B2B Marketing: Share your idea for various industriesGo to Top
Obviously not everyone here works with a wide variety of product lines, as many of you just specialize in health, life, etc. There is an additional difference in approach with most of you being independent and a person like myself being captive. However, I think this can be an awesome discussion we can really keep going and learn some things from.
Ive realized that I need to go B2B in the small business market while I keep my night job and really build things up to go full-time. The consumer/residential market (for lack of a better term) is not cutting it for me because of my current inability to meet anyone in the evening. My total product line is all types of life, LTC, annuity products, health insurance, DI, and will include many investment products such as mutual funds, IRAs, 529 plans, money market accounts, etc.
FIRST: What is your approach to going B2B?
In person, if I walked into the average small business my approach would be something along the line of:
Hi, my name is [NHB MMA] and Im doing some networking with the local business owners in my area. What kind of (work do you/services do you offer) here?
***let them talk***
Im talking with business owners about various ideas such as tax-deferred savings vehicles, protecting retirement assets from creditors or judgments, business continuation planning, and general benefits for business owners and employees such as medical care, disability insurance, retirement accounts and various other solutions to your needs. I would like to sit down with you sometime for 15-30 minutes and see if I can offer some recommendations and perhaps meet some needs?
SECOND: How do you alter your approach for some of the specific businesses listed? Are some better to approach by phone (Im a face-to-face guy, normally)? Most importantly, do some products or ideas really appeal to any of the businesses listed below? I got the major players by looking at yellow pages. See if anything sticks out as a great, poor, or different market.
Advertising agencies
Amusement places
Apartment complexes
Appliance stores
Appraisal services
Attorneys
Automobile
New car dealers
Small used lots
Repair shops
Customization/accessory shops
Bakeries
Bars/Taverns
Beauty salons
Book dealers
Bridal stores
Building
Contractors
Supply
Carpet/floor cleaning
Caterers
Cemeteries
Check cashing/payday loans
Chiropractors
Churches
Cigar, cigarette stores
Cleaners
Clubs (social, afterhours)
Coffee shops
Convenience stores
Dance studios/instruction
Dentists
Department/discount stores
Disc jockeys
Door installers
Electrical workers
Embroiderers
Employment agencies
Excavators
Exercise facilities/gyms
Farms
Florists
Funeral homes
Furniture sales
Garden centers
Gift shops
Glass repair
Golf courses
Grocers
Gun shops
Hardware
Heating & air conditioning
Hobby shops
Home health care
Hospitals
Ice cream shops/snack bars
Jewelers
Kennels
Labor unions
Laundry
Lawn service
Limousine services
Liquor stores
Lumber yards
Machine shops
Martial arts studios
Masonry workers
Mobile home dealers
Mortgage
Motels/hotels
Motorcycle dealers and repair shops
Music stores
Nail salons
Nursing homes
Opticians
Painters
Pest control
Pet grooming
Pharmacies
Photographers
Physicians
Pizza shops
Plumbers
Printers
Realtors
Restaurants
Roofers
Schools
Primary/secondary
College
Security firms
Sports stores
Surveyors
Tanning salons
Tattoo/piercing parlors
Tax services/accountants
TV/radio stations
Tire dealers
Towing service
Travel agents
Tree removal/service
Vending services
Veterinarians
Video stores/rental
Vitamin/health stores
Window cleaning
Hopefully some of you will think of other markets youve had success with selling X product and discuss how you approached it.
Listen, if you believe in your heart that you can help the business owners you don't need a pitch. Plus, a pitch is nothing. Owners will look for eye contact, sincerity, how you hold yourself and the tone of your voice.
If you're confident without being arrogant, brief but informative you'll do very well. Owners need to know that you're gonna be in and out quickly. If they think you're gonna launch into a mini-presentation they'll shut you down. Remember that you're walking cold into their business that costs them thousands a month to run. Respect that. Get to the point and get the hell out.
I hate saying it's a numbers game. It's not a numbers game. You can go to 100 businesses and if you suck you won't get a single lead. If you're nervous it comes off as unconfidence and you'll get destroyed.
