Free business tips: Ready to create a stampede?

Free business tips: Ready to create a stampede? : by Jason Li 2012 ©

Free business tips, we all love them...

I do. I like to read ideas that can help me...

And I pay for ideas that work too.

In fact, there are some products I’ve bought...

Just after finding the free version provided great value...

I would never have seen value without learning about them from their free business tip.

Take the great sales gurus Gitomer and Brian Tracey; I initially read a few articles they wrote, and watched YouTube videos for free to know what value they could bring to me. Since taking the free information and actively trying some of the ideas I have found they worked really well; and so I went on to buy products from them.

Picture taken from www.Telegraph.co.uk.

Iceberg theory: Sample business tips will prevent losing prospects interests

How many prospective customers do you speak to? Or if you hire sales people then how many do your sales people speak to, or your whole business including website, leaflet ads, newspaper ads, word-of-mouth – how many do you speak to? It could be hundreds per month. As you may realise, there are so many ways new prospects are interacting with your business without you as the owner knowing about it.

Another problem is how many of these prospects are interested or would be happy to start using your products and services and haven’t: “Because of just one thing....”?

It is usually because of that “one thing” that prospects don’t turn into customers, they walk away; and you won’t know why because no-one in your business spoke to them about your offer - so how could you know? They saw your ad and were keen to buy - apart from just one thing. “Oh come on, give a business a chance,” I hear you say.

At this point you didn’t even know they were ‘in your shop’, so-to-speak. In fact, the sales process started when they saw your ad or heard about you from a friend, not in your shop or your forecourt or on the phone. Selling started before any human interaction.

Imagine an iceberg, and think of a huge one as you will like this. The actual people you speak to are possibly only 1 – 3% of the conversion of a direct mail or newspaper ad campaign. That means up to 99% of your target market you rolled out your marketing promotions campaign to did not personally speak to your business. But in fact, your business did speak at them, when they read your ads or listened to a pitch by a friend who recommended you.

1.       So the prospects you did not speak to in person are the rest of the iceberg.

2.       Your potential revenue are prospects that your business has spoken at so they know you exist: but not yet truly convinced and engaged in person.

Offer sample business tips to your iceberg

Not everyone likes to buy on the first chance meeting, even if you are a known brand. I’ve been there myself. I knew about Golf cars since I was a kid as my dad is a car fanatic who loves What Car magazine and Top Gear. He always said buy Golf for good fuel economy, then remind me a few weeks later how Golf’s are great for safety and so on. But my I never bought a Golf for years. And then I got a free test drive (all test drives are free) while at the garage, and I liked it.

You see, I was interested, but was never ready to make the leap. Your prospects are maybe the same, they’re kind of ready to do business, but also kind of not as inertia (can’t be bothered to change due to hassle etc) stops people doing things.

‘So what you can do is break down the big change to a very tiny little minimal change by using a way for prospect to try a sample business experience from you and start to get prospects used to using your products and services.’

Online business tips

I have covered before in this blog the availability of using website resources to generate and move prospects through the sales funnel. (See Start Here for new ideas.) In the age of the internet, it is worth finding a way to allow prospects to visit your website to learn more about your business.

Once I see an ad or hear about a good experience by a friend, I instantly check the business out on the internet. If your website is good, then you can move me through the sales funnel. This is without even speaking to me directly or me knowing anything about your business apart from either hearing a recommendation or a seeing something somewhere on a poster or a leaflet.

So now your content on the website has to use marketing strategy to engage me to desire what you can offer and move me to bridge the gap, from some interest and doing nothing, to maybe making contact or start saving towards buying what you can offer. Your website has to capture and look after your iceberg of prospects.

Download business tips

Allow prospective customers to download special reports or samples from your website. It does not have to be the product itself. 

A good download business tip is to create vouchers to encourage prospects to visit your store or call in. You could go a step further and ask prospects to email in and you can email back a voucher or code for them to use. It helps people who can’t be bothered or teetering on the edge of doing something, known in marketing as the Tipping Point.

In fact, get your whole iceberg into your establishment with a voucher: that would be fun!

In summary:

·         If prospects see your ads or you get recommended by a friend, the selling process has started.

·         Anyone that is aware of your business is in your iceberg.

·         Prospects may be interested but just one thing can stop them buying – and you may lose that prospect.

·         So use a website and the free business tips above to engage and tip the prospect into an action to try a sample of your products and services – the decision is easier and less risky for prospects – so more prospects will come out of the woodwork and volunteer to try.

·         The ones that like the sample will go on to buy the full fat version – which means more revenue for you.

·         Try it this week. And please share this article if you believe these free business tips are helpful.

So don’t miss out on prospective customers who have become aware of your business and not taken it further. The ideas above should stimulate a way for you to develop a way to get more people in your iceberg to speak to you. It’s a new coded language, I know.