Category Archives for "Marketing"

Your Business Purpose is Transformation

If you are seeking a super rocking fun time marketing plan, you need a strategic objective for your business.  This may be something of a disappointment – how does he go from fun to strategic objective in one sentence?  Actually, it’s worse than that.  You actually need three strategic objectives!  Give me strength!  Three?  I’m out of here …

Still here?  OK let’s take them one at a time and you will see why you need three objectives and their benefits to your business.  Three objectives sidestep the tangle of crossed purposes and emotions; trying to do everything through one objective.

Your Business Purpose

Not to put too fine a point on it, it is not true your business purpose is about money.  The business gurus and politicians will tell you business is about money.  (I’ll write about money next time.)  It isn’t.  It never has been and never will be.

Here is a quote from a contemporary economist, John Kay:

Profit is no more the purpose of business than breathing is the purpose of life.

Note what Kay is saying here: first, your purpose is not about money and second, money is crucial to your business success.

Transformation

Your purpose is the change your business brings to the world.  The change you make to your clients’ quality of life is your business’s most immediate impact.  You can get feedback from your clients, as testimonials or case studies, and these prove the positive changes your work has brought about.

But your business purpose goes beyond that.  If your clients are businesses, chances are their clients will benefit from your offer.  You may seek transformation of some aspect of your clients’ business practice.  Perhaps you want to see changes to management in some specific industry, for example.

Personal clients have friends, families and neighbours and so your purpose may produce transformation in this wider community.  As a trader, you may work with other traders to transform your neighbourhood.  Your purpose relates to what you bring to positive transformation.

The Role of Money

To be successful as a business you need money.  Make a loss and sooner or later your business will end.  The issue is not whether you need money or even how much. What matters is how you approach money-making.  You need a money-making focus to meet your business purpose and your third business objective.  More about this next week.

In these posts and emails I am forging a new approach to marketing.  Please comment and let me know what you think, whether you agree or disagree.

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Your Super Rocking Fun Time Marketing Plan

That got your attention!  Your Marketing Plan is of course deadly serious and the idea that you might have fun with it and actually enjoy marketing is, well – as every fool knows –  a pipedream.  Marketing distracts from your real business, from delivering your service that brings real benefit into the lives of your clients and their clients, friends, families and neighbours.

Right?

Wrong!

It is not your product or service that brings these benefits into the world – it is your marketing!  The truth is most of us get marketing completely wrong.  We see it as a chore, a distraction and an utter pain.  Actually, it is your business – your marketing delivers the benefits you offer to the world.

But, fun?  Isn’t it hard work?  Of course it’s hard work!  But look at this way.  If your marketing is not fun, if you do not enjoy it, what are the chances your potential customers will find your offer attractive?  And how long are you going to slog away at it?

Granted you should not appear frivolous.  Most offers need gravitas.  If you offer coaching for the bereaved, your marketing needs to reflect that but it does not mean you can’t enjoy it!  Enjoying your marketing keeps you going, keeps you sane and at some level communicates your offer as genuine.

Genuine marketing is from the heart as much as from the head and as such can be irresistible to your market.

Interested?

Stay with me through the summer as I introduce you to the principles of marketing as you have never seen them before.  I guarantee, if you read my posts and emails, you will find marketing to be completely different from how you have thought of it before.  They will inspire you and inspiration is a crucial step on the road to success.

So, watch out for my Wednesday posts, where I shall introduce basic principles to help you understand marketing in a new way.

And then on Thursdays a weekly email to people on my list will explore these themes at a deeper level.  They will refer to the blog posts but take the topic in a different direction.  This is where you will find out how to enjoy marketing and harness your inspiration for the benefit of your customers and beyond.

Enter your details and press the button below, if you are not already on my mailing list. Make sure you do not miss any of these business-changing emails.

Is Your Business B2B or B2C?

Sometimes it is worth asking: whether your market is business to business  or business to customer;  B2B or B2C?  Take care, these designations can be misleading.

They assume you are a business.  The first B is your business and so anyone who makes an offer is a business.  However, the recipient does not necessarily make a difference by being designated as a business.

Business or Customer?

Let’s assume your offer is marketing.  There are two ways to approach this.

You can offer marketing services.  This means you would be asked by a business to market some aspect of their business on their behalf.  This would be a DFY (done for you) service.  It is something that attracts small to medium-sized businesses that can afford commercial prices for a commercial service.

Alternatively, you might offer a coaching service.  Here it is likely the client will do most of their marketing themselves (DIY) or you might work closely with them (DWY).  My concern here is not to consider the pros and cons of these approaches but to point out this is where B2B and B2C can become somewhat academic.

The DFY approach is likely to appeal to companies with resources to spend on receiving a specialist service.  They are less likely to choose a coaching service for marketing unless they need to train staff in some specialist branch of marketing.

The DWY approach is more likely to be chosen by freelancers who cannot afford to pay for marketing and want to learn the basics for themselves.  Some of these may be companies and many unincorporated.  So, are the lone workers B2B or B2C?

This matters because the expectations of incorporated businesses are likely to be very different to those of a lone worker.  It may be inappropriate to offer something designed for one to the other.

The lone worker in a B2B arrangement may find they lose control of their business because someone markets for them.  An established business in a coaching arrangement may find they are not using their resources as effectively as they could.

All these businesses may think they are in a B2B relationships, even though for the lone worker the relationship may be more like a B2C arrangement.