This is the great killer of BtoB reps - nervousness. It's a catch 22. You're nervous at first so you don't get many leads. You don't get many leads so that makes you more nervous.
Basically, you need a burning desire for what you do.
Listen, if you believe in your heart that you can help the business owners you don't need a pitch. Plus, a pitch is nothing. Owners will look for eye contact, sincerity, how you hold yourself and the tone of your voice.
That's true, but there is still something to be said for a pitch. I could sincerely believe in the value of life insurance (I do) and walk in saying "Can I interest you in purchasing life insurance?" then wait for a response and I'd have to hit 10,000 or more businesses for a sale. John, what do you think of my introductory approach?
I do sincerely believe in what I can do for them. I think most business owners probably need to take a deeper look at their planning, as does most of the population in general. I truly think, whether or not I'm the guy they work with, a person can only benefit from having someone analyze their situation.
If you're confident without being arrogant, brief but informative you'll do very well. Owners need to know that you're gonna be in and out quickly. If they think you're gonna launch into a mini-presentation they'll shut you down. Remember that you're walking cold into their business that costs them thousands a month to run. Respect that. Get to the point and get the hell out.
Good advice. Again, I'm curious to know what you think of what I posted above as my sample pitch. Of course, it goes without saying that there are times when you get in a nice conversation with a person and you can only benefit by keeping it going. I think there will be times when I end up talking football or something for 15 minutes and say:
Joe, it's been great talking with you, but I've really taken up too much of your time. I'd like to swing by again in a few months and see if anything has changed with your situation and see if maybe it wouldn't end up an ideal time to sit down with you and review your situation at that point. Before I go, let me leave you with this brochure (the NYL referral brochure) as talks about other people that often benefit from the work I do. Hold on to it and give me a call when someone comes to mind. If you look at see it talks about recent graduates, newlywed couples, and couple that just had a baby, etc. Does anybody come to mind offhand right now?
I would never keep going that long unless someone really seemed to like my conversation. Maybe once a day there might be a situation where someone throws a name or two and if you do B2B for several days a month, it might give another deal or two per month.
I think the bottom line is don't be a moron. If they want you out of there, honor that. If they seem to want to converse, then converse.
I hate saying it's a numbers game. It's not a numbers game. You can go to 100 businesses and if you suck you won't get a single lead. If you're nervous it comes off as unconfidence and you'll get destroyed.
True. I actually want to hit businesses about 20-30 miles away from where I live next week, because I may well suck as I learn the process and I don't want to burn the local bridges.[/i]
QUESTION: What do you do when a business is clearly hectic to the point where the person you'd like to speak with isn't going to give you anything in terms of time?
Physicians are one that comes to mind. I guarantee I can walk into a doctor's office and tell them I'd like to speak to the doctor about retirement planning/asset protection and they're NOT going to say "Have a seat and I'll send you back to see him shortly". What do you do? Physicians are obviously killer prospects, but how do you get to them?
I imagine attorneys are almost as bad. They all have gatekeepers at the front desk that aren't going to let you see them. Dentists and chiropractors are in a similar boat.
How about funeral homes? I can't imagine it's wise to walk up to a funeral home with your briefcase in hand when there could be a possible viewing or somebody is dealing with a greiving client making funeral arrangements.
Hospitals have incredible potential connections, but hoop after hoop to jump through I'm sure. The same with nursing homes. Pharmacists are always busy as hell. Wouldn't schools and educational facilities have numerous gatekeepers?
Confidence? Listen Dr's aren't as grand as you would think, just because someone made it through Med School doesn't mean they are financially smart, in fact some would suggest Dr's are terrible. Okay, you have DI but outside of that its hard to talk to them mainly because you can't explain crap to them. If you ever get an apt. with a Dr that has his own practice try to explain a BOE and uses, many simply can't grasp the idea, at least in my expierence and others I talk to have the same exact epierence!
Outside of that don't worry about the big client, there is plenty of normal everyday mom and pop shops or individually ran businesses that should provide a never ending prospecting list for you.
