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What’s your “trigger”?

Posted byIan Brodie on June 10th, 2012.

I talk a lot about the need to nurture client relationships: to build credibility and trust over time – you may well have noticed ;)

But if you're anything like me, every now and then you've probably found yourself thinking “great, but isn't there a shortcut? I need clients now”.

Well, there is – sometimes.

Normally, so-called shortcuts don't work. They usually involve you getting more aggressive with your marketing and pushing your stuff at people when they're not ready.

Exactly the opposite of what I advocate. And frankly, it rarely works.

But there is an approach to getting clients fast that can work for some people.

It's dependent on the sort of business you're in. But if it works for you it can help you bypass a ton of time and effort and get straight through to clients open to talking to you and open to hiring you.

The approach is to look for “trigger events”.

A trigger event is something that happens to a business or individual that precedes them needing your help.

So, for example, after two businesses have merged, they often need support from HR consultants, change management consultants and IT specialists to make the merger work.

In this case the news of the merger is a trigger event for the people who supply those sorts of services. Businesses undergoing a merger are far more likely to need their support than typical businesses.

By focusing their marketing on businesses undergoing a merger, they're far more likely to hit people who are interested than if they try to market to everyone.

And those people are going to be closer to a buying decision (and with a real motivation to buy) than people who are just interested generally.

Now the strategy doesn't work for everyone. In the merger case, by the time the merger is announced it's too late for consultants, lawyers and financiers who work on the deal itself to get involved – that'll already be sorted out.

But for people like HR, change and IT consultants who get involved downstream it's a great time to approach a business.

So what are the trigger events for clients getting interested in hiring someone like you?

It could be news about the business (overseas expansion, rapid growth, a profit warning, a new facility being built). Or it could be news about individuals (a promotion, a new senior hire, a new project being taken on).

Make sure you're watching for the relevant news. Set up google alerts for your target clients. Watch Linkedin profile changes and status updates. Keep up to date with the trade news in your sector and stay in touch with the grapevine.

And have something useful to share for when the event happens. Don't just contact a merging business to say “hey, we can help you with your IT”. Have an executive briefing on the “5 big pitfalls of IT systems that can derail mergers – and how to avoid them”.

Offer them the briefing as a way of building your credibility and starting a relationship quickly.

Trigger events can be a real shortcut to finding high potential clients – make sure you're watching out for them.

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Overcoming marketing paralysis

Posted byIan Brodie on June 3rd, 2012.

In my last couple of Sunday emails I've been looking at the barriers that hold us back from taking effective action with our marketing.

The final one I'd like to cover is being overwhelmed.

A number of my clients, when we first meet, talk about feeling paralysed. Not able to do anything with their marketing because they're just not sure what will work.

There just seems to be so many different options.

And the more advice they hear from different sources, the more confused they get and the less able they feel to confidently take action.

Often what I find when I dig beneath the surface is that the reason they can't decide what to do is that they don't really understand their clients at a deep enough level.

That might sound a bit harsh – but it's true.

When I say “deep understanding” I don't mean knowing your potential client's favourite football team or whether they're a wine afficionado.

There's nothing wrong with the sort of trivia most professionals gather about their potential clients. But it doesn't really help you sell.

What's important to know are their real challenges: their problems and issues, goals and aspirations. And what's going to motivate them to hire someone (like you) to help them.

When you have a picture of this – way beyond the superficial level – then your marketing becomes clear.

You know what messages will resonate, what services to offer. What channels to use to reach your ideal clients.

But it requires a bit of thought. Client's don't tell you these things. Often they're not consciously aware of them.

Over the last few years I've refined a technique for taking your knowledge of your clients and potential clients and mapping it out in a way that gives you Actionable Insights into their needs.

Stuff you can do something with in your marketing.

If you'd like to try out the process, the video is completely free to watch. Just head over to:

Customer Insight Mapping Video >>

And press play.

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How to turn marketing you hate into something you love

Posted byIan Brodie on May 27th, 2012.

