When we began working on the sales building strategy, we thought it was important to disclose all activities and results as a way to demonstrate the effectiveness of the different sales building initiatives. Here is a quick summary.
Digital Marketing
- As a reminder, we took a multi-channel approach to our online marketing efforts, which included…
- Local Google search advertisements for keyword searches like ‘management consultants greensboro’
- Remarketing and display ads using these banners
- On-site email sign-ups
- Social media announcements via each of our CXOs LinkedIn pages.
- Driving prospects to our COFFEE WITH A CXO page.
- The resulting campaigns produced a total of:
- Over 500,000 impressions (people seeing our ads!)
- 1,356 people clicking to our website (328 of which were repeat visitors coming from our remarketing ads)
- 39 email signups
- An unimagined result of the marketing work, the website development and launch, the outgoing email and LinkedIn campaign was that we created items that made the entity seem more real for people. In short, people would use the various marketing assets as a way to validate Performance CXO. Simple examples include a prospect seeing one of our banners on NYTimes.com as well as several individuals feedback on how helpful and intuitive the website felt. We’re not sure how to quantify this qualitative feedback, but we do believe there is value there.
Active Networking
Since April, we have had 62 in person meetings, pitched Performance CXO to over 45 groups, and attended 4 networking functions. Here is what we learned…
- Using our network, we were effectively able to schedule meetings and spread the word about the new entity. The keys were to have a clearly articulated message, select the “right” kind of audience, and to also be able to offer some real assistance or help to the other person.
- The groups we seemed to have the most productive meetings with were those that are doing business with similar size and types of companies. Specifically, those companies are insurance companies, fractional CFOs, banks, wealth managers, attorneys, and HR professionals. These individuals are particularly well suited because we are not competitors in any of these spaces, they are all seen as trusted advisors, and we can also be referral sources for them with our clients.
- The goal was to have face to face meetings with scheduled follow-up. It was also important to establish during the meeting what that follow-up was going to be.
The Results
- Currently we have signed one client based on the networking activity, we have a proposal outstanding based on the email campaign, and we have a pitch meeting based on the social media work, specifically LinkedIn. The value of the contract signed is 3X the money spent. Additionally, the outstanding proposal and pitch meeting are with companies that we would never have had the opportunity to meet without undergoing the sales building work we completed.
Next Steps for Performance CXO
- Modify the social media tactics to reposition the efforts as a way to establish brand credibility and to act as a way to tell the Performance CXO story to people whom we don’t know.
- Refine the networking plan by tightening
- The talking points
- Better selection of networking
- Creating a way to interact with groups effectively
- Practicing and developing a networking playbook
- Growth by adding professionals in new cities
We are happy to discuss this in greater details or answer any specific questions you may have, please reach out to Brent at brent@performancecxo.com.
