Finally, it occurred to me that it was a complete waste of time.

Think about what’s typically developed.

Either it’s what I call the Yellow Page classification answer…”I’m a financial advisor”…accountant…butcher…baker…candlestick maker.” Exceeding dull and only serves to check off our list of polite chatter, “I’ve said what I do.”

Or it’s incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t live in your business world…”I’m a supply chain consultant.” (Come again?). “I integrated proprietary networking systems into legacy based infrastructures.” (How nice for you.)

Or, we attempt to get creative…”I help people live their dreams.” “I turn potential into gold.” Blah, blah, blah. (As an aside, how does anyone actually say that stuff with a straight face? It’s a rhetorical question-so if you are someone who uses a “creative” elevator speech, there’s no reason to write me an angry note.)

But, we do have to say something. So what’s the answer?

Here’s what I think.

The goal for what you say is to stimulate curiosity. If they’re interested in learning more, they’ll let you know. That permission then enables you to tell them the short story about what you do.

I recently saw a great example of this from, of all people, a lady involved in MLM/Network marketing. As a group, these people are usually the worse at this sort of thing, but this lady had a great answer to the “what do you do?” question.

“I help mature women look as attractive as possible.”

I was intrigued and followed her around the room for a bit. Virtually everyone she said this to, asked a follow up question. That question then gave her permission to tell her story about how she started selling this product. (Did you catch why this line works so well?)

The lesson? Get them curious.

For years I told people some version of “I’m a marketing consultant.” The alternative I used, “I assist business owners attract more new clients with no cold calling” was OK, but never flowed as smoothly as I desired.

One day it occurred to me that one of the primary ways I attract clients is through my books, and that I spend the majority of my time preparing, writing or promoting them. Thus, I shifted my answer to, “I primarily spend my time writing books.”

What a change in reaction.

“What types of books?” “How many have you written?” “What are they about?” “Where can I get them?”

This naturally enables me to transition into the story about how I became an author, how I speak, train and coach people on using stories to sell.

Rather than just blab at people uninvited about what we do, or attempt to be cutesy with our elevator speech, focus instead on making them curious. That way you’ll be invited in to tell the longer story about how clients benefit from your services.

However…figuring out what precisely will make them curious requires that pesky mental heavy lifting I often refer to. But, if you’re planning on using networking events or other social engagements as a tool for meeting new clients, it’s certainly worth the effort.

Good food for thought.

PS: Would you like some assistance is developing your Anti-Elevator Speech? GO HERE

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.

How do we get the people…the ones we desperately yearn to do business with… to STOP for a second and pay attention to us? Here’s an idea.

Piggyback on what’s in the news for your own attention-getting purposes. Like this…

If you’ve picked up a copy of USA Today anytime in the last couple of years, you’ve undoubtedly seen ads run by Bill Bartmann for his free books on the Debt-Collection business. Bartmann’s a, shall we say, colorful character, but you can’t fault his marketing prowess. In fact his approach is applicable for anyone who wants to attract a large congregation of followers. There are a lot of steps to what he’s doing, but today, let’s take a closer look at how he’s getting attention.

Now, keep in mind that he’s been pitching this business opportunity for a number of years. You’d think his market would be getting pretty fatigued with his message, and you’d be right, IF Bartmann didn’t do such a good job of changing it up.

The strategy he’s currently using is to take a headline from the news and aligning it with his message. For example, “Bullying” has been getting a lot of press lately. Petitions are being signed, celebrities recruited, numerous articles written to eradicate bullies from existence.

Do you know who one of the biggest bullies is? Why, it’s the debt collection business.

I can see you nodding your head.

And Bill Bartmann knows your nodding your head. So he’s written a book you can get for free about the Bullying Tactics of the Debt Collection Industry. Not surprisingly, that will put you into his automated drip-marketing system, and eventually some of you may decide to sign up for his program.

That’s the key for effective lead-generation marketing. Get them to nod their heads in agreement by linking your message to what’s appearing in the news.

So let’s look at what’s in USA Today and how you might link it.

***“Facebook is tracking you.” Is there a privacy issue you can link to around your product or service?

***“Congress filled with the wealthy 1%.” Good jumping off point about people not being in touch with real problems. Conversely could be a lead-in to a pitch about how by using such-and-such financial system, people have the financial capability to devote themselves to public service.

