Seven Market-Based Tactics to Achieve Superior Growth

Top professionals select a handful of marketing tactics and learn how to do these well. This allows them to maximise their marketing time to achieve the greatest return on their time invested. Top firms and professionals are constantly expanding their comfort zone to generate multiple sources and ways of getting business.

Here are seven market-based tactics to drive new business growth:

• Comfort-zone marketing – Top professionals understand that their existing clients and personal contacts are their private captive network. Using these contacts is an ideal marketing tactic for both new and experienced professionals.

Having a selling system to ensure that you maintain regular contact with existing clients, keeping your personal contacts up-to-date and asking for their advice and referrals is a smart way to market. This allows you maximise your marketing time by working with people that already know and trust you.

• Attraction marketing – It’s much easier to sell to someone when they come to you, as compared to cold calling. Top professionals use attraction marketing by packaging their specialised knowledge into free information, such as reports, e-books, newsletters and podcasts.

These can be offered on your website. When a prospective client requests your free information, they become prospects, and you have the opportunity to build a relationship. Free information is sometimes referred to as “bait pieces,” and this marketing tactic is frequently used by large and small firms to generate new leads and opportunities.

• Seminar marketing – Many organisations and individuals are looking for an expert to explain and interpret trends and opportunities in today’s market. Top professionals position themselves as experts by proactively contacting organisations and groups.

When done properly this technique differentiates the professional as being a teacher and authority rather than a salesperson, allowing the professional to generate leads and follow-up appointments more easily.

• Client advisory board marketing – Many top firms use this technique, making their top clients and centres of influence a part of their new business acquisition process. To introduce this idea, you can invite 8 to 10 clients to a dinner in a nice restaurant or private room.

Have an open discussion about your business and let the clients do most of the talking. At the conclusion of the dinner, provide each person with a questionnaire or survey and let them know that you’ll follow up. Call and meet with each person a few days later to review the survey, solicit referrals and discuss any next steps.

• Networking – One of the strongest business development techniques, top professionals approach networking with the right mind-set, which is that “you have to give before you can receive.” Networking is about helping other professionals get business.

There are many different ways to network, including joining a networking club or association, creating your own network and joining charitable organisations, chambers of commerce and professional associations.

• Social media marketing – For years, top producers have used the concept of six degrees of separation (the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away) to identify and meet prospective clients. Social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have made this process easier.

The mindset of top producers is that their best clients are happy to refer others to them, as it is in clients’ best interests for their producers to have a thriving business. Using LinkedIn, for example, enables you to search your client’s connections, identify potential prospects and ask your client for a referral.

• Event marketing – Some top firms hold quarterly events, such as group discussions with an author, wine tasting, and cooking class with a chef. They invite some of their top clients and prospects, encouraging them to bring along a friend who might also enjoy the event.

This is an easy way to build relationships and obtain referrals, allowing you to work from within your comfort zone and quickly fill your sales pipeline.

Action steps

Select up to three marketing tactics that fit your style, then create a marketing calendar (roadmap) to help you plan, schedule and coordinate your activities.

Developing multiple sources and ways of generating new business opportunities will ensure that you’ll always have an active and overflowing sales pipeline of prospective clients that match the traits of your best clients. That is the key to delivering strong organic growth and superior performance every year.