Client Magnets Official Blog

Archive for August, 2009

In a world where people have become skeptical of anything relating to advertising or sales, it isn’t always easy to convince them to take the time to listen or read with an open mind. But you can do it. A well-crafted free report will not only entice your prospect to read on, it also puts them in a place where they are more ready to buy than they were before they read it. To help you craft such a report, here are five essential tips for creating of a free report that sells:

1. Give people an idea of what they are going to gain from reading it up front. Create a foreword that explains why it is in their interest to download it, print it, and spend some time with a highlighter pen going through it. If you don’t, there is a good chance that, even if it’s received, it still won’t get read. Especially if it’s a long report. People will look at it and think, “Oh, I’ll read that later,” then never quite get around to it. To avoid that happening, you have to catch their interest at the beginning.
2. Arouse their curiosity with hints of what’s to come. Start by placing testimonials up front instead of at the end. But be creative; design them so that they don’t look like testimonials. Include client endorsements written in a way that lets the reader know not only how much you’ve helped others but how what they are about to read will benefit them.
3. Think a little bit like a burlesque dancer. Write your content in a way that will sell in a teasing and tantalizing way, rather than doing the straight strip tease. Use suggestion. Unlike a sales letter, which typically provides standard sales fare, your free report should constantly be encouraging the reader to read on; creating intrigue about what’s to come.
4. Create value for your free report. A free report is your prelude, but to lead your reader to that something bigger it preludes, the report itself needs to be of value. You can create value in different ways—by establishing monetary value or by hinting that behind the free report there is a special program not available to everyone. Use the enticement of need and/or greed to your advantage.
5. Provide the right balance of information. Include enough information to appeal to your readers and keep them reading, but resist the urge to give the whole thing away. Continue to arouse curiosity, interlacing it with bits of satisfying information to keep your reader from becoming frustrated. Hint that, while the free report offers much, in order to grasp the contents in their completeness, you may need additional help.

When you design your free report with a mind to these five essential elements, you can be assured that you are design a free report that will not only “sell”, but one that will do the selling for you.

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How does it feel right now when you think about growing your business?

About finding new prospects?

About the revenues you’re making?

There’s a good chance that you’re sometimes feeling confused, even overwhelmed. You know the clients you are serving are really happy with what you’re doing, and yet, maybe you’re frustrated that you’re not getting the message out to a big enough audience.

Once you do get that message out, though, you’ll be making the money you could and should be making.  

I know firsthand how it feels to be in that very place.  I was in a similar situation several years ago – making some sales, doing okay, but nowhere near where I needed to be considering all the hours I was putting in. I felt that I needed to promote myself 24/7 to get anywhere close to my sales target. Some days, I would just sit at my desk all day, constantly promoting my business to bring in clients.

Despite everything I knew, I just wasn’t able to pull it together in a way where I could market my expertise consistently and make consistent predictable income.

And what I had to do – and what you need to do – is to step back and really start to analyze what you’re doing in your business. What’s working? What isn’t working?

If you’re only making money when you’re constantly working on promotion, your business strategy for success translates into “work longer and harder.” And as much as you really don’t mind working hard, you want to know when all this hard work is going to finally start paying off.

One of the first things you should realize is that, not only do you need more clients, you need clients to spend more money with you.

At one time, the only thing that I was offering was a £50 e-book and a £350 training course. Even my very best customer could only spend £400 with me. Ridiculous in hindsight. Now I’ve got single products that cost more than that.

The next thing you need to realize is that you have to find a way to make sales that isn’t dependent upon you personally. You have to be able to generate income without having to promote your business 24/7. In my business that meant setting up an automated process for converting interested people into paying business.

And the final thing you need to realize is that you need to find ways to increase your visibility in the marketplace.

Taking a minute to analyze the way you do business will force you into a whole new way of working, as the light bulbs begin to go on and you discover what your business needs in order to grow.

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At the heart of the Client Magnet approach is the concept of VALUE.