***”Economy tanks so fewer people moving.” Leads to any of a number of pitches for “buy local’ businesses, or…invest in sunbelt property in anticipation of pent up demand once the economy does rebound.

What news story can you piggyback on?

Food for thought.

One-Day. That’s all it takes. Have Mark facilitate a Marketing Development & Implementation Day at your location. Email barb@gentlerainmarketing.com or call 770-643-8566 to discuss specifics.

So why does one message get heard and others ignored? Here’s a thought that I think will be helpful.

There’s an old saying in marketing that you want to enter the conversation that’s already going on in your prospect’s head.

The trick to doing this is that we really have to know our prospect-what their hopes, fears, dreams and ambitions are. Even though we may be sending our message out to hundreds or even thousands, we want the tone and content to be the same as if we were intimately writing to a single individual.

Thus, the more we can put ourselves in the proverbial shoes of our prospect, the more effective we’ll be at writing these types of messages. Here’s an exercise that I found helpful and I thought I’d pass along to you.

Take the time to give the following question some good thinking…from the perspective of your ideal client.

• John (or Jane) is my ideal prospect. He/She is __years old. His/Her three biggest frustrations are ___, ___ and ___. He/She is afraid of ___. Sometimes he/she even wakes up in the middle of the night worrying about___.

• If he/she could snap his fingers and make three specific outcomes happen immediately, he/she would want the following three things to happen:

• His/Her biggest concern about hiring an advisor to solve this problem is ___.

• When he goes to the Internet to find a solution to this problem, he’ll usually enter keywords into Google such as ___, ___, and ___.

• If he is going to do business with me, he needs to believe 1___, 2___, and 3___.

• The myth he believes (which I will shatter) is ___.

• The biggest reasons he would not buy from me would probably be 1___, 2___, and 3___.

• Right now he gets most of information about my topic from centers of influence such as 1___, 2___, and 3___.

• In trying to solve his problem, he’s not able to___.

• The perfect way to help him overcome his biggest frustration would be to ______.

Taking the time to answer these questions will enable you to write your messages with an intimate voice that will greatly increase the likelihood that they’ll be read.

Good food for thought

Need a guest for your next webinar, teleconference or event? My presentations are always content rich and tailored to your particular niche. Learn more HERE

1) You helped me solve a problem.
2) You were easy to work with.
3) You care about my needs.
4) I feel smart when I use your services.
5) Others I respect recommend you.
6) Because you asked me to.
7) Because I like you.

There are undoubtably more.

But, if these are the reasons for why people recommend you, shouldn’t these be what you focus on in your business?

1) Are you the absolute master at what you do, or are you over-relying on yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems?

2) Is it easy to work with you? Have procedures crept into your way of doing business that are frustrating to your clients?

3) How do you demonstrate that you really care about your clients?

4) What experience do your clients have when working with you? Are you a Wegmans or Dick Dirts Discount House of Horrors? (This often overlooked point is especially crucial if you’re focusing on the affluent market or other hard to reach prospective clients.)

5) Are you taking proactive steps to become well known and respected in the niche community your serve?

6) Are you proactive in seeking recommendations and referrals?

7) Is your ongoing communication focused on building relationships and making friends or impressing others with how smart you are? Do you tell great stories about all the aspects of your business?

Good food for thought.
Mark
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Hope that my finances will outlive my retirement. Hope that the next person I interview will be able to do the job I need to have done. Hope that the new distribution system will get my products to the customer on time.

Which is why the bright & shiny object syndrome is so insidious.

Maybe…just maybe…this will work.

We see a lot of the bright & shiny object syndrome in marketing.

*You’ve got to be doing Twitter!
*SEO optimization is a necessity!
*Data scraping puts you in front of a gazillion new eyeballs a day!

It’s not hard to understand why so many people just throw up their hands in surrender.

If you want to keep marketing simple and understandable, just remember that a very effective marketing system has two components to it.

1) Get people’s attention. Motivate them to tell you that they’re a prospective client by offering them something of interest for free.

2) Stay in touch. Send them stuff. Focus on making friends and building a relationship-rather than trying to impress them with how smart you are.

That’s all you need to do.

Seriously.

Food for thought
Mark
More about how to do just that.

As most of you know, my niche market are those who offer expertise. You may be a consultant, a financial advisor, an author, or some other type of expert.

If I was to hazard a guess, I’d say that you truly love delivering your services to your clients. But…you are less enamored with having to find them.

