alright ladies and gentlemen welcome to
this webinar on winning the professional
services sale if you're in the u.s. good
morning if like me you are in Europe
good evening good afternoon and I'm
especially honored today to be doing
this with my friend Aaron Ross someone
who I have great great respect for we're
really pulled together an amazing
session for you guys we're going to keep
this very interactive we're going to
keep it very very tight and we're going
to share a lot of detail a lot of
processes a lot of insider tips and
tactics this is not going to be one of
those webinars where you know we'll go
through slide after slide and you know
just tell you a dry story we are going
to go into great detail and really going
to the nitty gritty stuff so with that
let me welcome my co-host Aaron welcome
to this webinar
hey I go and as if we've got also
milkshakes and Ferraris and who knows
what else you're in oh man we've got a
we got a ton of got a ton of surprise oh
we got pictures of cute kids we've got a
very old sales man you know pitching in
the in the middle of a presentation
somewhere we do have pictures of
Ferraris and yeah it's absolutely
awesome all right so yeah happy to be
here and I go you and I have talked and
you want to do is put together some
ideas specifically for people in
professional services because you know
selling professional services is
different than selling a product so
that's the basic idea here yeah
absolutely and just to give people a bit
of a back story the way this all
happened is you came on as a guest into
coaching master Series which is an
online interview series that I that I
ran that I'm running
I've been running so for about a year or
so but over a year and um I actually
read your book predictable revenue and
that's how you know I found out about
you and your stuff and I thought well
Aaron's doing a lot of stuff in the tech
space and doing a lot of stuff in the
software space but I think what he's
doing is very very applicable to
professional services and so we just
really wanted to put 101 to get her in
this webinar and talk about how to apply
your processes in your meta
in the professional services fear so
alright let's take it away now speaking
of which so we're going to some samples
and stuff we'll cover like basically the
top mistake that consultants and sellers
make and what the top 5% of rain makers
do some simple messaging mind tricks
which are really neat and make a big
difference in your messaging are the
three pillars of success - lead
generation and a couple key ideas and
actually bringing in the revenue closing
sales so I'll go you want to tell us a
little bit about yourself yeah
absolutely so I am um I guess I would
say my career has been split sort of
three ways 30 30 30 I started life as a
professional life as a management
consultant I worked for two out of the
big four consulting firm selling
high-end management consulting services
and then I went into industry I became a
manager and later an executive in a top
50 financial services firm and during
all that time it's about a decade or so
I did know selling whatsoever so I did a
lot of buying and I think that reflects
in the way that I've used sales and
selling
I still think half half my brain still
in buying mode and the other half since
selling mode and that makes for some
interesting schizophrenia sometimes but
also for some interesting approaches and
ideas and then finally for the last four
or five years or so I've been running my
own business now practice director EMEA
ring group and I mean we basically
specialize in high-end complex sales of
services primarily to senior buyers
executives and management in midsize and
large corporations and so three things
about me should know is I love to smell
but I'm not a sales person I've never
held a full-time sales role I've always
sold as part of what I do I sold and
delivered I was a seller doer as we say
always did consulting and then also
selling the project I still bought
probably more than I sold I did the
count the other day I'm you know I'm
getting to a couple of tens of millions
of dollars where either I was the buyer
I was the person selling or I was in the
room and influencing the
buying or selling process and so to this
day I still bought more than I sold and
honestly Aaron between me and selling it
certainly wasn't love at first sight I
had a lot of inhibitions about selling a
lot of hang-ups about what selling was
at what salespeople were and my first
sales meeting with an apse don't want to
be pushy don't wanna exactly you know
we've all I'll tell you the story one
day about the first second-hand car I
ever bought but every single stereotype
that we know about you know sort of the
sleazy slimy salesperson I encountered
on that cake but anyway that would take
us to far um Aaron why don't you for the
folks on the webinar that may not know
you yet why don't you tell a little bit
about yourself predictable revenue tip
so as author of you know a number one
best-selling book predictable revenue
which recently was actually the
top-selling sales
ebook on Amazon and a lot of the the
business the ideas from this book came
from working at salesforce.com
where I helped create a prospecting team
and out bouncer app bounce sales process
to help bring in an extra hundred
million dollars at Salesforce and so
learned a lot at Salesforce and then
since then I've been consulting and
writing about it I'm also a father of
four kids of which were actually
adopting two more next year's will be
six in about a year and fun fact is
since leaving Salesforce and by the way
this 100 million dollars was not mine
that was sales forces so I still need to
work and have had to work to make money
but you know I've stuck to a 25 hour
work week for several years now which
takes practice actually well
with that they start off with and I find
if you're in professional services
there's these hidden beliefs that are
pretty common you know so for example
you know that you're just going to do
great work and clients will just find
you magically or that word of mouth is
enough for your business and otherwise
it like more clients are better it's
this idea that we can more work is
better more clients or better and what
we want to help is you know bring you
it's not puncture these beliefs but it
really brings some more practical tips
to how do you if you want to bring in
more regular income or grow your
business okay these are not going to
work for you what are some real little
tips that will help you be practical in
real about driving revenue with your
business
now if you've read the book or you I'm
sure that you picked up some of you may
not have read it one thing that's really
important to understand is that sales
people don't drive revenue lead
generation drives revenue so a lot of
what we're going to cover today is about
lead generation because if you have you
have the best sales process in the world
but if you don't have if you have chrome
lead generation you're you're going to
struggle if you have great lead
generation you could have a crummy sales
process and still do pretty well so when
we start off with this first idea which
I came out where I heard there's the
first place but that is pick a niche get
rich now a lot of people might use in
your business may feel like you're
pushing hard but not getting anywhere
fast
by this is my baby daughter Perry who
likes to she's about a year and a half
now
likes to try to cruise around on her
pink scooter sometimes she speeds around
but sometimes she just is going nowhere
pushing hard and I find a lot of
businesses with this way and one of the
common problems or maybe the comp most
common problem especially services is
that you're afraid to specialize you
need to really become an expert now this
is me this is because when I left
Salesforce calm I didn't want to do
sales console thing or I didn't want to
you know again I built a prospecting
team in Salesforce which almost doubled
their growth that was really you know
what I was a true expert in what I would
be the best in the world in but I didn't
want to do it for different reasons you
know it's like I've already done that
boring is too small too too specific
it's not sexy it's I'm going to be
limited and I've seen this time and time
again with companies where you're so
afraid to specialize in something narrow
for these different reasons that you
become too general and you sound like
this company because when you're this is
from a past client but when you when
you're targeting everyone trying to
everything no one cares you know like if
you when someone writes this like when
you read this it sounds silly it's you
know Acme provides professional
consulting services to develop and
support online business solutions from
startup to fortune 500 companies
acne assist clients to maximize the
return on investment in the cloud by
providing implementations development
and value at the software solutions now
to you this probably sounds like you
have no idea what you're talking about
but I'm sure if I read your website it
probably would sound just as confusing
to me because again you're afraid to
specialize so it's the idea that you
know the Sun warms you but if you have a
magnifying glass you can you can start a
fire so that this to actually what do
you do about this is you know you really
