Are You The Perfect Larson Customer?

Are You The Perfect LARSON & ASSOCIATES customer? So we asked AI: Who are Larson & Associates best customer prospects? And ChatGPT said: Larson & Associates — Here are the most common ones and who their best customer prospects would be for: Larson & Associates — Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Trade Show & Target Marketing Firm is a 5.0 Marketing agency. Larson & Associates provides telemarketing, lead-generation, appointment-setting, and marketing services for small to midsize businesses. Best Customer Prospects:  Companies with $500,000–$45M in annual revenue seeking rapid sales growth.  Small- and medium-sized B2B firms without a large internal sales team.  Businesses that want new account acquisition and qualified leads.  Firms planning to exhibit at trade shows and needing pre-show + follow-up marketing.  Companies looking to outsource teleprospecting, email, direct mail or sales funnel work.  Organizations wanting a performance-based marketing partner instead of traditional advertising.  In short: Small & mid-sized companies needing help filling their sales pipeline with qualified prospects. That is what ChatGPT says. What do you say? Call today and find out if you are ChatGPT Larson customer approved.

Larson & Associates 847-489-0006 Howard@larsonassociates.ws We Make Good Business Great and Great Business Even Better

THE POWER OF CONSISTENCY

 

Why Business Consistency is So Important People are always preaching that when it comes to marketing: “consistency is key!” But why? What’s the big deal about marketing consistency?  First marketing consistency is about building trust In order for people to trust you, they have to feel like they know you In order for them to feel like they know you, they must be aware of you, recognize you, and remember you. In order for people to recognize and remember you, you must show up in a way that’s consistent Here you are, spending your time and effort on marketing, and nothing seems to be happening. Did you know as of Mar 21, 2022, there are currently over 1.93 billion websites online. That is a lot of online competition. If you want to become recognized and remembered in order to earn  trust, you must show up in a way that’s consistent so you can be consistently seen.  Consistency helps you avoid the “who is this again and why are they in my Facebook feed?” — and keeps the process of building company trust.

Why Consistency Matters A big mistake people make is thinking that marketing is a process of getting in front of as many people as possible where a percentage of them are sure to say, “yes, this is brilliant, where do I sign up?!“ well. . .  name recognition beats number of names every time. All businesses have days that are filled with putting out fires. Because of that, the problem of the urgent can often overshadow the importance of constant marketing. More than likely, you answered yes to both of those questions. If that’s truly how you feel, look for ways to keep the urgent tasks at bay and focus on what’s really important. While you want people to buy whatever you’re selling the instant they see it, you know it just doesn’t work like that. You know that’s not how buying decisions are made because that’s not how you make decisions is it. When people don’t know you, they’re not sure whether they can trust you — it doesn’t matter how brilliant your first impression is. They’re going to go out and consider a few more options, or maybe wait a little longer until the time is right…  for whatever reason, they’re just not ready. And it is their reasons so your needs don't matter

Awareness is a process. It might take them seeing you in their field of vision 15 times before they’re really super-awesomely aware and remember people only see 1 our of 3 marketing messages. so that is (ouch) 45 messages to the same person! So, you’re gonna need a way to get in front of those people a second, third or eighty times so you can prove to them you’re credible, trustworthy, and the best option available from all the others they might be considering. This is where a consistent message is needed to provide the glue of consistency in your message (both your words and visuals) and that has the power to speed this whole trust- and awareness-building process up.

So What Are You Waiting For? If you want to wait for the perfect time, that was yesterday. The second best time is now.  But if you have no time?  Call Larson & Associates 1. We Make Sure Your Message is Clear  2. Create A Marketing Plan  3 We Set A Realistic Schedule  4 We Create And Batch Your Content  5, We Will Break Your Plan Down To Smaller Workable Action Steps  6. We Set Up A Support System And Accountability  As always, I really hope you’ve found these thoughts and idea useful and that you’ll take them and apply them to your own business. But if you can't or need help you can call us. Larson & Associates 847-991-1294

Larson & Associates Making Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better Copyright © 2022 Larson & Associates, All rights reserved. Larson & Associates 3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101 Grayslake IL 60030 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates www.larsonassociates.ws

2021 UPCITY Telemarketing Agency Award

 

