What is your marketing pain? Please comment or send an email.
If you are like many salespeople or business executives, trying to find new customers or clients can be frustrating. Maybe you are struggling with your marketing message. Or maybe referrals aren’t paying off like they used to. Maybe you are concerned about wasting time and money on unproductive efforts. If marketing seems like a lot of hard work with little or sporadic payoffs, you are not alone.
How would you like to attract more clients than you can possibly handle, without breaking the bank? The good news is the American Dream of creating a professional service or consulting business that provides a high six figure income is alive and doing well. That is, if you take the time to get the knowledge how to do it. Best of all, these techniques require a minimal investment.
Face facts. Other successful professionals and consultants have found the way. How can you model their success? To attract new clients, the best approach is the Educating Expert Model that demonstrates your expertise by giving away valuable information through writing and speaking. In addition, you can increase closing rates up to 50% to 100% by discovering and rehearsing the right questions to ask prospective clients.
Here are the five ways prospects judge you (Aaker, 1995, Strategic Market Management) and my views of how the Educating Expert Model is the perfect fit:
1. Competence. Knowledge and skill of the professional or consultant and their ability to convey trust and confidence (you demonstrate and prove your expert knowledge by speaking and writing)
2. Tangibles. Appearance of physical facilities, communication materials, equipment and personnel (you do this by the appearance of your Web site and how-to handouts)
3. Empathy. Caring, individualized attention that a firm provides its clients (educating people to solve problems before they hire you proves you care)
4. Responsiveness. Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service (when you promise to give people things like special reports and white papers, do it promptly)
5. Reliability. Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately (prospective clients will judge you on how organized your seminars, speeches and Web site are)
Here’s how to determine if this is a good fit for you. Do you specialize in performing professional, scientific, and technical activities for others? If you are like most of our clients, your activities require a high degree of expertise and training. Do you provide any of the following? Legal advice and representation; accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll services; architectural, engineering, and specialized design services; IT and computer services; consulting and mentoring services; research services; public relations and advertising services; HR and recruiting services; translation and interpretation services; and other professional, scientific, and technical services.
If you fit this profile and have struggled with marketing, it is no wonder. Maybe you tried to emulate the marketing of big companies, a common problem for professionals and consultants. According to one Harvard Business School researcher, typical marketing not only doesn’t work for professionals and consultants it is actually harmful. Instead become an educator and attract all the clients you need.
Want to discover more strategies on how to create a high six figure income?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Turning Pain Into Marketing DNA
Attracting Clients With Marketing DNA
(Be sure to see the end of the article for a complimentary invitation)
Before you can begin attracting clients, you need to create a marketing genetic code that is attractive to clients. All of your marketing messages, from networking discussions to speeches, will contain the elements of this marketing DNA. Here are 10 steps that will help you create these all-important marketing genes.
1. Create a business name or a Web site name that gives potential clients a hint at the results you can produce for them. The worst possible name or Web site name is your name. Sorry to say, clients don’t want us, they want results.
2. Write a headline for your Web site and marketing materials that describes your audience and the results you produce for them. Do this in no more than 10 words. Mine is “We help professionals and consultants attract all they clients they need.”
3. Name your client’s pain. What are your client’s worries, frustrations and concerns that you help solve? This is also called the FUD factor: fear, uncertainty and doubt.
4. Describe your solution or methodology for solving these pains. What process do you follow to produce results? Offering a proprietary problem-solving process that you name and trademark is best. This answers the all-important question in their minds: “Why should I do business with you instead of one of your competitors?”
5. State the common misperception that holds many back from getting results. Why doesn’t everybody do what you named in step 4?
6. Tell your clients what they need to do in general to solve their problem. Pretend they weren’t hiring you and you had to describe the steps they should take for success.
7. List any other benefits they get from following your methods. What other good things do people get when they do what you advise?
8. Elaborate on your track record of providing measurable results for clients. Be specific as much as possible. Use numbers, percentages and time factors.
9. Create a Web site with free tips articles on how to solve these pains. Each article should be about 300 to 600 words. What’s a good format? Consider the numbered tips approach you are reading right now (easy to write, easy to read).
10. Make prospects an offer of a free special report on your Web site. You are offering to trade them a valuable piece of information for their email address. Tell them they will also receive a tips enewsletter from you. Assure them you will maintain their privacy and they can easily opt off your list any time they want.
(Be sure to see the end of the article for a complimentary invitation)
Before you can begin attracting clients, you need to create a marketing genetic code that is attractive to clients. All of your marketing messages, from networking discussions to speeches, will contain the elements of this marketing DNA. Here are 10 steps that will help you create these all-important marketing genes.
1. Create a business name or a Web site name that gives potential clients a hint at the results you can produce for them. The worst possible name or Web site name is your name. Sorry to say, clients don’t want us, they want results.
2. Write a headline for your Web site and marketing materials that describes your audience and the results you produce for them. Do this in no more than 10 words. Mine is “We help professionals and consultants attract all they clients they need.”
3. Name your client’s pain. What are your client’s worries, frustrations and concerns that you help solve? This is also called the FUD factor: fear, uncertainty and doubt.
4. Describe your solution or methodology for solving these pains. What process do you follow to produce results? Offering a proprietary problem-solving process that you name and trademark is best. This answers the all-important question in their minds: “Why should I do business with you instead of one of your competitors?”
5. State the common misperception that holds many back from getting results. Why doesn’t everybody do what you named in step 4?
6. Tell your clients what they need to do in general to solve their problem. Pretend they weren’t hiring you and you had to describe the steps they should take for success.
7. List any other benefits they get from following your methods. What other good things do people get when they do what you advise?
8. Elaborate on your track record of providing measurable results for clients. Be specific as much as possible. Use numbers, percentages and time factors.
9. Create a Web site with free tips articles on how to solve these pains. Each article should be about 300 to 600 words. What’s a good format? Consider the numbered tips approach you are reading right now (easy to write, easy to read).
10. Make prospects an offer of a free special report on your Web site. You are offering to trade them a valuable piece of information for their email address. Tell them they will also receive a tips enewsletter from you. Assure them you will maintain their privacy and they can easily opt off your list any time they want.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
How To Turn Speeches Into Customers
Give speeches about solving customer pain and you will be a star. Even though surveys consistently show that people would rather visit their in-laws than speak in front of a group, speeches and presentations are absolutely essential to build strong bonds with customers.
To turn speeches into customers, I recommend you read From Contact to Contract by Dianna Booher, CEO of Booher Consultants (a communication training firm that counts among its client list 25 of America’s 50 largest corporations and 227 of the Fortune 500). Here are just three of her valuable tips.
1. Make Subtle Mentions, Not Blatant Plugs
A conference organizer’s greatest fear is that a session will turn into a blatant sales pitch. “Your audience will protest loudly if your speech becomes a sales pitch,” advises Booher. Still, you can (and should) create subtle ways to mention your services and organization. Choose case-based anecdotes to illustrate key points that showcase your expertise. Put descriptive slogans on your handouts and other reference material. And be sure to have the person who introduces you mention your organization and establish your credibility.
2. Provide Multiple Avenues to Your Front Door
When you do land a speaking engagement, you must give prospective clients in the audience as many ways as possible to contact you afterwards. In all likelihood, Booher points out, you won’t be able to speak with each one or answer detailed questions immediately after the session. Instead, offer several methods to let them get in touch later. Put your contact information on slides, handouts, and invitations to future events. Give them a good reason to visit your Web site (offer a download of your slides or other free information). Make it easy and beneficial for the true prospects in your audience to seek you out.
3. Be Stingy With Your Business Cards
When a prospect asks you for your card after the presentation, turn the tables unexpectedly and ask for their card instead. Why? Because if you give them your card, you’re dependent on them taking the next step. Booher points out that when you have their card, you’re in control of the follow-up process. Furthermore, she says, you should avoid exchanging cards, too, because that gives a prospect reason to say “I have your contact information; if I have a need, I’ll be in touch.” What you want, of course, is the opportunity to help them understand they have the need in the first place.
To turn speeches into customers, I recommend you read From Contact to Contract by Dianna Booher, CEO of Booher Consultants (a communication training firm that counts among its client list 25 of America’s 50 largest corporations and 227 of the Fortune 500). Here are just three of her valuable tips.
1. Make Subtle Mentions, Not Blatant Plugs
A conference organizer’s greatest fear is that a session will turn into a blatant sales pitch. “Your audience will protest loudly if your speech becomes a sales pitch,” advises Booher. Still, you can (and should) create subtle ways to mention your services and organization. Choose case-based anecdotes to illustrate key points that showcase your expertise. Put descriptive slogans on your handouts and other reference material. And be sure to have the person who introduces you mention your organization and establish your credibility.
2. Provide Multiple Avenues to Your Front Door
When you do land a speaking engagement, you must give prospective clients in the audience as many ways as possible to contact you afterwards. In all likelihood, Booher points out, you won’t be able to speak with each one or answer detailed questions immediately after the session. Instead, offer several methods to let them get in touch later. Put your contact information on slides, handouts, and invitations to future events. Give them a good reason to visit your Web site (offer a download of your slides or other free information). Make it easy and beneficial for the true prospects in your audience to seek you out.