In fact I’d further guess that if you could wave a magic wand, you’d wish that you wouldn’t have to spend any time getting clients. That you could just focus on delivering your services.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

In fact, that’s the primary reason so many people are employees rather than business owners. So they don’t have to, as one person told me recently, “Waste time trying to get business and just let me focus on the important stuff.” (By which I assume he meant, delivery of services.)

Perhaps you feel that way. That life would be great if you could just focus on clients and not have to worry about getting them.

And as I said, there’s nothing wrong with that.

As long…as you don’t own your company.

As long as you’re not in business by yourself.

Because if you are…then the “important stuff” is attracting, nurturing and keeping…clients.

That’s the big surprise that all business owners eventually have to wake up to. That the most important stuff is keeping the pipeline full.

Now don’t get me wrong. Delivering excellent service is crucial. But here’s the reality…it’s not enough. It’s assumed.

This is hard for a lot of people to get their heads around. They think to themselves, “There must be someway I can outsource getting clients. There must be some sort of magic-social media-direct mail letter-appointment setting service out there that will do this for me…”

“…so I can focus on the important stuff.”

And one of two things happens to these people.

They go out of business, or, they go to work for someone else.

Nothing wrong with that. (The working for someone else part.)

So, Fall is here. One of the interesting things about marketing, is that it’s, to a large extent, seasonal. Summer is a crappy time to spend money on marketing. So are the holidays.

Which means that you’ve got about 10-12 weeks of prime time to get your marketing implemented and running like a machine.

You.

Not someone else.

Because when you signed up to be self-employed or to be an entrepreneur, you (perhaps not knowing it at the time) signed up to be the chief marketer for your company.

If you just can’t get comfortable with that, you need to do yourself and your family a favor, and go to work for someone. Someone who understands that the leader/founder/CEO is also…the chief marketer.

And there’s no shame in that.

You may desire that consistent streams of clients will just come to you without having and implementing a marketing plan.

The reality is different.

Now’s the time to take ownership for the most important activity of your business.

Let me know if I can help

Talk soon
Mark
P.S. You need to be the owner of your client attraction system, but that doesn’t mean you have to be alone. I can show you precisely how to implement a kick-ass marketing system that will be up and running, generating the clients you need in less than 30-45 days. Info here

P.P.S. If you’ve ever thought about becoming a marketing coach, this might of interest.

The goods news is that it’s not terribly difficult. It’s more about changing how you “frame” what you’re communicating, than it is anything else.

So let’s put it into context.

Remember that the process of getting new clients is just that…a process. We need to move people through a series of steps. I’ll admit it would be great if we could shortcut the process, but the reality is that we can’t.

Step #1: Get them to pay attention to us. (Which falls into the category of “more difficult than one-would-think”. It’s not that people read or hear your message and reject it, they simply ignore what you’re trying to communicate.)

Step #2: Build trust and credibility. We don’t go from first date to marriage all in one evening (usually). High-value services can hardly be categorized as an impulse buy. That’s why the stay-in-touch-messages are so crucial. (Quick tip: Quit trying so hard to impress your readers, and focus on getting them to like you.)

Step #3: Get these prospects, who you’ve worked so hard to acquire and nurture, to actually hire you or buy stuff from you.

As most of you know, I’m a big believer in joining coaching programs. Back a few years ago I did John Carlton’s program. For those of you who don’t know him, John is a true persuasion master and holds the title of the world’s most “ripped off” copywriter. He’s an absolute genius at getting people to buy stuff.

John taught me something that’s literally enabled me to sell hundreds of thousands of programs, books, coaching and consulting.

The only problem with it is that it’s deceptively simple.

When I tell you what it is, you’ll claim to “know it” already.

In fact, you’ll probably say that you’re doing it already. But odds are…you’re not.

So here it is.

People will do what it is in their self-interest to do.

In other words they don’t give a squat about what you offer…

…UNLESS you can position it so that it’s in their self-interest to hire you or buy from you.

And how do you determine that?

One simple question.

What’s in it for me?

That’s the mindset you need when you sit down to talk to someone about your services.

Or, write copy for your website.

Or, write a sales letter or email.

Put yourself in the shoes of your prospect…pretend you’re that person, and ask, “What’s in it for me?”

Remember, your prospect doesn’t care a drip about what you do. They only care about what it can do for them.

Good food for thought,
Mark
Blatant Promotional Pitch…Please do not click here, I’m only trying to sell you stuff.

