Educate, Not Sell

A mistake that business owners often make is providing information to prospects that they won’t and don’t perceive to be of value – often during the follow-up phase. Even if you make your marketing/information materials about the prospect, be sure that you also offer valuable insights and education. At a minimum, each piece should leave the prospect with something that helps him or her get “better” – even if you never interact again. Ideally, your piece should leave the prospect wanting more, much more. You should make a point of doing research from time to time with your target market to make sure that they value the information you are offering. At the same time, you should also get advice about how to make your content even better.

Develop Your Unique Edge

So far, hopefully you’ve chosen a target market, identified the unique problems your market faces, designed solutions, and described the benefits of your solutions.  But what if your competitors are already offering the same (or very similar) solutions and benefits?  If your market is large enough, you might get away with being a “me-too” player.  However, in the long run, it is better to develop a unique, powerful, compelling edge compared to the competition.  This takes four steps:

1.    Understand your target market’s key criteria for evaluating professionals with your capabilities (Different markets value different things, such as speed, price, flexibility, systems, etc.)
2.    Assess the competition against those key criteria from the target market.
3.    Identify and/or create your unique edge, and
4.    Deliver!

Answer These 6 Critical Questions

Need to build a solid strategic foundation for your business? Start by answering these six critical questions:

1.    Who is your target market?
2.    What problems does your market face, and what do those problems cost?
3.    What is/are your solution(s)?
4.    What are the benefits of your solution(s)?
5.    What is unique about your solution(s) compared to your competitors’ solution(s)?
6.    What is your marketing message?

Get clear and do research to help you answer these questions for your business – you’ll be glad you did!

Engage in Public Speaking

Did you know that some interactions will build more trust with your prospects than others, and often much quicker? Most people are terrified of speaking in public, but this activity as part of your marketing efforts is much more powerful than spending money on an advertisement, even the most effective ones. People see you, hear what you have to say, and can judge your credibility right on the spot. They remember you, and feel like they know you – even if you have never met. As a coach and attorney, I often get ten times more business from public speaking, seminars, and other face-to-face interactions than I do from less personal business development tactics, like direct mail or yellow page ads. Other powerful interactions are referrals, writing articles and even books, and getting mentioned in leading magazine. So, make it a point to use these more effective marketing ideas, and build more trust and value in the process.

Practice the Essential "Pulling" Strategy

Traditional business development efforts “push” what you do into your prospect’s face, and turn them off. The psychology of trust is about attracting your client to you, instead of “pushing” at them. What is highly recommended is that you provide prospects with a series of safe, high value offers that they can choose to accept or not. These offers help them understand and address their problems, and establish your credibility as an authority. This essential feature of a “pulling” strategy is that the prospect gets to make the choice, and so feels safe examining your information.

Demonstrate Value

Did you know that demonstrating value to your clients and customers is BOTH logical and emotional? When you help someone save time, make more money, or improve their health, you are providing logical benefits. At the same time, your clients and customers get equal or greater value from the emotional benefits you provide. These include:  feeling better, eliminating hassles, being smart, looking good, feeling more secure, feeling peaceful, and being safe. Many professionals feel awkward expressing their value in emotional terms, but the more you can convert what you do into emotional benefits (eg: “You are going to feel so much more at ease when this is taken care of”), the more value they will perceive. An exercise on this would be to write out 5-7 emotional benefits your clients and customers receive – and then make sure to include these in all your marketing efforts!