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Archive for the ‘Strategies To Keep Good Customers’ Category

What if you could enjoy genuine client abundance: all the clients you want, whenever you want, paying the fees that you want?  One answer is to only target those people who are truly interested in what you’re offering – those people with their hands raised in response to your proposed solution.

Though rejection is an inevitable part of business and life, it doesn’t have to be a dominating factor.  In fact, it can be a miniscule, barely noticeable speck in a sea of limitless clients.

You can’t sell to everyone.  You don’t have the time or resources to do so, and no single product will appeal to every member of any population.  In order to identify those who are most likely to buy, you need to devise a method to pick out the prospects with their virtual hands raised, who are ready to accept your single solution to their shared problem.

There are two types of disappointment when you try to sell to people who just aren’t interested.

• First, you might feel that you, yourself, have been rejected. It’s easy to convert rejection of a product into rejection of yourself, and without the tools to manage those feelings of rejection, negative effects can flow into your business dealings.

• Second, you might be able to sell your product to people who aren’t truly in need of it, or aren’t interested in it, simply because you are a smooth operator.  The consequence of this scenario will most likely leave you with a sleazy feeling, knowing that you’ve manipulated other human beings into doing something they weren’t comfortable with.

In order to increase your bank of yes and deplete your bank of no, it’s important to ask the population, “Who’s interested?”  When you do that, a percentage of the population will raise their hands.  Consider that group of raised hands to be your new sea of prospects.  Don’t worry about those who have kept their hands in their pockets – they would have had no choice but to say “no” anyway.  Though your product might be a God-send for some, it’s never going to be right for everyone.

Isolating the group with hands raised saves you time, effort, and the fortitude that it takes to recover from rejection.

Here’s the progression – from getting those hands up in the air, to optimizing their potential:

• Find a lead generation system that plants the seed, poses the thought-provoking questions, and sparks enough interest to spur interested people to raise their hands.

• Offer a free report. Ensure that your report aligns fluidly with your product.  Like a chain with all links unbroken, your message must be kept uniform and in order.  This way, you’ll ensure that the people you’re attracting are the same people who are likely to buy. Remember, your initial contact with prospects must align with what the market is searching for.

• Shift your marketing focus to those who show an interest in what you’re selling. They are your true ‘prospects’.  This is the group that is predisposed to buy.

• Tell the people with their hands raised why their instincts are correct. When hands are raised, it means that the owners of those hands have a problem, and they think you might have the solution.  Let them know they’re right.

• Keep your message (your solution to their problem) uniform from first taste to final sale. Your execution must be as groundbreaking as your great ideas.

Your product is wonderful, problem-solving, ingenious…and there is a group of people out there just waiting for it.  It’s your job to find those people.

Make the effort to isolate the hands that are raised, using a message that not only attracts, but delivers.  Doing the right things, in the right way, in the right order, puts money in the bank.  When you execute seamlessly from the beginning, you will learn to view the raised hand as a springboard to raised revenue…a virtual deposit slip for your growing bank account.

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 for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

What does your market really want?

Answering this question is your primary marketing challenge. One of the most direct methods of finding the answer is by surveying your market.

Studying surveys and gathering concrete feedback about what potential clients want – and how you can provide it – is a tried-and-true method of focusing your marketing in the right direction.

Surveys are a valuable tool in analytical marketing. The most direct way of conducting a survey is to contact your list.

One way you can do this is by sending an email to everyone on your list. Ask their opinion about your product. Find out what your contacts’ biggest challenges, problems or complaints are, and address those issues when you present your offering.

Ask what they most want help with. The answer might not be what you expected – but that is the point of the survey. Listening to the feedback will keep you from developing a product that users don’t really want.

If you are targeting a small market, use a telephone survey. Call the people you want to speak with directly. Let them know that you are putting together a product to help people in their situation. Ask them about any suggestions or requirements they may have. Depending on the market you’re in, that may yield better results than a standard email survey.

