gr_reportgetting new business clients

7/31/2019 GR_REPORTgetting New Business Clients

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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/


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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/


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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.


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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/


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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


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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 [email protected]

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:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/http://www.gentlerainmarketing.com/


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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/


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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

[email protected]

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:[email protected]:[email protected]

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