyper-responsivesub-groups within a targeted market is
very important.In order to identify this group we
look for specific traits and behaviorswhich enables us to segment this groupfrom the larger target market. Theresult of this approach is that the initialmarketing effort is focused where theresponse is likely to be the greatest.
Naturally an importantconsideration in targeting any group isthat they should be able to be reachedeasily. Since the first step of the GentleRain process is the use of a series oflead-generating letters, obtaining the
right mailing list is crucial. (While weview email as a very powerful tool forfollowing up and staying in contactwith prospective clients, its not aneffective tool for gaining the initialawareness.)
We dont recommend that youinvest time in compiling this mailinglist of prospects on your own. Whileyou can certainly supplement anacquired list of prospective clients with
people from your own database,contact lists are a modest investmentthat can pay enormous dividends.
Naturally youll want to partner with atop list broker so that the deliverabilityof your letters is in the 85-95% range.
However, to reiterate, not allprospect within a particular marketwill be equally responsive. Thus youwill want to focus your marketingefforts on those most likely to engageyour services. If you are interested inlearning more about how to identifythe most hyper-responsive segments ofyour market and develop productiverelationships with the top list brokers,
please call or email us.
5www.GentleRainMarketing.com Section TWO
SECTION TWO: The Gentle Rain Process
Remember that the goal of the one pageletter is get prospective clients to raisetheir hands as being interested in yourservices. The hook to achieve this isthe free special report.
The goal of the free report is two-fold. First it must contain enough prac-tical information so that the reader feelsthat they have learned something thatthey didnt know before. This is crucialfor developing credibility. The secondobjective is to entice the reader to be-come hungry for more information. This
balance of providing enough (but nottoo much) information is crucial formoving the relationship process to thenext steps.
One key challenge at this stage isthat the free report must get read. Thusit must be written in a manner that en-gages the reader. This unfortunatelyrules out most white papers which arefar too often written in a ponderous,heavy-handed, quasi-academic style.
In order for your special report tostimulate further interest in your serv-ices it must answer 5 crucial questions.Failure to address these questions iswhy so many marketing efforts fail togain traction.
We recommend that your free re-port be between 4-12 pages in lengthand be available from your website.Again, if you would like to learn moreabout how you can ensure your reportcontains all of the crucial components
please give us a call or drop us an email.
There are 5 steps to implementing asuccessful Gentle Rain campaign. If youfocus on these, it is relatively easy to create
a marketing system that will consistentlybrings you a steady stream of new clients.
Create a FreeInformation Report
Determining WhoYouare Going to Target1
2
Example of Website
Example ofFree Report
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/ -
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
6/8
We recommend that you write your leadgenerating letters afteryou have createdthe free special report. Remember the
objective of the letter is to positiononeselfas an industry or functionalexpert with an interesting perspectiveon an issue the prospective client may
be facing.The feedback from our survey of
C-level executives (all of whompurchased high-value services) was thatifthe letter was intriguing, it would getread. Moreover, if the lettercommunicates the multiple benefits thatone gets from requesting and readingthe free report, the executive would takethis next step.
We cannot emphasize stronglyenough that it is a mistake to simplyinclude your report along with yourinitial letter. We want to require ourreaders to identify themselves if theywant to receive the information. Notdoing so makes it virtually impossibleto determine whos worth following upwith, and whos a waste of effort. Thus,the letters sole purpose is to intriguethe prospective client enough so thatthey want to request the information.
Writing lead generating letters thatget read and acted upon is not easy.
Thats why most professional writersmaintain a clip file of examples thatthey draw from. To assist consultantsand advisors in creating compelling leadgenerating letters, we created the
Directory of Sales and MarketingLetters. Each example is copyright freeand includes examples that address avariety of marketing situations. You canuse either our fill-in-the-blank templatesor cut and paste from our examples tocreate customized marketing letters in
just a couple of hours. Moreinformation is at
www.GentleRainMarketing.comThe Gentle Rain process
emphasizes consistency and repetition.We recommend that you develop aseries of three letters which will be sentin sequence-each focusing oncompelling reasons to request the freereport. If you would like to discuss thetiming of this sequence or any otherissues concerning using letters to driveleads, please call us at 770-643-8566or send an email tomark@GentleRainMarketing.com
As mentioned earlier, the
offer of the free report in your
letter should direct
prospective clients to your
website.
As a Big thumb goalyou should try to get 65% of
these visitors to follow
through and fill out the in-
formation form to get the
report. Although it would
seem natural that people go-ing to your site would follow
through and request the free
report, this is unfortunately
not the case. The primary reason isthat visitors get distracted.
They may not be able to
quickly and easily find the
button to request the report,
or may become disinterested
by other, less-relevant infor-
mation that appears on the
webpage. Care must be taken
to ensure that the landing-
page you are directing readers
to, re-emphasize the benefits
that will be obtained by re-
questing the free report.
Dont assume that just be-
cause visitors are at your site
they will automatically do
what we want them to.Precisely what informa-
tion to request becomes a
crucial issue at this point.
While you want more that
just name & email, requesting
too much information will
suppress response. We be-
lieve that there are six pieces
of information that you will
need to collect to maximize
the effectiveness of your sub-
sequent follow-up activities.
The Gentle Rain process works on the
premise that through consistent and regular
contact we can move prospects through a
carefully orchestrated series of steps whichresults in an identifiable percentage of them
purchasing our services. Not surprisingly,
this regular and consistent follow-up is
the step that is most likely to fall through
the proverbial cracks.
The key is to automate as much of itas possible.
