Learning from other peoples experience is one of the smartest things we can do.

When it comes to lead generation – the art and science of generation highly qualified leads, we can learn a lot from Bob Hacker.

Who is Bob Hacker?

Bob Hacker started The Hacker Group, Ltd. in 1986. Since then, they have become the largest full-service direct marketing project house in the Pacific Northwest. They currently serve over 100 clients, both in the US and abroad. Their client base is concentrated in financial services, travel, real estate, high-technology, telecommunications, sports marketing, broadcasting and fund raising. Bob is on the editorial board of Target Marketing magazine and a frequent writer and speaker on direct marketing issues. Bob is a graduate of The Harvard Business School and the University of Washington.

Bob Hacker’s 15 tips to power up your lead generation performance

1. Creative supports but never leads

Start with the offer, deal or appeal. All other creative elements such as copy platforms, layout, and design must support the sales promotion. Simplify everything so that the offer, not the package itself, grabs the reader’s attention.

2. In lead generation the more you tell the more you sell

Copy platform should focus on generating a lead, not closing the sale. When you say too much, you often create reasons not to respond. The goal of each step of multi-step sale is to get to the next step. When you try to skip a set, you break the sales chain and scare away qualified buyers.

Tease the prospect into wanting to know more. Be strong on emotional benefits – leave the rational features and advantages to the sales rep.

3. Talk to the left and right brain

Some people process information more rationally, some more emotionally. But as good as lists are, they don’t segment this way.. yet. So give two arguments to each package – even in business to business copy. We generally put the more emotional argument in the letter and the more rational one in the brochure. If cost if the problem, stick with the letter and throw away the brochure.

4. Your package isn’t marketing plan in drag

Financial institutions and high-tech firms are famous for this. If the marketing plan has five major objectives for the year then all five objectives must be covered in every piece of marketing communications. Every objective you add to a direct marketing package tends to dampen response rates. Do one thing at a time! Pare back objectives, and response rates can soar.

5. Strong offers, stating boldly, are the key to success.

If the offer is 25% discount, tell me now! Don’t bury it in the brochure or the sixth paragraph of the letter. Tell me if I can’t survive without it. Billboard the offer with Johnson boxes, boldface, underlining, highlighting, and inserts. And tell me often in the letter, brochure, and response form.

6. Test ugly early

Pretty packages soothe. Ugly disturbs, and disturbed people respond better than peaceful people. And there is more good news: ugly usually costs less, which brings down the cost per response.

7. Assume readers don’t care

They don’t care about your product. They want to know what’s in it for them. First, tell them what they get. Then if that grabs them, they may sit still for your story.

8. Sell salvation, not products.

Sell hope, the promise of better tomorrow, being recognised by the boss, beating peers in the race up the corporate ladder, wealth, popularity, or being the first! The product is just a way to get there.

9. Use the great motivators

Greed, anger, fear, guilt exclusivity. Fear of loss and desire to gain have sold more product than all other offers combined. Use the ephemeral if you want to win awards; use the visceral if you want to sell product.

10. Copy the sales rep’s most successful techniques

Are they using drop close? Then a discount offer might be one of the best test ideas. Are they using take-away close? Then offer built around limited availability might work. Are they using budget close? Then you might use a free financing offer. By matching up front Offers to back-end closes, you can often increase both response and closing rates.

11. Loosen it up and make more sales

In consumer-products sales, the most qualified people will not allow themselves to be qualified! So be careful, particularly with high cost products that have hard to understand features and utility. If the prospect doesn’t really understand the product or the price value relationship, it’s very difficult to pre-qualify.

12. Use words that sell

Put your copy with words like understand, proven, health, easy, free, guarantee, money, safety, save, love, new, discover, right, results, truth, comfort, proud, profit, deserve, happy, trust, value, fun and vital.

13. Avoid response killers.

Words to avoid: cost, pay, contract, sign, try, worry, loss, lose, hurt, death, buy, bad, sell, sold, price, decision, hard, difficult, obligation, liable and fail.

