Client Magnets Official Blog

Archive for the ‘feedback’ Category

It’s a lot easier to turn a ship that’s moving in the wrong direction than it is to turn a ship that’s not moving at all.

If you’ve been getting “analysis paralysis”, scratching your head and trying to figure out what your direction is, just pick a purpose and start heading toward it. If you’re off course, the market will correct you.

If you’re not heading in the right direction, the market will quickly give you feedback that will help you adjust. Just don’t get overly concerned that what you decide today is going to be cast in stone.

Don’t worry about picking the wrong area or niche at first. Don’t worry if you find that you’re being called an expert on something that you don’t want to be known as the expert on.

Areas of expertise can change. But you can only change your direction if you have already set out in one to begin with.

Bob Burg is the author of a book called “Endless Referrals.” He is now positioned as a referral expert and an expert on helping people to generate referrals for business.

When he first started out, his niche was memory experts. He noticed that people who took his memory courses wanted to improve their memory to remember the names of people they’d met at networking meetings and events. They wanted to improve their memory to achieve better business results.

As he spotted that connection, he started to focus more on being the referral expert. No one accused him of being a fraud because he was now a referral expert instead of a memory expert. The market let him know in which direction to steer his business.

When you set course in your chosen direction, look for niches and markets where it’s going to be easier for you to establish personal relationships and position yourself as an expert.

If the niche you do choose turns out to be an enormous amount of effort, you have to weigh whether or not it’s worth your while to continue down that road or take a different road to get business.

When Dan Kennedy, the marketing expert, was invited to submit a proposal to give a speech in Switzerland, he opted out. While plenty of other people would jump at the opportunity, and spend a day putting together a proposal to bid, that is not the way he wants to go after business. Perhaps it didn’t seem worthwhile to spend the time writing the proposal. The point is that you have to make the determination of how you want to do business.

Your niche will evolve with your business. It’s an actual evolution that happens in most any business. Look at my own situation. I started out as specializing, by trial and error, as a cold calling expert. But I didn’t stop at that. Today, I’m teaching people how to find new business and triple their income! The way in which I’m helping people and the types of people I’m helping is completely different from what I started out with.

But it’s turned out for the best for everyone!

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

IMAGINE THIS: You need to transfer water from one location to another. So, you set about filling a bucket with water from the hose…but straight away, you notice that the bucket isn’t holding water. A series of holes are allowing the water to quickly drain out.

Now you have two choices: you can continue on with the Swiss-cheese bucket, running as quickly as you can to get from point A to point B, while retaining as much water as possible; or you can take the time to plug each hole, one at a time, until you have an implement that saves you trips, time, and wet feet.

Your business is that bucket. If you pour money into finding the one big thing that will draw in a stampede of people, you will waste much of your investment.

But, if you take the time to give attention to each detail of your business, find flaws, and plug those flaws (one at a time), you will arrive at an effective system for making product sales and booking reservations for your next live event.

Maybe you’re carrying out many of the necessary points, but they need to be tweaked for effectiveness. Or, maybe there are areas that you haven’t even thought about. No matter your booking saboteurs, here’s a list of strategies for plugging your bucket’s biggest holes:

• Follow up: Following up with every website visitor (specific to their buying or non-buying activity) can be indispensable in establishing connections that result in future bookings.

• Ask for feedback: When you know why someone didn’t book a seat for your workshop or buy your product, you can apply that information to future marketing efforts. People aren’t going to offer feedback unless they’re prompted to do so.

• Make yourself available by phone: Use an open phone line to quell fears, answer questions, and to make yourself available to the portion of the public that doesn’t feel comfortable booking or purchasing online.

• Simplify your sales page: Everyone that considers opting in (via the web) isn’t going to have a PhD. Make it easy to sign up, and keep the language simple enough for a 10-year-old to understand.

• Use a stick strategy: When taking reservations for seminars that are weeks or months into the future, stay in regular contact with your customers, to avoid buyer’s remorse (which may result in cancellations).

Those are the biggest plugs for buckets leaks, but here are some smaller, yet still important, remedies for common leaks:

• Establish a database: If you operate on the assumption that you simply need to put the information out there, and people will buy, you will lose bookings and sales. Know who you’ve marketed to, and use that information to implement the five major bucket leak fixes.

• Use a case study: Your first successful event or launch might be the hardest to accomplish, but once you do it, be sure to showcase it. Use it as example of what your future clients and attendees will experience.

• Plug holes before working on visuals: Too often, business owners spend money on having logos designed, images uploaded, and catchy headlines written – all before they have a solid marketing plan in place. It’s always more cost effective (and generally effective) to find a plan that works, and then wrap your public image around that.

• Make special offers that are specific: Discounts offered to the general public don’t make anyone feel special, but when you offer free items, or discounts, to an exclusive group, they’ll feel like parts of the club (and more inclined to be parts of your workshop).

Often, entrepreneurs are so busy with attraction methods, that they forget how to treat prospects once they’ve attracted them. Work on your bucket list. Tackle one hole at a time, repair it, and then move on to the next. Before you know what happened, you’ll be carrying bucket loads of clients and bucket loads of money!

What comes to mind when you see that the majority of your sales page visitors have left without purchasing?  You may choose from two schools of thought: you may consider them to be lost to the click-away, or you may consider them to be interested prospects that simply need to be followed up with.

