Scaling up your business for multiple lead generation

Scaling up your business for multiple lead generation: by Jason Li 2012 ©

If you are a small business and working all hours of the day, but want more revenue as your reward, then scaling up your business is the next step.

Here are some answers if you’ve been wanting to generate a few more leads or customers every week for your business.

In fact, from what I’ve seen... being good at lead generation is vital to business success.

To help you scale up in terms of offering more for new and existing customers...

So that they can spend more money with you without adding much costs to you.

Scaling up

Scaling up your business is the way you can keep increasing your business so that it expands and brings in more revenue. So I’m going to share a several secrets that I’ve seen – and best of all they are all practically doable without needing too much training.

This can either be done yourself, or by working with other people.

Once you have found a way to begin scaling up, you can just keep on adding more add-ons until your business grows to a size that is much bigger than it is today.

Scaling up small businesses with more lead generation

When you are self employed then you do absolutely everything in the business...

In fact, small businesses with two or three people tend to work this way as well. So it can feel really hard to even contemplate ways of scaling up your business.

So here I’m going to share some kick-ass leverage and lead generation methods for those of you who think it would make a difference – because you’re busy and you want answers now.

Now scaling up a small business is not easy. I have seen businesses that have only one product range or a small amount of portfolio services or products on offer and really wanted to expand. Their only solution at the time was to maybe sell more of the same. An example would be a retailer locating another retail site so that they can now go from having one shop to two shops.

Obviously, this is great if you have a thriving business and can look to get a new retail shop financed with money in the bank. But not everyone can instantly afford to get another site up-and-running. What if you have no money? How long will you wait to get the money?

There is an alternative. I have seen many owners implement ways of scaling up small business in ingenious ways without having to wait years for a new site. In fact, just copying how the larger businesses do it in the following way will do you no harm.

Using ‘leverage’ in your business

Imagine you want to lift a boulder. Remember when you were kids and you came across sitting on swings and you went back-and-forth to get really high up; well in ancient times engineers used systems like these to move boulders with levers and ropes so they could move huge heavy objects that no human alone could move.

We are going to use the same practical method of using a lever to allow a small business or self employed person to leverage their business: so that a small amount of input using leverage will create a bigger output.

Leverage methods

The first and most important is using the internet: If you sell products then find a business that sells products in a similar nature to you on the internet and work out how you can apply it. Stick with this as it’s more than the obvious stated so far.

Let’s say you sell cartons of juice in packs of three, then you can start by looking at other juice etailers. Look at all the various methods they use to scale up. Next, look at businesses who sell other low cost items too that might not be juice but in multipacks; it could be packs of three tennis balls. How did they do things which your business can use as a solution? Look at the packaging, the offer, bundling with other products as examples.

Let’s say you are a dry cleaner, how could you get more passing traffic to stop and drop-off and pick-up? MacDonalds and car wash places have drive through mechanisms. Could your dry cleaner have one side of the business for drop-offs and one side for pick-ups in the shop? Could you even have a drive through for vehicles to pass clothes through a window on one lane, and collections on another window? Could you join up with a petrol station or grocery shop?

Your take away: leverage other business methods to increase your lead generation

Digital leverage methods

There will be a business out there with the same problem that came up with an internet solution that you can implement in your business. Imagine having an ecommerce site that worked in generating orders and leads without having to put money down on retail sites, or not waiting for another site in order to expand the business.

Is it possibly in any way for you to use the internet to leverage what you do? Read on for more ideas.

Digitise products

Is there any way possible for you to digitise what you do? What? Say that again? What I mean is, can you create a digital version of what you do; your products or services? Chefs and restaurants can create ebooks on how to cook meals that sell on the internet, teachers can create videos which students buy as standard lessons, teachers can provide one-to-one bespoke lessons on Skype, and businesses can create audio files to download to offer advice such as accountants, business coaches or nutritionists. These will reach people who have no time or cannot use your services immediately.

What about other products? If you have toys then you might have vlogs – video blogs - to teach kids how to do more such as Lego videos,  for business people on how to turn your smart phone into a business tool, or a hedge trimmer into ‘Average Joe’s’ favourite sculpturing tool.

Don’t just think of your local market, think country wide; worldwide even. Just think, your business could have a customer lying on deck chairs around a pool in sunny Monaco now, and she is telling her friends about your digital product that she can’t get locally.

