The More Clients Blog

Marketing in Paradise

London Workshop News:

Free Preview TeleClass for London Workshop - Get a taste of the London Workshop by attending a Free Sample TeleClass

I'm writing this week's More Clients while on vacation in Mexico.

Imagine sitting on a verandah, overlooking coconut palms and the Pacific Ocean, sipping a pina colada, and listening to Cuban music on headphones (close as I could get to Mexican music) as I send you my thoughts on marketing your business.

I'm taking a break from my series "Ten Dumb Marketing Mistakes which I'll pick up when I return next week. But let me tell you how I ended up in Mexico in the first place.

Sometime near the end of March, after being deluged by forty days and forty nights of rain (only a slight exaggeration) my wife declared: Why don't we go and stay somewhere warm and dry next winter? How could I argue with that?

Not a bad idea.

But pretty soon this god idea turned into an even better one (in her mind).

"Why don't we go to Mexic and buy a condo so we can visit Mexico anytime we want to?" Pretty soon she was researching condos on the Internet and found an irresistible deal: One week at a high-end condo resort in Mazatlan for just $50 per night (in exchange for a condo sales pitch, of course).

Before I knew what I was in for, we were booked. The fact that they had wireless Internet sealed the deal. I could check email a couple times a day, write my eZine on Monday, and otherwise relax in paradise for some much needed rest and renewal.

Now about that condo sales pitch.

I know what you're thinking. You imagine me being locked inside a room for six hours while they put on the hard sell, and that I'm now the proud, but reluctant, owner of a condo in paradise. (Great investment, honey.)

Well, no, not exactly.

What I experienced instead was a very pleasurable selling experience. If Independent Professionals could sell this well, they'd all be rich.

On Sunday morning we met with Robert E. a man with a broad smile, high energy and endless enthusiasm. I've never seen anyone who was so sold on his product. The condo we were staying at (Costa Bonita) had a few units for sale and we toured several of them. It really is a beautiful property in a gorgeous setting.

But Robert reserved most of his enthusiasm for the new property (same developer) just a mile down the road that is in the middle of construction. The artist's renderings were stunning, but the property itself was currently a mass of concrete and iron rebar. As we walked around the barren floors overlooking the Paciific, Robert was ebullient. "And this is where your master bedroom will be! Look at that view. Isn't it amazing?"

Robert and his wife had actually bought a condo there themselves and the building was already ninety percent sold out. Only about eight units are left. Talk about a seller's market. Robert wasn't worried about selling to us. The way things were going, the building would be sold out by the end of June.

We also found out a little about Robert. Three years ago he was living in Montana selling pre-fab log homes. After a devastating divorce, he found himself in Mazatlan looking for a real estate job. Upon visiting Costa Bonita he met the sales Manager, Debbie, fell in love and got married!

He then went on to become the star salesperson at Costa Bonita and their new property down the road. Talk about reinventing yourself.

What can you learn from Robert?

Well, it certainly isn't sales techniques. Robert doesn't have many (you know, the blatant, annnoying ones). But he has a simple formula: 1. Have a great product that you have real confidence in. 2. Fall in love with that product and express that passion in everything you do.

As Independent Professionals, we all have (potentially at least) a great product (professional services that make a difference) and if we're not passionate about those services, who will be?

We haven't bought a condo yet; we're not sure it's right for us. But I do know one thing for sure. If we don't act now, there won't be a condo left to buy. Robert will make sure of that!

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: The best tool you have for marketing and selling your services is a natural confidence in what you have to offer and a true passion for sharing that service with others.

Share your thoughts on this topic of selling with passion.

Knowing Your Value

The third dumbest marketing mistake in our series is one that is so insidious that it's invisible to most of us. In speaking with thousands of Independent Professionals over the years I've asked this question: "Do you think you're getting paid what you're worth?"

And never, not once in twenty two, years has anyone said, "Yes, I am." Everyone feels they are not getting paid what they are worth, and yet almost nobody does anything about it.

Even if I gave you a dozen strategies to raise your rates or to repackage your services for higher value, you'd likely have a problem doing it because your "wealth thermostat" is set at a fixed position that always springs back to where it was.

Your wealth thermostat is set for the amount of income you feel comfortable earning in a year. Perhaps it's $50K or $100K or $200K or $500K per year. And anything much beyond that level is not only uncomfortable to you, it's downright scary.

Do any of the following statements seem true to you?

• You see money as a scarce commodity that's hard to get more of (no matter what you earn).

• You think people that make more money than you do are morally inferior to you (even while you envy them).

• You find it hard to invest in yourself (workshops, books programs). Investments always looks like expenses to you.

• When you make good money you tell yourself that it won't last or that it's not enough. The glass is always half empty.

• You feel virtuous when you work hard and do a good job, but feel a little (or a lot) guilty when you charge a high fee.

