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Posts Tagged ‘success’

What comes easily to you?  The thing that you believe is just common sense, is in fact, the most important thing for you to share with the world. We all have things which come easily to us, in fact so easily, that we fail to recognize that other people can have difficulty doing the very same thing. To unleash the power of your online business, you must determine what this thing is. This is your unique value proposition.   Your unique value proposition is your ‘Gold’. It is what you can leverage to create and grow an online business; a proven method of boosting your business’s bottom line, without boosting your required long term time investment.

Try This Brainstorming Exercise: Draw a large square on a blank piece of paper. The square should fill the entire page. Within the square, draw two lines dividing the space into four quarters. In the top left hand quadrant, write the words, ‘hard to learn’. In the top right hand quadrant, write the words, ‘easy to learn but hard to do.’ In the bottom left hand quadrant, right the words, ‘hard to learn, easy to do.’ And, in the bottom right hand corner, right the words, ‘so easy to learn and easy to do.’

Now, write thoughts that come into your mind about your skill sets, placing them into the appropriate quadrants:

• Hard to Learn - What seems extremely challenging for you to learn? If it’s hard to learn and you have to study for years to do it. And, it takes a fair about of effort and focus to do it.

• Easy to Learn, Hard to Do – Filling paperwork. This task is easy to accomplish, yet hard to make yourself do it, at least it is for most people.

• Hard to Learn, Easy to Do – This would be something which is hard to learn initially, but easy to do once you learn it as you love it.

• So Easy to Learn, Easy to Do – This is something you wouldn’t dream of charging people for as you get so much pleasure doing it.

Now that you have completed the exercise, consider where the most money to be made in the world would fall in terms of categories. Where most of the world thinks that there is money to be made is in the hard to learn, hard to do quadrant. The assumption is often made that anything which is hard to learn will have less competition, causing the compensation to be greater.

But, your true value, the area in which you can make the most difference for yourself and for the rest of the world, is the place that comes most easily to you. That’s where your natural talent lies. And, that is the quadrant which you should be operating out of.

Now that you know what your true values are, you can align your online business with them. By doing the brainstorming you’ll discover your unique value proposition, and you will be taking the first step toward boosting your business’s annual revenues.

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

There’s a logical sequence to building a business, whether it’s online or offline. There are certain things that must be done in order to see your business grow. By committing to follow these eight steps, you can attract more clients and have the kind of income you want.

Step One: Get Clear On Who You’re Targeting
Before you begin any marketing, you must find your target audience. Do your research and discover who your products or services can help the most. Without a clear understanding of exactly who you’re targeting, your marketing can’t be effective.

Specializing your approach will definitely help your conversion rate. It may make you nervous to think of narrowing your options, but it’s the first step in attracting more long-term clients. Here’s one more benefit to narrowing down your focus: each time you specialize a little more, you’re able to charge more for your services.

Step Two: Understand What They Really Want Emotionally and Logically
Once you’ve identified your best target audience, it’s time to learn what they really, really want. What do they dream of accomplishing? What keeps them awake at night?

There’s no point in marketing your products if you aren’t sure what your target market wants. Here’s a key concept: people buy what they want, not what you think they need. Get to know your market and you’ll find making sales much easier.

Step Three: Package What You’re Offering Toward Desired End Results
Because you understand your market so well, you know the desired end result they’d like to achieve. The closer you get to that desired end result, the better you’ll do in business. Package your products toward that result, so that you’re always meeting the needs of your clients.

When you’re really tuned into the needs of your target market, you’ll experience the rush of business running smoothly. You’ll stop having to push and shove to make sales and see how it all flows together—the needs of a group of people, and products packaged to meet those needs. What’s the takeaway? People don’t buy because they understand something, they buy because they feel understood.

Step Four: Create an Irresistible Offer
What, exactly, are you delivering with your products, and what must the client give in return? To be effective in marketing, you need to be able to answer that question in one sentence. Here’s an example: “Give me ten minutes per day and I’ll give you the body you’ve always wanted.”

You want to state your offer in a compelling way that has people raising their hands to say “I want that!” Work on developing your one-sentence offer; it will form the basis of all your other marketing.

Step Five: Go Find Your Target Audience
Where do the people most likely to buy your products hang out? Do they congregate on online discussion forums? What publications do they read? Which organizations do they join?

