Bulldog Marketing

Stop Cold Calling Forever!

I did an audio post on this a while back, but I think it is worth reviewing since coaches and consultants have an interesting dilemma. They typically get their clients from referrals, but how do you create referrals if you are just getting your feet wet and building your client base? This ‘chicken or the egg’ scenario is one that can be very frustrating when you are building your business, but there is a way to jump start your business to a full practice- by creating Topic Specific Marketing (TSM) material.

TSM is:
A slice of knowledge that you know your prospects and clients need and want.
Written, recorded or both
Accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere
A way for you to become an industry expert on your topic of choice

So how do you go about creating TSM? Read on!

How to successfully deliver a Teleclass

One of the best ways to leverage your time and create multiple revenue streams is to deliver teleclasses. If you haven't done one yet, my challenge to you is to plan on doing one in the next 60 days. Here are some quick tips to ensure you and your participants will have a great experience.

Will the REAL Decision Maker Please Stand Up

This occurred to me the other day while I was doing some Christmas Shopping. Sometimes the decision maker for products isn't the only beneficiary of the product. The most obvious example of this is Victorias Secret. Even though women will wear (or not) the lacy thing with feathers that they get for Christmas, the gift is really for the person that gave it to them. But Vic's takes it one step further than the obvious- they know HOW to treat men when they come into their store, they make them feel comfortable, and they understand how to market to their decision maker. So what does this have to do with you?

Most of my clients deliver certification trainings that can last anywhere between 7-21 days. I don't know how it works in your world, but being away from home and kids, including the canine type may make it difficult for some people to attend the training. If you do trainings like that, you may want to consider how you can satisfy the needs of the REAL decision makers, who are most likely the family members of the person who wants to enroll. When planning your training and deciding on your venue think about:

1. What hours are the most beneficial for allowing people to have a life even while attending your training. We typically do trainings from 1-8pm, which allows most people to get work done or do other things during the morning hours.

2. If the majority of your participants are local, consider splitting the training up over several weekends and doing the training over a 3 or 4 month period instead of 8 straight days.

3. If you know people will be traveling for the sole purpose of attending your 7- 21 day training, consider having it in a nice location that would be a fun place for family members to hang out. Go the extra mile by arranging cool things for them to do while they are there.

3. Likewise for pets. If you are booking a hotel for your participants to stay in, check out options in the dog friendly category. More and more hotels allow dogs, and believe me, people will feel better having their dogs with them than leaving them at a kennel.

Even if you don't do trainings like this, think for a moment about who may play a role in the buying process of your typical client. How can you educate them on the benefits of the work that you do?
Take a moment and step into the shoes of the people who surround your client. What can you do to get them on your side. You just may find that by doing that, you have smoked out some of those 'hidden objections' that you never really hear about. After all, how many times will a prospect admit they can't work with you because their wife, husband or significant other won't let them?

Is anybody out there??

When you are new to blogging, you go through many emotions, most of them are in the 'fear family'. Things like being afraid to post something that nobody agrees with, having typos, getting a link or track back from a 'Big Dog' Blogger who hates you...get the picture? Then you realize that the world doesn't come to a screeching halt to stop to read your latest post. That thought starts you down the 'whats the use' track. You begin asking yourself useful questions like, "Hey, how many people actually read this stuff anyway?" or another favorite "Why should I keep doing this"? You start to track your stats, and wait for your rankings to go up, and you may even feel depressed when you log into Technorati and see that 'no blogs link here' next to your blog. But hopefully underneath that feeling of being the unpopular kid in school, you keep doing it anyway. Why? Because you actually like it! You get a chance to express yourself, and be creative. And so you forget about all of the 'metrics' and you just keep on doing your thing, always keeping your ideas fresh and thinking of what you can do to help your clients and prospects. I have recently learned that there are a lot more people out there than you realize, who know who you are and what you are about. The cool thing is, you never know who will be influenced or inspired by what you are building, but I do know that if you quit, you will never have the chance to find out.

Do you have a plan for your clients?

What would you rather do, sell one person one thing one time, or sell one person many things many times?
I figure it is much easier to keep a client than to get a new one, don't you? So if you would like to learn how to maximize your potential with each person you come in contact with, keep reading.

The first step is to build your customer roadmap. What I mean by that is, What are the logical steps that a client would take when working with you? I like to think of my client lifecycle like a relationship:

Blind Date: Somebody says you need to meet this person, and you meet for coffee.