All of these are symptoms of a scarcity mindset. And for some reason, most of us seem to be afflicted with it to one degree or another. Having money naturally flowing into our lives easily and effortlessly is a foreign concept to most of us.

Starting to Value Yourself

What can you do to start moving from a scarcity to a sufficiency or abundance mindset? There are a lot of ways, and I won't pretend that you can change your whole money mindset overnight, so I want to focus on one simple thing - what you actually charge your clients.

What you're going to do is change the settings on your wealth thermostat. It's a simple, 5-step process that won't take long and will help you shift your perception of the value of your services.

1. Make a list of the things you have helped your clients with. This should be a long list that includes everything you can think of.

2. Narrow this list down to just five clients that you had the most success with and try to estimate the actual value each client received from you. Make it as tangible as possible.

3. Next ask yourself, given the actual value that each client received, what would be a fair price for your services? How does this compare to the price you actually charged?

4. Now take this new, fairer price that's based on real value provided and double it. So if you originally charged $1,000 and a fair price would be $2,000, then write down $4,000.

5. Then do this exercise out loud (with yourself or a friend): What's your price for this project? You: The price for this project is $4,000. Repeat several times over a period of time until it feels natural and easy to say it.

The next time you quote a price at the real value of $2,000, it will seem very reasonable, if not downright cheap. You will have shifted your wealth thermostat and it will feel much more comfortable charging higher fees.

Not only that, the prospect will show less resistance in paying those fees. As this new wealth setting becomes a reality for you, it becomes a reality to others.

Try it, it works!

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: You're as wealthy, successful and as valuable as you think you are. Before you earn more money, you need to believe you are worth more. Change your wealth thermostat and money will start to come more easily, with less struggle.

Share your thoughts on this topic and your experiences of charging for your services on this Blog.

*

Some High Value Marketing Tools

The best investment you can make in marketing is in yourself. Learn how to become a better marketer of your professional services. Click on this link for the Action Plan Marketing products page: Marketing Tools.

Smart Marketing Investing

Today's More Clients is second in a series of "Dumb Marketing Mistakes and How to Correct Them." Not investing in your marekting is dumb mistake number two.

This week I got an email from one of my customers. It said: "Do you think, by me learning from your InfoGuru marketing and action plan e-books, I can become a marketing consultant? Or do I need lots more than that?"

That's a little like saying, "If I read Gray's Anatomy, can I become a doctor?"

So yes, you'll need a lot more than that. Even if what you want to do is market your services competently, with less struggle and better results, you're going to have to invest in yourself. It will take some time, money and effort.

"But how much," everyone asks me, "before I start seeing results and start attracting clients consistently? How much time, money and effort do I actually need to invest?"

I think the big key here is "Smart Investing."

You need to invest in developing skills, not just in accumulating more information. The information is important, but only if it's applied. This is why I'm developing a new workshop that's much more focused on creating plans and building skills rather than stuffing people's heads with more marketing ideas.

Read this week's complete ezine here: Smart Marketing Investing.

This week please share the following with us: What secrets have you learned to implement marketing strategies that work for you?

The Preparation Factor

This is the first of ten More Clients articles on the "Ten Dumb Mistakes" we make in marketing our services. I'll be exploring them all in more depth in the coming weeks. If you don't stop making them, your success is in jeopardy.

The first mistake is "Being Unprepared."

Boring topic, right? Yeah, yeah, we know -- be a professional and do my homework and make my marketing action plans, and everything will be hunky dory.

Well, duh, I know that! Got anything more exciting?

I'm sure you know all the rules. But do you live by them most of the time? Probably not. We all know why: it's inertia. You're very busy (in fact, often overwhelmed), you have other priorities, and you're smart enough to "wing it" most of the time. So what's the big deal?

The big deal is that lack of preparation has a huge impact on your bottom line. It costs you every single time you're not prepared. I'm willing to bet you could double or even triple your income in the next year if you made preparation a priority. It's that important.

Let's get specific.

You already know that you need to talk about your business in a certain way to get attention and interest. (I call it the Audio Logo.) Someone asks you what you do and the response to the words you utter can be, "Hmmm, that's interesting, tell me more," or that blank, eyes-glazed-over look, depending on how well you prepared.

I've met hundreds of people through networking and I'll let you in on a dirty little secret. Most business people are just not prepared with that introduction. Not even close. It's pretty pathetic. What they say has little impact; the conversation tends to ramble aimlessly. Nothing stimulates interest, let alone a response.

Look, imagine you were cast as Hamlet.

You were told to go home and memorize your lines and do some preparation for your role. But it was more important to go out with your friends for dinner that night.

You show up for the rehearsal the next day and when they call on you, your lack of preparation is obvious. They give you another day to prepare. You memorize a few lines, but don't make a serious effort to get into the part.

How long will you have that role before they fire your sorry a--?

Not long.