in order to be effective at lead
generation you have to specialize you
have to be focused and to get a better
sense of where to focus you look back at
like who have been your ideal customers
now get as specific as you can
now how where have you had the best
results brought in the best Revit the
most revenue is and you have this serve
a unique approach you know where are you
a specialist or in other words you know
what could you be what would you be the
king or queen of the world of if you
could just do one thing now if you built
websites that's very general maybe
really your specialty is designing
landing pages or landing page buttons
you know I think that some
it takes some time to figure this out
but it's really what are you a true
expert in like when people call you
what's the one thing that they always
want you for I go what do you think
about this
I you know I couldn't agree more and let
me just say this my own business
completely started turning around when I
understood the power of this this is not
just about in you know this is not just
about saying be specific about who you
serve this is really about understanding
what is your business foundation what is
what is the what is the what are the
fundamentals of your business and it's
not only about understanding being
specific or specialists about who you
serve but it's really also about what
are your unique strengths what do you do
better than anybody else out there
maybe there's a certain combination of
industry expertise and process that you
have kind of like you era I mean you
know software sales revenue revenue
generation lead generation and the way I
started thinking about it is really I
often get these questions people tell me
ok I understand I get it I need a niche
or I need a niche depending on where in
the world you are and I understand that
but how do I do that and there's a lot
of misunderstandings because people
either assume that there's this concern
about still you know going into much
detail and losing out on potential
customers and on the other end there's a
lot of people that you know I think go
overboard and they become ultra specific
and then you know that's not that's not
right either so the way I started
looking at it is you you know and this a
lot of this is 8020
you know don't don't try to perfect it
in any way just try to get it you know
as best as you can but when you start
combining three dimensions and I just
put three examples up here on the screen
yet industry doesn't exist yeah great
examples but you get to take the
principles and apply to yourself well
yeah exactly so so you know let me let
me just do that right here on a call
what's the industry that I serve well I
serve industries like management
consulting financial services and
systems integration primarily we also do
legal services etc etc it's really kind
of the it's either services or it's a
product with a strong services component
attached to it then to function what are
the kind of people that I that I serve
well there are typically management
partners they're directors they are
partners of professional services firms
they may be c-suite executives but if
they are they're not the CFO or not the
CIO tour typically like a chief sales
officer or CEO or in some cases
fo and geography my region is very much
EMEA and even more specific than that it
is really metropolitan areas in within
Europe Middle East in Africa so that's
pretty specific and here's a little
trick that you can use in order to know
that you really have it if you can go on
something like a LinkedIn or you know
like a zoom info and you can almost you
know you can put in these criteria and
come up with a reasonably manageable
list that's what you know you've got it
that's why when you know you're you've
gone specific enough um by the way or
let me just say a little bit of
housekeeping here I forgot to mention in
the beginning Aaron and I really want to
make this very very interactive and very
open so whenever you feel that you want
us to go into more detail onto something
if you have a question please don't
hesitate put your questions in the
question box look forward to answering
those questions so with that Matt lets
Aaron let's move it forward
yeah so that's my on a second idea which
I call cell ideas not stuff yeah we know
everyone's got stuff to sell yeah it's
pretty common least in stuck-on valley
to hear companies talk about being you
know we we provide a leading
next-generation scalable social platform
for crowdfunded clays dye jargon ation
and you get a bunch of this especially
after they've raised money a bunch of
just gobbledygook doesn't mean anything
they're so infatuated with their stuff
their platforms that they forget to
communicate it to you to other people in
English but here's a great example of
selling an idea they're not selling like
the Sun this idea that web that you can
web tech optimation can be made easy
it's like ah that's an idea or of my
daughter Aurora who's 10 she doesn't so
if she wants to go for donuts she
doesn't sell me the idea of hey dad's go
get donuts
I want I want you to get me donut she
says the idea she sells is dad we have
so much fun when we go for donuts the
idea of fun and
I think we can you have features to what
you're selling that might be a button or
again there's a service you're saying
and then there's a benefit to that but
even more important when you're doing
lead generation you're in you're getting
the word out there is what does the idea
you're selling so for example sales
force comm did a great job selling the
idea of on-demand or cloud right so if
they have features around their crm
pipeline this or that there's benefits
to better insight but really the idea
was you could do all this on demand and
I have computers servers and software
and such now okay what do you do with
this well here's a few first few tips
and I'll give you a matrix to help you
flesh out your ideas but when you're
selling ideas the important thing is
that you want to so say you're writing
could be a book blog post of advance you
circum it with marketing ideas and you
want to create with a passion for
customer success it's not about salad
like them so how what does it take to
make them successful part of which is my
product or service and you want it when
you're again coming up with your
materials or messaging that is need
nothing don't be desperate you come to
this with an idea that you really just
want to help clients another aspect is
truth is the best form of marketing I
think a lot of people get nervous about
the of marketing or selling the last if
you just stick to the truth you want to
help them you can help them here's how
you can help them here's what they're
doing wrong that will serve that be a
great guiding light and last thing is
these I think it's an important point is
the best ideas are independent of your
stuff so for example they've going back
to that optimized leus website that said
hey website optimization can be made
easy because a lot of people feel like
it's hard I do and if you if they make
the case again it could be in a blog
post an e-book or what who knows what
but they start to sell the idea that
website optimation can be easy if you
buy into that then you're actually going
to be interested in Oh what kinds of
tools can they offer you to do it right
come again made the idea of cloud or
on-demand so people bought into that the
value of it and then then they likely go
down to okay well that makes sense what
kinds of stuff can you offer to help me
actually do that now okay what do you do
with this how do you make this practical
I have a blog post up sort of walks you
through how to put together a matrix and
say what are your ideas what kinds of
ideas could be useful to people that
would be interested in and you can check
it out a predictable revenue calm slash
made slash matrix but it is not that
hard if you just sit down for a little
bit of time twenty even twenty thirty
minutes with yourself a couple your
teammates you can always come up with
some good ideas that would appeal to
your customer base
I go yeah Aaron tonight can I just
really quickly yeah mute yes I was and
now I'm no longer so I'm back everybody
um now here's here's a couple of
practical things and I love the idea of
this matrix because this alone it can be
so rich and can give you so many ideas
on how to how to position yourself how
to craft your value proposition how to
communicate and convey your service and
a way to make sense to your audience how
to produce content for thought
leadership and content marketing this is
tremendously powerful and there are two
things that I would recommend in
addition to this which you can do before
or after or even at the same time of
doing this and the first one is really
to do something called a buyer persona
you know you can just google it I'm not
going to go into great detail but it's
really a very human way of thinking
about your prospect in thinking about um
you know what they're struggling what
whether they're paint what are their
afflictions but also what do you want
what are their aspirations what are they
what do they crave whether they need in
their life or their business because we
often forget especially in complex
high-end b2b sales that there's a human
element there there's no denying it a
lot of decisions behind closed doors are
