Bagging Bigger Dialup Deals

Dialup subscriptions normally come in one at a time, but with proper preparation—and some salesmanship—you can make them happen in batches.

by Christopher M. Knight [September 7, 1999]

Today, let's take a step or two outside of "the box." and talk about strategies that will help your ISP attract multiple dialup sale orders—as opposed to the single orders that come in during the course of a typical day. Being able to sell dozens of accounts to one customer—or through one type of customer—not only reduces your cost of new-customer acquisition but can also increase your overall profits and return on investment as you scale up faster than before.

The first step is realizing that such orders are out there and that you don't necessarily have to wait for the phone to ring in order to acquire a pile of multiple dialup account orders. To win this kind of business, you have to be proactive and pursue it with a specialized focus and plan.

Action item
Many of the firms you are already selling to have dozens to hundreds or even thousands of employees. Design a multiple package deal for the employees of these businesses. Many of these folks also need Internet access and are a great semi-captive market for you to mine. This strategy will be even more powerful if you can get the CEO of the businesses to endorse your ISP, but this is only a kicker and not a requirement for a successful program. But don't get caught up in the details, put the program together—today.

Here are the 7 steps to get this type of sale going:

1. Design the package deals you're going to offer. Aim to make the perceived value of these packages in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent greater than what anyone off the street can buy from you.
   
   
2. List these deals on your website, and consider sending an email to your client base telling them about this new program or include a blurb about this in your next ISP newsletter to your members.
   
   
3. Do a snail mail direct marketing/direct response letter to all of your business clients, offering their employees this new special benefit because of their relationship with you as their Internet service vendor.
   
   
4. Have your ISP sales team follow up each of your business dialup clients, one by one, asking them if they received the direct offer and if they were interested—or at least what they thought of the idea.
   
   
5. Have your marketing chief develop a one page flyer on the top 12 benefits of participating in your new employee Internet access discount program and the to them. Send this via fax to your business clients. (At the bottom list a convenient way for people to contact you if they wish to be removed from your fax blast list. And be sure, of course, to honor any removal requests.)
   
   
6. Next month, while you are continuing to follow up with your business clients to convert their employees to this program, include the above 12 reasons flyer with your invoices to the businesses.
   
   
7. Offer to visit these businesses at their convenience (such as the next staff meeting, or after work) and conduct a brief, free Internet basics training course, full of tips that can make their life on the Internet more productive for their job. At the end, you can once again share with them the new program, pointing out that they can obtain Internet access (or your other services) at a discount.

Tip: If you are getting resistance—businesses not wanting to participate-you might try buying a list of their employees, which you can get from companies such as RL Polk, and sending a generic snail mail direct response offer which states that "if your employer uses [insert your ISP name], you may be entitled to a discount and some bonuses" if they signup for Internet access with you by a certain date.
    Yes, this is aggressive marketing, but sometimes you have to be aggressive to win. And as long as you respect their privacy in the process, you will win.

Caution: Notice that no email spamming is mentioned in this suggested campaign. Make sure you convince any overzealous sales rep on your staff who finds a company email list directory and wants to approach them via email, that this is a very bad idea.

Expand the concept
After you have run this campaign with every one of your business clients, take it into new territory. Approach new organizations with dozens or hundreds of employees that haven't necessarily been your customers. Good candidates include local nonprofit and educational institutions—including all of the local schools. Teachers and faculty may appreciate the discounts or specialness of the offer.

Another variation is to package this kind of program with every dedicated Internet access account, so that you're actually offering it at the time of sale to a new business or educational client. They may not ask for it, but the worst they can say is no thanks or they'll think about it.

You may also wish to contact the local chambers of commerce in the local calling regions that you sell in, and offer to setup an "Association plan" whereby any chamber member gets a discount that is slightly better than you offer the public or comes with free training or something special that they can't get anywhere else or for the same price.

Final thought
Internal ISP promotion is just as important as external ISP promotion, which means that you should create an incentive plan internally with your people, to reward them with some value perceived token (cash or prizes or paid time off) along with public recognition as to who wins the award of selling the most dialup accounts this month, the most dialup accounts to any single account, and/or converts the most leads into paying subscribers.

Stay tuned for my next column, in which we'll cover the principles of ISP "Drip Marketing."

To Your ISP Success!
Christopher Knight
Founder & Managing Editor of the ISP-Lists Discussion Community

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Read other marketing articles by Chris Knight