B2B Marketing: Share your idea for various industries

[NHB_MMA]

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.

IÂ’ve 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 IÂ’m 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***

IÂ’m 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 (IÂ’m 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 you’ve had success with selling “X” product and discuss how you approached it.

 

[somarco]

Lately I have had quite a bit of success with Real Estate agents.

 

[Zydo]

Burt Meisels "5 Ways Out of Business" is the best I have seen and used. Give it a go.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

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.

 

[NHB_MMA]

Lately I have had quite a bit of success with Real Estate agents.

I assume you're talking for individual health, right?

How do you approach them, by phone or just walking in?

 

[NHB_MMA]

Burt Meisels "5 Ways Out of Business" is the best I have seen and used. Give it a go.

Yes, I remember James posted it in another thread. I'll have to give it a second look.

Is there a book out about this approach or something more detailed?

 

[NHB_MMA]

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]

 

[NHB_MMA]

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?

How do you get past the screeners?

 

[James]

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.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

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."