A Message from Revved Results

We hope you are having a rockin' 2012 so far! Check out the article below for a time-tested process you can put in place to attract more clients.
 

Attract More Clients with This Proven ROI Process

This isn't a shocker: networking is a best practice for drumming up new prospects.

Most people would agree with that statement but where most people miss the boat is a lack of strategic direction on making it a process that regularly reaps ROI.

Rather than attending an event sporadically and expecting your attempt to bear fruit, make it a conscious and committed effort to get results. Not everyone likes networking (for some that may be putting it mildly) but there's no doubt it works if you put in the time and energy.

Here's a short list of potential action items to consider when crafting your defined process:

• As a center owner/operator, commit to attending 1-2 networking events per week with a goal of having meaningful conversations with five potential prospects per event -- and thereby collecting their business cards for follow up. Also, require the same of all your center managers if you have multiple locations. Then inspect the behaviors you expect by having them send you an email at month-end debriefing the events they attended and the list of potential prospects or Circle of Influencer (COI: one that may not be a prospect but is likely to refer you business). Reward the behaviors of employees that hit the mark monthly (and quarterly for those who do it consistently) and give incentives for those that go above and beyond.
   
• If networking isn't your thing (perhaps you don't like it or think you could be more effective), or if you are a single center operation and you find it difficult to attend them all yourself, find somebody to be your proxy. Your "somebody" could be a part-time employee, stay-at-home-Mom-friend, or even competent college intern that you pay per hour to attend networking events 3-4 times per week as a representative of your center. Yes, that may sound slightly crazy but this is about crafting a strategy and making it happen. That person doesn't need to know all the ins and outs of your business but they do need to be VERY clear on the value propositions of your center and why someone would want to office there over anywhere else. They need to be sales-oriented, charismatic, and professional. You would of course need to do a mini-new employee orientation to be sure they understand how important it is that they be an extension of your brand when attending an event. The bottom line is that the person attending the networking events simply needs to exude passion and confidence in spreading the word about your extraordinary workspace.
   
• Each prospect or COI entered into the CRM should get two follow-up touches within 48 hours. The goal isn't to bombard them with salesy info. Unless they specifically stated interest in a tour or pricing, your follow up should be a very simple "Nice to meet you/l'll let you know if I can refer you business/Keep us in mind for workspace needs" and an invite to an upcoming event hosted at your location. Obviously not all business cards collected will be good, or even qualified prospects and that's ok. The goal is to grow your network of contacts that view YOU as THE go-to resource for shared workspace needs.
   
• Regularly attend a great variety of networking events for an ever-widening pool of prospects but only sponsor (or fully commit) to a small handful of groups.

Once you have your defined networking process, next you need to define your strategy for staying visible and becoming the top-of-mind workspace for all of your contacts.

In order to accomplish staying top-of-mind, you must treat your database like gold!

The contact database is one of the most underutilized profit centers in businesses today. The most successful companies put a clear process in place for managing their contacts. Whatever CRM system you choose to use (Morningstar, Salesfore.com, Microsoft Office Business Contact Manager, ACT, etc), make sure your people know the process for how to add, update, and edit contact information. You may even have a business rule in place that says all new contacts are added to the system within a given timeframe. For example, if a center manager attends a chamber event or association networking meeting, all business cards gathered should be entered into your CRM within 24-48 hours.

But that's just the start of your database management. The next critical piece is utilizing your database to STAY VISIBLE. Think of your database as a marketing arm of your company; use it as your highly-valuable direct email marketing service. Your list should include prospects, past clients, COIs, neighboring businesses that could think of you for overflow, etc. In order to successfully utilize this profit center, you must have a communication strategy in place for regularly staying in front of the contacts in your system. That doesn't mean bombarding them with daily or weekly discount emails...that will get your emails straight into the e-garbage can.

Your communication strategy could be a varied approach:

• send a monthly newsletter with high-value content that your audience will care about and continuously open;
   
• send a monthly invitation to a hosted event at your center(s) - give them a reason to come to your location;
   
• send a sporadic promotion that looks high quality with a "Forward to a Friend" button for those that don't need office space but may have friends that do! (You may include a video testimonial from a client raving about your workspace.)

Sound complicated? It's not. It's a matter of investing strategic planning time upfront to define your process for networking and database management, and you can make the rest easy. If you commit to developing this process, attracting tenfold more clients is guaranteed.  

Have a wonderful end of March and stay tuned for our next e-newsletter in April!

Best,

Lisa E. & Lisa O.

P.S. Thanks to WUN Systems for sponsoring this newsletter!

  

Lisa Engelmann, CEO 

Lisa Olsonoski, President

Tel:  612-337-9599

Fax: 612-338-0359

Email: info@revvedresults.com

Web: www.RevvedResults.com

Revved Results, Inc.

701 Fourth Avenue South, Suite 500

Minneapolis, MN 55415