Really…this is just promotional stuff. You don’t need to learn more stuff. You need to DO more stuff.

Which if you a finally ready to do, then this link is the one you want to click.

Not this one.

So, let me share with you today a strategy that will enable you to convert large percentages (around 85%) of your prospects into paying clients, without having to turn yourself into some sort of hyper-sales type.

But, before I share that, I think a bit of background will be helpful.

Keep in mind, that it’s my belief that most of us make marketing way-too-complicated. (I know for many years I was very guilty of that.)

Remember, a highly effective marketing system really only has two parts to it.

Part 1: Get prospects to join your list by requesting some piece of free information that you are offering. (Most effectively accomplished through a micro-site or squeeze page. You can see an example of one HERE.)

Part 2: Now that prospects are on your list, communicate with them (and that can be done via email, snail mail, personally calling them, or some combination of all three) on a regular and consistent basis.

Once you have this marketing system in place, that is targeting one of the niches you serve, you’ll discover that you never again lack new people to talk with about your services.

Which leads us to the original point of this article…how can I convert these prospects into paying clients without being salesy?

The answer is actually pretty simple.

What you don’t want to do, (and what I did for many years) is to talk-at your prospects about what you do, or the solution you offer. That’s just going to leave them cold and bored.

What do you want to do? You want to tell them stories.

Stories about the challenges others have faced, and how they overcame them.

Stories about how other solutions just didn’t quite deliver the hoped for results that were desired. (Otherwise known as preemptively striking at your competition.)

Stories about you…how you got into the business you’re in, your struggles and how you developed your own expertise. (Ultimately, clients hire you-not your company, so you want them to bond and connect with you.)

Lots and lots of other stories.

As an article in Fortune Magazine pointed out a number of years ago (more HERE), the key to selling “invisibly” is to use stories.

However…(and you knew there was going to be a “however”), there’s a problem.

Most everyone agrees that stories will help them sell better.

Unfortunately, hardly anyone prepares their stories in advance. (And when I say “prepare” I’m talking about developing stories that are specifically designed to overcome objections and move prospects from idly curious to highly motivated to do business with you.)

The reason? Since we’ve told stories all of our lives, we think we can just wing-it when we need highly effective sales stories.

Wrong.

It takes preparation.

It takes practice.

But it’s worth doing.

Especially if you want to convert large percentages of your prospects into paying clients.

Food for thought.
Mark

P.S. If you haven’t already you really should read my book on how to develop your own Unique Sales Stories. You can get it at Amazon HERE.

P.P.S. One of the things I’m really good at is working with my clients on developing their stories. Maybe I can help you. Info is HERE.

It’s important to remember that successful marketing is all about having a system. Each step in the process leads to the next one. Unfortunately, there is sometimes a tendency to forget the “end goal”, and as a result, we don’t get the amount of new business that we want and need.

Here’s a common example.

Once someone has become a subscriber by requesting your free report or other offer, many people think the next step is to just “stay in touch.”

They’re sort-of right.

Obviously, we want to stay in touch. But, staying in touch, just for the sake of staying in touch, doesn’t actually get us new business. Sure, there will be a few people on your list who will become clients just because you remained visible, but realistically you’ll never get the results you want if you take this passive approach.

So here’s what I suggest you do.

Think about what’s the ideal “next step” in your client attraction system. For many of us it would be either a face-to-face or telephone conversation-the classic “initial free consultation”. Thus, that’s what we want to be driving people to do.

But it’s not as simple as just saying, “Call me now for your free consultation.” We’ve got to sell the benefits of why they should do this. And the most effective way to do that, is by setting up a one-page micro-site that’s devoted to this next step in the system.

You can see an example here.

Here’s a quick tip…One way of making this an effective page is to list the questions that people typically ask (and that you’ll answer) during the consultation. This is similar to a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website, without the answers.

The page has a sign up box that enables people to request their free consultation. That information goes automatically into your autoresponder system when they fill out the form. (The one I recommend is here).

Now, this next step is important…

Once someone signs up for the consultation, the autoresponder sends them a message thanking them and asking them to answer 3 or 4 questions. That will enable you to determine who’s serious, and who’s just signing up because it “seemed like a good idea at the moment.”

If you use a good Natural Sales Closing presentation, you should be able to convert 85% of those who you talk with, into paying clients.

Hope this helps. Talk with you soon
Mark
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