If you anticipate more than 100 responses, consider using tools that can help you with your survey. Survey Monkey and AskDatabase.com will help you analyze responses by collecting and collating them in a simple database for your review.

When you prepare a survey, craft open-ended questions. You don’t want to lead people to answer in a certain way. Leave room for them to respond with more than a simple “yes” or “no” and with no preconceived ideas that might prevent them from answering honestly.

Ask effective questions that will tell you what challenges your clients are facing and what you can do to assist them in your area. Open-ended types of questions will generate more useful answers.

Once you have identified what your market needs, unhook yourself from any pre-determined decisions that you’ve already made about the product you will offer. Be open-minded and evaluate your research. This is how you will know for certain what your market really wants and be able to deliver them the right product.

You have the potential to create an amazing life for yourself and others by delivering the exact products and programmes your prospects need and want.  Find out exactly what will make your product red-hot and irresistible by simply asking the right questions.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

You probably don’t talk to children in the same manner as you talk with adults. Your conversations with close personal friends are likely more intimate than those you have with professional colleagues.

Well, the same holds true for the language you would use to speak with corporate executives as opposed to their employees.

You need to identify the audience you’re working with and the environment you are working in, and then adapt your language and approach accordingly. The areas you focus on and the phrasing you use with end users won’t be the same as those you use with the decision-makers.

You need to understand who your client is and be very clear on what your message to that client is.

The words you use to attract the buyer – the company or the corporation – may be precisely the right words to persuade them to sign on for your services. You may offer them statistics about how poor feedback costs companies a lot of money, how aspects like ineffective meetings waste company time, or how poor communication and personal issues lead to low employee retention rates.

But, these are not the same words you would use when delivering your service to the end user. You don’t want to portray them in a bad light. Essentially, you’ve got two clients. The language that you use to sell your service at one level should be different from the outline of the training that you distribute to the staff.

It’s very important to have that awareness. What is going to motivate and excite the end user – the staff member – does not have the same value or criteria as what inspires the person who is signing the checks. You need to have the flexibility to understand what’s important to both groups and then separately speak to each group in way that motivates them.

The end result is the same for both. Ultimately your objective, and obligation, is to help to improve the company. And you are making life better for the person that attends your course or workshop.

If, for example, you know you can help companies improve the effectiveness of their staff meetings, you would present this to them in a different manner than you would to the employees who conduct and attend those meetings. Everybody wants to participate in more effective meetings, but everybody also wants to blame the ineffectiveness of their meetings on someone else.

In the language to promote the course to the company, you might cite statistics about how ineffective meetings waste X amount of money. You can even evaluate the cost of meetings. One unnecessary meeting could cost an organization thousands of pounds. Then you would sell the specifics of what’s covered in your course.

During the course, your focus wouldn’t be on the cost of meetings to the company, it would be on how employees can make sure meetings stay on track, how to handle confrontational situations or deal with difficult people. The focus would be on making the best use of staff members’ time and talents.

So you are, in essence, presenting the same thing – in this example, a course or workshop – to two different audiences. But, you can certainly structure your language and approach so that it meets with everybody’s approval.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

“I want to buy that.” This is the immediate reaction you want people to have when they first see your offering: You want them to have that reaction before they even know the price.

To make that happen, you need to create products that are irresistible. There are a few universal principles to develop truly appealing products.

1. Find a hook. Recognize the “miracle cure” the public is looking for, and present your product as the closest thing possible to that miraculous fix.

One example is Yanik Silver’s Instant Sales Letters product.  Yanik has achieved great success with this product. They are his “miracle cure” for people who need to create effective sales letters, but don’t have enough time to write them. So he put together some fill-in-the-blanks templates to make it easy to prepare sales letters.   Of course, clients may have to do some tweaking to make a template work for their specific purpose. But the point is, they work.  Even if the template needs to be revised, they’ve still got a Sales Letter. And that is very attractive to people with little extra time.  The Instant Sales Letter product is a hook for them – the “miracle cure”.