But why is it that you can run your own business and profess to be an expert that can help your clients, and you can't even get your lines right? "No big deal," you think. You're your own boss after all, and this stuff isn't that important, is it?

The truth is, the business world is equally unforgiving. What happens is that prospective clients fire you all the time - before you even get a chance to work for them! You open your mouth, and mumble words that have exactly zero persuasive power and the prospect writes you off in a nano-second.

When you're prepared in your marketing, you know what to say because you've practiced it. You get it so down that you can say it with twenty seven subtle variations to suit every single situation. And you start to command attention and... respect.

When you meet someone, you're no longer wondering if you'll get their attention. You're wondering how you'll fit in a new client. Because every single time you open your mouth, people fall under your spell.

Just like a great (and very prepared) Hamlet.

When you give a presentation, do a proposal, or perform a project, you'll always make a greater impact when you're fully prepared. And like Hamlet, who masters his lines and his character, your performance is fresh and authentic every single time.

So yes, preparation is the key. And if you're not doing it in your marketing, I'm sorry to say, but you're presenting yourself as an amateur. And prospects don't want to buy from amateurs.

Read this week's complete ezine here: The Preparation Factor.

This week please share the following with us: What is lack of preparation costing you in your business? Are you even aware of it?

Ten Dumb Marketing Mistakes

We all make mistakes.

And in marketing, most of us make some really dumb mistakes. They wouldn't be so dumb, if we didn't make them over and over and over! Even though they defy common sense and don't get us the results we want, we keep making them.

Why? Because doing dumb things is comfortable. And doing smart things is often uncomfortable. So the material in this eZine just may offend you. After all, we're also very good at justifying the dumb things we do. There's always some excuse, some plausible reason.

In today's eZine I'm going to outline the "Ten Dumb Mistakes" Independent Professionals tend to make with their marketing. And then in the following ten weeks I'm going to propose solutions and approaches to correcting those mistakes.

Ready? OK, here's my Ten Dumb Marketing Mistakes:

1. Being unprepared - Professionals prepare. They know their stuff. They study long hours. They get it right. They have a stake in the outcome. And a big reason Independent Professionals don't attract clients consistently is that they fumble around with marketing much like George Costanza from Seinfeld.

2. Not investing - You spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours and quite a few dollars to master your profession, didn't you? To become a competent marketer of your service also demands an investment of time, energy and money. You won't become a smart marketer overnight or by accident. Stop complaining; you need to commit.

3. Undervaluing yourself - The value you can provide to your clients is literally unlimited. The difference you can make is unbounded. But you'd never know it. A common mantra of Independent Professionals is, "I can't charge what I'm really worth." And it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. True self-value = long-term wealth.

4. Not mastering networking - The most powerful marketing strategy for Independent Professionals is, and will always be, building networks of relationships. If you don't master this, you have no real chance of reaching your true potential. Get out there!

5. Avoiding writing - Successful Independent Professionals write. It's the master skill of marketing. If you can't organize your ideas on paper, clearly and persuasively, how can you expect prospects to understand how you can help them?

6. Avoiding speaking - Successful Independent Professionals speak. It's the master skill of selling. If you can speak in front of a group confidently and persuasively, then selling will not be a big hurdle for you. Don't master it and selling will always feel hard.

7. Not leveraging the Internet - You don't need to be an "online business" to take advantage of the Internet. A high quality web site, a regular eZine and posting articles online, are all relatively simple and inexpensive marketing tools that give you amazing leverage.

8. Not asking - People have so much concern about offending someone or being rejected that they simply avoid asking. That's dumb. You need to ask. For time, for attention, for interaction, for meetings, for the business. Want it? Ask for it!

9. Not implementing - If we implemented just a fraction of what we already knew, we'd be more successful than we could imagine. You need to create intentions, action plans and timelines and then set up systems of accountability to make things happen.

10. Not risking - Playing it safe all the time may be the dumbest thing you can do. It makes you weak, fearful and complacent. What's outside of your comfortable little box? Success, joy, aliveness. Swing out there and risk failing for a change.

How do you score yourself on the smart to dumb marketing scale?

Assign a number from one to ten for each of the above ten dumb mistakes. A zero means you virtually never make that mistake. A ten means you make it all the time. Like in golf, a low score is good.

0 - 20 - You're a pretty smart marketer. Keep up the good work.
21 - 40 - Not bad, but you still have some marketing issues.
41 - 60 - You're losing marketing opportunities left and right.
61 - 80 - Pretty dumb marketer. Sure you're cut out for this?
81 - 100 - Hopelessly dumb marketer. Time for a new line of work.

Stay tuned to More Clients for the next ten weeks and I'll share my prescriptions for transforming yourself into a smart marketer. I'll give you one action plan a week that will help move you forward.

Read this week's complete ezine here: Ten Dumb Marketing Mistakes.

This week please share the following with us: What's the dumbest thing you're currently doing in your marketing and business? (Remember, confession, is good for the soul!)