All Posts by Chris

Who Do Your Target Prospects Admire?

What is the point asking: who do your target prospects admire?  Hot pursuit of detailed answers to this question could be a waste of time.  However, there are some advantages, so it is worth giving it some thought:

Let’s take a closer look at some possible targets for admiration:

Brands

Consider established, well-known brands.  You could place adverts on your site or include photos of you using a brand.  This would be a sort of product placement and I’m not sure how far I would want to go.  Perhaps a mention in a blog would be a possibility but take care not to overdo it.  The important thing is, if you wish to associate yourself with a brand, your endorsement should be genuine.  If you include it solely to impress your prospects, you are likely to be found out.

A casual mention of an established brand may be effective and not too pushy.  If you are planning to feature it in a big way, it may be worth communicating with the brand owners.  They may not wish to be associated with you!  But if there is mutual benefit, you may be able to arrange some sort of affiliate deal or at least permission to use their logo.

However, personal brands are perhaps more important in local marketing and so it is worth exploring association with local brands and then work out how to feature them in your marketing.

Check out my post about Trustmarks for more about featuring brands.  Featuring well-known clients or sources of qualifications can be fairly powerful.

Job Types

A medical practitioner might use images of nurses or doctors on their website, for example.  Or simply dress like people in those professions.  So long as such images are relevant they may reassure visitors to a website, shop, clinic or office.

Another approach is to challenge the idea of a job.  Think of Kirosaya’s four categories: employed, self-employed, business owner and investor.  In some circumstances, your prospects may admire one or more of these approaches to finding income.  Certainly, if your offer is for business owners, you need to show you understand business ownership.  The same applies to all four categories.

Individuals

You may be able to get an endorsement from someone your prospects admire.  You would discuss this with the person and work out how best to feature them.  They may for example, see this as an opportunity for mutual benefit.

You can show you admire particular people by, for example, blogging about them or about their work.  This will be particularly effective if they are dead.

You would not have any problem featuring a dead person’s quotation. So long as you keep it short, you don’t have to ask a living person if you can use a quote.  Obviously it must be attributed, or there would be little point.  A sentence or two is all you need.  Most people look at the name and may not read a long quote.

Remember, though there is a point where a quote might be a breach of copyright.  Short quotations are never a problem so long as you attribute them.

If this has been helpful, let me know.  What else would you like to know about this topic?

Who Should Not Take Advantage of Your Offer?

One way to reduce conversations with people you do not need to talk to is to be clear about who your offer is for.  How do you work out who should not take advantage of your offer?

You can list (1) those people who should take advantage and (2) those who should not.

I don’t mean by name of course.  If you can say “If you are like this, contact me” and then “If you are like this don’t bother”, you are doing both prospects and non-prospects a service.  They can be self-selecting, saving both of you time.

For example, I work with people who are new to marketing and need help developing their first marketing plan.  So, I might say if you have a plan, maybe you don’t need to see me.  Now I need to refine that further:

Contact me for a conversation if you are

We may have common interests but it is unlikely I can help you if you are

Generally I’m happy to talk to anyone interested in talking to me and certainly I would not raise these with someone I met through networking.  OK sometimes we don’t have a great deal in common but any meeting might bear fruit.  Some networks, eg 4N, provide opportunities for 10 minute one-to-ones and these are excellent opportunities to assess whether a longer conversation would be worthwhile.

Lists like these might work on a website as a quick way to reassure people it is worth getting in touch.  As you get to know your target market better you can refine these lists.

Using these Lists

You may have spotted in the lists I have not said whether people should contact me if they meet some or all the bullets on the lists.  Certainly someone who does meet all the criteria, is very likely to be interested in my offer, so I could say contact me if you meet all these criteria.

On the other hand, there may be some benefit to talk if someone meets some of the criteria.  Ultimately, these are only rules of thumb.  Where you set the entry criteria to your business is up to you and can become more accurate as your experience develops.  Your aim is to encourage the right people to make contact.

