DM/TM : Letter then Call or Vice Versa?

[DuaneJackson]

I'm putting together the marketing plan for the next phase of KashFlow. We're making some changes which will make it a lot more attractive to accountants.

So the task now is to let accountants know about it and have them get their clients using it.

We're planning to do some Direct Mail and Telemarketing. Is there a widely accepted method for doing this? e.g., call first to check details and ask if we can send them more info - then post - then follow up on the phone . Or just get info in the post and then follow up on the phone.

Also, what do people think of the different options for TM - for instance, outsourcing it to a company and paying setup costs and a daily rate, or getting someone in to do it from your own premises? I'd assume the latter is cheaper, but is it as effective?

Any biased/unbiased opinions welcome!

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

I would call first and then send info, otherwise you might end up calling somesone that dropped your mail in the bin and has no idea what you are talking about.

 

VSHosting has hit it on the head there, it'll have you a pretty penny on mailing to people who won't read it. A nice soft approach like, im calling from xxx I'd like to send you some info via post regarding our services and call you next week to see if its something of interest is this ok?

 

[DuaneJackson]

Thanks guys, I suppose it's just common sense really isn't it? I actually took a day off yesterday and went to the beach with my daughter so my brain isn't switched on yet.

So - the whole process of calling them and then the follow up call - do you think this is something that we should manage internally to keep costs down or would much better results be achieved by using a dedicated outsourced team to do this that are more experienced on closing sales? (I'm still trying to work out what action I actually want these accountants to take - I know ultimately I want them to suggest to their clients that they use KashFlow, but I think the outcome we are aiming for initially should be to get them to join up to the Partner Programme so that we can keep in touch with them)

Micheal, I'd really appreciate your view point on the above seeing as this is the game yo're in.

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

A nice soft approach like, im calling from xxx I'd like to send you some info via post regarding our services and call you next week to see if its something of interest is this ok?

This would also enable you to find the name of the correct person to send the info to.

 

Well....
Both have there positives and negatives. Lets start with what gives most people a heart attack..MONEY.
To outsource you need to find a company with quality behind it, look at their clients, references, telemarketers, don't be tight on money, you get what you pay for, you will be looking at £1000 per week total cost, don't go for per appointments on this as it is low value services ( no offence ), as if they do not get the results immediately they will give up on a lost cause with no financial gain. Have a game plan, any good telemarketing company will be able to help you build this and help you understand your limits and expectations.
However doing this inhouse means you have the finger on the pulse any time of the day, no one knows you product better that you, it will be cheaper, however if you don't have some one inhouse now then I would not do it, so many people think they can hire someone today and they will be successful tomorrow, you dont know the quality of the person you only go on how good their interview went, how many of us have made that mistake. Data is paramount, and old database will be the death of the campaign, you can buy data from someone like Corpdata for about £250 for 1000 contacts with full details.

I hope I have given an equal representation of both arguements. If you want any more just let me know, if you want to chat then give me a call.

In either case do A PILOT CAMPAIGN , something small so you can test the water. ( 10 days )

 

[Gillie]

Duane, you are now trying to crack a hard market Accountants are a hard breed to get hold of, and generally its very difficult. You either need to talk with someone about the right approach or employ someone such as Phil Rees to get you in the door.

 

I know someone who runs their own Marketing company and she has a great nack of doing excellent mailers, whereby she will send something in the mailer to really make them think about it, and remember it, if you want me to put you intouch do let me know.

Michael

 

[Gillie]

I have yet to see the Accountant who gets these mailshots passed on to them. Their gatekeepers are very effectively trained. I speak from experience here as my partner is an accountant and we share a PA.

 

[GreatSEO]

I have to agree with the advice given so far and would support the calling before you send method. This will ensure that the information is going to the right person and will really reduce the postage costs as you will only be sending to people who have shown a keen interest in what you offer. Not only will it save you money but it will also limit the time needed as you can only follow up a certain number of people in any day.
We find that although small businesses like to have a professional making the calls for them that once they see how successful it is they often ask us to look at finding and training staff to bring in-house. This is uncommon with most telemarketing companies as they usually want to keep customers long term and aren't interested in helping your business move forward and stand on it's own two feet!
Hope this helps

 

[10Yetis]

I am going to pop my head above the parapet on this one and say you should go for a combined approach. I know to some it seems like I keep harping on about the MarketWatch conference thing I attended a while ago but the results do make for an interesting read, and more importantly it works.

