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Do you really know what your clients want?

Posted byIan Brodie on November 5th, 2017.

I bet you *think* you know what your clients want. We all do.

But it's really easy to get sidetracked by what we would want if we were in their position, or what everyone else tells us our clients should want, or what they tell us they want *on the surface*.

But do we really know what they want enough to hire us to work with them to address. Often we don't.

I've certainly made big mistakes and assumptions in this area.

One way to get to the root of what your clients want is to take what you initially think they want and keep asking yourself “why?” until you get to a real emotional issue. A real “hope or fear”.

Then find a way to validate that with them (but ask tactfully, of course).

One of my first coaching clients had a real breakthrough using this simple method.

He worked with the CEOs of the US divisions of overseas businesses that had just started up their US operations. He had always assumed his clients wanted him to help them grow their business as fast as possible.

But when he asked himself “why?” he realised that the main thing his clients wanted was risk-free growth. They didn't mind if the business could have grown faster – they wouldn't have seen much personal reward from that.

But they did mind risk. Having the venture fail would have been disastrous for their careers. So they were quite happy to have just moderate growth, as long as it came safely and securely.

Understanding that changed the whole way he marketed to and interacted with potential clients. And it paid off.

Do you *really* understand what your clients want? Beyond the obvious? Beyond what you would want if you were in their position? 

Try the simple “why?” exercise to make sure.

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Knowing is not enough

Posted byIan Brodie on November 5th, 2017.

I got an email earlier this week from a Momentum Club member who was rather excited because she'd implemented a couple of tips I'd given her and had added 100+ email subscribers to her list within a few hours.

Of course, getting email subscribers is just the start. You then have to turn them into paying clients.

But for someone who'd previously told me she just wasn't any good at marketing, she'd made a great start.

Her “secret”, if you can call it that, is that she wasn't just satisfied to learn something new. She made sure she put it into practice quickly.

Most of us stop at learning. We feel good that we've learnt something new. Recent research at Barcelona's Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute and Otto von Guericke University, for example, has shown that learning the meanings of new words stimulates the same pleasure centres in the brain as sex and chocolate.

But learning something new and feeling good about ourselves doesn't pay the mortgage. You need new clients for that.

Which means you have to put what you've learned into action.

I find that I'm much more likely to implement what I learn if I review my notes within 24 hours of doing a course or learning something new and highlight the 2 or 3 things I'm going to implement.

Then I put them in place quickly.

Not necessarily perfectly. But quickly.

Then I learn and refine.

For me, that switch from learning to doing is the key to succeeding with your marketing.

You're always learning in marketing. What works to win clients often changes.

But learning is not enough. No matter how effective the material in Momentum Club is, real success comes to those who are the best at implementing it.

Make sure you're a do-er.

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Don’t ignore this simple truth

Posted byIan Brodie on October 31st, 2017.

Last week I shared with you some slides on finding the perfect match between what you have to offer and the ideal clients for that offer.

Included in the pack was a page on the criteria I use to decide which clients to focus on.

There are lots of things you'd expect in there: do they have a real need I can help with, is it a priority for them, would I enjoy working with them, are there enough of them to make this viable, etc.

But there's one criterion people often overlook – and it's a big mistake. In fact it was really brought home to me last week.

Last week I splurged a bit of money on a few things. An online training program for a few hundred dollars on a topic related to my field. A trip to Paris for Kathy and me in December (we love the way Paris lights up at Christmas). And yes, I got up early to join the online queue last Friday for the new iPhone :)

The thing is that 10 years ago I would have had pretty much the same need for these products (or their equivalent). But there's no way I'd have bought them. 5 years ago I'd have thought very hard about them and maybe bought one or at most two of them.

But last week I didn't bat an eyelid.

It wasn't because I needed them any more than I might have 5 or 10 years ago.

It wasn't because they were more persuasively sold.

It's simply that today I'm much more able to afford them than I was 10 years ago when I was just starting out on my own.

Never forget how important it is to focus your efforts on people who can easily afford what it is you have to offer.

I know that sounds obvious. I know no one deliberately sets out to focus on people who can't afford what they're selling.

But we often inadvertently shoot ourselves in the foot.