Howard Larson  Larson & Associates has been nominated to UPCITY Top Telemarketing Agencies In The United States Working in the covid world of 2020-21 has shown the business model of a virtual office that Howard Larson and Larson & Associates starting using back in in 2006, not just to lower our carbon footprint but to give the Larson & Associates staff greater job satisfaction and control has allowed us to give us a quicker response to the needs of our clients. Not that it has been easy this year. We ourselves have not lost 1 day or even 1 hour or work due to covid. Our philosophy of the Big Fish in a Little Pond and purposefully staying small, seeking out small to mid-sized companies, the majority of our clients continue to be small businesses with revenue of $500,000 to 10 Million with 3 to 12 sales people remains in tact.  In 2020-21 despite covid, our year over year clients who are using the Larson & Associates 3 Legged Stool Method of Marketing have been seeing growth above 14% as well as grabbing increased market share with bold covid expansion programs.  Thank you for your continued support of the Larson Philosophy of Marketing. Now in our 47th year it is because of you that we are still here and continue to be a success. It is your belief in us that makes us who we are. You give us the freedom to work quick, hard and fast. You are the people who let us out run, out produce and out perform the competition. UPCITY Top Telemarketing Agencies 2021

|According to Bright Local, 80% of consumers have keep their trust in your businesses. You have also increased your online "Recommendability Rating", which has helped you rank higher on UpCity and built your trust as a supplier companies have come to trust.

Selection of individuals  "is based on reference value". Individuals become eligible for listing by virtue of their positions and/or noteworthy achievements that have proved to be of significant value to clients and society. An individual's desire to be listed is not sufficient reason for inclusion.

Larson & Associates
 

We Make Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better

Our mailing address is:

Larson & Associates
3475 Steeplechase Way     Suite 101
Grayslake IL 60030
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassocaites.ws
www.larsonassociates.ws

Who Is Making Your Calls?

 

Teleprospecting / Telemarketing / Telesales

Who is making your calls? Your Sales People Or A Trained Teleprospecter? How long would it or will it take for your outside sales people to learn about phone work? 1 Week? 1 Month? Maybe never? Telemarketing generally involves a high volume of sales calls made to long lists of recipients. The goal of the telemarketer is to reach a as many people as possible to start moving them along a structured sales process. i.e. the sales pipeline. It most often involves a scripted pitch or bullet point free  form if the telemarketing is good enough. It can be very one sided if the person working the phones has not taken the time to know about you and your company. The interaction is not usually very complex as the caller is offering a simple product or service to a targeted niche audience. the more targeted the better the result. With our wide range of ONSHORE telemarketing services include, inbound sales, inbound customer services, outbound research, teleprospecting, telemarketing, telesales and outbound lead generation. We have the person you need.

Larson & Associates Telemarketing Services

Cold Calling Services Instead of scripts, the goal is to engage a decision maker in a meaningful interaction to gain an understanding of their business needs and to help match those needs with a solution, service or product which you already know you provide to build healthy long-term relationships with your clients with our excellent communication skills. Because of this, a telemarketer needs to be more seasoned, with the experience to understand the nuances of a business conversation, and with the ability to listen intently and ask the right questions to draw out qualifying lead information. Wait did I say ask questions? Where did that come from? The goal of the call is to learn and determine if your product or service will be able to meet the specific business needs of the prospect and then set next steps in the sales process. If you nitched yourself the answer is 95% yes.

Who are they calling? In teleprospecting, before a caller even picks up the phone they will have been researched for the best title contact(s) at a company who would be involved with the decision making process. A teleprospector will make calls to high level evaluators and key decision makers with whom they can start a conversation, often if possible using referrals to target the key decision maker. Because of the complex nature of the sale, it is appropriate and necessary to reach the highest level executive in the organization responsible for the business solution being pitched.

How do you measure success?  Perhaps the most defining aspect between telemarketing and teleprospecting is how success is determined. Everything is about results. After working through a list a telemarketer will have a number of successful calls based on numbers of dials, numbers of actual sales or appointments made, or even the number of people they were able to pass along down a sales pipeline. Normally if there is a sucessful call made it is unlikely we will revisit those prospects again as the call will have ended in a simple yes, no, or incomplete.In teleprospecting, the success of the call is not as easily measured by numbers. The goal for a complex B2B call is to develop qualified, actionable sales leads.