made based on emotion based on sentiment
based on feeling so that's the first
thing on all of them that say yeah well
yeah behind closed doors all of them but
then we come out and we rationalize them
which is you know we need we need to we
need to present something to the board
and you can't just say I like this it
can't just be I like these guys
and um and the second thing is
tremendously powerful is just go out and
ask your clients I mean ask your past
clients what you know why did you why
did you buy from me what was the pain
that you had that you wanted me to solve
and I know this sounds I mean to me this
sounds almost like obvious but I still
come across so many clients that just
simply don't do it it is so powerful you
can do this with surveys you can do it
one-on-one I do this you know this is a
part of my routine it's almost like
whenever I noticed a couple of people
use a
fair amount of people on the on the the
webinar that I've been emailing back and
forth with and if you were here I'd
asked you in the room and I'd say you
know did you ever get an email from me
where it's at something like PS there
anything in your business that you're
struggling with or there anything I can
help you with right now or I'm thinking
about an idea for my next blog post what
would you like me to go into and that is
just so powerful and that's where you
get these ideas right and it's more
example I mean the title so my book
predictable revenue that itself as an
idea I saw that roughly can be
predictable and if you've read the book
into the idea of specialization there's
a lot of ideas in the book and I think a
lot of the best ideas really come from
this place if you want to help people
the ideas are useful whether or not they
hire you for something right and then
that's because those ideas are the kinds
that really appeal to people where
there's value and they they want they
want the mighty they want the ideas and
they pass them to their friends so again
if you come up with great ideas and
whether it's matrix
I think the buyer persona approach is a
good complement to it it's important you
know it really will help you you have
people buy into you your idea into your
brand and be interested and start to
want to learn more about you and how you
can help them
yep so let's move on the third point
here which is around messaging now I
love this little far side cartoon at the
top it says what we say the dogs okay
ginger I've had it you state of the
garbage understand ginger stay out of
the garbage or else and what the dogs
here of course is blah blah blah ginger
blah blah blah ginger blah blah blah and
this is really how most companies market
to their customers so now likewise with
my dog again I mentioned my 10 year old
daughter Aurora who's sort of my sales
apprentice now I've been teaching her
how like if she wants a milkshake you
don't just go up your parrot and say dad
can you get me a milkshake mom can you
get me a milkshake I want a milkshake no
you come up and you frame it in what's
why is it a benefit to a parent to get
you a milkshake so that's pretty funny
actually watching use techniques on mom
but here she is with a milkshake very
happy and for I think it's important
point to understand that when you're
marketing to people they don't care
about what you do they don't care that
you have it you know you do accounting
and the way you do it they care about is
what you can do for them what do they
get out of working with you so this is
some really simple mind tricks to help
you take the way that you're currently
talking about or writing about your
business and to reshift it away from
what you do to how you help like so
begin if you ask me what I do if I say
hey I'm a sales author or sales coach
you're like so what but if I tell you
about the result which is well we help
companies double or triple their revenue
growth it's a lot more interesting so
that's the kind of effect you want so
this first question you know if you're
in a party and someone comes up to you
and asks you how do you what do you do
pretend they ask you instead how do you
help customers how do you help people
it'll automatically reframe your mind to
start thinking about the result that you
get that you help clients get and
if you're writing writing marketing some
blog post or whatever you're doing again
this could be weather so is a phone
conversation blog post website doesn't
matter you say all right we help clients
you know get their books in order
okay so then ask every time you have a
point like that ask yourself so what or
what's so great about that well if their
books in order they can close the books
on time every month okay so what well
that way they can provide accurate
reports to the board on time okay so
what well they can also get reports to
the government on time okay so what well
up there in compliance and don't have to
pay fines or go to jail
so you can we go down this path and
starting with what you do and you by
asking these questions especially like I
so what or what's so great about that
you can get closer and closer towards
okay what's the value of it to clients
what's the results the clients want and
one way you can test this is if you're
talking to it let's say you meet it
again at a party you meet an ideal
client and you're chatting with them and
within you know 30 seconds or a minute
or two if they don't really get what
you're talking about or at least they're
not interested in it then you got to
refine or change what you're saying you
know take another stab at it because I
can ideal clients not just everybody but
if they really there they should get it
pretty quickly if you've honed in on a
simple way to describe what you do at
least not in an accurate but a simple
way to describe what you do that's
intriguing enough for them to want to
learn a bit more and learn a bit more
hey Aaron
can I can I walk people through a very
positive I'm sorry I think we got some
lag on the line here can I just walk
people will walk welcome to a very you
know very fast three-step process that
we use to do this I get a lot of
questions around um you know how do I
craft a value proposition right how do I
craft a compelling value proposition a
compelling message that allows me to
connect with my my intended audience or
my prospect to market to clients and you
know get something set up a pay
attention to what I'm saying
there's really three steps to it and
it's pretty simple
the first step is really to resonate now
you can only resonate if you've done
what we you know talked about before if
you really talk to people about what are
their pains whether their needs you know
the stuff that we talked about in the
buyer persona in your matrix so you
really want to get a deep understanding
for what the things that people care
about are and um into things that people
really need help with now we call those
afflictions and aspirations to make it
simple what are the pains they have or I
like to make it even more simple I like
to talk about which things that people
want to get away from and which people
which things do people want to move
towards or get more of so once you have
that you just start resonating because
you can start talking about those things
and what's going to happen is people are
going to start to catch on and you're
going to find yourself in a conversation
pretty quickly and then the second step
so the first step is to resonate the
second step is to substantiate us to
differentiate now differentiate is that
answer the question so what or the
question ok what's that's what's so
great about that but what's so great
about you why are you different right
because there's a ton of people out
there doing what you do and say you want
to find a way of making it memorable and
you know stick getting people to you
know sort of have it in the back of
their heads stories are awesome to do
that so a great way to different shade
is to talk about a past client and the
kind of results you've gotten for them a
great way to differentiate is to talk
about things in a different language and
most people would use personally I find
that plainly spoken words or very
powerful
stay away from the buzzwords just kind
of you know tell them the way it is and
in the third step
so first is resonate second step is
differentiate and the third step is
really substantiate and that's where you
talk about you know the proof is in the
pudding right the kind of results that
you've gotten for clients and I
guaranteed it if you do only those three
things like let's say you you walk into
a party or a networking event you wrote
these these few words down at on a
cocktail napkin or your business card or
something and after a while you know I
promise you'll start memorizing these
and you did only that the whole evening
I promise you'd walk away with some very
good conversations which are probably
very different from what you would
normally get at a networking event where
if you ask a question and then people
start answering and talking about
themselves in their business hey Aaron
is it okay if we throw in a couple of
questions at this point I can see some
questions coming into the comments box
yeah yeah mine are we so by the way I
think that just you can see how if you
start with for example like the sell
ideas my stuff matrix to get a better
sense of pains may buyer persona and