For example, if you do sales training for small businesses and the way you attract clients is to talk about all the problems and the pain of low sales, then you'll probably attract people who really need your training. But the chances are if they empathise with the agony of low sales, they won't have a lot of money available to spend on training because of those low sales.

If you do leadership coaching for new managers, who is more likely to be able to buy a significant amount of coaching from you? The newly promoted managers themselves, or more senior people in larger organisations who might buy a bigger program of coaching for a group of new managers?

The way we describe our services and the problems and benefits we highlight determines who we attract as clients.

The problems we discuss in our blog posts, videos, podcasts and emails determines who we attract as leads.

If you want clients more able to afford your services, focus on the problems and challenges those sorts of clients are likely to have, not just the obvious problems that everyone (and especially those least able to afford you) have.

Of course, there might be other reasons why you focus on people less able to afford your services. You might enjoy working with smaller or solo businesses for example (I do). You might feel a duty to help those in real need.

But make sure you're focusing on those people deliberately, not accidentally.

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Do this to get better results

Posted byIan Brodie on October 29th, 2017.

Back when was heavily into magic, I learned something that made a big difference to my knowledge and skill as a performer.

It was something simple but profound I read from sleight-of-hand artist Michael Vincent.

He said, “Make it a policy that before you buy a new magic book, you master the one you're currently reading”.

These were in the days when we learnt things from books, of course :)

But the point was well made.

Magic hobbyists have a habit of buying book after book, video after video, trick after trick hoping that the latest shiny object will turn them into a miracle worker in the eyes of their audiences.

But in magic, real miracles come from mastering a few tricks and being able to perform them flawlessly.

Same goes for business, of course.

We all jump on board the latest marketing technique hoping it'll be the one that brings us a flood of clients without needing to lift much of a finger.

But in truth, clients come from mastering just a handful or core marketing principles. Principles that by and large we already know.

We just haven't put enough time into mastering the techniques we've already learnt.

So to paraphrase Michael Vincent, make it a policy that before you try to learn a new marketing technique or buy a new course, master the one you're already working on.

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The problem with online marketing

Posted byIan Brodie on October 25th, 2017.

In my last email I said that the core of a successful business is a great match between a hungry market and a valuable service that satiates that hunger.

But how do you know when you've got that match?

Back in the “good old days” you didn't have much choice.

You'd talk to people about it.

You'd grab a coffee with potential clients (or people who knew them) and ask them about whether they thought it was a good idea.

Then you'd pull together a tentative program and offer it to people you thought would be good clients. If they signed up you knew you were on to something. If they didn't you went back to the drawing board.

Then you ran your program (or did your coaching or whatever it is you do). You got feedback and you used that to shape up your offer before you went out to the big wide world.

These days we seem to have lost the art of that small-scale startup.

Today all the gurus will tell you to develop an online training program for passive income. Develop a bunch of videos. Then create a clever funnel with upsells and downsells and lots of automation. Then run Facebook ads to send people through that funnel.

All sounds great. And it skips that rather embarrassing step of actually getting feedback from real people.

But it turns out, it's that feedback that makes or breaks your program.

What if you've missed the mark? What if people don't have a burning desire for what you're offering What if there are a few key things you need to tweak to make it really attractive?

Sadly, you don't get that data when you start with a clever automated funnel. You only get it by talking to people.

So my advice is to start by getting feedback from real people (who you know will be honest with you). And then to launch a low-cost pilot version of your program where you work with people personally.

If you can't sell that, you'll never sell the “passive income” version.

And that live program will give you amazing insight into what your audience really finds helpful and what it doesn't.

So that if you eventually launch a passive income version it will be 10x better.

But until then – start small and start live.

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How to simplify your business (and get better results)

Posted byIan Brodie on October 24th, 2017.

A few weeks ago I sent out a couple of emails about a problem very many people face: overwhelm.

In fact, at some point, all of us feel overwhelmed by our business and what it seems like we've got to do to be successful.

The emails really connected, with many people writing back to me to say that's exactly how they felt and it was such a relief to hear they weren't alone.

So for the next few emails, I'm going to share some tips on steps you can take to make running your business a whole lot easier. And a whole lot more successful too, it turns out. 

The key to all of it is to keep things as simple as possible.

It's very easy to get seduced by clever new techniques and shiny objects which promise to bring you a flood of clients if you just implement a clever new funnel or a brand spanking new tool. (Personally, I am such an easy sell for clever new tools :o ).