You may not yet have all the clients that you want. Or maybe you do have enough clients, but you still feel vulnerable, because you know that losing one or two key clients could put your business in jeopardy.

If you’re in this vulnerable situation, then you are either:

1. Not adding value

2. Failing to effectively communicate how you add value

The fact is, if you started your working day asking yourself: Who are my target clients? What do they need? How can I contribute something of value to them even BEFORE they become clients – your marketing problems would be solved for ever.

If you’re getting feedback along the lines of ‘not interested’, ‘not right now’, ‘call back in a month’, then what the prospect is telling you is ‘this isn’t a priority right now’.

But my point is this. If what you’re offering ISN’T a priority to your prospects, then it means that something else IS. There are other issues that are keeping them awake at night. There are other problems that they’re preoccupied with. And if you can uncover what those points of pain are, there’s a very good chance that you could help them.

Now you might say -well those other problems have nothing to do with my product or service. But the fact is, if you want to form a relationship with this individual or group of individuals, ‘what’s keeping them up at night’ has EVERYTHING to do with you.

So how does this work in practice? Let’s say you’re a sales trainer, and you want to develop a relationship with sales directors who outsource their training. You’ve tried cold calling and direct mail to introduce your service, but you feel like you’re meeting a blank wall. When you’re approaching sales directors as ‘just another training provider’ no one’s interested. So step back and ask yourself, well what are they pre-occupied with? Maybe they’re frustrated with the fact that 80% of business comes from 20% of the sales force? Maybe they’ve already invested in training, and felt like they didn’t get a significant return on their investment? Maybe they’re so bogged down with fire-fighting, that they can’t
even lift their heads to THINK about training?

You need to spend some time and exploring and uncovering these points of pain. How? Listen, first and foremost. I started Client Magnets because I kept hearing trainers, coaches, therapists tell me: ‘I don’t have enough clients, and I’m not confident in my ability to get new clients.’

The other thing you can do is just ‘put yourself in their shoes’, start to see the world through their eyes and get an understanding of what their hopes and fears are.

So back to our sales trainer example, as you uncover the points of pain for your target prospects, you will start to see common themes emerge. There’s a good chance that you know how to solve these problems. Maybe you could put together a simple report that provides some solutions for these issues. Or you could organise a half-day seminar or a teleconference call where you provide the answers personally.

Ultimately the form through which you provide this solution is less important than the spirit with which you do it. If you are ‘giving to get’ ie writing a report in the hope that it will win you favours, then it will backfire. But if you write your report with a pure and clear intention to serve, and with a feeling of trust that as you serve people, they will keep coming back, then you will find this a highly magnetic approach.

The questions to keep asking yourself are: How can I be of service? How can I add value? Make these questions your mantra!

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Chances are there’s a limit on how frequently someone can purchase from you. Even your best, most loyal customer.

And you probably think that there’s nothing you can do about that. But you’re wrong. There are definitely ways to stop restricting the frequency of your customers’ purchases.

For example, if you work as a consultant and are brought on board once every two years to do a big project for a client, at the end of that project they don’t need you again for another two years.

The frequency of this transaction is only once every 24 months.  But finding ways of serving that client every 12 months will increase the frequency of their purchase from you and thus increase your income.

This is possible even if you think you’re in a business where it’s not.

A person who sells corporate entertainment told me, “Once someone has bought this type of entertainment they probably aren’t going to want it at the next conference.”

And another person said, “I sell weddings. I’m a wedding planner. And hopefully once people have got married and they spent money on a wedding they’re not going to need that service again.”

Now both of these statements are absolutely true. And they may very well apply to your business too.

Here’s where it’s time to begin thinking outside the box. It’s time to begin thinking more broadly about how you can leverage that relationship you’ve built up with that customer who trusts you enough to give you money. How can you offer them new, additional, complementary solutions?

It doesn’t have to be that you just try to get them to buy the same thing again and again. In fact that’s typically not a good thing to do.