Questions to ask yourself before determining if you should use telemarketing

Is your solution, product or service complex or commodity? Do you have a defined niche market or can you cast a wide net? Will your business benefit from high volume transactions or a targeted, complex sale? Both telemarketing and teleprospecting have their place in a successful sales strategy – applying the right methodology in the right situation at the right time will determine the success of your telesales efforts.

It is time for you to make one more call! Face it, would't you would rather be making sales and running sales appointments than sitting at your desk and making phone call after phone call to find that one YES. I have a customer who hates making phone calls. I mean he hates it with a passion. In the time it takes Geno (I'll call him Geno because that is his name). In the time Geno to make 1 call Elizabeth can make 9! That's right 9 times the productivity.  So what do we do for him? We pick up the phone and make calls. One after another. We are happy and he is happy! So pick-up that 100 pound phone to call for the help you want and make your last cold call to 847-991-1294. We will talk to you as a fellow sales person who has been down in the trenches looking for clients. Call us because. . .   We Know How! Larson & Associates

We Make Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better Larson & Associates 3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101 Grayslake IL 60030 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates www.larsonassociates.ws

3 Parts of Telemaketing

 

3 Primary Ways to Use Telemarketing
to Grow Your Business

Ask yourself or any business owner to name a few of there best marketing channels for bring in more business and they’ll reel off an array of answers. You’ll probably hear social media, email marketing, direct mail and other digital strategies. It is wonderful to have so many ways to market as well as confusing. Today’s businesses have a entire plethora of marketing alternatives to utilize for outreach, growth and retention. All those many choices can cause you to forget about one of the more conventional channels sitting right in front of your face on your desk. Your phone! TELEMARKETING Telemarketing is one of the most overlooked marketing tools. The traditional idea of picking up the phone to drum up business is out of fashion. The fact is, though, that when done correctly, telemarketing can indeed help you to grow your business.

The 3 Arrows In Your Quiver

Telemarketing is one arrow in your marketing quiver. If you have a unified marketing plan with all your channels aimed at the same place from different directions you come out a winner. Within this vast array you have lots of channels to work with. You’ll want to use as many as you can in combination and in the most effective way possible. Don't use more then you can work 100% effectively but only those that you can execute at a high level of expertise and saturation. That is why companies like Larson & Associates are here. We can help take you the next level In the case of telemarketing, that doesn’t mean old-fashioned cold calling like we did 20 years ago. It means taking an intelligent approach to growing your business using the phone. Here are the three significant parts we take to grow your company with telemarketing: 1.    Telemarketing to existing customers 2.    Telemarketing to lost customers 3.    Telemarketing for lead generation

Telemarketing to Existing Customers

Growing your business doesn’t always mean attracting new customers. Don't get me wrong, new customers are nice but achieving top drawer customer retention to keep what you already have, easier, less expensive and can often be a better way to achieving your yearly sales goals. Keeping your present customers on board can make more of a difference to your bottom line than you might think. Telemarketing can aid your customer retention in a variety of ways. Customer care or research calls are good examples. In these instances you are showing your customers that you care, creating a more positive view of you and your company. That makes it less likely that they, the customer will abandon you and start using a competitor. Researching out to your existing customers can also help you find new opportunities. Asking questions, getting feedback on your products or services can help you fix problems before they become problems. By taking the time to talk about the different and changing needs of the industry, you can find future paths for your business to expand with them. It is also possible to do some cross-selling or up-selling while telemarketing to existing customers. If someone already buys from you, they’re more then likely to be interested in other products or services you have. They have first-hand experience of your quality of your work and the products and services they are now using so why not more ? Ask! And, existing customers via telemarketing are more likely to answer the phone.

