Warm Marketing vs Cold Marketing
Being a network marketer myself, I am completely aware of the promotional dilemma that almost everyone in the industry faces at some point. How do we effectively promote our business or product, in a way that generates the highest conversion rate possible?
Should we use warm or cold marketing methods, or should we just forget about trying to identify specific groups of people, and target everyone instead? Well, this article will give you my perspective on the matter. First we will define the aforementioned terms, then we will see how successfully these two key groups of prospects can be turned in to actual buyers.
For those of you who haven't come across the terms before, warm marketing and cold marketing are simply terms to define the types of people we are promoting our businesses to. A "warm" contact is someone we have previously dealt with - ie. someone with whom we have built a rapport , or gained their trust in the past. People in this group range from family and friends, to colleagues, past clients, etc. Basically, anyone you know (and who knows you back) could be considered a warm contact.
On the other hand, a cold contact is simply the opposite of the above. We have not met these people, and hence do not know their behavioural or consumptive patterns, nor their real demand for our product. This obviously begs the question - which type of contact is better?
Well, as far as efficiency goes, the warm contacts certainly take the medal, and for a number of reasons. Firstly, we already know these people. You will not need to spend hours researching names and addresses as you would have to do with cold marketing strategies. Secondly, they are much more likely to buy from you, because chances are that they already have in the past, or they simply trust you and hence trust the product you are marketing.
Finally, warm contacts are more successful simply because of the fact that they will support you in your business endeavours and this is possibly the most important and invaluable aspect of a warm contact. They don't want to buy your product? Maybe they will lead you to someone else who does.
No doubt you can see where all this is leading. So what exactly is a strategy to take advantage of warm contacts? Well, in my experience, I have learnt not to make things too formal. You have already gained a persons trust - now it is time to lean on that relationship.
In most cases, you don't need to create a full presentation, powerpoint, handout, etc. Doing so will imply to the contact that they are not actually in as good a standing with you as they thought. Instead, why not chat over coffee or a meal? Treat the time as a catch up, instead of a planned sales meeting and you can also mention the product and business, and ask about people they think might be interested.
Employing this strategy will surely yield the best possible outcome. Effectively, you are furthering your relationship whilst promoting your business idea, and at the same time, fishing for new leads and contacts. As far as efficiency goes, your right on the mark and this is possibly the most productive way to use your valuable business time.