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Here’s to you

Posted byIan Brodie on August 21st, 2016.

I've been thinking today about what extraordinary lives we lead.

If you're reading this email than the chances are you don't live an ordinary “9 to 5” life.

You may well run your own business. Or be a professional dedicated to serving your clients. 

I'm also betting you've made some sacrifices. Given up plenty of time to get your business off the ground or go that extra mile to make sure your clients get what they need. Travel, long hours, tough, challenging work.

In fact, you probably make those sacrifices week in, week out. Working way harder than most everyone else you know. I've been there. I still am there really.

I don't have any magic tips for you this week.  I just want you to know how much I respect what you do.

I know business can be challenging at times. How sometimes the amount of stuff we need to do to succeed can seem overwhelming.

I hope my work helps you with that in some way. But always remember, your success is down to you.

So here's to you, and to every small victory on your path to success.

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Don’t be fooled by this otherwise good advice

Posted byIan Brodie on August 14th, 2016.

“If you're going to do something, you might as well do it right”.

I really like that saying and I try to apply it to everything I do. I'm rarely content with just being OK at things: I wan't to be really good or not do them at all.

By and large that philosophy has stood me in very good stead. But sometimes it can cause problems. Big ones.

If you're a bit like me, then whenever you want to do something in your business you want to do it really well.

But what if you're just starting out with something like email marketing? Or your website? Or doing sales meetings?

My preference would be to try to get the “perfect” website. To implement a really complex and high-performing email marketing funnel. To try to learn to handle every possibility in sales meetings so I get the best results possible.

It just doesn't work like that though.

You have to go through a learning curve.

Trying to implement an advanced email marketing system from scratch is like trying to learn to drive in a Formula 1 racing car. It's just far too difficult with far too much going on for a beginner.

It's the same with websites, sales meetings, doing presentations, pretty much any type of marketing.

You've got to learn the basics first and get good at them before you can progress to more advanced versions.

If you try to start at too advanced a level you'll struggle to make progress and often won't manage to get anything implemented at all.

Great though the idea is of “if you're going to do something, do it right”, don't be fooled into using it with your marketing. Start with the basics. get good results. Then work on improving.

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Perhaps the most powerful advice I ever got

Posted byIan Brodie on July 31st, 2016.

Back when I was consulting full time I was taught something that was hugely helpful in improving my effectiveness as a consultant. But something that's also stood me in good stead from a marketing and business development perspective too.

It's something I think comes from Mahan Khalsa's book “Let's Get Real Or Let's Not Play”.

It's: “If you feel it, find a way to say it”.

Sounds simple, but incredibly powerful to use as a guide to your interactions with clients.

Like many consultants, I'm quite a rational type. I'm not super comfortable with conflict or anger or other emotional issues that sometimes arise in any business relationship.

So when I picked up that my client might be concerned about something, or angry, or disappointed or whatever; I tended to keep quiet.

“Let's not open that can of worms” I'd think to myself as I swept the issue under the carpet and acted as if nothing was wrong.

And, of course, that's rarely the right thing to do. It usually comes back to haunt you. Bad feelings fester and grow out of proportion to their causes until they become much more destructive than if they'd been addressed early.

The “if you feel it, find a way to say it” principle ecourages you to speak out if you sense something is wrong.

“I get the sense you're not fully comfortable with this plan…”

“It feels like something else may be worrying you right now, is that right…”

Having the courage to say what you're feeling or sensing gives your client a chance to open up (if they feel OK to do so) and almost always defuses situations that could become out of hand if left unchecked.

It works in business development too.

Often we pick up that our potential clients might not be fully bought in to what we're proposing. Or they may have some objections to our solution. Or they might just not believe what we're saying.

Usually, we get a feeling that something's not right. But usually, we ignore it too, plough on through, get to the end of the meeting unscathed, submit the proposal, and then find out later we didn't win the project.

Far better to say what we're feeling. Give your potential client a chance to get any issues they might have out on the table so you can address them.

You're much more likely to win a sale as a result, rather than just bulldozing past their objections.

Try it. If you feel it, find a way to say it.

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Who do you really want as clients?

Posted byIan Brodie on July 24th, 2016.

I grabbed a beer and burger with an old friend recently who was telling me about a challenge he faced with an aggressive competitor.

My friend told me about how his competitor was essentially advertising with what he believed to be unrealistic claims. Essentially telling people if they bought his coaching they could grow their income 10x.

Apparently it wasn't an outright lie. The competitor had done it once in very favourable conditions with a client with a ton of untapped potential. It's just that it was unrealistic for 99% of the people who might end up working with him.

“How can I compete against someone telling people they'll get results like that?” my friend asked. “I get great results for my clients but compared to what this guy is saying they look pretty dull”.

And you know, there's not really an easy answer to this one.

But one way to think about it is to think about the type of clients those unrealistic claims will attract.

Unrealsitic ones is my guess. People looking for a silver bullet.

An easy sale. But a painful relationship. Especially when the results don't show up.

Behind the scenes, these guys who make the huge claims also have huge refunds and huge customer service issues. But they get enough “easy targets”  and enough people who blame themselves or who don't tough out the refund process to make it profitable for them.

Not the sort of business I want to run. I'm sure you don't want that either.

Most great clients don't believe those inflated claims and wild exaggerations. 

Don't worry about how others are advertising or promoting their business no matter how unfair it might seem. They'll get the clients they deserve.

My advice: focus your marketing on the great clients you want and on promoting your business in an ethical way with realistic claims that set up your clients for success.

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It’s not about you (and yet it is)

Posted byIan Brodie on July 17th, 2016.

I had a really interesting conversation recently which you might find helpful when it comes to branding and differentiating yourself.

I was talking (well chatting online) to a very smart Momentum Club member.

I was trying to make the point that when you're marketing, your communications should be very client focused. They shouldn't be about you and how you're better, they should be about your client and how they can succeed.

My smart client then remarked that while that made sense, the reason he hired me was because of me. He liked me and the way I did things. That was why he chose to work with me. So in a way, I needed to communicate about me, otherwise he wouldn't have known that I was the right person to hire.

But when we thought about it, we realised we were both right.

I had communicated about me and why I was different – but not overtly.

Every time I sent a useful tip, it communicated that I had value to add.

Every time I made a recommendation that was in my audience's best interest rather than mine, I was communicating that I cared.

Every time I was honest about where I'd failed rather than just trumpeting my successes, I was communicating I was the kind of person he'd like to work with.

So yes, you communicate about yourself and why you're better. But you do it through your actions and by demonstration, not by claims and by showing off.