NOTE: If you missed Step #1, it can be found here

Step #2: Turning Your Leads Into Sales

No matter how great your leads are, unless you have a solid follow up system in place, you won’t convert nearly as many as you could.  Once the follow up letters are written, tested and improved – you can send these out as often as possible and you will know that you can make $xx,xxx every single month as long as you are sending out a certain number of letters.

If your letter #1 converts 10% of your prospects into buyers, letter #2 converts 5%, and letter 3 converts 3% – you have 18% of your prospects that you can convert to paid clients – without a single meeting or phone call – the letters can do ALL the work.  

{insert video, email, autoresponder, etc in place of letter – the system is the same for all}

So remember, the goal of all these exercises is to build you a business system that makes you money month in and month out.  Something you can repeat, grow, or shrink, depending on how much business you need or don’t need.

The most powerful way to do your follow up is through direct mail, email, audio or video.  

Until now, they have put up their hand to say they are interested in your offer.  You have taken down their contact information and sent them the gift offered.  Now you need to get them to buy into your products and services.   And a 3 step follow up campaign is the most powerful way to close the deal.

I don’t have enough room here to properly show you how to create follow up campaigns that work.  But I can give you a formula to use throughout.

Have a look at www.smalldisplayads.com – notice the letter there.  It sells a $20 special report which converts very well.  The formula that I used there is the same one you should be using:

Attention – get them to read it right off the bat. The headline you use is KEY and will make or break your success with the follow up.  Some of the best formulas for headlines will be found in… you ready?… The national Enquirer and Cosmopolitan Magazine.  Those have some of the best headline writers in the world, and you had BETTER pay attention to how their write their cover headlines (email me if you want a list of the 100 most effective headlines ever written – email address at end of this chapter).  Right under the headline you need to continue with the same thought you were on in the headline.  Leading to…

Interest – You got them to stop and read your letter.  Now you need to build up their interest and show them you have something that they will want (if you have done your research, targeted the right person, and gotten them to put up their hand for more information… you know they are interested).  Now you have to build on that interest and further the reason for them to keep reading…

Desire – This is where you introduce to them an incredible offer that they have ever seen before.  I like to bundle numerous products or services together and offer them a fabulous deal on the bundle (call the bundle something different so they can never compare apples to apples with your competitors).  Offer them an incredible guarantee.  A price plan.  Testimonials from happy clients.  Proof that you deliver on your promises. And then…

Action – The most important (yet neglected) step in the entire marketing system.  Ask them to take action NOW.  Give them reasons and incentives to visit or buy right now.  Give them every reason in the book to trust you.  And make sure they understand what will happen if they don’t take action NOW.

Not exactly rocket science – but it certainly makes money on demand.

Step #3: Measuring And Testing

As mentioned previously, you need to track EVERYTHING.  Noting what works, what didn’t, how well it works or didn’t, exactly what you did, etc. The easiest way to do this is keep a simple excel spreadsheet (or something similar) detailing everything that has happened. Then it is time to rank the results you got.

Rank it:

1 – stellar success and either brought in a ton of sales, new leads, or positive comments from your customers and prospects.

2 – marginally successful – broke even on profits (or small profit), got a few new leads or positive comments

3 – not good results at all – lost money or time for nothing, no new leads or sales, no one even noticed you during your attempt

4 – disgustingly bad – big loser, negative feedback and comments, complete waste of time for your business

Rank everything you have done in your marketing campaigns – from 1 through 4.

Then separate them into 1’s and 2’s (the winners) – then another group of 3’s and 4’s (the losers). The 1’s and 2’s you are going to do again… the rest you will hold off for now and revisit them in 6 months or so (things change – what didn’t work now may work exceptionally well in 6 months – the internet and society is on warp drive right now – never throw out your test results).

You can even go further into detail and give your honest thoughts on why some things worked and didn’t. These notes you make could be worth a fortune to you in 6 or 12 months.  Rather than reinventing the wheel – you may find you tested it already but forgot it didn’t work – or did work.

Now write out how you can make them better, more fun, more exciting, more profitable, more enticing, more powerful, more appealing to the emotions… anything you can think of to make it better – write it down.

Post these types of results on a regular basis.

Keep in marketing results binder – review monthly – or whenever you need new promotion ideas.

With the above example – you would definitely want to run ALL the 1’s at least one more time a year, test the 2’s again – and don’t bother running the 3’s.

THINGS TO TEST
(only test one thing at a time or test is invalid, test must be run to exact same list or publication as initial control)

Put in columns
Free samples
Quantity discounts
Method of payments (cash, check, ccard, multiple credit card options, purchase orders, extended payments)
Method of response: phone, mail, email, web, fax, in-store
Regular envelop vs larger
Live stamps vs pre-printed
Teaser copy on envelope vs none
Window envelope vs regular
Signature in blue ink vs black
Different headlines
Handwriting in margins or spread throughout
1 page letter vs multiple page
Opening paragraph
Change the PS
Color vs black and white
Font size
Different font
Bonus bundles
Deadlines vs no deadlines
Write as if from you vs write as if from someone else (staff, spouse, client, supplier)

[NOTE: Do NOT ask your friends, family, or co-workers for their impressions on your marketing! They are the worst ones to ask.  Either hire a professional, use the templates here as a foundation, or test your campaign to see the real results.  I can’t count how many times a spouse or employee has completely destroyed the effectiveness of a campaign with their “thoughts about it”.  Stick with the formula here – it works in the real world.  Your best friends advice doesn’t work in the real world... guaranteed]

Once you have a campaign that works for you–keep using it! 

Don’t stop just because you are tired of it.  Send it out to every new lead that comes in the door. If it works once – it will work again.  That is the beauty of this kind of marketing.  You write a direct response campaign using the principles laid out here, you test the results, you try variations of, find a winner, and keep using the winner as many times, and as often as humanly possible.

That is how fortunes are made and how small businesses become big businesses (or at least very profitable businesses, for those who want to keep it small).

A CHALLENGE TO YOU…

Don’t just read this post, take action on it.

NOTHING good comes from inaction.

…especially in marketing and sales.

Troy

PS: Note something on the sales system here… real success in this type of marketing is based on using stories.  Stories are proven (Carnegie Mellon study) to outsell facts based promotions by 180%.

Don’t fight the desire to crawl under a rock when asked to share your story… DO IT.  The more stories of your past and present experiences… the more people will like and buy form you.

The simple addition of more of your back story is the simplest way to generate a following of prospects and buyers.

DON’T HIDE IT!

Most entrepreneurs seem to be scared or embarrassed about their beginnings.  Yet, to those who pay you for products and services, it is one of the MOST important things about you.

Don’t kid yourself…

…you have competition out there… LOTS of them.

Your buyers could choose you or one of a handful of others.

So product isn’t how you differentiate yourself (and trying to win in the long run on price is a losing battle)

Your STORY is how you win them over.  TELL IT!

Starting with this step-by-step home study program to get it out there http://www.storysellingtips.com

Adding the story in helped one company go from $500 a month in online sales to $15,000 a month!  Just by adding a single page on their site that shared their story in a compelling way.
What could it do for YOUR site?   http://www.storysellingtips.com