In today’s post, I’m going to share what I believe to be the # 1 marketing tip of all time.
Before I share my # 1 marketing tip with you, let me take a moment and define marketing. Here are two definitions I found online:
Marketing is the process of getting potential clients or customers interested in your products and services. The keyword in this definition is “process.” Marketing involves researching, promoting, selling, and distributing your products or services. ~ Cyber Click
And…
Marketing refers to any actions a company takes to attract an audient co the company’s products or services through high-quality messaging. Marketing aims to deliver standalone value for prospects and consumers through content, with the long-term goal of demonstrating product value, strengthening brand loyalty, and ultimately increasing sales. ~ Blog. HubSpot
If I were going to put it in my own words, I would define marketing as:
Anything you do to find and keep customers!
My # 1 Marketing Tip
There are thousands of great marketing tips online. You can search the internet for five minutes and discover hundreds of great marketing ideas. I suggest you do that.
However, if you are looking for the best tip, you are in the right place at the right time. I’m going to save you time and share my # 1 marketing tip of all time. I learned this lesson from the legend himself, Mr. Dan Kennedy. This is what he taught me:
You want to be the welcomed guest, not the uninvited pest. You want interested prospects to contact YOU first.
You want prospects to chase you down, rather than you chase them down. You want people to contact you first; people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
This is at least one hundred times more effective than what most entrepreneurs do. Most entrepreneurs and most salespeople really don’t understand this simple concept, or they would take a completely different approach to their marketing.
Most entrepreneurs are using outdated marketing methods that are no longer effective. Or they are experimenting with several marketing strategies at once and getting horrible results. Can you relate?
During my first ten years in network marketing I chased, bugged, and annoyed people. I’d call a prospect ten times and be confused why they never returned my calls. I’d try to talk to people I know and people I met in day-to-day life to strike up new business. I would try to convince people that what I had to offer was worth them whipping their hard-earned cash to make a purchase from me.
Now, I can’t speak for you, but doing that for 10-YEARS was more than enough for me. I should have tapped out sooner, but I was hard-headed and didn’t know any better. I was at the end of the rope. I was slipping into a puddle of EPIC failure. I said to myself, “there has got to be a better way to find new customers.”
And that’s when I began my study of MARKETING. I became obsessed. I bought every book I could find, watched tons of YouTube videos, and modeled successful marketers.
Fortunately, I stumbled on DAN KENNEDY. I am eternally grateful for what he taught me. He is my number one business mentor of all time. No, I’ve never met him in real life, but I have read his books, watched his videos, and studied many of his newsletters and training programs.
If you’ve never studied Dan Kennedy before, you are way BEHIND the power curve. Buy everything he sells and study his materials until you understand it. And then go apply what he taught you into your own business.
Dan, if you’re reading this blog post, THANK YOU for sharing your wisdom with me and the rest of the world. You changed my life and business for the better.
My biggest lesson from Dan Kennedy was to learn marketing so I could get prospects to CONTACT ME first. That would make me the welcomed guest, not the uninvited pest.
I would focus on lead generation, have a good follow up system in place, and then WAIT for interested prospects to contact me. To me, that just made sense. I can’t speak for you, but I would rather have two or three good prospects contact me each day than for me to go out and try to sell something to someone who doesn’t want what I have to offer.
Getting two or three calls per day is better than me making one hundred calls per day. Does this make sense to you so far? I hope so.
Here’s the marketing process I learned from Dan to get people to contact me first.
- Determine your target market
- Use a two-step selling process to generate leads, not try and make sales
- Have a follow-up system to drip on your leads until the timing is right for them
- Wait for them to contact you (the most crucial step, do NOT call them)
- Close your prospects and make the cash register ring
- Once steps 1-4 are set up, focus 100% of your time and energy on generating leads
This is the strategy I use in my businesses, both online and offline, including my network marketing business.
When you follow this approach, you really are the welcomed guest, not the uninvited pest. When people contact you first, their sales resistance is gone. You are in control of the conversation. The conversation becomes fun. You ask questions, listen, identify a need, and then offer a solution. You are the hunted, not the hunter.
Breaking Down Each Step of the Marketing Process
Determine Your Target Market
Every business has a target market. If everyone is a prospect, no one is a prospect. Take the time and determine who is the “best qualified” prospect for your products, service, or business. Once you know that, focus 100% of your time, energy, and money on reaching these people. If you don’t know where to start, identify your best customers and try to find more people like them. If that’s not possible, do your research online and figure it out.