3. Be Stingy With Your Business Cards
When a prospect asks you for your card after the presentation, turn the tables unexpectedly and ask for their card instead. Why? Because if you give them your card, you’re dependent on them taking the next step. Booher points out that when you have their card, you’re in control of the follow-up process. Furthermore, she says, you should avoid exchanging cards, too, because that gives a prospect reason to say “I have your contact information; if I have a need, I’ll be in touch.” What you want, of course, is the opportunity to help them understand they have the need in the first place.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
How to Use Pain to Find More Clients in 3 Easy Steps
Would you like to fill your pipeline with qualified prospects? Here is a three-step approach that works wonders.
Identify Target Prospects -- Step one is to find a potential market niche that will be profitable. In today’s market, clients demand specialists. You want fewer prospects to be interested in you, but much more intensely interested. This requires focus. It doesn't mean you'll turn down a client who doesn't fit into your two or three chosen verticals--it simply means you won't be actively shaping your marketing campaigns toward them. Evaluate your business. Have you sold most of your services to medical device companies, energy companies, or home builders? Then THOSE are the three places to start thinking. But if home builders in general don't have the budget for your services, you'll need to look harder. Let's say you are going to target energy companies. Then do in-depth interviews with a dozen past customers or potential customers in the field. Find out their pains that you solve.
Make Prospects A Promise -- Step two is to determine what promise you or your firm is making to your target market. This includes your unique selling proposition: what you do, who you do it for and how you are unlike competitors—all in 25 words or less. What measurable results do you obtain for clients? You need to decide what makes you different than everybody else, and you need to overcome fear of focus--the desire to want to be everything to everybody. People hire professionals who specialize. Very few people would hire a surgeon who says he can do everything from tonsillectomies to facelifts and open-heart procedures. When you're in pain, you want a specialist--not just somebody who's "good with a knife."
Harvest Emails on Your Web Site -- Step three is to create an easy-to-update Web site that demonstrates your competence, rather than asserts how great you are. The Web site is the cornerstone of your marketing, and must not be a mere electronic brochure. Your Web site is the silent salesperson that prospective clients visit before making the decision to grant you permission to meet. There should be plenty of free articles with great how to advice for prospects. The home page of the Web site should have a headline that makes it clear who your target is and what pains you solve. The Web site should include an offer a free special report in exchange for the visitor’s e-mail address. This special report should contain valuable information that tells prospects how to solve their problem in general. Then e-mail these prospects tips and invitations to get more ideas from you at seminars, workshops and telephone seminars. Remember, the more people you tell how to solve their problems in general, the more will hire you for the specifics.
Want to learn more tips for filling your pipeline with qualified prospects? Here is a way. Attend our two-day growing your business conference in Irvine, California on October 17 and 18, 2008. You will leave with an action plan. For details visit http://www.newclientmarketing.com/html/october2008conference.htm
Identify Target Prospects -- Step one is to find a potential market niche that will be profitable. In today’s market, clients demand specialists. You want fewer prospects to be interested in you, but much more intensely interested. This requires focus. It doesn't mean you'll turn down a client who doesn't fit into your two or three chosen verticals--it simply means you won't be actively shaping your marketing campaigns toward them. Evaluate your business. Have you sold most of your services to medical device companies, energy companies, or home builders? Then THOSE are the three places to start thinking. But if home builders in general don't have the budget for your services, you'll need to look harder. Let's say you are going to target energy companies. Then do in-depth interviews with a dozen past customers or potential customers in the field. Find out their pains that you solve.
Make Prospects A Promise -- Step two is to determine what promise you or your firm is making to your target market. This includes your unique selling proposition: what you do, who you do it for and how you are unlike competitors—all in 25 words or less. What measurable results do you obtain for clients? You need to decide what makes you different than everybody else, and you need to overcome fear of focus--the desire to want to be everything to everybody. People hire professionals who specialize. Very few people would hire a surgeon who says he can do everything from tonsillectomies to facelifts and open-heart procedures. When you're in pain, you want a specialist--not just somebody who's "good with a knife."
Harvest Emails on Your Web Site -- Step three is to create an easy-to-update Web site that demonstrates your competence, rather than asserts how great you are. The Web site is the cornerstone of your marketing, and must not be a mere electronic brochure. Your Web site is the silent salesperson that prospective clients visit before making the decision to grant you permission to meet. There should be plenty of free articles with great how to advice for prospects. The home page of the Web site should have a headline that makes it clear who your target is and what pains you solve. The Web site should include an offer a free special report in exchange for the visitor’s e-mail address. This special report should contain valuable information that tells prospects how to solve their problem in general. Then e-mail these prospects tips and invitations to get more ideas from you at seminars, workshops and telephone seminars. Remember, the more people you tell how to solve their problems in general, the more will hire you for the specifics.
Want to learn more tips for filling your pipeline with qualified prospects? Here is a way. Attend our two-day growing your business conference in Irvine, California on October 17 and 18, 2008. You will leave with an action plan. For details visit http://www.newclientmarketing.com/html/october2008conference.htm
Friday, August 8, 2008
Pain Killer Research Like Dale Carnegie
How To Win Clients and Influence Referrals
First comes the problem, then comes research, and finally presentation. Dale Carnegie wrote that he had searched for years to discover a practical, working handbook on human relations. The he did whta we call a pain killer research study. He started by reading every scholarly book and magazine articles he could find to ascertain how the great men and women of all ages had dealt with people. Then he interviewed scores of successful people and to discover the techniques they used in human relations.
From all that material, he prepared a short talk. He called it “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and it soon became a 90-minute lecture. Then the teacher learned from the students. Carnegie asked attendees to share their stories of how the principles helped them. First he put the rules down on a postcard, that grew into a leaflet, then a series of booklets, each one expanding in size and scope. After 15 years of experiment and research, came the book by the same title as that original short talk. Of course, it has been a best-seller ever since (if you haven’t read it, you really should).
During those 15 years of research Dale Carnegie became the go-to guy for human relations. Thousands attended his training each year and he prospered. This also resulted in many consulting contracts. He is long gone, but his training company has continued to this day. So decide what niche you want to be the master of, then begin the research. As Robert Bly once wrote, “Slice off a segment of the world’s knowledge that you can realistically hope to master—and then convince others of this mastery.” You can start small. You can start wherever you are. But by all means start now.
To attract new clients, the best approach is to prove your expertise by giving away valuable information through writing and speaking. Actually, that isn’t technically true. You should sell the information if you want to win clients and influence referrals
Independent professionals, management consultants, corporate trainers, executive coaches, marketing and creative firms, and HR and recruiting consultants can fill a pipeline with qualified prospects in as little as 30 days by offering advice to prospects on how to overcome their most pressing problems. But don’t do it for free. Charge for your seminars and the information will be valued more by your potential clients. The burden is also on you to research great information.
This also helps those people who know, like and trust you enough to refer business to you. You can make these people a special deal: if they know someone who would value what you have to say, then your referral source can offer comp admission to your events on a space available basis.
Look what this does. You make the referral source feel special because they can hook people up. The prospects who attend still value the information more because there is a charge for it, and they feel even better because they didn’t have to pay.
Unfortunately, many professionals who learn this truth find the idea of writing and speaking too daunting and even mysterious. Most feel this is only for a select few, but that is a miscalculated view.
First comes the problem, then comes research, and finally presentation. Dale Carnegie wrote that he had searched for years to discover a practical, working handbook on human relations. The he did whta we call a pain killer research study. He started by reading every scholarly book and magazine articles he could find to ascertain how the great men and women of all ages had dealt with people. Then he interviewed scores of successful people and to discover the techniques they used in human relations.
From all that material, he prepared a short talk. He called it “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and it soon became a 90-minute lecture. Then the teacher learned from the students. Carnegie asked attendees to share their stories of how the principles helped them. First he put the rules down on a postcard, that grew into a leaflet, then a series of booklets, each one expanding in size and scope. After 15 years of experiment and research, came the book by the same title as that original short talk. Of course, it has been a best-seller ever since (if you haven’t read it, you really should).
During those 15 years of research Dale Carnegie became the go-to guy for human relations. Thousands attended his training each year and he prospered. This also resulted in many consulting contracts. He is long gone, but his training company has continued to this day. So decide what niche you want to be the master of, then begin the research. As Robert Bly once wrote, “Slice off a segment of the world’s knowledge that you can realistically hope to master—and then convince others of this mastery.” You can start small. You can start wherever you are. But by all means start now.
To attract new clients, the best approach is to prove your expertise by giving away valuable information through writing and speaking. Actually, that isn’t technically true. You should sell the information if you want to win clients and influence referrals
Independent professionals, management consultants, corporate trainers, executive coaches, marketing and creative firms, and HR and recruiting consultants can fill a pipeline with qualified prospects in as little as 30 days by offering advice to prospects on how to overcome their most pressing problems. But don’t do it for free. Charge for your seminars and the information will be valued more by your potential clients. The burden is also on you to research great information.
