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Quickstart - Is Your Consultancy Attractive?
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Quickstart
Grow a Profitable Consultancy and Still Have Time for a Life
In this issue
Note from Beverley - We Wil Rock You
One Step Further - Is Your Consultancy Attractive?
Personal Reflections - Being a Smartypants
Note from Beverley
Last Monday I went to see We Will Rock You, based on the songs of Queen, at the theatre in London and wow what a fantastic evening. Great songs, great story, great performances loads of singing, clapping and having a good time. What made it all the more enjoyable was seeing the sheer effort and enjoyment from the cast. Boy did those guys really enjoy what they were doing. And when you think they do that night after night for weeks and months that's impressive. That's having a passion for what you do and letting it show to your audience.
Got me thinking, do we show that passion for our business EVERY day to EVERY audience? Do you "rock" every day? When you do "It's a kinda magic!"
Have a good week
Beverley
bev@onestepfurther.co.uk
+44 (0) 1344 625713
www.onestepfurther.co.uk
One Step Further
I wrote last week about solving rather than selling and this week I want to take that One Step Further and look at being an "attractive" business rather than an "unattractive" business.
So what does that mean.
In a nutshell, communicate messages that draw or pull people to you as opposed to messages that push products and services.
* Attraction messages are all about the customer.
* Attraction messages are all about getting under the skin of the customer and addressing their needs, want and desires.
* Attraction messages are about giving your ideal clients time and space to reflect on your messages and to come to a realisation that they need to take action.
Now before you all throw your hands up in horror stop...
It's true isn't it that most people don't like to be sold to?
It's true isn't it that most people like to buy?
So if people don't like to be sold to and they like to buy why not help them buy?
Helping them buy means helping them understand their motives for purchase and then "placing" your services in the way. This way they buy on their terms almost without noticing that you have helped them.
I met one of my very first clients at a networking organisation we were both members of. After we had known each other for about 3-4 months and he had heard me talk about what I do for that same period of time, he asked if he could have a coffee with me and learn a bit more about how I go about helping my clients.
We did this and I also gave him a trial session of about 20 minutes, so he could experience what it would be like. He then went off saying that it had been an interesting experience! We continued to meet and speak at the weekly breakfast meetings and then about 4 months later I got a call out of the blue. "I'm ready now," he said.
He had gone away from our 20 minute meeting, reflected on what had happened, considered the problems he was having in his business and was ready to take action. I was the only person he called.
Part of the reason he told me later, was that I had not try to push him nor had I nagged him. I had simply kept in touch asked how things were going and each week given a different example or perspective on how I help my clients.
He knew he needed help but he also had to be ready.
I helped him buy through
1. Responding to his enquiry
2. Demonstrating what it would be like to work with me and giving value at the same time with no pressure of commitment of any form
3. Giving him space and time to reflect and "get ready" whilst staying in touch
4. Being there when he was ready to buy
Now I acknowledge that some people will never buy and some people will rarely buy without a gentle push and that's OK. Some people will just need that extra time to reflect on why they need your services and allowing them the space to do that is helping them to buy.
This is only one example of being an "attractive" business. When your ideal clients are attracted to work with you because of the messages - written, spoken, demonstrated or otherwise, you know that you don't have to sell because they are ready to buy and that's a more natural process for the buyer and in my opinion a lot less effort on your behalf. The trick is to keep in touch with them through their "reflection" period so when they are ready you are there.
Now I'm sure some of you will disagree and that's OK. Why not hit reply and tell me what you think?
Personal Reflections
Part of my "marketing pie" consists of writing articles and submitting them to various article banks and posting them on forums - all as a way of raising my profile and getting my messages out into the world.
I was checking my stats on one such site yesterday and noticed a real range of hits for each of my articles. On this particular site I have posted 24 articles and have had a total of 5174 views. The article with the most hits, 438, is called "To Catch a Thief: 6 Ways to Eliminate Your Time Stealers". The one with the lowest hit rate is one called "Who Do You Think You Are - Aladdin?: The Wishful Thinking Approach to Finding New, Ideal Clients"
What's interesting for me is when I looked at the hit rate for the other articles, I noticed that those with the higher hit rates had "obvious" titles and those with lower hit rates had more subtle or "clever" titles - So what?
Trying to be clever doesn't always help. Sometimes you have to just state what you mean in clear, simple and obvious language if you want to attract people to read or pay attention to something.
Stating the obvious might seem like stating the obvious and yet sometimes OUR delight in being clever, witty and subtle in an attempt to stand out or be different can have the opposite effect on those we are aiming at - I know I am guilty of that on many occasions.
So I need to be more aware of not being too clever!
What about you?
Best Regards
Bev
bev@onestepfurther.co.uk
+44 (0) 1344 625713 |
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