Your take away: When you digitise, you get more people finding ways to use your products, reach more people, and give customers the opportunity to share with other people who might find your offer interesting.

Partnership Leverage methods

Partner with other product suppliers: Let’s say you are a photographer, could you create a website that includes promoting the photographic studio you use for a referral fee, partner with a wedding planner, partner with a video recording service, or add on a gallery to sell your product and exclusively other peoples stock, or partner with a camera shop to provide camera lessons to enthusiasts, or partner with a walking group, or partner with a site seeing tour.

Your take away: partnerships give you multiple ways of generating revenue and more touch points with potential clients.

Cash flow

Digital products allows you to scale up without having to spend lots of money upfront.

 In partnerships, as customers use other partner products and services, you can be promoted to them as a trusted partner. Doing it this way might be of no cost to you when using partners.

If it really succeeds, then it also provides you great feedback, and much more revenue. If you have a channel (partner) that brings in plenty of new customers then you will know what this type of customer likes. So if your leads keep coming from a walking group and they want your photography expertise you can expand on this area.

So how much can you scale up your business to a higher level from these ideas and practical methods?

Will any new lead generation ideas bring you new streams of income and more revenue? Will ideas like these add value to your business?

If you know of any businesses that may find the information here worth reading, please Pay It Forward.

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How free business advice from Networking will save you £1000s annually

How free business advice from Networking will save you £1000s annually: by Jason Li 2012 ©

Businesses all want free business advice...

That’s why successful business people speak to other staff and their business network for ideas...

Even millionaire’s get advice in cigar rooms...

It’s a great way to improve your business for free...

In fact, I worked as a business advisor for a business advisory agency that was an offshoot of Business Link. Clients that wanted help found we saved them thousands of pounds from the advice, and possibly hundreds of hours in guiding them in terms of knowing pitfalls to consider.

Recently I was listening to an entrepreneur who just sold one of his businesses in the last couple of years for a few million dollars - and he is still reading every day for new ideas to improve his other businesses. So if he is still learning, then there really is no excuse for anyone else to put in an hour or two a week in learning more.

Free business advisory help

When was the last time you asked someone to help you with something that has been bugging you? There must be something that you want an answer to but have just never asked anyone. You know, something you see every-so-often or makes you wince when you hear it from customers.

There’s always people you know, whether its businesses on your street to people in your network who can help you – at no cost. These are resources that may have had the same problem as you and tested out different solutions. Imagine the feedback you can get from these people to save your investment in time and money so that you can get to the right solution quicker.

Free business help

How often do you go to a networking event to meet both people you know and new people? Is it all based around just selling to each other; you know: “Everyone’s selling but no-one’s buying”. In groups of three or four people holding a drink just waiting to be asked, “So what do you do?” and then you’re off the leash like a dog in the biggest greenest field, alas – free running with your pitch.

But no, it’s not your turn to bore people stupid. Remember you were looking over their shoulder while they were feature dumping you everything possible about their product or service, so what makes you more interesting? Try giving a summary of what you do, then...

”Why not try to ask each person to help you at your next event with two problems that you want solving by the end of the month. See what happens. What is there to lose?

If you want broadband that does not go down or has quicker upload time, ask people for advice.

If you are struggling with book keeping or expensive and difficult book keeping software, ask other owners how they do it better or make it easier.

In business, we all want to improve revenue; but improving business operations is also important. So next time you speak with people, don’t just pitch your service, ask for knowledge to improve your business too. It’s also more productive for you to use a contact as a referral sale for your business and as a productivity contact. Plus your contact will feel really good if they help you, and it may solidify your relationship.

‘You can now get two benefits out of each contact: for a referral sale and productivity advice’.

Free business services

Some places have advisors like your local business support agency or wealth managers so use them for free advice. And they also hold events. These are great to meet new important contacts.

Every contact has something which can add value to your business.

Or you can set up your own event. If you have the mindset of seeing each business contact as a valuable information source for you then you will reap the benefits.

Free business information

Another important way to gain leverage from your network is to give them free business information. As you can see from this blog, I give out information to people who read about business ideas and practical methods. It’s something I enjoy, and I hope to pass on as much knowledge as possibly, especially from other business people with valuable business ideas so that readers can always improve their business. People who like my blog will one day refer to their network to visit my blog which benefits me in the long run.