Just to re-cap for those I have not bored yet about this. MarketWatch carried out the largest survey of its kind over a two year period. During this time they paid a selection of IFA's, legal professionals, Mortgage Brokers etc etc (you get the idea) to forward to them every piece of DM they received, every email mailshot and details of every TM call they had along with what action was taken by the recipient, i.e. did they act upon it.

The results were startling and it basically came back with a load of info that boiled down to, unless your brand had a positive association in the recipients mind then it got zero response. This included TM and Mailshots and in the latter case the mailshot's often went in the bin if the logo on the front was one from a company that they had not done business with before.

There was obviously a load more detail (I have summed it up in a few newsletters on the site, a cheap plug yes, but I cannot be naffed with typing one of those long rambling posts!).

The way around it that we recommend is to send one or two quirky postcard type mailshots with no direct or obvious call to action, and then hit with TM asking if you can send through more info. The idea behind this is that the positive seed is planted by the quirky or amusing postcard and the recipient is more likely to take on board the positives mentioned in the TM conversation…

We have applied this a few times for people since attending the MarketWatch event (yep, we do marketing as well) and it does work. The plus side is that postcards are cheap to get done and out as well.

Just my thoughts… I am off to baton down the hatches.

 

[Deleted member 6464]

Hello,

I think calling first , is the better way , with this method you are only posting information to those that asked you to and of course saving your postage.

Your follow-on call will then have a better response.


Managing the project in-house is better as then the people making the calls are those that know the benefits of the product and so on , and sometimes with the first call , you get someone who is genuinely interested and they ask alot of questions which may only be available if the caller is in-house.


best wishes,

funmi
www.sentelle.co.uk

 

[DuaneJackson]

Thank you all for some great responses. It's good to have some varied view points.

I like what Andy suggests - to send something first with no CTA, then a brief call then send the real stuff then a proper follow up call.

I think I need to buy a few hundred shoe boxes, then send two to each accountant: one labelled "Receipts" the other labelled "Invoices" and then a post-it note in the bottom of one of them saying something about how we can stop their clients sending them shoeboxes of paper work instead of sage-formatted data! : )

The problem is, as you pointed out before Andy, 'quirky' doesn't tend to go down too well with accountants.

I'm still at very early days with this - I've not even properly worked out what the actual proposition is that I'll be putting to the accountants. I just spent an hour on the phone with Alan at Alpha which was very useful. I think I'll speak to a few more accountants to get a feel of what to be putting to them and then work out the best way forward.

d

 

[Kent Accountant]

Hi Duane

I quite liked the look of the software when I visited you website, although I didn't download it to have a try. That's probably OK for individuals, but we get a lot of these systems marketed to us and find it hard to look at all of them. Probably one of the most heavily marketed at the moment is winweb.co.uk although iris.co.uk are also in the marketplace and already have a captive audience of accountant clients. I would have preferred to see some reports e.g. the VAT return with some assurance how out of date entries and changes are tracked to prevent errors on returns. Possibly a bit more about the sales and purchase ledgers. One source of marketing to smaller firms of accountants may be to get a mention on accountingweb.co.uk who have been running some reviews on online accounting software. For me, you would find it hard to get past my "telephone preference service trained" receptionist with a cold call - you would have to write to me and make it attractive enough for me to want to call you. An e-mail may work with a linkl to your website provided you could personalise it and stop it looking like spam :redface: I am sure that all the professional bodies sell their membership lists and they certainly ask us for our e-mail addresses

Hope this helps

Bob

 

Hi Duane

For me, you would find it hard to get past my "telephone preference service trained" receptionist with a cold call - you would have to write to me and make it attractive enough for me to want to call you.

Hope this helps

Bob

As mentioned before Duane you may want to speak to my contact about effective mailers, she has an excellent repuatation no harm in having a chat

Michael

 

[Gillie]

Duane, Phil Rees, a member on here as well as other forums, I do know is in the process of talking to Accountants already, so it might be worth a chat to him see what kind of response he is getting and take it from there!

