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Don’t forget the small stuff

Posted byIan Brodie on July 1st, 2018.

A lot of what we talk about in marketing is big stuff. The one or two big strategies you do that define your approach (like doing email marketing for example).

There's a lot to learn with the “big stuff” which is why I recommend to focus only on a few strategies and not to try to do everything.

But sometimes what can make all the difference is the small stuff too.

A quick email or call to an old contact every few days to keep in touch. Sending a little personalised gift to key clients on their anniversary. Recording a video to welcome new members to your membership site.

These things just take a few minutes each so they're easy to forget or think that they're not such a big deal. But if you add them up over time they can make a big difference.

So in keeping with that I have a short message for you today: don't forget the small stuff.

Make a quick note of 3 small things you can do this week to enhance your relationship with some of your top clients and prospects. Then make sure you do them!

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Do you lead people or lose people?

Posted byIan Brodie on June 27th, 2018.

Last week I talked about how we have to be really focused in our marketing. Especially for those of us who have to both work with clients and win them,

One of the things I've found it's vital we focus on (and that often gets ignored) is our enquiry process.

In other words, the path someone who's ready to buy or almost ready to buy follows.

Now, of course, most people won't be ready to buy at any given time. That's where nurturing relationships comes in.

But when they are ready, you want to make sure you have every chance to win them as clients.

So if a potential client landed on your website, would it be immediately obvious to them that you did what they needed and you could deliver the results they're looking for? 

Would it be really easy for them to find more details on what they'd get from you? Or to check out who else you'd worked with and what they said about you?

Would your website provide answers to all the typical questions they might have before they'd be ready to buy?

If they were ready to talk to you, would it be easy to find your contact details or connect with you from your site? Would it be clear to them what to expect when they contacted you? e.g. how long it would take you to get back, what the process would be, etc.

When they contacted you, would your system send them follow-up information to pre-position them for a call with you so your authority and expertise was pre-established before you spoke to them?

And when you did speak to them, would you be winging it? Or would you know what questions to ask to help their thinking, further build your credibility, and establish whether you'd be a good fit?

Being contacted by someone ready or almost ready to buy doesn't happen all that often. Don't squander the opportunity.

Make sure you lead them towards you, rather than lose them.

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This takes courage…but it works

Posted byIan Brodie on June 24th, 2018.

Today I'm going to talk about a big marketing mistake I see from a lot from people who've left roles in corporates or big professional service firms.

They try to position themselves as a kind of cheaper version of their old big firm. “We're like McKinsey, but cheaper”. They use standard stock images and impersonal language on their websites. They talk about “we” when there's only one of them.

But the truth is, you're not like a big firm but cheaper.

Firstly, you shouldn’t be cheaper. You have way more experience and value to give than the legions of juniors the big firms roll into client projects.

And secondly, you simply don't feel to clients like a big firm.

Big firms get hired because they're a safe option. A known quantity.

Usually, you're not.

So you have to have something else going for you.

You'll need to work on your USP. And a big element of that USP will be you. You are the big difference between you and everyone else.

Weirdly though, most of us try to hide who we are.

We have strong points of view. But we write boring, bland articles because we don't want to run the risk of someone disagreeing with us.

We have a sense of humour that clients love when they work with us. But whenever we do presentations or make videos for marketing we try to keep everything “professional”. We don't want to be seen as frivolous or lightweight.

We care deeply about our clients on a personal level, but we never express it or simply ask them how things are going because…well…that's just not what professionals do.

The thing more than anything else that keeps our clients coming back for more is their relationship with us. It's who we are and how we are. It's our quirks and foibles, our passions and interests, the weird stuff we laugh about. Its what turns clients into friends.

Yet we try to cover that up in our marketing and end up looking like everyone else. Nothing interesting or different to get people coming back to our emails or presentations or videos or podcasts. Or just calling for a chat.

It really does take bravery to be yourself in your marketing. Because if people don't like it, perhaps it means they don't like you.

But in fact, this is a great thing.

It means you don't have to waste time with people who are never going to be great clients because you just don't “click”. Instead of discovering that downstream, your marketing will repel them right up front.