Use a Two-Step Selling Process
The next step is to have a two-step selling process. Rather than offering your products, services, or business, give away something for free. Free information works best. Give away a free report, video, eBook, boot camp, webinar or something that would be of interest to your target market.
Your “free information” will explain what you do and do most of the selling for you. Think of the free information as the sizzle and the product or service you sell as the steak. Your job is to sell the sizzle and let the sizzle sell the steak. Make sense?
Have a Good Follow-Up System
The next part of this process is to set up your follow-up system. Most businesses will use an email autoresponder to do this, but you can also use texting, direct mail, phone calls, and social media. I use an email autoresponder. Keep in mind you will want your follow-up system to contact people once or twice a week for at least TWO YEARS.
Wait for People to Contact You First
This is the hard part for some people. You will see lots of leads coming in, but you are wondering why many of them aren’t buying yet. Well, people buy when they are ready to buy. In many cases, it will take you 6-months or longer to warm up your prospects to what you are offering them, or for the timing in their life to become right for them to buy.
Just keep generating new leads, let your follow-up system work its magic, and be patient. People will buy!
Close Your Prospects
The next step is to close your prospects. When people contact you by phone, mail, or email, just answer their questions and ask them to buy. It really is that simple. Make sure you know the common objections and how to overcome them. If necessary, produce a simple phone script on what to say or do.
I can assure you of this though. When people contact you first, it is a fun conversation. It’s not stressful. After all, they are interested in learning more or they wouldn’t have contacted you.
Lead Generation
Once you have these things in place, your goal is to focus 100% of your time and money on advertising to generate leads. You must keep your pipeline full if you want to make sales. If you are adding new leads and prospects to your sales funnel daily, good things will happen.
On the other hand, if you set up these things, but don’t take the time or money to advertise and market your offer, you will lose money and fail.
How I Use this Marketing Strategy
I use this marketing strategy in my network marketing business. My target market is other network marketers. My marketing strategy is content marketing. I use my blog, podcasts, and videos to attract people to my business.
People visit my content and request my free MLM Boot Camp or free eBook or free training. Or they request more information about my primary business. When either of those things happen, they are added to my autoresponder and they become a lead.
My leads get my well-designed follow-up system via email that gets them to know me, like me, and trust me. They receive an educational email, not a sales email, from me every few days. This positions me as an expert and shows them the value I deliver.
When the timing becomes right for them, they contact me. No, not everyone calls or emails me. Just the interested people. This eliminates the tire kickers and uninterested prospects. I simply answer their questions, identity their problem, and offer a solution.
That’s my marketing strategy. I don’t chase anyone. I don’t pressure anyone. I don’t hard-sell anyone. I simply answer questions, give advice, and serve as a consultant. I am the welcomed guest, not the uninvited pest.
However, I will share this last secret. Patience is a virtue. Most of my prospects take 3-12 months, and sometimes longer, to warm up to me. That means I wait 3-12 months, on average, for them to buy. During that time, I never CONTACT them. I just let my follow-up emails work their magic, and I WAIT patiently.
I encourage you to use a similar marketing strategy in your business. It works for me, and I know it can work for you.
Best of all, you don’t have to have to do content marketing like I do. Just pick a lead generation strategy that resonates with you. It could be postcards, social media, classified ads, radio ads, television adds, etc. Finally, before you start focusing on lead generation, make sure you identify your target market, create an offer, and set-up a good follow-up system.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, this is my # 1 marketing tip of all time. Be the welcomed guest, not the uninvited pest. Get prospects to contact you first.
Regardless of what type of business you own, you should consider using this marketing strategy. It will work if you work it.
What are your thoughts? What do you think about my # 1 marketing tip of all time? Does it make sense to you? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think about being the welcomed guest, not the uninvited pest. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
This makes so much more sense than chasing people. Usually, when we do that it looks as if we are desperate, and that gives the people one up. It also makes them think, “why would I want to chase people and try to sell them?” So we lose potential distributors because we are chasing.
I love how you explained some tried and true methods to have people call us instead of we calling them.
I still think we need to hustle and hand out simple things like fliers and samples, but we just cannot give the impression of being desperate.
Thanks Chuck and thanks Dan Kennedy.
Dan is the man. He has taught me so much.