CHAPTER 3

TARGET (WHO, WHICH, WHAT)

WHO YOU WANT TO SELL TO, IN WHICH ORGANIZATIONS, IN WHAT SECTORS

Do you hate the whole selling thing because you seem to be pursuing numerous potential sales-generating avenues and have got yourself into a bit of a mess: whenever you set aside time to developing business, you have no idea which avenue to go down?

In this chapter we’re going to take a look at TARGETING: the focus or goal that’s going to get you out of bed each day committing yourself to CONNECTING with some people (the right people, of course).

By the end of the chapter, you’ll know why it’s essential to have a target, how to get one, which people should be targeted and why.

You must appreciate that no self-respecting sales person would dream of making a single phone call, sending one email, attending a networking event or even getting out of bed on a Monday morning, if they didn’t know exactly who they were going to target.

Getting Started: A Definite But Flexible Focus

Why Definite?

You must have a defined target market.

When you’re first setting out to win business, it’s tempting and somehow more reassuring if you tell yourself that there are loads and loads of people to whom you could be selling. This, however, is a false sense of security and will have you doing lots of activity but with little reward. In other words, if you try to target everyone, you’ll spread your activity too thin and achieve nothing.

It’s a bit like packing your suitcase and showing up at the airport. You want to go away, because you need to unwind. You could, in theory, go anywhere to achieve that. So there you are, staring at the departures board thinking: ‘Great, look at all the places I can go!’

But you can only go one place at a time and if you haven’t decided where, then you won’t know which departure gate to go to. That means you’ll wander around the airport, wasting lots of time and energy but not actually getting very far. However, if you know your ultimate destination, then you know where to target your effort.

It’s no different when developing business. You need to make lots of effort to hit the target you’ve chosen, but you can only hit one or maybe two at the same time with any real impact.

Why Flexible?

While you should set out with your eye on a specific target, you also need to be flexible enough to adapt if you’re not getting the results you want or had anticipated.

At the end of the day, you sell to make money. If you aren’t making money from your target market, you need to pick another one. And sometimes, although you set off in one direction, opportunities in an area you had never considered arise; in which case, grab them!

I’ve been self-employed four times in my life. That means I have woken up on a Monday morning with absolutely no income other than that which I can generate. This must be the urban equivalent of being dropped in a jungle with nothing but what you learnt at Survival School. It’s frightening and yet incredibly exciting and it makes you feel alive. Those of you who have recently started your business will know precisely what I mean.

In this situation you are faced with two choices: go bust once the money runs out or get very good at developing business, very quickly!

Even if you’re employed, there is still pressure to bring in more work. Indeed, in order to advance in many of the professions – law, accountancy and engineering, for example – you have to ‘show them the money’ if you are to stand a chance of partnership.

So, whether you’re sitting at a desk in an office or at your kitchen table, where do you start?

Your Target List

You need to make a target list. I mean an actual, written-down list. The mere act of writing something down seeks to enforce that which you have committed to paper. Anyone can promise to do something, but just to be sure they do, we often ask them to ‘put it in writing’ because we know it’s more of a commitment.

I want you to think of all the people who would possibly be interested in buying the product or service you provide. Furthermore, think about whether they’d either be ‘well up for it’ and therefore HOT, or ‘really not bothered’ and thus COLD. As you work through this chapter, begin to consider how likely they are to buy from you.

Perhaps the analogy of hot plates on top of a cooker might be helpful at this juncture? (It’s a rhetorical question, so I’ve given you a diagram of one!)

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Before I give you a thorough explanation of what I mean by each one, here’s a quick overview:

Credibility and Trust

You target in this order: HOT, WARM, TEPID, COLD. There are two reasons for this – trust and credibility – and if you don’t have either of these you’re stuffed.

Selling is essentially about persuading someone or having influence over them. In order to stand any chance of doing either, the person you seek to influence must regard you as credible and, above all, they must trust you.

Think about the relationship you have with your friends. They can easily persuade you to change your mind and go out for a Chinese rather than an Indian. Or they may have influence over you to the extent that you might be persuaded to take a particular holiday or buy a particular car or even go out with someone. If there was an absence of trust between you, then they wouldn’t stand a chance, would they?

