So, what's the big deal?  It's not really the award we care about.  It's the growth.

The majority of our business comes from referrals and in order to keep growing, we have to do a good job for our clients and continue to generate results. We are more proud of the fact that our clients continue to refer their friends and business associates to us...that means we are providing value to our clients and keeping their trust.

Are you selling how people are buying or are you still using archaic methods to attract an audience that isn't listening?  If you are wondering why you aren't getting the number of calls or leads you are expecting it may be because you are still selling in a way that isn't connecting with people.

We realize you don't have unlimited budgets or budgets that compare to large companies who spend millions of dollars researching their audience but we can learn from what larger companies do and disect their findings.

The old sales cycle:

1. The consumer identifies a need
2. They looked at resources they had to find out which company could fulfill that need
3. They would make contact and engage the company or a few companies
4. Based on discussions they would make a decision

Customer's due diligence is very short and they need to contact you in order to finish that process.  There wasn't much information out there to make a decision so they had to interact with the company in order to get the information they needed to make a decision.

The new sales cycle:

1. The consumer identifies a need
2. They looked at resources they had to find out which company could fulfill that need
3. They visit the company website and compare companies that can fulfill the need.
4. They visit social media sites to get a "feeling" of the companies
5. They look for reviews online
6. They ask their friends on social media networks
7. They would make contact and engage the company or a few companies

Customer's now have the resources to do their due diligence before contacting you, so make sure that they are seeing amazing things.  Remember, 60% of the sales process and due diligence is complete BEFORE they ever engage or contact you.  Here's the Forbes article.

What it means to you?

1. Be one of the companies that shows up when someone needs your services.
2. Use your website to build trust and professionalism
3. Use social media networks to show that you are engaged
4. Monitor review sites to make sure your reputation is clean
5. Make it easy for people to do business with you
6. Outshine the competition

If you create a system and process that engages your target market before they call you then you increase the chances of getting that lead in the first place.  Additionally, you build trust and good will with your target market before that first contact which should lead to increased conversions.