The More Clients Blog

Setting Unreasonable Goals

I heard a guy on NPR last night (This American Life) talking about devoting his life to developing a time machine. I thought to myself, "What an idiot, doesn't everyone know that time travel is impossible?"

But as the story progressed, it turns out he actually developed a device that does in fact alter time. Look, I don't know how. This quantum mechanics stuff is a little beyond me. But apparently there's some scientific validity to the thing and he's been acknowledged by his peers in the physics community for this.

This got me thinking about goals.

You've probably read a lot about goal setting. Perhaps you've heard of the famous "S.M.A.R.T." formula - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Specific. Well that's OK, but it's not really the best way to set goals.

To set and achieve goals you need to be unreasonable.

We tend to completely undermine ourselves by being reasonable. And unfortunately, the S.M.A.R.T. formula is totally reasonable. It keeps you inside a very rigid box of what's possible.

But why do you want to set goals that are possible? You want to set goals that are impossible. (At least from your current point of view.) You want to set goals that set you on fire.

Goals that take passion, sweat, blood and tears to achieve.

This time machine fellow was TOTALLY unreasonable. And perhaps it got him somewhere. I'm not suggesting you become totally unreasonable, but at least partially unreasonable! It will take you places you hadn't dreamed of before (maybe even through time).

What kind of things am I talking about?

The amount of money you can make in a year
Most hope to make more; some plan to make more; and some shoot for the starts and actually make a whole lot more. (And usually have a blast doing it.) What would happen if you tripled your income this year? Unreasonable, but not impossible.

The kind of clients and projects you can attract
You could get virtually anyone as a client if you set your mind to it. Perhaps not tomorrow, but sooner than you think. I've seen it happen over and over with my clients and group participants in just two or three months. They went for it and it happened.

Creating and implementing a huge project
You can play it safe and decide to write that book or develop that program or launch that project someday (not technically a day of the week). Or you can start it now. Why keep putting off yours until a more reasonable time?

"OK, Robert, I appreciate the pep talk, do you have some tips to get me off the dime and set some unreasonable goals? You're right; I do think too small and I get stuck. And I want to think bigger and really go for it. How?"

Glad you asked. Here's a few things I've learned. I give you my not-so-famous I.T.O.C.A. Formula:

1. IMAGINE you're on your death bed looking back. And you say to your loved ones gathered around, "You know I've had a pretty good life, but I really wish I'd done X." What is X? That's your unreasonable goal.

2. THINK about it all the time. Don't push it out of your mind. Obsess about it; brainstorm and draw mind maps. Get the idea out of the abstract and into the concrete. Form a mastermind group and kick around ideas. Make it real.

3. Be aware of OPPORTUNITIES and coincidences that present themselves. You couldn't see them before, but now, with increased focus on your goal, you'll start seeing, reading, hearing about things that are connected to your goal. Explore these things. They're there to help you.

4. When the time is right, make a COMMITMENT. On the TV poker shows they talk about going "ALL IN." Don't hold back. Make a promise, not based on knowing how to achieve your goal, but on your desire to make it real. If you have to know how ahead of time, you'll never take the leap.

5. ACTION. Now it's time for the real work, and that consists of putting one foot in front of the other every single day. Keep things alive by creating action plans, researching, asking for assistance, and networking with like-minded people. In other words, create an environment in which the goal can be realized.

Imagine, Think, Opportunities, Commitment, Action: I.T.O.C.A. Now that's a pretty bad acronym compared to S.M.A.R.T., but I promise you it's a better formula for getting what you truly desire.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: What's your unreasonable goal? What's the thing you want to achieve more than anything else? Now take a look around and notice that nobody is going to make it happen if you don't.

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Share your unreasonable goal on the more Clients Blog this week. Just click on the Comments link below.

The Green Evangelist

A few months ago I wrote my now infamous eZine on global warming. Many loved it and several were rather disdainful. What I think some may have missed is that the point of the article was to increase awareness for the myriad of opportunities in "green business" for Independent Professionals.

For this you need to think outside of the box.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in an article from this week's New Yorker, whose subject was Amory Lovins, perhaps the preeminent green business consultant in the world and C.E.O. of the Rocky Mountain Institute (R.M.I.).

Lovins doesn't just think outside of the box, he declares, "There is no box." And this goes for generating business as well. One thing is for sure: Amory Lovins is a great networker.

It doesn't hurt that he's a genius and polymath. He has worked for twenty five years with clients in a wide range of industries, where his primary focus is on sustainable businesses and energy conservation.

Companies hire him because he produces bottom-line results, such as dramatically cutting energy costs, but he's not one to hide out in a laboratory waiting for clients to call. He gets himself out there - in a big way.