Being yourself in your marketing means you'll attract the kind of people who like you and who you'd like working with. As long as you have decent marketing, of course.

This doesn't mean you have to be outrageous or put on some kind of fake persona. It just means allowing the real you into your marketing a bit more.

Say what you really think the next time you write that article. And say it with passion.

Have fun with your next video or presentation. Maybe even try a joke.

“Open the kimono” a bit. Share your feelings, your hopes and fears. Admit your failures and your struggles (although do this after establishing credibility).

In short: be more you.

I promise it will pay off.

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Remember that kid at school who was good at every sport?

Posted byIan Brodie on June 19th, 2018.

I bet you had one at your school too. A kid who was good at pretty much every sport?

Captain of the football team. And the cricket team. Good at rugby too, and a decent runner.

Trevor was that kid at our school. Rather annoyingly he was a nice guy too, so very difficult to dislike him.

The funny thing is that the multitalented sports stars at school very rarely seem to make it to the highest levels of sport afterwards.

There are some exceptions, of course. But the very top performers tend to be brilliant at one thing rather than being good at many.

The same is true in marketing.

You really only have to excel at one or two things to be successful.

Most of us fall into the trap of thinking we need to be good at a whole bunch of things. Email marketing, social media, paid traffic, seo, presentations, networking. The list is almost endless.

As a result, we overload ourselves with trying to learn way too many things. And we don't get good at any of them.

And we're egged on by people trying to sell us new tools and new courses about the latest and greatest thing we must learn because apparently “everyone” is getting great results with it.

But unlike the marketers who spend all their time on marketing and often have dedicated teams to support them, most of us have to fit marketing round client work. We simply don't have the time to become good at everything.

Nor do we need to.

A great product supported by mastery of a few yet marketing strategies is enough to make us successful.

And enough willpower to resist that new silver bullet, of course :)

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Principles, not tactics

Posted byIan Brodie on June 17th, 2018.

Sun Tzu famously said “tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”.

Tactics are things like running Facebook Ads to a Webinar. Something that's been all the rage for the last few years and that seemingly every online course on winning clients is based on.

What the courses usually don't tell you is that Ad costs have more than quadrupled in the last few years. And conversion rates from webinars have plummeted too.

Tactics have a limited lifetime. As more people use them and clients become used to seeing them, they become less effective.

But principles are enduring.

The key principles behind the Ad to Webinar tactic are actually quite simple. First is going direct to your ideal clients. And second is building credibility and trust through high-value content.

Those are the same principles that underlie the direct mail tactic used by Bruce Henderson in the 1960s. He mailed copies of his thought-leadership directly to senior executives in large corporates.

That simple approach grew Boston Consulting Group from a one-man-band to the world's leading strategy firm in a decade.

Tactics change. Principles are enduring.

Of course, we need tactics to implement our strategies and principles. But don't get wedded to tactics, because they don't last forever.

And make sure you understand the key principles that make those tactics work. That way you'll be able to keep your marketing up to date and avoid following fads that won't deliver for you.

What are some of those timeless principles underlying effective marketing?

This is a starting point based on where we focus in Momentum Club:

• Finding and focusing your efforts on the ideal clients for you that are “hungry” for your products and services
• Building deep understanding of their needs and what will motivate them to buy
• Creating a powerful Unique Selling Proposition that will set you apart from your competitors and make you the obvious choice to work with
• Building compelling “attraction assets” to get high potential clients knocking on your door
• Tailoring your marketing tactics to the specific type of business you're in (e.g. strategy consulting to big pharma, leadership coaching for mid-sized businesses, etc.)
• Using “value in advance” to nurture relationships and build credibility and trust so that clients are ready to buy and selling become superfluous

In truth, the specific principles don't matter so much.

What's important is that you master a good set of principles and then apply them through your tactics. Don't start with whatever tactics happen to be flavour of the month or what some guru says is the “one best way”.

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My Achilles heel…

Posted byIan Brodie on June 10th, 2018.

Gosh. Where to start with this week's Sunday email?