You’ll find out if it works from the quality of your contacts.  Remember people who meet all your criteria are your primary market and you should aim to find as many as you can.  People who meet some of your criteria are your secondary market.  Returns on conversations will be less likely but not impossible.

If this has been helpful, let me know.  What else would you like to know about this topic?

Who Must Take Advantage of Your Offer?

In one sense, the answer to this question is: no-one.  It implies force or obligation and most coaches do not want this.  Who must take advantage of your offer?  No-one

However, this question implies a sense of urgency.  If you know about the people who are really enthusiastic about your offer, you can keep an eye out for them, address them directly and offer  exactly what they want.  You will repel those who do not want your offer but that’s OK because they are some other businesses’ prospects.

So, the question implies narrowing your niche.  If you can find those who really must accept your offer, you will convert more of your prospects.  There may not be many such prospects but if your offer really appeals to them, you may have a viable business.  If not, find another group of prospects and design a new offer for them.  This does not necessarily imply a different product or service, a new to present it may appeal to a different groups of people.

So, ask yourself: who really needs your offer?  Can you define their need?  Can you narrow this market even further?  Who are the less than 1% who really want your offer?

How can you speak to them so they hear what you say and respond because you are saying it to them?

Do not fear putting off others who don’t need your offer so much.  If you can find those who really must accept your offer, you will have customers who will be great advocates for you.

If this has been helpful, let me know.  What else would you like to know about this topic?

How to Avoid Unproductive Conversations

The problem is we often discover people we don’t want to talk to once we start the conversation!  So, it’s worth knowing the warning signs and how to avoid unproductive conversations.

During a one-to-one, I know fairly quickly when a prospect is not going to be a good customer for me.  I need clients who are going to do their work; because they commit to making their business work.  If they are time-wasting or convinced I am conning them or unable to sustain a conversation, then they are not good prospects for me.

However, someone who is not suitable for me may still be a genuine prospect for another provider.  Sometimes they need something I don’t offer.  So, I try to help people find the right person if they are not right for me.

False Positives and Negatives

We all make mistakes.  We reject someone who would make a good client or accept someone who turns out much less than ideal.

This is why it helps to know about the people we don’t want to talk to as well as those we do.

It is rare for a conversation to be a total waste of time.  With experience you can identify several possible outcomes to pursue as the conversation proceeds.  Someone who is not suitable as a client may put you in touch with other prospects, or sign up to your email list … You never know how someone may help you.

Some network groups organise 10 minute one-to-ones.  Ten minutes are ample time to assess someone and bow out of the conversation if it is likely to go nowhere.

Some networking systems use even shorter time periods – speed networking can allow just 1 minute.  I find one minute is a little too short.  Whilst I can decline people who are not prospects, I find I tend to seek further one-to-ones with too many others simply because I need longer to assess them.

Overall, don’t worry about false negatives – they are missed opportunities. There are plenty of people out there and the likelihood is you will encounter the same people again.  Fear the false positive – they can be far more destructive.

What to Look For

Some people are obviously not interested.  And some are honest about that.  Maybe check out whether you have any common interests and otherwise part company.

Some are not interested in you as a provider but have some other reason to meet you.  They may have something to sell you or have an hour to kill.  They may be interested in you for other reasons.  Once you work out what they want, decide whether you want to continue the conversation.

The most hazardous contacts are those who may seem to be likely clients but are actually bad news.  Their real nature may take time to emerge.

Some Examples

For example, I’ve had a couple of clients who believed they knew more than I did.  Why they took me on is something of a mystery.  One of them was insecure and forever checking with other providers.  I found she was doing the job she had employed me to do.  The other simply wanted my role and had presumably been overruled by the organisation’s committee.

They were both during my early days in business and I am much more thorough checking my clients understand my offer and know exactly what to expect.

