Jim Cecil's Cure For The Common Cold Call

These tips represent some of the best strategies of the most successful nurturing firms, both large and small, from all around the world. As it says in the book of Galatians, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."

I believe we're all farmers at heart. Whether you're talking about apples or customers, there is a time to plant and a time to harvest. Nurturing is a term I use to describe the experience your customers have at all points of contact with you. In that critical span of time from planting to harvesting, nurturing describes specific behaviors that ultimately make all the results of the harvest possible.

Like different crops, important prospects ripen at different times. The nurture cycle, therefore, is different for each crop and each customer. From prospecting to welcoming, from leveraging to recapturing, automated drip irrigation works best to nurture each client, one- to-one, during the various relationship developmental periods. This seems especially true in nurturing customer/client relationships.

After seeds are planted, the prospect relationship then must be nurtured. When the time is right, the prospect becomes a client, the first sale is harvested, and the next phase of the relationship begins. Have you noticed that relationships usually are measured and defined by the perceived value of the quality and quantity of contact between the parties? The Nurture Selling Process may be your "Cure for the Common Cold Call."

I'll bet you'll agree that perhaps the least productive time to meet a prospective client is on a cold call. No relationship has been established. No basis for alliance or even for trust yet exists. Any sale made on a cold call is more often a case of very low-hanging fruit -- someone who happened to be ready to buy when you just happened to come along. Wouldn't you agree that the best time to meet a prospective customer is when they have a serious and immediate need and when they already understand and prefer you as their first choice of solution provider?

Customer Relationship Management
Using Frequency Marketing, Loyalty Marketing, and Intimacy Marketing, each customer relationship is leveraged and grown from your unique perspective and intimate understanding of your existing customers' wants and dreams. If this is not true for every customer, certainly it is for your "A's," those that offer greatest profit potential. The following tips will point out how these strategies work.

Focus On Outcomes
Consider the world from an abundant viewpoint. There are so many people on this planet you could help. You can never serve them all, so why not decide out front what you will become, why and for whom. Answer the question, at least for next year, "How much is enough?"

My dad used to say, "Good fences make good neighbors" and "Clear expectations create desired results." The power of crystal clear outcomes is that they force you to make a decision about where you are, where you want to be, by when, and most importantly, what prospects and customers you must learn to influence along the way.

Ad one writer advises "begin with an end in mind." Work backwards from the vision of your goal. Consider the components to getting there. Ask yourself what you would have to do or say for people to mentally position you as a true solution provider. Ask yourself: "How many "A" customers do I need next year?"

Determine and write down exactly what action you want your customers to take. Articulate specifically what you want them to think, know, feel and do after they have experienced a marketing or sales interaction with you.

Survey Clients And Prospects
I often say "I am not my target market. "Find out what the target market is by surveying clients and prospects. Why second-guess them? Simply ask them what they want more of. It's easier and far less expensive to supply what they want. Second-guessing their needs and wants usually creates scattered offers, confusion and skepticism. Do simple surveys now, with simple questions for every point of customer contact; create simple ways to capture information and communicate what we learn to each other, and develop simple ways to quickly change our behaviors in response to their feed-back.

Study your "A" clients' businesses thoroughly. Learn ways to proactively initiate new areas of business activity between you and them that will profit both of you. If there's a product or service that's giving them grief -- or a vendor they're unhappy with--figure out how to provide that product or service yourself. Even if it's not a category or service you currently offer, it's almost always easier and less costly to add new products or services than it is to add new customers.

Ask yourself these questions: "Which of my best prospects are under-served by the current distribution method? How can I make life easier for them?"

Position And Differentiate
Make the move from Commodity Purveyor to Solution Provider. According to writer Napoleon Hill, "Economic advantages may be created by any person who surrounds himself with the advice, counsel and personal cooperation of a group of people who are willing to lend wholehearted aid, in a spirit of perfect harmony. This form of cooperative alliance has been the basis of nearly every great fortune."

Remember, the goal of positioning is to create and occupy a space inside your target customer's mind and you want to occupy the top-most part of that space.. It seems to me we have two choices when selecting a marketing . We can choose sales pitch-based marketing, in which we take on the role of a salesperson who has a specific agenda to sell and deliver a sales message. Or we can choose knowledge-based marketing, where we assume the role of an ally. We position ourselves as a resource, not just a commodity vendor.

We educate prospective clients about problems and offer innovative solutions. The battle for top of mind usually is won by adroit positioning. What they can't name, and frame, they can't claim. Positioning simply means concentrating on one idea that defines your company in a unique way. This strategy is not about retooling your products -- it's about reshaping how customers perceive your products. When customers talk about you, as they inevitably will, how do they position you? As a complete solution provider or commodity purveyor? What do they say about you? Do they consider your business one that's high class or mediocre? Higher priced or a bargain? Ad you're their single best place to call or do you represent yet another nightmare to deal with?

The Power of positioning is that it breathes life into all your communications with customers.