You need to find a way that you can continually add more value in new forms and other ways to give them the opportunity to spend more with you.

For example, a consultant might offer an annual check-up to ensure that the customer’s project is on track. This will increase that customer’s purchase frequency to every 12 months.

Even a wedding planner’s work doesn’t have to be one-time only. Why not broaden your offerings to include anniversaries, christenings, any future event your customer might want to celebrate?

So look at your existing business and think of ways to offer additional services that will bring customers to you more frequently. That’s how you’re going to turn one-time sales into recurring or continuity business.

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Marketing icon Peter Drucker once said that “the purpose of marketing is to make selling obsolete.”  Our focus in any marketing campaign should be to create such a momentum that, by the time our prospects get to the sales pitch, they are already sold. That’s why getting your free report right is so important.   If you do it right, you can have people eager and ready to buy BEFORE you’re ready to present what you’re selling. That is how powerful a well-crafted free report can be. But to get that effect, you must first focus on the report.

Selling that doesn’t sound like selling. Your free report should offer information in such a way that people do not feel they are being sold to. Avoid standard sales letter styles and sounds; focus on providing information that itself will be seen as valuable to your reader.

Use subtlety and intrigue to build interest.  The temptation may be to go straight into touting your product or service, but don’t. Instead, lace your free report with enticements and hints of what’s to come.

Establish need and greed.   Make sure your audience knows how they’ll benefit by establishing need. Then take it one step further and establish greed. Show them how they are not only getting something they need; they are also getting access to something that will only be around for a short while or something few others have access to.

Include a biography. One of the first questions every prospect will ask is “Who are you and why should I listen to you?” So, tell them up front. Begin your free report by answering that question through references to experience, clients, etc.  And it’s okay to name drop; let who you know as well as what you know work for you.

Convince the skeptics. Always work from the viewpoint that your readers will be cynical. Why? Because when it comes to sales, cynicism is automatic. The minute you open your mouth or offer that product or service, people are going to wonder, “What’s the catch?” So your report should be designed to get past this automatic response.      How can you accomplish this? Offer true value within the content of your report. Answer questions, provide links to outside resources, provide sources for statistics and facts and be sure the readers knows what they’re going to gain from reading the free report.

Use reason-why advertising. It is considered to be a very important part of any sales message to explain why you’re doing something, so use reason-why advertising to answer the all of those unspoken questions, like “Why is he/she offering me this?” and “Why is it free?”

Create demand through take-away selling. Take away selling is a method of marketing that uses a sense of urgency to create desire and demand. It appeals to human nature. When something is less available or available only for a short period of time, it becomes more desirable. Use that to your advantage.

Remember, good marketing makes selling obsolete. So, by focusing on marketing rather than sales, your free report can go a long way to doing the selling for you.

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Ever been in a large city at night and noticed the birds flying between buildings? There’s an awful thing that happens; some birds are attracted to the lights inside a window, fly straight into the glass and crash to the pavement below. Some business owners also tend to chase “shiny objects” straight into walls of debt and failure. Let’s look at some of the shiny objects that may be distracting you from success.

Chasing the Newest Fads

Starting and running a business takes an enormous amount of legwork. Writing a business plan, creating products and perfecting your offer require hard work, but all those are productive steps toward growing a business.

What’s not productive is chasing things that won’t make a bit of difference to your success.

To illustrate that point, here’s the story of one young entrepreneur who seemed destined to make it big:

Karen, our fledgling business owner, had a gift for helping others with their relationships. She had great credentials as a coach, all the right training, and testimonials from friends and colleagues.

Having paid a proven marketing expert to help her gain clients, Karen seemed headed down the path to coaching success. Her website was first-rate, her email campaigns compelling and her client base growing.

But Karen had trouble keeping her business plan in focus. She became obsessed with pursuing every new marketing bell and whistle. She began rescheduled coaching appointments to travel to marketing seminars and her budding business soon began to wither.