The 5 way, basically a Exit Stragedy:
"Mr. Business Owner, you're in business today, but one day, you'll be out of business, one of five ways:
1. Death
2. Disability
3. Retirement
4. Voluntary Sale
5. Bankruptcy
What I do is make sure that no matter which way you get out, you get out with Maximum Profit. With that in mind, can we talk (or meet)?"
Or you could go with the "Wholesale or Retail", such as funding a "Buy Sell Agreement", Key Employee Benefit etc etc.
A One Page Presentations, simply one page about the uses and need of any speicific product. You also have the "Wedge", explained by some here in Health Selling by comparing the various Contracts and how some have "Real" prescription coverage while others are very limiting, that would be a use of a wedge principle.
Greatest authors to seek out if you can find their books, may not be so easy. Brent Meisel, John Savage, Feldman. Go look over at the MDRT Site and their book section.
I like to pose it as a no-brainer for owners who are on the fence after my little pitch:
"Listen, I'll call you when I get back to my office later today and give you some quotes. If I can save you money with fantastic benefits then great. If I can't save you money then at least you know you have the best deal out there."
I also want to state that when going B to B never take anything personal. Several things could be happening that makes the owner appear completely disinterested or even rude:
1) You walked in at the worst possible time - they're having a terrible day and 2 employees called out.
2) You walked in and the owner is simply swamped with work at that particular moment. An hour earlier or later could have made all the difference.
3) Just having a bad day in general; big fight with wife, kid in trouble at school, business is doing bad.
4) Owner is uninsurable and has already applied to several companies and been turned down.
Just realize it's not all about you and your pitch. You either walk in at the right time or wrong time. A very good pitch, a positive attitude, a belief in what you do and you'll do fine B to B.
Other advice: be goal oriented, not time oriented. Don't say "I'll be out for 3 hours day." Instead say "I need 6 leads today and I don't go home until I get them."
Track everything. Track the number of place you pitch, the number of leads you get and how many of those close. Then you'll have a fantastic idea over time of just how many stores you need to hit to make "X" amount of money.
NHB, in reference to your pitch
"Im talking with business owners about various ideas such as tax-deferred savings vehicles, protecting retirement assets from creditors or judgments, business continuation planning, and general benefits for business owners and employees such as medical care, disability insurance, retirement accounts and various other solutions to your needs. I would like to sit down with you sometime for 15-30 minutes and see if I can offer some recommendations and perhaps meet some needs?"
Let me put it to you this way,
I coming knocking on your front door and say,
"Hi, I'm talking with people in the neighborhood about various products such as vaccuum cleaners, carburators, vegetable oil, crew neck T-shirts, dog food, tutoring services, water filters, baseball gloves and various other products we all need. I would like to sit down with you sometime for 15-30 minutes and see if I can offer some recommendations and perhaps meet some needs?"
If you must pitch, pitch the niche! Pick one of those areas and find the target market for that area. Traditionally, my niche has been seniors on Medicare. I focus on health products for them and am much better to target my marketing efforts there. Once I get that, I am now able to move into one or two other products.
All of these areas can not possibly be covered in 15-30 minutes and I guarantee you will not get one person out of 100 to say yes to sitting down to discuss ALL THESE ISSUES.
Confidence? Listen Dr's aren't as grand as you would think, just because someone made it through Med School doesn't mean they are financially smart, in fact some would suggest Dr's are terrible.
That's very true.
If you ever get an apt. with a Dr that has his own practice try to explain a BOE and uses, many simply can't grasp the idea, at least in my expierence and others I talk to have the same exact epierence!
I don't know why I'm braindead today, but what is BOE? I know I've seen it before.
Outside of that don't worry about the big client, there is plenty of normal everyday mom and pop shops or individually ran businesses that should provide a never ending prospecting list for you.
True. WL makes a lot of sense for people like doctors, so we could be talking some serious $$$.
The 5 way, basically a Exit Stragedy
That's good stuff. I remember you talking about it on the other thread a few weeks ago.
Greatest authors to seek out if you can find their books, may not be so easy. Brent Meisel, John Savage, Feldman. Go look over at the MDRT Site and their book section.