This also helps those people who know, like and trust you enough to refer business to you. You can make these people a special deal: if they know someone who would value what you have to say, then your referral source can offer comp admission to your events on a space available basis.
Look what this does. You make the referral source feel special because they can hook people up. The prospects who attend still value the information more because there is a charge for it, and they feel even better because they didn’t have to pay.
Unfortunately, many professionals who learn this truth find the idea of writing and speaking too daunting and even mysterious. Most feel this is only for a select few, but that is a miscalculated view.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
How to Network Without Probing for Pain
Probing for pain is not always the way to go. For instance, what is the best way to network with people at business functions, like Chamber of Commerce mixers or association luncheons?
According to Bob Burg, author of the bestselling book Endless Referrals, “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, people they know, like and trust.”
One key to quickly establishing this type of connection is showing interest in other people by asking them questions. Burg has developed a series of questions to ask people at networking events that are not sales-oriented in any way. These are fun questions to ask and fun questions to answer. This is not the time to probe for pain.
While you will never need or have time to ask all of his questions during a conversation, Burg maintains it is good to have an arsenal to choose from. Here are four his 10 questions:
1. How did you get your start in the widget business?
2. What do you enjoy most about your profession?
3. What do you see as the coming trends in the widget business?
4. What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?
Burg’s next question is the one that is key in getting the person to feel as if they know, like and trust you. “How can I know if someone I’m talking to would be a good prospect for you?” That final question shows you are concerned about them. You may be the only person who asked them this question during a first conversation.
Then, wrap up the conversation in another surprising fashion: Instead of offering them your business card, ask for one of theirs. Follow up by sending them a thank you in the mail containing your business card. These techniques might just land you in their database of preferred contacts.
In Burg's bestselling book (over 150,000 copies sold), he updates many of the principles and techniques that resulted in ENDLESS REFERRALS becoming an underground hit within numerous niche sales industries such as network marketing, and insurance, and a staple for salespeople new and veteran everywhere. Visit http://www.burg.com for more details.
Burg regularly appears on the business speaking circuit featuring speaking legends such as Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, CNN's Larry King, Dr. Denis Waitley, Mary Lou Retton, Coach Lou Holtz, Radio Legend Paul Harvey, Les Brown, Brian Tracy, former U.S. President Gerald Ford and many others.
Want to learn more about how to double your revenues through endless new client referrals? Come to our two-day New Client Generation Conference October 17-18 in Orange County, CA. For details visit http://www.newclientmarketing.com/html/october2008conference.htm
According to Bob Burg, author of the bestselling book Endless Referrals, “All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, people they know, like and trust.”
One key to quickly establishing this type of connection is showing interest in other people by asking them questions. Burg has developed a series of questions to ask people at networking events that are not sales-oriented in any way. These are fun questions to ask and fun questions to answer. This is not the time to probe for pain.
While you will never need or have time to ask all of his questions during a conversation, Burg maintains it is good to have an arsenal to choose from. Here are four his 10 questions:
1. How did you get your start in the widget business?
2. What do you enjoy most about your profession?
3. What do you see as the coming trends in the widget business?
4. What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?
Burg’s next question is the one that is key in getting the person to feel as if they know, like and trust you. “How can I know if someone I’m talking to would be a good prospect for you?” That final question shows you are concerned about them. You may be the only person who asked them this question during a first conversation.
Then, wrap up the conversation in another surprising fashion: Instead of offering them your business card, ask for one of theirs. Follow up by sending them a thank you in the mail containing your business card. These techniques might just land you in their database of preferred contacts.
In Burg's bestselling book (over 150,000 copies sold), he updates many of the principles and techniques that resulted in ENDLESS REFERRALS becoming an underground hit within numerous niche sales industries such as network marketing, and insurance, and a staple for salespeople new and veteran everywhere. Visit http://www.burg.com for more details.
Burg regularly appears on the business speaking circuit featuring speaking legends such as Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, CNN's Larry King, Dr. Denis Waitley, Mary Lou Retton, Coach Lou Holtz, Radio Legend Paul Harvey, Les Brown, Brian Tracy, former U.S. President Gerald Ford and many others.
Want to learn more about how to double your revenues through endless new client referrals? Come to our two-day New Client Generation Conference October 17-18 in Orange County, CA. For details visit http://www.newclientmarketing.com/html/october2008conference.htm
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
How to Build Trust With Pain Questions Put to Prospective Clients
A good diagnosis is the result of asking the right questions. When you meet with prospective clients, you need to monopolize the listening, not the talking. Professionals and consultants must ask pain probe questions to uncover problems and budget. Not only is it polite to talk about money at this point, it is essential.
By all means you should set the ground rules for the meeting, and the ground rules are mutually agreed upon by both the prospect client and the professional or consultant. In its most basic form, it’s critical to determine the following before the meeting gets too far along:·
By all means you should set the ground rules for the meeting, and the ground rules are mutually agreed upon by both the prospect client and the professional or consultant. In its most basic form, it’s critical to determine the following before the meeting gets too far along:·
- The time allotted for the meeting·
- What each party’s expectations for a successful meeting would be·
- What will happen at the end of the meeting if there is or is not a fit
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
How to Get New Clients To Sign Up With the Right Questions
Are you struggling to attract enough new clients? By learning to ask the right questions and listen, you can increase new client sign up rates dramatically.
Questions should be your secret weapon. Questions persuade more powerfully than any form of verbal communications. Are you regularly practicing the right use of questions? If not, then you are making one of the three biggest mistakes that professionals and consultants make trying to attract clients.
Questions allow you to fully understand the prospect’s pain. Pain is the difference between what prospects have and what they want, and as such can be classified as pain (things are bad and need fixing). You need to ask open-ended questions to know the following:
· Does the prospect’s motivation come from a problem that needs to be addressed today (pain), a problem that might arise in the future (fear), or simply an interest in getting more information?
· How does the problem impact the organization?
· How does the problem personally impact the prospect?
· How committed is the prospect to taking action to fix the problem?
Questions should be your secret weapon. Questions persuade more powerfully than any form of verbal communications. Are you regularly practicing the right use of questions? If not, then you are making one of the three biggest mistakes that professionals and consultants make trying to attract clients.
Questions allow you to fully understand the prospect’s pain. Pain is the difference between what prospects have and what they want, and as such can be classified as pain (things are bad and need fixing). You need to ask open-ended questions to know the following:
· Does the prospect’s motivation come from a problem that needs to be addressed today (pain), a problem that might arise in the future (fear), or simply an interest in getting more information?
· How does the problem impact the organization?
· How does the problem personally impact the prospect?
· How committed is the prospect to taking action to fix the problem?
Monday, August 4, 2008
How to Get More Clients in August
Welcome to the dog days of August. Typically people slow down during this hot and sometimes humid month. What is your strategy to win clients and influence referrals right now? One of my mentors is the speaker Michael Gerber, author of the underground best-selling book The E-Myth (which I recommend highly). His book is about what is wrong with almost every small business and what to do to fix it. Michael is always talking about your COD. Pardon my language, but that stands for your Crap Out Date. In other words, game over. His point is not to procrastinate, to do it now, because once you reach your COD you won’t have any more opportunities. That reminds me of what I heard another speaker say last year. He said do all you can when you are alive because the dead cannot see, hear, feel or taste. But they do smell. Hi, this is Henry DeVries, founder of the New Client Marketing Institute. One of my favorite books about overcoming procrastination is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, a best-seller since it was released in 1937. Someone suggested to me the title really should be Think, Act and Grow Rich. You have to take action to get results. If you don’t want to be frustrated because you don’t have enough qualified prospects to fill your pipeline, then take action. If you don’t be worried because you won’t have enough revenues to pay all the bills, then take action. If you lost a big client and you are concerned about how to replace them, then take action. My hope for all the readers of this blog is that you take strides now to put the strategies we teach into action. Don’t wait until everything is perfect. Perfect is the enemy of done. And getting things done and moving on to do more things is what you need to do to win clients. But what strategy should you follow? One of the most important things I advocate you do right now is really understand the pain of your clients (Chris Stiehl and I wrote a book on that subject called Painkiller Marketing). Then research really great information on the best ways to solve those pains. Next educate these potential clients through a variety of sources like articles on your Web site, special reports, speeches, seminars, white papers, blogs, podcasts and the rest. One of the most powerful psychological triggers is pain. When delivering your message, focus on the old aspirin vs. vitamins truism (you will always have an easier time selling the aspirin than the vitamin). Tell prospects what they will lose by not taking your advice. According to Dr. Robert Cialdini in The Power of Persuasion (a third book I highly recommend), you need to tell people more than what they stand to gain. You need to tell them what benefits they will lose if they don’t choose what you offer. People are more motivated by that idea. Using pain is not about hype or manipulation. There is a proven process for marketing with integrity and getting a 400% to 2000% return on your marketing investment. To attract new clients, the best approach is the Educating Expert Model that demonstrates your expertise by giving away valuable information through writing and speaking. You talk about pain to get attention, but you offer solid medication in the form of best practice advice. In addition, you can increase closing rates up to 50% to 100% by discovering and rehearsing the right questions to ask prospective clients about their pain. Once you understand their frustrations, worries and concerns, it is amazing how smoothly the rest of the conversation goes.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
How the Best Professionals and Consultants Generate Clients
How the Most Successful
Professionals and Consultants
Attract All the Clients They Need
The number one challenge for professionals and consultants is creating new clients. However, many professionals and consultants feel marketing is too time consuming, expensive or undignified. Even if they try a marketing or business development program, most professionals and consultants are frustrated by a lack of results. They even worry if marketing would ever work for them.