If you’ve done good market research in the previous steps, you’ll already know the answers. Now, go out there and make your irresistible offer to them in ads, talks, comments on forums and whatever way you can that makes them affordably reachable.

Step Six: Practice Great Follow-up
You’ve done your research, created great products, packaged them to meet the needs of your target audience, and made your offer where they congregate. To maximize all the hard work you’ve already done, you must follow-up consistently.

What’s the best way to make sure that happens? By automating and systematizing as much of your follow-up as possible. Here’s the rule: Always follow up, and find ways to make it automatic.

Step Seven: Close the Sale
This one gets stepped around so often, and that’s a shame, because it’s essential if you want to succeed. Learn how to ask for their business. For some companies, that might mean a face-to-face meeting, and for many others, the entire sales process can be automated. Unless money changes hands, you’re not really in business.

Whichever way you chose to close, you must give your prospects enough information that they can buy with confidence. Automate that information-sharing as much as you can, with webpages, sales letters and brochures, so that you can expand your impact in less time.

Step Eight: Make Additional Offers
The bulk of your profits are going to be made from additional sales to satisfied customers. You’ve already built a relationship with them and they know you can be trusted. Create products you can offer them as you continue to listen and hear what solutions they need.

These long-term clients give your business stability, and you’re not out chasing new clients constantly. Learning to make additional offers will make the difference in whether your business lasts.

Following the eight steps puts you on the path to attracting new clients and earning more income. Keep working through them until you’ve perfected your products and your offer. Automate as many of your processes as you can, and don’t forget to offer additional products to satisfied customers. By doing so, you’ll be on the road to the income you want.

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

You may think that giving a talk or speech isn’t going to benefit YOUR business.  Perhaps you believe it to be a tool that will work only in certain niches.  I’d like to tell you that speaking engagements absolutely can help build lists and generate leads for any type of business.  Why does it work?

Getting Up Close & Personal
First and foremost, making a speech gives those interested in your product a chance to meet you in person.  These days many marketing tools are online and impersonal, such as email and websites.  Giving a talk lets prospective clients see the real you in action.  They get a taste of your personality and your skills whilst seeing what you can offer for their business.

Let me take a moment to mention who your best audience is going to be for speaking engagements.  Remember the 80/20 rule in this instance.  It’s the rule that states that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your clients.  Of course, it’s that 20% that you should focus on.  Not just in terms of giving speeches directly to them, but giving speeches regarding the products and services that hold their interest as well.

Declaring Your Expertise
Not only do these speaking engagements give people the opportunity to meet you and make a personal connection, but it raises your profile in your field.   One of the tools in getting clients to come to you, rather than you having to reach out to each of them, has been to establish yourself as the expert in your field.  Since no one is going to present you with a certificate declaring you an expert, you need to simply step up and claim expertise.  Giving a talk in your field of expertise is just another step towards establishing yourself as the ‘go-to person’ for a particular service or product.

Expanding Experience
Whilst these reasons should be enough to have you thinking that speeches and talks may be a good step to take to build our business”, there’s another benefit.  That benefit is your personal growth and experience.  Speaking engagements can help you build confidence and communication skills.  When I first started my business, I would talk to any group who would listen – even my local Brownie group if they would have had me!  Every speech you give is one more notch in your experience belt.

The Bottom Line, Literally
The last, but certainly not least, reason for you to give talks or lectures is the opportunity to promote yourself and sell your product.  Think about it, the audience that comes to listen to a talk is in a different mindset than those who are coming to sit through a sales presentation.

Giving informational talks is the perfect opportunity to sell to an audience whose sales defenses are down.  Not only are their defenses down, but just by their attendance in the audience, you know that they are interested in your product.  It makes the perfect targeted audience and one you should have on your potential client list.

Whilst you may have thought that speaking engagements may not help your particular business, I urge you to think again.  It’s the perfect opportunity to create a personal connection, declare your expertise, build speaking skills and yes, get some sales in the process.

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

One of the best tips I can give you about converting potential clients into paying clients is this: Add one extra follow-up step.
That step can make the difference in bringing that client to finally making a decision. It can bring in extra sales. That one extra email, that one extra card, that one extra phone call, can be the thing that brings in those extra sales.

