The More Clients Blog

Journey of a Fearless Marketer

I get a lot of thank-you cards in the mail and got quite a few this past week as a result of last week's More Clients. One I got today was a beautiful card from Carol Briney with this quote on the front:

"Our success is measured not only from the money earned or advancements achieved, but from the number of lives enhanced, rivers not polluted, children not poisoned, illnesses prevented, health restored, and lives financially transformed."

Not a bad credo for every Independent Professional. But is this a pipe dream or a reality? What would it really take to commit to this kind of success?

Ever since I changed the name of my new marketing program to the Fearless Marketing Program, I've been thinking about what it means to live from, work from and market from a place of vision and fearlessness. What exactly would that look like?

Well, imagine you were going on a long and challenging journey. Reaching your destination would require vision, courage and fearlessness. But in fact, much more than that is needed.

You might call this journey the "Seven Steps to Fearless Marketing" and it would require the following skills:

1. A Fearless Stance
Aware of your fears and doubts, you face them unflinchingly, and avoid getting sucked into their destructive siren song. You take the path of clarity and intention and focus on what you really want to accomplish.

2. Understanding the Game
Instead of being caught in the complexities of the maze, you study the rules and moves required to move forward. You know what to do and when to do it.

3. Knowing the Language
Realizing that you must command the attention and interest of those you trade with, you learn the language of commerce and apply it to every interaction.

4. Having a Message
You message in essence, says, "This is how I can render service and this is the difference it will make to you." Without this message no one will engage with you, let alone retain your services.

5. Possessing the Currency
Building trust and credibility requires a special currency: valuable information. With it you can sway someone to your way of thinking, without it, you'll be ignored and disregarded.

6. Mastering Tactics
This is where the stance, the game, the language, the message and the currency are applied practically. Tactics are the moves you make to turn strangers into loyal clients.

7. Having a Plan
Finally, your tactics need to be arranged into an action plan--small doable steps that move everything forward until you've reached your ultimate destination.

Miss any of these steps and your marketing journey will get bogged down. Struggle and effort will follow. But with knowledge and application of these steps, you'll be a fearless marketer, ready for any challenge on the marketing journey.

In this brief summary of the Seven Steps to Fearless Marketing, I've only scratched the surface. To listen to a special online class on how to apply these seven steps, just click on the link below:

http://www.actionplan.com/ftc.html

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Fearless Marketing isn't hype or a motivational technique, it is a learned skill. Anyone can be a fearless marketer. But you must first make the commitment to be one.

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What would your business be like if you were a fearless marketer? Please share on the Blog.

The Power of a Thank You

One of the bonuses that comes with the Infoguru Manual is an article about the power of thank-you notes. One customer, Duncan Shaw, recently sent me an email relating how this article had impacted his business.

It was so good I decided to turn it into this week's More Clients:

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In recent years I have observed an increasing reliance on autoresponders, aweber tools and other means for small business owners and marketers to try to leverage their time. This is all well and fine, but this "insert peg in hole" culture has fostered an impersonal and homogenous experience for both clients and prospective clients.

And then we wonder why our professional service businesses are treated like price-driven commodities? Hmm.

Even with vendors I work with only occasionally, I can smell a template email response a mile away, and it makes me think: What, I'm not important enough that you couldn't find 20 seconds to send me a personal email reply?

Anyway, with this in context, the article about Andrea's thank-you note writing practice hit a nerve (in a good way) and it made me think: Who does this today? Hardly anyone, of course. I can count on one hand the number of times I've received a short, thoughtful, hand-written note from someone--but I can also remember who they were and what their business is, to this day.

And people forget about the life-time value of a client's business, not just their first year or two's worth of invoices, so what does this say about that?  

About two months ago I started sending 2-3 short notes daily to vendors, clients, contractors, colleagues, anyone I came into contact with, however minor the occasion. It's important to "smile as you write", as your article suggests, otherwise it will seem like some contrived, dashed off attempt at connecting while trying to do 20 other things at the same time.  

But the exercise has had two effects for me and my company so far:

1) In a very unexpected way, it has made me feel better about myself and my business as a service provider, which bleeds through into the energy I exude all day long.