I'll have to check out that MDRT site. I looked for Feldman (being a NYL guy) on Amazon and there were only a couple of things and were pretty steep in price.
I like to pose it as a no-brainer for owners who are on the fence after my little pitch:
"Listen, I'll call you when I get back to my office later today and give you some quotes. If I can save you money with fantastic benefits then great. If I can't save you money then at least you know you have the best deal out there."
That might work for health companies carried by NYL, but NYL is not going to be the cheapest when it comes to annuities, life and LTC. Nor do I think anyone should buy those on price alone. The bottom line is I'll be selling them on me. We'll see how it goes.
I also want to state that when going B to B never take anything personal. Several things could be happening that makes the owner appear completely disinterested or even rude:
That's true. I have some old NASE leads laying around I missed returning to them when I left. I didn't keep them on purpose. Anyway, I've been looking at some of them where I wrote something like "total asshole" on the back and wondering if I should call them, after checking online to see if they're still in business.
Other advice: be goal oriented, not time oriented. Don't say "I'll be out for 3 hours day." Instead say "I need 6 leads today and I don't go home until I get them."
Track everything. Track the number of place you pitch, the number of leads you get and how many of those close. Then you'll have a fantastic idea over time of just how many stores you need to hit to make "X" amount of money.
I think you're absolutely right about that. Good advice.
"Hi, I'm talking with people in the neighborhood about various products such as vaccuum cleaners, carburators, vegetable oil, crew neck T-shirts, dog food, tutoring services, water filters, baseball gloves and various other products we all need. I would like to sit down with you sometime for 15-30 minutes and see if I can offer some recommendations and perhaps meet some needs?"
While they are related product lines, I see your point. I need to figure out how I can shorten it and still keep an appeal to different situations.
I think what I'll change is I won't mention employee benefits until they tell me they're not interested:
Okay, I can understand if you don't want to look at your situation now. Let me ask you one last thing, would you be willing to see if I could help with the health benefits for you or any employees you might cover?
All of these areas can not possibly be covered in 15-30 minutes and I guarantee you will not get one person out of 100 to say yes to sitting down to discuss ALL THESE ISSUES.
Yes, I do realize that. I think it goes back to "if they say they'll give you 30 minutes, they'll give you an hour" and while I certainly consider myself an honest salesman, I probably am low-balling the time slot a little bit to get in the door.
Okay, I can understand if you don't want to look at your situation now. Let me ask you one last thing, would you be willing to see if I could help with the health benefits for you or any employees you might cover?
Stop it! Go in with one thing, its just makes sense. Don't prospect with a shotgun thinking you'll get a good response, you won't!. Go in with the 5 Way or just go in and ask them if they are paying too much for their H/C! One or the other, just that simple.
I'm not a fan of a multi-product pitch and I don't think you'll do to well with it. I had an agent once think he could triple his potential leads if he went in with a flyer touting health, life and dental quotes. He did far worst them me because people think they're gonna get hit up for everything and don't want to bother.
If I happen to be looking for life and a life agent contacts me I'll want a quote. If I'm looking for life and someone contacts me who wants to quote me on life, disablity, homeowners and auto I probably won't deal with him since I'm not interested in all those products and know he's gonna want to discuss and run quotes for all of them. I'm also gonna think he doesn't specialize in life.
Listen, a pediatrician doesn't increase his business by also being a podiatrist. Most professionals specialize. You don't expect the same attorney who's handling a divorce to also handle a serious criminal charge.
I'm sure you think you're increasing your odds by pitching a variety of products. I think that reaction you'll actually get is the owner thinking "I don't have time for all that."
Choose a product you like the best and market that directly. Then cross-sell to existing clients.
Thats a good point, John. I use it in my rebuttal when they tell me that they want to use their auto insurance agent for their life insurance, since they know he is trustworthy.
Prospect: I think I will get Statefarm to give me a quote, they did a very good job on my Auto and homeowners.
Me: If your head hurts, do you go to a butt doctor? Of course not, you go to someone who deals only with butts.
B2B Marketing: Share your idea for various industries
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