Over the last few weeks marketing strategies and lead generation have been the focus of what we are sharing. Not just for the good of everyone’s health though of course it will help. Through our conversations with clients and colleagues we know that this time of year starts many of us thinking about our own sales targets. How far behind are we! Or with summer around the corner, what is actually possible? This leads to the key question – you know, the one! – What do we need to do to achieve that magical 100% and beyond?
We are business owners just like you and client acquisition is always at the forefront of our mind. As a recruitment business owner you will also be thinking about how will you attract those candidates that all your clients clamor over? We help clients map out their own marketing and sales strategy and we base it around what is currently working in the current market. Something we always suggest to people is work on long term and short term priorities.
This blog post will focus on short term planning. The short ones being a 90 day cycle. Way back when (the 80’s actually), I was trained to work in a sales cycle. It worked just as well then as it does today. The activities might have changed slightly, this is probably the only difference. No matter what you see online about this being new and state of the art it isn’t… it is classic stuff that works. I digress. Today then let’s have a look at what we could do over the next 90 days.
This is where I am meant to say…” start with the end in mind!” First it is a great idea to get a handle on one of two key priorities in your business.
1. Map Out Your Diary
If you are a recruitment consultant, training company or service provider of any shape or form, you will have time when you are delivering client work. This might be interviewing, delivering, training etc. This is a key priority. Planning it out in a diary or wall planner works. Top tip – also plan in your prep time. I am sure you do it already or is it just me that sometimes forgets :-(. To help with our own planning we have started to use monthly and 90 day planners.
You can download them for free at this website – Marketing Strategy Planner. From a web marketing consultant and excited geek, this might sound strange but I print them off and write in the boxes. Being visual and kinesthetic, it seems to have a positive effect, similar to writing down your goal list at the start of a year. It then stays on the desk where it is always front of mind. Below is a quick shot of a 90 day planner that I started 10 minutes ago. By next week, it will all be mapped out till the middle of August.
By doing this you can see your own priorities and where you might have to outsource work as we all have a life. Plan in your personal activities as well. All work and no play can make us rather dull. I know it happened to me about 2 years ago. Thankfully I am nearly fully recovered.
2. Decide On An Offer Or Service
Now the fun starts. Decide what you want to promote. This is a promotional cycle for you. It could be, your current service profiled in a different way, a new coaching programme, a new service, a new range of products either digital or physical. It might even be an offer to a new market you have identified that you want to work with… and one of the best ones to implement is an offer to your current and lapsed clients. Remember that people do forget about you and your service and it isn’t personal.
3. Decide On 2-3 Marketing And Sales Strategies
Some people might say just focus on one marketing or sales strategy only. For some people that might work, if you have tested everything for years and know all your numbers in details (call me a cynic and it is unlikely). We are sharing what works for us. Our own experience is multiple marketing strategies give us more options.
Top Tip: Always include offline (networking, telemarketing, advertisements, an event) and online (optimizing your website, a webinar or teleseminar, social networking, email marketing, online press releases, forum marketing) marketing strategies. Measure the results and GET YOUR TEAM TO DO THEM CONSISTENTLY FOR 30 DAYS. Promise me you won’t give up ? Three is a real magic number and 30 days doing anything will give you a real sense of what is working.
To get you going just get a piece of paper and write down everything that comes to mind. No judgements write everything down, even the stuff you don’t like doing. The first ones that pop out are likely to be the ones that give clues to what is working for you.
In summary decide if this is something you want to do. It works by the way. You have to do this consistently if you want your pipeline full of clients. Below are the actions Sharon and I will be taking over the next couple of weeks as we plan our own series of promotions.
Suggested Actions:
- Availability plan and current client projects
- Set our Goal i.e turnover, clients, proposals out
- Offers for our different markets
- Agree our 3 key marketing strategies
- Plan out our content and value strategy
- Plan our activity by day
- Plan out our Webinars and Contact Strategy
- Set our Milestones
- Monitor and evaluation process