According to a researcher from the Harvard Business School, the typical sales and marketing hype that works for retailers and manufacturers is not only a waste of time and money for professionals and consultants, it actually makes them less attractive to prospective clients (Maister, 1992, Managing the Professional Service Firm).
However, research has proven there is a better way. There is a proven process for marketing with integrity and getting an up to 400% to 2000% return on your marketing investment. At the New Client Marketing Institute we call it the Educating Expert Model, and the most successful professional service and consulting firms use it to get more clients than they can handle. The findings of our 8-year, $2 million research study about how the most successful professional and consulting firms use this model were published in the book, Client Seduction.
To attract new clients, the best approach is to demonstrate your expertise by giving away valuable information through writing and speaking. Research shows independent professionals, management and technical consultants, corporate trainers, executive or personal coaches, marketing and creative firms, and HR and recruiting consultants can fill a pipeline with qualified prospects in as little as 30 days by offering advice to prospects on how to overcome their most pressing problems (DeVries and Bryson, 2005, Client Seduction). You will leave the conference with a step-by-step action plan on how to do this.
How many new clients would you have to generate to make this investment of time and money pay off for you? Here is another question. What is the lifetime value of a client to you?
Unfortunately, many professionals and consultants who learn this truth find the idea of writing and speaking too daunting and even mysterious. Most feel this is only for a select few, but that is a miscalculated view. In the beginning, it is not unusual to wonder how these other professionals and consultants get in front of audiences and get their how-to advice in print.
The good news is there exists a body of knowledge that some have discovered to grow their professional and consulting practices. As an example, management consulting firms like McKinsey & Co. pioneered the approach and have it down to a science (Bartlett, June 1996, “McKinsey & Co., Harvard Business Review). This is a growing trend. In 1991 a random survey of the top 1,000 U.S. law firms found that 89 percent held at least one client seminar per year. In 1999, 94 percent of law firms were regularly holding seminars. Lawyers at the top 1,000 firms ranked seminars as the most effective tool for cross-selling and gaining new clients (Source: FGI Research, 1999).
What should you do to increase revenues? First, understand that generating leads is an investment and should be measured like any other investment. Next, quit wasting money on ineffective means like brochures, advertising and sponsorships. The best marketing investment you can make is to get help creating informative Web sites, hosting persuasive seminars, booking speaking engagements, and getting published as a newsletter columnist and eventually book author.
Rather than creating a brochure, start by writing how-to articles for a blog or to be posted on Web sites. Those articles turn into speeches and seminars. Eventually, you gather the articles and publish a book through a strategy called print on demand self publishing (we’ve done it under 90 days and for less than a $1,000 for clients). Does it work? Here are a list of business best-seller titles by professionals and consultants that started out self-published (Source: Southwest Airlines Spirit, March 2005):
§ The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson: picked up by William Morrow & Co.
§ In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters (of McKinsey & Co.): in its first year, sold more than 25,000 copies directly to consumers—then Warner sold 10 million more.
§ Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, by Weiss Roberts: sold half a million copies before being picked up by Warner.
Understanding the psychology of clients also provides critical evidence of the validity of the get published approach. Professional services and consulting are what economists sometimes call “credence” goods, in that purchasers must place great faith in those who sell the services (Bloom, October 1984, “ Effective Marketing for Professional Services,” Harvard Business Review). What does the research say about client choice, satisfaction and dissatisfaction of professionals and consultants? Here are the five ways prospects judge you (Aaker, 1995, Strategic Market Management) and my views of how the Educating Expert Model is the perfect fit:
1. Competence. Knowledge and skill of the professional or consultant and their ability to convey trust and confidence (you demonstrate and prove your expert knowledge by speaking and writing)
2. Tangibles. Appearance of physical facilities, communication materials, equipment and personnel (you do this by the appearance of your Web site, book and how-to handouts)
3. Empathy. Caring, individualized attention that a firm provides its clients (educating people to solve problems before they hire you proves you care)
4. Responsiveness. Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service (when you promise to give people things like special reports and white papers, do it promptly)
5. Reliability. Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately (prospective clients will judge you on how organized your seminars, speeches and Web site are)
Even if you believe in the Educating Expert Model, how do you find time to do it and still get client and admin work done? No professional or consultant ever believes they have too much time on their hands. Nothing worth happening in business ever just happens. The answer is to buy out the time for marketing. You need to be involved, but you should not do this all on your own. Trial and error is too expensive of a learning method. Wouldn’t it be better if someone helped you who knows the tricks and shortcuts? We can show you how to leverage your time and get others to do most of the work for you, even if you are a solo practitioner.
How much should you invest in marketing? That depends on your business goals, but here are some norms. Law firms generally spend about 2 percent of their gross revenues on marketing, and the average expenditure is about $136,000. Marketing costs for accounting firms average about 7 percent to 10 percent of gross revenue (Source: The New York Times, November 15, 2001). The typical architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental consulting firm spent a record 5.3 percent of their net service revenue on marketing (Source: ZweigWhite's 2003 Marketing Survey of A/E/P & Environmental Consulting Firms).
Here are some of the key benefits of following the Educating Expert Model:
§ Allows your message to be heard above the noise of all the other professionals and consultants
§ Systematizes your marketing with a proactive, monthly approach that is simple and affordable to implement
§ Makes it easier for your clients and business advocates to refer potential clients to you
§ Creates multiple streams of income because prospects actually pay for you to market to them
§ Increases closing rates up to 50% to 100% by discovering and rehearsing the right questions to ask prospective clients
§ Produces all-help, no-hype marketing you actually feel proud to communicate
§ Quits wasting money on ineffective tactics like brochures, sponsorships and cold-calling
§ Leverages your time so you get more results in less time
You Are Invited to Attend Our Two-Day Clientology College
Learn How to Use Your Expertise to Woo and Win Clients
Friday October 17 and Saturday October 18, 2008
9:30 am to 5:30 pm both days
Near the Orange County, CA airport at the
Sandler Sales Training Center
2091 Business Center Drive, Suite 230
Irvine, CA 92612
Tuition: $395 before August 31
for up to three individuals from the same firm
$495 if you register September 1 to 30
$595 if you register October 1 to 15
The New Client Marketing Institute teaches these techniques to independent professionals, management and technical consultants, corporate trainers, executive or personal coaches, marketing and creative firms, and HR and recruiting consultants who are struggling to attract enough clients. We have a 15-year track record of measurably improving revenues for professional service firms and service businesses. Through one-on-one brainstorming, small group practice sessions and in-house marketing retreats we share more than 1,000 pragmatic strategies and tactics.
(If you are flying in there are many great hotels to stay at in the area. The Irvine Airport Hilton and Atrium Hotels are the closest. Attractions like Disneyland, Downtown Disney and Newport Beach are nearby.)
At the conference our faculty of experts will work with you one-on-one to determine what is best for you. We’ve had very good results guiding professionals and consultants to increase revenues through more new clients, more fee income per client and more money from past clients. Here are just a few concrete examples:
§ Through an informational Web site and electronic newsletter we helped create, one management consultant client added an additional $100,000 in revenue from speaking engagements and sales of information products within 2 years
§ In 45 days one client who is a consultant to the home building industry was able to launch a Web site and education expert campaign that helped him double his business in a year
§ Using one strategy alone a Web marketing consultant client was able to double his income and add $100,000 of revenue in one year through just one strategy
§ By switching over to the model, a marketing services client was able to receive a 2000% return on investment its new marketing campaign that featured how-to advice seminars and articles form senior executives
§ When an IT consulting company gave up cold calling and switched to our model, the quality of their leads dramatically improved and closed deals quickly increased by 25%
§ Using these strategies of seminars and getting published, a law firm client has grown in a few years from a regional practice to a national firm
§ A well established regional accounting firm client reported they were able to accomplish more in 6 months with our methods than they had in three years on their own
§ An advertising agency used the strategy to double revenues from $4.5 to $9.6 million in five years and earn a spot in the Ad Age 500
§ With the model a 100-year-old financial services firm was able to double awareness and create 100,000 qualified leads per year for its advisors
In closing, I leave you with this thought:
How will they hire you unless they trust you?
How, in turn, will they trust a person they have not heard?
How, in turn, will they hear without someone to speak?
How, in turn, will you speak unless you have a solution?
How, in turn, will you have a solution unless you understand their problems?
How will you understand their problems unless you listen?
