The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

Readers of my column will know I am a big fan of lead generation marketing. I first learned this from marketing gurus Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer. And I have proven its effectiveness time after time in my professional experience, as well as with my own company. One of Dan’s companies calls it: ‘Life Cycle Marketing’, as they aim to keep a client for life. They have developed the concept into seven parts.

The first part is to attract traffic. I think everybody understands this is the first step of advertising. Traffic occurs from traditional media such as radio, TV and newspapers, as well as social media like Facebook. However, even great signage is a way of getting traffic. Do not rule out community events and anything that gets eyeballs looking at what you are doing.

The next part is to capture leads. You need two things for this: A mechanism by which to hold the names, and something to entice someone to leave their name. Think of a fish bowl where people throw their business cards in to win a free lunch. Of course, electronically, it is a lot easier to capture names.

Nurturing prospects is an often neglected part. This means following up with newsletters and other customer touches. While many prospective customers will purchase right away, there are a far greater number that will purchase later. That is if you have built a relationship with them.

Which leads us to the next part: Converting sales. There have been many books written on sales tactics, and they run the gamut. As I am a relationship marketer, I think the best type of sales is being in a position to legitimately solve a problem or a need. That way you are not forcing something on a person who may feel less kindly towards you, once they realise their hard-earned dollars have disappeared and they are left with something of no value.

Delivering and satisfying your customer once you have made the sale is a difficult concept for many employees, who do not understand that service is key. You hear the complaint everywhere you go, which is why some companies are able to maintain a competitive edge just by offering top-rate customer service.

This leads into the next two parts, which is to up-sell customers and get referrals. The better you deliver, the more likely you are to be able to get someone to buy additional products and services from you, and tell other people about your business.

• NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. He is also treasurer of the Bahamas Olympic Committee. To contact him he can be reached at DArcyRahmingsr@gmail.com.