14. Appeal to everyone and miss them all

When it fails, it’s tempting to change the package to appeal to everybody. Instead, your effort loses focus, and you end up appealing to nobody. So ignore the 90 to 95% who will never respond and concentrate your efforts on converting just the one or two more for each hundred you mail.

15. Use colours that sell

Throw away your pastel PMS swatch book. Use bold primary colours-red, yellow, blue. Avoid designer tones and, particularly muted the tones. Appeal to the visceral, not the cerebral. Agitate. Don’t pacify.

Lack of clarity encourages assumptions.

We assume what our client wants. We do the work. Our client is disappointed with the output. Assumptions lead to disagreement. Disagreements with clients mean loss of time, revenue and the possibility of losing a valuable client.

We are in front of a potential client selling our services. After spending some time with the potential client, we assume that we know what he wants. But he has NOT said ‘yes’ to our proposal. He does not feel we can deliver what we want.

The problem with communicating“What is”

“What is” communication, simply transmits information from one party to another in a static or passive way. A left-brain exercise. This assumes things will work out in a linear fashion.

With “What is” communication, we tend to fill in the blanks using our experience and expertise. Unfortunately, the other party looks at these blanks differently.

Here is an example:

A potential client approaches a Graphic Designer wanting a new logo. The designer creates one of the best logo’s he possibly can. The client is delighted to start with. But in a few months, the client feels disappointed. Although the graphic designer obliged with ‘What is’ and filled in the blanks, what the client actually wanted was ‘more sales’. In the client’s mind, he equated ‘new logo’ to more sales.

Lack of clarity from both sides created a situation of dissatisfaction.

If this sounds familiar here is a tool that can help you.

Ask ‘Lateral Questions’.

Lateral Questions focuses on ‘what really could be’ and facilitates more information to create a dynamic engagement with your prospect or client.

How can ‘lateral questions’ help?

• The main purpose of Lateral questions is to create movement or action in a stagnant communication process that facilitates on going opportunities beyond initial action.
• Lateral questions help move to an ‘unknown’ space to explore better opportunities.
• Lateral questions can help break old patterns and established assumptions.
• Lateral questions can encourage participants to look at the ‘big picture’ in the negotiation.
• Lateral questions can open up opportunities for new learning.

Here is an example of the use of Lateral questions

• When we achieved significant success in the past, what actions and conditions led to success? How could we create those conditions to tackle the next success level?
• What are your strengths that you contribute to the success in the past?
• How many ways can we communicate our passion and expertise and the difference we can make without increasing our cost base?

Here is a brief example of a ‘lateral question’ to turn a situation that dis-empowers any service provider in to a position of command

A potential client walks up to you and says something like this: “We are launching a new product. Can you design an information leaflet for it? How much will it cost and when can you have it delivered?”

As you can see, the prospect is transferring pure information and waiting for you to respond in line with his request. You can simply respond by answering his questions by giving him price and delivery details. This will most likely take the route of cheapest price and the quickest delivery.

Alternatively, you can explore this opportunity with ‘lateral questions’. First of all, thank him for the inquiry. Then followed by something along the lines of “this is exciting.. tell me more about the launch!” At this point price and delivery are put on hold and your prospect will start talking about the new product and its launch. Dig deeper with more questions about the product and the launch. When the conversation drifts back to the launch ask the prospect, “Why do you think the information leaflet is the best way to launch this product?” This powerful lateral question will flip the power from your prospect to a level playing field to explore opportunities beyond initial actions.

Questions to avoid

Lateral questions dig deeper and go beyond ‘what is’ to ‘what could be’. Certain questions will stop you digging deeper. A ‘why’ question limits the scope of going much further. In the above example if we ask our prospect ‘why’ he needs leaflets to launch his new product, both parties are limiting them selves by not focusing beyond the leaflets. Questions that illicit ‘yes/no’ response are also very limiting.

Skill of listening

When you ask a lateral question, be fully present and ‘listen’ to the response. Fully present means that you are not making any judgments or evaluations while your prospect or client is responding.