2. Focus on the content first and the format second.

When you are planning your content, think about what you’re going to cover rather than how you’re going to cover it. Don’t decide that you are going to offer an e-book or a teleseminar until you know what information you will be including.

The format should be secondary. It should be based on what makes the most sense for your market, and what fits best with the product.

As you are mapping out your content, outline everything that your product will cover. You don’t need to include every single detail you know about the topic. Include the information your prospect needs in order to get the results they want. Include the detail that will get their immediate attention because you’re providing the solution they need.

Brainstorm all of the things that your end user will need to get the results that your product will deliver. Write the question “what will they need” in your journal, or put it up in your office. It will act as a prompt for your subconscious mind to come up with the answers.  Use can these answers to create your outline.

3. Use the “why-what-how-what if” format.

Why is each particular point important?
What is the specific item or step in the process?
How will the user implement it?
What if things don’t go according to plan?

Using this format helps you to bring the pieces of your product together.  It allows you to edit as you plan. You are assembling what you already know, putting it together quickly and editing it quickly into a usable format.

4. Be flexible and open to the fact that your outline may change. That’s okay. You will still have the main outline, the “bones of the structure”.  You can always move the main elements around until you get the right fit.

5. You don’t have to create your product in the order that you’re going to deliver it.

Create your product in the way that will allow you to get it done quickly. Start with the areas that are easiest for you. That will give you some momentum to keep going with the more challenging elements of your product.

Once you’ve paid careful attention to these points, you will be able to quickly create a product that clients will be clamoring to buy because it resolves their needs and wants.

Use these steps to get started on creating your irresistible product.  Give your clients what they are asking for, give them what they WANT!

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 for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Once you have a great sign-up page and an irresistible offer, it’s time to create some traffic. A steady flow of traffic to your sign-up page is essential to your success. Here are several strategies that can help you quickly build traffic to your sign-up page.

Visualize, Focus Your Efforts and Act. To create new traffic, you must first visualize yourself as having a large client list. This is important, because seeing yourself as successful helps focus your efforts. Set a target size for your list and give yourself a time limit for achieving it. Picturing that success can get a process going that will build your list.

Next, learn which forums your target audience frequents and hang out there. Read their questions and comments. It’s a good way to find out exactly what they want.  Post comments and respond to questions, but be careful not to say blatantly, “Sign up for my free report!” Useful comments with your email address, photo and the URL of your sign-up page in your profile can be very effective in attracting traffic.

You can also borrow traffic from someone else’s client list by connecting with people who sell related products. Decide which related products will truly benefit your clients. Look for websites your target audience is likely to frequent.

Consider ways you can benefit those companies by featuring their products, and ask them to do the same for you. Ask for testimonials or links to your products, and return the favor. Doing so can expand your impact significantly. Use this strategy carefully, however. Handing out testimonials indiscriminately weakens your own reputation.

There’s another idea you might not have considered for quickly building traffic to your sign-up page. Run competitions with your existing clients. Reward them for referring others to your sign-up page. If you have a well-written newsletter filled with useful content, your clients will be glad to share it with other professionals.

Award a free copy of one of your digital products to the 1,000th subscriber and also to the person who referred them. Offer a free copy of that product to the existing client who generates the most traffic. It won’t cost you very much and you can gain loads of new prospects on your list.  If you’re hesitant to give away a product you normally sell, consider the long-term benefit. Gaining new traffic for the cost of one product is a good trade-off.

Steady Traffic Equals a Strong List. Building a strong list requires a steady stream of new traffic to your sign-up page. Start by visualizing yourself with a great client list, and then focus your efforts on increasing traffic. Experiment with forum comments, product testimonials and client contests to encourage prospects to visit your sign-up page.

Traffic-building techniques such as these, combined with a well-written sign-up page and an irresistible offer, can put you on the path to a solid client list that sustains 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

Before ramping up your marketing when sales are disappointing, take a step back and ask yourself, “Do I know what my market really, really wants?” Being able to answer that question is the key to growing your business. By focusing on what people want, rather than on what you hope to sell them, you can begin to see the kind of success you desire.

