The More Clients Blog

Your Enthusiasm Quotient

For the past few weeks I've been burning the midnight oil to complete my updated web site, online Fast Track Program, and the new Action Plan Marketing Club.

In the process of putting the finishing touches on the APM Club on Sunday, I was updating my list of the "Ten Must-Have Marketing and Selling Books" and remembered Frank Bettger's Classic "How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling."

In the first chapter, originally a talk given on a country-wide workshop tour with Dale Carnegie (we're talking 1947, folks!), Frank talks about how he transformed his selling career and life by discovering the magic of enthusiasm.

I think we give Enthusiasm short shrift these days. It's not cool to be enthusiastic. Instead we try to be laid back and hide any emotion about what we're involved in. (As if we could bore people into doing business with us!)

If you approach marketing your services that way, I promise you one thing - marketing will be a dreadful, painful, struggling slog.

Look at some of the synonyms for enthusiasm:

Keenness, ardor, fervor, passion, zeal, zest, gusto, energy, verve, inspiration, excitement, vigor, fire, spirit, avidity, devotion, motivation, commitment, willingness, earnestness.

Let me assure you, those are GOOD attitudes to bring to marketing, to business, and to life. But it seems in short supply these days. What can you do to generate it in a society that's become increasingly skeptical, let alone downright cynical?

How to Heighten your Enthusiasm Quotient

1. Fall in love with good ideas. My path to the APM Club was a talk at an Internet conference in May by Sean D'Souza. Sean convinced me that the next logical step in my business was to offer programs at graduated levels. It took me five months to implement it, but the idea took hold and never let go.

2. Trust your inner voice. If you feel you can do something, feed that feeling. We tend to starve it instead with doubt, caution, and an overabundance of "reasonableness." You feed your enthusiasm by sharing your ideas with like-minded, supportive people who are just as enthusiastic about their ideas.

3. Act as if. This was Frank Bettger's formula. He discovered that if he acted enthusiastically, he started to feel enthusiastic. I used to call this "fake it until you make it." When you exhibit enthusiasm, it's contagious and you can become addicted to it. I can certainly think of worse addictions!

4. Question your unenthusiastic attitudes. When we're feeling apathetic, bored, disinterested, hesitant, stagnant, or fearful, it's useful to ask, "What would I have to believe to feel that way?" Often it's something like: "If I really went for it 100% I might fail," or "I really don't make a difference anyway." Are those thoughts true? Can you be absolutely sure? Probably not.

5. Take on a huge project. Think of Kennedy's speech: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: Today is a good day to choose enthusiasm. I can't think of a better choice, a better thing to do, or a better contribution you could make to yourself, to your business, to your community and to the world. Be enthusiastic because it's the right thing to do.

It also tends to make you rich.

*

What are you most enthusiastic about in your business right now? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Seven Key Marketing Skills

This week I have a Marketing Reality Check in the form of a scorecard for seven key marketing activities/skills.

This will help you determine the current viability of your marketing (and ultimately, your business). Score yourself on how well you are doing in these seven key areas.

1. Do you have an active mailing or email list? Do you have from 500 to 2,000 on this list? If so, give yourself 1 point and then an extra point for every additional 2,000 on your list.

Your Score _____

2. How often do you contact this list? Ten points for monthly or more often, five for every two months and three points for quarterly. No points if you haven't been in touch for over three months.

Your Score _____

3. Do you have a good, working web site that gets serious inquiries from prospective clients that turn into appointments? Ten points if you do. If you have a web site up but get no inquiries, two points, and zero points if you don't have a site or if it's incomplete.

Your Score _____

4. How many 'live prospects' do you have in your marketing/sales pipeline? This is anyone you feel has a good chance of becoming a client in the next year. One point per prospect.

Your Score _____

5. How many sales appointments do you have lined up (in the next month or two) with qualified prospects ready to explore working with you? Give yourself five points for each one.

Your Score _____

6. Your sales appointments to new clients ratio. Ten points if 75% or better. Five points if 50% to 74%. Two points if 24% to 49%. Less than that or no idea of your ratio? Zero points.

Your Score _____

7. How many of your past clients have given you a written testimonial or case study? Two points for each.

Your Score _____

What is your total score? _____

How well did you do? Rate yourself below:

80 to 100 (or more) points - You should have all the business you can handle. Congratulations.
60 to 79 points - Your marketing is doing very well. Keep it up.
40 to 59 points - Not bad, but you have some real work to do.
20 to 39 points - You're struggling and need to do a lot of work.
0 to 19 points - Your marketing is barely on life support.