Telemarketing to Lost Customers

A second way to use telemarketing is when you are trying to grow your business via telemarketing that involves customers you’ve lost. It happens to all of us. The one who got away or we did not take a more careful watch over.  Telemarketing is the easiest and fastest way to restart that energy between the two of you. By that, we mean customers who bought from you before but haven’t done so for a while. That might be as they haven’t felt a need to purchase or could be because they’ve moved over to a competitor. Or it could just mean you messed up and no one had the for-site to call up to make things right.   It may surprise you how successful reaching out to lost customers really is. Just making the call can be enough to help to jog their memories as to how useful your products or services were. What’s more, it shows them how much you care and value their business. Calling and speaking to past customers can rebuild that severed relationship allowing you to again be the brand of choice. Even if you fail to win them back as a  customer, speaking to them can give you invaluable insight as to what happened. If you’re able to learn why they left you, you can make it less likely for you to lose customers for the same reason in the future. That will aid your customer retention numbers and thus help keep your business growing faster.

Telemarketing for Lead Generation

Lead generation is what most people think of when they think about telemarketing. Cold calling, dialing for dollars. Getting a targeted niche specific list of prospects is an effective way to warm those prospects up and get them to the next level of the sales cycle. When we are making calls it is not necessarily to make a sale but rather to set an appointment or pass a lead on to sales staff to send out information about your companies services. Selling isn't necessarily what you want to think about when talking to a prospect for the first time. Telemarketing for lead generation isn’t as popular as it once was. We here at Larson & Associates happen to love sitting here drinking coffee and making phone calls all day, one call after another for our chosen clients. Some one on your staff or us here at Larson's should be making those calls. As my sales mentor Hank Trisler use to say, if you were dropped off in Minot ND (which had a high temperature last Tuesday of -5) as a sales person you would have only two choices to makes sales fast. Start walking the streets and knocking on doors or sitting at your desk in your warm comfortable office making telemarketing calls. I think you could make more touches and more sales faster with a phone call to people who you already know use a service or product like you have.

3 Legged Stool Marketing Method

We do it but we do not normally think about telemarketing as the only tool you should be using but thought of as only a part of a broader strategy using different channels and tools to get you a faster, higher rate of return on your calling time and dollar. The Larson Method ties in lead generation calls with other marketing channels. Think about calling prospects who you’ve reached out to with an email but have yet to get a response. Or got that direct mail post card and were "meaning" to call you. The Larson 3 Legged Stool Method utilizes Direct Mail-Email-Teleprospcting. When put together it forms a 3 pronged attack that hits people, your valued prospects in 3 different ways making a powerful 1-2-3 punch. Need the knock out left hook? If that is not quite enough I get my Social Media Expert Fred McMurray of My Three Daughters (not sons) fame to work out all your social median needs and you have the can not miss of lead generation and ample supply of leads for a company of any size and kind from a 1-man army to Fortune 500. http://www.larsonassociates.ws/associations  We can put a plan together that fits you and you alone.  We get down in the trenches with you to help you find your niche so you can not just sell to receptive people and companies but to own that niche so you are the one everyone wants to buy from.

Larson & Associates

We Make Good Businesses Great and Great Businesses Even Better Larson & Associates 3475 Steeplechase Way    Suite 101 Grayslake IL 60030 847-991-1294

Best Time To Reach Out

 