 

[Marina Stone]

Hi Duane

I hope you are well.

There are lots of 'workshops' around at the moment, e.g. Business Link hold events and invite the Inland Revenue, accountant as a speaker, etc. to help new businesses with looking after their finances. The Enterprise Gateways also hold some (they are part of Business Link but with slightly different objectives). Perhaps you could call them, sell them Kashflow as being ideal for a starter business and for a stand at their next workshop to prove your point.

I understand this has not much to do with your post, but mailings are difficult and in my experience a 'one off' mailing isn't enough with only a 2-5% return of enquiries. Which isn't much on a product value of £99.

Direct Mailing is like advertising, you need to repeat the process to remain in the potential customers mind and hopefully they will remember you when advising a client.

Have you thought of paying commission to the accountants? Talk money to accountants!

I hope this helps
Marina

 

[Kent Accountant]

Not sure that paying commission would help for two reasons
1. You would have to introduce a lot of clients to make it wothwhile even at £25 each
2. Accountants who are members of a professional body are required by their ethical guidelines to account to the client for any commission they receive :frown:

Might be more attractive if the software could be personalised to the firm in some way with branding and linked to the firm's website?

Bob

 

[Marina Stone]

Hi Bob

Branding it to the accountant sounds like a good idea. The only down side with that would be Kashflow would not be branded, however if this works well in the accountants market place then it's better than nothing!

This may be a good selling point for the accountants as perhaps they may be able to log in to their customers accounts (with their permission) when it comes to doing the end of year accounts!

Marina

 

[DuaneJackson]

Hi Marina,

Where have you been hiding? Good to see you back here and I hope you're well.

Your'e right about it being an expensive approach to marketing a product that is so cheap. That's exactly why we didn't do any DM to our end users. But with Accountants it's a different kettle of fish as they potentially lead to many more than just one subscription.

We will be offering co-branded versions and a few other incentives (as well as commision) to accountants.

I've all but given up on Business Link as being virtually impenetrable.

Michael - I'll certainly be in touch for details of your client when the time is right.

Bob - yep, I'm well aware of Winweb. I talked to one of their loose lipped sales people at an event last year and got lots of useful info by posing as a punter : ) AccountingWeb is on the list of places to target.

Gill, I'll track down Mr Rees and see if he'll let me pick his brain.

d

 

[Jayne]

Hi Duaney

Maybe the UKBF members could help. Maybe if they all emailed their accountants with a link to you site and asked their opinion of Kashflow, could get you one or two customers?

I'll do it if you want me to, I know a couple of accountants.

Jayne

 

[DuaneJackson]

Thanks Jayne - a good idea, but I'm after a few hundred or thousand new customers, not just a couple : )

You have given me a good idea though. A few of our customers have recently said they showed KF to their acountants and got the thumbs up so I could ask them to have thier accountants contact me so I can have a chat about what the best proposition might be.

 

[Marina Stone]

Hi Duane

Good to be back!

Hi Jayne - that's a good idea! But I wonder if Duane is up to paying us commission!

Marina

 

[Jayne]

Well if I know two accountants, 3 if you count Alpha..lol There are 100's of people on this forum, all who may know 2 accountants, that equals lots of accountants who may buy your Kashflow software.

I'll email my two anyway, every little helps.

Jayne

 

[DuaneJackson]

I'll email my two anyway, every little helps.

Can't say no to that! But do wait until we launch the new site and upgrade in a month or two when it'll be much more attractive to accountants.



And commision is no problem Marina - anyone that refers KashFlow using an afffiliate code (soon to be 'Partner Programme') gets a commision for themselves AND a discount for the people they refer!

 

[Jayne]

Sorry Duaney, already sent emails...lol There's no flies on me love.

Jayne

 

[GreatSEO]

Duane

Just a flash in the pan here but would sending a 10p piece in the post and having a header of say - Another one that slipped the net????

Not sure what you think about this but i would say that you need to pick your timing well with Accountants as i used to sell to them all the time and found that April/December were no goes and also the end of the month as they have all the figures to do etc.

If you would like to discuss some other ideas that i have floating around you are more than welcome to contact me

Regards

Dave