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So, are you going to do this?

Posted byIan Brodie on June 12th, 2011.

One of the things Kathy and I always wanted was a big garden.

When we found our dream home in 1994 that was one of the things we fell in love with.

Sure, it was a little overrun. But it was huge. And it had potential. Three big borders and a woodland area shaded under horse chestnut trees.

And the most exciting bit for me was the prospect of getting my own little vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden.

It was something I'd always dreamed of. I come from a family of gardeners. Back in the mining villages of the North East you pretty much had football and your allotment.

That was life outside of work.

Unfortunately, the spot we'd earmarked had been used as a dumping ground for years by the previous owner. A quick bit of digging around and I discovered an overgrown knee-high wall and a buried climbing frame in there – just for starters.

It looked like a ton of work to sort out, so the vegetable patch plan got shelved for a bit.

And then a bit more.

And then a bit more still.

Pretty soon, I'd settled into thinking it might never get done. The thought of clearing that area was just so overwhelming.

And maybe it was OK like that. Maybe I could grow a few vegetables in the flower borders. or in pots. That would be alright, wouldn't it?

Not what I'd dreamed of, but OK really.

But Kathy hadn't forgotten my dream.

And after a couple of years of me putting things off she asked me the simple question: “are we going to do this or not?”

I knew by the look in her eyes that “no” wasn't an acceptable answer.

So late that summer I got out a spade and began to dig.

I'm not going to tell you it was easy when we got started – it wasn't. It was back-breaking work clearing that plot. Every spare hour every weekend for a month.

I still remember Kathy working away while heavily pregnant with our eldest. I remember us both being shattered every evening.

But I also remember the 20 plus years we've now had that vegetable patch.

The first crops – lettuce, carrots, peas, sweetcorn.

Growing giant onions, and giant parsnips in drainpipes for fun.

Putting up a greenhouse, and getting bumper harvests of tomatoes and peppers.

And most of all just being down there. Working on the garden and having somewhere away from work I could go to relax and think.

None of it possible without that first step of getting a spade and putting it into the ground.

Now you know where this is going, of course.

Sometimes in the last 20 or so years I've had the same feelings of being overwhelmed in my work and business.

Workload so high it seemed like I'd never get anything done.

So much to do to make an impact with so many potential clients. Not knowing where to start really. And nothing happening fast.

I'm betting you've felt like that too, at times.

So easy to put things off and think maybe it's OK.

Maybe things will sort themselves out. Maybe it doesn't really matter if the business doesn't grow this year or I don't bring in all those clients I was dreaming of.

But eventually, you have to ask yourself “am I going to do this or not?”

Because once you decide you are, all it takes is for you to put that first spade in the ground.

Sure, it'll be back-breaking work for a while. Dreams don't come easy.

But when they do come. When it does happen, they're so much better than you'd ever imagined.

So what about you? Are you going to do this or not?

More Clients Memorandum

Why selling benefits can (sometimes) lose you sales

Posted byIan Brodie on June 6th, 2011.

“Focus on the benefits, not the features”

I'm sure you've heard this a million times.

It's standard marketing dogma. Focus on benefits. The problems you solve. The results people get from working with you.

Normally that's absolutely the right thing to do.

But sometimes it's absolutely wrong.

You see, focusing on benefits implies that's why people buy. And that's not always the case.

Imagine yourself in this scenario:

You're the CIO of a multinational. You've been set a target to reduce expenditure by 10% across the board.

You're looking at outsourcing. One firm is quoting you savings of 15%, the other 20%?

Which one do you go with. The 20% is a no-brainer, right?

Not necessarily.

15% and 20% are both significantly better than your budget. Both will keep the board happy.

In theory, you might go for the 20% to get the maximum benefit. But there's another huge factor that's going to be weighing on your mind. One that more often than not will determine your decision.

RISK.

You see, you might get an extra pat on the back for getting those extra savings – if they come off.

But if something goes wrong. If the outsourcer fails to deliver, if your systems start failing or your users start complaining all the time. Then you're in big trouble.

So as a buyer, you're rarely out to simply maximise benefits. You're looking to hit your target benefits at minimum risk.

And you'll see this buying behaviour repeated time and time again. Especially in large corporations and the public sector where maximising benefits will get you a small bonus or a pat on the back, but buying something which fails will get you the sack.