In business, it is your experience and skill that give you credibility. It is your qualifications and your client list. That’s why companies display ‘By Royal Appointment’ crests.

Trust, however, is earned over time and beats credibility hands down. You can be the world’s leading expert in something, but if people don’t trust you, you stand no chance of persuading them to buy from you.

It is the absence of these two elements that makes cold calling so tricky. That’s why great sales people excel at establishing both really quickly and always look for referrals.

With that understood, let’s look at the four kinds of target.

HOT: Your Existing Customers

This market is made up of people and organizations that already buy your services or products and with whom you have an existing relationship. They trust you, regard you as having credibility and are therefore more likely to buy more stuff from you: new products, a different service and so on.

WARM: Customers of the Organization in Which You Work

Say that I’m a lettings agent in an estate agency that offers many other services: property maintenance, the sale and purchase of property and mortgage advice. I already have a portfolio of loyal clients. Before attempting to win brand new clients (that is, those who have no dealings with any part of the firm), it makes sense to approach those who already use the agency’s services but not yet the lettings department. Why? Because they already trust the firm and know it to be credible. It’s your duty to let clients of the firm know about all the other stuff you can do for them. Sure, not everyone is going to want to let out their property, but you’ll only know for sure if you approach them.

We are all wildly busy. We like it if we can get everything under ‘one roof’; not always, I admit, but at least it’s nice to be given the choice. This is why price comparison sites have done so well: they work on the principle that you can compare an awful lot of prices in one hit.

The bottom line is, don’t waste your time going after new clients until you are sure your existing ones know about all you do and that it would be in their interest to buy it from you.

If you have just started running your own business, you only have a warm market, which is anyone who knows you: friends, family, ex-colleagues and contacts (assuming you aren’t restricted from contacting them). And when you are asking all of these people for work, remember to ask them if they know anyone who would be interested in what you are offering.

Remember, HOT people are those who are already buying from you; in other words, handing over cash for what you offer. Friends and family are close, but don’t assume they’ll want what you are offering. And even if they buy from you once in order to help you get things going, they may not buy from you again.

Show Them That You Love Them

In addition to tackling your hot and warm markets because of the presence of oodles of trust and credibility, there’s another factor at play and that’s love. You love them and they want to know that you do; and what’s more, they want to give some lovin’ right back to you.

I use the word love on purpose.

A few years back the CEO of a large firm in the Midlands told me that his firm had lost a client. When he asked the managing director of that company why it was no longer using his firm’s services, he replied: ‘Because you don’t love us any more.’

When the CEO asked him to illuminate, he said that when the firm was originally looking to win his business, his people had been told that they were special, beautiful and lovely, and that the firm would treasure their business and work hard to keep things just so. But as the years had gone on, the firm had gradually stopped paying them as much attention, to a point where they now felt that their business was being taken for granted. All the while the magic and sparkle were fading, another, rival firm had been gently wooing and courting the CEO’s client. This new firm had told people that they were beautiful, special and lovely and that they would be showered with attention and love. So guess what? Yep, they went with the competitor.

Don’t ever take your clients for granted. They need to know that you still want them. Sending emailed articles doesn’t count, though! How loved would you feel if your partner kept in touch via a newsletter?

Many, many organizations boast that they ‘go the extra mile’. Many people within such organizations say that they ‘go out of their way’ to help clients, that they are there at the convenience of the client. They seldom actually deliver, however.

Sometimes, ‘going the extra mile’ means literally that. Your competitors can’t be bothered – make sure that you are and you’ll shine!

And remember this: every single day of the week your customers and clients are being chatted up by your competitors. Imagine if that was happening to your partner: you’d definitely make sure they knew how much you loved them and not take them for granted. We all like being told we are desirable and still wanted – punters are no different.

They Want to Give You More Work (Because They Love You Right Back)

Your existing clients expect you to ask them for more work and they want to give it to you.

Some time ago I was sharing a coffee with the marketing director of a large and very reputable professional services company that had recently spent a small fortune on a client survey, in order to find out what customers thought about the level of service, the price they were paying, the competency of the fee earners and so on. All was glowing: the clients loved the company. Only one area of concern had emerged. A number of clients had said that they wondered why the firm had not asked for more work from them!

