With each post, you are building a loose connection between you and the reader, viewer and or listener. Your objective is to get your audience to the point where they exchange information with you as part of your sales process; this process should be represented within your sales funnel. You can start this mechanism by encouraging your followers to comment or reach out with questions or alternate views or perhaps undertake surveys or appropriate questionnaires.
As soon as you can do this, the connection will be strong enough to move to the next phase of the process, giving them the confidence to start a meaningful conversation.
Creating the connection is not about selling to them; please do not do that. Keep it real, keep it educational, keep it personal but do not sell! Let the natural progression of the link between the content and the value you are giving take the recipient of the content on a journey that will lead to them wanting to purchase from you. They will want to because, as we briefly talked about in the previous lesson, you will be highlighting their pain and or pleasure and how you can help them. Remember, though, do not do too much. Stick to one subject and motivation; talk to them, not generically but appeal to their specifics. Connections are made because you are dealing with their issues, and you are doing it on a human level.
Once you have made the connection, you must take this relationship to the next level. This can be done in a variety of ways; you can take them into a sales funnel, you can take them into an email funnel, you can take them into a marketing sequence that they agree to through a squeeze page that gives them something in return for permission to send them emails. The key to this is to have systems in place to manage your process. A good quality CRM is an answer. Do not worry. There are some fantastic products out there; two of my favourites are Zoho and Hubspot. In fact, in Rainmakers Club, we use HubSpot. This allows us to maintain accurate records and maintain the right contact with the right people.
Part of the process of connection is to understand your prospect’s version of the board concept questions that you were asked to consider yourself earlier in this program. I hope you will begin to see the powerful combination of identifying their motivations and answers to the board concept questions of:
- Where are they now?
- Where do they want to be tomorrow?
- What is the best way to get there right now (if you’ve got this right, your product or service is very much part of the solution)?