First Date: This is official. There is money involved, and you have reservations at a very nice restaurant, but nobody has a ton of skin in the game...yet.

Going Steady: You are now 'an item' and it feels serious and a bit exclusive.

Getting Married: The biggest commitment that you can make with one another.

Seems pretty logicial right? Now that you know the different milestones, you need to have offerings that are appropriate for each stage of the game. It probably isn't the best idea to ask someone to marry you 5 minutes into your first date, and if you are celebrating your Golden Anniversary you may want to consider doing more for your loving, loyal spouse than buying them a cup of java at Dunkin Donuts.

So what products work at which stage?

1. Blind Date Products- The goal of a blind date is to make it to a real date, so all of your blind date items are free, and what you are looking for in return is your prospects permission to contact them. Newsletters, ezine subscriptions, having a great blog and free tele-classes are perfect for the beginning stages of your relationship.

2. First Date Products- You will be selling products at this stage, but you probably want to have a few different price points and offerings. Books, CD's, Teleclasses and Live Seminars fit nicely here, and your price points can range from the low of 19.95 to a high of 299.00 for a 2 or 3 day live seminar.

3. Going Steady- Here is the real meaty part, and successful coaches have clients enrolled in multiple offerings. If you have a client enrolled in your teleclass program, maybe they would also like to participate in your 7 day certification training for $6500.00. The going steady phase is the sweetspot of your funnel, and if you do it well, your clients will stay here for a long time and buy, rebuy and refer lots of their friends.

4. Getting Married- You are offically committed to each other for something. Maybe you have a liscencing or franchise opportunity, or perhaps you will enter into a Joint Venture or Partnership with you. Chances are, you don't have an official product in this area, but you will create one when the right person comes along.

I think it is worth taking time NOW to really think about your current offerings and clients. Do you have the right mix of products in the right stage to get somebody to go from a blind date to walking down the isle? You will have a hard time getting someone to marry you if all you have is first dates and no engagement ring, so create what you need to help your prospects fall and stay in love with you.

How- the third step in the 4-mat system

How is the third step in the 4-mat system, and is where you let people roll up their sleeves and experiment with what you have taught them. If you are doing a live seminar or workshop, this is where you would do a demo or exercise where they can experience the information first hand. Pretty simple and easy to understand right? But what if you are doing things via written or recorded media and not live?
You can assign a task, or have someone do something and then continue on with your material after they have had a chance to play around a bit. So let's put this into action...

What do you do?

OK, this may seem a bit strange, but I am intrigued by this guy that works in our neighborhood. We live in a townhome community that is very dog friendly, and right behind our house, there is a huge grassy area where all the dogs can run, play and occasionally fight with each other. So you can imagine the message board with people posting about so- and- so not picking up after their dog. This got to be a very hot topic, until...

What is What?

The second step in the format system pretty simple, it is the What section. What is the meat of your sandwich, and it is the straight forward delivery of the content and information. Here's where things get a little tricky though. Only 22% of the population are What People, and the typical presentation given by most people is about 99% What.
Well, if you are an information professional or consultant, you may thnk, "Yeah, but What is What drives the business, and I am a what kind of person". Thats fine, but in order to maintain a connection with your audience, you need to break your what down into smaller chunks, and repeat the 4mat system through each module of information. That way, you can deliver 3 hours of content, and people will still be engaged at the end of your session.

Why is Why so important?

Let me ask you this… Would you like to know how to connect with your audience, and come across as an expert who not only knows their material, but has the charismatic ability to motivate them to take action?

If so, then here’s the ticket:
Learn to nail your Why!

Would you like to be a more compelling speaker?

Would you be interested in learning the magic formula of structuring your thoughts and ideas in a way that enables your audience to easily grasp your concepts and feel compelled to take action?

What I am referring to is the 4-mat system, which is a 4 step process for formatting your material. (I guess that is why they called it the format system).  It is based on learning styles, and how people like to receive and process information, but the best part is, It also helps you stay on track when chunking and sequencing presentations and written material.  Here are the steps:

Why- Why answers the question What's In It For Me?  And in case you need clarification, the me is your audience, not YOU.

What- This is your actual content, the material and the meat in your presentation.

How- When you are doing a live presentation, this could be a demonstration or hands on exercise.  If you are doing things in written form, it could be a call to action to try out your idea or process.

What if- This step shows people how they can put the information into practice, and gets them thinking about specific contexts and uses for their new found knowledge.

I will discuss each phase of the format system in separate posts, but I wanted you to have a reference point before digging into the details.