So as a seller (especially to large corporations or the public sector) you've got to focus not just on the benefits you'll bring – but on making sure they see you as the lowest risk option.

If you're like me, and you're a small or solo business, you're automatically at a disadvantage in these circumstances. By default, large businesses will see you as a risk.

So that means that very often, the focus of your “pitch” needs to be on minimising the perceived risk of working with you (and maximising the perceived risk of working with someone else).

Next time you're bidding for a big piece of work with a major customer, spend some time putting yourself in your potential client's shoes and brainstorming what risks they might see in the project and in working with you.

Maybe it's financial stability. Maybe it's continuity if you get hit by illness. Maybe it's that you don't understand their business. Maybe it's whether you can work in a unionised environment.

Whatever the risks you spot, make sure you address those risks.

Because just banging on about the wonderful benefits of working with you is going to get you nowhere if your client is frightened it may all fall apart and they won't see any of them in practice.

More Clients Memorandum

Did you know?

Posted byIan Brodie on May 29th, 2011.

We've come a long way since I sent you the email Hope is not a Strategy.

We've talked about finding your niche, developing a compelling value proposition, figuring out what marketing approaches will work for you, nurturing relationships, selling and managing clients.

Now I'm sure a lot of times you read some of the emails, thought “I know that” and moved on.

But I'd ask you to consider something for a moment.

Something that applies not just when you read my emails,  but whenever you read any hints, tips and guidelines – or when you're on a training course.

“Success in marketing and business development is driven not by what you know – but by what you do.”

I've seen it lots of times in training courses: those I've delivered, and when I've been a student too. I've seen it when people read books or websites.

I do it myself.

The moment I hear something I know already I get a satisfied glow. I nod sagely. I kind of feel validated.

And that warm, validated feeling seems to stop me from asking the killer question:

Not “do I know this?”

But “do I do this?“

Because that's the question that leads to action.

That's the question that leads to improvement.

And that's the question that leads to results.

So next time you read or hear something about marketing or sales (or pretty much anything) and you find yourself thinking “yeah yeah, I know this – nothing new” – catch yourself. Change that thought.
Try:

“Do I do this?”

Then “Should I do this?”

Then “When will I do this? How will I do this?”

And then you'll start progressing in leaps and bounds.

More Clients Memorandum

Talking when there’s nothing to talk about

Posted byIan Brodie on May 22nd, 2011.

Hey there – it's Ian here again.

In my last email I railed against the practice of equating marketing and relationship building with “schmoozing” and highlighted that the best way of building relationships with clients can be to overdeliver on your projects with them.

But that doesn't mean you should restrict your relationships with clients to just business.

It just means you should see relationship building as an intrinsic part of delivery, not something unrelated you swoop in and do later.

And often it's the little side conversations or the informal chats over coffee where the client opens up and shares information that may turn into opportunities in other areas for you.

As he often does, David Maister sums it up well. In his video on “The Rules of Relationships” he says “The key to great communication is talking when there's nothing to talk about. If you only talk when the kids have been arrested, you will deal with the issues, but you won't build the relationship”.

You can watch the video here by the way:

Rules of Relationships

Every interaction you have with your client is a chance to build your relationship – or not.

Focus first on delivering or overdelivering on your engagement. But do also take the time to talk about bigger, wider issues. Or just to build your relationship on a human level too.

More Clients Memorandum

Superpleasing your way to success

Posted byIan Brodie on May 15th, 2011.

In these recent emails we've focused mainly on how to attract and win new clients.

But once you've got 'em, how do you get 'em to stay – and to buy more from you?

The best method I've found is the concept of “superpleasing” introduced by David Maister in his classic work “Managing the Professional Services Firm”.

We all know that getting more work from existing clients can be the most profitable source of new business. They already know us and trust us – and we've (hopefully) done good work for them.

So it should be a much easier sell to get them to buy more from us – provided they need the other things we're offering.

Sadly, in most businesses and also for individual practitioners – we focus most of our marketing effort on much lower payoff activities.

Running an advertising campaign, trying to cold call new prospects, or networking to meet new people, for example.

It just seems kind of sexier to focus on brand new clients than it does to build our relationships with our existing and previous ones.

And when we do try to market to existing clients, we often go about it completely the wrong way.