If you suspect you’re wasting time by marketing something people don’t really want, here are some principles to ponder:

People buy what they want, not what you think they need.

You’re going to get a lot of resistance to your marketing if someone thinks they’re being shoehorned into buying what they don’t want. No matter how loudly you proclaim your product’s benefits, your market won’t respond if they don’t want the product. To continue doing so is a lot like speaking a different language and shouting to be understood.

People need to feel good about what they’ve bought.

One way to zero in on what your market wants is to develop empathy with that group of people. You must connect emotionally with how they feel about purchasing. When you’ve put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you begin to understand how they feel. What are their hopes and dreams? What do they fear? What keeps them awake at night?

If you’ve done a good job of pinpointing a target market, you should be able to learn these things easily. Until you do, you’re wasting time on marketing that won’t work, because you don’t yet know what products they’ll feel good about buying.

People buy products when they feel they’ve been understood.

No matter what logical explanation someone can give for buying a product, underneath it is the belief they’ve been understood. Someone knew enough about who they were to make a product that fits them.

So, how will you know when you’ve learned what your market really, really wants? You’ll know, because that’s when it all becomes easier. There’s no need to push or shove someone into buying, because they want what you’re offering. It will be such a revelation to learn how easy selling your products can be when they’re what your market wants.

Once that happens, you’ll begin to hear from your clients how grateful they are for your products. Everything about how you do business will be transformed, because you’ve taken the time to learn what your market wants. You’ve made the effort to step into their shoes and understand what makes them tick. And that effort pays off in products that really meet the needs of your market.

So, if you’re still struggling to sell your products, or it feels as though you’re pushing people into buying what they don’t want, it’s time to take inventory. Here are five questions to answer before trying again to sell your products:

1. What is most important to the people in my target market?

2. What problems keep them awake at night?

3. What is the desired end result they’re hoping for?

4. Does my product help them solve their problems and reach their goals?

5. Do I need to change my products so that they do?

The process of stepping closer to your target market and understanding that group of people may take time and effort, but it will definitely be worth it. Once you know the people in your market very well, the products you offer them will meet their needs. And that’s what people really, really want.

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 for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

You know that you’re the best, but your customers need to believe that too. There are several ways for you to gain their confidence and trust so you can earn their business.

Sway potential clients in your favor by taking away the risk of doing business with you and making your offer irresistible.

•  Offer a  guarantee. Personally, I have a guarantee when I’m offering my products or workshops. There is some grey area here, however. Some of my higher-value coaching services are more time intensive for me and don’t include a guarantee. The reason I don’t offer one is that I don’t want to give people an opt-out clause. When these high-caliber people step up in a big way and want to get the results that a high level coaching from me can deliver, I want to know that they’re fully in the game.

It’s a big challenge to make a massive transformation or a big leap in business. You don’t want clients like these to be running for the door or the emergency exit the moment the going gets tough. So, in some cases, guarantees are counter-productive and could actually end up helping clients resist what you’re offering.

So, you have to decide whether or not a guarantee is right for your market.

•  Alleviate their fears. Sometimes people won’t sign on or purchase something because they’re skeptical that what worked for other people won’t work for them. You need to show them how, even if they may have failed in the past, this time they will succeed. Include additional follow-ups or features that your competition doesn’t provide to show that you can help them accomplish their goal or fulfill their need. Be creative and really give some thought as to how you can remove the risk for your potential clients.

•  Make your offer irresistible. Pile on so much value that there is just no way they can lose. Include all the things your targeted clients could possibly want so that they just can’t pass your offer by.

There are few different ways to do this. Quantify the benefits of your services. For example, if you’ve got a program where for a $1,000 investment, your client will be able to make or save $10,000 in the next three months, you need to tell them that. Don’t assume that they will figure that out. Quantify the benefits specifically.

If there isn’t an easy financial comparison in your business, you do need to dig a little because this can really help you and help your clients. They will be able to wrap their heads around what you’re offering and make an informed decision because you’re giving them all the information they need.