It is over to you

What would it take for you to practice ‘lateral questioning’ in your everyday conversations with your prospects and clients?

“Gentleman, this is a football”

It is said that the legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi started every new season with the same standard speech to veterans and rookies alike.

He started by introducing the ball. “Gentleman, this is a football”. Then he will talk about the shape a size of the ball and followed by many different ways that ball can be used. I,e passing, kicking etc… This will be followed by a talk on the football field. “Gentleman this is a football field”. Followed by the measurement of the field and the rules of the game and so on.

He does this repeatedly year after year even after Green Bay Packers became NFL champions and Super Bowl winners.

With hindsight, it seems blindingly obvious. He took a failing team full of pro footballers, got them to not only focus on the fundamentals but also immerse them in the basics. They became better than anyone in executing the fundamentals.

Do you know the fundamentals in marketing your business?

There are a myriad of definitions of marketing. For me it is as simple as ‘the process of creating and attracting a customer’.

Building a solid foundation should be your primary focus

Cornerstone revolves around a “Consistent compelling Marketing Message” that clearly states who you work with, what problems you solve, what solutions you provide, what benefits you offer, what results you produce, what guarantee you give and what is unique and special about your particular service. This is the foundation that you build the rest of marketing upon.

If you have not articulated every single part of this with clarity and in writing then everything else, you consider marketing is just hot air.

Why only few businesses focus on fundamentals

Most business owners don’t know what they don’t know. In addition, they are not marketing experts. Building your fundamentals involves a lot of, time-consuming hard work. They would rather embark on direct selling  than build a customer attraction process. Many business owners don’t look at marketing from an attraction point of view. They see marketing as an expensive process and have no patience to focus on the basics of marketing. Marketing is not an event. In the ‘process of creating and attracting a customer’, marketing becomes communication of who you are.

We take the path of least resistance

Instead of focusing and building on the fundamentals, we get trapped and focus on social media vehicles. They simply offer a path of least resistance and make us feel better about doing pretend marketing.

Big Hat No Cattle

A colleague of mine from Texas uses the phrase ‘Big Hat no cattle’ to explain things that promise to deliver a lot but cannot deliver. Plenty of noise but no movement. Going out to market your business without getting to grips with your fundamentals is one of the ‘big hat no cattle’ situations. If you visit any business-networking event, you can spot serial networkers who are busy distributing their business cards and collecting other people’s cards. They are certainly wearing big hats’.

Ask yourself – ‘How do I generate highly qualified leads?’

There is no way you can consistently generate highly qualified leads without focusing on your fundamentals. By focusing on the fundamentals, we align with our highly qualified potential lead and can zoom in our communication efforts to earn them as leads.

To start with, focus on the following fundamentals:

• Clearly define whom you want to work with. Who exactly are your targeted potential clients? Where are they; what industry; what size; what needs; what past experience with your kind of service and what buying process? How would you describe your ideal client (using adjectives?)
• What results can your clients expect because of working with you? Describe in detail the advantages, improvements or enhancements do your clients can expect when they engage with your business.
• What differentiates you from your competitors? Do not use vague terms such as ‘quality’ to differentiate your business from competitors. Be very specific in describing why you are different from your competition in a way that adds value to your customers business or life.
• What do you want to be known for? What you are known for will become your identity. By being known for one thing you walk away from being everything to everybody and attract prospects that are aligned with your identity.

Become an expert on your fundamentals

Don’t intellectualize the fundamentals. They need to be clearly articulated in writing and internalized. Everything you do must be based on your fundamentals. Your website and all your marketing communications must reflect this.

]]> http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/why-you-should-focus-on-fundamentals-of-marketing/feed/ 0 http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/why-thinking-like-a-publisher-will-make-you-better-at-marketing/ http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/why-thinking-like-a-publisher-will-make-you-better-at-marketing/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:49:09 +0000 Ravi Peal-Shankar http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/?p=2186

Wikipedia describes publishing as “The process of production and dissemination of literature, music, or information — the activity of making information available to the general public.”

