Yes, we all need to figure out the answer to the question ‘How do we reliably and repeatedly find strangers and turn them into clients?’, but there’s another question you can ask and if you do, and you answer it, it can be a very fast and zero-cost method for generating sales and revenue:
Because repeat business is of course great: you get to sell again, and serve again, without having to find strangers, or open new channels or verticals, and without having to increase your marketing or sales budget.
So a very useful question to ask, is:
How can we generate more revenue from the marketing and sales efforts that we’ve already invested in?
In other words: How do we get more clients to spend more money with us? How do we generate more repeat purchases?
With that question, the whole game changes. Because now you get to play the leverage game: you carefully consider and analyse the people who have bought from you in the past, and you ask them a few specific strategic questions.
In fact, here’s three simple steps you can take today, to generate more conversations, opportunities, leads and sales.
Step 1:
Analyse your list of past buyers, and create a segment based on the following three criteria:
- Which 20% of these people gave us 80% of our revenue?
- Which sub-segment in that list has been most satisfied with our work?
- Which sub-segment of those people have been most fun and most effortless to work with?
Now you have a nice group of lucrative candidates to talk to, of the kind that you want more work from.
Step 2:
Contact each of those people with the following message:
Subject: research – lend a hand?
Hi {firstname},
We’re doing some research to better understand the value we bring and who benefits most from our work.
Would you help out and share some of your opinions? 20 minutes on Zoom is all we’ll need.
Thanks!
Not everyone will reply or meet, but because you selected happy clients, you ought to get at least a handful of people in your calendar for an interview.
Step 3:
Have a friendly chat (not a sales conversation – you’re doing research and you shouldn’t bait & switch people) with those past buyers, and ask them these two questions:
Why did you decide to buy from us, and not someone else?
If you were to recommend us to someone else, what would you say?
The answers will give you your USP, in the opinion of those buyers, and they’ll also share the problem-stack that got them over the line. Useful data for the rest of your conversation, and for the next one.
Next, you need to choose one of two options:
Option 1:
If you sense that this buyer needs more help from you, you can ask:
"Given what you’ve said about our work and the benefits, would you like to discuss some other ways we might be able to help?"
The reason that I don’t consider that bait & switch:
A) You only ask it if they implicitly invite you to ask it (for instance by stating current problems and expressing frustration with them) and B: you don’t go into sales mode but instead you ask them if they’re open to the conversation.
Option 2:
If you don’t get the feeling they’re open to another purchase, or if they decline the invitation, ask:
"Who do you know, that you think should also get the benefits, the stewardship and the outcomes that you described?"
Because your past buyer has just reviewed and expressed the different reasons for being happy with your work, there’s a non-zero chance that they’ll introduce you to one of their peers – or, they might yet go "Us! We need help!" in which case you can ask the question from Option 1.
And yes, it really is that simple – and that free – to generate new opportunities and sales.
So before you go and spend money on getting new leads, spend some time first.
Leverage the time and money you've already invested.
And in case you want to invest and leverage a reasonable $100 per month in order to have me coach you daily on processes and lead-generation like this, the Wingman programme is the way to go.