It’s very easy to become absorbed on social media and waste time with people who have no real intention of ever engaging with you. In a world where time is often one of our most precious commodities, especially in business, you simply cannot afford to waste time chasing people who just don’t get you and probably never will
In his recent blog post Here’s how to do business without ever getting rejected, business relationship expert Daniel Jordi, suggests that about 98 per cent of people who you promote your services to won’t get it. Your goal should be to appeal to the 2 per cent of people who understand what you do and who want to work with you because of what you do, but first and foremost because of who you are. The challenge is that if you try to appeal to the 98 per cent - the 2 per cent will never find you because they won’t recognise you.
My question to you is - who are the 2 per cent of your customers who you should be spending time nurturing relationships with? Even if you apply the Pareto principle and apply your focus to the 20 per cent of customers who will provide you with the biggest return during 2016, you will likely achieve more than chasing everyone who enquires of your services.
The reality is you and I simply do not have the time to try and convince people that they should be doing business with us. However, that is not to say that you shouldn’t spend time nurturing relationships with those who fit your ideal customer profile but just aren’t ready to buy from you yet. Let me explain:
Who are your ITM’s?
We all have customers, or more to the point, types of customers, who are our Ideal Target Market (ITM). ITM’s are less trouble than any of your other customers. They repeat buy from you, pay you more money and, most importantly, they get you and buy from you because of who you are and not just for what you do.
Your job is be clear who these ITM’s are, find them using LinkedIn (particularly if your ITM’s are business-to-business professionals) and spend at least 90 minutes a week nurturing relationships with these contacts. Whatever else you do, as far as marketing your products and services is concerned, the 90 minutes a week you spend nurturing relationships with your 2 per cent of ITM’s will reward you, in the long run, more handsomely than the 98 per cent of customers, who demand the rest of your attention.
So, how do you turn your future 2 per centers into new payroll customers?
Working in the payroll sector, you need to be engaging with business professionals, who are important to your firm’s growth this year. So you need to start today. There are three things you could be easily fit into your 90-minutes social media activity each week:
• Use LinkedIn’s search options to locate relevant business professionals by industry sector, company, geographic location, job title, name and then invite them to connect. Consider using the approach I recommended in my recent blog post How to increase your engagement on LinkedIn tell them your ‘why’
•Check LinkedIn daily and send a personal message to anyone who invites you to connect or engages with your posts or comments (you may not have time to respond to any person who wants to connect with you). Thank them for connecting and ask them why they chose to do so
• Nurture relationships with the 2 per cent who engage and the 20 per cent who are your ITM’s. Create some content that you believe would be of value to your new connections. It should be informative and include a practical application which can be used in and make a difference to their business.
The nurturing process is critical to your success. There’s no point simply connecting with people and never having conversations with them - after all, you wouldn’t run round a networking room, shake hands with everyone there and then do a runner!
Nurturing is about being warm, friendly and conversational. Remember this is ‘social’ media. LinkedIn’s new chat style messaging facility is indicative of the fact that traditional email messaging is on the wane in favour of a lighter more personal communication style, which can help build all three elements of know, like and trust.
Some will, some won’t
Some of those you connect with, even those who approach you, will simply not engage. Don’t ask me why - people often have great intentions but then life gets in the way and they become distracted or they just have a change of heart. Here’s what you do:
• Devote time to having conversations with your 2 per centers
• Still send content nurturing messages to your 20 per centers. They may not respond but you will at least keep your brand and your expertise on their radar. In time, you can pick up the phone and call them or they may call you when they’re ready. Eighty per cent of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.
• Understand that some people will engage with you, some won’t - so just move on and don’t lose any sleep.
By Steve Phillip,
Managing Director,
Linked2Success Ltd
It’s very easy to become absorbed on social media and waste time with people who have no real intention of ever engaging with you. In a world where time is often one of our most precious commodities, especially in business, you simply cannot afford to waste time chasing people who just don’t get you and probably never will
In his recent blog post Here’s how to do business without ever getting rejected, business relationship expert Daniel Jordi, suggests that about 98 per cent of people who you promote your services to won’t get it. Your goal should be to appeal to the 2 per cent of people who understand what you do and who want to work with you because of what you do, but first and foremost because of who you are. The challenge is that if you try to appeal to the 98 per cent - the 2 per cent will never find you because they won’t recognise you.
My question to you is - who are the 2 per cent of your customers who you should be spending time nurturing relationships with? Even if you apply the Pareto principle and apply your focus to the 20 per cent of customers who will provide you with the biggest return during 2016, you will likely achieve more than chasing everyone who enquires of your services.
The reality is you and I simply do not have the time to try and convince people that they should be doing business with us. However, that is not to say that you shouldn’t spend time nurturing relationships with those who fit your ideal customer profile but just aren’t ready to buy from you yet. Let me explain:
Who are your ITM’s?
We all have customers, or more to the point, types of customers, who are our Ideal Target Market (ITM). ITM’s are less trouble than any of your other customers. They repeat buy from you, pay you more money and, most importantly, they get you and buy from you because of who you are and not just for what you do.
Your job is be clear who these ITM’s are, find them using LinkedIn (particularly if your ITM’s are business-to-business professionals) and spend at least 90 minutes a week nurturing relationships with these contacts. Whatever else you do, as far as marketing your products and services is concerned, the 90 minutes a week you spend nurturing relationships with your 2 per cent of ITM’s will reward you, in the long run, more handsomely than the 98 per cent of customers, who demand the rest of your attention.
So, how do you turn your future 2 per centers into new payroll customers?
Working in the payroll sector, you need to be engaging with business professionals, who are important to your firm’s growth this year. So you need to start today. There are three things you could be easily fit into your 90-minutes social media activity each week:
• Use LinkedIn’s search options to locate relevant business professionals by industry sector, company, geographic location, job title, name and then invite them to connect. Consider using the approach I recommended in my recent blog post How to increase your engagement on LinkedIn tell them your ‘why’
•Check LinkedIn daily and send a personal message to anyone who invites you to connect or engages with your posts or comments (you may not have time to respond to any person who wants to connect with you). Thank them for connecting and ask them why they chose to do so
• Nurture relationships with the 2 per cent who engage and the 20 per cent who are your ITM’s. Create some content that you believe would be of value to your new connections. It should be informative and include a practical application which can be used in and make a difference to their business.
The nurturing process is critical to your success. There’s no point simply connecting with people and never having conversations with them - after all, you wouldn’t run round a networking room, shake hands with everyone there and then do a runner!
Nurturing is about being warm, friendly and conversational. Remember this is ‘social’ media. LinkedIn’s new chat style messaging facility is indicative of the fact that traditional email messaging is on the wane in favour of a lighter more personal communication style, which can help build all three elements of know, like and trust.
Some will, some won’t
Some of those you connect with, even those who approach you, will simply not engage. Don’t ask me why - people often have great intentions but then life gets in the way and they become distracted or they just have a change of heart. Here’s what you do:
• Devote time to having conversations with your 2 per centers
• Still send content nurturing messages to your 20 per centers. They may not respond but you will at least keep your brand and your expertise on their radar. In time, you can pick up the phone and call them or they may call you when they’re ready. Eighty per cent of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.
• Understand that some people will engage with you, some won’t - so just move on and don’t lose any sleep.
By Steve Phillip,
Managing Director,
Linked2Success Ltd