then that can lead you to some of these
simple messaging tricks around just
getting a basic sense of how to you know
resonate with people and then you can
develop it with a little more detail
with the three steps I was talking about
here just resonate differentiate
substantiate so that it's like step by
step you get smart you know more
specific and flush it out and improve
your messaging absolutely and the one
thing that we we both very much agree on
is you know what you put in there around
if people don't get it then either
change it or I wouldn't say I walk away
but you know it's not it's unlikely to
be a prospect for you the fit is
unlikely to be there right so um all
right John John had a great question
here
he asked what is he manageable list size
indeed and then he kind of specified it
a little bit more he said what I mean is
list size a regards to a niche list as
opposed to a general lead list at UMass
market to so I think it's question is
around I understand you know I have a
general lead list a large list people
but how do i niche that down and what's
a good size for each individual niche
I need any thoughts on that error um you
know it depends what you're using it for
I was think for example and we'll get to
this actually in Lee Jenner in some
ideas around the three throws of lead
generation but if you're doing
prospecting you can target a smaller
number of companies and if you're doing
some kind of marketing broader number
but you know I think that if you know
they just not so much the size of the
niche it's really how specific are you
in it how clear are you around the kinds
of companies that would need what you've
got yes we I know that everybody could
use which you sell but who are the
people most likely to need it
and I think that's a hard part for
people to let go of which is what
everyone could use my soap cleaner yeah
but who are the people most likely to
need it enough that they're going to buy
because it's it's a big hurdle to go
talk to people who've never heard of you
and get them interested enough to
actually want to take next steps and
actually put money down for what you're
selling
so I would think you know several
hundred to couples
lo thousands would be a reasonable
starting points he's looking for a
number yeah you know what let me um let
me give you let me I first off I agree
to a certain degree with what you're
saying I think in certain businesses a
couple of hundred is a good size list to
get started in other businesses we're
talking much larger we've got a question
a couple of coming also on the b2c
versus b2b so in B to C you'll find it
you'll need larger lists I think but let
me give you the other extreme what I've
done very successfully is go completely
the opposite way and literally trim my
list to twenty five people I've done
that very successfully and obviously
when you do that you want to make
absolutely sure that you pick the right
people so we're talking about I mean
when I'm selling high-end professional
services to c-suite executives in a very
particular industry and in my case
probably in a very specific region I
will sometimes develop a very very
targeted list of anywhere between 20 to
30 people now these people are not
people that I do let me be very clear
I don't mass market to these people
these are not people that I send out you
know my my email newsletter - it's much
more up close and personal it's much
more based on referrals it's much more
based on a personal touch it's much more
much more based on doing everything
that's antithetic to what everybody else
is doing but that's just another
approach and so what I'm what I'm saying
here also is list size John is very it's
very specific to your industry and your
objectives I will take a 25-person list
of motivated qualified decision-makers
what they need in a budget for what I'm
selling any day over a list of you know
999 potentially maybe somehow qualified
prospects who may or may not have a need
in may or may not want to buy for me so
that's just a very personal perspective
on that
aren't question from Alessandra here
what ideas do you have for lead
generation for b2c service professionals
or your stuff seems to be geared towards
the b2b community and let's end our
first thing I'll say about that is we're
obviously talking about professional
services here but Erin any any thoughts
on how to supplies to b2b or b2c yes
well I think that's a perfect lead-in to
the lead generation there's three
pillars so for example and we can take
these ideas and I think these ideas
actually can a plot you can take it in
apply to b2b or b2c now I know a go.you
you have mentioned you'd like to Zig
when people zag yeah absolutely I mean
this example and it's been this is the
example that I just gave right so sixty
percent of marketers are now using
inbound marketing in some form and Erin
will you and I first started talking in
after I'd read your book I really really
I should say reopened my eyes to the
value of outbound marketing versus
inbound marketing and let me be very
clear I mean I love inbound marketing I
love producing content and thought
leadership and I do a lot of it and I
get results from it and I also have
restarted doing outbound marketing let
me tell you what I mean when I came out
of my corporate career um I mean it was
a sort of time Stood Still and I came
back out of my cave right and I thought
I'd been marketing or I've done lead
generation what's called calling so I
went out and this was a maybe about five
years ago I went out and I started doing
cold calls again and man that I suffer I
mean I'm getting no results this used to
work when I was a management consultant
I mean I remember it you know it would
didn't work very well but it kind of
worked still and and it was horrible I
mean I was getting when I started
measuring I was appalled by the results
that I was getting for all this effort
that I was putting him and all this
energy that I was putting in and all
this this drain on my self-esteem and my
energy and I was getting nothing in
return and one of the things and I'd
love for you Aaron to talk about this in
some degree of detail is that admah
marketing and outbound sales and lead
generation is a process and it's not
about we're using one
channel or technique versus another it's
really about stacking different things
on top of each other and then measuring
what works yeah so what I would suggest
I'm sorry what was the person who asked
the question would be to see let me give
you a general answer now as I go through
this slide then if you can actually
submit your question telling me telling
us exactly what you do what you sell and
so on I think at the end we have QA we
can give you a more specific answer let
me start here I think it's really
important this is why I saw in
Salesforce in the last year's is to
understand these three different kinds
of leads and lead generation if there's
seeds which are really word-of-mouth you
know your relationships referrals happy
customers then there's Nets which is
your your broadcasted marketing and now
inbound marketing is the top term and so
this is about quantity over quality
so with marketing get a lot of leads but
only a small number really good and then
outbound sales up and prospecting your
spheres now you're being very targeted
about who you're going after and it's
about a quality over quantity so if you
were better bigger leads now all three
of these are different you generate the
leads in different ways they've got
different funnels or conversion rates
there's different ways you handle them
when they come in to you or when you go
out to them and so it's important to
know that and buy the kind of business
in what you do sometimes one is more
effective than the other although they
all can be important so for example the
b2c question you know if you're only
making you know a small amount of money
let's say $50 or $150 maybe $500 per
customer outbound prospecting is just
not it's going to be really really hard
to be profitable maybe you can do it
probably not more effective would be
seeds and nets and you know so it will
cease one of the best ways to get more I
would I recommend is by having live
events is one of the best ways to be on
by including your current customers to
draw on your current relationships and
where you live and either bringing
clients and prospects maybe to meet
together and you can teach them
something but live events is one of the
best ways to improve get to learn as
well as grow your seeds maybe depending
what you do with again b2c inbound
marketing or PPC or other things could
work that's why it's hard to say without
knowing what you do but regardless of
what kind of business you're in you know
the seeds are usually where your
business get started right relationships
people you know people know you and then
as you want to grow and start to do more
marketing or prospecting and that's when
you start to struggle because it's hard
to learning a new skill to be able to go
out to people who've never heard of you
and to get them find the right people
and then get them interested hey that's
why I can be it you have to work on your
messaging and yeah you know what I just
yep I just had an idea here we've got
people coming in and telling us about
their business so what it makes sense if
we took like three people and then you
