How to Find Qualified Buyers & Get Them to Want to Work With You
In this difficult market a big question every business executive is asking is “How can I find qualified buyers.” No doubt this is an important question. However, if you find yourself asking this question your mind is 100% focused on the wrong thing. The question you should be asking yourself is not how you can find qualified buyers, but rather — How can I get qualified buyers to find me?
This will seem like a small, nit-picky difference. It's not. Here’s why:
Finding a qualified buyer, doesn’t mean that the buyer will work with you. Far from it. Identifying that qualified prospect is just the start of your “battle” to win their business. To end up closing the sale you still need to pass through the buyers five “litmus” tests. They are:
The problem with most companies is that they spend large chunks of their available time each week sifting through the general populous trying to identify qualified buyers. This is a huge waste of time, as you usually won’t win the business when you’re trying to pass these litmus tests as an unknown. Instead of selecting you (an unproven and unknown quantity) they’ll usually opt to work with someone they’re already connected to in some way.
But, what if you could pass these litmus tests with flying colors, BEFORE a qualified buyer has ever interacted with you or your company in person? And, even better, what if you could become their “preferred” vendor of choice without even having had a first meeting?
Impossible? Actually quite the contrary.
This is exactly what is happening every day of the week to market leaders in every industry. They have qualified buyers calling them, out of the blue, requesting to work with them. It is possible to create a dynamic where you have a steady stream of qualified, interested buyers in both good economies as well as bad.
When companies like IBM or Microsoft implement my Thought Leadership Marketing Methodology I show them how to short circuit this process by getting qualified buyers selling THEM to work with them. For now let me show you 3 powerful techniques that can make you the preferred vendor in the eyes of unknown buyers within a very short period of time.
#1 — Become a Published Author: Authors in our society are put on a pedestal. They are seen as the best and brightest amongst us. If you want to quickly separate yourself from the competitors in your market, become a published author. The trick is to do this in a way that doesn’t take a lot of your time, and gets qualified buyers seeking you out. So, instead of doing a full book like IBM, start by publishing (electronically, so it’s cheap and can be distributed easily over the Internet) “Special Reports” on topics of interest to home buyers. Here are a couple of sample titles, to get your mind working:
#2 — Offer a Free “Alert” Service: Offer potential customers the ability to stay on top of breaking developments in your industry. Have them provide you with all of the vital details of what they’re interested in, then send them information as news breaks (Google Alerts are great for this.) This allows you to know the specifics of what your prospect wants (and go seek it out so you can provide it for them), gives you permission to build a relationship with the buyer and will help you get referrals as prospects spread the word of your helpful service.
#3 — Create “Facebook” for Your Sector: One of the hottest trends in marketing is social networks. This is illustrated by the ubiquity of social networks like Facebook and MySpace. You can put yourself in an extraordinarily powerful position by creating the social network, the “Facebook”, for the communities you serve. Buyers are always searching for information, by owning this portal you can be one of the first people to know of their potential purchasing plans. Best of all, a lot of the editorial will come from the community itself, drastically reducing the amount of work you need to do. And, there are tremendous (and free) software services that power these networks. Check out www.Ning.com and www.Kickapps.com.
No question these strategies require some effort to implement. But, do any one of them and you will shortly find yourself with customers knocking on your door (sometimes even begging) for you to work with them. are great for this.) This allows you to know the specifics of what your prospect wants (and go seek it out so you can provide it for them), gives you permission to build a relationship with the buyer and will help you get referrals as prospects spread the word of your helpful service.
Finding a qualified buyer, doesn’t mean that the buyer will work with you. Far from it. Identifying that qualified prospect is just the start of your “battle” to win their business. To end up closing the sale you still need to pass through the buyers five “litmus” tests. They are:
- Buyers Litmus Test #1: Is the company's product/service good enough to do my specific job?
- Buyers Litmus Test #2: Has the company's product/service been used by people like me in the past?
- Buyers Litmus Test #3: Will it not be a terrible experience working with this company?
- Buyers Litmus Test #4: Can the company demonstrate that they understand my needs, desires, restrictions and limitations?
- Buyers Litmus Test #5: Can I afford the price tag?