To anyone who doesn't think it makes a difference in how you walk, talk, and carry yourself and your expressions, I would say try this for yourself and see. I also find myself following through with clients more thoroughly and attentively, and having better focus and productivity.

I think it has something to do with taking a few minutes to *slow down* and give someone your undivided attention. We all crave feeling listened to and acknowledged.

2) On a more tangible level, I have had two important corporate referrals and increased amounts of business from regular clients to whom I've dropped notes in the mail (one of them nearly double).

I have also received expressions of true, bona fide human appreciation from both clients and vendors we work with, whom really will go the extra mile now. Little human touches in the impersonal "we care, but not that much" ocean has an exponential effect on people's desire to know, like, trust, and do business with you.

It simply cements your relationships and builds trust and goodwill.

I want to be clear that while I have become a believer in sending hand-written notes, the object is NOT to simply garner new business or manipulate vendors into putting forth additional efforts; if that's someone's thinking, it will be very apparent and backfire.

The object should be just in doing it itself without expectation of reward or recognition, and let things take care of themselves.

Hope this is of some interest/help; I'm grateful for your work and mission. Having been through the Dan Kennedy's and Jeff Paul's of the world of marketing in earlier years (who know their stuff insofar as making money, certainly), your services and information products ARE unique and invaluable.

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Thank you Duncan. I appreciate it. This is such a great example of how little things can make a big difference. - RM

You can see Duncan's web site at: www.dtstrans.com - DTS Language Services, Inc.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Taking the extra step to make sincere contact with your customers gives multiple rewards. Write a note today expressing your appreciation. As Duncan said, you'll also feel better about yourself in the process!

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How are you making more personal connections with your clients? Please share on the Blog.

A Hot Issue

Have you been listening recently to the media, opinion makers, politicians and your friends lately?

What is currently the hottest issue on the planet?

Global Warming / Climate change.

Just last week Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, backed major legislation to cut back greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. But if you've been tuning in, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Every time you turn on the news, open a paper, magazine or blog there's another story about the planet heating up, and what it means to you. I made up a quick list of things that have caught my attention recently:

Al Gore's must-see movie: An Inconvenient Truth
The rise in popularity of hybrid vehicles
Biodeisel and ethanol as alternate fuels
Vacation spots affected by global warming (Via Magazine)
A major segment on CBS about global warming
Record high temperatures across the globe
Increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes
More homes being converted to solar energy

The verdict is in: Climate change is real and humans are the cause. we're pumping way too much C02 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. No credible climate scientist disagrees.

So why the heck am I talking about this in More Clients? Good question!

Here's what I've been thinking: Since global warming is real and will potentially have horrific consequences (think Katrina) shouldn't we be doing something about it?

And I'm not talking here about daily conservation efforts - buying that hybrid car, cutting back on your heating bills and recycling. Sure, you need to do all of those things, but what if you could make a bigger impact as an Independent Professional?

I've always liked to think of Independent Professionals as catalysts for change. Change in the lives of individuals and change in the life of a business.

What we do makes a difference.

But what if we focused some of that difference-making energy into contributing to the end of global warming? What might that look like? What could you do?

Look, I certainly don't have a master plan here, but a bunch of ideas popped into my head. If you like some of them, take them and run with them. And share some of your ideas on the More Clients Blog.

Sustainable businesses.
A lot of businesses are working towards more sustainability. It's not just The Body Shop that's environmentally aware. Learn more about this topic and go after these kind of businesses as clients. What if you could improve the effectiveness of their efforts? I promise you, they need help.

Inspiring Visions.
In difficult times, humans are at their best. There are visionary people out there who are taking action. They need support as well. What if you were the coach or consultant to someone who invented a battery that could run a car for a week? What if your support helped them develop it twice as fast?

Living More Simply
My friend and master coach Patrick Summar says to "build your ideal life and back your business into it." He notes that making more money isn't necessarily going to make you happier. Determine what fulfills you and build your business around that. Work with clients who want to streamline their lives/businesses but don't know where to start.