know you and maybe I could give them a
bit of an idea around where we would
focus personally in terms of our Lydia
would that make sense so I need to get
you some details all right so what
Sanders said I'm a financial advisor
specializing in retirement planning so
my guess is she's in a b2c space so
she's probably catering the
high-net-worth individuals and people
that are thinking about retirement and
planning for their future needs so any
recommendations on lead gen there well
to me I think a lot of this really
depends on your eyes going back to that
sell ideas not stuff which is you know
what do you stand for is an individual
look and I know you're probably me might
be part of a bigger company but what do
you stand for
so what are your ideas I mean you can
use the company's ideas as well but
especially as the financial advisor it's
important that people trust the company
you're with if you're with one as well
as you and so for example with I would
have well I would start suggest driving
live events because by having live
events it forces you to figure out who
you you know what is your message and
why would people come and you really get
instant feedback as to why they do show
up or they don't and I'm talking about
in-person events by the way
so doing lab events to helps you build
your audience helps you it forces you to
get clear of what you're doing and then
once you get you feel ready I'm actually
moving next slide is to do focus on
partner marketing we're really the best
way like there's lots of building an
audience is hard
there's already people laughter who
built big audiences now if you can
partner with them now whether this is to
do a live event together or a webinar I
mean what augo and I are doing here is
partner marketing but it's easy because
they they can bring you people already
because they have a trusted audience
they can expose to you it's a lot more
effective that way than doing it from
from scratch you know they and by doing
partners they challenge you just you
know think different thing bigger and
it's a lot more fun it's more enjoyable
this is a baby daughter power on the
left and a four-year-old son maverick
who had just brought back from China a
few months ago and of course they're
like little troublemakers together so
that's where I would go back to the
slide suggest is live events to get
clear on who you're talking to what they
want and then focus on part of marketing
which output the part partner marketing
would be a form of nets like a form of
inbound marketing yeah absolutely and
the only thing on the center and I would
add to that is obviously in your
business which is a business which you
it's a lot about confidence in the
personal relationship I mean leverage
that word-of-mouth leverage those
introductions by the way one of the
things that I think you know just an
idea here is it's not because it the
diagram has like three distinct sections
that they're all separate you can
combine these things very very well
let's say that you built a brilliant
piece on retirement planning in your
marketing effort a Content piece maybe
even a series of videos and you use an
outbound sales effort to ask your
existing network to introduce that to
their referral network for example or to
their you know to their to their peers
that are friends I mean that's just an
example of using all three so you can
get really really creative with that I
love the idea of doing personal live
events especially if they're intimate
and if they're really composed of people
that trust each other that's really
really really powerful and it's another
way of zigging when everybody said
everybody's doing I mean you know Aaron
and I we're zeal T of this as anybody
else what we're doing webinars we just
happen to be 9,000 miles from each other
so it'd be kind of difficult to do an
in-person event but stay
but that works really well I'm Erin
maybe another one he's an interesting
one barrel sells memberships so my guess
is that he's got some kind of an online
membership site perhaps and he's looking
for ways to get the word out and get
more people to sign up any thoughts on
that you know I think it's probably
pretty similar
do you know hey if you can write in
their day loss part of this depends on
how much you're selling the for because
if you're selling $10,000 your
memberships a little bit different than
$100 that your memberships so but what
I'd say is I've never seen people go
wrong um I mean and by the way I used if
I go back and think about what was it
that really got me so much clarity on my
message what I was doing to the point
where I could write a book and without
any FFA he's spending any money on
marketing it becomes a best-seller on
Amazon or two in it because it just it
forced me to first of all take action
get clear on Who am I going to invite
what am I going to invite them for why
would they care what's the follow-up you
know it's not always comfortable but it
really forced me to get clear and no
matter what kind of marketing you do I
don't care if you're buying times
billboards or PPC or prospecting if
you're not clear on who you're targeting
what they care about you know what your
messaging is none of your other
marketing is going to matter so everyone
is different you know a live event could
be for people for coffee it could be
four hundred people in a room but I mean
if you're early in your business I'm a
huge huge proponent of doing live events
with people by the way with real people
not just Facebook friends to again force
yourself to figure out get clear on it
so now if you you know that there's a
million ways to do marketing I'm a fan
of partner marketing because it's
simpler it's usually more effective it's
more it's easier more fun I like to keep
things simple and there's things like my
PPC and SEO and I stuff they work for
some people social media I'm at say if
you love it go for it but otherwise I
think if you don't love it it's just
it's a lot of work
and it's hard if it's just not as simple
as partner marketing which is very
effective more enjoyable and simple
so again if you're set and these are for
low I'd say lower priced lower value
consumer stuff if let's go if you're
selling a high value product like tens
tens of thousands of dollars with us b2b
or b2c prospecting can make more sense
because there you don't have if you talk
to one person who's a person it could
make three months of work worthwhile
right so that's why again the value of
what you're selling depend on the way
you market oh hey Aaron I I don't know
if your you know you've got a crystal
ball or something but that's the
question that why don't want to sign it
just came in here someone's selling
high-end erp systems interestingly I
used to sell high-end erp systems like
you know CRM systems ERP systems I mean
in this environment advanced sales makes
so much sense because you're talking
about a value per sale of hundreds of
thousands - in some cases millions of
dollars I mean this is really where you
want to go deep and I you know what you
still need to do the marketing stuff you
you still need put the nets out there
you still need to leverage your seeds
but I would say that here it makes a lot
of sense to invest time energy effort
and money financial resources into going
deep and doing Advent sales yeah for
sure by the way so let me rush let's
move on to some details on how that can
work but before I do for the the
membership question Darryl and I'm sorry
for the woman who had you sold the
financial advisor I would go check out I
don't have the link on here but go check
out predictable revenue calm slash
inbound predictable revenue calm slash
inbound and on there you'll find some
slides
it says simple sane and successful
inbound marketing I think that will give
you a little more there's more detail
around you know how I think that uh you
know how do you have events and you know
some I think there's a lot bunch more
tips that are more specific to
don't be helpful to you they're
predictable revenue calm / inbound
okay so
pardon let's go the app table outbound
because if you do sell something whether
it's b2b or some you know whatever you
sell is worth at least ten more like
twenty or twenty thousand dollars and up
prospecting and outbound prospecting is
probably the best way to drive
predictable leads which then of course
can drive predictable revenue but none
of this I'm going to spend just a minute
here on Ceti of specialization because
lead generation doesn't work unless you
focus and if you if you're a single
person or if you have a team this idea
specialization is important because for
example with outbound prospecting the
best best way to do it is to have a
dedicated prospector who's doing a
full-time which would be this number one
in the top left so if you actually have
a sales team by far the best thing you
can do and if you take one idea from
today this this a specialization is you
have prospectors prospecting in the
upper left you might have lead
qualification of reps in the lower left
responding to inbound leads through your
website and those two roles would pass
leads qualified leads to your account
executives number three who close and
then after a customer signs up then you
have a post sales support like account
management okay the book has a lot more
information but what I would say is if
you are even one person and you of