The problem with most companies is that they spend large chunks of their available time each week sifting through the general populous trying to identify qualified buyers. This is a huge waste of time, as you usually won’t win the business when you’re trying to pass these litmus tests as an unknown. Instead of selecting you (an unproven and unknown quantity) they’ll usually opt to work with someone they’re already connected to in some way.
But, what if you could pass these litmus tests with flying colors, BEFORE a qualified buyer has ever interacted with you or your company in person? And, even better, what if you could become their “preferred” vendor of choice without even having had a first meeting?
Impossible? Actually quite the contrary.
This is exactly what is happening every day of the week to market leaders in every industry. They have qualified buyers calling them, out of the blue, requesting to work with them. It is possible to create a dynamic where you have a steady stream of qualified, interested buyers in both good economies as well as bad.
When companies like IBM or Microsoft implement my Thought Leadership Marketing Methodology I show them how to short circuit this process by getting qualified buyers selling THEM to work with them. For now let me show you 3 powerful techniques that can make you the preferred vendor in the eyes of unknown buyers within a very short period of time.
#1 — Become a Published Author: Authors in our society are put on a pedestal. They are seen as the best and brightest amongst us. If you want to quickly separate yourself from the competitors in your market, become a published author. The trick is to do this in a way that doesn’t take a lot of your time, and gets qualified buyers seeking you out. So, instead of doing a full book like IBM, start by publishing (electronically, so it’s cheap and can be distributed easily over the Internet) “Special Reports” on topics of interest to home buyers. Here are a couple of sample titles, to get your mind working:
- (Real Estate Agent) How to Negotiate a 15% Discount Off a Home Sellers Best Offer
- (Financial Advisor) Sector Rotation Investing: The Scientific Case Against Asset Allocation
- (Identity Theft Software) Defending the Digital You: How to Fight Online Identity Theft
#2 — Offer a Free “Alert” Service: Offer potential customers the ability to stay on top of breaking developments in your industry. Have them provide you with all of the vital details of what they’re interested in, then send them information as news breaks (Google Alerts are great for this.) This allows you to know the specifics of what your prospect wants (and go seek it out so you can provide it for them), gives you permission to build a relationship with the buyer and will help you get referrals as prospects spread the word of your helpful service.
#3 — Create “Facebook” for Your Sector: One of the hottest trends in marketing is social networks. This is illustrated by the ubiquity of social networks like Facebook and MySpace. You can put yourself in an extraordinarily powerful position by creating the social network, the “Facebook”, for the communities you serve. Buyers are always searching for information, by owning this portal you can be one of the first people to know of their potential purchasing plans. Best of all, a lot of the editorial will come from the community itself, drastically reducing the amount of work you need to do. And, there are tremendous (and free) software services that power these networks. Check out www.Ning.com and www.Kickapps.com.
No question these strategies require some effort to implement. But, do any one of them and you will shortly find yourself with customers knocking on your door (sometimes even begging) for you to work with them. are great for this.) This allows you to know the specifics of what your prospect wants (and go seek it out so you can provide it for them), gives you permission to build a relationship with the buyer and will help you get referrals as prospects spread the word of your helpful service.
Thanks for the tips
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Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed and informative article
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Web publishing is a very popular feature of the internet. It is very motivating for pupils to see their work published on the web.
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Publication is also important as a legal concept: as the process of giving formal notice to the world of a significant intention, for example, to marry or enter bankruptcy; (2) as the essential precondition of being able to claim defamation.
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My brother did that Free Alert thing.
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It's premature to call anyone a hero as there will likely be far more carnage and we have no way, at this point, to measure these "hero's" actions have helped or excarbated the situation.
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Thanks, really appreciate the writeup. I have one question/comment. You suggest clicking the annotations toggle, but for me, this was disabled with a tooltip that said “Annotations are unavailable.” Any suggestions?
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I've used bird dogs in the past, but I learned a great deal from this lens. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this topic. I have picked up some great tips and time-savers. Feel free to stop by and visit. Perhaps we can help each other along with real estate deals.
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Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this topic. one should improve himself to get searched of good buyers. always try to improve your knowledge and u will get a good result.
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It's premature to call anyone a hero as there will likely be far more carnage and we have no way, at this point, to measure these "hero's" actions have helped or excarbated the situation
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Very realistics tips to Find Qualified Buyers & Get Them to Want to Work
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