Focus on What Matters
In your business, your marketing, networking and interactions, talk about what matters. In the face of "the end of civilization as we know it," a good part of our daily concerns start to look pretty trivial. If we put some of our focus on more sustainable energy and less pollution, we'd start to come up with ideas that surprised us.

Be Selfish
Look, my motivations are ultimately selfish. If the polar ice cap melts significantly in the next few years (which is no longer a far-out hypothesis) and the oceans rise by 20 feet, nobody's going to be buying professional services anymore!

Find out More
It doesn't take much research to learn more about this topic and the opportunities for your professional service businesses. One of the best resources on the web is the World Resources Institute (WRI). http://www.wri.org Another good one is the Rocky Mountain Institute: http://www.rmi.org

I highly recommend taking a look at the WRI report: "Environmental Stories to Watch in 2006" by WRI director Jonathan Lash which highlights the major issues: http://pdf.wri.org/jl_enviro2006.pdf

I've always loved this quote by Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." And another: "I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings."

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Ultimately it's you who makes the difference. Climate change is real. And whatever you can do to empower those who are working directly on this issue can be a great contribution to the world as well as to you personally.

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How can you contribute to slowing down global warming? Please share on the Blog.

Finding Your Niche

I got an email from a customer recently with this comment:

"I can't make any progress with my marketing until I know what my marketing niche is. Until I know who my ideal clients are going to be, I can't start with my marketing, so I really can't get any of your products until I'm clear about this."

You might want to substitute your own concern: "I don't know what my services are yet," or "I don't really know what the ultimate outcome is that I provide for my clients," or "I don't know what makes me unique yet."

And with this declaration of what you don't know, your marketing grinds to a screeching standstill.

My answer to this customer was the following:

"You don't find your niche. Your niche finds you. And this goes for your services, ultimate outcome, uniqueness, etc."

What I mean by this is that you can't really figure it out in your head. You need to discover it. And the way you discover it is to jump into the process of marketing.

I know this might not makes sense to you, but stick with me here, because this is really one of the biggest issues Independent Professionals face.

I've seen it hundreds of times.

I've seen people completely stuck because they can't figure out their audio logo or perfect marketing message. And they "know" that when they figure it out, all their marketing will fall magically into place.

Utter nonsense, I'm afraid.

Here's the big secret that nobody has told you: You take your best guess, give it a shot and see what response you get. That's all, really. You don't get it right. You get it wrong - maybe for a long time - until it finally falls into place.

My customer is confused about which clients she should go after. But she doesn't have to decide - yet. All she has to do is take a mad stab at it and say, for the time being: "These are the clients I'll work with for now." And then build a marketing message around that.

She'll discover soon enough if it's the right niche or not.

She'll talk to a lot of people. She'll use her newly created audio logo, ultimate outcome, etc. She'll get responses or not. If not, no problem, back to the drawing board.

If she gets a few clients in this niche, she'll soon discover if they are ideal or not. She'll learn as she goes, and fine tune her message along the way. After awhile the niche will find her. She'll stumble upon it. Aaha! that's it! And then the next version of her marketing message will be right on target.

Let me give you an analogy in another field.

A new music student says: "I can't learn music until I know what composers I'm going to play. I'm really conflicted. Will I play Mozart and Bach, or Betthoven and Brahms? Difficult choice. But when I'm clear on who, then I'll start to learn music.

Wouldn't we roll our eyes if we heard this? Then why do we take the declaration so seriously that someone can't find their niche? It's nuts.

Sadly, the chance of the above person ever becoming a musician is pretty slim. And the with this approach, the chance of my customer ever becoming a successful Independent Professional is pretty slim as well. The good news is she's willing to try.

And starting is easy.

Get a book, manual, or tape program, or attend a course. Start with the first lesson. Do the homework. Apply it the best you can to your business.

You won't be a marketing genius in a week or two, but you'll be way beyond where you are now. So get out of your head, let go of the need to have things perfect, be willing to fail fast and just do it!

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The More Clients Bottom Line: You don't figure out all your marketing strategies first and then start marketing. You start your marketing with one imperfect message at a time and figure it out as you go.

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What holds you back from starting your marketing? What could you do to get started... now? Please share on the Blog.