Many years ago when I got my first account management role in the big consulting firm I was working for it became my job to call potential clients up to try to set up sales meetings for me and others within our organisation.

As you can imagine, I hated it.

I went from being a consultant whose opinion was valued by clients and whose calls were anticipated to someone who called trying to sell them stuff.

And after a while, my calls started getting answered an awful lot less than before.

And because I found it so painful, I didn't call as often as I should have.

So I didn't get many meetings. And I didn't get many sales.

I was well on my way to being shown the door when I noticed something a bit weird.

Whenever my firm published some research that I thought my clients might find interesting – I had no hesitation then to call them to offer them a copy.

Of if we were organising an executive dinner with a good speaker, I'd be happy to call them up with an invite.

And even more importantly – my clients liked it too.

The research was useful to them. The dinners and talks were fun and valuable.

They started taking my calls again.

I discovered that by (pretty much) only calling when I had something useful to offer, I re-established myself as a valuable resource for them.

They started talking to me about the research. We chatted at the dinners. I began to find out what was important to them and where they were struggling. I earned “permission” to suggest some of our services to them.

And every now and then they would call me to discuss something we might be able to help with.

The secret was that all the marketing I was doing wasn't seen by them as marketing. It was seen as “useful stuff” and I was seen as a valuable resource they could trust.

All of a sudden the calls I hated became calls I enjoyed – or at the very least, didn't mind making.

And so I made more and more of them. Even to people I didn't know, because I had something valuable to offer them.

And, of course, that led to more sales (and me keeping my job!).

So here's the lesson:

If you don't enjoy the marketing you're doing, there's probably a decent reason.

And you may well find, like me, that by finding a way to make your marketing more useful to your clients in and of itself, you'll enjoy it a lot more.

And they'll pay a lot more attention to it.

And they'll buy a lot more.

That can't be bad.

More Clients Memorandum

Your very best source of new business…

Posted byIan Brodie on May 20th, 2012.

…is of course, your current and previous clients.

The people who already know and trust you. Who know what a great job you do.

But you're not quite sure how to broach the subject with them. You don't want to seem all salesy.

And you've probably dropped out of contact with many of your ex-clients. It happens to all of us – other priorities take over.

So it's embarassing to get back in touch. Tricky to figure out what to say. Again, you don't want to seem salesy or needy.

Here's the trick: invest a little time in creating something of value for them. Some useful information that they'll find helpful and that'll demonstrate your credibility in an area they might be able to hire you in.

It doesn't have to be a giant “war and peace” tome. A couple of pages summarising some insights from the last 5 clients you've worked with. Or a short presentation on “what's working now” or “5 critical trends” in your field. Or even something you've learnt personally.

Anything that will be genuinely valuable to your contacts.

Because then you can get back in touch with confidence and say:

“Hey, we haven't spoken for a while but I've just written this short executive summary on XYZ and thought you might be interested in a copy. Would you like me to email a copy over?”

You can feel good about getting back in touch rather than feeling like you're being salesy or needy.

It'll remind them of how good you are at what you do. It'll trigger conversations. And it'll give you a good reason to follow up to see what they thought, find out what's going on with them, and start a business conversation.

More Clients Memorandum

What are we REALLY frightened of?

Posted byIan Brodie on April 15th, 2012.

We're back looking into the deep, dark (and vitally important) recesses of why it is most of us struggle in the implementation phase of marketing rather than the ideas phase.

Here's one I'm sure you've heard before: “fear of rejection”.

In theory, what's holding us back from approaching potential clients is our fear of them saying no.

I'm not so sure.

I think that's too simplistic a view.

What on earth is “fear of rejection” really? We get rejected all the time. What are we really afraid of?

My experience is that we don't mind “secret” rejection. What we worry about is what other people think.

We're worried that by “selling” we might come across as desperate.

We're worried that people might think less of us if we have to ask for work.

We're worried we'll seem like some Ricky Roma, Willy Loman or “Del Boy” type.

We have a self-image of a highly successful professional we want everyone to buy into. Ourselves included.