In traditional publishing, writing of the content is the first step. Nothing happens without the author completing this step. Then the author of the content looks for a publisher to bring it to the intended audience.

Now let’s look at marketing.

Whether it is branding, PR, Direct Mail, Brochure, Booklet or any marketing activity – we must communicate information to our target market. However publishing information in the traditional way means that it is published infrequently.

In the world of publishing, the publisher does not stop with one book. The publisher continually brings out books from the same or various authors to satisfy their audience.

Why modern marketing is same as publishing

Our potential customers are not satisfied with any information. They are looking for the latest up to date information. Whether it be case studies, testimonials or an answer to a technical question, they demand the latest update. To facilitate this our marketing function is evolving in to becoming a publishing function.

What we can learn from professional publishers

• They have a plan – They have a plan to bring out regular publications to their audience.
• They have a schedule. The schedule is what dictates what content gets published and when.
• They deliver content consistently. Publishers who don’t deliver content regularly will be forgotten. Constantly publishing high quality content (books, magazines) is what keeps them on top of their game.

Why thinking like a publisher will make you better at marketing

As I alluded to before our information hungry prospects and customers (with poor attention span) will forget us quickly unless we turn up and add regular value to them. Our website has become the ‘hub’ for our marketing and the source of our publishing. Publishing high quality blogs, testimonials, case studies, FAQ’s, facebook updates, Twitter updates etc… is the only way our potential customer is attracted to us. Unless we think like a publisher, our approach will end up becoming ad-hoc.

Google is thinking along the same lines

Google in its attempt to rank content is looking at the author to publish high quality content regularly to demonstrate their expertise. This should be major part of your marketing. Google’s ranking preferences (Authorship mark up and Author ranking) are also forcing us to think like a publisher. Thinking like a publisher means planning and scheduling to deliver good quality content consistently.

Here are some hints and tips to help you

Plan

- How often to publish

- Where to publish (Your website, guest posts on other sites, offline publishing etc..)

- What to publish. Creating a system for gathering content topics.

- Who is responsible for researching, writing, editing, and promoting content

Schedule

- Create a schedule for writing

- Create a schedule for editing

- Create a schedule for publishing

- Create a schedule for promotion

Rapid changes in marketing communication demands that we demonstrate and communicate our expertise on a regular basis. It appears this is no longer an optional extra.

]]> http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/why-thinking-like-a-publisher-will-make-you-better-at-marketing/feed/ 0 http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/why-ignoring-google-plus-google-authorship-could-be-a-costly-marketing-mistake/ http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/why-ignoring-google-plus-google-authorship-could-be-a-costly-marketing-mistake/#comments Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:06:47 +0000 Ravi Peal-Shankar http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/?p=2164

Agent Smith in the movie The Matrix saw it coming. “You hear that Mr. Anderson?… That is the sound of inevitability”

Signs of inevitability

Traditional methods of promoting our business such as branding, PR, advertising etc… are having less and less impact. It is not that these methods are not effective, it is simply we don’t have a captive audience to aim at. Unlike the bygone era, our customers are knowledgeable, well informed and have their own agenda. They are no longer willing to be part of our agenda. The only choice we have is our prospects allowing us to be part of their agenda.

Our website is one of the conduits by which our well-informed prospect comes to know us and may choose to connect to us.

For many of us the ‘hub’ of our marketing is our website. However the days our website acting as our brochure is no longer a valid proposition.

Your prospects and customers no longer want to know ‘what you do’. They want to know ‘why they should choose you?’ Even in a highly localized situation, such as a local plumber or electricians website need to be able to communicate ‘why you?’

People are running away from advertisements. They make purchasing decisions based on valuable information. Rather than waiting to be sold to, your prospects are pro actively gathering and sorting information of value to them. They are looking to see who recommends whom, specially their peers.

This information of value is known as “content” in your website.

Why content marketing is your marketing

Just like a lighthouse, your content is the ‘beacon’ that draws your prospects in. Once they are in, the quality of your content will establish your level of expertise and how much your prospect is willing to trust you. In other words, ‘what you sell’ is taken for granted. ‘How you sell’ (how your content makes a difference) is what tips the balance.