course you don't have multiple people
but you can still specialize your time
pick a day or two a week or an afternoon
or at least blocks of two hours for your
lead generation whether it's two hours
of prospecting whether it's you know two
hours of setting up an event where it's
two hours or whatever whatever you think
is the best way to help bring in get the
word out but block out that time turn
off email you know shut the door put the
dogs away whatever it takes for you to
be able to focus so you can still apply
this but just do it by time now because
if you're not focused on whatever you're
doing and I'm sure you can apply this to
any part of your business actually so
again it's like for example focusing on
a niche because if you're not if you not
focus time in persistent with it none of
your lead generation is going to be as
effective as it could be
okay so with that list a few example
steps specific to outbound now there's a
million ways of marketing but if you do
sell a higher priced product and I know
a go here I'll share a story of what
he's done with it here's the example
what caught cold-calling
2.0 funnel because there's no cold
calling involved with this approach now
the orange is really taking a who you
gonna go after getting really specific
building your list smaller more targeted
is better and then you can send emails
or make calls in a way which is friendly
you know I caught a referral approach
which is whether it's a phone call email
basically saying hey who's the person in
charge of X it maybe include one line
one sentence about what you do or some
customers you've helped that you really
the ideas you're asking a simple
friendly way for a referral starting at
the top maybe asking a CEO or VP for the
referral and again what we're seeing is
nine percent of time you'll get a
response from people and this is from
people who never heard of you
now the response maybe a referral to the
right person like if you want to sell to
a CFO make it refer to them or sometimes
the response is not interested or don't
know what you're talking about or know
but you get responses and again when you
when you focus on this and whether
you're a single person or better it's a
dedicated prospector you can turn the
responses into conversations and
conversations to appointments and the
appointments into sales and by breaking
this down step by step you can create
you can get to the point where you can
turn this into an equation you know if I
spend four hours a week sending emails
and I'll get a certain number of
responses and they'll take me a certain
amount of time to set up the calls and
so on and you can create some
predictable results with this so again
this is actually this is the process
that helped almost double salesforce
comms growth that helped MADD a hundred
million dollars in revenue I've seen
this exact process work and they have
growing a company from 1 million to 20
million in 3 years or you know we often
see you can triple when done right you
can actually triple sort of a company's
new sales or new growth with a great a
pound-- process so this where
we were answering that the ERP sales
persons question I you know I think we I
think we did it let me uh let me share
because I said I would Aaron so let me
share my own results and I'm going to
contrast two approaches because I get a
lot of questions about you know this
called calling work so let me just it's
not a question of you know if it works
or not it's a question of how well it
works so when I and this was about maybe
three years ago I started tracking my
calls
and I started tracking my dials to my
you know my like my contacts contact is
defined as talking to the person I
wanted to talk to in the first place
right and I actually was doing according
to some people that I was talking to I
was doing pretty well so I had about a
twenty percent so out of every you know
let's say hundred people that I that I
did a hundred dials if you will a
hundred you know time to I picked up the
phone and dial the number I got to talk
to twenty people in out of those twenty
another twenty percent ultimately led to
a meeting so we're talking five people
out of a hundred more or less that's
that's really that was sort of my
conversion ratio if you will when I
started implementing your process my
results were very very different and let
me tell everybody what I did and this
was the first time that I did it there's
no you know there's no big secret there
he just read the book right well yeah I
just read the book and I thought you
know how can i how can I use this how
can I make use of this and so what I did
was I literally wrote out three cold
emails and they all had something like
you know according to your you sort of
you know you've got a couple of tips in
there they don't something like hey you
know what you know I represent a company
doing this we typically work with these
types of clients I have no idea who's
the right person to talk to internally
but I wonder if she could help something
along those lines well what it wasn't
even that friendly exactly wasn't even
that long and it certainly wasn't that
commercial sounding it was more like a
friendly email hey you know what you
help me out I'm trying to make sense of
you know who I should be talking to a
new organization and a response really
blew me away I I can't remember the
exact response rate but it was somewhere
around I'd say between seven and twelve
percent or remember that and it also you
know
never members which is now I've done it
multiple times and I keep getting the
same results but what's interesting is
you get really three types of responses
and the responses you get are a sorry
not now or not me
and that's actually a minority so that's
like one or two people out of a list
like that the other ones you get is oh
it's not me you should be talking to but
then they refer you to the right person
and the third response you get is well
actually I'm the right person to talk to
let's set up a meeting and my meeting
conversion or my conversion from email
to meeting was significantly higher than
what I got doing cold calls and I think
there's a couple of reasons for that you
know just to really go quickly into it
first off it's less interruption than it
is you know making a cold call and B
it's less commercial really reaching out
to people for help and in three is we're
talking about a series we're talking
about three emails here I initially
started doing it I did it the first time
I think maybe a couple of months ago and
it's led to significant results in terms
of meetings and actually closing sales
so far so it really works yep so that's
why you can adapt the idea here is you
have a simple a friendly approach asking
for you know well you you know who
you're going after you have a simple
friendly approach it's a lot more
enjoyable for you and then then cold
calling because who no one likes that
and you're also tracking user your how
much either time you're spending on it
or your activities and results you get a
sense of your trying to get you're
trying to ruse the randomness and get a
sense of okay if I need an extra
$100,000 how many people should I reach
out to over how many weeks and what are
the steps so you can have some control
over generating some predictability or
generating your leads and your revenue
but this brings us to a couple tips on
actually bringing in revenue so now this
is this is like a prospecting cycle it's
like prospecting stages which generally
ends up in bringing in pipeline but the
whole idea is everybody's different
especially professional services so
there's we're going to share two ideas
here's one which is know if you start to
step back and really look at breaking
down the steps of what you do so there's
you know you might have like these leads
to prospects and whether it's from you
know events or from prospecting you know
who knows whatever your process is you
said well we did X net brought us why
people who are even interested who
either attended the event or register
those side or something and then there
was those some percentage led to a phone
conversation or in-person meeting and if
those a smaller percentage led to a
proposal and if those percentages to
actually signed up and then some others
were lost or postponed and so on it
you're what you're trying to do is just
to be insightful around what steps are
working for you and how are people
moving through a buying process or sales
process and by breaking this breaking
down your steps into these sort of
specific ways you can start to really
hone in on like is there a part that
just isn't working for you and you might
get a hundred people to an event a
webinar and you know then 20 want to
talk to you but then 0 actually end up
wanting proposals okay well you know
your front end of the funnel it gives
you a place to focus on to see where can
you improve your steps in helping
clients buy the right clients by
I go this is an area that you really
like to help people with yeah absolutely
and there's a question I'm sorry there's
a question that came in from I think
it's Patricia the name got cut out for
Pat she says is that 9 percent response
rate is that positive and negative
responses or should it be a 9 percent
yes right no it's so it's free right
it's really it's it's negative response
yeah it's negative responses but those
