Networking

How to Gain your Prospective Clients’ Attention and Generate the Leads You Need to Make Your Business a Success

If you’ve ever tried to get a child who is engrossed in their favorite video to do another task you know you must first get their attention. Often the best way to do this is to use their name so they realize you are speaking directly to them. The process of effective lead generation requires that we communicate with many prospective clients at one time. Before we can communicate with them we must first get their attention. And our prospective clients must each feel we are talking directly to them.

Getting a prospective client’s attention is not an easy task, especially given the hundreds of thousands of other products and services that are also competing for their attention. Like the mother who has learned to “tune-out” her kids bickering in the back-seat while she is trying to drive, our prospects have learned to tune out all the promotional clutter that bombards them daily. Here is a four step process to gain your prospects’ attention and help generate the leads you need to make your business a success.

1. Define Your Target Market: To gain prospective clients’ attention you must understand their biggest problems and greatest desires. This requires really knowing your target market. And in order to know your target market you must first define that market. What is the profile of your ideal client? Many people resist defining an ideal client. However unless you know specifically who you want to talk to, your promotional efforts will fall on deaf ears. Not having a defined target for your marketing communications is like yelling into a room full of kids watching TV, “Will someone please take out the trash?” They will all assume you are talking to someone else. The odds of actually having the trash taken out increase significantly when you say, “Bobby, will you please take the trash out now?”

2. Identify Problems and Desires: In conversations with current clients or prospective clients that fit the profile of your ideal client, what are the “themes” that continue to surface and which of these themes can you help with - a desire for a more fulfilling career; the ability to recapture romance in their relationships; a need to get spending under control and eliminate debt; a summer home on Nantucket; tools to better communicate with their teenage kids? The list is endless. The key is identifying the intersection of your target market’s most pressing problems or desires and your greatest strengths. If you don’t know and really understand the most pressing problems and deepest desires of your target market it’s time to do some research. Get out and talk with people who meet the profile of your ideal client. Be really curious about them, ask questions. Find out what occupies their mind, what keeps them awake at night, what they dream of having, being or doing. You’re not trying to sell at this stage you are only trying to get to know your target market better.

3. Start Where Your Prospects Currently Are: It is often tempting to paint a picture of a fabulous outcome without first clearly identifying the problem or desire. I used to do marketing for a psychiatric hospital that ran television advertising. The most effective ads were not those that showed happy, well adjusted kids playing on the playground - the outcome of treatment. The parents of kids with emotional issues did not relate to the images of these kids. We first had to show the child sitting all alone in the swing crying because no one wanted to play with him or her. This is what caught the attention of the parents of kids who needed treatment. Only after we captured their attention with an image they could relate to right then were we able to talk with them about the solution to the problem. Another very effective ad showed a woman sitting alone in the woods contemplating taking a handful of pills. Women thinking about taking their own lives related to that ad, they picked up the phone and called for help. Your first goal is to get a prospect to say, “Hey, that’s me, that’s my exact situation, that’s the problem I’m facing right now. If they have helped others in that same situation maybe they can help me.”

4. Talk Directly to Your Ideal Prospects: In a personalized letter or a one-on-one conversation you can address your prospect by name. However with promotional pieces such as brochures, flyers, direct mail or advertising this is not possible. In these instances direct response copywriter Alexi Neocleous suggests starting your ad, post card or letter with, “Attention (target market description)”. For example, “Attention Renters”; “Attention Business Owners”; or “Attention Parents of Teenage Drivers”. Another way of talking directly to your prospect is to ask a question regarding a problem or desire of your target market. For example, “Are you approaching retirement and concerned about what you’ll do with all the free time on your hands?”; “Are you considering a career change?”; or “Are you so busy taking care of everyone else that you don’t have time to take care of yourself?”

The key to effectively capturing a prospective client’s attention is to really understand the problems that keep them awake at night or the desires they dream of having met. People buy for two reasons:

1. To get problems solved, or

2. To have desires met.

Once you clearly understand the problems your prospects want solved and the desires they have you can utilize this information in your promotional materials to capture their attention and generate an ongoing stream of leads.

© 2005 STRATEGIES-BY-DESIGN.

Julie Chance is president of Strategies-by-Design, a Dallas-based firm that helps businesses from independent professionals to specialty retailers Map A Path to Success by attracting leads and turning those leads into loyal customers. Strategies-by-Design provides a unique combination of consulting, coaching and training to help clients improve the return on their investment in marketing and promotional activities. For more information or to sign-up for their marketing tips newsletter, go to http://www.strategies-by-design.com or call 972-701-9311.