It's my own personal Achilles heel: spreading yourself too thin with your marketing.

It's a weird one.

We all know that multi-tasking (or serial task-switching) just doesn't work.

And we all know that if we try to do too many things we become master of none.

Yet it's just so tempting to dabble in so many different marketing approaches.

Networking this week. Emailing the next. Working on Linkedin posts on Monday, blogging on Tuesday, SEO on Wednesday, Tweets on Thursday.

Not to mention webinars, “funnels” and all sorts of technical stuff we can get sucked into.

I think part of the problem is that we're all inherently curious. If someone tells us about a clever new tool or technique that makes it easy to get clients we're desperate to know what it is.

And most of us have to fit marketing into a busy schedule of client work. So it's hardly surprising we get interested when someone claims to have an amazing new method that will make our marketing easier and more effective.

And let's be honest, a lot of people in the marketing world take advantage of that. They've always got an amazing new method to sell. Or a “friend” running a fantastic webinar that just happens to pitch yet another new product at the end.

At the end of the day, discipline is our secret weapon.

Focus on just one or two approaches for attracting new clients.

And one or two methods for nurturing your relationships.

And just one method for converting those relationships into paying clients.

None of those methods needs to be new. They just need to work.

And by focusing your efforts you'll get better and better at each of those methods. Which will make them even more effective.

And you'll be able to fit them into a busy schedule.

If you want to go deeper into prioritising and making the time for marketing you can read my in-depth article here.

But for now, just start being more mindful of how many different things you're attempting to do. And start working to focus on the most effective ones.

(Oh, and clear your emails and social media feeds of people who are constantly trying to sell you the next big thing – that will help a lot :) )

See you next week

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“Attraction Assets”

Posted byIan Brodie on June 3rd, 2018.

Ever been trapped at an event or party by some guy determined to sell you something?

No matter what you talk about he steers the conversation towards how great his products are and how they can really help you.

It's a Dante-esque nightmare that none of us would want to suffer.

And yet, in truth, we often inflict a similar situation on our own potential clients.

The first thing almost everyone learns in marketing is an “elevator pitch”. And, of course, the first thing we slap on our website is our value proposition telling people why they should hire us.

Buy almost any training course on marketing or sales and it'll focus on persuasion: convincing people they ought to hire you.

But think back to what we said in last week's email: the very best time to connect with a potential client is when they first realise they have a problem.

That means you can establish yourself as their guide, building credibility and trust so that when they're ready to buy, you're the one they turn to.

Do you think that when they first discover they have a big problem that needs addressing they're interested in hearing your elevator pitch or why you're a better choice to help than your competitors?

Far from it. Their focus is entirely on their problem.

They want to know what caused it. How big of a problem is it? What are their options to solve it? What will it take? How long?

There are a whole bunch of questions they'll want answers to way before they start thinking about who to choose to help them.

So if all they hear from you is about how much better you are than your competitors or what you're an expert in then to them you sound exactly like the awful guy trying to sell you stuff at the party.

What you don't sound like is a trusted advisor who can help them navigate their problem through to a solution.

So what does that look like in practice?

Well, it doesn't mean just giving away work for free.

It means creating reusable “attraction assets” that will draw clients to you because they clarify and help solve their most important problems.

An attraction asset might be a free diagnostic a potential client can run through to identify the root cause of a tricky leadership problem.

Or it might be a free report that lays out the key steps to reducing purchasing costs.

Or it might be a set of case studies from clients you recently worked with on improving their sales that you can share and discuss.

Pitching your services too early repels potential clients like an annoying party guest. But using an attraction asset to share valuable insight on a common problem your clients have draws them to you instead.

It starts off your relationship on the right foot: with you giving immediate value rather than just telling them about all the value you could give if they'd only hire you.

And it establishes you as an expert at what you do. Someone whose advice they'll pay attention to as they continue their quest to solve their problem or achieve their big goal.

And, frankly, it lets you feel good about your marketing rather than feeling like the creepy party guest. That can't be bad.

Then next week we'll look at a mistake that can undo all your good intentions.