Can you use free business advice from networking to save money?

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Build sales pipeline and you will build an empire like Julius Caesar

Build sales pipeline and you will build an empire like Julius Caesar: by Jason Li 2012 ©

All empires started small...

Whether it was the Romans or Darth Vader...

Empire builders saw a target region to attack and went for it...

Even after so many victories.

It’s a formula that’s worked so many times over the centuries so why change a winning formula. Although you don’t need to wear a warriors helmut like a Roman or breath funny like Darth Vader to succeed; however, I did come across someone who explained his security services and then pulled out a balaclava to give prospects the shock of what it is like to meet a masked robber and this prop worked really well.

The balaclava chap, just like Caesar never stops prospecting to build sales pipeline. It’s very easy to bag some orders and stop. Some businesses have a scheme incentive where if you hit your target for the day you can go home early. That’s great in the short run. But why not build up a sales pipeline for the week so that you over achieve for the whole week. Or meaningfully incentivise the sales person when they bring in more business, or just leave an hour early. This is a danger for businesses when they have a good day: taking the foot off the gas.

Fill the Ferris wheel

The worst thing that can happen is having a good week and then finding the week after your sales pipeline is small. One way to keep you motivated is to imagine a Ferris wheel.

As you know, a Ferris wheel is always turning. People get on and if you have a queue then you will continue filling the carriages until all the people in the queue are on the wheel. But a problem for the business is that people are continuously getting off once it goes full circle. So if the sales pipeline is small the business needs to keep finding new people to fill the Ferris wheel.

Although it is hard to imagine your business like this when you get orders, a Ferris wheel will show you how easy it is to have empty carriages if you let off the gas.

You’ve got to put in the wood to keep the fire going

Of course, a Ferris wheel is limited by the number of carriages you have on the wheel. (Think of the carriages as the number of orders your business can handle.)

However, if you build a fire, it can be up to you how big the fire is. If you think of the fire as your business, you control the fire; and if you want, it will go on to be a big roaring one at that. The only ingredient you need is more wood. Looking at your business this way will help you look at pipeline sales leads as feeding the fire; without it the fire will shrink. If you want a bigger business, keep thinking of putting in the wood to keep the fire going.

Marketing and selling

When I was a business advisor, I found that many small businesses were very comfortable with their skill set such as being an accountant or fixing computers, but not so comfortable in trying to win new business. In fact, when I asked many said they did things like put an ad in Yell and will do leaflet drops to get in clients.

Unfortunately business doesn’t work like that. Many successful business owners tell me that you can’t make much money by advertising on Yell, and if you do you have to know how to do Yell advertising effectively in the same way an expert uses AdWords keyword advertising.

There are good ways to bring in incoming leads using effective marketing techniques. But it takes a lot of trial and error as any digital marketing or print advertising professional will tell you to test ads that get good response rates, so don’t take it personally if your response rate is low or even none existent. But you do need for people to fill your Ferris wheel so you should also consider face-to-face sales to fill your carriages too.

In fact, the businesses who struggled were the ones who knew internally how good their product or service was but were not willing to step out of their comfort zone to meet people face-to-face. Personally I found initially it is not natural to be good at meeting people, it is a learned process. All the great networkers, public speakers, sales people are highly trained and practice for hours on end on their new craft.

Selling face-to-face to strangers is not really natural but a learned process. But it is the necessary change that transitions a person from say the employed computer administrator to fully fledged business person. I can’t blame you if you hate sales or hate being asked if you are a sales person, but business is really commission only sales. Without wood you have no fire, and no fire means no commission or money. (On the flip side lots of wood means a huge fire and big money: the nice car and holidays await you. Oh yes, the rewards are unlimited!)

So just being good at what you do when you were employed won’t get you a sales pipeline. Also response led advertising or waiting for a flood of referrals don’t always work. You really have to get out there and learn how to meet people face-to-face and win orders.

Easy way to start selling comfortably

However, the good news is that sales can be learned, and you don’t have to be a slick snake oil sales person. In fact, if you are an accountant or can fix computers, just chat and consult your prospective customer rather than start selling, and if they ask for help then you might have an order. Keep doing this to people you meet as an initial step change to face-to-face sales. By just chatting to people you are building a sales pipeline and it will be a more comfortable experience.

