A simple insight about “priority clients” that turned presentations into almost-guaranteed sales.
Sales Leaders and Sales Managers, a question?
Do you actually know your clients?
One of NRS Media’s great successes was our ability to truly understand our client base.
Knowing who actually bought advertising, and why, was a key factor in the company’s success.
We achieved that by studying the categories of businesses that consistently bought media.
Our business operated globally out of Wellington, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, then in the USA, UK, Europe, and South Africa, and even Bogota…
We travelled from city to city, working with media companies, presenting advertising opportunities ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 per client per year.
We listed it to only 100 clients. It sold out on those markets year after year.
Over time, we began to notice something interesting.
For certain clients who attended the presentation, almost always bought.
So we decided to analyse the data more carefully.
We didn’t have any sophisticated AI or CRM to manage that data; we just really worked hard with our clients to ask them why they bought.
When we isolated what we called “priority clients,” we discovered something remarkable.
If those clients attended the presentation, close to 100 per cent of them purchased the programme.
But there was another pattern.
These were also the clients who received a personal invitation to attend.
Once we understood that, we became very deliberate about how we treated those prospects.
If someone fitted the priority profile, we did everything possible to get them into the room.
We dressed up invitations in branded-style envelopes.
We delivered invitations in presentation boxes with ribbons.
We hand-delivered them whenever possible. ( Our most successful strategy.)
Sometimes we even picked people up and chauffeured them to the event.
In other words, we treated them like the near-certain sales we knew they were.
As a result, our acquisition costs dropped significantly while our conversion rates remained incredibly high.
The famous copywriter Dan Kennedy calls these people “hidden buyers properly exploited.”
The first key was profile.
We worked out exactly who these buyers were.
We studied their demographics, their behaviours, and the types of businesses most likely to purchase media advertising.
Once we understood that profile, we could predict a sale with high confidence.
The second factor was timing.
Many of our ideal buyers were older, established businesses that wanted to keep their name consistently in front of their customers.
Advertising wasn’t a gamble for them. It was a long-term brand strategy.
There’s a powerful lesson in this for any business.
Once you truly understand who buys your product or service, everything becomes easier.
Your marketing becomes clearer, your sales process becomes more focused, and your conversion rates improve dramatically.
The key is simple.
Find your hidden buyers.
Understand their profile.
And make sure they show up.
Have a great week selling your stuff.
Mike.
P.S. I am looking for 5 Sales Leaders who want to work with me to identify who on your team can sell, who can prospect, and who are trainable.