Chasing the shiny object of “faster income” distracted her from delivering the service she’d promised her clients. She soon crashed into a wall of debt and her business was headed for failure.

Does Karen’s rush down the road to failure sound familiar? Shiny objects often come in the form of marketing techniques, technology or “get rich quick” schemes. Knowing what’s available is great, as long as you’re not constantly changing your plan to pursue it.

Building a truly successful business requires planning, putting in the hours and keeping your eye on the ball. If your experience as an entrepreneur has been full of bumps and bruises, ask yourself, “Am I guilty of chasing shiny objects instead of focusing on business-building tasks?”

How to Maintain Your Focus

It’s incredibly easy to become distracted, given the amazing array of business-building tools available. How, then, can you keep your focus on things that bring real success? Follow these rules to keep yourself centered and the bright, shiny objects at bay:

Rule #1: TRUST YOURSELF - If you’ve created a solid plan for building your business, you don’t need to constantly ask “gurus” what they think will work. Seek advice, if necessary, when you encounter something completely out of your league, but trust that by having great products, listening to your market and making adjustments when necessary, your business will grow.

Rule #2: FINE-TUNE YOUR FILTER – Sometimes, when business hits a dry spell, it’s easy to be distracted by “get rich quick” schemes. Fine tune your filter to keep out improbable offers by comparing them to time-tested business principles. If it sounds too good to be true, tune it out.

Rule #3: STICK TO YOUR PLAN – Agility is required to maneuver shrinking markets and tough financial times. That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s necessary to change your plan to incorporate everything someone tells you will bring in more business. Turn on that filter, trust your instincts and stick to your plan to experience success.

You must develop laser-like focus to keep your business headed in the right direction. Recognize that the “latest thing” may cross your desk today, promising to bring you success. Take a deep breath and refocus on what’s already bringing in clients. Trust your instincts to keep your company on track; you’ll gain fewer bumps and bruises as well as the success you deserve.

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Here’s a fairy tale worth reading if you own your own business.

It seems a talented entrepreneur created valuable products many people could use. He sat in his castle watching expectantly for the arrival of the “sales fairy.” Unfortunately, this fairy was only a legend and his wonderful products never reached their intended audience. The foolish business owner watched as the weeds of inactivity overtook his castle and choked off his chances for success.

Just a fairy tale? Hardly! Many small business owners do a great job of creating products and business systems for sales that will never come. If you’re still waiting around for the sales fairy to appear, it’s time to step outside your office and learn to sell.

“But I’m Not Sales Person”

This excuse is used all the time by people who have never learned to sell. They naively believe that the products they create are so fabulous they’ll sell themselves. They set up shop, run a few ads and cross their fingers the money will soon roll in.

The truth is, with the amazing array of products being offered in most markets, ads alone won’t deliver the kind of income that equals success. At some point, you’ll have to approach other people about buying your product or service. This could be as simple as setting up a table at a trade show or reciting your three-sentence offer (you do have one, don’t you?) at a business mixer.

You may still be concerned that you’re not a “sales personality.” Here are the facts:

• A “sales personality” is simply the skill you gain as you make your offer to more people.
• Sales can be fun and exciting, and put you in control of your success.
• You’ll bring your own personality to each sales situation; there’s no need to become a “sales zombie” who recites canned lines.

The bottom line for your bottom line is that no one who succeeds in business does so without some type of regular sales encounters.

“I’ll Outsource Sales for My Business!”

A fortunate few entrepreneurs can afford to hire someone else to do their selling. The rest of us must learn how to offer our products or services for sale. Even if you could afford to hire sales staff from the start, who’s going to develop your offer?

Do you really want a hired salesperson deciding how your products will be offered? There are marketing geniuses for hire, to be sure, but even they require input and approval from business owners to do their jobs successfully. Learning basic sales techniques will help you better manage your sales force.

“How Can I Learn to Sell?”

