The Value of Your Prospect List
A client of mine told me that a customer opted for an additional $3,000 in services on top of a $5,000 order simply because of a follow-up message that was sent.
That same message that prompted this customer to purchase another service is one that goes out to his entire prospect list (the prospect list is the customers that may need your services but have not gone forward) on a regular basis.
Every prospect should be put into a database to be contacted forever unless they “buy, die, move, or scream get me off your mailing list.” This should be considered a “holding tank” for future return on marketing expenditures.
Why should we “feed” and maintain our holding tank of prospects?
If we don’t, we are throwing away something we’ve paid for. Most businesses don’t even know they are throwing an asset away. Every time you meet or a potential prospect calls your office, you have quite literally paid that prospect to call you through some mechanism be it internal or external marketing purchased with either time (networking, referrals), money (marketing, advertising), or both. It is likely that this occurred because you bought their phone call through some form of internal or external marketing.
Meeting and getting the customer to call that very first time is the biggest marketing expense in any business. After the first call, our ongoing marketing expense is tiny to continuously keep us ‘first in line’ in their mind so that they only think about getting their service/product with us when they become ready.
As a result of understanding this, businesses not only reap big rewards immediately with the prospects that are ready to buy right now but they also continue to reap big rewards from prospects that they literally paid to call them years ago. They know how important this is.
Looking beyond the ongoing sales to keep you in business, the Prospect List is a Tangible Practice Asset. Here is another very big financial reason your marketing system must build and automatically keep a marketing contact database.
You already know that one of the ways your practice is valued is by your existing clients and your bottom line. Another asset that is hugely valuable in any business is having a list of people that you have contacted that have a known problem for which you are selling the solution (literally customers that need you and have told you by their actions that they are likely to spend money with you).
In marketing terms this is called a prospect list because these people have literally ‘raised their hand’ and said to you that they have the very specific problem for which you have the solution. Business Owners pay $25,000-$200,000+ for these lists!! In creating your own list you are building an asset in your business!
Here’s A Little Secret You Won’t Read in Economics – Having a prospect list is a business asset that can be sold as part of your business and depending on the size of your list and how many years you have had a relationship, the list can save a future owner several hundred thousand dollars… that’s just how valuable it is! Or take the list to a business you may buy.
So Be Honest – Do you have the contact information for every person that you feel could potentially use your business. Are they in a holding tank that is constantly being fed and fished? Does your marketing system automatically perform follow-up and is it constantly doing everything it can to keep your prospects engaged so that they are more likely to be ready for your help?
If you choose to let the right systems make this happen for you, the warm prospect list it creates for you can add tangible value to your practice when you sell it to another owner that will want the same things you have… a pool of potential customers that constantly show up as they are marketed to over time.
This is super advanced knowledge. Few accountants understand it and even fewer businesses know about this or even know how to create this effect to reap the financial reward.
There you have it… one more method to increase the future sale value of your business without it requiring any effort on your part.
Need help building your database… Contact us today for some list building strategies.
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