The term came into prominence as a result of a best selling book by Jay Conrad Levinson. It’s evolved into a series of books that tackle “Guerilla Marketing” for all sorts of niche businesses. (In the spirit of full disclosure, his team contacted me a few months back about doing a book in the series. I declined since I felt it would conflict with my next book, The One Week Marketing Plan: The Set It & Forget It Method For Attracting New Clients.) In essence, his books teach low cost or no cost methods for prospecting.

There’s a lot of good things in the books and they’re worth checking out.

But here’s the cautionary note. I think you do yourself a HUGE disservice if you think that client attraction should be free. (And lots of people do.) We all know that it’s never free. Even for people who get their business through networking, they have to spend money-and even more importantly time-in the process.

Relying on these “labor intensive” client attraction methods only works for so long. At some point, you lap the track and run out of people who can refer you business…growth is usually very slow…and most importantly, you leave yourself vulnerable to the feast or famine business cycles. (Not to mention that when the labor intensive methods do pay off, what you no longer have is time to continue doing them.)

If you’re serious about running a business, you need to establish a marketing budget, much as the same way you set a budget for office expenses, accounting services, ect. If you do that, then the discussion shifts from “I don’t have any money for marketing” to “Where can I get the greatest ROI for my investment in marketing?”

That’s a very important shift in thinking.

Obviously, I have skin in this game because I’m a marketing consultant and I’ve made a nice living over the past 20 years selling marketing services. So you may have a temptation to just dismiss what I’m saying.

So don’t take my word for it.

Look at the super-successful people in your field. (Not your networking buddy who says she’s doing great.)

What you’ll notice is that they all have a marketing plan that is both funded and implemented. It includes a great website that makes a strong free offer, a drip marketing system, a blog that both spreads their message and helps with SEO, and a plan for driving traffic to their site.

The beauty of having a lead capture and drip marketing system in place is that you can then focus on spending your dollars on adding people to your network. It’s those people that become your clients and customers. So, rather than trying to spend money getting strangers to buy from you, focus instead on using your money to get people to opt-in and join your circle of relationships.

That’s money well spent.

Food for thought
Mark
Additional Information

So why are only a few of us great chefs?

The key is that they understand how the ingredients fit together. They know when to add a “touch of this” and a “dash of that.” There’s a science to it, but there’s also an art.

I’m not sure the art can be taught, but the science certainly can. I firmly believe anyone can master the art of of telling great sales stories and on May 17th I’d like to show you how.

Let me make you a great (and persuasive) story teller.

More here

On the positive side, I thought it would be kind of cool (for lack of a better phrase) to be one of the well known experts in my field. I envisioned that if I reached a certain level of visibility I’d get a lot more prospects calling me, rather than having to chase after them. And, the reality is that this really does happen, once you’ve become one of the recognized experts in your field.

But, I also wondered if this was something that really could happen for me. I’m a bit of a skeptic and when I hear about people who have achieved all these great accomplishments, in the back of my mind I think, “Sure, that’s great for other people-but that’s other people-I would never get that.”

I mean, after all I’m just a very niche player in Atlanta, there’s no way.

But here’s the interesting thing. It really can happen. And I’m telling you this because it happened to me and I believe it can happen to you.

However, there is a catch (as there always is). And the catch is, You’ve really got to want it. I’m not making a judgement call here, but there are a lot of things I’d like to have happen-if they just dropped into my lap.

When it came to getting famous in my niche, I made the decision 14 months ago that this was something I really wanted for myself and my business. But what I needed was a plan…a roadmap for getting there.

In a nutshell that’s why I joined Steve & Bill Harrison’s Quantum Leap program, and why if you’re serious about getting extremely well known as an expert for what you do, I encourage you to consider it.

I don’t make recommendations lightly-I think you know that about me. I’ll only recommend something that I personally have used or experienced. The reality is that I can’t think of anyone on my subscriber list who wouldn’t benefit from what they teach us to do. (Especially those of us who have limited marketing budgets, since using the media to promote ourselves is free.)

Steve & Bill are beginning enrollment for their next class of Quantum Leap and I think this is something you should learn more about. You can sign up to get the information by going HERE.

