“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” Ephesians 6:7

Over the next several months, I will be sharing with you different areas of communications that affect your business, negatively or positively.

Selling advertising is one of the hardest types of sales in the marketing and sales arena. Why? Because we do not have a physical product, and our customers cannot use any of their senses to buy our product. What we sell is hope, and how do you justify ROE (return on investment) on hope?

I have learned over the years of selling ads for The Shepherd’s Guide that when we sell an ad, it is then our responsibility to do all within our scope of ability to create awareness of our advertisers to our niche market. Then, after we bring them awareness, it is the advertiser’s responsibility to convert them from a prospect to a loyal client.

What creates the conversion of prospects into loyal clients is communication. As a consumer, I want to know that you do not just want to sell me a product but that you care about me! While you have paid lots of attention to me while you are trying to sell your product, will you forget about me once you have closed the sale and I’ve paid you? This, my friend, is not a Biblical principle. Every person that comes into your circle of influence is brought there by God, and it is your responsibility to continue looking after your client, or someone else will.

Next month, we will talk about communications for client retention. But for this tidbit, I will share some tips on how to communicate to build a strong prospect database that will give you the best chance at conversion.

If you wait for sales to come to you, you will be waiting a long time to build your business. Even if you advertise anywhere and everywhere, it will take a long time to build your brand and a solid business. If you think of Coke or Pepsi, you may think that all it took was for them to build a brand, but if you study their history, you will find it took them years to get a foothold in their market.

Did you know that it is a proven fact that it takes at least 19 communications to convert a prospect into a sale? Let me take you through our conversion processes to open your mind to some creative ideas you may use to communicate.

• Our very first step in our prospecting process is to believe in our product. Have you done all you can to create the best product possible, knowing that you are continually working for your customers to provide them the best value for the dollars they will spend with you?
• With the blessing of the internet, we use it as a tool to find new prospects. We have a team of researchers that look through our prospects’ websites to see if they would be a good fit for The Shepherd’s Guide. If they are, the contact information is added to that prospecting area of our database.
• We have set criteria that allow our researchers to know whether a lead may be a good fit for our business. Now it is time to find out if they, the prospect, believe we are a good fit for them. We make a phone call and send an email telling them all about us, being clear that if they want to be removed from our list of contacts, they should let us know. An uninterested database is worth nothing.
• With the onset of social media, if you are selling to a business, it is worth it to take the time to like their social media pages. It shows them that you want to do more for them.
• Now that they are in our email rotations, they will receive a chance to win prizes as they learn about who we are. This works two-fold as we promote our advertisers in those contest emails.
• They will also receive this monthly tidbit that links them back to our site.
• In our database, we have them listed by category, so if we do not have an advertiser in that category, we will send them a lead if we have a reader asking for a referral.
• Our system keeps our prospects in our contact database for a 3-year period. If they do not purchase an ad with us in those three years, we move them to a lessening of contact but never forget them completely.
• I hope this information helps you to remember that sales are all about relationships. Take time to get to know your prospects, know what they need, and then do your absolute best to provide them the best product you can provide. Find 19 ways you can touch your prospects!