Now that you’re convinced it’s essential to sell, it’s time to seek help. There are hundreds of topnotch sales training organizations ready to show you the basics. The investment you make in learning to sell will pay off in income down the road.

If you’re not sure which sales training course works best, ask someone whose sales technique you admire how they learned. Many top sales people took advantage of quality sales training early in their careers and then developed their personal selling style along the way.

Learning to sell your products to others is the foundation of a successful enterprise. The “sales fairy” isn’t coming to the rescue, no matter how hard you wish for her. If your business is overgrown with weeds, it’s time to step outside the castle and learn what it takes to sell.

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As a business owner, you may be wondering why it’s so hard to find new customers. Maybe you’re spending a lot of money on marketing, but haven’t seen much of an increase in sales. It may be time to take a second look at the actual product you’re offering. Learning how to “tweak” your products to suit your market can be transformational for your business.

Many times, business owners believe if they continue in the same direction, the results will suddenly change for the better. They pay good money for marketing campaigns that aren’t working and wonder why they’re not seeing sales.

This approach to business makes as much sense as banging your head against a wall to cure a headache. Continuing to use unproductive strategies to bring in more money will never result in success. Lasting success will come when you learn to adjust what you have to offer to meet your market.

Here are two ways to successfully tweak your products to match your market:

1.  Adjust your offer to meet your market …

A quick way to determine how your products need to be tweaked is to find out which similar products are selling well to your target market. For example, if you’ve been offering prepackaged suppers for busy moms, but sales have never been strong, visit stores offering similar products. If you see lowfat prepackaged meals rushing out the door, that’s a big hint you might want to offer a lowfat line.

When your product is yourself, think of the services you’re often asked for that you’re unable to provide. Is it time to branch out and become more full-service? Niche markets are great, if they meet the needs of enough people to be profitable. Make sure you’re not boxing yourself into a very exclusive corner.

These changes may, of course, cost some money to implement. But what is it costing you to lose sales to the competition? At some point, you must be willing to shift what you offer if it’s no longer appealing to your market.

2.  Try Repackaging:

Sometimes what you’re offering isn’t the problem, it’s the way it’s packaged for clients. If, for instance, you only offer your coaching time in twenty hour blocks, you may be missing clients who prefer making a smaller commitment.

Here’s how that coach might repackage her services to find more clients:

• Offer smaller blocks of her time
• Offer a discount to clients purchasing larger blocks of time
• Create new products such as ebooks, DVDs and special reports to share her coaching expertise

Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to products and services can mean closing the door on people who need what you’re offering. Consider tweaking your product packages to make yourself available to clients.

It would be wonderful if each of us could create a single product or service and sell it for twenty years. But that’s simply not realistic in today’s wide-open global marketplace. If you’ve noticed a distinct lack of clients lately, take the time to review what you’re offering. A few simple tweaks to make it accessible and appealing to more people could be all it takes to have you back on top in your market.

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What’s your natural marketing style?   Some people market themselves best in writing, others excel in face-to-face meetings and a third group sells themselves best through public speaking. If you’re in the third group, it’s time to start building your on-stage marketing strategy. If you’ll follow these three steps faithfully, your client base will grow along with your on-stage reputation.

Polish Your Presentation

It may seem as though you should rush out and start finding speaking gigs first, but, without a polished presentation, your speaking tour will quickly be derailed. There’s nothing worse, for someone who hopes to reach a wider audience through public speaking, than having a negative reputation precede you.

Especially in a local area, event participants begin to see one another at multiple functions. It’s the kiss of death for a public speaker to have them sharing comments like, “Oh, her, she’s just trying to sell something” or “Boring!”

To develop a solid reputation as a speaker, it’s important to share information your audience can use, as well as making your offer. Develop speeches that inform, educate or motivate your captive audience, then add a succinct version of your offer at the end. Earn the right to offer them your services by giving them meat to chew, as well.

