Confidential1 Family Business Forum 10 Strategies for Growing Revenues

Confidential2 Kurtz Consulting Inc Sales & Marketing Solutions

Confidential3 Strategy #1: Use Your Website Pay Per Click (PPC) You pay when someone clicks through to your website You set pay levels based on key words Search Engine Optimization Strategies for your web content to increase its potential relevance to specific key words on the specific search engines Sometimes called “organic search optimization”

Confidential4 A Search on “Chicago Commerical Landscaping”

Confidential5 How to Execute Web Strategies PPC: Do it yourself or use a consultant Open an account with Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, or Microsoft adCenterGoogle AdWordsYahoo! Search MarketingMicrosoft adCenter Choose your keywords and spending level Write a 3-line add and you’re in business and will drive traffic to your site SEO: Use a consultant Need deep understanding search engines Easiest to execute when you’re building the site

Confidential6 Strategy #2: Segment Your Customers When you have multiple customers, learn what makes them different Segment your customer base using key differentiators Some Possible differentiators The Customer’s industry or market The Sales channel Size (or potential size) of the customer Segmentation allows sales & marketing staff to create customer intimacy with efficiency

Confidential7 Sample Segmentation Large C Med C Small CSmall B Med B Large B Small A Med A Large A Industry Type Account Size Small $ Large $ Industry AIndustry BIndustry C

Confidential8 Focus Your Efforts on the Top Segments Large C Med C Small CSmall B Med B Large B Small A Med A Large A Industry Type Account Size Small $ Large $ Industry A Industry BIndustry C Focus sales & marketing Staff on these “platinum” customers Consider scaling back your sales & marketing Staff on these “lead” customers

Confidential9 Strategy #3: Customer Contact Strategy Determine and then execute how often to touch each customer segment throughout the year

Confidential10 Cost per Customer Contact Publication $.32 Internet $.98 Direct Mail $1.68 Business Letter $13.60 Telephone $31.16 Trade Show$ Sales Call$ Source: Penton Media, PRO Reports No. 303A, 1997 The Cost to Contact Customers

Confidential11 Sample Contact Strategy Number of Contacts to Customers/year Customer Segment Field Sales Visits Inside Sales Calls Direct Mailings eMarketing Platinum9x/year20x/year12x/year Gold6x/year12x/year4x/year12x/year Silver4x/year8x/year4x/year6x/year Bronze2x/year6x/year2x/year6x/year Lead0x/year4x/year0x/year4x/year

Confidential12 Strategy #4: Marketing One of the least expensive ways to stay in touch with clients, keeps your firm top of mind Leading software service, Constant Contact, costs less than $30/month if you have less than 2500 customer addresses

Confidential13 Strategy #5: Telesales Consider outsourcing your cold calling, especially if: Your customers cluster within a industry You can buy a prospect list Your sales people tell you they’re “too good” to cold call Your sales people are very busy and would benefit from appointment setting Professional firms offer this service for roughly $40-$50/hour

Confidential14 Strategy #6: Product/Service Portfolio StarQuestion Cash CowDog Your Market Share High Low Your industry’s growth rate High Low

Confidential15 Manage the Product/Service Portfolio Stars – invest heavily Cash Cows – invest enough to maintain growth Question Marks – investigate how much you need to spend to generate big returns Dogs – limit investment or divest StarQuestion Cash Cow Dog Your Market Share High Low Your industry’s growth rate High Low

Confidential16 Strategy #7: Write a White Paper White Papers are authoritative reports that often address industry problems and how to solve them Have a subtle commercial undertone and are useful to promote your business

Confidential17 Distribute Your White Paper At trade shows Do a webinar for customers Get it published in an industry journal Do a press release Do speaking engagements Do a customer mailing Offer it to prospects

Confidential18 Strategy #8: Do a Promotion Tell your customers about it Use it to break the ice with prospects Consider adding extra value instead of just a discount Can be useful to bring in year-end sales surge

Confidential19 Strategy #9: Publicity & Public Relations Press Releases about your newsworthy topics Blogs, newsletters, trade journals and association web sites need content from you Send PR to customers, industry contacts, business journals/newspapers and prospects Post PR on your web site’s “Media Center”

Confidential20 Strategy #10: Network Getting out of the office creates exposure for the firm and builds relationships with prospects and referral partners Consider this as a requirement for the leadership team, sales and marketing personnel

Confidential21 Continuing Education, Staying Current in your function Industry associations Functional groups Alumni groups Giving Back to Others Charitable and NPO organizations Rotary & Kiwanis Religious organizations Community groups, Chambers of commerce Increase Sales, Get Leads for the business Industry Events Business Networking Business Marketing Associations Benefits of Networking Benefits & Types of Networking

Confidential22 Questions? Debra Kurtz Kurtz Consulting Inc (224)