Let me quote from the New Yorker, where Elizabeth Kolvert describes Lovins at an international conference:

"After lunch everyone switched tables. This time, Lovins ended up sitting with several executives from Ford; Pernendu Chatterjee, the head of a private equity firm; and William McDonough, one of the preeminent "green" architects in the United states.

"In the front of the room, executives from two international companies were holding a panel discussion on energy saving companies with the former NATO commander, General Wesley Clark.

"Lovins spent most of the discussion sending emails. One was to the Norwegian philanthropist he has just met. The philanthropist owned a cheese farm; Lovins attached a paper on energy-efficient dairy farming.

"When General Clark said something he disagreed with, Lovins sent him a long email outlining why. During a brief break in the program, Lovins sought out Thomas Friendman, the times columnist, and Rick Fedrizzi, the president of the U.S. Green Building Council, to give them a PowerPoint on a school R.M.I. had designed in Brazil.

"During another break, he presented the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, with an inch-thick pile of articles. As Newsom took the articles, he laughingly alluded to an equally thick pile of reading material Lovins had handed him several weeks earlier."

Lovins certainly networks with people in high places but he is only doing what any good networker does - getting attention by communicating value and then providing more information. You can bet he follows up diligently with every contact by email and phone. It obviously works.

He has built R.M.I. into a fifty plus person consulting firm that not only does well but does good. His organization's stated goal is "the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining."

You may or may not agree with Lovins's aim, but you have to hand it to him. He's a networking and personal marketing powerhouse that would put most of us to shame.

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The More Clients Bottom Line - Amory Lovins embodies the essence of an InfoGuru - someone who networks and markets himself and his business through information and "evangelism." When you become an evangelist, it's hard to stop you!

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What are you dong to evangelize your business? Share things you've done on the Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Mailings That Work

In last week's More Clients, I shared some ideas about mailings and some of the do's and don'ts to be aware of. In this issue, I'll go into more detail on how to do successful mailings.

Remember, you can put a lot of time and money into a mailing and it's tricky to do them successfully. Following the four principles below will increase your chances of success.

Principle #1 - Mail to those you have an affiliation with

Mailing to a list of strangers can be a recipe for disaster. Sure, you get a lot of mailings from all kinds of companies, but if you think about it, you were familiar with most of them before you received the mailing. You need to build some affiliation or familiarity first.

One way is to mail to the members of your chamber of commerce or professional group (even if they've never met you), as long as you create a tie-in to that group. The stronger the tie, the better.

For instance, if you created an offer in conjunction with your local chamber, people will pay more attention:

"I've been working with the Kathy Dixon, director of the Midtown Chamber and she agreed that all members would gain real value from how-to information on proven management techniques. So together we've assembled a workbook that you can get for free: "The Ten Keys to High-Leverage Management." You can get your free copy at this web link: www.HLM.com."

(Of course, you get their names and emails before they get their copy and you can follow-up with more details on your services.)

That affiliation with the chamber means you're not a stranger. You have borrowed credibility. And that will lessen skepticism. You'll get a better response to your mailing and more success with your follow-up.

Action Step: Start to increase your affiliations.

Principle #2 - Make an offer that's hard to say "No" to

Your mailings try to accomplish too much: "Here's all the details about my business; call me if you'd like to work with me." These kind of mailings tend to flop dismally. Why? Because they don't need you now; they need you later. The letter gets discarded and they forget about you. So how do you get more response?

Your offer needs to be relevant, immediate, and easy to say "Yes" to. Make it relevant by showing that you know your audience and their issues, concerns and desires. Offer something that they can get now, something of real value.

In the early 90's when the Internet was getting hot, I worked with a new ISP (Internet service provider) who was getting terrible results from his mailings. So we used this approach.

The one-page letter was an invitation to receive a free 40-page booklet - "Untangling the Internet." In addition, there was an invitation to an introductory seminar. We were flooded with orders for the booklet and hundreds more showed up for the seminars.

What value do you have to share with your prospects? Now find a way to turn that value into a compelling offer that would be hard to say "No" to. It could be a report, teleclass, introductory workshop or sample service.

Action Step: Create a compelling offer.

Principle #3 - Personalize the mailing if you can

You don't need to do a mass mailing to be successful. In fact, a very small, very targeted mailing may be more appropriate for your business. After all, you may need just a few clients to fill your practice. You don't need to mail hundreds of pieces to accomplish this.

In the InfoGuru Manual, I tell the story of Geoffrey Bellman who carefully selected a list of 20 HR directors and sent them a series of 4 articles; each mailing was personalized with a handwritten note. His final mailing was a letter asking for an appointment.