Therefore, the prime purpose of your content is to educate and inform your prospects as to why they should choose to buy from you. Education is your new sales process. Education is about engineering situations that prompts your prospects to make a decision.

I repeat – content marketing is your marketing.

Great content allows you to become an authority

Great well-liked and well-linked content allows you to become an authority in your niche. You will gain a massive advantage over your competition, when you develop an “authoritative position” – using great content.

Enter the mighty Google

If your target audience come to understand that you are an important expert in your niche, so will Google. Google is now looking for “authority” in their search engine rankings.

What this means is when your prospects search for the main keyword, Google wants to give the most authoritative sites.

Google is building something called ‘Author ranking’ in their algorithms and this is how Google defines it: (in Patent for Agent Rank)

“The name of the writer can be used to influence the rankings of web search results by indicating the writer responsible for a particular content piece. Assuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results”.

What does this mean to you?

• Write great quality articles that demonstrate your expertise for your site (or third party sites)
• Allow Google plus users (and other social media to give your article thumbs up. You do this by having G+ and other social media buttons on your site.
• Use author rank mark up (rel=’me and rel=”author”) in all your writings. This will allow you to link your content to your Google plus profile. In simple language, you are telling Google you are an author by creating a link Google will understand. (Click Here for more details)

Getting higher ‘author rank’ can be the difference between your website (content) reaching higher rankings above your competition.

Enter (the not yet mighty) Google Plus

All this tells us that Google is using Google Plus as a ‘Hub’ for its authority ranking. This means G+ must be part of your content marketing strategy.

Just as you build twitter followers (which does not necessarily impact your search engine ranking), building your audience on Google plus could have a direct impact on your search engine rankings. Your should always deliver great content but by using G+ as a hub Google will have direct knowledge that you are publishing quality content.

Whether you like the fact that what Google is doing (that is if you want your content ranked higher you must use Google’s own tools – like G+) the reality is we have no choice. As long as Google is the dominant search engine on the planet, we will have to go along with it.

What about Face book and Twitter

Here is my take. Use G+ to build your audience and boost your search engine ranking by helping Google easily understand that you are an authority. Use Facebook and Twitter and other social media vehicles to share and distribute your content to a wider audience.

Don’t confuse Authorship mark up v Author ranking

Authorship mark-up is Google’s way of identifying you as an author. Authorship mark-up is not a ranking tool. It is an identification tool for Google so that it can rank the author who produced the content. However, it also helps you stand out on web searches.

Here is an example:

If you Google ‘procrastination busting tips’, I am on the first page of Google. 

Even though I am 3rd on the page, I am against some hefty Page ranking sites (PR5).

Because of my authorship mark-up,

•  My picture is promoted
• My name is promoted (hyper linked to my G+ profile)
• Another hyperlink saying ‘More by Ravi Peal-Shankar’ is also promoted (hyper linked to a Google page with a list of my recent articles)

This will increase your profile and certainly increase page views. This will stop poor content stuffed with keywords moving up the ranking. This also builds trust and establishes you as an expert in you niche.

On the other hand, Author Ranking is for the algorithm to work out how popular your content is. I guess this where +1, facebook likes, twitter shares, comments on posts and guest posts come in.

What if this does not happen?

Author rank (agent rank) has been around since 2005. In an attempt to tidy up the web Google started punishing everyone who ‘tricked’ Google. It hammered hard on unnatural link building and regurgitated poor quality content. My guess is that author ranking is an attempt reward good content.

Whether this goes ahead full steam or not there is only one thing we can control. Keep producing great quality content for your readers and get that to as many people in your target market as possible.

Do not confuse tools with torque

Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter are just tools. They have no power unless it is backed by world-class content. These tools come and go. At this point in time Google Plus seems to be emerging as a tool that is likely to reward high quality content and its author. Use it to your advantage!