Once individuals have requested thereport, this should trigger a series of auto-
responder messages that are sent out at
precise intervals. The key challenges are
how often to be in touch and whatpreciselyto communicate. Nail this and your conver-
sion rate will sky rocket. Mess this up and
the whole exercise is for naught.
We suggest that the initial auto-responder be sent out three hours after the
report is requested. It should serve to sim-
ply thank the recipient for requesting the
information and to introduce yourself. The next series of messages shouldmove the conversion process through a
carefully designed series of steps in which
you both build credibility for yourself andmove the prospect to take action.
A question that is often asked is howexpensive and difficult is it to set up an
automated follow up system? While one
can purchase a bare-bones auto-responder
for as little as $300, there is a lot of truth to
the saying that you get what you pay for.
However, if you have adequate program-
ming skills and only want to collect names
and email addresses, (which we dont rec-
ommend) this may be a suitable option.
However, we personally recommend amore robust approach that enables you to
customize the data you collect about pro-
spective clients and directly link it to
automated relationship-building, follow-up
campaigns. The system should enable you
to send precisely designated sequences of
emails and newsletters, in both text formats
and HTML, for brand building purposes.
Even a system such as this is very afford-
able for most small to mid-sized practices.
6 Section TWO www.GentleRainMarketing.com
Crafting the One-Page LeadGeneration Letter
Automating the FollowUp Process
Sendingthe FreeInformation
Report andCollecting DataAbout Prospective
Clients
53 4
mailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.commailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.comhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.comhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.comhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.comhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.commailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.comhttp://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/ -
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
7/8
Concluding Thoughts and Next Steps
Mark I wanted towrite you because I wassomewhat skepticalabout whether PaidSearch/ Pay-Per-Clickwould actually work forus. At your urging wewent ahead andinitiated a campaign.With a budget of $25 perday were generating aconsistent level of 3-5good prospects a day. Iwish Id started thissooner.
One of the main challenges facing
businesses is not having enough timefor marketing. As mentioned previ-
ously, this is a particular challenge
during the follow-up stage. However,
maintaining consistent and regular
contact with your prospects is crucial
if Gentle Rain is to bear fruit. For those who may beinterested, we offer a variety of
services that are more fully
explained on our website
www.GentleRainMarketing.com
I hope this report has given yousome good food for thought as you
are developing your personal
marketing strategy. As you can tell
from this brief overview of the
Gentle Rain process, new business
development does not need to
involve cold calling or other overt
unprofessional sales practices.
Rather, marketing is a matter of:
1. Targeting a hyper-responsive
group of prospective clients.
2. Identifying the issues that are
of most importance to this
group.
3. Motivating them to self-
nominate themselves asbeing interested in learning
more about your services.
4.Moving them along a
sequence of steps that
encourages them to
take action.
Of course as my favorite uncle was
fond of saying, We reap the bene-
fits of what we actually do, not what
we plan on doing someday whenwere not so busy. If you are seri-
ous about implementing a market-
ing process that can consistently
provide you with new clients, we
suggest you contact us to discuss
how we can assist you quickly, eas-
ily and inexpensively implement
your own Gentle Rain campaign. I sincerely appreciate yourinterest in our work and wish you
much success in your goal of
getting more and better clients.
Best Regards,
Mark Satterfield
7www.GentleRainMarketing.com Section TWO
Kim Cassidy,Managing Partner, Human Resources
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/ -
7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients
8/8
About the AuthorMark Satterfield is a founder and CEO of Gentle
Rain Marketing Inc. As the creator and architect
of the Gentle Rain process he has advised over
1100 clients on the development and implemen-tation of new business pursuit strategies. GentleRain has been proven to be successful for clients
in North America, Western Europe and South
Asia.
Prior to founding the firm, Mark held execu-
tive positions with Atari, PepsiCo and Kraft Foodsin addition to having served as the Director of
Career Services for the Graduate School of Busi-
ness at Emory University.
In addition to his consulting work, Mark has
written over 250 articles which have appearedin publications including the Atlanta Constitu-
tion, the Los Angeles Times and numerous profes-sional, trade and technical journals. He is also
the author of five books including,Power Pros-
pecting: How to Gain Access to Key DecisionMakers, How to Negotiate the Raise you De-
serve, and Business and Career Etiquette.
Mark has an undergraduate degree in Eng-
lish from Washington University and a Masters
Degree from Norwich University. He is a two-timewinner of the Dow Jones award for writing excel-
lence, the AMA award for excellence in man-
agement education and has been included in
Whos Who in Finance and Industry, Whos Who
in Higher Education, Whos Who in the South,What Color Is Your Parachute and many other
biographical guides.
You can reach Mark by
calling 770-643-8566 or email him at
mark@GentleRainMarketing.com
Gentle Rain Marketing720 Rio Grande DriveAlpharetta, GA 30022(770) 643-8566
www.GentleRainMarketing.com
8 Gentle Rain Marketing www.GentleRainMarketing.com
About Gentle RainMarketing Inc.
We assist firms in the follow areas:
One-on-one coaching for business owners,
partners and principals focusing on developing
more consistent methods for generating new
business.
Development and implementation of customizedGentle Rain campaigns.
Customized in-house training seminars on the
Gentle Rain process.
Creation of direct response advertising campaigns
Preparation of direct mail copy and othermarketing collateral material
Development and implementation of Paid
Internet/Pay Per Click marketing campaigns.
CONTACT US
Follow up was always our Achillesheel. We had good intentions but little toactually show for it. I thought the processfor putting the follow up mostly on auto-
pilot to beextremely valuable.
Steven Van Wyes,Practice Leader, Energy Consulting
http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.commailto:mark@GentleRainMarketing.com
top related