Luke, Are You Ready To Make More In The Next 12 Months Than You Did In The Last 12 Years?

You’ve heard it before right?

I am sure we have all been subjected to the ‘millionaire’ idea via some internet marketing guru?

(I remember reading a tweet on twitter some weeks ago where someone asked “how come there are all these people who do not earn six figures telling me how to earn six figures?”) - great question!

Well, I have some ideas forInternet Marketers…and they are all about what I call the rules of engagement!;

1.  COMMUNICATE - This is about listening as well as talking.  So here is an idea…ask me what I might want to sign up to, but make it personal!  ”Luke I see you are into Personal Branding…well this product from XYZ might interest you” or “Luke, you signed up to our free seminar in a few weeks, I was wondering what food or drinks you might like to see served at the event?”

2.  INSPIRE - This involves involving and sharing stories.  And I am not talking about the same lame story where you were an expert in nothing, and then learnt how to make $1m a week using this new product!  Tell me about your family or what you really enjoy doing, and some of the adventures you have had!

3.  SUPPORT - Now some IM legends like Mike Filsaime for example get this…they follow up and want you to succeed.  Supporting involves helping and giving.  Some internet marketers give free gifts away..but how about giving some time.  In other words, give me some coaching on how we might make your product fly?  I used to see this activity early in the IM days, but see less of it now?

So there you go, some simple tips on how you MIGHT sell a little more via your internet marketing tactics.  I know that success in Internet Marketing is all about the list, and all about the ‘numbers’ but sales is also about longer term relationships and conversion rates!

Who does this now…well Tim Ferriss is the best recent example of an Internet Marketer for me!  He understood all about INSPIRING and SUPPORTING.  He did amazing things and shared this with us, and he made genuine videos with advice and tips (like how to pack with minimal effort) and he shared REAL stories with us (like the skydiving with his brother on his birthday), and he wrote a book…a best seller.  Tim Ferriss was an Internet Marketer, and most if us did not even recognise this!  We might not all be as talented as Tim, but I reckon Tim’s real secret was..he genuinely LOVED what he was selling, and LOVED the game that is Internet Marketing…if you are in the game to make a buck; you might end up with little in return!

As Gary Vaynerchuk said “you can be just as broke doing shit you like”

Great Personal Brands engage and evoke emotion in their target audience.  All great brands do this.  What emotion does Coke evoke in you, or Apple or Nike or Virgin…chances are your thoughts and feelings about these brands are strong.   An effective Personal Brand should have the same effect!

If your personal brand evokes an emotion (positive or negative) in your prospects; then you will effect two changes.

1.       Clear your pipeline by turning away the prospects who do not engage with your brand,

2.       Turn those prospects who engage with your brand into CLIENTS!

It is the second of these effects we are most interested in!

So how do you use your personal brand to evoke a positive emotion in your prospects?

To an extent - this does depend on your target audience - but in general;

•          Be persistently consistent - subscribe your prospects to a newsletter or a regular communication and communicate with them!  Share ideas, tips and a little bit of your life!  Figures say that a prospect will need to receive 6 emails form you before they take an action, so do not give up after 3!
•          Involve these prospects in your business (or your life) - generate polls or surveys and ask them to provide feedback on your services and ideas.  When they provide feedback, tell them how you plan to use this feedback.  People LOVE to be listened to!
•          Connect - Introduce your prospects to other prospects, or clients where they may be reciprocal business or interests.  I recently introduced a legendary social media consultant with a deep passion for Rugby to another contact of mine who is the owner of a Rugby Site www.heavensgame.com and may need some social media advice…or simply just another fan with the same passion!
•          Take an interest - when you meet with these prospects, take time to understand what their interests are, and send them updates or articles on these interests…consistently!
•          Hustle - My friend Gary Vaynerchuk talks about “always be hustling, we are building businesses here…” and he is right.  If you thought building a business was meant to be easy, then you are in the wrong game!  Spend time and hard work communicating, connecting, involving, and being interested, and you will soon have more clients than you can handle!

In the next post, we will look at the most important of the steps in growing your business…turning clients into LOVERS using your personal brand!

