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dt 13677932 largeRemember the 80/20 rule: 20 percent of buyers will bring you 80 percent of your revenue. Focusing on the 20 percent will always bring you a greater impact, and it's also much more cost effective. If you're spending $1,000/month on untargeted advertising, you're using a "shotgun" approach to a broad market, 99.9 percent of whom will never buy what you have to offer. What if you could take that same $1,000/month and target the top 100 prospects in your area or niche?

[rquotes]The first step is to understand how your prospects will evaluate your company. [/rquotes]  It will go through the following progression in the minds of your market's best potential buyers:

This is what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” – bringing your business to the place where it's the talk of the community and your popularity is unstoppable.

[rquotes]Your top prospects might be only 25 people or it might be 250, [/rquotes] but it's always cheaper to go after the best and most influential buyers rather than all the buyers.

Your target group needs to hear from you once a month – at a minimum. Most of the people on the list will probably throw your letter away the first four or five times they get it, but remember that you're committed to building a reputation, not simply getting clients. Building a reputation is a strategic objective, not a tactical one. And if you want to build one on purpose, this means that you must be targeting the people who will help you accomplish this faster. And who are they? The Best Buyers.

Send something out to these people every month, even if it's only a letter or flyer. It won't cost you a lot of money. Just the price of a stamp and an envelope (and maybe an attention grabber), but it will be very effective.

The first thing you're going to do is send them a letter introducing yourself and offer them something free. Then you're going to continue to contact them every month and you use that opportunity, not just to sell, but to show that you're the industry authority. That means you use education-based marketing – telling them what's happening in your industry, what to look for, what to avoid, and why you're the most logical choice when they decide to buy.

[rquotes]Consider that one of the top 100 just might become your customer for life and how that would change everything for you. [/rquotes] Keep up the mailing campaign and you may land several new customers over the year. The key is always repetition.

-        By Phil Gilkes, FocalPoint Business Coach and Trainer