]]> http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/why-ignoring-google-plus-google-authorship-could-be-a-costly-marketing-mistake/feed/ 0 http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/how-to-deal-with-customers-who-know-it-all-and-drain-your-energy/ http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/how-to-deal-with-customers-who-know-it-all-and-drain-your-energy/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:56:09 +0000 Ravi Peal-Shankar http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/?p=2153

Imagine this.

You are in the process of explaining the best options available for your client’s problem. However, he seems to know what is good for him. Anything you suggest seems to illicit a smarter response from him. Deep inside you know that the path your customer insists on taking will not lead to better results. You grudgingly take on the project.

And that is not all.

Your client retains you for Service X that actually ends up being service X+Y+Z. You feel uneasy about asking for more money (for the additional work you have done) because you do not want to upset your client and lose him. You justify that this will retain the client and bring in future business.

Guess what?

That is exactly what happens. Ground hog day. Your client comes back for more. You agree to do X, but end up doing X+Y+Z. Your emotions go through the same cycle as before and you end up carrying an unprofitable client.

Even experienced businesses walk in to this trap.

Why does this happen?

We were never trained to handle the psychology of managing a difficult client. Our professional training was technical. Most of us get in to business with limited business training. We assume that our professional training will be enough to handle these situations. In addition, we may even think that this is the norm. We take a fear-based approach. Fear of losing revenue and clients. In reality, we allow this to happen!

How does it affect the business?

Dealing with clients who take more of your time than you are paid for will eventually turn your business cash poor and you time poor. The business will end up serving few clients who take up so much time and resources that it will not have the capacity to bring in new clients.

How does it affect the business owner?

This is one of the most mentally draining situations. Once the excitement of landing a client wears off and you realize that you are expected to do more than what you are being paid for repeatedly, you lose heart. It frustrates the hell out of you. It can even get to a point where you start disliking your business.

Let’s change all that

Here is a different set up. You meet a prospective client. There is instant rapport. She seems to know a lot about what you do and more importantly, how you work. You ask many questions. As a result, you both gain a lot of clarity. Although she came to you with the idea of working with you to do X, you both agree that the best option for her is to go with X and Y to start with and do Z depending on how things progress. She values your opinion and contribution. She gives the go-ahead and you start work on X & Y. She is delighted with the results and pays you on time.

Want to have more clients like her?

I will be surprised if you don’t. Below are seven tips my clients and I use to attract clients we love to help.

1. First of all, make the decision to attract your ideal client. This is very important. Make this a strategic part of your business. At this point don’t worry about what your ideal client looks like or how you are going to attract them. Simply commit to attract and work with your ideal client. In one of my previous blogs I have written about How to attract clients who pay you what you are worth, pay you on time and refer you to more prospects!
2. Develop a mindset of abundance. The universe has plenty of everything. Lack comes from our limited perspective of life. With an abundant mindset, you will know that your pool of your ideal clients is limitless. There is no need to rush or be desperate and chase after your ideal client. During discussions if you find that the prospect is not your ideal prospect simply says no or refer them to someone else. I cringe at business networking organizations (and some are worldwide) that limit members to each profession.
3. Be prepared to let go of clients. If you do not enjoy working with them simply let go. Do not hang on to them for their money. In the process of letting go, you are not only making room for new clients and you also declaring to the universe that you are ready for your ideal clients.
4. Remember you are in control. It is your business and you dictate whom you work with and whom you don’t. That confidence will be very evident in your negotiations and will act as a magnet to attract people you want to work with.
5. When you choose to work with clients you like, get clear on the outcome they are looking for. Not just simply what they want to achieve. Dig deeper and find out why they want to achieve that results and what impact it will have on their business/life. The more clarity you have you both will work as a team to achieve a common goal.
6. Challenge your clients ‘knowledge’ and ‘assumptions’ by strategic questioning. You may suggest path A, while you client wants to take path B. Strategic questioning revolves around how your client sees his/her problem as opposed to how you see it.
7. Set guidelines for engagement. Be very clear on what your clients can expect from you and more importantly, what you expect from your clients on any given project. Let me give you an example. I have worked with many design companies. Designers often complain that their clients don’t get back to them on time and when they get back, they change their mind on various aspects of what was initially agreed. This is a sign that their client did not understand the guidelines or simply choose to ignore it. In both cases, the design companies should take full responsibility for not being thorough with the ‘rules of engagement’ or has simply chosen to work with the wrong client.

