The anatomy of new business: from contact to close.
9:00-10:00am. First impression: new prospect opportunity meeting. You ask questions and uncover some pain. Your prospect shares some tentative details about an opportunity. The chemistry is good. The meeting goes well.
10:00-10:15am. Second impression: Apres-meeting, you immediately head off to a nearby Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop, order a Grande, key your Blackberry, connect with your DesignToOrder Post Meeting Follow Up Postcard Page, choose a pre-approved high-rez JPG from your online library of hundreds of images, select the text block entitled, “First Meeting Follow Up” key in your name, email and client’s contact information, PDF proof and approve it and mail it to your prospect-- all before you take your first sip of coffee.
8:15am Three days later. Self-serving impression. Your prospect, prompted by the free i-Pod pull-through promotion contest on your follow-up postcard, visits your site, fills out a short survey highlighting areas of interest. He clicks the submit button and within minutes, receives a customized PDF containing targeted content specific to his interests and an invite to visit his personalized url/website. You’re notified whenever your prospect makes an inquiry.
10:00am Day four- an even more personal Impression. Relevance = responsiveness. Your prospect visits his personalized website, takes action prompted by personal appeals and calls you to get answers. It’s a great phone call. You both discover that you are loyal Cub fans. You set up a meeting to demonstrate to his group.
9:30am Multiple impressions. You meet, demonstrate and build five more relationships–one prospect a at a time. Your live demo goes very well and before the meeting is over, the five group members have personalized PDFs in their mailboxes and you have their permission, contact information and email addresses to mail to.
You make a point by asking the Marketing Director to retrieve the PDF on her networked Blackberry which you network and show on the big screen. You can see the smiles widening as each group member imagines the possibilities. You ask for the order by suggesting that they try it out on a project. The VP of Sales mentions an international trade show coming up in the fall. He tells you to call him Monday morning. You know he’ll receive a relevant email, addressing his concerns and inviting him to his own personal web page before the day is through. You pack up, feeling very good about the meeting.
9:08am Monday morning, one week later: you’ve impressed them enough to get the order. Resonance = revenue. You call the VP of Sales and he outlines his trade show attendance strategy and goals. He provides the dates, specs, and quantities. He asks for a ballpark estimate. You ask some questions and give it to him. He gives you a verbal green light on the project and emails you a confidentiality agreement to sign and a PO to confirm. You commit to send him everything in writing. He asks about your availability next Wednesday to address his sales group. You smile, and tell him that you are. You ask how many bagels you should bring. You look at your messages as you walk out the building and see that your original contact has emailed you with a message header entitled, “Meeting Request.”