No matter what your score is, we all need to work at increasing both our activity level and abilities in all seven areas. Let me tell you why this is so important.

1. Mailing/email list. This IS your business. Your ability to reach out and communicate with your list will often determine your income. Work tirelessly at building your list.

2. Contacting list - If you have a list and you aren't contacting those on it at least every month, how do you expect them to remember you? An uncontacted list is as good as no list at all.

3. Web Site - This is your marketing hub that communicates the value of your services. The better, the site, the more business you tend to get. Sites with poor content and design don't help much.

4. Marketing/Sales Pipeline - This indicates your marketing activity. The more activity, the more prospects in your pipeline. Networking, speaking, and publishing all work to fill the pipeline.

5. Appointments Set - This shows how good you are at follow-up activities and setting up appointments with prospects. This is the biggest fear of Independent Professionals. You must conquer it.

6. Appointment to Sales Ratio - This is a measure of your sales ability. If your closing rate is low, you need to work not only on sales skills but on attracting more qualified prospects.

7. Testimonials - This shows both your level of client satisfaction and your commitment to increasing that satisfaction. Remember, past clients are your best source for new clients.

No, these aren't the only indicators of marketing and selling success, but they are the key ones. If you want to survive in a down economy, let alone thrive, you need to constantly be working on implementing and improving these seven skills.

To summarize: Seven key marketing activities/skills:

1. Build your list
2. Contact your list regularly
3. Have a good web site
4. Engage in marketing activities
5. Follow up with prospects
6. Turn prospects into clients
7. Get stories from satisfied clients

Where do you need to start?

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: None of this happens accidentally. It's time to go to work to implement these activities and to build your skills in these seven vital areas. Once you do, you'll have a solid marketing foundation that is recession proof.

*

Which of these seven activities/skills do you need to put the most work into? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

What's Your Plan?

In a couple weeks I'm going to be launching a new service.

Today's eZine is a brief preview of that service, but it's also a look at how to structure your business in challenging economic times.

My service will be a monthly online subscription called the "Action Plan Marketing Club." It will include online programs, interviews with top marketing experts, a monthly coaching call, an online mastermind group and much more.

It will distill virtually everything I've learned about marketing over the past 24 years and make it accessible all in one place. You'll be able to study how-to marketing strategies online, interact with other Independent Professionals like yourself, get feedback on your marketing materials and plans and even get direct marketing coaching from me.

And the best thing is that it will be ridiculously affordable.

There will be a charter membership rate for the first 500 members and a first-month introductory fee that will delight you.

Why will I be offering so much for so little?

For many years, lots of people have been asking me that question. When I started to sell marketing information products online I had to make a choice - inexpensive or expensive? I did a lot of serious thinking and came up with a strategy that has served me well over the years.

If I sold expensive products, like so many of the Internet entrepreneurs were doing, I felt I'd have to over-promise and over-hype to get the sale. You've seen the sales letters! I just didn't want to go that route.

If I sold inexpensive information products, I knew they'd be easier to sell. I also realized that I could serve many more people while still keeping the quality very high, yet avoiding the high-pressure and hype.

This strategy seems to have paid off, as I've done close to $2MM in online sales since 2001. Not bad for a one-person business working from my home office in the Santa Cruz Mountains!

But this has been only half of my strategy. As well as the inexpensive online sales, I've offered high-end marketing coaching programs where I spend considerable time with the participants. I'll be launching a new "Marketing Mastery Program" like this in the spring of 2009.

What I discovered was that the customers of the inexpensive products became the clients of the high-end programs. Ultimately, this overall business and marketing strategy gave me a very good financial base and allowed me to do what I loved best: developing new products and programs while working closely with program participants.

This was my strategy; the question is, what is yours?

Here are a few questions that you need to consider seriously if you're going to succeed in your business in the upcoming year. Despite the current economic conditions, I still believe that there are hugh opportunities for Independent Professionals.

1. What is your "Core Business"? That is, what is your niche and what are the primary solutions and outcomes that you are offering to that niche? You need to be focused yet have flexibility to create different services and programs for your target market.