Another species of time waster is the person who takes you on and then disappears.  These days I make it clear they are entering a contract.  We shake on the deal.  This is theatre but it makes it clear they are making a serious commitment.  They can still pull out but I’m wise enough these days to do nothing for them until their money is in the bank.  I send them some preliminary exercises but they pay for my response to their work.  The issue is not giving away my secrets – I don’t really have any – but it is important they don’t waste my time.

Explain the Rules

I have read about coaches who take on board someone who at some stage tries to make trouble.  You need to be clear about the ground rules.  Explain exactly when you will meet and how you can be contacted between times.  Promise results, not hours and be careful what results you promise.  When coaching, we expect clients to do their work.  I find it easy to respond positively to work produced by clients.

If a client wants you to do something for them, by all means consider it but charge more if you agree!

We can all live without the client from hell.  If they become impossible, refund them and tell them to piss off (in the friendliest of language!)

If this has been helpful, let me know.  What else would you like to know about this topic?

People Who Are Going to Buy From You

The people who are going to buy from you are not the same as your market.  Your market is the people who identify with your offer and support it.  The people who are going to buy from you are a smaller group of people within your overall market.

This leads to two questions.  First, what distinguishes those who buy from you from those who don’t buy even though they are supportive of your marketing message?  The second question: how do you increase the number of customers from your market?

Who are the People who are Going to Buy?

Everyone makes decisions from the perspective of multiple pressures.  Those predisposed to your offer may still consider other factors.

Remember these factors are not necessarily determinative.  One prospect may be swayed by one factor whilst another listens to a different argument.  Their reasons for saying yes or no are not set in stone.  If you genuinely believe your offer would benefit a prospect; probe and challenge the reasons given for not making a purchase.

How to find more customers from your market

The objections people make to your offer are not absolute.  They are a test for you and your offer and so it is helpful to rehearse responses to common objections.  If you sell mainly through one-to-one meetings (as opposed to website or shopfront), structure arguments that anticipate objections.  The awareness ladder provides a framework for structuring your arguments.

Here are some ideas to help prospects who voice the objections listed above.

Listen for Their Problems

The real issue for many people is they need to see the value of your offer for themselves.  So, your aim is to get them talking and thinking about their objectives and how you can help them.  Many new businesses provide too much information.  If you can listen to your prospects, they will tell you their problems.  You can then make an offer based on their problems.  “This is how my offer can help you.”

By listening carefully to your prospects you can identify weaknesses in your marketing and sales approach and make adjustments as your experience increases.

Has this post been helpful?  Please share any insights you have into this topic by leaving a comment.

Your Prospect’s Main Concern

What is your prospect’s main concern?  I’ve written about how the Value Triangle works and how to explain the Value Triangle  to prospects.  You will remember, or follow the links for a reminder, your customers can have two out of three values – high quality, fast speed and low-cost.

Most customers can say which of these they prefer, although perhaps most will not have given much thought to these until you ask.  But are they really their main concern?

Towards Your Market’s Problem

The real problem you have is to uncover your prospect’s concerns.  It is common to find the prospect knows they have a problem but does not know what it is!  One of the most useful services you  provide is to listen carefully and help them define their concern.

You will often be approached with a presenting problem.  This is a real problem but conceals a deeper issue that really needs to be addressed.  For example, many years ago I knew an advice worker  whose client slammed a parcel in front of her and asked: “What am I supposed to do with this?”

The parcel contained a whole fish!

The advice worker was not expert in gutting and preparing fish but dug a bit deeper.  She found the man’s wife had recently died and he was having difficulty coping.

I’m not sure the Value Triangle would be much use here.  The man had a problem and needed help to resolve it.  He may have some views about cost and time and quality but they are hardly the point!

Everyone is different and the real challenge is generalising from specific problems many people experience.  There are many bereaved people around and some need to learn to cook.  It may be possible to find a market for teaching cooking and support for the bereaved.  Usually you need research to generalise solutions from individual presenting problems.

Mistaken Markets

This is all very well but let’s imagine a business owner approaches you and says they need a new website.  You’re a web developer and so they are in the right place if they do indeed need a new website.