In his follow-up calls he was able to get 18 appointments. That's a 90% success rate! Bellman pointed out that he wasn't trying to sell, but establish credibility and develop relationships. Several of these connections ultimately turned into clients.

Some of the keys to his success were: a) personalization - he really knew who he was making contact with; b) value - the articles were not sales pitches, but contained information useful to those who received them; c) a focus on relationship, not an immediate transaction; and d) great execution and follow-up.

Action Step: Find the personal angle.

Principle #4 - Execution and follow-up are everything

A mailing isn't one thing, it's several things. It's a concept (as in #2), it's the mailing itself, it's responding to the responses, it's written materials (such as the booklet or articles), and it's the sales follow-up. These all need to be executed flawlessly.

I once worked with an associate who did "marketing and sales optimization." He explained that one of his clients had a great product but a lousy marketing and sales process. Someone would inquire about the product, and the company took several weeks to respond, if at all! No wonder they needed help.

Just by tweaking the follow-up process my associate helped increase sales dramatically. You have to be a bit of a nut about the process. You need to turn it into a well-oiled machine, where you've carefully mapped out every single step.

Do this right and you can end up with literally dozens of appointments with qualified prospects in a very short time. Do it wrong (miss a step, for instance) and all your work will be wasted.

How I do this is by constructing a simple flow chart with each of the elements of the plan, how they connect to each other, and a timeline for implementation. I then write each of the pieces (such as the letter or email, website copy and follow-up email) and roll it out methodically one step at a time.

Action Step: Execute your plan flawlessly.

Take these four principles to heart and put them into action, and you may be amazed at the results.

Next week I'll share some of the strategies of "Keep-in-Touch-Marketing" and show why this can be your most important marketing tactic of all.

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The More Clients Bottom Line - These four principles of successful mailings are more important than clever headlines, fancy graphics, and over-the-top promises. Mailings are all about communicating value and doing it in a way that makes it natural and easy to respond. Note that you can also apply all of these principles to email campaigns.

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Used any of these ideas in your mailings? Share a success story in the Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

The Mailing Challenge

For the next several issues of More Clients, I'm going to focus on very hands-on marketing techniques and strategies.

In a recent post on the InfoGuru Support Forum, someone asked for feedback on a postcard mailing he had done to drive people to his web site. He got virtually no results.

Without even seeing the postcard, it's easy to understand why it didn't work. Postcards and other mailings are amongst the trickier marketing tactics. You can loose a lot of money fast, if you don't know what you're doing.

Too many times I've see people mail thousands of letters or postcards hoping for a deluge of responses, only to receive *not one single* response. It can be enough to put you off of marketing forever.

Mailings of all kinds can work. I've used them to get great results and make lot of money. But there are certain things you need to understand before you jump in. First, a few don'ts:

Don't Mail to Strangers
If you're going to mail, the best people are the ones on your prospect list. Which is why it's so important to build a list in the first place. These people know you and are much more likely to read and respond to what you've sent.

Don't Try to Close
A mailing is, for the most part, a marketing vehicle, not a selling tool. That is, it's designed to stimulate qualified responses from prospects. Those who respond are the ones you set up sales appointments with (by phone or in person).

Don't Mail Too Much
Mass mailings can be dangerous. First, if the mailing is ineffective, you've thrown a lot of money down the drain. Second, if you get a lot of responses, it may be too hard to follow up with them all, and your leads will be lost. Start small.

Don't Always Expect a Response
Some of the best mailings are personalized letters, sent to qualified prospects, and then followed up by telephone to make an appointment. They may never call you from the letter, but they will often take a call from you.

And a few dos:

Do Follow Marketing Syntax
Be clear about exactly who this letter is for. Start your letter or postcard with a problem your prospects are experiencing. Follow that with a desired outcome. Then use a brief story for proof and credibility. Follow this with several benefits of learning more. Then end with a call to action.

Do Personalize Your Letter
What mail do you open up and read first? A personalized letter. Hand write the address on the envelope. Use the return address in the heading and their name in the salutation. Make it look like it was sent from one person to another and you'll get a better response.

Do Use Postcards for Events
The best results I ever got from postcard mailings was inviting people on my list to introductory events. Both sides contained detailed information on what the event was about, the benefits of attending, plus date, time, price and how to respond.

Do the Math
Mailings of any kind are expensive. It's not unusual that, hoping for a great response, people will send out hundreds or thousands of pieces, and never really think through how the finances of the marketing and sales process is going to work.

Let me give you more details on this one:

Let's say you decide to mail 1000 postcards to a list you've purchased or compiled. The purpose is to get them to visit your web site.

Postcards plus postage will cost you at least $.50 each. So your total investment is $500.