We equate marketing with meetings and “schmoozing”. We invite the client out to an event. Or we arrange for our managing partner to meet them to “chat them up”.

Those are the things our marketing budget is geared up for – events and non-billable time.

Now there's nothing wrong with these activities. Sometimes they're just the right thing. But more often than not there's something much more effective you can do with your time and money.

Think about it from your client's perspective instead.

If you were your client, what would be more valuable to you:

• a chat with the managing partner (who probably doesn't really know your business all that well)
• or the person working with you massively over-delivering on the work they're doing?

90% of the time, clients will go for the latter.

So instead of spending our marketing time and money schmoozing our clients – we should spend it “superpleasing” them.

Instead of spending time with clients at a social or business event, or in “marketing meetings” – spend it on the project you're working with them on and do an even better job than you would have done otherwise.

Instead of buying an advert or putting on a marketing event – spend the money to arrange a value-added session with your client's management team where you show them 5 new ways of implementing the results of your work and getting a better ROI.

In short, spend your time and money in any way you can think of so that the client not only thinks you did a great job for them (which should be the baseline) but that they think you've done the best job of any service provider they've hired.

Ever.

Don't think marketing – think value for your client.

Now you can't do this for every client. You need to focus on the high priority ones who have the potential to give you lots of new business, or strong referrals to other potential clients.

But if you superplease them like this it's the strongest way of getting them to buy more and to recommend you with enthusiasm

More Clients Memorandum

Marketing lessons from a geeky kid

Posted byIan Brodie on May 8th, 2011.

As promised, a bit of a personal story this time…

I was never very popular at school.

Don't get me wrong: I was never bullied, and I had a good circle of close friends.

But I wasn't one of those kids who was popular with everyone. I wasn't very sporty, and I wasn't really interested in music.

I was much happier thinking about computers and what happened in the previous night's episode of Blake's Seven (and if you remember Blake's Seven it means you're probably as old and as geeky as me).

Within my small circle of friends with similar interests, I was well-liked and listened to, and I felt appreciated.

But every now and then, I wished I was one of the cool kids. One of the ones everyone liked.

So every now and then I'd look up what was in the pop charts. Find something to say about the school rugby team.

Something with broad appeal rather than the geeky stuff I liked myself. Something funny or clever I hoped everyone would like.

You can probably guess what happened next.

My attempts to please everyone never got anywhere. Passing comment on the current number one was certainly a more “acceptable” topic to the majority than the ins and outs of the latest Commodore Pet computer.

But it was no different to what everyone else was saying. It didn't turn anyone off. But neither did it turn anyone on.

Eventually, I learned that it was far better and far more personally satisfying to engage meaningfully with my small circle of friends.

We'd discuss Sci-Fi and computers. We liked model trains and other nerdy stuff that makes me cringe thinking back.

But the truth is I built deeper and more meaningful relationships with that small group by focusing on what we really liked than I ever got near to by trying to please everyone.

And the same goes for marketing.

Whether you're communicating by email, or you're giving a presentation, there's a huge temptation to focus on the majority. To not say anything controversial and to try to please everyone.

But when we try to please everyone, we end up coming across as bland and wishy-washy.

We may not upset anyone, but neither do we inspire anyone.

And whether you want people to be friends with you or to buy from you – you have to inspire them. Not upsetting them is not enough.

So if you're writing an email – write for your real core audience, don't worry about the rest. Don't worry about losing subscribers and getting complaints from the people who don't like what you have to say.

They were never going to become your clients anyway.

If you're giving a presentation, don't worry about your scores on those awful feedback sheets.

All you should care about is your impact on the few audience members who might become customers or who might go out and do something with your message.

Focus on inspiring the few, not mollifying the many.

And actually, you'll find that there are more of the few than you think. Certainly enough to help you build a flourishing business.

More Clients Memorandum

How to write engaging emails

Posted byIan Brodie on May 1st, 2011.

Last time we talked about what to include in a “nurture sequence” of emails designed to build credibility and trust with a potential client and so to eventually win their business.

I finished off the email by saying “Next you have to write it in an entertaining and engaging way”.

At that point you probably thought “hah – easier said than done”. And you'd be right.