are really a minority I put 1 1 to 2
percent max then there's the yeses and
the yes is coming to forms it's yes it's
me and let's talk or it's yes but it's
not me and here's the person you should
be talking to but by now you've got an
internal introduction I can't remember
exactly who said it but there's some
research out there from Steve biscuits
in his book selling to the c-suite you
can check out his interview on my
website as well alcohol's calm in just
google it sort of search for biscuits
his name bist rit Zed anyway he talks
about the ratio not sure what to call it
but to sort of you know approach to
meeting ratio for cold calls it's less
than 20% less than 20% of executives
would accept a meeting based on a cold
call or a cold email 86% of executives
will accept the meeting based on a
personal introduction or referral from
inside the company and so even if you're
using this process you're leveraging
that you're harnessing that power this
literally this would have been the only
slide that I would have shown for the
whole webinar if it was up to me because
this is so key the one where actually it
was the one we were before airing the
one with the conversion points the
measurement points yes we had this one
have key metrics and steps this changed
my entire approach to sales change my
entire thinking about selling and
marketing and reaching out this is so
powerful if you take anything away from
this webinar anything away from this you
know exchange between Aaron and me it's
this immediately start putting into
place some metrics I don't care if you
use your CRM system I don't care if you
use your your your fancy marketing
automation system or if you use Excel or
even a sheet of paper or whiteboard but
just measure measure your activity and
how to come
into the different results across your
sales pipeline and into ultimate sales
because that is going to give you so
much visibility so much insight into
where you need to tweak your process and
that's what's going to drive results the
one thing I will say on top of that is
don't do this for a month do this for
six months - it's for a year and watch
the data get richer and also watch it
become more accurate there will be
people especially in complex b2b sales
which will end up buying six months nine
months 18 months down the road that's a
conversion right so you want to count
those you want to track that over time
all right moving on yep okay one other
one of the thing is this is a baby
daughter para again and I think
especially for the remember the b2c
people here listening and I think it's
really helpful to design a high price
package because I found is if you have
if you're getting clear on who your
ideal customers are if they really need
what you've got
how if you really want what you you they
want you and they want your help some of
your customers sure could be a great fit
for that $500 month thing but you know
another customer who could be very
similar but maybe they want extra help
they could be a good fit for a $5,000 a
month thing so be bold in your pricing
have a maybe a low medium and hot but
make sure you have a high like a hot
much higher price and you may think
maybe 10 times higher than you think and
again so there's really two reasons one
is because someone's going to want it
trust me
I mean I went from with our consulting
we've got we used to have you know maybe
$25,000 to $60,000 in two projects and
now our higher end for high-touch stuff
is quarter million dollars and up
and some people want it so one thing is
that's a great way to bring in revenue
and the other thing is when you have a
high price package it really helps
anchor your value higher so that when
people when you do find someone who's a
good fit but then I get fit for the high
priced one they you know say they see
your value is higher so they feel like
they're getting a better deal when they
go for the the medium price package is
what well so it's better to be priced I
think too high than too low when people
take you for granted and it's like
I think it's just very common that
companies or is fishing individuals
don't have if you're doing your own
thing you maybe don't have the
confidence to have a high-priced offer
or package for again as maybe it might
be a small number but there are think
about work backwards you know if you had
something that was priced five to ten
times higher than what you're doing now
what who would actually need it that
badly
so forget about who you're talking to
people who stir yeah they only want the
$2,000 thing but there is someone out
there who would get who would really
want and really need your twenty
thousand dollar package or your two
hundred thousand dollar package so you
have to envision them and work backwards
because you may not have met them yet
that they do they are out there
all right so if you want some more
details from either of us for me or gods
there's website predictable revenue calm
if you have read the book I highly
recommend it I think I did mention for
that sale ideas not stuff matrix it's
predictable revenue calm slash matrix
and for the BDC especially the BTC
listeners I just go check out
predictable revenue calm inbound for
that simple sane and successful inbound
presentation sure in fact not but I'll
leave our contact information up so if
you have more questions or you want to
reach out to I go about his product I
also we I do consulting buts more with
with bigger company me a mid-market and
bigger company with teams it's really
specialize in building prospecting teams
but helping individuals but here's our
info and then so now when we take off
any any and all questions we got
absolutely all right so ton of questions
have come in so far I know we're running
slightly late that's just because
they're and I talk too much and we have
too much in our mind and we want to
share it all but a great question came
here from probably I should pronounce
this harsh a and and he said you have
any ideas on how to encourage a sales
force comprised of farmers so people
that are highly specialized in one
vertical or one market to go into more
of a former hunter or hybrid role so we
need to grow to business what our
salespeople are reluctant to explore new
verticals and hiring more people is not
an option at this time you know let me
let me go first because I get this all
the time I mean you know I work with
consultants partners managing partners
directors and they all tell me that you
know if only I could get more of our
consultants to sell more of their time
then you know the world would be a
better place and we'd have a much bigger
more interesting business and that is
true um there's a couple of thoughts on
that number one is I mean forcing people
doesn't work you really want to find the
carrot you want to find not not to stick
you want to find a carrot you want to
find ways of motivating these people to
do so and different people are motivated
by different things don't automatically
assume that a bigger bonus is going to
do it don't automatically assume that
putting it in their objectives is going
to do it either a process that I
typically do with clients on this which
works really really well
we'll start off with an assessment and
the assessment really allows us to
categorize people in different
categories people are more hunters or
more farmers people are more ambassadors
or more account managers people are very
very good in going out and generating
new business and new conversations or
people are very good in deepening
expanding existing relationships and
that kind of gives us a map of the sales
force or the you know the team as it
looks and then based on that we will
recommend specific approaches to get
specific people to do what they're good
at because you can expect really I mean
this is again my personal opinion and
maybe I'm going against the grain here
but it really is my experience that you
can't turn a real farmer Account Manager
into a hunter nor should you try because
that's basically robbing them of their
strengths but something that works
really well is you find the individuals
that are motivated and able to perform
in a particular role and then you
provide them with the support they need
it's not about hiring more people
in fact hiring more people may actually
expand or enlarge the problem if you
hire the wrong people you really want to
hire the right people ie the ones you're
lacking and you want to provide
incentives for doing so I'm Erin any any
thoughts on this you must have come
across this a hundred times as well yeah
I agree it's like you want people to be
able to do what they're good at and
trying to get a bunch of farmers to all
hunt is you just going to waste you know
it's like sales people shouldn't
prospect in fact there's a great article
called why sales people shouldn't
prospect do you google it you have to
help them block out you know first you
have to help them block out time TIF
again focus on if they have to if
they're going to prospect because
there's different ways to generate leads
but either they have to have extra time
walked out to do it you have to help
them if you just tell them to go get
business they're not going to have to do
so we have to give them direction
I would say help them if you really
can't hire if you can hire one
prospector and you know you can hire