2. How will you reach that niche with impact at a low cost? You need to be exploring all the options, from speaking to social networking. You must design and develop marketing strategies and then persist in implementing them.

3. What can you offer at the inexpensive end to get people into your pipeline (or as I like to say, your 'Marketing Ball Game')? You need to sell a fairly high volume of products or services that are easy to deliver with minimum administrative support. Online products, teleclasses and webinars are all good options.

4. What will you offer at the high-end that involves more of your time and hands-on work? You need to develop turnkey programs that do not need to be customized from scratch every time. Figure out how to develop a program that delivers consistent results for your clients every time and sell it for a premium price.

5. What is your plan to get your 'marketing infrastructure' in place? Your ability to set up web sites, email delivery systems, audio recording, transcribing, and email management are all vital for success. If you don't get these into place, you'll be bogged down by 'administrivia."

I know these are not easy questions to answer. Print this out and give them some serious thought. When I launch the "Action Plan Marketing Club" in late October we'll be exploring ideas like this and a whole lot more in great depth.

My goal will be to give you, as always, hands-on strategies and techniques that you can apply with minimum effort and struggle.

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: Is your business set up for success in an economic downturn? Are you prepared to sell a range of both low-end and high-end products, services and programs? If not, it's time to buckle down and get into action.

*

What is your marketing and business plan for the coming year? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Law of Expansion - Persuasion Strategies - Pt. 10

This will be the final installment in my Persuasion Strategies series.

Today's Law of Persuasion, the Law of Expansion, was triggered by the current news in the stock market. Right now, things aren't looking too rosy economically are they?

And if you're a typical business owner, you may be worried about how the economy will affect your business. If you're not worried, you know something I don't know!

What do we do when we worry? We contract, we pull our heads inside our shells and hope things will change. If things don't change, we worry more and contract even more.

Another way of saying this is that we put all our concern and attention on ourselves, our survival. This seems to be the right thing to do, but it's not. It's the exact opposite of what you need to be doing when the economy is contracting.

When things are contracting, the best strategy is to expand.

If you have an expansion strategy you are seen as more visible, more credible, and more valuable. Expansion doesn't necessarily mean spending a lot more money on marketing. It may mean doing many more low-cost marketing activities.

I'll bet you could expand the following activities by 10% to 20% in your business in the coming months:

Networking

Networking will never go out of style because it creates business relationships faster than anything else. The Woody Allen rule: "80% of success is just showing up." Show up at more social and business functions and be ready to talk about your business.

Resource: Filling the Pipeline

Follow-Up

It doesn't take a lot of money, time or effort to pick up the phone but it can have a huge impact on your business results. You need to master the telephone follow-up if you want more appointments, more sales and a steadily rising income.

Resource: The Art of Telephone Follow-Up

Strategy Sessions

A strategy session is a meeting with a prospective client to explore working together. The old paradigm was 'sales meetings.' Instead, position strategy sessions as a complimentary, yet valuable service. "I'd be happy to meet with you to explore the opportunities to grow your business."

Resource: Free Sessions That Sell

Presentations

Talks, speeches, and presentations of all kinds have always been effective marketing tools as they give prospects a no-risk sample of what you're offering. Speak at chambers of commerce, professional groups and service organizations. There's no better strategy for positively increasing your credibility.

Resource: Speaking as a Marketing Tool

Web Content

You probably already have a web site. But is the content doing its job? Is the information on your site giving your visitors what they're looking for? Is it stimulating them to take action? Is it generating new, qualified leads? If not, it's time for a content overhaul. It won't cost you much, just time.

Resource: The Web Site ToolKit

TeleClasses

A teleclass is simply a presentation by phone. Last week I did one with about 100 participants from my home office here in Boulder Creek California. Cost: $0. If you haven't caught onto teleclasses yet, it's not too late to learn. You can connect with prospects around the world and share the value of what you offer.

Resource: The TeleClass on TeleClasses

Yes, the same things you need to do in a good economy, you need to do in a bad economy. But you need to do them better and do them more frequently. You need to expand, not contract.

To make it easier on you, you can get any of our high-value, low cost marketing products and programs for a discount of 25% this week only. Just click here: Marketing Expansion Sale

*

The More Clients bottom line: When the economy is contracting, it's no time for you to contract as well. In fact, you want to expand. Expand your visibility, your credibility, your value, your offerings.

*

What expansion strategies are you planning for your business? Please share on the More Clients Blog.