It’s very tempting for you to give up too soon. I realize that, especially right now. It would have been really easy for me to give up too, when I wasn’t getting the sales I wanted for a recent event. It would have been really easy for me to say, “Okay, it’s tougher this year than it has been to fill events. I give up.”

That would have been so wrong for me to do, on so many levels. How could I have that kind of attitude? I simply can’t allow for that when I am trying to inspire and educate you and the rest of my clients. That’s not good enough.

In addition to that, what does it say about me if I’m not doing every single thing possible to ensure that the right people are in that room at that event? I know that it’s life transforming, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that every person that’s got any question about that event, receives an answer.

Although this took some planning and organizing because I was traveling with my children to Belfast at the time, I made the two hours for the phone calls that needed making.

I added an extra follow-up step and made it happen because it was important. It’s important that I walk the talk. It was important that I do every single thing to make sure the people who could benefit from that event benefited from it.

And that’s what I want and expect from you. When you think about what you’re selling, if you truly believe that what you’re offering is so great and can make such a difference, you should stop at nothing to make sure that the people who most want and need it are using it. Leave no grey area – inform them, educate them and get them everything they need.

Don’t make excuses to give up. It’s easy enough to create reasons for giving up too soon. You’re too cool for school; you don’t want to be seen as needy; you don’t want to be pushy. Except, those reasons aren’t reasons. They’re excuses – obstacles that you are putting in your own way.

If you’ve made the connection with prospective clients, presented your offering, followed up a couple of times – what more can you do?

Well, you could drop back, you could stop going that extra mile, which effectively says you don’t believe enough in yourself and your business to keep trying. My gut tells me that you won’t do that. That’s not good enough for you.

Be inspired and motivated to follow up, and do it more thoroughly. Think about the different ways that you might be able to follow up and how you could add another step to your follow-up sequence.

Stop at nothing when it comes to reaching out to your prospects.

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

Are you ready to be in a different place? When you dreamed of owning your own business, did those dreams include being where you are right now? If you’re still kneeling with your feet on the starting blocks, it’s time to ask yourself what you’re willing to do to get into the race.

It Starts with a Decision…

It may seem as though what you need to experience success is more money, more time or more knowledge, but what’s really needed is a decision to get into the race. The runner who blasts across the finish line, surrounded by a cheering crowd, first made the decision to respond to the starter pistol.

Sound silly? Think about it—the runners are lined up on the starting line, tensed for that first burst of speed. At the sound of the pistol, every one of them decides to get into the race. If they didn’t, what a boring event that would be! We’d be sitting in the stands, watching talented athletes frozen at the starting line.

That’s a lot like business, isn’t it? How many gifted people do you know who can’t seem to move forward? They have amazing gifts to offer the world, but they’re sidelined by indecision. What’s needed is a firm decision to take that first step off the starting line.

Then You Keep Running!

Once you’ve decided to blast away from the patterns of the past, you’ll find yourself in a marvelous group of runners. These are the people who’ve chosen to succeed, the folks who aren’t content to sit on the sidelines.

But does that guarantee you’ll all finish the race? Be careful not to trip over these common obstacles on the way to reaching your goals:

• Early Success Once you’ve decided to enter the race, you might be tempted to stop and enjoy the first milepost. Maybe for you that’s the ability to buy a great car, or have enough money to travel. By all means, celebrate the things that come as you open yourself to success, but don’t stop running! There are even better things down the road if you’ll stay focused.

• Distractions A mistake I’ve watched some very talented people make is turning their eyes away from the real prize. They become fascinated by the technology, techniques and tools along the way and stop moving forward. That’s a lot like turning your head during a race and tripping over your own feet.

• Keep the things that help you become successful in perspective; those things aren’t the goal, they’re the means to get there.

• Disappointment It would be brilliant if, once we left the starting line, we never experienced setbacks. Like distance runners in a marathon, though, we may get tired and discouraged. But there’s a world of difference between being frozen in the starting blocks and slowing our pace a little to catch our breath. When setbacks occur, shift your strategy, take stock of what isn’t working and leave it on the side of the track. But keep moving!

What you have to offer the world is important, but we’ll never see it if you stay on the sidelines.

Are you ready to run for the money? Get your goals firmly in place and know where you want to be this time next year. Make the decision to push away from the starting block today and start running. We can’t wait to cheer you on to the finish line!