More Clients Memorandum

The “hot lead” trap

Posted byIan Brodie on May 27th, 2018.

Back when I was running live training courses on marketing the number one thing my attendees said they wanted was to get “hot leads”. A steady stream of potential clients ready to buy right now.

Sounds great in theory. Who wouldn’t want to get in contact with lots of people ready to buy? Cuts out all that faffing about speaking to tyre-kickers and timewasters.

The trouble is, it's a huge mistake.

Focusing on potential clients who are ready to buy is a bit like a guy who wants to get married focusing all his attention on trying to chat up brides-to-be on the eve of their wedding.

After all, they're looking to get married, right?

Sounds ludicrous when you put it like that. A bride on the eve of her wedding may well be ready to get married. Just not to you.

And the same is true of potential clients.

Hiring a consultant or coach is a big decision. By the time someone is ready to buy they've already been through a lot of thinking and will be 90% emotionally committed to a supplier already.

Trying to butt-in at that point and get them to change their mind is like trying to persuade a bride on the altar that you'd be a better choice than the guy she's spent years dating.

Unless you're the George Clooney of your world, it's not going to happen.

And yet that's how most of us do our marketing.

Confession: that was me, rather more recently than I'd like to admit.

When I first started my own business I got pretty good at networking (despite not being a natural). I had the whole “elevator pitch” thing off pat and I knew the signs that would indicate I had a “hot prospect” on my hands.

And so I'd go from event to event meeting new people, sizing them up to see if they were a “hot prospect” and moving on if they weren't.

After months of doing this, it became pretty clear that it just wasn't working. My pipeline was dry and my discussions with the hot prospects turned to nothing.

I finally realised I was making a big mistake when I heard on the grapevine that a handful of the people I'd ignored because they weren't “hot prospects” had eventually hired someone to do what I could have done for them.

Doh!

Luckily for me, one thing I did do right was to invest in my own education.

I learned that there's a rather better way to build your business than constantly chasing hot leads.

It's to start a relationship when your potential partner is still open to dating.

For clients that means catching them when they first notice they have a problem or a new goal they want to achieve.

It means building credibility over time by helping them get clear on where they should be heading. It means giving them insights on what they should focus on to get there.

It means keeping in touch and adding value as they get closer to making a decision.

Then when they finally become a “hot lead”, you'll be the person they turn to. You'll be the bridegroom they've built a relationship with, not the sleazy guy trying to chat them up when it's all too late.

It takes courage to invest in building relationships over time like this. Confidence that it will pay off. And the strength to hold off from desperately chasing hot leads.

But it's far, far more effective.

Of course, it begs the question…how do I start relationships with potential clients on the right foot in the first place?

That's the subject of next week's email because, frankly, most people do it horribly wrong…

See you then…

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Premium Pricing isn’t just for Posh People

Posted byIan Brodie on May 24th, 2018.

My Mum is staying with us this week.

We picked her up on Monday from Victoria Station in Manchester and went for a walk around town in the glorious sun. 

In the afternoon we popped into “Annie's” for afternoon tea.

Now I have to admit, I'm not normally someone who pays £20 a head for a few sandwiches, cakes and a scone. But it was great to escape and enjoy the service and the décor. And the tea was good.

It reminded me of a mistake many people make when it comes to premium pricing (I know I often fall into this trap).

Typically when we think about whether we can charge a premium for our products we think about whether our audience or a significant part of it will be willing and able to pay those premium prices.

The mistake we make is assuming that willingness to pay is static.

I'm not normally willing to pay £20 a head for afternoon tea. But on a special occasion, I am.

What we need to do when it comes to premium pricing is not just think “who will be willing to pay a premium?” but also “under what circumstances will people be willing to pay a premium?”

Thinking of those circumstances will open up a much bigger pool of potential clients willing to pay a premium to us. And it will give us ways of positioning our products and services that gives them extra appeal on those occasions. 

Think about your core services. When would people be willing to pay a premium for them? How can you ensure they think of you in those circumstances? And how can you position your services to be the obvious choice in those circumstances?