Thanks for joining me for this training today. I want to cover the concept of developing strategic planning or prototyping or trial offers so you’re able to make these small offers to prospects who maybe aren’t quite ready to buy the full package. My name is Emanuel Rose – my company is Strategic eMarketing. I’ve been selling B-to-B for the last 20-plus years and as a marketing agency owner for the last 11. Often what happens when either business owners, managers, or CEOs are having a conversation with me about marketing campaigns, they have a specific need – something is triggering action. Maybe it’s a new product release or a big project completion, and they need to develop some more business for a number of reasons, or maybe it’s just their marketing is out of date.
The website’s old. They’re not doing certain tactics. They know they should be posting on LinkedIn or email marketing. So, when we get to the end of the first talk, they’ll say, can you send me a proposal?
And my response is, well, before we get to that part, is the project that we’ve been talking about born from a strategic planning process? 99 times out of 100, the answer is no. It’s just the top of the list of things on fire, and they’re reaching out, getting perspective. So, my guidance is, and this works about half the time, about 50% of a close in a scenario where it hasn’t been developed from strategic planning, my offer is to do five to 10 hours of a quick plan that will then lead to creating the big plan. That should get them the outcomes they came for.
This provides a number of benefits for the client. One is that they get to test drive my agency and myself. And it’s a low-cost way to try how it is to work together. Two, because I make the commitment that they can take the plan and have anybody implement it, they’re not wedded to us. They have a chance to then still get the project done that they need. So, their money is being spent correctly.
And for me, it generates some quick cash flow for the agency, which is always good. I essentially get to write our proficiencies into their plan of action while still meeting their objectives. So, it’s beneficial for both companies and it’s a good way forward to test each other out. Plus, it gets us transacting. That’s the biggest thing.
I’m not working for free. They’re committed to the planning process because we have to do that planning anyway. And this way, it’s not something that my company is doing for free. The way that I’ve seen it work for other clients is, as an example, I have a client that’s a manufacturing company. They do the specking and prototyping of a new product that is broken out as its own mini project, and it serves the same function.
It gets prospects into a buying cycle quickly and gets everybody’s attention very cleanly. So that’s the process that I use to take prospects and develop them as paying clients quickly and then generate long-term revenue from those planning clients. I hope this helps you get out there and sell something.