 

 

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Earlier this week, I wrote about the only 3 ways to grow your business, which are;

1. Increase the number of customers,
2. Increase the frequency of purchase, and
3. Increase the number of units sold

Given the current business climate, each of these may seem pretty difficult right now, but with a strong Personal Brand, and some ideas on how to;

• Turn suspects into prospects,
• Prospects into clients, and
• Clients into mad fans…

Then growing your business (or simply maintaining your business) may be a little easier!

 

Turn Suspects into Prospects

Your personal brand is all about WHO KNOWS YOU and not what you know and who you know!

This being the case, then attracting new prospects is ultimately what your personal brand does…and these simple tactics can help you to do this;

• Get your profile online - use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, ecademy, JigSaw, MySpace or Wordpress to get your ‘brand’ in front of as many people as possible,
• Get yourself ‘inline’ - where do your likely prospects frequent?  If they attend trade shows or networking functions - then get yourself along to these same functions and meet new people!
• Give to Get - I wrote about this earlier, but right now, a great way to get free press and get tongues wagging, is to organise a charity event or volunteer you time for a worthwhile cause…people will talk about you, and others will want to know you!
• Advertise - write a clever advertisement that captures YOUR unique attributes, and tells YOUR story.  During the Great Depression, firms that continued to advertise survived..those that stopped advertising did not!
• Be Free - give stuff away…again to a worthwhile cuase, or if you are a service, give up 10% of your time a week to selected ’suspects’ so that they can sample your services and then tell others about them!
• Ask - ask your current clients or prospects who they would recommend your services to.  Ask them who might benefit from meeting you!

Right now, more than ever, the number of people who KNOW YOU may determine your failure or success.  People are seeking more ‘personal’ experiences from the businesses they buy from - so be sure to give your business ‘personality’ - ulitmately, it is YOU they will talk about…not your widgets!

Have fun…and go GROW!

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We are facing the worst financial crisis in our history right?

New business is harder than ever to source…

Banks are not lending money!

So how do you grow your business?

Well, you may be surprised to learn that there are ONLY 3 ways to grow your business anyway;

1. Get more customers,
2. Increase the number of times they buy, or
3. Sell more…

Mmm, when you look at it like that, 1 and 2 don’t look real viable right now, but strategy 3 SELL MORE (especially to existing customers) just might work?

I believe that if you have great relationships with your existing customers, and you can communicate clearly what it is you do for them, and how you are valuable to them (i.e. your personal brand) then you will have a much better chance of selling more to them!

(This article over at the SEM Clubhouse blog also reminded me of the importance of relationships and community)

So, how is your relationship with your existing customers (or your relationships in general?) do they;

• Know what you stand for,
• Know what you love and enjoy,
• Know how you help them create value,
• Refer you to other customers because you are ‘available’,
• Talk about you to other people over dinner beacuse you are likeable?

In other words, are you POPULAR amongst your existing customers?

If not, then you may have some difficulty achieving strategy 3…so how do you start to develop deeper relationships with your existing customers using your personal brand (if it not too late?) - well you will have to drop back here, or subscribe to our RSS feed, as I write several articles on tactics to;

• Turn strangers to prospects
• Prospects to clients, and
• Clients to raving fans…

Using your Personal Brand!

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If you are in the business of ;

• moving strangers to prospects,
• prospects to clients, and
• clients to raving fans,

…then reciprocity may be your answer right now.

In the Buddhist world, they learnt early that giving a flower to passers by was a sure fire way to encourage people to give money in return; the theory of reciprocity.

This same approach works wonders in business too!

Tonight I was talking to a colleague who was bemoaning the fact that ‘warm’ prospects were not returning emails or calls to his approaches to seek their business.  We discussed some tactics, and resulted in the advice; send them an article or one of your white papers; give them something for free, and they will feel more compelled to return a favour - like replying to your email and catch up for a coffee!

Or how about offering to introduce one of your current clients or contacts to a new prospect to help them with their challenges or network?

