Michael Katz's E-Newsletter On E-Newsletters
June 18, 2004
Issue #108
A Lead Is Not A Lead Is Not A Lead
"People are strange, when you're a stranger,
Faces look ugly, when you're alone."
-- The Doors
A few weeks ago, I received the following email:
"My wife heard Mr. Katz speak somewhere and thought he was the cat's meow. She subscribed me to your newsletter. Every few weeks she says: `You should be working with those people.'
"Tonight as I read the latest version it occurred to me that rather than wring our hands and talk about what we should be doing to continuously energize our customer and referral base, I could take the first step and shoot this off."
There were a number of reasons why reading this email made me smile. First, someone had forwarded my newsletter on to somebody else. Second, the newsletter had done its job — it kept me in front of a future client issue after issue, until the day came when he was ready to contact me. Third, he called me "Mr. Katz," which I have to admit always gives me a thrill.
But what really made this Katz meow, was the tone of the email itself. Here was a person whom I'd never even heard of (referred to me by another person I'd never heard of) and yet he was writing as if we were old friends.
As you can imagine, the "sales call" that occurred a couple of weeks later in his office was as light and fun a meeting as you'd ever want to have. And while there are any number of possible ways to generate leads (e.g. run contests, offer free seminars, publish white papers), the leads generated by E-Newsletters tend to be of this warm and familiar variety.
But why, you might ask, does warm and familiar matter in the first place? Good question. It matters, because it means you've jumped way ahead in the sales process.
With leads that arrive as the result of my E-Newsletter, by the time the first meeting takes place with a potential client, there's hardly any discussion at all of my capabilities, my trustworthiness, my style or frankly, even my qualifications. The only thing that gets talked about is whether or not what I have to sell and the terms under which I sell it is a match for this particular company.
Compare that to "cold" prospect meetings where you're likely to be asked such "checking under the hood" questions as, "What makes you different from your competition?," "Why are you qualified?," or (my personal favorite), "Convince us to hire you."
If you've ever had to perform under those conditions, you know that starting the discussion with trust, confidence and familiarity already in place is worth quite a bit(which, incidentally, is why getting more work from existing clients is so much easier).
Bottom Line: While generating leads is a necessary part of running a business, keep in mind that leads come in many different shapes and sizes. The fact is, it's not leads you want, it's clients, and in my opinion, your time is better spent with tactics that create a few, very warm leads (did somebody say "E-Newsletter?") than with those that, although they may make the phone ring off the hook, require lots and lots of effort to ultimately convert.
WE'VE GOT MAIL!
"Here's our experience of a combination of both email marketing approaches.
"We are doing email marketing for different resort hotels in Mexico. Although booking at a Mexican resort hotel is not a high-risk venture, it is very timely. People only think about vacationing for a couple of weeks. They sweep the internet for information and leave their emails to receive more information. Only a couple of weeks later they either decide on the vacation or forget about it. Any further eNewsletter from the Mexican hotel is of no relevance any more. So, we've just got this short time span to make the traveler decide.
"On the other hand, guests that have been at the resort still want to get some news after their vacation. We use this to send a newsletter from time to time (no more than 4 per year), asking to fill out satisfaction surveys and other feedback, but most of all we try to get some viral marketing by giving away some incentives to friends, family and coworkers. After all, vacations are a conversation subject for the rest of the year."
Thanks Raphael, a terrific example of "the right tool for the right job!"
ENOUGH ABOUT YOU, LET'S TALK ABOUT US
If you've never seen a bald, middle-aged white guy, or if you're simply intrigued by people with distractingly long thumbs and a noticeably poor selection of neckties, this clip is definitely worth two minutes of your time.
About Blue Penguin Development, Inc.
Blue Penguin Development helps professional service firms get clients,
by showing them how to strengthen relationships with the people they already know.
I specialize in the development of electronic newsletters.
Click here for an overview of my services.
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