Whether or not you decide to participate, you should at least get the information. Trust me, it’s worth learning a bit more about.

Talk soon
Mark

What I found is the answer is “Yes, you can” if you position yourself as one of the leading experts in your field. What I also found is that this is something all of us can do.

As many of you know, over the past year I’ve been a member of Steve & Bill Harrison’s Quantum Leap program. In a nutshell, it’s a year long coaching program that is specifically designed to teach you how to market yourself to the media so that you become the expert which attracts new clients to you.

Over the past 12 months I’ve gone from someone who had zero media visibility to being featured on ESPN, WABC, Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur, Selling Power, Investment News and many others. I can say that without a doubt this has dramatically increased the number of calls I get from prospects who are interested in learning more about my services.

If you’re serious about growing your brand, gaining greater visibility in your market or desire to to be “sought after” rather than always “chasing business”, I think this is something you should consider.

As you know I don’t recommend others lightly, but I can speak from personal experience that this was outstanding. What I learned from Steve and Bill took my business to a new level, and I think it could do the same for you.

If nothing else, it’s certainly worth checking out, and there’s additional information is HERE

Here’s one idea from (of all places) the world of antique collecting-and don’t immediately turn off because you’re not in that business. I really believe it’s going to be helpful to you, regardless of the type of business you’re in.

A quick story…

Hanging in my office is an antique sword formerly owned by Jeanne Pierre Robinette. Monsieur Robinette was the finance secretary for Napoleon I, and since his role was administrative and not military, the sword is actually rather wimpy. Nice to look at, but it would probably break in half in a real battle. However, when he was sworn into office, Monsieur Robinette was the only member of Napoleon’s court not to have a sword, so he commissioned one from the great sword craftsman Angelo Del’Amico of Seville Spain. Unfortunately, the first time he wore the sword in court he was made fun of by Napoleon’s Chief of Staff. Tempers flared, a duel ensued and Napoleon was soon is search of new accountant.

I know this story because the person, who sold me the sword at Red Baron Antiques, here in Atlanta, told it to me. Since Marian and I entertain a lot, I’ve told that story dozens of times over the years.

In all candor, being able to tell that story is one of the most pleasurable aspects of owning the sword.

But here’s the important part.

At the end of the story I also, instinctively, include the part about how I first learned the story when I purchased the sword at Red Barron Antiques. (As I just did once again.)

And here’s the even more important point.

I also instinctively) go on to talk about Red Barron and how cool it is and how all the items they sell have these great stories behind them. (As I seem to be doing once again.)

I’m sure you see my point.

I’m bragging on Red Barron because they gave me a great story I could tell. And what I notice is that if I tell the story to someone here in Atlanta, they invariably start to tell me the story about the cool thing they bought at Red Barron. Lots of people seem to have a Red Barron story.

Obviously, there’s no shortage of antique shops. Quite frankly, Red Barron isn’t the most convenient place to get to, and the parking is often a pain. BUT, it’s become the antique shop of destination.

And a large part of the their appeal is that they arm us with great stories we can tell to others about the cool stuff we buy from them.

So…what are the stories you want your clients to be telling about the services or products they receive from you? Is it something about the experience clients have the first time they visit you? Is it something about the great information you share with them? Is it about events and activities they get invited to once they’re a part of your circle? Is it the personal handwritten note you send?

Lets make our clients proud of the fact that they’ve selected you. Let’s give them stories they’ll want to tell to others.

Food for thought
Mark
I hate to keep reminding you, but if you want to learn how to tell great stories you need to read my book. Get it Here.

However, I noticed that less than half of the participants from the first meeting, attended the second one. I’m sure there will be still fewer at the final session. I also notice that on the monthly conference calls, the comments are more about enthusiastic plans for the future, rather than what anyone has actually accomplished.

Which brings me to my point. I call it the “bright shiny object” syndrome.

Hey, it’s fun to learn new stuff-I’ll be the first to admit that. Especially when the “stuff” may contain the secret sauce that once we learn it all our problems will go away.

But, at some point in time we need to shift our focus from Learning stuff to Doing stuff. And that’s hard, for a lot of reasons.

*It requires that we actually do some work, rather than passively digesting information.