That’s a ‘What?!’ moment, isn’t it?

TEPID: Referrals

I like the word ‘tepid’. It’s fallen out of fashion of late, being replaced by the ever-present ‘lukewarm’. Tepid harks back to a more innocent age, when things were measured in ‘tbs’ and ‘oz’ and ‘tsps’, when mums would dip their elbow to test the temperature of the water in the bath to make sure it was OK for their infant.

Your tepid market is made up of organizations or people who come to your attention by way of a referral. However, some referrals are warmer than others; ‘more tepid’ or ‘tepider’, if you will.

I would suggest that someone who is referred to you – through a recommendation such as ‘Hey Dave, you should get in touch with Sally because she’s a great life-coach’ – is a warmer and thus more positive referral than the other way around: ‘Sally, you should give Dave a ring because he was only saying the other day that he felt he was in a bit of a rut work-wise and could do with some advice on what to do with his life.’

In the former, if Dave does contact Sally he has made a positive step and is halfway to doing business with her; whereas in the latter, it’s Sally who’s going to have to do the chasing.

Referrals are something you should be going after all the time, especially in the early days of developing business. Once you’ve established yourself your name will spread within your target market(s) and you’ll notice just how much referral work comes your way.

My own experience (and I can’t say if this is the same in other sectors/industries) has been that it was following three years of pretty much constant business development activity that I noticed a steady stream of referral work, which meant that I could ease down on the proactive stuff.

I’m sure all businesses arrive at some sort of critical mass or ‘tipping point’ at which there is sufficient referral business to keep you busy, although I’d never become complacent, because things are wont to change very rapidly in business. And anyway, stopping any business development activity just doesn’t sit well with me and neither should it with you!

How Do You Get Referrals?

I use two ways to get referrals:

It goes without saying that you must have a very good relationship in order for the first way to be successful, but even more so in the case of the second.

Sales people are always looking and asking for referrals. I reciprocate clients’ efforts on my behalf by giving them a big discount off my normal daily rate and by doing occasional 30- to 45-minute one-to-one coaching session for senior people within their organizations for free. Once you build good relationships with people, asking for referrals or for help breaking into new clients becomes a whole lot easier.

Referrals are something that will bring results once you have established a solid working and, often, friendship-type relationship with your client, so in the early days of your business development activity you might have to rely on a great deal more cold calling.

Warning: Clients will only feel comfortable referring their contacts or friends to you once they really trust you, because if you mess up you could cause great embarrassment to them for having recommended you. Be sure to go that extra, extra mile for those recommended by others.

And don’t forget those organizations from which you purchase goods or services. I’m not talking about your energy provider or the insurance company, but rather an organization where you have a personal relationship with an individual. So not the Ford Motor Company, but the guy who you bought your car from or the dealership manager. If you’re a baker, not the firm from which you buy the flour but the rep with whom you deal. See what I mean?

These connections may not be hot, but there is nevertheless a connection. You buy their services or products, so why shouldn’t they buy yours? Hey, it’s always worth asking.

COLD – People With Whom You Have No Connection

This market is made up of people with whom you have no connection: you and your organization haven’t done business with them and you haven’t been referred to them or vice versa.

However, as with the tepid bit of your potential market, it is possible to divide ‘cold’ into ‘slightly chilly and ‘bleedin’ freezing’.

‘Slightly Chilly’

Say you manufacture funky desk and table lamps and when you began your business you opted to target hotels. You now do loads of work with hotels, and have bags of experience and a detailed understanding of how they work and function.

The vast majority of large hotels are in London, so at first you concentrated your efforts within that geographical area, but now you wish to expand your business development activity and you figure that sticking with hotels in other cities makes sense.

Some of you might be thinking that if you have no connection with them, even if they are in the same sector, surely that puts them in the ‘bleedin’ freezing’ category. But I say ‘no’.

If you are working in a relatively small market, in a relatively small geographical area, then the chances are that your existing clients or customers will know people within the same sector, which is probably the case within the hotel trade. The community of hotel procurement managers must be relatively small – after all, how many hotels are large enough to justify employing a person dedicated to procurement? Fifty? A hundred? Given that you could sell lamps to every household and organization in the UK, these are piddlingly little numbers.