But it's crucial to be able to do this. If people don't read your emails it doesn't matter what you put in them – it won't do a jot for your credibility, or build an iota of trust.

Ideally, you want people to look forward to receiving your emails and to open them straight away.

One reason they'll do this is if your emails contain a lot of useful information. Your knowledge of your clients' main problems, challenges, goals and aspirations tells you the topics you should be writing about.

But your emails also need to be entertaining too. We get so many emails these days, it's the entertaining and interesting ones that stand out.

Becoming an entertaining writer is a tough task. Nowadays I get many compliments on my writing (though I know there's still a lot of room for improvement).

But it wasn't always this way.

When I first started writing it was very stiff and formal. It was a bit like I was lecturing my readers.

And, to be frank, talking down to people is hardly a good way of endearing yourself to them.

So early on I learnt to write more casually. In particular, to write like I speak.

Imagine you're talking to a close business friend. What kind of language and speech pattern would you use with him or her? That's the kind of language you should be using when writing to potential clients.

That means using short paragraphs and sentences and simple words. And using the appropriate short forms: “I'll” rather than “I will”, “isn't” rather than “is not”.

I also learnt that using stories works much better than using facts and figures.

Personally, I'm a facts and figures guy. Probably because my first degree was in Maths.

But most people aren't. Most people enjoy and are persuaded much more by an interesting story or anecdote. It really brings your point home.

One of the first emails you probably got from me was “Hope is not a Strategy” where I illustrate how you need to take an active approach to your marketing by telling the story of what happened to me when I first set up my business.

I get a lot of people replying to that email telling me how it really hit a nerve and resonated with them.

I think the reason is that I tell my story. I don't just say what they should or shouldn't do – I say what happened to me and what worked for me.

Finally, write often and read often. I try to blog at least once a month and have been doing so for over a decade. Often much more frequently.

If you go back to my early blog posts you'll see how my writing has changed over the years.

I've gained the confidence to try out new things and “be myself” in my writing, rather than who I think I should be.

And by reading well-written blogs – particularly those with a very different style to yours – you come to appreciate what works and what doesn't.

In the next email I'm going to share a personal story that will help you see how to write in ways that will connect much better with your audience.

More Clients Memorandum

How to make email marketing work

Posted byIan Brodie on April 24th, 2011.

Last time I talked about how you can use email marketing “autoresponders” to nurture potential client relationships on autopilot.

But how do you create a good autoresponder sequence?

Well, I'm not going to pretend it's easy. Since writing this post I've written an entire book about email marketing. But here are some hints.

Start by thinking through a timeline. At the start of the timeline is your potential client today. Write down their “state of mind” right now as it relates to the sort of services you provide.

So, for example, if you're a procurement consultant they may start off worried that they're spending too much on external purchases. Feeling out of control and victimised by their vendors. Confused as to where to start, etc.

Now think about their state of mind after you've worked together.

Perhaps they're feeling in control. Elated that they've saved 20% of their external costs, etc. Whatever state of mind you typically leave your clients in when you've had a big success with them.

Now here's the crucial step…

Wind back a little bit.

What state of mind do they need to be in before they'll be ready to hire you?

You may think initially that this is the same as the initial state of mind – but it's not.

Initially they may be confused and concerned – but are they motivated enough to hire you (hopefully for a significant fee)?

Usually before clients hire professionals they need to have built up some degree of confidence in three things:

-> Their problem is big – and they need to fix it urgently.

-> You've got the skills, capabilities and track record to help them.

-> You're the kind of person they'd be comfortable working with.

Chances are they don't feel all of these things initially.

So before they're ready to hire you, you're going to have to take them on a journey to get them into this state of mind.

If you think through the individual steps needed to do this, and the natural order of doing them – that gives you your autoresponder sequence.

So, for example, sharing some case studies of other clients in similar situations and their realisation of how bad their situation was can help raise urgency.

As can sharing any diagnostics they can use themselves or early warning signs they've got a problem.

Success stories of people who've made significant improvements from their position can help them believe that it's not a lost cause for them.

Just go through – step by step – the very specific things that they need to believe before hiring you and you've got an outline for your sequence.

Next you have to write it in an entertaining and engaging way. And, of course, you have to be writing about topics your client's are inherently interested in. You can't just send them stuff that tells them how great you are!