Of course, we make all sorts of excuses and rationalisations. The time isn't right to call. A direct mail sales letter is “unprofessional”. Clients don't respond well to being asked for referrals.

But underneath it all, the reason we don't act is that we care more about what people might think of us than the consequences (as we see them) of inaction.

We're none of us immune to this. I sometimes find myself second-guessing my own marketing. Writing to project an image I want to portray instead of writing as the real me.

How do you fix this?

One way is to “turn the tables”. Imagine the thing it is you're hesitant to do is being done to you.

So imagine you were being asked for a referral by someone who'd done some great work for you. Would that seem unprofessional or pushy? Not usually. Not if they did it in the right way at the right time.

Or how about if you received a letter from a business laying out how you could benefit from their services. Desperate? Or just normal everyday commerce.

Nine times out of ten you'll see that you wouldn't be put off by being on the receiving end, so there's no reason why you should be worried about being the sender.

And that one time out of ten? That's the time to rethink what you were planning to do.

A second, powerful way is to use the Value in Advance strategy I've talked about before. If your lead generation always gives valuable information or help to your potential clients (via a free report, and audio or seminar for example) then there's no way you could be seen as being a pushy salesperson.

The third method is harder to do – but probably better for you in the long run.

It's to get over yourself.

Stop caring so much about what others think and focus on what needs to be done to build a future for you and the people you care about.

Because at the end of the day, it's your effectiveness at marketing that will do more to impact your success than anything else.

More Clients Memorandum

What it REALLY takes to get more clients

Posted byIan Brodie on April 8th, 2012.

Hope this week has treated you well :)

Today's email was going to be about some interesting things I've being doing with online lead generation. But a couple of conversations I had during the week caused me to rethink.

The truth is you've probably had enough marketing ideas and tips from me in my emails and blog (and all the other newsletters and blogs you read) to last a lifetime.

Yes, it's always nice to hear the latest clever tweak or a new twist on marketing.

But the real reason most people aren't getting the clients they need isn't because they're short of marketing ideas or suggestions.

It's because they're struggling to implement those ideas.

Sometimes the issue is not knowing, out of all the different things you could be doing, which are the critical few that will bring the biggest results. I'll be talking about this soon.

But for now, I want to talk about a problem I see many people suffering from. One I've always struggled with myself.

It's where you know what to do. You even know how to do it (at least well enough).

But for one reason or another you just never find the time to do it.

Client work gets in the way. Or those important emails. Or expenses. Or maintaining your presence on social media by answering questions in groups. Or keeping in contact with people on Twitter. Or any one of a host of things which in truth is nowhere near as important as the marketing thing you're avoiding.

For me, I've found that the root of this type of avoidance behaviour is because I find some elements of marketing just – well – harder than others.

Writing is fairly easy for me. And I've learned to enjoy playing with websites and online stuff. But picking up the phone and calling someone: not something I relish.

And the kind of deep thinking you need to do to create new products and services and figure out what exactly your clients need, while not exactly painful is certainly very hard work.

And so often it doesn't get done.

Not that I don't realise I have to do the tough stuff eventually. But I manage to convince myself that I don't have to do it now.

Keep telling yourself that every day and pretty soon that important task just hasn't got done.

You might find the same with some of the marketing tasks you know you should be doing but just never manage to do. The ones you feel the least comfortable doing.

What I found helped me break the cycle was to clarify for myself the impact of that task and link it to my overall goals.

So, for example, when I found I needed to make a bunch of calls to potential clients that I didn't feel so comfortable doing I calculated how many of those calls I would need to make on average per day to hit my revenue goal (assuming a certain percentage turned into clients).

I then wrote that number down in thick marker pen on a post-it note and stuck it above my computer.

Every time I thought about checking email or doing something easy instead of making those calls I just looked at the post-it note and got a stark reminder of what I needed to do to get something I really wanted.

In fact, the post-it technique worked so well I still use it today for all my critical-but-not-so-easy tasks.

