A couple weeks ago a client of mine was going to test a marketing campaign I had prepared for him. For this campaign we were marketing to renovation companies, small homebuilders, roofing companies, siding companies etc.

We had a big list, as well, with all the major builders in the city we were targeting.

The reason he came to me was that his sales numbers were down quite a bit from the past few years.

His competitors were getting very aggressive on the price, and his type of business isn’t that much different from one competitor to the next. But price slashing to match the competition is never something I lead with, nor agree with.

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Better marketing is usually the solution that wins in the end.
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While your competitors beat the crap out of each other on price, ultimately they start realizing you can’t keep running a business without making a profit, and doors start closing.

Price battles are good for one thing in my eyes – it thins out the competition left in the end!

In his case, they are starting to drop like flies as their prices aren’t sufficient enough to cover all the business operating costs.

So we had to find some unique ways to win the battle based on something other than price.

A two-page introductory letter was written (step one in the sequence).

A database was compiled with all the major players, and all the smaller players.

He didn’t want to approach the big players yet, fearing that they were ALL about the cheapest price.

The initial campaign was to go out to the smaller companies from our list.

The problem was …

… They e-mailed the two-pager to EVERYONE on the database we had.

At first, he was just a little ticked.

Until the phone calls started coming in.

And the emails.

Not by the small companies alone … a majority of them were from the big boys.

And they LOVED the letter we sent them.

Here is one comment we got back by one of the biggest homebuilders in the city:

Thanks for taking the time to write such a great intro letter for your company. I see many profile letters every week, however yours was particularly engaging. I applaud you for creating something very unique. It’s very refreshing to read something with a personal touch.

Thank you for the offer of the iTunes gift card, but it is not necessary. I just wanted you to know your profile letter has two great values that I feel are very important in business – honesty and passion.

I wish you all the success with this.

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A couple things I wanted to point out about this:
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1. It was a two-page introductory letter. You don’t need to
write a 24-page sales letter to open doors and make money.

Go through the archives on my blog at www.troysblog.com
and you will get hundreds of articles that will help you
write compelling introductory letters.

USE what is being taught here … and find ways to make it
fit your business.

But don’t let the idea of a 24-page introductory letter
hold you back from testing these strategies in your industry.

2. It was a very personal letter … selling the idea of a
phone call. We even offered them an iTunes gift card if they just
phoned to give feedback on the letter.

This is a business-to-business sales campaign here … and
a personal letter is not commonly used (as you can see by the one
prospect’s comments above).

The KEY is: This approach is not typically used. The
competition sells on price or sends out glossy brochures that say
little and look like every other brochure out there.

3. We spoke about his family, about the economy, and about
their specific industry. We showed them that there was a real
person behind the letter … versus trying to be a big behemoth
corporation that has no face or personality.

Your competitors mistakenly believe that trying to be a
big corporation is the way to sell … while these days’ people
are buying from real people who are willing to put their face
front and center.

4. We weren’t trying to pitch them on anything, other than an
introduction call. We even offered them an incentive to call or
e-mail their honest thoughts on the letter.  We got great
feedback, all positive so far, AND we got a lot of doors opened
by big companies and small.

We are a week into the campaign and have seen an 18% response to
the first letter.  There are more steps in the sequence just
about to go out, that will grow the response rate quite a bit.

What is important to you?

… My client was worried the big companies would be all about
the price … actually testing the campaign has shown it to not
be so. They wanted alternatives to their present suppliers, and
they wanted a person they can call and point fingers at if they
needed to.

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Are YOU thinking big enough?
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In this case, we got ‘lucky’ and a mistake was made with the
mailing.  It went to people who he thought were too big for him.

Are you limiting your success by thinking too small?

I have a friend of mine who is an artist.

Rather than accepting the “poor artist” title that is usually
hung on creative types like him, he took it into his own hands.
Rather than selling his art work one-off and thinking small …
he questioned how he could sell his art work at a premium, to
large volume buyers.

How would you sell a product like this?

He created a membership model for corporations.  Once they are
members, they can buy his art work in volumes to use as
giveaways.

Rather than selling one-off art prints, he sells 100, 200, even
1,000 at a time to big companies.  They buy them like this
because they can now give away beautiful, framed artwork, instead
of a baseball cap or golf shirt (which is what everyone else
gives away). His clients love it because they are giving away
very high value items.

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Moving into the last of the year … are you thinking BIG
ENOUGH?
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Are you letting preconceived limitations hold you back?

Could you sell to a bigger type of company?

Like my one client who got an exceptional response (by mistake)
by focusing on the biggest buyers in the business, rather than
the small ones he was used to dealing with.

Or could you sell in volume vs. one-off.

Could you partner with suppliers and have them endorse you to
their database?  Who is your biggest supplier?  How can they help
you grow in the coming months or years?

Who is your biggest buyer now?  Have you approached them to find
out how you could get in front of more quality clients like them?

Take a serious look at how you sell, and who you sell to.

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How could you double the size or quantity
of buyers you are dealing with?
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Think it through.

Sometimes you get lucky and a mistake is made like my client had
happen.

That mistake showed him a great opportunity he was going to
bypass.

Instead of waiting for the right mistake to be made … why not
aggressively TRY and double or triple the number of people you
are selling to?

Bigger buyers.

More buyers.

Buyers who want your product or service in bulk, instead of
one-time only.

JV partners that are the biggest in the business.

People and companies who have access to large volumes of your
“perfect clients.”

Now is the time to think bigger than ever.

You never know when a grandiose goal will become reality!

And it happens a lot faster when you are actively out there
testing out new ideas, new approaches, and new marketing
campaigns.

Get busy … and let me know your results.

To your success,

Troy White

PS: This post was originally written for my blog posts at
smallbusinessmastery.com

Also… if you want to see and use a letter like this in your
business, become an Entrepreneur MoJo Member before end of day
Friday and you will not only get the November edition, all the
bonuses that are outlined at http://entrepreneurmojo.com/mymojo/
– you will ALSO get a template that follows the exact same
formula I used in the letter above.

This letter alone could make you a bundle.  Use the exact same
letter format I used and you will see results like he did.

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Sign up here before Friday and you get all of that,
plus the letter template

http://entrepreneurmojo.com/mymojo/
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