Please feel free to share your experience of working with your clients and customers.

A potential customer making a decision to buy from us is a wonderful feeling. We should make that process as easy as possible from our customer’s point of view. But without realising it, we may be creating many barriers to a sale.

Why?

Because we want to cover every eventuality that could go wrong. As a result our potential customer may have to jump  several hoops before buying from us.

Our customers – not as we know them

The modern customers work out a solution to their problems in a different way. They are armed with ‘pre-purchase’ information before they start looking at the best solutions for them. Majority of our customers approach us in a ‘ready to buy ‘ mode. This does not mean that they are not confused: They simply feel they know more. They need to feel that we facilitated their purchase instead of being sold.

Here are some simple tips to make it easy for your potential customer to buy from you:

1. Offer a guarantee: A guarantee minimises the customer’s risk. Have a simple clear guarantee that encourages at least giving it a try. In a service industry this is perceived as a challenge. But it need not be. Guarantee elements that you can control such as response times, service levels etc…

2. Don’t commit customers to long term contracts: Contracts are important to set the rules of engagement and a win-win proposition. But when contracts are simply designed to tie the customer to you for your benefit it becomes a barrier to a sale and off putting.

3. Make it easy to contact you. Make it a point to encourage contact via telephone, contact forms, live chats etc…

4. Reduce or minimize steps to purchase: Don’t make your customer fill too many forms or tick too many boxes. Make it as simple as possible to buy from you.

5. Show you are ‘real’. Don’t hide behind websites, and contact forms. Avoid using ‘info@’ type email addresses and use a person’s name.

6. Remove objections in advance: Objections are unanswered questions. Your blogs, newsletters and FAQ’s should answer as many questions that your customer is likely to ask.

Can you think of any more ideas that can make our customer’s buying journey easy?

]]> http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/how-to-remove-barriers-to-sale/feed/ 0 http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/this-will-make-you-a-success-magnet/ http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/this-will-make-you-a-success-magnet/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:25:25 +0000 Ravi Peal-Shankar http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/?p=2115

In the movie Matrix Morpheus tells Neo – “Sooner or later you are going to realise, there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path”.

A very powerful reminder of how to live an aligned life. An aligned life means, becoming what you seek and as a results attracting what ever you seek.

Big Gap between knowing and walking

We know we should look after our environment. But we still get in our cars and add endless miles to it and continue to damage the environment.

We know eating healthy food and doing regular exercise will keep us fit and healthy. But we tend to indulge in over eating and avoid exercising.

Knowing the path is not the same as walking the path.

Why we like this illusion?

‘Knowing’ gives us the illusion that we are living it. Here is an example. You may know that you are an honest person. But when a cashier in a checkout gives you the wrong change in your favour, how often have you given it back? How often have you felt justified that you should keep quite about it?

We attend workshops or seminars and switch off easily because we ‘know’ the subject matter. But in reality we have not reached our potential in that area because we have NOT practiced what we know.

Why we don’t do what we know?

Knowing is like a comfort blanket. It keeps us warm and cosy and prevents us taking action. It is like reading instructions on how to swim and believing you know how to swim.

Walking the path means leaving the comfort of knowing and getting in to an uncomfortable path that is new to us. Walking the path brings us new experiences that could make us uncomfortable and uneasy.