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.

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.

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.

I often meet with clients who tell me they’ll do anything to become successful. Once they learn what it takes to build a solid business, though, many of them drop by the wayside. It’s possible to build a business quickly, but it means committing yourself to some hard work. Your own response to this question, “How far will you go to succeed?” will determine whether your business will grow or stagnate.

And here’s why—as an entrepreneur, you are your firm’s centerpiece. Even if you’re selling hose reels, the success of your business is based upon whether you’ve done the work to create a great product, find clients and organize your business processes.

Doing each of those things takes some serious effort. Most of us who’ve succeeded will tell you about long hours spent building our businesses. So the question is, once again, “How far will you go to succeed?”

Here’s how I put that question into perspective when working with a client. I ask them to visualize something very important in their lives. I then go further by telling them to imagine that thing (or person) at the top of a burning building, threatened by destruction in twenty-four hours unless they’re able to generate new clients.

That urgent motivation usually opens up creative new ideas for finding clients. If they can capture that sense of urgency and continue at that level of motivation, they’re on their way to success. If, instead, they fail to see the point of raising the threat level and doing something to save their businesses, there’s not much more I can do for them.

This isn’t unsubstantiated theorizing on my part, by the way. I’ve worked with hundreds of business owners and I’ve seen some clear patterns of behavior that determined success or failure. Those who are willing to step up and take action consistently find greater success.

That concept, raising the urgency level in your business, is why I created my “How To Get New Clients Mastery System.” Because what could be more urgent than setting your business, your family and your life on solid footing? If you’re struggling to find clients, it’s time to take action, not sit and wonder why.

Can you capture that sense of urgency that will motivate you to succeed?
Can you begin to formulate a plan for finding new clients and then take the action necessary to fulfill it?

If you can make the leap from planning to action, you’re going to find yourself in an exclusive lot, those who truly succeed.

It’s up to you, then. Will you save that precious thing in your life, your business, from destruction or will you watch it go up in flames? It all starts by asking yourself one simple question every day, “How far will you go to succeed?”

If I said to you, “Do you truly want your business to succeed?” I’m guessing almost everyone would say, “Of course!” Why is it, then, that so many entrepreneurs slog along day to day with little money, few clients and dim prospects for more? Perhaps the secret lies in what they allow themselves to believe is possible. Let’s take a moment to look at whether your imagination is the culprit that’s keeping your business stagnant.

To set the stage for success, sit down to pen and paper (or a computer keyboard) and describe in vivid detail where you’d like to be in thirty days. How many clients would you have? Would you have enough money for the bills? What would your relationships be like?

As you write your scenario, don’t skimp on the details. Paint a picture of what would satisfy you, personally and professionally. This isn’t the time to listen to that niggling voice telling you it isn’t possible. This is your dream, and you can write whatever you want.

Now, stop and read your vision out loud. Do you notice feeling differently as you do? Most people, when given the chance to imagine a better future, feel an unfamiliar sense of freedom. Those anxious feelings borne of unpaid bills and relational stress fade away as they picture themselves becoming truly successful.

It’s amazing how many areas of their lives seem manageable again, once they’ve allowed themselves to dream of success.

So, the question is, again, “Do you truly want your business to succeed?” Do you honestly want to be in a different place thirty days from now? Then the only question left is this: “What are you willing to do to get there?”

When I ask this question in seminars, I find that most people already know what they need to do. It’s simply that they’ve become so mired in the muck of running a business, they’ve forgotten their original vision. They’ve become discouraged, locked into a mindset that things can never be better than they are right now.

And that’s simply not true. I’ve seen the power having a vision can have in generating success. It’s as though, once people stop and picture the way they’d like things to be, those things begin to happen. Once they’ve let go of the thought of being trapped in their present circumstances, they’re free to engage all their skills and talents to find new clients and new success.

So, are you ready to succeed? If you are, you must …

Read and re-read the vision you just wrote and allow your imagination to run free.

Write down the ideas that come to you each time you read your dream of where you’d like to be thirty days from now.

If you already know what it takes to get there, I hope your renewed vision has inspired you to start doing those things consistently. If you aren’t sure what steps to take next, it’s time to get help with your marketing plan.

Your personal success is waiting! Whatever it takes to achieve that vision of success will be the best investment you ever make in your business.