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Have you ever gone to a networking function and seen THE person who you feel could help you most there, except that person is surrounded by people ALL the time? Have you ever tried to enter into a conversation with that circle of people, only to have gotten the feeling you were intruding? How do you get an audience with a person who is constantly surrounded by “gatekeepers”? This happens often at gatherings that do not have a structured agenda- in other words in places where open networking is promoted. Here’s an effective approach to meeting the person you want to meet.

Watching the people that surround your prospect will tell you a lot about each person’s connection to the prospect. There will be people who are there as casual acquaintances, and others who have strong ties to your prospect. The ones with the stronger ties are usually the most helpful in accomplishing your goal of meeting this person. They have already built a relationship with your prospect and can now help you begin to build one as well.

Sooner or later, one of the people who has a strong tie with your prospect, will leave that group. They will head for food, drinks, or a restroom. This is your opportunity to speak with this person away from the group. Once separated from the group, these people are usually very friendly and helpful, even though they were very protective of their “space” when in the group.

Be prepared with a casual non-threatening comment about the weather, the food, the attendance, or anything else that is appropriate for that gathering. You will usually get a positive response to comments of this general variety. Also, be prepared to request an introduction to the person you wish to meet. Something like, “I see you know Mr. Magoo. I wonder if you would mind introducing me to him? I would be interested in finding out more about what he does. I might be able to refer some work his way in the future”. Notice that this request is to meet Mr. Magoo so that you might refer him some business and not the other way around. You must really want to help Mr. Magoo, too, or you won’t sound sincere.

You have just told this person that you want to help their friend, Mr. Magoo. You haven’t said that you want Mr. Magoo’s help. Until you build a relationship with Mr. Magoo, you probably won’t get his help. The first step to building that relationship, is getting that introduction. Mr. Magoo’s friend has an opportunity to bring you and Mr. Magoo together, and Mr. Magoo could benefit. This is a win- win situation. This is the beginning of building a relationship that will be mutually beneficial. Giving before receiving- it works every time.

Ok, you’ve gotten introduced. What do you say to start building a strong business relationship? Next week’s column will address what to say next.

Nancy Roebke, is the Executive Director of Profnet Inc, a professional business leads generation corporation. We bring business professionals together in a non-competitive environment to help each other make more money.

mailto:execdirector@profnet.org http://www.profnet.org

Copyright c Nancy Roebke

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You’re at a networking function and you’ve made that all-important contact. You want to get help from this individual but you know that you need to start working on building a relationship with them first. How do you do that?

The hardest thing for people to understand about networking functions is that very little real business gets done on an initial contact at these functions. If you go into the function NOT EXPECTING to get business, but to make contacts, you will have a far greater success rate. When your approach is one that is obviously intended to drain your current contact of all of their contacts and resources, you will be met with opposition.

You need to draw the attention away from yourself and onto the business prospect at hand. I have found that a great response when asked to introduce myself at a function is to state my name, and my company’s name, followed by “I am here to see how I might best be able to refer some business to your firms”.

Yes, you read that right. I don’t make any attempt to talk about what I do. “But”, you say”, how will I get any business for my firm if I don’t TALK about my firm?”. You won’t get any anyway, in most cases…People have no relationship with you. But they will if you take this approach. This opens up a whole new avenue of discussion- THEM!!

People love to talk about themselves. They could spend DAYS at it. The conversation should center around THEM- what they do and how they do it, how they got their start in that field, what changes they have seen in their industry- anything about THEM.

The goal here is to find a reason for a follow-up contact. A contact that can be made away from this group environment. In other words- a one-on-one contact. I have gotten into the habit of writing notes on the back of business cards about points brought out by the prospect which could aid me in a follow-up contact.

This follow-up may be business or it may be personal. I have found information in the newspaper about a firm’s competition and forwarded it to my contact with a note saying- “Thought this might interest you”. I have also heard about people’s families and seen info about their children’s Little League team and forwarded that.

It doesn’t matter what prompts the follow-up as long as it PERSONALLY matters to the prospect- to their work or to their family. It proves that you were listening and that you are willing to give before you receive.

It also sets you apart from all the people who are at these functions trying to push their own business. It helps you get past the “gatekeepers” when you can say “I’d like to speak to Mr. Jone’s about the info I sent him about his son”. You always get connected to him and remembered by him.

I attend many functions and never mention to anyone anything about what I do. I spend the whole time listening and writing. I understand I am not going to “close any sales” then. These people don’t know me. But before I leave, I know a lot more about them.

Next time: What do you say when someone finally does ask you, “Well, what do you do?”.

Nancy Roebke, is the Executive Director of Profnet Inc, a professional business leads generation corporation. We bring business professionals together in a non-competitive environment to help each other make more money.

mailto:execdirector@profnet.org http://www.profnet.org

Copyright c Nancy Roebke

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