About Us
SCORE is the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, with more than 10,000 volunteers in 300 chapters. Score St. Louis was established 54 years ago and has served more than 35,000 clients. We have over 70 volunteer mentors in the St. Louis area who have either owned companies or worked as high-level executives. Our depth of experience covers a broad range of industries and functional areas.
To connect with a mentor, please visit https://stlouis.score.org or learn more about the monthly workshops we offer by visiting http://stlouisscore.eventbrite.com
The products and services we offer
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"Kind and helpful business mentors!"
"I have used SCORE's coaching in the past and found it very helpful. Great resource for business..."
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"I have used SCORE's coaching in the past and found it very helpful. Great resource for business owners!"
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SCORE St. Louis Bi-State Region Chapter
SCORE Helps Business Owners Succeed At SCORE St. Louis our mission is to “Help start, build, and grow smal...
SCORE St Louis offers professional business coaching and mentoring at no cost to you. As a resources partner of the SBA (Small Bussiness Administr...
Recommendations Given (39)
"Jennifer offers employee benefits and pretax savings for every employee and the employer."
"LeadValets does great work helping clients get "found"."
Recent Activity
SCORE St Louis has mentors available who are ready to help businesses apply for the SBA Disaster Loan program that was initiated by the SBA earlier this month. This program provides up to $2 million dollars in low-interest
loans
with payback periods up to 30 years to businesses directly...
(more)
SCORE St Louis has mentors available who are ready to help businesses apply for the SBA Disaster Loan program that was initiated by the SBA earlier this month. This program provides up to $2 million dollars in low-interest
loans
with payback periods up to 30 years to businesses directly affected by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. For more information, see our website at
https://stlouis.score.org/
We hear questions like this all the time at SCORE. To answer this question, we reached out to our in house marketing experts, Mark Klipsch and Kim Henson. They are both professional marketing consultants and donate time to SCORE, by presenting various marketing workshops.
Klipsch and...
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We hear questions like this all the time at SCORE. To answer this question, we reached out to our in house marketing experts, Mark Klipsch and Kim Henson. They are both professional marketing consultants and donate time to SCORE, by presenting various marketing workshops.
Klipsch and Henson, frequently ask a similar question to the attendees of workshops: “If we were all to start up a hamburger restaurant, and each of you could choose one advantage… what advantage would you choose?”
Of course, many choose the options provided in the question posed in this blog; best product and best known. Others choose things like, best location, best beef, or lowest prices. If you’re familiar with legendary marketing copywriter, Gary Halbert, then you know the advantage we’d choose is “a starving crowd”.
The essence of Halbert's answer is the “one thing” that is so often overlooked by most business owners… choosing the RIGHT audience for whom to direct your offer. Think about it. When it comes to marketing, the most profitable habit you can cultivate is the habit of constantly being on the lookout for groups of people (markets) who have demonstrated that they are starving (or, at least hungry) for your particular product or service.
How do you measure this hunger?
Well, according to Klipsch, thanks to social media and the data mining industry, it is rather easy. Let's suppose you are a financial advisor and you want to offer a book titled "How to Invest Money In The Stock Market" to attract new clients, and you have created a campaign designed to promote this book.
Who do we mail our promotion to?
Most would mail the promotion to high-income neighborhoods, or to lists of doctors, lawyers, or similar people likely to have above-average incomes. But, with a little work, we could mail our promotion to a list of wealthy people who have purchased (by mail) a product similar to ours and, who have done so repeatedly and, who have paid big money for what they purchased and, who have VERY RECENTLY made such a purchase!
These are hungry people. People who are most likely to be interested in our offer and most likely to request a copy of our book. And if you’re really smart, you ask them to pay something for it rather than give it away for free.
Now converting them to clients is another issue for another conversation. But at least starting your sales process with a starving crowd dramatically improves your chances of converting them to clients.
If you want to learn more, consider attending one of our SCORE workshops or meeting with a SCORE mentor. To see a list of upcoming workshops please visit http://stlouisscore.eventbrite.com.
After reading through the many answers offered thus far, I find the single most important part of any successful marketing plan missing from these answers. Unfortunately, this is a very common mistake and the reason why so many businesses struggle to attract the customers, clients, and patients...
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After reading through the many answers offered thus far, I find the single most important part of any successful marketing plan missing from these answers. Unfortunately, this is a very common mistake and the reason why so many businesses struggle to attract the customers, clients, and patients they need to be successful and sustain that success over time. Marketing is about getting the RIGHT message, to the RIGHT customers, via the RIGHT media. These 3 components are the essential building blocks of any successful marketing campaign, and they are all equally important. Get any one of these pieces wrong and your campaign fails. You see, it's not enough to just deliver your message or offer, it must be the RIGHT message or offer. And that message has to be delivered via the RIGHT media, not just any media will do the job. So then how do you know what the RIGHT message and media are? It's the one thing that is commonly missing from most marketing campaigns... the RIGHT customer! Who's the RIGHT customer? Well, that's where the most successful businesses differentiate themselves from the rest. They take time to build their ideal customer profile... the customer whom they can best serve in their marketplace. Not just anyone who could buy, but only those who they can best serve. Where do they live? Where do they work? What are their demographic attributes; age, income, education, race, religion, etc. Where do they go for information? Who do they trust? Who are the influencers in their life? When you know exactly who you want to attract into your business, (the RIGHT customer), then you can craft a message or offer that speaks to them, (the RIGHT message), and finally, you can use the media best able to reach them, (the RIGHT media). Hope this is helpful. If you'd like to know more about this I recommend reading the books Marketing Mindset by Mark Klipsch or No B.S. Direct Marketing by Dan Kennedy.