Make it fun, talk about the experience you’ve had from changing from an employee to being a business owner. Talk about funny things you notice in your field such as how PCs might take 5 minutes to load up so it gives you time to make a cup of tea. Little things like this allow prospective customers to know about you and know you are an expert and not a typical snake oil sales person. I’m sure you can do this pretty well once you get the hang of it.

You don’t really have to beat people into submission like Julius Caesar to win orders, but you might have to learn how to effectively win work by building up your sales pipeline.

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4 genius marketing tricks the Stone Roses used to sell out their tours

4 genius marketing tricks the Stone Roses used to sell out their tours: by Jason Li 2012 ©

They sold out their tours in minutes...

How did they do it when?...

They’ve not made a product for years...

Or placed any ads in newspapers or magazines to promote their gigs?

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending the Stone Roses reunion concert at Heaton Park in Manchester. It was amazing and to be fair, I was not sure what to expect when I got there.

All Stone Roses fans know that the lead singer Ian Brown is not famed for his vocals, and the band had fallen out quite badly in the past; so they had not played as a band for years. So was it going to work out was, I suppose, part of the anticipation and thrill of being there.

On top of all this, there were some marketing tactics employed which were pure genius...like the band!

1.       Create your own event to capture the market

If any of you have been to a big festival in a field in the middle of no-where, then you know that you’re expecting a different experience from that of seeing a concert in a theatre. So when I got there and saw the set up was more like a festival rather than inside a theatre or big tent I knew they had done something a bit different.

Let’s say the big festivals in the UK are Glastonbury or the V Festival as two examples, what they do is have a big stage with a few different bands playing until the main act comes on around 9pm or so. And guess what, the Stone Roses gig had a few acts playing all day on a big stage, with themselves as the headline act later at 9pm.

Now I went to the Sunday night showing. The Stone Roses also had back-to-back shows on the Friday and Saturday before I went, and the acts leading up to the Stone Roses were different to the ones I saw on Sunday. So in effect, they created their own weekend festival with them as the main act every night.

‘The Stone Roses made more money by holding their own weekend festival rather than being one act playing at a festival’

Genius idea: Now let’s see how you could do the same. Could you hold your own event which your business can profit? It could be anything like a networking event or a business event with your business as the main headline act?

2.       Karaoke singing with the masses

When the Stone Roses were playing there was a sea of people singing the words, a bit like a huge karaoke gathering. You could just make out the voice of the lead singer Ian Brown singing; but hey, even Ian knows not everyone is there to hear his angelic singing.

It doesn’t matter though. These are a hard core of fans that have travelled from all four corners of the earth to be there. So only dedicated fans would know the words and enjoy this event.

Genius idea: Can you create a dedicated following, your own herd or tribe. It doesn’t have to involve everyone. It just has to suit your target market.

3.       Use PR buzz first before paid for advertising

When a lot of the big acts like Coldplay or Madonna launch a tour they spend thousands on advertising. In London I have seen ads on posters at many tube stations. It must cost a heck of a lot of money. But hey, it suits me to look at their posters rather than trying to avoid eye contact with a meaty stranger.

For the Stone Roses, because it was such a big story, all they did was launch a story to the press when they reformed and were announcing the tour. Instantly this hit all the social media and journalists were announcing the information everywhere. The costs were minimal, the impact enormous.

Genius idea: Create a story that creates a huge buzz so that your business is the centre of attention.

4.       Bring out new album

Now you have all your fans actively back on board again. What’s the likely-hood of the fans getting friends on board to listen to the music and listen to how great they are? Yep, very much so; I can’t stop talking about them, I feel like a big kid. The only times I get this excited are when the big Champions League games with Barcelona football club are on ITV1.

As the Stone Roses are now signed up to create a third album, there is a ready market with existing fans. Additionally, as suggested above, the existing fans will convert new fans to start getting into them, and so add to their fan base. And most important of all, a new generation of music fans who never experienced the effect of the Stone Roses the first time around can now get a chance 20 or so years later.

Genius idea: Create more products to sell to your existing client base who will also sell your product with enthusiasm to prospects for you.

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