Please know this: the universe rewards activity. Start by asking clients about their pains. Gather information on how to solve those worries, frustrations and concerns. Be the expert who educates people on how they compare to their peers and the best ways to overcome their obstacles. The more prospects you inform how to solve their problems in general, the more will hire you for the specifics. In the words of motivational speaker Zig Ziglar: “You can get whatever you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want.”
Conference Faculty
(subject to change)
Clientologist and new client generation expert Henry DeVries is a best-selling author, a member of the marketing faculty of UC San Diego Extension, and founder of the New Client Marketing Institute. His life highlights include appointments at two universities, completing specialized studies at the Harvard Business School on leading professional service firms, earning his MBA while serving as president of an Ad Age 500 advertising and public relations agency, and coming within one question of winning $13,000 on the TV game show Jeopardy! In his talks Henry reveals the results of his $1 million research study, which are more than 1,000 pragmatic strategies to achieve marketing returns of 400% to 2,000%. His research findings are covered in his books Self-Marketing Secrets, Client Seduction and Pain Killer Marketing (with Chris Stiehl.) For more information visit www.newclientmarketing.com
Money-making mindset expert Marilyn August is a business advisor, wealth coach and the founder of Wealth & Wisdom Seminars, a company devoted to dramatically increasing productivity by changing the way professionals, sales people and business owners think about money. She is an author, consultant and popular speaker on mind over money topics. Her books are the Journey to Wealth and Wisdom and Wealthy U: Seven Sacred Wealth and Wisdom Lessons. For more information visit www.wealthyu.com
Business development psychology expert Scott Bailey is the founder and president of BMC, Inc., a training and sales force development firm founded in 1994 with an affiliation with Sandler Training. He champions honest, no-nonsense consultative sales and management techniques that get results while preserving the individual team member’s self-respect. He has coached and developed thousands of sales professionals, professional service providers, and hundreds of owners of small to mid-market companies. Scott earned his MBA while working as a senior sales specialist for 20 years in the medical field for a leading manufacturer in the industry. For more information visit www.baileymarketing.sandler.com
Prospecting networking expert Rhonda L. Sher -- creator of the Two Minute Networker™ concept -- is a nationally-recognized expert in person-to-person business networking. Rhonda is passionate about helping entrepreneurs, small business owners and sales professionals learn the effective networking techniques that can fill their pipelines with qualified prospects, double their referrals and ultimately allow them to enjoy more income for less effort. Rhonda is the expert at teaching others how to “take the work out of networking.” Her book, The Two Minute Networker, was a result of her “hands-on” experience in sales and marketing. For more information visit www.twominutenetworker.com
Voice of the client expert Chris Stiehl is a Baldridge Award winning market research professional, author and member of the marketing faculty at UC San Diego Extension. He has over 30 years experience working in and for Fortune 500 companies such as Cisco, Palm and Johnson & Johnson. His resume includes Eli Lilly and Company, Wyle Laboratories, Polaroid Corporation, Cadillac Division of General Motors, and Pacific Gas & Electric Company. He is the author of Pain Killer Marketing (with Henry DeVries). For more information visit www.stiehlworks.com
Persuasive presentations expert Chris Witt works with business leaders — CEOs, presidents, executives, owners, and senior managers — who want to speak in a way that advances their organization's success. He also works with high-level technical professionals — senior scientists, engineers, and programmers — who want to present sophisticated material in a way that non-technical audiences can understand and use. He is the author of Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas, to be released in 2009. Chris combines a background in education, counseling, and ministry with advanced training in public speaking, communications, and emotional intelligence. For more information visit www.wittcomm.com
How To Register
Call 800-514-4467 and speak to Henry DeVries to make sure space is available. You can pre-pay your tuition with a credit card or check. If you have questions you can call or email Henry at henry@newclientmarketing.com
© 2008 by New Client Marketing Institute. All rights reserved.
Professionals and Consultants
Attract All the Clients They Need
The number one challenge for professionals and consultants is creating new clients. However, many professionals and consultants feel marketing is too time consuming, expensive or undignified. Even if they try a marketing or business development program, most professionals and consultants are frustrated by a lack of results. They even worry if marketing would ever work for them.
According to a researcher from the Harvard Business School, the typical sales and marketing hype that works for retailers and manufacturers is not only a waste of time and money for professionals and consultants, it actually makes them less attractive to prospective clients (Maister, 1992, Managing the Professional Service Firm).
However, research has proven there is a better way. There is a proven process for marketing with integrity and getting an up to 400% to 2000% return on your marketing investment. At the New Client Marketing Institute we call it the Educating Expert Model, and the most successful professional service and consulting firms use it to get more clients than they can handle. The findings of our 8-year, $2 million research study about how the most successful professional and consulting firms use this model were published in the book, Client Seduction.
To attract new clients, the best approach is to demonstrate your expertise by giving away valuable information through writing and speaking. Research shows independent professionals, management and technical consultants, corporate trainers, executive or personal coaches, marketing and creative firms, and HR and recruiting consultants can fill a pipeline with qualified prospects in as little as 30 days by offering advice to prospects on how to overcome their most pressing problems (DeVries and Bryson, 2005, Client Seduction). You will leave the conference with a step-by-step action plan on how to do this.
How many new clients would you have to generate to make this investment of time and money pay off for you? Here is another question. What is the lifetime value of a client to you?
Unfortunately, many professionals and consultants who learn this truth find the idea of writing and speaking too daunting and even mysterious. Most feel this is only for a select few, but that is a miscalculated view. In the beginning, it is not unusual to wonder how these other professionals and consultants get in front of audiences and get their how-to advice in print.
The good news is there exists a body of knowledge that some have discovered to grow their professional and consulting practices. As an example, management consulting firms like McKinsey & Co. pioneered the approach and have it down to a science (Bartlett, June 1996, “McKinsey & Co., Harvard Business Review). This is a growing trend. In 1991 a random survey of the top 1,000 U.S. law firms found that 89 percent held at least one client seminar per year. In 1999, 94 percent of law firms were regularly holding seminars. Lawyers at the top 1,000 firms ranked seminars as the most effective tool for cross-selling and gaining new clients (Source: FGI Research, 1999).
What should you do to increase revenues? First, understand that generating leads is an investment and should be measured like any other investment. Next, quit wasting money on ineffective means like brochures, advertising and sponsorships. The best marketing investment you can make is to get help creating informative Web sites, hosting persuasive seminars, booking speaking engagements, and getting published as a newsletter columnist and eventually book author.
Rather than creating a brochure, start by writing how-to articles for a blog or to be posted on Web sites. Those articles turn into speeches and seminars. Eventually, you gather the articles and publish a book through a strategy called print on demand self publishing (we’ve done it under 90 days and for less than a $1,000 for clients). Does it work? Here are a list of business best-seller titles by professionals and consultants that started out self-published (Source: Southwest Airlines Spirit, March 2005):
§ The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson: picked up by William Morrow & Co.
§ In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters (of McKinsey & Co.): in its first year, sold more than 25,000 copies directly to consumers—then Warner sold 10 million more.
§ Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, by Weiss Roberts: sold half a million copies before being picked up by Warner.
Understanding the psychology of clients also provides critical evidence of the validity of the get published approach. Professional services and consulting are what economists sometimes call “credence” goods, in that purchasers must place great faith in those who sell the services (Bloom, October 1984, “ Effective Marketing for Professional Services,” Harvard Business Review). What does the research say about client choice, satisfaction and dissatisfaction of professionals and consultants? Here are the five ways prospects judge you (Aaker, 1995, Strategic Market Management) and my views of how the Educating Expert Model is the perfect fit:
1. Competence. Knowledge and skill of the professional or consultant and their ability to convey trust and confidence (you demonstrate and prove your expert knowledge by speaking and writing)
2. Tangibles. Appearance of physical facilities, communication materials, equipment and personnel (you do this by the appearance of your Web site, book and how-to handouts)
3. Empathy. Caring, individualized attention that a firm provides its clients (educating people to solve problems before they hire you proves you care)
4. Responsiveness. Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service (when you promise to give people things like special reports and white papers, do it promptly)
5. Reliability. Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately (prospective clients will judge you on how organized your seminars, speeches and Web site are)
Even if you believe in the Educating Expert Model, how do you find time to do it and still get client and admin work done? No professional or consultant ever believes they have too much time on their hands. Nothing worth happening in business ever just happens. The answer is to buy out the time for marketing. You need to be involved, but you should not do this all on your own. Trial and error is too expensive of a learning method. Wouldn’t it be better if someone helped you who knows the tricks and shortcuts? We can show you how to leverage your time and get others to do most of the work for you, even if you are a solo practitioner.
How much should you invest in marketing? That depends on your business goals, but here are some norms. Law firms generally spend about 2 percent of their gross revenues on marketing, and the average expenditure is about $136,000. Marketing costs for accounting firms average about 7 percent to 10 percent of gross revenue (Source: The New York Times, November 15, 2001). The typical architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental consulting firm spent a record 5.3 percent of their net service revenue on marketing (Source: ZweigWhite's 2003 Marketing Survey of A/E/P & Environmental Consulting Firms).