So when contacting a hotel outside of London, you want to mention the names of other hotels you already supply as well as the names of individual purchasing managers, working on the principle that there’s a fair chance the person you’re talking to will know them. And by name dropping, you establish trust and credibility with an audience to whom the names mean something.

Ask yourselves these questions:

1. In which markets or sectors do I work at the moment?

2. Do I make money in those markets?

3. Do I like working in those markets?

4. Do I work with everyone within those sectors?

If the answer to number 2 and 3 is ‘yes’ but it’s a big fat ‘no’ to number 4, then that’s where you want to be targeting.

‘Bleedin’ Freezing

This is what I’d call cold calling in the true sense of the phrase. This market is massive, but it’s the hardest one to get results from, because it consists of organizations in sectors to which you have no connection other than that you’ve seen their name on the web, in a directory, mentioned in the press or on the side of a van.

You lack credibility – at least within their sector – and that makes it harder for them to trust you. Of course – sticking with the lamps for hotels scenario – dropping names such as Hilton, Holiday Inn and Radisson will help, since most people have heard of them.

Following Up

Such is the importance of having a defined target that I am going ask you to think about any competitive game. Virtually every sport you can think of has a goal – some literally.

How would Usain Bolt get on if he just knew he wanted to run fast? Without a defined distance and a finishing line at the end, he’d look a bit daft. As what would the Rooneys, Ronaldos and all those other talented football players do if they ran onto a pitch without any goal posts? Sure, they can demonstrate loads of skills, fantastic ball control, mind-blowing headers – but those are all a waste of time if the players don’t know what they are aiming for.

Your business activity has to be aimed at something, otherwise you’re either plagued with inertia because you don’t know which should be your first step, or you’re running round like an idiot hoping that your haphazard, scatter-gun approach might eventually hit something.

Now, although the targeting bit of the model is the one where you haven’t connected with anyone yet, do be sure to FOLLOW UP with those people in your markets – most likely your warm and tepid sectors – who have said they will connect/introduce you to their contacts.

If you approach someone and ask them to refer you to a friend or ask a colleague if she’ll set up a meeting for the pair of you to meet with one of her clients and she agrees, go one step further and ask her according to what timescale she intends doing so. The conversation goes something like this:

YOU: Hi Sara, I’m targeting people within the beauty sector and wondered if you could help me by introducing me to any of your clients you think might be interested in what I do.
SARA: Sure, L’Oréal and P&G might be worth meeting and I have great relationships with a number of the senior people at both. I’ll drop them an email and let them know you’ll be in touch.
YOU: Cheers. I’m keen not to get in touch with them before you’ve let them know – no one likes the cold approach – so just to make sure my timing’s right, how long should I leave it: two to three days or a week or so?
SARA: Oh, I’ll drop them an email before the end of this week.
YOU: Great. In that case I’ll probably contact them the middle of next week. Thanks very much.

By getting Sara to commit to a time, even though it’s not specific, it puts her under a little more pressure to deliver on her promise because she committed to help you. This works because we all strive to be consistent; if she doesn’t do what she said she would, she will be being inconsistent.

Get into the habit of asking for people’s help at every stage of the business development process. Help is a compelling word, in that it’s very difficult for someone to say ‘no’ to.

If you haven’t done so already, write down a list of people and/or organizations in your market. Once you’ve done that, mark them HOT, WARM, TEPID or COLD and note down which names on the HOT and WARM lists might be able to help you with referrals.

Once you have this list and thus a focus for your activity, you’ll find that work begins to come from all kinds of markets you never anticipated.

The following quote sums it all up nicely. The main text is often attributed to Goethe. However, the U.S. Goethe society claims that it is in fact by a guy called W.H. Murray, writing in The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951.

But when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money – booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

And that’s exactly what will happen to you once you have a definite focus: ‘a whole stream of events issues from the decision’.

It’s also a whole lot easier and more effective to establish a great reputation within one, specialist field than to try and be all things to all sectors, because even when you do concentrate all your energies in one sector, be that geographical, professional or industrial, you will inevitably be asked to do work in others.

Once you have your list of targets you move to the second part of the model, CONNECT.