Saturday, May 31, 2008

Never answer this question...

One of the best things to do to quickly establish credibility, get massive exposure, and attract new clients, is speaking. Whether you organize your own seminars on a regular basis to continually fill the pipeline, or get booked for talks to "pre-formed" groups like associations, it works like a charm—provided you give very good info.

If you deliver the talk properly, there's always a group of people at the end of your talk who rush up to the podium to chat with you. Some will tell you how much they enjoyed the talk, some will be e-zine readers who've wanted to meet you for years, some will want free advice or to "pick your brain." But, there's one question you'll almost always get and it comes in two parts. The first part's the good part; "I'm interested in working with you." The second one is the tricky part; "What do you charge?"

There's ONE fundamental problem with answering the second part of that question. If you answer it right there on the spot, you'll most always lose that client on the spot. Here's why.

When making a purchasing decision, if they're only focused on price, there isn't any room for VALUE or RESULTS. And I believe people buy in three ways: by emotion, by results, and by value.

The solution? Don't give them your rates on the spot. Instead, invite them for a conversation to be held at a later date where you can fully describe the value they'll be getting from working with you. Whether you call it the "get-acquainted session," or a free-consultation, it doesn't matter - the important thing is that's where you can find out more about them, get to the root of their problems, describe solutions, and they sell themselves into your services, based on value.

Never give your rates cold. You'll almost always lose the sale right there on the spot. Instead, invite them for a conversation. Here's what Fabienne Frederickson recommends her clients say to their own prospects:
"I actually offer several different programs, depending on how quickly you want to get results, and of course, on your budget level. What I usually recommend is that we set up a get-acquainted session. Not only do you want to find out more about me, my programs, etc., but I want to find out more about you and your situation to see if you're going to be the right fit for my programs as well. Shall we set that up?"

This is an edited version of an article by Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, founder of the Client Attraction System™, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, in record time...guaranteed. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Avoid Identity Theft !

Check out Roboform it can do the following and more (and its FREE !!):

• Remembers and Secures Your Passwords
• Logs You Into Web Sites Automatically
• Fills Long Forms with Just One Click
• Generates Secure Passwords
• Prevents Phishing and Defeats Keyloggers

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Its not what you do in the shower...

"Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference."
- Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Think of life like this...

Found this great quote on the Facebook page of one of my FB friends

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body; but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming...... Wow....Whatta ride!!!!!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Be yourself !

1. Know your purpose.

Are you wandering through life with little direction -- hoping that you'll find happiness, health and prosperity? Identify your life purpose or mission statement and you will have your own unique compass that will lead you to your true north every time.

2. Know your values.

What do you value most? Make a list of your top 5 values. Some examples are security, freedom, family, spiritual development, learning. As you set your goals for 2007 -- check your goals against your values. If the goal doesn't align with any of your top five values -- you may want to reconsider it or revise it.

3. Know your needs.

Unmet needs can keep you from living authentically. Take care of yourself. Do you have a need to be acknowledged, to be right, to be in control, to be loved? List your top four needs and get them met!

4. Know your passions.

Honor those things that make your heart sing. Whatever it is, do more of it!

5. Live from the inside out.

Tap into your inner wisdom by regularly reflecting in silence. Commune with nature. Breathe deeply to quiet your mind.

6. Honor your strengths.

What are your positive traits? What special talents do you have? List three -- if you get stuck, ask those closest to you to help identify these. Are you imaginative, witty, good with your hands? Find ways to express your authentic self through your strengths.

7. Take time to play.

Give yourself time to recharge doing things you love to do or by just doing nothing.

8. Be aware of your self-talk.

Are you blocking your potential? Check out your first thoughts when you wake tomorrow. Are they supportive, encouraging or positive? Choose the kind of chatter that goes on in your mind. Become aware of the negative messages you give yourself. Gently catch them and turn them into positive affirmations.

9. Surround yourself with inspiration.

Keep a success journal. Write down your four or five greatest strengths and post them where you can see them. On the last Friday of each month, write down all your accomplishments both big and small.

10. Serve others.

When you live authentically, you may find that you develop an interconnected sense of being. When you are true to who you are, living your purpose and giving of your talents to the world around you, you give back in service what you came to share with others -- your spirit -- your essence.

About the Author: Ann Ronan, Ph.D., Certified Career Coach and author, works with professionals in career transition or career pain. She offers a free e-course on the Top Ten Ways To Live Authentically. To learn more about this step-by-step program and to sign up for free how-to articles and teleclasses, visit Authentic Life Institute.

Firing a Client

Yes, firing a client. An alien idea ? I bet you have clients that drive you crazy, who make you cringe, who make you feel used and abused... so its Springtime - do some spring cleaning.

So many people when they start in business make the mistake of accepting people as clients, and often when their gut feel tells them not to. You get wise eventually. Trust me !!

Clients to possibly fire include:

1. those for whom you have delivered the work but they keep asking this question and that question and suddenly you find you've done many hours of pro bono consulting. Remember you are running a business not a charity.

2. getting paid - especially a problem when you accept young entrepreneurs as clients who are being funded by organisations that help them start out in business. You are not there to provide a free line of credit. Not to mention all the time and energy you spend on trying to get the payment.

3. you dread seeing their name appear in your email inbox - you know that they are going to bug you about something - usually something they hope to get for free except they are starting to do this too often and rarely email back to say 'thank you'. They are making you feel used and abused.

4. when you started out you gave some clients a really preferential rate because you liked them and their business idea, you wanted to get the experience, you thought they would be successful and for later work would be able to pay you what you were really worth... but this has not happened and you are now attracting clients who are able to pay what you are worth. Unless you have a really good reason its time to move on.