Give it a go yourself. Just clarify for yourself the connection between what it is you need to do but keep putting off and a big important goal. Then stick that note prominently within sight where you work.

You'll be surprised at just how effective it is.

In next Sunday's email I'll be talking about what “fear of rejection” really is (at least in my experience), and how to overcome it.

More Clients Memorandum

The secret of getting what you want

Posted byIan Brodie on April 1st, 2012.

I've got one of those “blindingly obvious but all too easy to forget” tips today.

I'm always looking to renew and update the products and services I offer to clients.

My challenge is that out of all the things I could do to help professionals get more clients, which would be the most valuable to them? Which are the ones they'd want to hire me for or buy a product on?

Years ago I found myself stuck trying to logically deduce whether “using Linkedin to win clients” or “systematic follow up” or one of another dozen or so options would hit the right buttons.

And then it struck me. The easiest way to find out the answer was to ask my potential clients themselves.

Now I was initially a bit reticent. For the high-end products I was thinking of I would need to talk to very senior people and essentially ask them about their challenges and issues. Why would these people help me?

Well it turns out I had nothing to worry about.

Everyone I asked was more than happy to help. I crammed a day full of coffees with partners and marketing directors, asked a bunch of questions and sat back and listened.

And ended up with real clarity and insight into what it was my potential clients really wanted from me.

So here's how to get what you want…

Step 1: Build trusting relationships with people who can help you. Help them whenever you can.

Step 2: Ask for help when you need it.

As I said, blindingly obvious – but rarely done.

I see plenty of people asking, but who haven't built the relationships first that mean they'll get help.

And I see plenty of people…probably people like you…the good guys…the ones who help others a lot…who hesitate to ask.

You don't want to impose. You feel embarrassed to ask for a favour.

But here's the truth. The people who like you would love to help you.

They'll go out of their way to do it and they'll feel good about it.

But only if you ask.

More Clients Memorandum

Dpes your marketing pass this unusual test?

Posted byIan Brodie on March 25th, 2012.

‘ve been running a simple little “test” on my marketing that's surprisingly accurate at predicting what's going to work and what's not.

It's not infallible of course. Life (and marketing) just isn't that simple.

But it does give me a pretty reliable guide to what elements of my marketing are going to be effective and which I need to rework.

I think it might work for you too.

But before I tell you what it is, I'd like to explain a bit about why I think it works.

The Battle For Your Attention

I'm sure you've heard this before – but it's true. We get bombarded with more marketing than ever before these days. An order of magnitude more than even just a few years ago.

As a result, we've learned to ignore most marketing.

We either avoid it like when we fast-forward through the ads on Sky+ or Tivo. Or we ignore it like banner ads on websites or the flyers that drop out of magazines.

Out of all the email newsletters you subscribe to, for example, how many do you really read?

Probably not all that many, right?

As a result, the biggest challenge we face in marketing isn't connecting with our customers. There are more ways, more marketing channels, more options than ever before for getting our message to our clients.

Our biggest challenge is getting their attention. Getting them to actually take notice of our marketing and take action.

So What Gets People's Attention?

Why would you willingly give your attention to a piece of marketing?

Well, our attention often gets diverted for a short time by the shocking, or the shiny and new.

But for something to consistently capture our attention, it has to be valuable in some sense.

On my shelf at home, I've got a copy of an advert for a financial magazine that's years old.

Why? Because there are 12 pages of useful articles in that ad (followed by 4 pages describing the additional value you'd get by subscribing).

Which newsletters do I read?

The ones that provide me with valuable information in important areas of my business and life.

Essentially, every time I watch something or read something I make a judgement in the first few seconds: is this going to enhance my life somehow?

If I don't get the feeling it is, I'll switch it off, close it up or contrive to ignore it.

If I think it's got something useful for me, then I'll give it my attention. But by something useful I don't mean it's promoting something useful – it has to have something useful in it itself.

Valuable Marketing (to you) is Marketing that Adds Value (to your clients)

So that's the simple test I now apply.

