A kick in the butt from IttyBIz

Some kick in the butt advice from Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz (yep, another Facebook friend of mine but since she's moving to the UK soon may become a real friend). I have taken a chunk verbatim from her latest blog post:

If you run a service business — and in service I include coaching and consulting — and to a degree if you run any other kind of business, here’s the best piece of advice I’ve got.

Spend 4 times more time on MARKETING than you do on DOING.

I could give you the list and litany of people who are the worst at this, but basically everybody is the worst at this. Except maybe life coaches. They’re the REAL worst.

You bust your ass creating this wonderful business that is going to change lives. You get the certification and you spend the money on the website and you give the free sessions to get the testimonials. You create something that will quite honestly make it so people will not even remember what their life was like before they worked with you. And then what do you do?

You sit around and wait for people to find you.

Unless any of the other aspects of your business are absolutely tragic, you should not be spending your work time:

- tweaking your website
- responding to comments
- reorganizing your accounting methods
- taking skills upgrade courses, including mine
- reading ebooks
- chatting on IM
- telling people what you ate for breakfast on Twitter

There is nothing wrong with any of the above activities, but those are the things to do in your SPARE time. And if you’re not getting clients right now, you don’t have spare time during the workday. The time that you THINK is spare should be spent getting your name out there, all over the place.

If you are not getting enough clients, your only priority is getting clients.
That is all. Now stop reading blogs and get back to work.

Original post at IttyBiz

Marketing lessons from the street

Today I lined up to buy one of the new plastic cards for the Metro in Montreal and then I lined up a second time to use the machine to actually load my monthly pass onto the card. Pain in the butt system or what ?!!!

In the time all this took I had the opportunity to observe one of the people who regularly beg in the subway here (underground to readers in the UK !!). Then I started to compare him to someone else who begs in the same Metro station (Sherbrooke for those of you who live in Montreal).

I would argue that begging for money isn't a million miles different to getting business from a potential client. Here’s what I learnt from my observations:

THE FIRST BEGGER

•Pick the right moment – begging for money is not going to be successful when you solicit people rushing to go to work. I wondered why the guy didn’t pitch to those of us lined up – we were a captive audience, bored, fed up and possibly receptive to a good story.

In business ensure that the client is undistracted and ready to listen to what you would like to say.

•Close off objections – dirty, in tatty clothes and telling me you’re hungry … maybe you are but maybe you want money for drugs. Good idea to think about what I might be thinking and then close off that objection before I even make it.

Same applies with a potential business client. If you think the person might be wondering if you have the right experience, could harness the right resources, whatever.. then cover that off when you are speaking to them.

•Address the “what’s in it for me” – what should the guy in the Metro be doing so that we get someting? just imposing the odours of his unwashed body so that we give him some money to make him go away? Maybe. But, suppose he appealed to our more generous side: "You’re buying your monthly pass I would like to be able to buy some food" (guilt trip); "While you are waiting in line think about people like me who have ended up on the streets" (compassion with a bit of guilt).

In business think what the person’s pain might be, actively listen and ask questions to make this discovery before pitching in for their business.

THE OTHER BEGGER

•Let them come to you – Now the other guy who begs at the same Metro station just stands there and smiles at you. That’s it. He smiles. he ackowledges you as you hurry by. The only person who does. Soon you find he smiles at you each day so you start to say "Bonjour". Then you don’t see him for a while and you ask where he’s been, how he’s been. You learn a bit about his life, his story. Then you find he's quite a conversationalist. Quite smart in a street-wise kind of way. You start to warm to him. From time to time you give him some coins or something. He always remembers you and asks how you are and, in my case, how my mum is. He becomes part of your life.

I bet you he gets way more money than the other guy.

And in business… build yourself a good reputation; strong visibility; be seen in the right places talking to the right people; earn credibility. Then they will come to you.

Popcorn

One of my Facebook friends. Kim Duke, produces a useful newsletter about selling- she's not styled the Sales Diva for nothing.This week her artilce really made me smile so here is an abridged version:

In the good old days popcorn was not a bag that you put in the microwave - to make popcorn you needed a stove, a pot with a lid, oil, popcorn.When you made popcorn - you put the pot on the stove, heated the element, added the oil, then the popcorn, put on the lid and then you waited.

What was the first thing that happened ?
NOTHING.
NOTHING.
NOTHING.

And then???

A lonely little POP.

More waiting.

Then another 2 or 3 little POPS.

Then you start shaking the pot slowly (so nothing burns) and then

POPPETY POPPOPOPOPOPOP POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP

Kim says this is like the sales process. She exhorts her readers to make SALES POPCORN. To do this:

You need to have many popcorn pots on your SALES STOVE.

You need to be planting seeds, making connections, have proposals out there with
the right companies and people.

You need to be watching those seeds, giving it some time, shaking the pot a bit and making sure that nothing is burning!