*In means engaging in that annoying mental heavy lifting, to determine how to actually implement the plan.

*It requires a willingness to take a certain amount of risk.

Yes, it’s far easier just to be a student. But, as my Dad used to say, “If you want to get hit by cars, you need to go play in traffic.”

Perhaps we need to spend less time learning new stuff and spend more time implementing what we’ve already learned.

Food for thought.
Mark
A Different Type of Coaching For Those Who Play In Traffic

If truth be told, I don’t think I’m alone. I’m sure there’s lots of stuff you would do, if only it was simpler.

Unfortunately, simple answers usually only exist for simple problems. I’m sure there are exceptions, but I find that the more challenging the problem, the more we have to think “deep into the game”, as the chess masters say.

For example, let’s take the topic of getting more new clients.

On the surface the answer should be simple…Just ask them.

“Hey you. I realize we’ve never met, and you don’t know me, but wanna buy my stuff?”

OK, perhaps we say it a bit more elegantly, but haven’t you been guilty of that? I know I have.

It’s what’s called selling to strangers.

Does it work? Sure-if you’re willing to talk to enough people. It sort of reminds me of my strategy in the ‘70s of going up to women in the disco and asking them to go home with me. (Hey it was the ‘70s, I was young-gimme a break.)

Did it work? Sure. All right…occasionally. But what about the quality, you ask? Well…that was a bit suspect.

The problem is that if we blindly put our nose-to-the-proverbial-grindstone, asking strangers to do business with us, not only do we get a lot of rejection, but we also have no filter on the type of clients we eventually wind up with.

Granted, if you have no clients, the idea of having any clients, regardless of how bad, sounds good. But I think it’s important to remember that the goal is to have both quality and quantity.

So how do we accomplish this? Is there some sort of magic bullet/answer that if we only learned it, all of our client attraction problems would go away?

Of course not.

But…there is a strategy that will make the process a lot easier.

But…it takes a bit of patience.

Here it is…

Stop trying to sell to strangers.

That’s it. It really is that simple.

Stop trying to sell to strangers and focus instead on building a relationship with those who can either hire you, buy from you, or refer you to others.

And the way to do that?

Bribe them.

Give them something that’s interesting for free. A tip. A suggestion. Something helpful. Answer a question that people often ask you. But most importantly…

Focus on building a relationship…Not trying to sell someone something. There’s plenty of time for that down the road.

Patience & Best Regards
Mark
Want me to help you develop your marketing strategy or work with you to create your unique message? Info HERE.

Is it that you’re using the latest social media?

Is it because you redesigned your website and made it SEO friendly?

Is it your sheer persistence and hard work?

I don’t think so.

While all of these are helpful, they aren’t what your true competitive advantage is.

Nope.

Your true competitive advantage is the message you communicate-the stories you tell.

So here’s an interesting exercise. Read over your message. Then Google the type of work that you do. Take a look at those websites. Is your message fresh, different and intriguing? If so, kudos. However, if yours sounds a lot like all the others, then you’re not taking advantage of your one true competitive advantage for attracting new clients.

And that’s a shame.

Learn more about creating great messages HERE

Except for one chain.

Whose margins are around triple the standard.

As you may have guessed, I’m referring to Whole Foods (or, as more than one wag has put it, Whole Wallet.)

As recounted in the recent CNBC documentary, Whole Foods mastered the art of selling extremely high-priced luxury grocery products by focusing on one key marketing element.

Stories.

When you go to Whole Foods and gaze at the Hook Caught Pacific Salmon, you don’t just see a hunk of fish. Nope. What you see instead is literally a fish production. You’ll learn about where this fish came from, how it was caught, the subtle differences in its flavor and what wines might accompany it.

The results of this expertly told tale makes you feel incredibly smart for being discerning enough to buy it.

That’s the power of stories. They make us feel good about the decisions that others want us to make. They build brands. They’re what connect people to products and services.

At Whole Foods, they created an entirely new category within the grocery industry by focusing on communicating stories.

Suppose you took this approach. How can you make people feel incredibly smart about doing business with you?

It all starts with…What are the great stories you should be telling about your business?
Learn more about telling great stories.