The first issue is to decide whether a new website is in fact what they need.  It is clearly what they want but your challenge is probe further.

When you ask questions like this, you may find the problem is not their website so much as their organisation.  They need help with marketing or business coaching or personal coaching.

Most web developers are not equipped to dig into these issues and indeed would see little point in doing so.  After all, their prospect presents with the website as their main concern.

Let’s say you are a business coach.  You would be interested in asking these questions but lack the opportunity to do so because someone presenting with a broken website will go to a web developer.  You don’t want to stop people who need a web developer going there but how do you find those who actually need business coaching?

Marketing is Essential

This is where marketing is essential.  You can educate your market to recognise the problems you solve before they approach the wrong business-owner.  The chances are many prospects approach the wrong people at first.  This is where collaboration and networking is important.  If a prospect comes to me with a concern I cannot address, then I can signpost them to a more appropriate provider.

Perhaps small groups of complementary businesses can be more effective than a business with a specific offer working in isolation.  After all, if their main concern requires business coaching it does not mean they will not need a website at some stage.

Has this post been helpful?  If so, let me know.  Comment to raise issues and ask for more information.  Sign up for my ebook below to receive a weekly round-up of my blog posts.

Freedom to Make Your Own Decisions

Freedom is never something that just happens.  We are all bound by constraints of circumstance and perspective.  This is as true for the wealthy as it is for the poor.  We are fooling ourselves if we believe money alone guarantees freedom.

It is tempting to think of lack of freedom as a matter of circumstance.  “If only things were different, then I would be free.”  It is our perspective or mindset that is just as binding on our lives as the circumstances we find ourselves in.   Indeed it can be our mindset that leaves us at the mercy of circumstance.

Alignment

So, to be free we must have a purpose; be free is to do something.  And we need the means to do it.  This is life where profit and values overlap.  To focus on profit alone is to live without purpose, but without profit your purpose is unfulfilled.

If you run a business you must master the art of marketing.  However, it is not some dark art formulated by myrmidons with jargon terms and slick salespersonship.  Marketing at its best is a congruent expression of your values and what you do.  You are bringing your vision or purpose into the light of day, expressed in everyday words and profoundly honest.

So, alignment of your marketing with your values and your offer is essential and your challenge is to align five elements of your business to lend it coherence and credibility.

Values

Let’s assume you know what your values are and want to see them expressed through your business.

Sometimes business people lose sight of their values as they work on their business.  Simply keeping up with everything there is to do means we don’t have time to reflect on our business.  If we are a lone worker, we are not accountable to anyone other than ourselves for our values.  To speak them to a listening ear, helps keep them in mind.

The other error we make is overemphasising values at the cost of business.  If we have a skill we know to be of value, the temptation to give it away or sell it at a low price can overwhelm us.  We must do justice to our contribution because otherwise we will in time have no contribution to make.

Offers

It is essential your offers align with your values.  Coaches and freelancers, base their decision to go into business on an acquired skill and their values inform their desire to learn that skill.  Some businesses have low-end products that allow them to use their skill with the greatest number of people and high-end offers that effectively subsidise their low-end offers.

This approach requires you to make sure you align all your offers with your values.  The prices of your high-end packages must reflect their value to their market.

Marketing

Your marketing must align with your offer and values.  So far, this is obvious.  Everything you say should be congruent with your values.  The challenge is congruence with your offer.

Let’s say you are a coach and your coaching practice is clearly values-based.  How can you use your skills as a coach to market your business?  Think of the advantages.  Your prospects will experience something of your skills as a coach.  They will get a better idea of what you offer and understand the commitment they make when they work with you.

Market / Problem

Be aware of the distinction between what you sell and what you deliver.  You sell solutions to problems in your market.  What you deliver is the means you use to solve the problem.