She then askes her reader whether they are making these Sales Popcorn Mistakes:

- You plant some seeds (network, meet with clients, send out an ezine, etc).
- Then you get impatient and keep lifting the lid off the pot or adjust the temp mid-way.
- You ignore your customers who have been loyal to you through good times and bad.
- You only have one SALES POPCORN pot on the stove.
- You only have a few SALES POPCORN seeds in the pot.
- You use stale popcorn seeds that need to be pitched out.

I thought this was a really brilliant analogy and worth sharing with my readers.

Kim's website

Facebook and me

On Facebook I have a page for me and one for my management consulting and coaching business (GSP insights). I also have two groups: Starting out in Business and Business Consultants United.

Initially my Facebook list was just personal friends, business associates, former clients and some of my MBA students at HEC Montréal but then I started to add unknown people.

How did I select these people ?
I joined groups relevant to my business, my interests, my objectives in joining Facebook. I then looked to see who the other members were and invited selected ones to be friends. I checked to see if marketing and sales gurus such as Seth Godin, Jeremiah were on Facebook and invited them to become Facebook friends (all of them accepted). I also invited people who had written intelligent comments on the walls of more influential business and mamrketing people. In this way my list grew and now stands at over 1,000 people. I seem to have reached a critical mass which means that I get increasing numbers of people asking to be friends - from 10 per day to over 30

I am now inviting my friends to consider joining my groups. In this way I achieve increased visibility for my business and website and blogs. The proof ? In the first two weeks of June I have had over 125 unique visiters to my website (I typically got 80 a month) and I am attracting comments on the posts I make on this blog. When I eventually produce the material for teleseminars on starting a business I intend to trial them for free with the members of my group before offering them on my website. This will enable me to fine tune them before I offer a teleseminar series for sale on my website.

Facebook - learn all about it

Brian Campbell is proving to be THE person to be linked with on Facebook as he generously shares his learnings about making Facebook work for your business whilst still respecting the rules of being on Facebook.

Sign up now for his 10 hour Social Media Monetization Course - totally FREE !!! Click here for "Backdoor Signup "

Its awesome - an absolute must !!

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.

If.....

If you had a free session with a business coach what questions would you be asking ? Your answers will help me to better serve my clients by better meeting their needs.

If you are on Facebook please join my Starting out in Business group.

Why listening to Twitter is good..

Here's the scoop - Facebook and Twitter are the best social networking sites for small businesses. As far as Facebook is concerned I am currently writing a paper on this which will soon be available to download from my website. But meanwhile, here's the deal on Twitter. Twitter enables you to observe your potential clients and associates - almost a legitimised eavesdropping - and we all know from our marketing courses that the more we can learn about our target clients then the easier it is to reach them and communicate with them in an appropriate way. Twitter enables trust to be built up - not overnight but over a period of time. And don't forget, Twitter is opt-in marketing.

Using Ecademy to drive business to your website

Here are some ideas for driving visiters from your Ecademy profile to your website.

Update your status whenever you have the opportunity and include your web address. Click this link to see what I mean. Why is this a good idea ? Because Google spiders the status page and follows the link to your site.

In your profile, use your keyphrases to link to your website. Click this link to see the links I have set up at the beginning of my profile.Google spiders profiles so if your keyphrases point to relevant pages on your site this helps in your Google rankings.

If you post an ad in Marketplace use a keyword in your ad title and then repeat it in the test with a link to your website. Not only will this be picked up by Google but non-Ecademy members can find you.

These suggestions came from Nikki Pilkingtons Blog - 299 Steps to Website Heaven.

FaceBook

Check this link for great tips from Travis Greenlee on making Facebook work for your business.

Rules of engagement

Doing something for free (other than for a not for profit) has to bring a consultant/coach into contact with potential clients and provide great visibility for their business..... Just thought I'd mention this ......!

Twittering for bloggers

I just have to share this with you. Out there in the ether is a guy named Darren Rowse who generously shares on his blog (ProBlogger) how to make good use of Twitter to drive traffic to your blog.Click on link to go read this for yourself.

Happy twittering !

Getting referrals

A referral is a testimonial by someone who sees value in what you have to offer. But this doesn't happen without some intervention on your part. Four things must happen to get great referrals. The referrer must (1) recognize specific value in what you have to offer, (2) know that a referral is of value to you, (3) know to whom they should make a referral, and (4) have a reason to make the referral.

First, be clear what you want them to value. They hired you for a reason but you might want referrals in another area. Tell them specifically what skills and behaviors you want them to tell others about.

Second, clients are not mind readers. Your relationship is based on you helping them, not the other way around. Tell them you'd appreciate a referral. Most will be happy to do it if you just asked.

Third, make a list of specific people or types of people you'd like a referral to. Don't make your clients do work to give referrals on your behalf. They can look at a list you've given them and think of people to whom they could make a referral that you didn't even know existed.

Last, make it worth their while. Why would they take time and risk their reputation? Because you can provide a client's colleagues with the same value you provided them. Like a recommendation for a great restaurant, create a desire in your client to make the referral.


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Copyright (c) 2008, Institute of Management Consultants USA