The more you quantify, make your offer irresistible, and remove risk, the more successful you’re going to be.

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

• Do clients hire you by the hour or day for the service you provide?
• Are you a one-time wonder?
• Do you think that one sole service or product you offer will give your customers exactly what they need to achieve the lasting results they want?

Really give this some thought:

You can’t expect that one single transaction with your client will make your business successful. So, your clients shouldn’t expect that a one-time offering of your services will permanently solve all of their needs.

But, if you turn that one-time transaction into a repeat transaction, you’ll provide better service to clients and create more income in your business.

Encourage your clients to recognize that long-term change happens with consistent input and ongoing support. Instead of selling your services by the day or the hour, present an offer for a package of your services.

Since they have already agreed and chosen to do business with you, your existing clients will appreciate knowing about your packaged services.

Think about the packages you could offer to create repeat transactions. Then, at any point during the initial transaction, offer that package which you know is what your client needs to get the ultimate result.

Repeat transactions or services are in both your best interest and your client’s best interest. You’ll actually be making fewer transactions while simultaneously making more money. And, although you may possibly be selling to fewer clients, they will be better quality clients.

As for your clients, receiving your ongoing services is obviously in their best interest. Not only are they receiving your expertise, but by asking them to make a commitment, they will be taking their business and what you have to offer more seriously.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re a sales trainer. You create a presentation that gets a sales team all hyped up and motivated for a day. On the following day they have great success on the telephone or going out talking to clients.

But what happens a month after that? They’re probably right back where they were before you came in and worked with them. That doesn’t mean your training didn’t work. This is just what happens to people. After they’ve learned something new, they can easily slip back into old ways without ongoing support and refresher courses.

From the outset, tell your clients that you only want to work with committed clients – the ones that recognize that their continued success requires your ongoing support. Doing so will create more business for you. If you find this difficult to do at the point of making the sale, make it clear after you’ve delivered your initial service that consistent results require consistent commitment.

You might even consider not offering quotes by the day or hour anymore. Think about providing packages that will not only get clients immediate results, but help them to sustain those results over time.

You will create more business by doing this because clients will treat you differently. You’re going to stand out from the other providers that just bill for the day or hours they’ve worked. You may lose a client or two along the way. There will likely be some clients that insist upon only one day of service and don’t want to make any long-term commitment. You might lose that bit of business.  That’s okay. You will be creating more space for better, quality clients. These repeat clients will more than make up for the loss of that one-time sale with their recurring transactions.

There’s one thing that many people who are self employed don’t miss about working in the corporate world and that’s workplace politics.  Well, unfortunately, those internal politics still affect us and how we conduct our business.  Ignore them at your peril!

The key to overcoming them is to understand them and know just how they play a role in attracting corporate clients.  Your traditional sales model is actually hindering your sales to big companies and on top of that, the internal politics are magnifying it!

Think about it, with traditional sales you make an appointment with the key decision maker, make your presentation and close with them.  If you’re selling to larger companies, more often than not, the final decision is made by more than one person.  The result is that you’re giving control to them, you have to rely on them to sell your services internally to their organization.  Who can sell your services better, you or your contact?

You may believe that an excellent working relationship with your contact is enough to get you the job.  They’re going to be your champion within the organization.  But having a champion in your corner doesn’t mean you’re going to close the deal.

I’m sure all of us have had great sales meetings, the ones where you walk away satisfied that the client is ready to close.  You’re waiting for their final decision and you think that it’s a ‘done deal’.  Next thing you know you’ve followed up with your client only to find that they’re putting you on hold.  It’s happened to the best of us.

How do you get around this?

What you need to understand is the delay is due simply to the nature of the behind-the-scenes decision making.  To address this, from your very first meeting, if not even sooner, flush out any concerns that other people within the organization may have to your service.

