The Glue That Links Ecosystem

Creating The Ecosystem That Links Your Prospects

In this page I will explain the exact step-by-step sales funnel that you can build and implement for your interior design studio and it’s going to allow you to generate endless amounts of high-end residential leads for your business.

There are three key pieces of ‘glue’ that hold your ATM together.

Lead-capture process

First, you need to capture people’s details. Prospective clients need to be able to signal to you that they are interested in doing business by registering their contact details with you. This could be on your website (e.g. fill in your details and then download our research paper). It could also be a good old-fashioned fish bowl on the counter for people to put their business card in. It could be a form that gets filled in by your staff. It could be a ‘Facebook Connect’ button that automatically connects your business page to your client. However you structure it, capturing people’s contact details is a key part of your business and you should have several ways to collect them. A lot of people who receive your gift product will want to engage with you – make sure they can.

We have an app which creates a quiz for whatever topic you want and is easy, entertaining and also captures some data on your prospects.

Sales Conversation

The next piece of glue is sales. It’s an essential part of every business, yet many small business owners often avoid it. Secretly, many small business owners have a negative association with selling and wish they could simply do extra marketing, extra servicing or extra networking rather than having to have the sales conversation. Unfortunately, this is a fantasy. Rolex, Ferrari, Google, HSBC and Apple all invest in sales training so their staff know how to have a structured sales conversation with a prospective buyer. If the world’s biggest brands, with the world’s hottest products, need to have sales conversations, then so does every small business. The good news is, if someone has had a good experience with your gift and P4P, the sales conversation will be an enjoyable experience. Gifts and P4P are brilliant for warming people up, to be pre-sold before they meet you for a sales chat.

In many cases, a person who has experienced your P4P will already suspect that they want to do business with you but they just need to clarify some finer points and sort out the particulars. I would go so far as to say that you (or your sales people) should avoid talking to people unless they have experienced a P4P. If someone calls out of the blue and wants to talk business, be sure to send them the gift or P4P before you meet with them.

I recommend that you become more keenly interested in how sales conversations are structured. I have a sales conversation which I use, you can see here.

Servicing process

The final piece of glue is service. Your clients need you to look after them better than you said you would. This means that you must strategically undersell your core product. You must keep some aces up your sleeve and resist the temptation to tell prospects about everything you will do for them once they are a client. If you tell your prospects that you take your clients away each year on a river cruise, they will expect it. When the invite arrives they will think ‘He did what he said he was going to do’ rather than ‘Wow, that was above my expectations’. If, for some reason, you don’t do the river cruise, your clients would feel they missed out on something you said you would do.

Conversely, if you are disciplined and you never mentioned the river cruise, when the invite arrives your client will likely feel special because you’ve done something above and beyond their expectations. Even after you’ve delivered value to your clients, they will want to know that they are still valued and you’re still available to them. You must build into your business special ways to look after your existing clients, long after they have bought from you. You can put them into an online club membership or forum, you can invite them to ‘clients only’ events, you can send them updates. Make sure it’s delightful though. If you send out a half-hearted newsletter once a month it will have the opposite effect on your clients; rather than being delighted by you, they will be annoyed. If people are delighted by your service, they will want to buy your P4C. If you fail to service your existing clients, no matter how good your core product is, it’s unlikely you will get an uptake on your next offering.

Think of all the businesses you have bought from in the last year or two. See if you can think of who has looked after you as a client above and beyond your expectations. Can you recall special events, little surprises or unexpected value that showed up after you were already a client? If not, can you imagine what you would have loved them to do? When you have some ideas, design some surprises for your existing clients that leave them feeling totally taken care of. We have developed a streamlined process for my clients on how to onboard clients so their clients will feel welcomed and feel delighted to work with them.

The Complete ATM

Now you have the four products and you have three pieces of glue that form a product ecosystem. When you put them in order, you end up with an ATM. You will create an elegant way for people to do business with you at several levels. People will love being around your business and they will feel good about buying from you several times.

The best part of an ATM is that you can simply go around making sure people get given gifts and P4P. After that, the domino effect kicks in and you have a business that just flows.

Unfortunately there is a severe consequence if you don’t develop a product ecosystem which I have outlined in a brief article here.

If you want us to implement this strategies for you, then book a call with us below!