Is there a best time to contact a prospect? I Don't know what you think you know but The research is wrong! There have been numerous research studies, advice and opinions published on when is the best time to contact a prospect. And there is one thing that is the same in all the published articles: none of them agree on any thing. Time, day nothing! There isn't a good time! Some will tell you that it is 10.37am on a Wednesday morning (I don't know how they manage to work out that every prospect is in a wonderfully receptive mood at precisely at 10:37 but ok). Others will say that it’s a Monday afternoon. (By the way, there may be loads of prospects who are ready to take calls and e-mails on a Monday afternoon) But you are getting the idea here: everyone is different, everyone has a different suggestion. And that is what has led me to create the definitive answer to the question “when is the best time to contact a prospect?”. If you were looking for a simple answer, be ready for crushing disappointment. Here goes: So when is the best time to contact a prospect? There is no correct time! It is simply not possible to give an answer to when is the best time to contact a prospect. Everyone is different. We need to take into account that there are different habits and cultures in each area of the country, market sector and type of company. And that’s before we talk about the fact that everyone has individual preferences and that these days people rarely have two weeks that are the same. So how do sales people make the best use of their time? How do they create the maximum success for contacting people? Here are seven quick tips to maximise your chances of engaging a prospect: Call when you are not supposed to: Where much of the research about when is the best time to contact a prospect agrees is that no-one wants to speak to you on a Monday morning or a Friday afternoon. Really? For some reason I have made some of my best sales at those times. They might seem unproductive but yes this is when I get my best results! Perhaps it’s because nobody else is dumb enough to be calling at that time. Calling after 5.30pm works pretty well for me as well and before 7:30 also: meetings have not started or they are finished but the boss is in early or still there late. Here is another secret: right before you leave at the end of your day, make 1 more call. Just 1 more. I don't care if it is 4:14 or 7:26, make one more call! Mix up your calling times! If someone is not available when you call them at 10.37am on a Wednesday don’t try contacting them again at the same time next week. Like I need to really be saying this but try a different day and a different time. Sooner or later you will find the right time for that person. But remember that probably won’t be the best time for your other prospects. Go multi-channel! Whenever I run one of my Teleprospecting workshops I ask the people there how many ways they contact prospects. Nearly everyone falls far short of the 14 different ways that I use. If someone ignores you when you call or e-mail, try something else. Use social media messaging, a blog, a direct mail postcard. You will usually get a response when you find a channel that resonates with them. It about them and what they want, not you. Just remember the rule of 38. No matter what marketing channel you use, picking up the phone and making a follow up phone call will ad a 38% better response rate to what ever you are doing or getting. Have a great message! It doesn’t matter how good you are at getting through to people: your time is wasted if you simply give them a standard sales message that they have heard before. If you want to find out how to create a good message, again don't over think it. what do you want to achieve out of the call? What is the next step you want to take with them and ask for it. Really ask for the result you want to have happen. Like now: I want to be doing teleprospecting and run your multichannel marketing program so call me at 847-991-1294 and calling right now would be good! Be persistent! So many people give up after two or three attempts to contact someone. I almost have to laugh here because the average prospect buys after 7 to 9 sales and marketing messages and they only see 1 out of 3. Do the math, That is 21 to 27 messages to get where you want to go with them. It usually takes a lot longer to get hold of a prospect and start a meaningful dialogue. Sometimes it takes me two or three years from the first engagement until the sale. But you’ll never make the sale if you give up too soon. (I should add that I qualify my prospects carefully to make sure that I am not wasting my time on people who are the wrong fit or who are not going to take the next step). Run a CRM entry for each important prospect! When I have my buyers hat on, I will receive calls from companies trying to sell me something. Many of them called at the wrong time. I might tell them when I was next reviewing suppliers like them. But not even ten percent would call back at the right time. Yes laying out there dead in the parking lot. I often tell people to call me back the following week or month (and mean it) and they either fail to contact me or get the time wrong. So make a CRM entry to make sure that you never forget to call anyone again at their right time. Just do it! Sorry but research is highly over rated. If you do niche selling like I strongly suggest you do, you already know the problems and you know your answer to those problems. Yes good old pain and pleasure selling. We can spend a lot of time researching. We can also be diverted by prospect research, managing current customers or just the general busy. Sometimes we manage our time badly. And sometimes we use all these reasons as an excuse not to call new prospects because it seems too scary. The best thing that we can do is to actually start making contact with people. Pick up the phone and make the call! Want to do it yourself? Here’s a quick action point for you Try and make contact with at least five people today, and the same tomorrow. Choose a channel that you are comfortable with. Try social media or writing a note card if the phone and e-mail do not appeal. The most important thing is to take action. At the end of the week you have made 25 reach outs! If you reach out to 25 people you have a reasonably good chance of having a conversation with at least one new contact. You will be making progress with your sales and you will also be doing better than most of your competition. Research is over-rated! Yes, Research is highly over-rated! Action is better. What do you do if you don’t know what to say to new prospects? Have a weekly special. A new twist to your product of service or how you are servicing customers during covid. Don't like to prospect? For you there is Larson & Associates We make good businesses great and great businesses even better! Our focus is on working to become a part of your sales and marketing team in a seamless, invisible way to help propel your business to the next level. We will get to know you, understand you, sell you!   If you don't enjoy phone call after phone call or have a multichannel system that works call us! WE Do!   Larson & Associates 847-991-1294 howard@larsonassociates.ws