Secure Speaking Gigs

While paid speaking gigs are great, the point of public speaking is to gain a wider audience. Start looking for opportunities, paid and unpaid, to speak to your natural client base. For example, if you offer accounting services, research accounting industry organizations and contact their event planners. Those busy planners are often looking for interesting speakers to fill their meeting schedules.

Have a polished brochure ready to send meeting planners. Many speakers now have websites with sample speeches to download. That gives meeting schedulers confidence they’re safe in hiring you to speak. If nothing else, record one of your presentations and send it on CD to prospective public speaking clients.

Don’t overlook small audiences, by the way. When you’re the main speaker, a small group can yield great contacts for future business. As you build your resume’ of testimonials, leverage that experience to go after larger audiences, and perhaps even multi-day events. Someone who shines on-stage is always in demand, as event planners seek to keep their audiences motivated.

Follow Up!

After a solid presentation, there should be folks waiting to meet with you at the back of the room. This is where the real business is done. Make sure you know the rules at each event about making sales; most organizations allow speakers to set up a table with products or marketing materials, others prefer you collect business cards and follow-up later.

Either way, there’s no excuse for not following up with every single person you meet at a speaking engagement. Set appointments if securing business at the event isn’t practical. Have your marketing strategy prepared in advance; email messages and mailers for new clients or prospects, special offers for event participants, and a schedule of follow-up calls will capture the momentum of the event and keep them interested in your products or services.

If you shine on-stage, you can develop this talent into a successful marketing strategy…

Polish your presentation and offer your audience real substance.  Learn to make your offer as a natural part of your speech.   Go out and find the groups who need speakers, and make sure they know you’re available.

Once on-stage, you have the chance to build your client base quickly. Be ready to capture that interest with a strong follow-up campaign. Your public speaking talents can easily become the centerpiece of a dynamic marketing strategy.

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One of the best ways to catch a prospect’s attention is offer them something of value. Think about it. What goes through your mind when someone offers you something which:
1) Is fresh and new?
2) Usually costs more but you’re getting it for less?
3) Is something that, until now, has only been available to the select few?

Are you interested? Does it intrigue you? Do you want to know more? Of course you do. We all do.

A free report is the prelude to your product or service; its purpose is to get prospects to buy whatever it is you’re selling. However, if your prospects aren’t reading it with interest, then your free report hasn’t served its purpose and your efforts have been somewhat wasted. To ensure that doesn’t happen, you need to create value. Here are three ways you can do that:

Monetary Worth
A fairly easy way to create value is to provide a monetary figure showing what the document is worth. This can be done a couple of different ways:
• Give the document a monetary value. What’s the report worth? How much would you spend on a similar book or CD? Determine a reasonable price and attach it to the report. “As a gift to our subscribers, this report valued at £45.50, is being offered free for a limited time.” By attaching a monetary value to the report, you have created 1) desire to have it and 2) interest in what could be inside.
• Give the information itself monetary value. In Richard Schefren’s highly-successful free report  Internet Business Manifesto (available from StrategicProfits.com) he did this by saying something to the effect of; “Up until now, this information has been closely held and only available to select online marketers… Well known marketers (insert name drops here) have paid upwards of $11,000 for it.” Now the information has a value attached; making it more desirable to the prospect.

Special Access
Another good way to establish value in a free report is to hint that it leads to something special—something few have had access to until now—which will put the prospect in league with the elite. Who wouldn’t want to know what the insider’s know? Again, we are creating desire.

Long Term Gain
Finally, a great way to establish value in both your free report and the program it is prelude to is to let your prospects know the long-term gain that can be achieved by reading, learning, participating, subscribing, buying, etc.  In Richard’s manifesto, he does this by saying, “There’ a very big idea inside it and many people have made a fortune once they’ve grasped the concepts which you’re about to receive right here for free.” Wow. Now there is value.

By establishing value for your free report, you create desire for it. And we all know what a powerful motivator desire can be.

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