A lower cost item can serve as a bridge between marketing and sales as it makes the initial sale easier. This is especially true for trainers, consultants, and professional coaches who typically have services that cost tens of thousands of dollars.  Finding a lower cost introductory product or service can highlight expertise and pave the way for larger engagements.

A book or in depth industry analysis are great products that can be offered at a fairly nominal cost.  The difference between these items and download reports is that they offer detailed reporting and are likely to take significant effort to create.  The cost is justified given the wealth of data or information provided. They serve the purpose of engaging with an interested party but are prime credibility builders.  The have the added advantage of being authored on your topic of expertise so any issues that the reader identifies with, you become the obvious expert to solve them.

An assessment and report process can be a service version of a book or industry analysis.  Many times a marketing audience won’t be ready to buy a full service from a trainer, consultant, or professional coach but know that they could benefit from their service.  Offering an introductory assessment and personalized report can be a lower cost way of helping potential buyers see the value you can bring to their specific issues.  An example might be a personality profile for a manager.  The trainer, consultant, or professional coach could compare that manager’s profile to stated objectives or success benchmarks to identify strengths and weaknesses. It highlights how the manager could improve and leads nicely into training or development programs to maximize potential.

Spend some time identifying a lower priced product or service as an introduction.  It’s something that marketing communications can often sell directly and serves as a way of starting the sales process with interested parties.

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A contest can be an easy call to action that generates initial interest or greater involvement. For instance a social media contest to increase likes or comments can introduce or prompt users to visit the social page regularly.  It could also be leveraged to cross channels, like social media connections entered to win an item for joining the email marketing list.  The secret to a successful contest is ensuring that the steps to enter warrant the reward.

For most trainers, consultant, and professional coaches the prize of the contest will be fairly modest and it’s probably better that way.  Large prizes generate a lot of interest but not necessarily from people that really qualify as a lead.

The best contest is one that relates to your product or service and enacts a first step in engagement.  For instance, if you are a sales training group, a contest for your book or your favorite sales strategy book.  The winner is not only engaged in the contest but will receive an item that improves credibility. A geographic prize can also focus attention on your location, perhaps a gift card to a popular local restaurant.

After choosing a prize make sure the steps to enter are clear and simple.  Some examples would be “like us on Facebook”, “join and comment on the LinkedIn group”, or “sign up for our email newsletter.” Don’t over dramatize a contest.  It’s not a multi-million dollar jackpot so don’t communicate like it is and don’t make entering the contest arduous.

The beauty of contests that have a content driven prize tend to attract well suited leads.

There’s no better way of displaying what you do than letting a potential client try it out.  A free training session or initial consult can be a great way to highlight how you can help.

The key thing to remember about this call to action as it boils down to a potential client requesting a meeting.  Over-automating this lead source often leads to over-complication and a daunting web form for people to fill out that few will.  Below are two types of initial training/consult offers and recommended ways of managing leads.

Individualized Consult/Training

Individualized offers promise to address the person’s particular problem.  This is the most powerful delivery method but also the most work.  There are two key pieces of data that need collected prior to the meeting, scheduling and personalized data regarding an issue they want to address.  Don’t try to get all the information you need from the initial form, keep it as simple as possible.  Some basic information like name and location is all that’s required for someone expressing interest.

After you receive a request, you’ll likely have a follow up form that needs completed.  It can’t be an individualized consult/training without having the individual’s information.  This might be an evaluation with specific questions that will provide insight into their issue or more open-ended questions where they can explain what it is they want to get from the consult/training. In either case you should have a clear way of gathering the necessary data to deliver on your offer.

Unless you have a sophisticated scheduling app, it’s usually simpler to schedule the meeting via phone or email.  It’s ultimately simpler and a good way of introducing oneself so that the potential client does not come to the meeting blind to who they will speak with.

General Training

General training is an easier offer to deliver.  Essentially you just need to provide potential dates that your audience can pick from.  Doing that on an online form will increase conversion as your audience can make the request at their convenience without having to contact you.

Fair warning, this is a challenging offer to get people to express interest in.  Why?  Because it’s often a disguised version of a sales pitch.  While it’s reasonable to start the sales process be sure that you are delivering valuable information that was promised to avoid potential clients feeling like they’ve been duped.

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