So, if you sell peace of mind you might deliver home security equipment or fitness regimes or financial advice or …

You need to align your marketing with your market and specifically the problem you solve for them.  You need to use language they understand and show you understand their problem (and can solve it).

If you get all this right and find clients, you will be able to point to success among your clients or customers.

Local Benefit

Finally, you can align your market with the wider benefits of your business to your community.  This is harder to pin down.  People often speak of outcomes, the changes that happen as a result of delivery of outputs.

So, if you coach coaches, their clients will benefit from your coaching.  If you help someone improve their health, their friends and family will benefit.

This is hard to capture but it is the ultimate result of your values and all the work you have put in.

Looking Back from Local Benefit to Values

So, if you imagine a line connecting values to offers to marketing to market to local benefit, you can stand at either end and look along it.  As you plan or review your business you can stand at the values end of the line and see how each element falls into place and follows logically from the one before.

Stand at the local benefits end of the line and ask, whether you can see your values in the outcomes of your work.  If not your values, whose?  Maybe you have done unintended good and so find new values you were not aware of.  Or perhaps you can begin to see where along the line your values are not fully expressed or indeed where your values are a problem!

If you are seeking freedom through business, then alignment of your values and your outcomes is essential.  It is hard work but it is work with a purpose and that is freedom.

If you found this post helpful, do let me know.  I’d be happy to write other posts with more details, on request.

Your Prospect’s Worldview

Your prospect’s worldview is how they perceive and understand the world around them.  They are more likely to buy from you if your offer supports their worldview.  So, the question becomes how does your offer support their worldview.  This is essentially what marketing is about!

There are three ways to approach your prospects’ worldview.  They are not equally helpful and so how you set about this task is worth serious consideration.

Change Your Prospect’s Worldview

Generally, this is not possible.  Peoples’ worldviews are deeply entrenched and any attempt to change minds is likely to be viewed negatively.

What is a worldview?  Let’s imagine you have a herbal remedy for a medical condition.  Assume the remedy is effective and follows health and safety guidelines.  Your website outlines the treatment and offers evidence of its effectiveness.

You have two prospects.  One is a firm believer in conventional medicine.  The other believes in alternative therapies.  Neither worldview has anything to do with the effectiveness of the treatment.  The treatment would be equally effective with both prospects.

The former is more likely to be swayed by hard evidence or testimonials from established conventional practitioners.  The latter may be more interested in how the treatment works.  You are perhaps more likely to sell to the latter.

I’m not saying it is impossible to sell to the former but in doing so you will not change their worldview.  Indeed, any attempt to do so is likely to lose you the sale.  Desperation or recommendation will get them to your website or doorstep.   You may still have a job on to persuade them.

The latter may want to see the treatment as an alternative to conventional therapies.  They may have concerns about big pharmaceutical companies and so be sceptical about hard evidence that emphasises the treatment is acceptable to established medical practice.

In effect you have two markets for the same product.  To address one market may deter the other.  The former might prefer a professional looking surgery and lots of white coats.  The latter a more informal atmosphere.

Does this matter?  So long as you have enough customers, it does not.

Change Your Own Worldview

I suspect this is almost as difficult as changing your prospects’ worldview!  The issue here is your integrity.    How convincing are you likely to be if you do not really believe in your offer?  Someone committed to alternative therapies is unlikely to come across as genuine if they attempt the white-coated clinical image.  And vice-versa.

If you are introducing something to the market, the chances are you will appeal to a small market of early innovators.  There are likely to be similar offers on the market and so the issue is how to stand out from the others.  So, target people who are most likely interested in your offer and speak to their worldview.

Once you have satisfied customers you will have evidence your approach works and so you can address a wider market.  As your reputation improves your market will expand.

So, perhaps it is better to see marketing as several initiatives that start extreme and slowly develop to support a larger market.

I suspect this will not work for everyone and indeed, if you have a sizeable market and an extreme approach, you may lose customers if you try to move your image to the mainstream.

