We are changing things up next week and offering our “Getting More Customers” on a Friday instead of a Saturday at a location that’s farther north than we’ve ever gone: Redwood Shores. The FortisGC folks have graciously allowed us to use their main conference room.
The Getting More Customers workshop will give you focused time to develop a sound strategy and workable plan to find new customers. At the heart of every startup is the plan for attracting new customers and expanding the customer base. We distill the fundamentals of how to find more customers and explain why these marketing techniques work. This workshop addresses how to get a potential customer to contact you. This initial contact may be in the form of a visit to your website, a phone call, an E-mail or an IM chat. For simplicity, we group all these together into getting the phone to ring.
We assume that you have already figured out what you tell them in your marketing collateral: business cards, website, demo, company backgrounder, datasheet, references, testimonials, and pricing. These all need to be prototyped, tested and revised BEFORE you spend much time getting the phone to ring. If you do not have the right message, it does not matter how many prospects call.
These proven techniques are divided into a couple broad strategies for reaching prospects:
- What other people say about you: referrals, indirect, or joint sales.
- What you say: speaking engagements, particularly in community of practice groups (professional groups, users groups) are ways of reaching customers. Some leads will be immediate, others may follow over 6 to 12 months
- What you write: blogs, articles, electronic and paper newsletters are all proven methods for getting your message across and reaching your customers.
- Getting found when prospects are looking: advertising and making your site easily found on search engines are two ways to do this.
This workshop has consistently enjoyed very positive feedback and the last couple have sold out: register now.
If you are interested in the content but the day or location are unattractive, please contact us with suggestions for what would work better. We have given workshops at the Moorpark Hotel in San Jose, Plug and Play in Sunnyvale, Fenwick & West in Mountain View, and now at FortisGC in Redwood Shores. Our plan for this year is to work up to a half dozen or so locations that are convenient and we are still looking to add another two or three.