Here are some of the key benefits of following the Educating Expert Model:
§ Allows your message to be heard above the noise of all the other professionals and consultants
§ Systematizes your marketing with a proactive, monthly approach that is simple and affordable to implement
§ Makes it easier for your clients and business advocates to refer potential clients to you
§ Creates multiple streams of income because prospects actually pay for you to market to them
§ Increases closing rates up to 50% to 100% by discovering and rehearsing the right questions to ask prospective clients
§ Produces all-help, no-hype marketing you actually feel proud to communicate
§ Quits wasting money on ineffective tactics like brochures, sponsorships and cold-calling
§ Leverages your time so you get more results in less time
You Are Invited to Attend Our Two-Day Clientology College
Learn How to Use Your Expertise to Woo and Win Clients
Friday October 17 and Saturday October 18, 2008
9:30 am to 5:30 pm both days
Near the Orange County, CA airport at the
Sandler Sales Training Center
2091 Business Center Drive, Suite 230
Irvine, CA 92612
Tuition: $395 before August 31
for up to three individuals from the same firm
$495 if you register September 1 to 30
$595 if you register October 1 to 15
The New Client Marketing Institute teaches these techniques to independent professionals, management and technical consultants, corporate trainers, executive or personal coaches, marketing and creative firms, and HR and recruiting consultants who are struggling to attract enough clients. We have a 15-year track record of measurably improving revenues for professional service firms and service businesses. Through one-on-one brainstorming, small group practice sessions and in-house marketing retreats we share more than 1,000 pragmatic strategies and tactics.
(If you are flying in there are many great hotels to stay at in the area. The Irvine Airport Hilton and Atrium Hotels are the closest. Attractions like Disneyland, Downtown Disney and Newport Beach are nearby.)
At the conference our faculty of experts will work with you one-on-one to determine what is best for you. We’ve had very good results guiding professionals and consultants to increase revenues through more new clients, more fee income per client and more money from past clients. Here are just a few concrete examples:
§ Through an informational Web site and electronic newsletter we helped create, one management consultant client added an additional $100,000 in revenue from speaking engagements and sales of information products within 2 years
§ In 45 days one client who is a consultant to the home building industry was able to launch a Web site and education expert campaign that helped him double his business in a year
§ Using one strategy alone a Web marketing consultant client was able to double his income and add $100,000 of revenue in one year through just one strategy
§ By switching over to the model, a marketing services client was able to receive a 2000% return on investment its new marketing campaign that featured how-to advice seminars and articles form senior executives
§ When an IT consulting company gave up cold calling and switched to our model, the quality of their leads dramatically improved and closed deals quickly increased by 25%
§ Using these strategies of seminars and getting published, a law firm client has grown in a few years from a regional practice to a national firm
§ A well established regional accounting firm client reported they were able to accomplish more in 6 months with our methods than they had in three years on their own
§ An advertising agency used the strategy to double revenues from $4.5 to $9.6 million in five years and earn a spot in the Ad Age 500
§ With the model a 100-year-old financial services firm was able to double awareness and create 100,000 qualified leads per year for its advisors
In closing, I leave you with this thought:
How will they hire you unless they trust you?
How, in turn, will they trust a person they have not heard?
How, in turn, will they hear without someone to speak?
How, in turn, will you speak unless you have a solution?
How, in turn, will you have a solution unless you understand their problems?
How will you understand their problems unless you listen?
Please know this: the universe rewards activity. Start by asking clients about their pains. Gather information on how to solve those worries, frustrations and concerns. Be the expert who educates people on how they compare to their peers and the best ways to overcome their obstacles. The more prospects you inform how to solve their problems in general, the more will hire you for the specifics. In the words of motivational speaker Zig Ziglar: “You can get whatever you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want.”
Conference Faculty
(subject to change)
Clientologist and new client generation expert Henry DeVries is a best-selling author, a member of the marketing faculty of UC San Diego Extension, and founder of the New Client Marketing Institute. His life highlights include appointments at two universities, completing specialized studies at the Harvard Business School on leading professional service firms, earning his MBA while serving as president of an Ad Age 500 advertising and public relations agency, and coming within one question of winning $13,000 on the TV game show Jeopardy! In his talks Henry reveals the results of his $1 million research study, which are more than 1,000 pragmatic strategies to achieve marketing returns of 400% to 2,000%. His research findings are covered in his books Self-Marketing Secrets, Client Seduction and Pain Killer Marketing (with Chris Stiehl.) For more information visit www.newclientmarketing.com
Money-making mindset expert Marilyn August is a business advisor, wealth coach and the founder of Wealth & Wisdom Seminars, a company devoted to dramatically increasing productivity by changing the way professionals, sales people and business owners think about money. She is an author, consultant and popular speaker on mind over money topics. Her books are the Journey to Wealth and Wisdom and Wealthy U: Seven Sacred Wealth and Wisdom Lessons. For more information visit www.wealthyu.com
Business development psychology expert Scott Bailey is the founder and president of BMC, Inc., a training and sales force development firm founded in 1994 with an affiliation with Sandler Training. He champions honest, no-nonsense consultative sales and management techniques that get results while preserving the individual team member’s self-respect. He has coached and developed thousands of sales professionals, professional service providers, and hundreds of owners of small to mid-market companies. Scott earned his MBA while working as a senior sales specialist for 20 years in the medical field for a leading manufacturer in the industry. For more information visit www.baileymarketing.sandler.com
Prospecting networking expert Rhonda L. Sher -- creator of the Two Minute Networker™ concept -- is a nationally-recognized expert in person-to-person business networking. Rhonda is passionate about helping entrepreneurs, small business owners and sales professionals learn the effective networking techniques that can fill their pipelines with qualified prospects, double their referrals and ultimately allow them to enjoy more income for less effort. Rhonda is the expert at teaching others how to “take the work out of networking.” Her book, The Two Minute Networker, was a result of her “hands-on” experience in sales and marketing. For more information visit www.twominutenetworker.com
Voice of the client expert Chris Stiehl is a Baldridge Award winning market research professional, author and member of the marketing faculty at UC San Diego Extension. He has over 30 years experience working in and for Fortune 500 companies such as Cisco, Palm and Johnson & Johnson. His resume includes Eli Lilly and Company, Wyle Laboratories, Polaroid Corporation, Cadillac Division of General Motors, and Pacific Gas & Electric Company. He is the author of Pain Killer Marketing (with Henry DeVries). For more information visit www.stiehlworks.com
Persuasive presentations expert Chris Witt works with business leaders — CEOs, presidents, executives, owners, and senior managers — who want to speak in a way that advances their organization's success. He also works with high-level technical professionals — senior scientists, engineers, and programmers — who want to present sophisticated material in a way that non-technical audiences can understand and use. He is the author of Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas, to be released in 2009. Chris combines a background in education, counseling, and ministry with advanced training in public speaking, communications, and emotional intelligence. For more information visit www.wittcomm.com
How To Register
Call 800-514-4467 and speak to Henry DeVries to make sure space is available. You can pre-pay your tuition with a credit card or check. If you have questions you can call or email Henry at henry@newclientmarketing.com
© 2008 by New Client Marketing Institute. All rights reserved.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Interesting Move at Chrysler
Our book outlines a key point for business, especially in tough economic times: learn how to listen. We have done research on "pain" headlines versus "benefit" headlines for the same product or service - pain outsells benefits by 19 to 1! Businesses need to learn how to listen for customers' pains, and solve them. That is what our book, our classes and our practice is about: learning how to listen to customers and what to do with the data once you have it.
We are not alone in this belief. A recent survey indicated that as many as 75% of senior executives NEVER talk to a customer. That scared me. Cars.com reported that Chrysler's CEO Bob Nardelli launched a new program to get feedback about his company's cars. According to the report, Nardelli and 300 of his executives are going to call one customer a day, each and every day, until they're satisfied that any problems their customers have with their products are solved. They believe that if you're happy with your car, you'll tell people about it. If you're unhappy, you're going to tell a lot more people. Nardelli wants his executives to feel the pain of their customers directly and deal with it.The cynic in me wonders if this is just a gimmick to make Chrysler customers feel better about a product that may not be that great. I prefer to believe this is a genuine effort to fix perceived or real problems with Chrysler's products, and Nardelli is trying a lead-by-example approach to ensuring quality. I suppose only time, and Chrysler owners, will tell. In any case, his executives will be more sensitized to customer needs and their problems. We hope that Chrysler has a way to organize and prioritize these data, rather than to just collect a laundry list of problems to be fixed.
2008 has been hailed in some circles as "The Year of the Customer." If this is so, businesses need to learn how to listen, in our view. A company can gain over $50,000 worth of market research for $5,000 or less by learning how to listen to customers and organize their input.