If you get a great response, just 5% will visit your site. Yes, 95% will go in the trash in about 3 seconds. So that's 50 visitors at a visitor cost of $10 each.

Next, they land on your web page. What exactly do you want them to do there? You'd better make sure they see an in-depth sales letter that motivates them to take some action. You should have a simple response form to fill out.

Of those 50 visitors, how many will read the online letter and fill out the form? You'll be doing exceedingly well if you get 20%. So now you have 10 people who have responded at a cost of $50 each.

Now you need to follow up with these people by email and phone to set up an appointment and convert them into clients. Your appointment rate will usually be less than 30%, so that's three appointments.

And your close rate? Perhaps only one out of three. So there you have it. One thousand postcards that cost you $500 netted you one client. If this client is worth a few thousand dollars to you, it just might be a good campaign.

But the figures I gave are actually very good. Yours are likely to be much lower. In my experience, campaigns like this fizzle out fast. The response is poor, the prospects are marginal, and the close rate is abysmal.

It usually takes just one mailing of this kind to put you off mailings forever.

In next week's More Clients I'll give you some examples of much more effective mailing campaigns that will cost a whole lot less and get much better results.

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The More Clients Bottom Line - If you're considering a mailing campaign, be careful. You could not only get poor results and lose your money, but you'll become cynical about the effectiveness of any kind of marketing.

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Got a horror story about an ineffective mailing? Please share in the Blog. Just click on the comments link below.

Bet Your Car

Last week I talked about your intentions for the New Year. But now that it's here, what are you actually going to do?

In my Marketing Action Groups, a participant would often set a goal to perform a marketing activity such as writing an article or setting up a speaking engagement. And frequently they would get stuck or go off track.

When this happened I often used my "bet your car" strategy:

"You've said you'd do this for several weeks and you haven't. I realize you're stuck. But I also know you know what to do. So I'd like to make a bet with you. I'd like you to bet your car that you'll get this done this week. Are you willing to bet your car?"

"You mean, if I didn't get it done, you'd get my car?" (Realize that a dozen or more other participants were listening in on the conference call at the time.)

"Yes. I'd get your car. Are you up to it?"

"Well, yeah, I guess I am. I'll do it. I'll bet my car that it will get done!" This was followed by loud cheers from the group on the call.

And guess what? It always got done. Usually with a lot less effort than they had expected.

The lesson is simple: When you make a promise with real consequences, something changes. Reality sets in. The mind's homing mechanism goes into action. Since there's no way they're going to give away their car, they find a way to get it done.

The thing is, you can't keep betting your car. (What if you actually lost it?!) This is a useful wake up call. But it's easy to slip back into the comfort zone of doing only what's necessary to get by. Before you know it, you're stuck and off track again.

So how do you get unstuck and stay on track?

There are some very practical and powerful ways to do this. Here are some that have worked for me and my program participants.

Action or Consequences
This is just a variation on the theme of betting your car, except the bet is smaller and it's for real. If you don't take the action, you pay the consequence. One of my favorite is paying $25 to a political party you don't like if you don't take the action.

Make a Public Promise
Declare that you will be doing a particular marketing action by a definite date. Make it public to a group of your peers (such as in a mastermind group.) And ask them to hold you accountable. Don't let each other off the hook. Be ruthlessly supportive.

Write it Down
Intentions that get written down have a much higher chance of getting completed. Put the goal on your master projects list; create a detailed action plan; put specific action steps on your daily to-do list. Keep them on the list until done.

Put it on the Calendar
If you want to do speaking engagements or teleclasses, book them first, then promote, then develop the program. Most do it in reverse, perfecting the program before committing to a date. This can lead to procrastination through perfectionism.

Get Support
Sometimes it's not just a matter of doing it, it's a question of how to do it. You may need input, brainstorming, guidance or consulting before you're ready to commit to getting it done. But my recommendation is to commit first, then get support.

Question your Thoughts
Once you commit to something, your resistance just may kick in. And you'll find a way to talk yourself out of it. Thoughts that say, "I can't do it, I can't find the time, and I'll only be rejected anyway," are worth close examination. Don't believe everything you think! Be your commitments, not your thoughts.

Create a Bigger Vision
This may be the most effective of all. I've noticed that clients who have a burning desire to create a successful business don't get easily stopped by challenging marketing activities. They just find a way. Think big and your enthusiasm will carry the day.

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The More Clients Bottom Line - It's often less important what marketing activities you do than it is finding a way to carry them through to completion. Master this and you'll be unstoppable.

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What have you done to move yourself into action when you get stuck or off track? Please share in the More Clients Blog. Just click the comments link below.