Did you know that most small businesses are only marketing to the 3% of buyers who are actively looking for their products or services?
- 3% are actively looking or shopping for your products or services. This is where most of your competition is also marketing.
- 7% are open to the possibility of buying your products or services, they haven’t actively made a decision, and probably don’t know about you.
- 30% are aware they need the product or service you sell but haven’t started looking, and again don’t know about you.
- 30% They don’t know your product or service exists to solve their problem.
- 30% No, they aren’t looking, aren’t in enough pain to make a decision or change. Leave them be and move on.
Why do I bring this up?
You must communicate powerfully while leading this 67% of prospective clients who are not actively looking for you into the possibility of working with you…
To bring this point home…
I was speaking with an associate about his business…where it was, where he wanted it to be, what marketing activities that he was doing.
It only took a few minutes to see:
- that he was primarily marketing to the 3% of prospects that everybody else in his niche was submitting competitive proposals to.
- He wasn’t spending enough time on marketing. (You should be dedicating a minimum of 20% of your time to making calls, networking or speaking)
- I knew of groups in the other 97% that would be ideal clients that his company isn’t reaching out to. (From my perspective, low hanging fruit since his competitors aren’t doing the strategy I had in mind either.)
See if you recognize these common existing “marketing strategies”…
- Have a pile of business cards with some in the master list that gets a post card one or twice per year.
- Website demonstrates the technical proficiency, but you really don’t know why they do what they do.
- Is a little active in the community and has gotten a few referrals but there are gaps in the upcoming schedule.
- Spends most of the time working on the projects with very little time spent marketing and growing the business.
- Concentrating on building the website and social media with pictures of projects (common for architects and builders)
The lesson for you…
Your business is unique because of YOU. Your website, degrees and certifications are a part of what makes you unique. Your point of view, experience and how you do things makes your business valuable.
For a client that walks dogs…part of her value is the level of service that she brings while taking care of peoples furry family members. A happy dog is an exercised dog. The other value could be the $1000’s of dollars in property damage that she is potentially saving the pet owner. (A friend in property management had a renter’s dog do about this much damage to an apartment.)
If a person goes to her website, they have heard about her or are actively looking for a business like hers. They are in that 3%. Her website has material that speaks to them so that they can make a decision.
How could this value be communicated to the other 67% of people?
3 Tips to Communicate Your Value to the Other 67%
- For the open 7% – Identify where they are and introduce yourself to them.
- For the 30% who are aware they need the service you sell but haven’t started looking, Identify where they are and introduce yourself to them.
- For the 30% that doesn’t know your service exists to solve their problem, go speak to a group they hang out in or again introduce yourself to them.
(Note: Keeping this example general at this stage as you may be noticing for a reason.)
What is the trend that you are seeing?
Conversations are a fast way to communicate your value to your prospects. Really look outside of the box to find ways that you can have conversations with these prospects and communicate your value.
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