So, work with clients who respect you, who value you, who appreciate your knowledge and expertise and who are willing to pay you what you are worth and promptly. It's your right !

Tactics for success as an entrepreneur

1. “Dig the well before you’re thirsty” – Confucius

Marketing, whether your business or yourself, is the one task that wise people do daily – YES...DAILY. You should do at least one thing each day to keep your marketing funnel full.

2. “The moment you begin to think of time as precious and that it has a price, the richer you will become.” – Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing

Do you spend your time wisely or do you squander it procrastinating ? Successful entrepreneurs understand that how they spend their time determines their future. It’s critical to do the things that will move you/your business forward each day.

3. Have a wealth mindset

Successful entrepreneurs are focused, first and foremost, on being secure. Then on being comfortable and finally, on being rich. It is this focus on security that forces them to build systems and look at the big picture as opposed to doing what is best only for the short-term.

Successful entrepreneurs also understand that they need to invest in themselves and their business in order to reach their long-term goals. Doing things “quick and dirty” or for the fast buck doesn’t create the long-lasting success that you are looking for.

4. Have a sense of urgency

Successful entrepreneurs are not procrastinators – they get things done and done today! Their sense of urgency is borne not only of their appreciation for the value of time, but also as a way of insuring their clients are always satisfied. Why make them wait? Happy clients purchase from you and they do so repeatedly.

5. “Don’t feel overwhelmed...just do one thing at a time.” --

The above quote may sound familiar and is a trademark of all successful entrepreneurs. Have 100 things to do? Don’t know where to start?

Just pick one and do it. It doesn’t matter which one, just do something. Sitting and staring at the pile or fretting about how much you need to do won’t get you anywhere. But doing one thing, and then another, and then another will.

6. Be a “big picture optimist and detail pessimist”.
Direct marketing guru Dan Kennedy tells the story of how he travels a lot and never worries about the plane going to the wrong city or exploding in midair or experiencing some other trouble that would result in his never reaching to his destination (big picture optimist). At the same time, he plans for the plane to leave late and arrive late, for his luggage to be lost and for the food (when you get it) to be inedible (detail pessimist).

Using this approach in project (and travel) planning insures that you’ve anticipated the potential problems which Murphy’s Law usually provides and have solutions already in hand. The worst that can happen is that you never need your “Plan B”.

7. You can't (and shouldn't) do it all

Successful entrepreneurs know and understand that trying to do everything themselves is a prescription for overwhelm and burnout.

The truly successful create teams and delegate effectively. Having one (or several) good virtual assistants, a bookkeeper, a pre-paid legal plan, etc. takes the day-to-day minutiae off you so that you can focus on the big picture.

No matter where you are today, do one thing today that will move you forward in your goals. Remember Confucius : “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Take that step today and feel the momentum carry you forward.

This post is based on an article by Sandra Martini who requires that I add the following: © Sandra P. Martini, The Automatic Business Coach 2007. Get Sandra Martini's FREE "5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot" e-course/audio mini-workshop and her FREE small business success how-to tips at www.SandraMartini.com

Creativity in business

We read these days that we have to be increasingly creative to survive in business, to ensure that our business survives. One of my MBA students is planning a series of workshops in Montreal,not only on this aspect of creativity and how we can all become more creative, but also how to manage creative people (creative in the sense of graphic designers etc) - if you want to know more about these or debate the subject leave you comments and email address so that can let you know when these workshops are rolled out.

More Twittering !

Use Twitter to gather intelligence about your target clients and to announce your products and services:

Start a Twitter profile. Visit Twitter.com and sign up. If you want to communicate with just a few clients or colleagues, keep your stream private by checking the "protect my updates" box under Settings.

Spread the word to your target audience, with simple instructions on how to sign up for a free account and follow your stream. Now you're rolling.

Explore the universe. Share news from seminars and other events; broadcast meetings and meeting places; announce your teleclasses; open a video or audio channel for those who can't join you.

Demographics search tool

Quantcast has launched a service that claims to enable marketers to search for websites by readership demographic.

"If a marketer is targeting black female readers, over 40, with an income over $60,000, then Quantcast’s new service serves up a list of websites which attracts that audience, and also tells you whether or not the site accepts advertising," CMSWire reports.

Quantcast divides sites between those that measure raw metrics ("Quantified" publishers) and those that do not. In the latter case, Quantcast's figures come from the site's own reports of traffic and audience.

The service is complimentary to users.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Mind Mapping

A mind map can be defined as a diagram that represents ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. Mind mapping can be used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

Its a really great tool to use if you want to map out the structure of a book or a seminar you are preparing or to organise a special event.

Free mind mapping software is available such as Smart Draw and Mind Meister. The latter is really cool as it is an online product so you can work on it with members of your team wherever you are located.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Understanding

Its not what you say to people that counts - it's what they understand.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Using Squidoo

Squidoo.com is the brainchild of expert marketer Seth Godin and its rapidly becoming one of the most trafficked web sites in the world and is a must use for any Guerrilla Marketer.

Squidoo is simply a collection of sites (or len’s as they call them). These can be on any topic and both business and personal in nature. The user fills the lens with relevant content, audios, pictures, links and even videos.

Squidoo.com is an effective way to market your product/services.For example do a search for laptop bags in google, check out the number 1 result - A Squidoo page. This Squidoo lens is beating out companies that have been trying to get in the top ten of the search engines for years for that phrase. How did they do it? Simple: Google LOVES Squidoo.com because it’s full of content. And if Google loves Squidoo.com, they also love lens’s that were built on the Squidoo.com platform.

So, get started on Squidoo ! Visit Squidoo.com, sign up and create a lens.