We are not alone in this belief. A recent survey indicated that as many as 75% of senior executives NEVER talk to a customer. That scared me. Cars.com reported that Chrysler's CEO Bob Nardelli launched a new program to get feedback about his company's cars. According to the report, Nardelli and 300 of his executives are going to call one customer a day, each and every day, until they're satisfied that any problems their customers have with their products are solved. They believe that if you're happy with your car, you'll tell people about it. If you're unhappy, you're going to tell a lot more people. Nardelli wants his executives to feel the pain of their customers directly and deal with it.The cynic in me wonders if this is just a gimmick to make Chrysler customers feel better about a product that may not be that great. I prefer to believe this is a genuine effort to fix perceived or real problems with Chrysler's products, and Nardelli is trying a lead-by-example approach to ensuring quality. I suppose only time, and Chrysler owners, will tell. In any case, his executives will be more sensitized to customer needs and their problems. We hope that Chrysler has a way to organize and prioritize these data, rather than to just collect a laundry list of problems to be fixed.
2008 has been hailed in some circles as "The Year of the Customer." If this is so, businesses need to learn how to listen, in our view. A company can gain over $50,000 worth of market research for $5,000 or less by learning how to listen to customers and organize their input.
Monday, March 3, 2008
How the attract all the customers you need
Start by asking customers about their pains. Gather information on how to solve those worries and concerns. Be the expert who educates people on how they compare to their peers and the best ways to overcome their obstacles. The more prospects you inform how to solve their problems in general, the more will hire you for the specifics (PKM, 27).
Sunday, March 2, 2008
How do you get started as a guru?
How do you get started as a guru? First, understand that generating new clients is an investment and should be measured like any other investment. Next, quit wasting money on ineffective means like brochures, advertising, and sponsorships. Rather than creating a brochure, start by writing “how-to” articles. Those articles turn into speeches and seminars. The best marketing investment you can make is to get help creating informative Web sites, hosting persuasive seminars, booking speaking engagements, and getting published as a newsletter columnist and eventually, a book author. (P.25-PKM)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Four True Ways To Be A Published Authority
by Henry DeVries
One of my heroes, Guy Kawasaki, is out to democratize the spread of information with a new venture called Truemors. If anyone can change the world without firing a shot, it is Guy.
Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.
I say I first met Guy through my friend Lisa Nirell (Chief Energy Officer of EnergizeGrowth.com) when he was writing the book The Art of the Start. In truth, I met him a decade earlier through the pages of a book I read over and over, his take on business evangelism called Selling the Dream. These are two business books I can’t say enough good things about.
According to his latest venture, www.truemors.com, you are invited to become a “citizen journalist/editor” and “tell the world”—within the bounds of good taste and the law anyway.
Second, from a reader perspective, it puts you “in the know” about the latest news, rumors, and happenings, so that “you know better” without having to spend hours every day searching for information.
Simply stated Truemors is not interested in crap. Some crap, says the Web site, is easy to recognize: profanity, pornography, bullying, libel, slander, and advertising.
The content that Guy and his cofounders want are true rumors that are relevant, informative, and interesting. Reading them would make them a person more interesting. Gossip, by contrast, is less urgent, less useful, and almost always deals with people’s private lives.
In other words, says the Web site, if we wanted gossip, we would have called our site “Truessip” or some such drivel.
The Web site covers the evolution of information. A long time ago royalty and religious leaders had scribes. Around 600 the Chinese printed using negative reliefs. Around 1450 Johann Gutenberg combined hundreds of years of progress into the screw printing press.
Fast forward to 1985 when Apple (Macintosh), Aldus (PageMaker), and Adobe (PostScript) produced “desktop publishing.” A few years later people could create Web sites. Then blogging appeared on the scene. Still, people needed a computer and a blogging tool like WordPress or TypePad to disseminate information. Kawasaki believes he has created a better way.
You can post your information on Truemors in four ways:
Call 1-650-329-2020 and leave a voicemail. SpinVox will translate your voicemail to text and send it to our server. Incidentally, you can speak in English, German, Spanish, and French. Your message, however, will remain in the language you spoke.
Text “2020” to 55022.
Enter your message in an online form on the Web site
Send an email to post@truemors.com. FYI, this is a SpamArrest-protected email address, so you’ll have to confirm your address.
How much does it cost to change the world?
“In total, I spent $12,107.09 to launch Truemors,” Kawasaki said in his Change the World blog. ”During the dotcom days, entrepreneurs had to raise $5 million to try stupid ideas. Now I’ve proven that you can do it for $12,107.09.”
By the way, Guy has an honorary doctorate from Babson College, an MBA from UCLA and a BA from Stanford. To say thanks for writing the foreword to my new book with Chris Stiehl called Pain Killer Marketing, we invited Guy to be our guest at last fall’s sold out USC-Stanford football game. But he declined and chose instead to stay home to spend time with his four kids. He missed Stanford’s last second shocking upset of number one ranked USC, but as always he has his priorities straight. And that is the truth.
One of my heroes, Guy Kawasaki, is out to democratize the spread of information with a new venture called Truemors. If anyone can change the world without firing a shot, it is Guy.
Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.
I say I first met Guy through my friend Lisa Nirell (Chief Energy Officer of EnergizeGrowth.com) when he was writing the book The Art of the Start. In truth, I met him a decade earlier through the pages of a book I read over and over, his take on business evangelism called Selling the Dream. These are two business books I can’t say enough good things about.
According to his latest venture, www.truemors.com, you are invited to become a “citizen journalist/editor” and “tell the world”—within the bounds of good taste and the law anyway.
Second, from a reader perspective, it puts you “in the know” about the latest news, rumors, and happenings, so that “you know better” without having to spend hours every day searching for information.
Simply stated Truemors is not interested in crap. Some crap, says the Web site, is easy to recognize: profanity, pornography, bullying, libel, slander, and advertising.
The content that Guy and his cofounders want are true rumors that are relevant, informative, and interesting. Reading them would make them a person more interesting. Gossip, by contrast, is less urgent, less useful, and almost always deals with people’s private lives.
In other words, says the Web site, if we wanted gossip, we would have called our site “Truessip” or some such drivel.
The Web site covers the evolution of information. A long time ago royalty and religious leaders had scribes. Around 600 the Chinese printed using negative reliefs. Around 1450 Johann Gutenberg combined hundreds of years of progress into the screw printing press.
Fast forward to 1985 when Apple (Macintosh), Aldus (PageMaker), and Adobe (PostScript) produced “desktop publishing.” A few years later people could create Web sites. Then blogging appeared on the scene. Still, people needed a computer and a blogging tool like WordPress or TypePad to disseminate information. Kawasaki believes he has created a better way.
You can post your information on Truemors in four ways:
Call 1-650-329-2020 and leave a voicemail. SpinVox will translate your voicemail to text and send it to our server. Incidentally, you can speak in English, German, Spanish, and French. Your message, however, will remain in the language you spoke.
Text “2020
Enter your message in an online form on the Web site
Send an email to post@truemors.com. FYI, this is a SpamArrest-protected email address, so you’ll have to confirm your address.
How much does it cost to change the world?
“In total, I spent $12,107.09 to launch Truemors,” Kawasaki said in his Change the World blog. ”During the dotcom days, entrepreneurs had to raise $5 million to try stupid ideas. Now I’ve proven that you can do it for $12,107.09.”
By the way, Guy has an honorary doctorate from Babson College, an MBA from UCLA and a BA from Stanford. To say thanks for writing the foreword to my new book with Chris Stiehl called Pain Killer Marketing, we invited Guy to be our guest at last fall’s sold out USC-Stanford football game. But he declined and chose instead to stay home to spend time with his four kids. He missed Stanford’s last second shocking upset of number one ranked USC, but as always he has his priorities straight. And that is the truth.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Are we speaking the same language??
One of the keys to eliminating customer 'pain' is to understand what they are saying, and to respond in a way that makes sense to them. Speak the same language!! When you are working out of a call center, customers want things fixed by the first person they talk to, and they want it fixed fast! Be responsive to their "hierarchy of needs"! (PKM, CH.22)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Upcoming Events!
3/8-3/9: Networking with other authors and speakers asking to cross-promote books at the Odd Couple Seminar in San Francisco.
3/13: "Pain Killer Marketing for Consultants" for Institute of Management Consultants Orange County Chapter breakfast meeting
3/13: Blue Velocity Partners hosted event and video taping of Pain Killer Marketing workshop (coming soon to YouTube), 9:30 to 11 am at Sandler Sales Institute, 2091 Business Center Drive, Suite 230, Irvine, CA 92612
4/8: "Science of Clients" by Henry only to the American Association of Senior Executives, Irvine.
4/15: "Pain Killer Marketing for Direct Marketers" for San Diego Direct Marketing Association lunch meeting, Sheraton Hotel, La Jolla Village Drive and I-5. www.sddma.org
4/17: Book launch networking night in Silicon Valley at El Torito, 2950 Lakeside Drive, Santa Clara, CA from 5 to 7 pm. 408-727-4426. Free books to first 50 people who agree to read and review the book
4/22: Book launch networking night in San Diego at El Torito across from UC San Diego, 8910 Villa La Jolla Drive, La Jolla, CA from 5 to 7 pm. Free books for first 50 people who agree to read and review the books on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
5/8: Book launch networking night with other W Business Book authors in Orange County at the El Toritos across from John Wayne Airport, 18512 Macarthur Blvd., Irvine CA 92612 5 to 7 pm 949-833-8230
5/16: Henry to present at Columbia University Consultants and Coaches Conference, New York City.