It sounds odd, why would someone object to a training to improve customer care or improve sales?  We’re selling change, and those in larger companies are frightened of change.  There are two ways to address the situation:

1.  Meet as many people within the organization as possible. Even if you’re just going to observe people at work, meet informally or interview employees, start building relationships.  The more people you meet, the more opportunity you have to win friends and influence people.  The sooner you can do this, the better.  If you wait until your proposal is submitted, it could be too late.

2.  Watch your words. If you’re using words such as transform and increase sales, you’re signaling that dramatic change is on the horizon.  That’s going to frighten many corporate types.  Temper your language.  What is most appealing to managers at the middle and senior level is offering solutions that are in line with existing processes, things that will blend in with what they already have.

From the outset of your sale, take every step you can to ensure buying at every level.  Have as many people within the organization attend your presentation.  Ask your contact if so and so from sales will be attending or if other key departments be present.  That gives you the opportunity to sell yourself to multiple levels.

Remember, it’s never too soon to set a strategy to build relationships throughout an organization.  There are strategies that you can employ from the start to play and win the internal politics game.

Here you thought you were free of workplace politics!

Building a strong list of clients and prospects is an absolutely critical step in developing your business. It takes time and effort to refine your list, but every entrepreneur starts somewhere. Let’s discuss the three types of client lists used in direct marketing, where they originate and the value they have for your business.

Compiled Client Lists

When you rent or buy a compiled list from a list broker, they’ve pulled the names together by key attributes. For example, all the people on the list might be IT professionals. Another common way to compile lists might be firms in a geographic location with a certain number of employees.

Whatever the attributes the people on your compiled list share, the point of these lists is to narrow down the reach of your marketing to people more likely to buy your products. So that means you’ll need to focus in on what common characteristics someone who needs your product would have. Once you know that, you can order your list more accurately.

But having said that, it must also be said that compiled lists normally provide the worst response. Unless you find a particularly adept list broker, and a group of people who will absolutely be helped by your product, the return may be disappointing. You’ll have to decide if you’re willing to invest money in such a list, knowing the possible outcome.

Response List

There’s another kind of list you can invest some money renting in order to boost your marketing. That’s the response list, and that simply means it’s a group of people who have responded favorably to your type of product in the past.

They might be managers who have attended certain seminars or workshops that fill a need similar to what your product meets. Or, they could be a group that has bought a product related to yours. Another way response lists are focused is by the types of trade magazines they subscribe to.

No matter why they end up on the response list you lease, they’re more likely to respond to your marketing because they’ve shown an interest in similar products. In the past, they’ve taken action in response to someone’s marketing in a field similar to yours.

That kind of qualification can make all the difference in how successful your marketing is. Rather than simply sharing a characteristic, they’ve actually reacted favorably to products related to yours. They understand the value of what you have to offer, and it’s filled a need they have. That’s a stronger foundation for your marketing efforts.

House List

While both the compiled list and the response list can result in sales, one list you should be building from day one in your business is the house list. These are the people who have raised their hands and said “I’m interested in your product.”

They may have responded to one of your marketing campaigns. They could also be previous clients. No matter how your house list is built, it’s going to yield a much higher rate of conversion than purchased lists.

This is true because the people on your house list are already somewhat invested. They’ve already moved toward you by responding to your marketing. This is the group of people on which a successful business is built.

How many do you need on your house list to become a success? That depends on how focused you are in learning what they need. If you have a small list of people who request information every time you announce a product, your conversion rate will be increasingly higher as you fine tune your products and marketing. For a house list, it’s not the size, it’s the quality that builds business.

Once you’ve spent the time and effort to build a decent house list, you’ll learn how it feels to sell out a seminar. You’ll know what it’s like to have tremendous response from little marketing effort. That’s when the tide turns to real success for your business.

Sometimes getting started in business requires renting or purchasing client lists. If you know up front that the conversion rate won’t be as high as from your house list, you can decide how much to invest in them. As your business begins to grow as a result, definitely compile your own house list. Focus specific marketing to them in ways that have worked before. In this way, you’ll build a group of loyal clients who can put your firm’s success on autopilot.