Sklar Technology Partners - March 2021

MARCH 2021

7462 Old Hickory Drive, Mechanicsville, VA 23111

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www.sklartechnology.com

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804-730-2628

IS YOUR COMPANY A BAD DATE? 3 Ways to Bring in More Leads in 2021

2. Invest in direct mail. Postcards, letters, and newsletters like the one you’re holding right now are great for meeting people where they are. When I hold a dinner event, for example, I send out a letter beforehand to let my clients know it’s coming. I always see a spike in traffic to my website when I do that! 3. Offer a complimentary service. Offering a high-value, expert service at no cost to the client is a great way to bring in leads. Sklar Technology Partners, for example, provides complimentary security assessments to reveal hidden risks to our prospects. These assessments cost our company a lot of money, but they have a big payoff. People appreciate the education and they’re more likely to pick our company as a partner. You can use this method too. If you run a lawn company, offer to

How many leads has your company brought in so far this year? To put it differently, if your business were a person, how many first dates would it have gone on? How about second dates? Business owners obsess over these kinds of questions. Lead generation is the key to growth, but all too often, I see entrepreneurs trying to drum up leads the wrong way. All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go Imagine that you want to start dating. You need to make a great impression, so you get eight hours of beauty sleep, dress in your best outfit, and

head to the salon to update your hairdo. Then, you sit on your couch … and stay there all night, waiting for the dates to come to you. That doesn’t sound like a smart strategy, does it? Everyone knows that you have to put yourself out there to get a date — and the same is true in business. But I’ve met dozens of entrepreneurs who don’t put that lesson into practice. They think a beautiful website and some new business cards (a branding refresh that’s the equivalent of a nice outfit) will be enough to pull in leads. But the fact is that if you never point traffic in your direction, it doesn’t matter how great your branding looks. No one is going to find you.

test your potential clients’ soil. Just make sure that the offer is valuable and pitched to the person who will make the final decision about using your service.

When In Doubt, Think Like a Potential Date

When you’re planning ways to put your company out there, ask yourself, “What would a prospect want?” One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is holding events or offering promotions that are more about them than their customers. This is like going on a first date and talking about yourself the whole time. To generate leads, you need to stop

So, if your business is terrible at “dating,” what can you do about it?

thinking like a business owner and put yourself in your lead’s shoes.

3 Ways to Put Your Company Out There If you want to bring in leads, you need to make directing traffic a priority. I’ve found three foolproof ways to do this over the years. 1. Plan a live event. Live events are exciting, and they give people a reason to meet with you. You can hold your event online or in person. To generate leads, collect contact information from your attendees. I like to host dinner events and give people the option of signing up for a giveaway or follow-up information as they leave. This turns every new face into a potential lead.

Don’t Forget the Finishing Touches I poked a bit of fun at it earlier, but rebranding with a fresh website definitely has its place in lead generation. It’s not the best way to grab a prospect’s interest but it IS the best way to turn them into a client.What’s the point of leaving the house if you don’t look great doing it, too?When you’re ready to add that finishing touch, call my team at 804-730-2628 or visit SklarTechnology.com to set up a consultation. We’ll build you a site that’s secure, easy to navigate, and fit for 2021.

–Randy Sklar Security. Availability. Support. .................................................................................... 804-730-2628 • 1 A REFERRAL IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF FLATTERY. WHEN A CLIENT REFERS FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES TO US, IT REPRESENTS AN APPRECIATION OF A JOB WELL DONE. IF YOUR FRIENDS OR ASSOCIATES COULD BENEFIT FROM OUR SERVICES, I’D BE HONORED TO HAVE YOUR REFERRAL!

Remember the musical, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”? Ralph Macchio goes from the mailroom to the boardroom by not accomplishing anything in his career other than kissing up to the right people. But, for entrepreneurs, kissing up to the boss won’t help much! If you want to succeed without really trying when you’re running the show, you need to focus on these six things instead. 1. Retain and maintain customers. How much money do you lose each month in customer churn? What about employee churn? This is a big issue and a major reason businesses don’t scale. Check out the book “Stop Losing Customers’’ by Shaun Buck. A section dedicated to calculating churn discusses why it matters for your business and how you can save a massive amount of money once you know the number and work to lower it. 2. Market to convert leads. You need marketing that generates quality leads and a sales process that converts those leads to customers for your business. This is much easier said than done, and I get that. The fundamental items your business needs are: Succeed in Business With the Right Strategies

When you hear the term “spring-cleaning” you probably think about digging into closets and getting rid of tangible clutter. That’s what organizer Marie Kondo preaches on her Netflix show “Tidying Up,” right? But your digital space can get messy, too. This month, we put together five ways to clean up your technology and help your company run more smoothly. 1. Streamline your internal communications. If you’re still using text and email to communicate with your team, then you might be stabbing yourself in the back. These methods are disconnected, ineffective, and lead to a cluttered, confusing inbox where client emails get lost. For a clean alternative, separate your internal communications from your external ones with a platform like Slack or Microsoft Teams. 2. Track your projects digitally. To keep things organized, you should also have a separate system to manage your company’s projects. There are dozens of project management software options available, including LiquidPlanner, Zoho Projects, Teamwork, and Celoxis. Track your projects there and communicate about them within the platform to keep things from falling through the cracks. 3. Clean up your Outlook inbox. How many unread emails do you have in your inbox? 10? 100? 1,000? To bring that number down, unsubscribe from ads and email threads you don’t care about; sort your existing and incoming emails into folders; and use Rules to set up notifications when valuable messages (like our digital newsletter!) come in or screen less important ones for later. 4. Turn off notifications on your smartphone. We recommend using email notifications strategically, but smartphone buzzes and dings are usually more distracting than helpful. Silence them, and you’ll increase your productivity. 5. Organize your passwords. >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5

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