Fishing for Top Leads

Fishing for Fishermen - 5 Steps Posted by: Peter Lawless The first thing I saw when I boarded a small boat in the harbor at Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, was the cleanliness and orderliness of the boat. The captain in charge had all the sticks, straight, their lines well laid out, holding. The handles were made of pipes, about 30 cm long, and were welded to the side of the boat. Simple, inexpensive help had me sitting down and paying attention. The captain thought about his customers, and the device left a powerful impression. Then we got a very short lesson on safety, checked that we were wearing protective jackets, and left. About 12 of us! Finding your target market About 12 minutes later, the captain stopped the boat, and he told us to get some mackerel here. He explained that the hooks attached to the hooks are exactly the same as those that want to eat mackerel. It was certainly not something I would enjoy! He explained that through his experience and the help of a small sonar gadget on his boat, he knew there were plenty of fish below. We all threw our sticks aside and dropped our lines. Fall in sales Now I don't know about you, but this was new to me. I closed the line in a hurry, as soon as I heard the pull, and hey presto, there were three fish hanging from the hooks. I started to squirm, one jumped before I set it aside, and when I tried to undo it I finally lost another. When I got to it, I lost the garbage when I finally got it out. The captain explained to me that once the fish was ready, I had to pull the rod quickly, to make sure it was firmly attached. So I have to take my time, put it back in the middle. Protect the handlebars, and the fish hanging over the bucket and deal with them one by one - I did, I ended up with 20 fish, which made me happy, as I had set a goal of 10, as my friend had caught 9 for the first time. So what are the marketing lessons - if you are still with me, and you have not gotten many of them, here are the business talk; 1. Set realistic goals and objectives, based on specific legitimate principles or research. 2. Have simple established procedures, to make it easier to work and for your customers to do business with you. 3. Speak your language of hope, for what they want - like fish bait, it is unlikely that strawberries and cream will catch more mackerel! 4. Once you know what your expectations are, find out where they are, do some research and guide them appropriately - as in our example, it is useless to place a shark attraction in a crowd of mackerel. 5. Once you have paid attention to your customers, or are earning, you are eligible, and make sure you follow up all the time to close the sale. Here again the application of a good marketing process is important here. Importantly, if you know what problems or aspirations your customers have, and you can solve or achieve these, while providing value for money, you will always be a winner. And if you do not know the answer to that question, go ahead and ask the people who are already buying from you - they know!