vickioneill

Show Notes and Related Links 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

So, what's the difference between prospecting and marketing?

​

Prospecting is the proactive 'hunter' method of connecting with potential customers. This includes cold calling, attending networking events and any type of outreach that you initiate and you control. 

​

Marketing, on the other hand, is passive 'gatherer' method that's unpredictable and less controllable BUT gives you more leverage. 

​

Sounds strange, right? 

​

If you’re doing more marketing than prospecting and need to increase your prospecting, here are 3 things you can take action on now (assuming you know who your target audience is):

​

1. Make a list of 10 businesses you’d like to have as a customer 

2. Google the person or company as well as checking out their website (if they have one) and research all that's available. You want to be prepared and have a high-value conversation the first time you connect. It takes time so keep that in mind as you plan for it.

3. List questions that would be relevant to start the conversation. The goal is to learn from them, find out what they need and to understand if you can help them or be a good fit. Here are 6 questions that might be helpful to start the conversation:

   1. How are you doing? Talk about that…

   2. What’s going well right now? What’s not?

   3. What is taking up the most time in your day?

   4. What’s holding you back from the next level of growth?

   5. What are your customers saying you are doing right?

   6. What are they saying you need to improve on or are doing wrong?

​

Now, if you’re prospecting more than marketing, you need more marketing to balance how you’re spending your time. Here are 3 ways you can start marketing yourself or your brand more leveraging what you already know:

​

1. Gaps in the market or why prospects go with the competition – how does your solution fit into this equation? 

2. Trends or patterns in pain points (or top 3)

3. Testimonials - I mention the user generated content blog post which you can access here.
    

Whether you're in marketing, sales, prospecting, business development, you're an entrepreneur or small business owner, this is a topic we can relate to - let me know your thoughts, ideas, successes by sharing on your favorite social platform and tagging me @vickioneill (except Facebook which is @vickioneillcom - my business Facebook page).

​

What was your favorite part of this Connect the Dots episode? Let me know by tagging me or sending me a message!