In his 2004 book; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr Stephen Covey spoke about moving from dependence to independence to INTERDEPENDENCE and co-operation on the path to success.  Giving to others and meeting new people and developing meaningful relationships is what personal branding is all about.  If your brand is clear, and it demonstrates how you help others, then others will be drawn to you; and strangers will become prospects!

What have you done lately to help someone else? How do the attributes of your personal brand help others?  How interdependent are you, and how deep are you relationships?

Remember, you have to GIVE to GET to move strangers to prospects, prospects to clients and clients to raving fans…what are you giving?

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A great and powerful personal brand may not know all the answers…but they WILL know where to go to get all the answers!

Sarah Leah Gootnick has produced an absolute gem here with this ‘must have’ book for small business owners.

It is packed with advice, tools and tips for helping you create a successful small business.

So, stand out from the crowd, and be one step ahead of your competition by increasing the INTELLECTUAL attributes of your personal brand!

(click on the cover to download the handbook)

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Today, Super Coach, Author and acclaimed presenter Carl Gould presented us (us being a group of advisors, coaches, mentors and business owners) with this question.

In short, muddy water fish are those who are typically visionary, enthused by the big picture, have plenty of ideas and are happy with change and new things. Clear water fish are those that represent stability, compliance and systems. Clear water fish are typically enthused by detail, process and procedure.

There were several key points I took from Carl’s presentation;

• Identify your clients or prospects as clear water or muddy water fish, and recognise what enthuses them!
• Review your ‘team’ and identify the clear water and muddy water fish and be aware of the situations where their ‘fishiness’ would benefit a project,
• As you recruit and build a team around you, be aware of the muddy water fish and the clear water fish,
• If your clients have issues with structure and process in their business - and you are not a clean water fish; then introduce them to a member of your ‘team’ who is!
• If your clients have issues with sales, marketing and creativity - and you are not a muddy water fish; then introduce them to a member of your ‘team’ who is!

Like everyone else in the presentation; I found this analogy of personality types, strengths and weaknesses to be very simple and powerful.  From the perspective of your personal brand, this is an important step in ‘getting to know yourself’ and articulating your strengths and weaknesses, and knowing when to say NO.

So are you a dirty water fish, or a clean water fish?

Below are some photos from the event I managed to sneak in between listening and taking notes!

Now that is a great collection of brands!

Dan Schawbel and his great team of Connie Bensen, Miriam Salpeter, Scott Bradley and Selina McCusker  have produced the BIG edition of The Personal Branding Magazine, and it is packed full of great interviews and advice on communicating your Personal Brand.

This edition has Gary Vaynerchuk on the cover, and includes interviews with such booming Personal brands such as David Allen, Keith Ferrazzi and the master of influence and persuasion - Dr Robert Cialdini.

Grab a free copy here (you will need to register first) - and I strongly encourage you to buy a subscription to the magazine as 50% of the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society!

Oh, and by the way…my business buzzle is a sponsor of this months magazine, so enjoy!

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Make the most of every customer!

This is the ‘brand story’ of Peter Rogers at Shopping Science International, and I was lucky enough to attend one his presentations yesterday afternoon on Customer Service!

As Peter so rightly explained, service is such a broad, hard to define, and even harder to provide ‘thing’

We all know when we get bad service, or when we receive great service - but outside of both ends of the service specturm, we are troubled to clearly define what good service is!

Peter gave us a great insight into some service tactics and strategies; and how important it is to have a competitor focused service strategy (i.e. what competitor weakness can you exploit in your service strategy!)

Perhaps the hightlight for me was what Peter concluded with - which was a fail safe strategy for service excellence - HELP

• Help me to find it
• Help me to understand it
• Help me to buy it
• Help me to use it
• Help me to fix/return/exchange it!

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Think about the last time you ‘gave’, and I mean really ‘gave’ - not just donated money to some charity you think is a good idea?

This is an amazing film made by Jason van Genderen on his mobile phone!  It was filmed in Sydney and New York and submitted to Tropfest NY.

The message here is clear…think about the last time you really gave…gave your time or your heart to someone else who needed it.  Empathy is a very important brand attribute; caring for others and taking an interest in others is one of the most endearing qualities of any great personal brand!