And while some of these techniques and tools do indeed work, they only work if you've already mastered the fundamentals.

No marketing technique in the world is going to save you if you're trying to build a business around a service no one really wants for clients who just aren't that interested.

And that's often why we end up overwhelmed by our marketing. If we haven't found those ideal clients with a pressing need for our services then our marketing has to work 10x harder to bring in new business. We have to do all sorts of extras to wring out every last opportunity.

But if we've got that perfect match, our marketing doesn't have to be all that great, and everything can be so much simpler.

So how do you make sure you have a brilliant offer with hungry clients?

Honestly, there's no easy answer. It needs some hard thinking.

I've found the best approach is to follow three key steps:

1. Brainstorm options for both your “ultra valuable service” and the potential clients you can best serve.
2. Evaluate the options you come up with against three key criteria: do I have the experience and expertise to make this work? Will I find this area personally satisfying to work in? And crucially, is it economically viable?
3. Get real-world feedback from potential clients (or people who know them) on your selected option.

Step 3 is vital. I see a lot of people getting tied up in knots trying to think their way to a perfect answer. But the truth is you can never finalise it in theory – you have to test it and see what clients really value.

To help you with this process I've created a short guide adapted from the training I do for my Authority Breakthrough clients in this area.

You can download the slides here:

>>> How to find your Perfect Client-Service Match <<<

You'll see the steps outlined in more detail, along with the evaluation criteria I use and guidance on how to get useful feedback from potential clients.

Hope you find it useful,

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Does your marketing make you happy?

Posted byIan Brodie on October 22nd, 2017.

Does your marketing make you happy?

That probably seems like a strange question.

If you're anything like me you've probably been taught that marketing (and business in general) is all about results.

You do what's the most effective. Doing things because you enjoy them is almost looked down upon as being weak somehow.

The cult of “hustle & grind” tells us we've got to work, work, work.

We're shown mottos about how entrepreneurs do the things other people aren't prepared to do so they can (eventually) live a life those other people can't. 

I used to buy into all of that. 

But then I got a bit older. I watched others work themselves into the ground. Some even losing the people they loved in the process. 

And I discovered that you don't have to do the 100% most effective thing if you don't enjoy it. Doing something that's 90% or 80% as effective but that you love doing is way better for you.

Can you do marketing that you're proud of because it genuinely helps people (like I hope my emails do)?

Can you do marketing that fulfils you because it harnesses your strengths and your interests?

Can you do marketing you enjoy because you can have a bit of fun with it?

Sure you can.

Don't buy into the “work until it hurts” myth. Do things you enjoy and good things will happen. 

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Do you stand for anything?

Posted byIan Brodie on October 15th, 2017.

As I've got older, I've found that when I buy something big, I look for something more than just the “what's in it for me” factor. 

That's especially true when I buy education or training about something I'm going to be doing myself. 

It has to “feel” right. 

Sometimes I might buy something purely to learn a technique or skill, but much more often than not I'll buy from someone I feel a connection with.

That connection might be that I like their personality or approach to life. Or I admire their ethics. Or they champion a cause I believe in too (like small business vs big business).

Often I find myself drawn to people who do things in a similar way to me. Who aren't natural salespeople and don't try to “optimise everything to the hilt” to drag every last penny out of their customer. I like to buy from people who seem to genuinely care about their clients succeeding and who'll forgo that bit of extra profit to make sure they do.

And, of course, that whole thing works in reverse too. Our clients are making the same assessments and judgements about us.

They're looking for people they can make a connection with. Who stand for something other than just making a profit.

Do you fit the bill?

I'm not suggesting you pretend to champion a cause just to get more sales. Or that you put on some kind of false personality in your marketing so that more people like you (they'll see through it, to be honest). 

What I'm suggesting is that we all have causes we support. We all have a particular style of doing things. We all have a personality.

Don't hide it.

Of course, you have to “have the goods”. You need to be able to deliver great results for your clients. But there are plenty of people who can do that.

Your personality, the way you do things, your beliefs. They can be the edge you need to win.

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You are not alone

Posted byIan Brodie on October 12th, 2017.

I've never had as many replies to an email as I did to yesterday's one about feeling overwhelmed.