5/30: Signing books at the Book Expo in Los Angeles and attending author event sponsored by W Business Books.
7/18: Henry to present an all day workshop for the San Diego chapter of the Public Relations Society of America
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Managing Key Accounts
Manage Key Accounts as if They Were Key!
By Chris Stiehl, StiehlWorks, co-author of Pain Killer Marketing
The idea of singling out key accounts is to treat them special, to give them the recognition and treatment that they deserve. If the age old “80/20 rule” applies, there are 20% of your customers, or less, who generate 80% of the profits, or more. These customers should be made to feel as though they are really special. Most companies recognize this strategy as being important and create sales plans and organizations to reflect this idea. In my experience, many lose sight of the objective of this strategy when they implement tactics to support it.
As an example, in one of our clients too many customers were considered “key accounts.” The objective was to treat them all as “special.” What happened internally was that each region of the company wanted to define their own key account criteria. None of them wanted to be left out of this program. The result was that the number of customers who were put into this group far exceeded the number of customers that the sales staff could reasonably accommodate. The key account sales reps did not have time to treat each customer with the special attention that they deserved. The hope was that each special account would be visited at least once a month, or once a quarter at worst. In fact, many were only visited twice a year or less often.
What does a key account want from sales staff? Some do not want frequent contact, but most of them do. If their partnership with your company means that they are a key account, they have a number of wants and needs that have been expressed frequently in market research:
Understand their business – they don’t want to have to explain their needs over and over because you have changed sales assignments or don’t remember from last time.
Know how they make money and how your product or service helps them accomplish that.
Ask about their plans. Are they expanding? Are they moving? What are their major problems? In what direction do they see their business or industry going in the future? You need to know in case you can help, even if they don’t think the problems apply to your product or service. Find out what their problems are, all of them, and find ways to help.
Make sure that you know not only their order history with you, but any problems in the relationship, even if they did not involve the sales activity (e.g., missing delivery dates or service delays).
Many companies do not treat these types of customers as truly special. Designating them as a “key account” should be meaningful to them as well. If they don’t feel as though they are being treated as important to you, such a designation will be a negative, not a positive, in their mind. I have heard several times in my consulting practice, “I don’t feel as though I am being given the attention that my purchases would indicate I deserve; I’m not being treated as a special customer should be treated.”
Make sure that your best customers don’t feel that way. You may want to ask them what being a key account means to them and how they would want to be treated. Some of the answers may surprise you. This type of research is invaluable. It may be done fairly easily if your C-level sales executive is sincere about making these customers feel like the select few. Find out their thoughts on how to grow the partnership so both companies profit.
The bottom line: Don’t lose sight of your overall objective to make the key account feel special as you implement the tactics of that strategy.
By Chris Stiehl, StiehlWorks, co-author of Pain Killer Marketing
The idea of singling out key accounts is to treat them special, to give them the recognition and treatment that they deserve. If the age old “80/20 rule” applies, there are 20% of your customers, or less, who generate 80% of the profits, or more. These customers should be made to feel as though they are really special. Most companies recognize this strategy as being important and create sales plans and organizations to reflect this idea. In my experience, many lose sight of the objective of this strategy when they implement tactics to support it.
As an example, in one of our clients too many customers were considered “key accounts.” The objective was to treat them all as “special.” What happened internally was that each region of the company wanted to define their own key account criteria. None of them wanted to be left out of this program. The result was that the number of customers who were put into this group far exceeded the number of customers that the sales staff could reasonably accommodate. The key account sales reps did not have time to treat each customer with the special attention that they deserved. The hope was that each special account would be visited at least once a month, or once a quarter at worst. In fact, many were only visited twice a year or less often.
What does a key account want from sales staff? Some do not want frequent contact, but most of them do. If their partnership with your company means that they are a key account, they have a number of wants and needs that have been expressed frequently in market research:
Understand their business – they don’t want to have to explain their needs over and over because you have changed sales assignments or don’t remember from last time.
Know how they make money and how your product or service helps them accomplish that.
Ask about their plans. Are they expanding? Are they moving? What are their major problems? In what direction do they see their business or industry going in the future? You need to know in case you can help, even if they don’t think the problems apply to your product or service. Find out what their problems are, all of them, and find ways to help.
Make sure that you know not only their order history with you, but any problems in the relationship, even if they did not involve the sales activity (e.g., missing delivery dates or service delays).
Many companies do not treat these types of customers as truly special. Designating them as a “key account” should be meaningful to them as well. If they don’t feel as though they are being treated as important to you, such a designation will be a negative, not a positive, in their mind. I have heard several times in my consulting practice, “I don’t feel as though I am being given the attention that my purchases would indicate I deserve; I’m not being treated as a special customer should be treated.”
Make sure that your best customers don’t feel that way. You may want to ask them what being a key account means to them and how they would want to be treated. Some of the answers may surprise you. This type of research is invaluable. It may be done fairly easily if your C-level sales executive is sincere about making these customers feel like the select few. Find out their thoughts on how to grow the partnership so both companies profit.
The bottom line: Don’t lose sight of your overall objective to make the key account feel special as you implement the tactics of that strategy.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
How To Fill Your Pipeline In Three Steps
Emanuel Rosen wrote, “The more connected your customers are to each other, the more you depend on their ‘buzz’ for future business.” (The Anatomy of Buzz, Doubleday, New York, 2000.)
Would you like to use your pain of customer research to fill your pipeline with qualified prospects? Here is a three-step approach that works wonders:
1. Identify Target Prospects. Step one is to find a potential market niche that will be profitable. In today’s market, customers demand specialists. You want fewer prospects to be interested in you, but much more intensely interested. This requires focus. It doesn't mean you'll turn down a customer who doesn't fit into your two or three chosen verticals--it simply means you won't be actively shaping your marketing campaigns toward them. Evaluate your business. Have you sold most of your services to golf-ball manufacturers, pet stores, and electrical suppliers? Then THOSE are the three places to start thinking. But if pet stores in general don't have the budget for your services, you'll need to look harder.
2. Prove You Understand Their Pain. Step two is to determine what promise you or your firm is making to your target market. This includes your unique selling proposition: what you do, who you do it for and how you are unlike competitors—all in 25 words or less. What measurable results do you obtain for customers? You need to decide what makes you different than everybody else, and you need to overcome fear of focus--the desire to want to be everything to everybody. People hire companies who specialize. Very few people would hire a surgeon who says he can do everything from tonsillectomies to facelifts and open-heart procedures. When you're in pain, you want a specialist--not just somebody who's "good with a knife."
3. Harvest Emails on Your Web Site. Step three is to create an easy-to-update Web site that demonstrates your competence, rather than asserts how great you are. The home page of the Web site should have a headline that makes it clear who your target is and what pains you solve. The Web site is the cornerstone of your marketing, and must not be a mere electronic brochure. Your Web site is the silent salesperson that prospective customers visit before making the decision to grant you permission to meet. There should be plenty of free articles with great how to advice for prospects. The Web site should include an offer often something free like an e-book in exchange for the visitor’s e-mail address. This e-book should contain valuable information that tells prospects how to solve their problem in general. Then e-mail these prospects special offers that address their pain.
Would you like to use your pain of customer research to fill your pipeline with qualified prospects? Here is a three-step approach that works wonders:
1. Identify Target Prospects. Step one is to find a potential market niche that will be profitable. In today’s market, customers demand specialists. You want fewer prospects to be interested in you, but much more intensely interested. This requires focus. It doesn't mean you'll turn down a customer who doesn't fit into your two or three chosen verticals--it simply means you won't be actively shaping your marketing campaigns toward them. Evaluate your business. Have you sold most of your services to golf-ball manufacturers, pet stores, and electrical suppliers? Then THOSE are the three places to start thinking. But if pet stores in general don't have the budget for your services, you'll need to look harder.
2. Prove You Understand Their Pain. Step two is to determine what promise you or your firm is making to your target market. This includes your unique selling proposition: what you do, who you do it for and how you are unlike competitors—all in 25 words or less. What measurable results do you obtain for customers? You need to decide what makes you different than everybody else, and you need to overcome fear of focus--the desire to want to be everything to everybody. People hire companies who specialize. Very few people would hire a surgeon who says he can do everything from tonsillectomies to facelifts and open-heart procedures. When you're in pain, you want a specialist--not just somebody who's "good with a knife."
3. Harvest Emails on Your Web Site. Step three is to create an easy-to-update Web site that demonstrates your competence, rather than asserts how great you are. The home page of the Web site should have a headline that makes it clear who your target is and what pains you solve. The Web site is the cornerstone of your marketing, and must not be a mere electronic brochure. Your Web site is the silent salesperson that prospective customers visit before making the decision to grant you permission to meet. There should be plenty of free articles with great how to advice for prospects. The Web site should include an offer often something free like an e-book in exchange for the visitor’s e-mail address. This e-book should contain valuable information that tells prospects how to solve their problem in general. Then e-mail these prospects special offers that address their pain.
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