Yes, it’s that time of year again, the publication of the Monitor 100 — the ranking of the top 100 leasing companies in the U.S. Thinking about this list made me think about lists in general.
Most of us write grocery lists and find that when we go to the store without one we usually end up forgetting something, (for me it was toilet paper last week). A list is a powerful tool that focuses your concentration. The best piece of advice I received while selling leasing was to make a list of my top ten vendors and find ways to strengthen the relationship on a regular basis, and to list my top ten prospects so I could focus like a laser beam until I received an application. If you don’t have a list of your top ten vendors and prospects, stop reading and make a list right now.
Do you have your list? Are you consistently marketing to the people who will provide the biggest return on your prospecting time? When I work with individual brokers and ask them to list their top ten prospects many can only identify three or four. The problem is that they don’t have enough good quality sales leads. This goes back to the power of lists, your list of leads.
Do you have a quality list? “Keep the funnel full,” is what my sales manager used to say every day when we were prospecting. Whenever he said this I visualized a beer bong from college. It had a large funnel on the top, and a long hose that you had to chug from. It was a frightening thought because I don’t like beer and I can’t chug. To me beer bongs and pure cold calls are very scary things. However, to succeed in sales you most definitely need a funnel full of prospects. (To succeed in college you should probably stay away from the beer bong, but that’s a different article.) The sales funnel is kept full by pouring in leads on a regular basis. Leads are everywhere, and there are three different methodologies to acquiring them:
Trickle Marketing
Trickle marketing requires you to add a few leads to your database every day by the powers of observation. For example, a trip to the doctor can result in three different types of medical equipment leads. Who manufactures the examination table? Who is the distributor for their testing equipment? Where did they get their office furniture?
Also under trickle marketing comes the “three-foot” rule. Basically it implies that everyone close to you (within three feet if taken literally) is a prospect and you should attempt to market equipment leasing to them. It states that you should give everyone around you (in a public place) your business card. Does it work? Well, it might in some instances. However, I’m not comfortable walking up to people and handing them my card without knowing anything about them.
I’d take the three-foot rule and turn it into the “one-foot rule.” My one-foot rule would be to have a true interest in the person that you’re talking to, extend kindness and then think about how you could help them. If you put their interests first, in turn you will get what you want. The one-foot rule makes me feel happy and content. The three-foot rule makes me feel cheap and pushy.
Another example of trickle marketing would be to put an e-mail capture form on your website. Capture the names and e-mail addresses of your visitors. Who is going to your site? Who would like more information? If you offer a free report, (i.e., Four Ways To Decide If You Should Lease or Buy), the visitor gives you their e-mail assess to obtain the information.
Drive-by’s are also a form of trickle marketing. You drive by a vendor’s business, you know that they should be using leasing as a sales tool, you stop in and qualify the account. This is how I landed one of my best vendors. I stopped in, they told me they were happy with who they were using. I persisted for months, calling, relationship building, offering solutions, and when their leasing sales rep got promoted (because they had been giving him such high volume) the vendor decided to give me a try. Trust your intuition. Follow your hunches. If you are thinking about calling on a particular industry and a truck for that equipment type drives by, jot down the number and call it. You’ll be happily surprised at the results. With trickle marketing, you are always looking for leads. The positive is that you may find your “retirement account.” The negative is that if you get lazy your funnel becomes as dry as a beer bong at a seminary.
Medium Bang Marketing
Medium Bang marketing is dedicating one day a week to finding new leads. Social media marketing sites such as LinkedIn are on the cutting edge of this form of lead generation. LinkedIn lets you connect with people that are connected to your connections. For example, my brother works for DuPont, you connect to me and you can see everyone I’m connected to. You notice that I’m connected to a DuPont employee. DuPont is on your top ten prospect list. You ask me to electronically introduce you to my brother. If you build your list this way, your calls are no longer “cold.” LinkedIn also creates visibility for you and your leasing services. If someone googles you and you’re on LinkedIn, your profile appears on the search engine. The site also allows other people to recommend you and confirm the quality of your work. Imagine how much easier it would be to start a conversation with someone with whom you have a mutual connection, and they were able to read all your recommendations before your first meeting.
Associations and national accounts also qualify as medium bang marketing. Working member lists of associations and dealer lists from a specific manufacturer once a week is a terrific way to build your list of leads. Don’t be afraid of national accounts. Even if the manufacturer has a captive leasing company, the dealers use outside sources. Remember, it’s all about relationships.
Tsunami Marketing
Tsunami marketing is a once-a-year event where you purchase a tidal wave of leads. When purchasing a list start with an equipment type where you have some previous knowledge or background. For example, I sold photocopiers, so when I started selling leasing I called on copier vendors. Identify the niches that you want to specialize in, then order your list. One of my coaching clients recently bought a list of 624 leads off of Dun & Bradstreet’s website for $.31 a name. Dun & Bradstreet is not the only source. You can buy leads from: Hoovers, Sales Genie, Info USA, and Harte-Hanks Market Intelligence.
Before you acquire the leads think about how you will enter them into your contact management system. One company I worked with would buy leads, have them pre-qualified by an outside firm and then sent directly into its contact management system. This helped the sales force because they didn’t have to type in contact information and the leads had already been culled.
If you can’t afford for someone else to pre-qualify your leads, consider hiring an intern. Call a local community college in your area and set up an internship program. It’s a win/win for you and the student because they get to build their resume, learn new database software and earn college credits, while you get inexpensive lead qualification and data entry.
Building a high-quality list of leads takes a lot of time and resourcefulness. After a while though, it takes less of both. It’s not easy but it’s worth it. Just think of the sense of satisfaction you’ll feel after you’ve connected with your top ten prospects and you can cross each one off your to-do list for this week.
The Monitor 100 companies in this issue all have one thing in common, they have successful habits and they take action. Make it your habit to list your top vendors and prospects and always keep the sales funnel full. Stop sabotaging yourself by not taking action. Many leasing professionals are held back by a sense of fear. Fear of rejection turns to a fear of not being good enough, and that fear turns into idleness. Break this cycle. Prospect on a regular basis, provide value-added information to your prospects and you will be surprised and dazzled by the results.
Linda P. Kester is a bestselling author and professional speaker with 20 years of experience in leasing sales and marketing management. She has helped hundreds of salespeople increase their volume. Her book, 366 Marketing Tips for Equipment Leasing, has produced results for leasing companies in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia.
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