Every letter I write. Every email I send out. Anything that goes up on my website.

I ask the question: “is this piece of marketing actually valuable in its own right to my potential clients?”

If it is, I know it's got a good chance of getting some attention. If it's not, I know I really ought to redo it somehow to add in the value that'll get it opened, read or watched.

You should try asking the same question for your own marketing.

More Clients Memorandum

The word of mouth trap

Posted byIan Brodie on March 18th, 2012.

Do you get most of your business through word of mouth?

It sounds great, doesn't it? You do such a good job that people spontaneously recommend you to others and your business grows without you having to do much active marketing.

And a few years ago, it was a viable strategy. The economy was growing fast, there was plenty of work around.

And potential clients often weren't aware of the alternative options open to them. If you were recommended by a friend you were often the only option they considered.

Not so these days.

The number one thing I hear from clients with flat or stagnating businesses is “we've always grown by word of mouth – but it's just not working any more”.

You see, the trouble with a business that gets most of its clients through word of mouth is not that there's anything wrong with word of mouth itself. Far from it.

It's that it can lead you to being passive. To waiting for the phone to ring rather than taking active steps to MAKE it ring.

It's great to get lots of clients via word of mouth. Thank your lucky stars if you do.

But don't let your active marketing atrophy. Don't fool yourself into thinking it will last forever. Get to work building your marketing muscles. Building your skills.

When word of mouth ceases to be enough you'll be glad you did.

More Clients Memorandum

How to get anyone to do anything

Posted byIan Brodie on March 4th, 2012.

I went to a seminar a number of years ago with a guy called Rob Torres.

Rob's sadly no longer with us. But back then he was a world-class comedian, mime and juggler. Kind of like a live version of Mr Bean.

My reason for going to the seminar was to learn more about stagecraft – using your body, the space on stage, timing – all the things that can make your presence on stage more powerful.

But I also indirectly picked up some great lessons about marketing.

One came from a story Rob told about how he interacts with his audience.

To get the most laughs out of his show he needed a couple of his audience members to participate with gusto. To join in and do things they wouldn't normally do.

How did he do that?

Gradually. And with kindness.

In one case, for example, he started off by handing a camera to an audience member in the front row and gesturing for him to take a photo of Rob on stage.

Not a huge commitment, nothing risky or embarrassing, so the audience member played along.

Then he whipped out a tie for the photo – but struggled to get it on. So he handed the tie to the audience member gesturing for him to show him how to tie it.

Again, not asking for much more. The audience member's in the spotlight a bit now, but nothing arduous. And he got a big round of applause just for tying a tie.

Next, Rob jumped off stage to have his photo taken with the audience member and they both posed for the photo amidst much laughter. By now the audience member was happily taking cues and enjoying every minute of it.

Rob combed his hair with a giant comb. So did the audience member.

He put on a huge cheesy grin. So did the audience member.

He then blew up a balloon and shoved it in his mouth so his cheeks puff out like a blowfish.

And amazingly, the audience member followed suit stuffing a balloon into his cheeks.

And they posed for the camera to tumultuous applause.

Now if Rob had just appeared on stage and asked that audience member from cold to shove a balloon in his mouth and pose in front of the whole audience, there's no way he'd have done it.

But by building up to it. By asking for small commitments and rewarding (through the applause of the audience) him for each step, he built up to a stage where the audience member was more than willing to do so.

In a very short space of time, he'd learnt to trust Rob. He knew he wouldn't be embarrassed or ridiculed. And that there'd be a payoff for him. So he did it.

And, of course, that's a great model for our own marketing.

Rather than asking our clients to take the big step of hiring us from cold, we should be nurturing our relationship with them.

Every interaction with us should build trust – and give some sort of payoff for them.

For Rob's impromptu assistant, the payoff was the applause.

For us, it's going to be some kind of useful advice or help that makes their life or business better.

But at every stage, they need to be building up their confidence in us so that when we ask them to shove a balloon in their mouth and grin for the audience, they have no hesitation in doing so.