 Find Your Tribe

So, the third strategy is to find your tribe.  The idea here is, assuming it is a large enough market, you can seek out the people drawn to your worldview.  So long as you can make enough money, you may find a small market of people who like what you are saying is all you need!

This may be good advice for most business start-ups.  You need to get established and show how your approach delivers.  You can then choose to focus on your tribe, because they like what you offer and can pay for it.  Or else attempt to develop a wider market.

This can be done by attempting sell the same thing to a different market, with a different worldview.  Or else you could use your reputation to design and market a related offer to a new market.  This new market may have its own worldview and so form effectively a new business.

You can therefore, attempt to enter the mass market or select smaller markets and design offers that resonate with them.  Some businesses offer a range of products or services that speak to different markets.  Some may be markets designed to generate income and others may be opportunities to use business skills in non-business contexts, eg voluntary work or pro bono offers.

This means you must structure your business with care so that your portfolio of offers clearly addresses distinct markets.

If this post has been helpful, please let me know, especially if you would like to expand on any point.

Local Economy Events, Spring 2017

Here are the Local Economy Events I’m organising and participating in during the Spring.  If you are local, this will be a useful guide to upcoming events in Sheffield.  If you live elsewhere, they are ideas for activities you can organise yourself.  For more information about them and how we are organising them, simply leave a comment.

Updated 28 April 2017

Success Summit 2017

If you live in travel distance of Sheffield, put this date in your diary!  On 20 May 2017, a small group of businesses is organising a business and personal development event.  We are aiming for 200 people to attend for networking and informative, entertaining speaking.  You will see from the website, I am one of the keynote speakers at the event.

I have tickets and can sell them to you if you’re likely to run into me in Sheffield or else you can book through the website.

Curry Club

The Curry Club is a twice monthly (first and third Thursdays) business network event.  For £10 you get a three course curry, networking with an average of 20 business owners and a keynote talk.  The same group of businesses organises this event, each leading and promoting in turn.

The next meeting of the Curry Club is on 4 May 2017.  As usual there will be a speaker on some business related topic.

If you would like to attend, follow the link to Eventbrite.  This helps the restauranteur prepare the food.  Payment is in cash on the door.  If you can’t make this one, future meetings shall be on Eventbrite.

Telling Stories: Making Business

Telling Stories: Making Business is a twice monthly (second and fourth Thursdays) lunch and learn event I organise for business owners who want to use stories to promote their business.  My aim is to build a dynamic group who will take turns to share a story they use to promote their business.  Over the weeks we shall explore different types of story.

The idea is to take the story apart and put it back together to help the storyteller tell it to its best effects.  We’ll explore how it can be used and possible media to tell it.  Each meeting shall end with an elevator pitch where everyone can say what they have learned during the meeting.

If you would like to meet with a small group who can help you tell your story and use it to promote your business, contact me through the comments.

The fee of £10 includes lunch: burgers, wraps and similar with a drink.

Here is a brief account of the meeting on 13 April 2017:

Speaking Accelerator

I am currently polishing my speaking skills by taking part in the Public Speaking Academy’s Speaking Accelerator course.  There will be a couple of final days where there will be an opportunity to hear short speeches from the participants.  This will be an opportunity to hear some brilliant speeches and see what you could do with training and support.

The meetings are at 6pm on 25 April and 9 May 2017.  I spoke at the first but it is worth hearing the remaining speakers at the second meeting.  I have a few free tickets for the event.  If you would like to attend, leave a comment.  Or check out Eventbrite for more information:  The Accelerator: May 9.

And … Finally …

I shall soon launch my new lead magnet on my website: “Five Proven Steps to be Paid What You Really Deserve: Getting the Most Out of Coaching, Consultancy or Freelancing”.  You can reach it through my Business Success Quiz – a quick and fun way to assess your business viability!  Quizzes are a new way to promote lead magnets because they are, apparently, irresistible!  Do let me know if you manage to resist it!

Check back to this page over the next few weeks as I shall update as and when there is new information.