Walk anyway

• Walking takes courage. Courage to take the first step. Courage to face the unknown and courage to keep going.
• Walking takes alignment. Unless we are aligned with the end result there is less incentive to walk the path. Take the example of becoming a swimmer. Your alignment could be about becoming a competent swimmer or may be to compete in the Olympics. Each goal has its own path. So the more you are clearly aligned to your goal your walk becomes meaningful to you.
• Walking takes persistence.  Unless you persist resistance will kill you in its track. Just as Mohammed Ali said, “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
• Walking will demand you learn new skills. To continue to walk, new skills will be necessary. Being open to learning these skills will make your journey much smoother.
• Walking the path means trusting each and every step. Each step in to the unknown demands trust. Without trust – trust that everything is going to be okay and the next steps will be shown, we will be paralysed by fear.
• Walking the path means you grow. You grow as a person. You grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually. This priceless growth is what you eventually become.
• Walking the path brings opportunities. The courage to walk ones path also brings opportunities. Opportunities that never presented itself before will suddenly show up.

Customers who demand too much – Clients who don’t pay on time – Customers who don’t pay at all – Clients who treat us like we should be grateful for their business. Why do we put up with it?

On the other hand imagine customers who value us, who pay us on time and always refer people to us. Why do we have few of these clients?

So why do we attract clients we hate? The keyword here is ‘attract’. Yes we attract them. Of course we deliberately don’t choose to attract bad customers.

That is the problem. We don’t deliberately choose either way.

Here are some reasons why we attract customers we hate:

• We don’t deliberately choose to attract good customers.
• We are only after the money. “Anyone with a pulse and a cheque book” will do mindset will attract people who will let you down later.
• Our products and services are not of high calibre.
• Price is the driving force in your transaction and not relationship.

Here are some hints and tips to attract your ideal customer.

1. You make a deliberate choice to only work with your ideal client or customer.

2. Define your ideal customer. Not in terms of industry, turnover, geography etc… but in terms of ideal qualities you look for. Here is an example:

• Our ideal customer pays us on time
• Our ideal customer values our contribution to their business
• Our ideal customer can’t wait to refer us to others
• Our ideal customer talks about us positively
• Our ideal customer enjoys paying us
• Our ideal customer really wants us to succeed
• Our ideal customer values the quality of work we provide

 
3. You become your ideal client. This is a tough one. You can’t expect your ideal client to pay you on time, while you don’t pay your suppliers on time. You cannot expect your customers to pay a good price for the quality of work you supply, while you choose cheap options for your business. You get the drift. If you want to attract your ideal client you MUST become your ideal client. You need to live your ideal client first.
 
4. Let your ideal clients know they are your ideal client and thank them for it.

5. Promote who you want to work with. Let the market place know that you have a choice and you only choose to work with clients who fit your ideal client profile.
 
6. Be prepared to say no. If you are approached by a prospect who does not fit your ideal client profile, say NO. (or refer them to someone else)
 
7. Review your ideal client list daily. Print them and have them displayed where you and your team will look at them daily. Keep adding to it if necessary. When you become immersed in your ideal client list you WILL attract them.

“Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owners manual your creator gave you and destroying your design” – Operah Winfrey

Branding – Everyone has an opinion on what branding is. Decades ago when mass production flooded the market – ‘branding’ was used as a way of standing out. An industry was born to help businesses stand out or distinguish themselves from the crowd.

It is unfortunate to see some businesses use branding as a get out of jail card. Over the decades branding has become such a beast that it is expected to carry the business as opposed to the real value provided by the business.

In this digital age our customers are well informed. We are not going to fool them with fancy logos, images and taglines alone. When there is no substance behind the branding we get found out.

Being authentic has more power than we can imagine. Be brave enough to communicate who you are and what your business is about.

Expressing authenticity – expressing why we do what you do – will better resonate with our audience we want to attract.

Here are some helpful pointers:

Be You. Use real names. Avoid impersonal info@ email addresses. Make your prospect feel that they are contacting a real person as opposed to an anonymous person hiding behind a contact form. Use photos or video’s where possible.

Engage fast. Respond to questions, queries and concern fast. Make it easy for people to reach you or your business. Here is a guy who built a $50 million dollar business just doing that:

Be interesting. Every business has something interesting going on. Let people know. Reveal things that your competition or industry rarely shares.

Warning: Don’t try to be authentic. Just the fact you are trying makes it very false. Be genuinely you. Show the real you with all your frailties.

]]> http://resultsbusinesscoach.com/being-you/feed/ 2