Everytime a prospect visits your website – whether they purchase from your or not -  is an opportunity to increase your revenue and grow your business.   The key is in following up with each and every visitor.  But how can you do that?

You must first capture the information necessary for following up, and then you need to implement a plan that makes meaningful, targeted contact.

Your squeeze page, or opt-in page, is an invaluable tool for gathering contact information from your website visitors.  You can’t follow up with people unless you have the information necessary for doing so.    The best way to collect names, addresses, and other data is to make it a prerequisite to entering your site.  On your opt-in page, you ask for their details.  This information will then be used by you for following up with buyers and non-buyers in one or more of the following ways:

• E-mail Follows Ups. Your first contact with website visitors should be immediately after they register their details – a sort of “welcome to the club” message.  Autoresponder programs are more readily available, and less costly, than ever – and are the easiest way to accomplish e-mail follow ups.  You can try to orchestrate follow-up emails on your own, but it won’t be long before you find yourself buried under the weight of this task.

E-mail follow-ups shouldn’t stop after initial contact.  In fact, you should use your email list to stay in contact, to gather questions, to respond to feedback, and to stay relevant in the minds of interested parties.

• Snail Mail Follow-Ups. Standard mail is still relevant.  In fact, it can be a valuable tool for “switching things up.”  When a prospect finds you via the internet, and then receives a postcard with valuable information in their mailbox, you instantly establish yourself as a well-rounded and versatile business person.

Services are available, much like those of autoresponder companies, that can do this for you.  Traditional mail can be a great tool for driving traffic back to your sales page.

• The Teleseminar. In your chosen follow-up method, make the offer of free participation in a teleseminar.  This will give prospects the opportunity to hear your voice, ask questions, and to voice concerns.  The dynamic that occurs when you speak to a number of people at once is one that can electrify the transfer of information.  Additionally, you can use your teleseminar to make special offers to your listeners  – a limited-time offer, for instance, or an offer that’s only available to teleconference attendees.

Don’t fall into repetitive sales tactics.  Mix it up – send a welcome e-mail, then a special offer postcard, then an invitation to an exclusive teleseminar – keep them guessing.  No matter your follow-up plan, ensure that you gather all of the information necessary to facilitate it when your website visitors register their details.  You can’t send postcards without physical addresses, and you can’t send e-mails without e-mail addresses.

Use your site visitor statistics to your advantage.  Don’t view those who walk away as failures in conversion, but rather, as opportunities to follow up and build your turn-over numbers, and your business.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Imagine that you own a designer clothing store.  You operate the register, taking money from customers and bagging up their items.  While you’re managing the flow of incoming money, you notice that the majority of visitors spend a significant amount of time thumbing through racks and trying on outfits – only to walk out of your boutique empty-handed.

If you could stop those people in the parking lot and ask them why they didn’t buy, without scaring them away from your establishment forever, would you do it?  If you found out that your product was perceived as low quality, you’d look at your designers more closer, you’d check the quality of your garments, right?  Or if you learned that the styles you offer aren’t current enough, you would reevaluate your stock, wouldn’t you?

There are two points of truth to be drawn from this example.  First, the majority of your sales pages visitors will click away without buying…that’s statistical.  And second, you may never know exactly how to solicit more sales unless you ask for feedback from non-buyers.

The prospect majority (the ones who haven’t purchased) are a valuable trove of information for the improvement of your conversion rate.  When you can use what they tell you to compile a list of common objections, you can then use that information to revamp your website, your FAQ page, or any other aspect of your business.

You might know how to ask for feedback from paying customers, but how about those who have merely previewed your product?  Here are some pointers for getting plenty of constructive feedback from non-buyers:

• Maintain a low-key tone. The language that you use in your feedback request should be one of curiosity…an unassuming appeal.  Make it clear that you only want to know why they chose not to buy.

• Be honest. Be frank with your prospects.  In your request for feedback (most often done via e-mail), let them know that you’re new to the business, or that you’re working on redesigning your website, or that you’re throwing around the idea of editing your product list.  Let them know that their opinions will be priceless in your effort to make the experience more pleasurable for future customers.

• In your written request, remind recipients of your website address. That way, they can revisit and refresh their memories, in case they have forgotten your business’ specifics.

• Offer a no-strings incentive in exchange for feedback. Never use a feedback request as an attempt to make a sale.  Instead, offer a one-time gift (like a free report) that requires no obligation.

• Do not interrogate prospects. Never use the feedback that you receive as ammunition to get them to buy at a later time.  When you receive feedback, simply say “thank you” and use it to make improvements.  Do not personally pursue the prospect.  Curiosity may drive them back to your site (to see if their feedback was utilized), but if you hunt them down, you will drive them away.

• Send feedback requests as soon as possible (within a week of the prospect’s first visit).  A person’s motivation is highest right after they’ve visited your site for the first time.  If you allow time for that motivation to fade, you will be less likely to receive feedback (and less likely to feed the fire of interest in your product).

You’ll probably be astounded at the amount and quality of feedback that you’ll receive.  People all have opinions – but will rarely voice them unless they’re invited to do so.  Many times, they’re so glad to have the opportunity to be heard, that they will be honest and blunt – perfect for your goal of gathering business-changing information.

Asking for feedback can seem a bit strange, even intimidating, at first, but once you receive your first dose of eye-opening criticism, you’ll be glad that you took the time to question the departing majority.  And you’ll learn to see objections for what they really are – opportunities for improvement and optimism for future conversions.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com