So if you find yourself feeling that there's just so much to learn and do when it comes to marketing and running a business and you're just not sure if you can cope with it all… please know you're not alone.

I get that feeling. And hundreds upon hundreds of other successful people do too.

And it's not just confined to us small businesses either.

Yesterday I grabbed a coffee with Brent Adamson of the CEB (and author of the Challenger Sale, Challenger Customer and a bunch of other very insightful works).

We were running through the keynote Brent is going to present today at the CEB's big Sales & Marketing conference in London. 

One of the things the CEB has found from their recent research is the paradox that the more organisations try to help their front-line staff cope with the increasing complexity of their client base, the worse they actually make things.

Just like happens with us small businesses, in their attempts to improve things they add a fix here, a “hack” there, a new system here, a new process there…and pretty soon their front-line staff are bogged down in the complexity.

Each individual improvement is good in its own right and would be great if it was the only thing they did. But add them all together and all the new systems, processes, approval hoops, people to call to get help, new documents, new guidelines…it adds so much complexity that the sum is much, much less than the parts.

And as I said to Brent yesterday – people like him and me aren't helping things.

We're constantly telling you to try this new thing, look at this great new tool, add more and more to what you're doing to get results.

Multiple that by the dozen or so experts you're listening to and it's no wonder everyone is feeling so overwhelmed.

In all honesty, I don't have a great answer for you on this one yet. This isn't a clever tease of a new product I'm about to launch. It's a problem I'm fighting every day myself too.

But as I said yesterday, simplification helps.

Really understanding your 80:20 and the critical few things you do that make the difference to your success and your clients helps too. 

Having the bravery to stick with your second-best solution because you know that adding on more bells and whistles will actually make things worse…that helps a lot.

Clearing your inbox of emails from people constantly suggesting you buy shiny new objects from them and their “friends” (or rather, people they've just met who have promised to pay them a commission on any referrals) – that definitely helps.

There's beauty in simplicity. 

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Has your business ever made you feel like this?

Posted byIan Brodie on October 11th, 2017.

I got an email recently from a long-time subscriber, a friend really, who shared some of the challenges she was facing with her business.

It's not that she isn't smart, or great at what she does (she's brilliant, in fact).

It's just that over time her business seems to have got more and more complex. She's added little bits here and there, tried some new ways of marketing, tried some more…and eventually all those little extras have added up to “a real pigs ear”.

The end result: she's “fed up with being constantly shattered and not really getting anywhere…”.

Here's the thing that you must understand about this: we all go through it.

It happens to me.

It happens to all those experts who tell you business is easy if you just buy their magic system…

No one is immune. 

It's just that some people are brave enough to admit it.

And it doesn't just happen when you're starting up or struggling. Even if your business looks like it's flying to the outside world; inside you can be running around like crazy wishing you could just escape somehow and enjoy life more.

I don't have all the answers, I get this too.

But what always helps me is simplification.

Whenever I find myself running around and constantly worn out I try to think about what I would do if I was starting again from scratch.

What's the simplest business model I could use?

Frankly, it's not my goal to build an empire and take over the world. Making a decent living, helping people and having fun is what I aim for.

So I don't need some hugely sophisticated business. I suspect you don't either.

For me, a simple model that works is to have something free to give away to get email subscribers, then to send some of my best tips and ideas by email on a regular basis and to offer a product that will help people implement my ideas and get great results from it.

I don't get any massive windfalls through that model. No sexy product launches or big paydays. I doubt it'll ever make me a gazillionaire.

Just a steady stream of satisfied clients and happy subscribers who appreciate what I do.

When I add extras and bells and whistles to that model, I get better results. 

But I also add complexity and work. Over time I get seriously diminishing returns. 

And my time and sanity mean a lot more to me than the extra money. 

So every now and then I do the exercise of thinking “what would I do if I had to start from scratch?” 

Every time I come up with a slightly different answer (after all, I've learnt new things and grown since I last did the exercise). But every time the answer is much simpler than the muddle I've ended up with.

I think that's healthy. I don't think we should be afraid to admit when we're getting overwhelmed. Most of us aren't gurus peddling an image of an easy life on a beach working just a few hours a day.

In the real world, we all get stressed and overwhelmed.

And going back to basics helps us all.