Business owners nearly all agree, that a referred customer, client, patient or donor/supporter is far superior to the one brought in by “cold” advertising. And yet, they spend most of their time and resources on trying to attract new customers from cold advertising.
Why? Because they don’t...
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Business owners nearly all agree, that a referred customer, client, patient or donor/supporter is far superior to the one brought in by “cold” advertising. And yet, they spend most of their time and resources on trying to attract new customers from cold advertising.
Why? Because they don’t create a system and a referral culture in their business. As many others have already said, you must first EARN your customers referrals. Unfortunately, that’s where many business owners stop… they believe that because they get great feedback, that somehow they’re entitled to referrals. But you can’t expect referrals if you never communicate the expectation. So step 2 then is, you must ASK for referrals. And, finally, you must RECOGNIZE and REWARD those who refer which will encourage them to do more, and as a bonus, if you recognize and refer publically, you’ll encourage other customers to refer too.
11 Keys to Creating a Referral Culture – What Your Customers Must Know.
1. Our customers refer.
2. Our good customers refer often.
3. Our best customers refer often and a lot.
4. Referrals are expected…From you.
5. Referrals are genuinely appreciated and acknowledged.
6. Referrals are well taken care of. (You’ll get thank-you's from those you refer.)
7. Not referring is inappropriate. What can we do to help you refer?
8. There are a lot of different reasons people do business with us – not just the reason that brought you in. Keep all these reasons in mind.
9. Most people don’t really know how to find a good, trustworthy provider of what we do… So you’ll be doing others a great service by telling them about us.
10. There are easy ways to introduce people to us and to get our information into the hands of people you think we can be of service to…
11. So, here’s how to refer. Exactly what to do.
For over 50 years SCORE has been mentoring and coaching the local small business community and offering workshops that address your question or questions very similar. In each case, we advise replacing old-fashioned prospecting grunt work for a 100% measurable way to attract predictable,...
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For over 50 years SCORE has been mentoring and coaching the local small business community and offering workshops that address your question or questions very similar. In each case, we advise replacing old-fashioned prospecting grunt work for a 100% measurable way to attract predictable, reliable streams of ideal clients.
Success at getting qualified clients, customers, or patients has a lot more to do with understanding the real secrets of direct-response marketing – and a lot less to do with chasing after prospects.
Whether you are just getting started or if you’ve been building your business for thirty years, believe me, there’s nothing better than only talking to prospects who have already “raised their hand” – people who are already pre-disposed to specifically TALK TO YOU!
To experience this kind of client attraction, the most important thing you can do for your business right now is to develop a reliable and predictable client, customer or patient “lead generation system.”
A successful lead generation system should have the following components, several of which (if not MOST) are overlooked by most business people:
#1 A “Slam Dunk” Customer. If you’re trying to target the entire world, you’d better be prepared to go head-to-head with big, dumb companies with billions of dollars to waste in the effort. Going after every possible person who could ever use your service is just plain foolish. Instead, step back and think about those who are your favorite clients. Where do they come from? How do they act? What do they read? How much do they earn? What are their hobbies? What is it about you that grabs their attention and makes them want to do business with you? Get a solid grasp on WHO this person is, WHERE to find them and WHAT it is they truly desire that only you can provide – and for the PRICE you want them to be able to pay. This is a crucial first step to creating a profitable lead generation system.
#2 An Outstanding Lead Generation Magnet. You need to give them a clear reason to contact you and get that reason in front of your “slam dunkers.” It should be something targeted to narrow down your perfect clients from the unwashed masses. This “thing” is an incentive for response we call a lead generation magnet. Many times these are informational in nature, such as reports, guides, books, CDs, webinars or even other kinds of gifts. Obviously, the more desirable the magnet and its offer, the better the response you’ll get.
You generally want something that is directly linked to your business. Here’s an example. An investment company is offering a free road atlas in exchange for a call in appointment. They would do much better offering a free report detailing “The 5 Secrets the IRS Hopes You Never Discover that Can Save the Typical Family $5,000 a Year in Taxes.” Why? It’s a freebie that relates to the services they sell, plus it has appeal and interest to most people. Who wouldn’t want to save a few thousand dollars on taxes?
#3 Answering The “Why Should I?” Question. The question you need to answer is “Why should I do business with you rather than any other option including doing nothing?”
The answer is what is commonly known as a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and your lead magnet should make dead solid certain that the factors that make you different are clearly spelled out. This provides fuel to the call-to-action (something else you need in your magnet, do NOT forget that critical piece). Your call-to-action (contact me, call me, email me, go to this website, stop by the store) tells them what you want them to do. It compels them to act without hesitation, knowing that the benefit they seek can only be found with your products or services.
Don’t rely on hope, networking or prospecting grunt work to get customers through your door or to your website. Create a lead generation system that includes these key components and you have a much better chance of getting them to raise their hands and ask for YOU.
If you’d like to learn more consider attending one of our upcoming workshops – “The Ultimate Marketing Plan: How to Attract and Keep New Customers” or “Defining Your Target Market”. Go to http://stlouisscore.eventbrite.com see our current workshop schedule and register today.
SCORE St Louis Bi-State Region Chapter is comprised of 73 volunteers, all business owners and former business owners, dedicated to giving back to our business community by offering workshops and mentoring to small business owners throughout the metro area. We love helping business owners achieve...
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SCORE St Louis Bi-State Region Chapter is comprised of 73 volunteers, all business owners and former business owners, dedicated to giving back to our business community by offering workshops and mentoring to small business owners throughout the metro area. We love helping business owners achieve success! We're available to meet in person or virtually, in our offices or at a local coffee shop.
Being a business owner can be a lonely place. Your spouse, your family, your friends...they don't understand. They probably ask questions like...when are you going to go and get a "real" job?
With SCORE...you're never alone!
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