someone out of college with a couple
years experience if you've got a bunch
of farmers and yet maybe I mean it
transform your ability to generate leads
if you have a focused prospecting team
or even one person to who's better does
that gives you because you really it's
hard to be an expert at it unless you're
doing it full-time but if you can't do
that block out some time I read the
predictable revenue and as I go said you
know don't try to you know it's like
find the people the smaller number
of people who have the higher interest
higher chance of likelihood and try to
get a couple people some success and
then that'll make it easier to hit show
other people how can be done pick your
battles
hey Aaron can I can I pick it pick it
back on that with something real quick
because I know a lot of people on the
webinar and I'm going to have you know
multi-million dollar prospecting or
marketing budgets and they're not going
to be part of big firms even though some
are but for the ones that aren't I mean
I run a small personally a growing but
still a small companies small outfit and
what we've done very successfully we
just outsource lead generation and it
works really really well I mean there's
a couple of tricks that you will want to
keep in mind but a great way of doing it
is just outsourcing it to people that
are really really good at it and they
don't have to be internal you need to
support them well you need to reward
them well you need to make sure that
you're on the same page and they're well
equipped to do their job but it's just
another way of doing it and this you can
do this on a micro scale I mean when I
started out it was just me and and I
hired someone to do my lead generation
for me and it really really works really
well so another question coming in from
Rosario hey Rosario I know you I know
who you are
so she says very refreshing to hear Erin
on there's no need to go to social media
but focus instead on partner marketing
very powerful but have a sense I'll go
would go for social media at least some
targeting outreach on LinkedIn is it
dependent on a personal decision or the
design of a business model that suits
personal preferences lifestyle etc let
me let me go first I mean I would not
recommend going for social media it's
just something that happens to work for
me and with that what I'll say is I
think you should I think we should all
pick the minimum three and a maximum of
five prospecting methods and what do we
call them inbound and outbound marketing
or seeds Nets and Spears it's irrelevant
but pick five pick five that worked for
you big five that you feel comfortable
with and pick five that preferably are
in some way you know give you either
economies of scale or economies of
effort so you can do things like content
repurposing where you'll take one core
content piece but you'll leverage that
in different ways
and that works really really well so
maybe it is a bit of a you know there's
a the personal preference element
but in the other element to
counterbalance that that's the
right-hand side of the right side of the
brain and the left side of the brain is
really the metrics and measure I mean
just measure what works I know for
example that um I get excellent results
from certain activities even though I
you know personally prefer to do either
one but obviously I'll put my money on
the activities that are bringing in
leads and revenue and so you really want
to sort of have that jewel way of
thinking about prospecting on the one
hand do things that feel comfortable
that feel right that are in line with
who you are in your unique strengths but
on the other hand measure I would almost
say obsessively and compulsively
and really figure out what works I'm
Erin any thoughts on that
yeah I mean I think like I said I go
said I would say to pick five sort of
lead generation things to try but you
know if you find something working if
you have one or two or three things that
really work stick to fewer things doing
it doing fewer things better we need to
simplify our lives so try a bunch of
stuff but then don't feel like you need
to do a bunch of stuff just find what
works keep doing it do more of it and it
really takes baby steps over I would say
year is profession professional services
you know this is something a lot of
stuff especially if you're smaller it's
probably going to take you years to
develop into your messaging your systems
your legion your sales and you know for
me I know I've been focusing I've done
sales for 12 years now it's really the
last couple two or three years I really
focused or picked my niche put the book
out and I don't actually really measure
that much in data I guess I could say
more intuitive although it's important
but it's really served with best end
book and I'll probably you know we just
I you know working twenty five hours a
week will probably do tens of to tens of
thousands of rep and business each month
but it's really through just I would say
lots of baby steps trying lots of things
it doesn't work doesn't feel good stop
it if it either works or feels good do
more of it
after time and you know I just don't
like social media but if you like if you
love it go for it if you don't like it
don't do it plus that's I guess the I
can't reference right brain access right
brain and then just keep you know here
and there like admit I do like a metric
here and there once a while but it's not
something I spend I spend more time on
my clients metrics in my own but I know
just working so far
don't I mean I think if that's going to
sum up don't discount your feeling as
some stuff will work but doesn't feel
good other things may not work at first
but they feel good if you keep at it you
can we can make it work
absolutely Harun I know we're going to
need to wrap up here but I still for a
couple of things first off I still see
there's questions coming in what I'd
suggest is we're not going to be able to
answer all the questions that we've got
on the webinar we chat to either Aaron
or me by email or both of us and we'd be
happy to you know give you some form of
response if we get enough questions we
may end up writing a blog post together
and then we'll send you the link we will
put up a webinar replace if you want to
watch this again and the webinar repo
will be up you are free to watch it
yourself if you feel that's of interest
to others please share that across your
social media channels if you do put on a
live event and you know you can you're
welcome to use the video in a recording
or something do connect with Aaron and
me on LinkedIn Twitter and other forms
of social media we look forward to
hearing from you and with that Aaron
just one final thought any any final
thoughts of wisdom what's the one thing
that you really want people to remember
from this webinar the one that you want
to you know to give them that they'll
come away with and they'll retain yeah
well I would say that the practical tip
is you need to either special if you
have a team of people you have to
specialize them or if you don't have a
team you need to like block out
specialize your time and because
everything else will be harder it's like
trying to drive a car with flat tires if
you're not focusing I'm going then the
other the other sort of that was the
left brain tip the right brain tip is
you know business should feel good sales
should feel good if it doesn't
something's wrong I did the ideal sale
is where you get a sale and you feel
good and your clients feel good
so whether if it's not happening whether
it's the process the kind of work you're
doing the kind of company you're in the
kind of stuff you're selling kind of
people you're working with you know take
a hard look at it because it should not
you should not be you know feeling up
a guilty dem depressed frustrated
anxious or anything else when in what
you're doing alright I think thanks
Aaron that was wonderful I can't believe
that you know we're like 20 minutes
overtime and we've still got like 60 70
percent of people that started to call
with us you know I can't thank you
enough and to thank you I will give you
the single most important realization
that I had in terms of how to build my
business once I had this realization
literally everything changed and that is
that a sale is not an event it is a
process a sale is not an event it's a
process once you start realizing that a
sale is made after a number of steps so
you start seeing the steps or what they
are and you start putting in place very
practical easy to measure metrics and
you start really seeing what works
that's went in and tweaking that and
doing more of what Aaron calls doing
more to write things that's when you
start seeing exponential results I mean
it's like the visual metaphor that keep
having in my mind is you know walking on
the beach and two people are walking
alongside each other and one person just
you know shifts their their foot steps
to the left by maybe you know 10 degrees
and then half a mile down the road you
know you see where they end up that's
really the visual that I want you to
have in mind measuring is so important a
sale is not an event it is a process I
just want to say thank you so much for
everybody on the webinar really hope you
enjoyed it if you've got more questions
reach out to Aaron and me twitter
linkedin or email and we look forward to
hearing from you