It’s probably not crucial but worth bearing in mind.

Please let me know if this is helpful and if there are any points I could expand upon.

Who Qualifies for Your Offer?

Qualification can be a barrier for your prospects under some circumstances.  It is likely to be informal and so may not be obviously relevant.  So it is worth asking who qualifies for your offer.  But sometimes qualification can encourage people to sign up.

Prior Knowledge, Experience or Education

If you offer help to succeed in some activity, list what they need to know or experience to get most benefit from your offer.  You both want your work together to be successful and so it is in everyone’s interests this is clear before you set out.

If qualification for your offer proves to be a major barrier, this may be evidence you need a lower end offer to help people prepare for your main offer.  You could, for example, offer a workshop to cover the groundwork necessary to qualify for one to one coaching.  This could be a means to become better known and prepare your prospects for your services.

Another approach is to ask if you could adjust your offer to take account of people’s lack of qualification.  So, you might adjust the content or even add time to a plan to bring clients up to speed.

Another possibility may be recommended reading or videos.  This could be useful during the period between someone signing up and making their payment.  You could send them a reading list or links to videos, so they can make a start short of actually tackling the material in your offer.  If this is well-structured it may address the problem of buyer’s remorse, where someone has second thoughts before they make their first payment.

Do You Qualify?

It is worth considering whether qualification for your offer can be attractive!  If you deliberately target your offer to those who meet stringent criteria, this may be attractive.  You are offering membership as it were to an élite club.

Perhaps the simplest approach might be a series of offers and prospects must follow the sequence.  Earlier steps may be low-priced and then the more advanced options would depend on their completion.

I have not tried this myself but it seems to me there are at least two essentials to this approach.  First, the quality of every stage must be high.  One bad experience and prospects are unlikely to continue.

It would be essential to show why you have such a sequence.  There needs to be some justification for the way you break the work down.  Your offers must show at each level what those who complete it shall achieve.  This means people can choose to stop at a logical point where they can do whatever it is they set out to learn.

This may mean people feel a part of something special whatever level they choose.  They know they can progress further in the future but they are confident they have the best training for their present level of attainment.

It may be worth considering whether formal qualifications might enhance the value of your offer.

Please let me know if this is helpful and if there are any points I could expand upon.

How to Tell Right Targets from Wrong Targets

Perhaps the biggest problem facing any business is to identify its market.  It’s difficult because your target market needs to be small.  This is counter-intuitive.  We all have a gut feeling the bigger the market, the more business we will find.  This is not true because once we have found the right targets, we can aim our marketing to that market.  In a big general market, you compete with everyone else.

So, here are a few things to consider.  They will help you work out your wrong targets as well.  It is a waste of resources to market to the wrong targets and so it is helpful to know who they are.

Is there a real need?

Your target market will have a real need.  You need a story with which your market can identify.  Often in business, new technological developments supersede methods that worked a few years ago.  If you can help adjust to these changes, you may have a business.

Remember technological changes have social implications and it may be changes are not so much about learning use of some new device or application as dealing with its social implications.  The early adopters of a new technology find a way to use it and then later adopters find their needs are not fully served by these early methods.

Inertia is a growing expectation things are done in a certain way.  So, some people may feel they do not benefit from technology because they do not use it appropriately for  their market.

Proven methods are rarely so proven as they first appear.  An approach that works in one place does not necessarily work elsewhere.  The real need many customers have is to work out solutions that work in their particular circumstances. They need to know you understand their problem and can help them resolve it.

Do we promise real value?

If you promise to show why your customers have a problem and help them work out what to do about it, you offer real value.

Off-the-peg solutions can work but chances are the big players have them covered.  Also, many problems can be solved by searching online.  If you have a generally applicable solution, it is likely to appear online sooner or later and perhaps this is no bad thing.

The real challenges are where the mainstream solutions do not work.  The chances are the problem is not with the technology so much as the customer’s response to it.  The real value is  to help a customer identify their particular issues and make informed choices as a result.

Who are Your Prospects?

Clearly define the prospects for your offer.  They may experience the need and appreciate the value of your offer but there could be other barriers to a purchase.

Perhaps the biggest issue is whether they can afford your offer.  Let’s say you offer help with websites.  You may find the hassle of putting a site together is worthwhile over £2000.  Below that even a simple site is not worth the effort.

There may be many businesses that would benefit from your support if they could afford it.  But there is no point seeking prospects who can afford less than £2000.  You can’t afford to take them on.

Have you Something Valuable or Important to Say?

If you have a story or information of value to your prospects, this will help them identify you as the potential solution to their problem.  Many people struggle for years with a problem because they do not believe it can be solved.

If you can show you offer a solution to a problem they have never believed they could solve, they are likely to be interested in your offer.

You need to show knowledge of use to the prospect and show you know how to apply it.  You are not just offering information but insight into how your knowledge can be applied effectively.

Do You Promise to Solve a Problem?

This is the fundamental issue every business faces.  Do you offer to solve a problem that is live and real for your prospects?  Your prospects need not be aware of the problem but it is important they want to tackle it once aware of it.

It is essential your promise to solve the problem is credible.  You need to show there are solutions to the problem and that you are uniquely placed to offer the best possible solution.  It does not matter if this does not work for people who are not your prospects.  So, long as there are enough prospects  and you reach them, you have a business.

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.