But that's what our next email is all about…

More Clients Memorandum

Nurturing clients on “autopilot”

Posted byIan Brodie on April 17th, 2011.

We've been talking recently about the importance of nurturing or romancing your potential clients. And in the last email I shared my simple system for categorising clients into As, Bs and Cs and investing time each week or month to think of how to build your relationships with those As and Bs.

But what about the Cs?

Who are those C category potential clients? Well, they're mostly people I haven't met or had detailed discussions with yet – so I don't really know whether they could be great clients for me. That means I can't afford to invest a ton of time yet into creating a tailored plan for developing my relationship with them.

Historically, C category clients have been largely ignored by most professionals. Maybe they received a Christmas card or maybe a newsletter every now and then. But most professionals invested their valuable time in their As and Bs.

And that was the right strategy. There just aren't enough hours in the day if you're having to do all your nurturing by hand.

The Power of the Internet for Building Client Relationships

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear me say at this stage that “the internet has changed everything”. It's a bit of an overworked phrase.

But it has. It really has.

Through online marketing on the web it suddenly becomes viable to keep in touch and add value to C category prospects.

And it's well worth doing so. You may not yet know whether they could become great clients for you, but they might.

“Might” isn't good enough if you have to invest time and effort into communicating with them. But if you can do it essentially for free, then “might” is not bad at all.

And if you can build up a very large number of “might”s then it can become incredibly powerful.

With old-school nurturing you can invest your time in (say) a portfolio of 25 potential clients each with a 20% chance of becoming a client. That means you'll get 5 clients from your nurture activities.

Now let's say your C category potential clients only have a 1% chance of becoming a client. Doesn't sound so good initially. But what if you can nurture relationships with 1,000 of them? That gives you 10 clients. Or even 5,000 of them?

Suddenly the economics begin to change.

And through the web, hooking up with 1,000 or 5,000 potential clients isn't unrealistic at all. If you can get sufficient traffic to your website, and if you can offer them something of value to get them to sign up to receive communications from you – then building a list of thousands of subscribers who could become clients isn't such a tall order.

In fact, it's exactly the strategy I've followed to build my business.

By optimising my website, doing targeted pay-per-click advertising, and harnessing social media I get lots of website visitors from people who could be potential clients.

By offering relevant free reports or videos in return for them signing up I've had thousands of people opt-in to receive communications from me.

And by sending (hopefully) useful emails like this one I can demonstrate to readers my knowledge and expertise in how to win new clients.

So over time, if I keep adding value, many of the people who receive these emails will choose to contact me and we'll end up working together.

It's an approach that – once set up – runs almost on autopilot. it works when I'm out of the office or even asleep.

And, to be frank, it's rather more pleasant than knocking on doors touting for business.

And it's something almost everyone can do for their business.

More details on how next week…

More Clients Memorandum

Practical tips for romancing your clients

Posted byIan Brodie on April 10th, 2011.

In the last email I talked about the importance of courting your clients. Investing in building a high-quality relationship with them.

Great in theory – I don't think anyone would disagree with the concept.

But why do so few people do it in practice?

The truth is that romancing your clients is hard work.

It's a bit of a grind. And it's work that doesn't pay off immediately.

Consistency is the key – you need to be regularly in touch, not just calling when you need something from them.

Consistency requires you to be systematic. And I have to admit, I'm far from the most systematic of people by nature.

So this has always been a bit of a struggle for me. I'm always tempted to focus on shiny new toys rather than keep focusing on old friends.

To keep myself on the straight and narrow I devised a simple system that even I can use to make sure I'm being consistent with my client nurturing activities. It might be helpful to you too.

These days my business is all online and automated so I don't do so much personal nurturing of relationships and more. But this system worked very well when I did, and I thought it might be helpful to you too.

There are three steps to it.

The first is to list and categorise your potential clients. I use a fairly simple approach:

* I mark those clients who would be ideal for my business and who could bring me a lot of work as category A.

* Potential clients who are close to ideal, or who are ideal but small and wouldn't bring me a lot of business I mark as category B.

* People I've met who are interesting, but I don't yet know if they'd make good clients I consider as category C for now.

My primary method of keeping in touch with this C category is via my email newsletter which, of course, my As and Bs also get. Note: I don't sign them up for this unless they say they want it. I might send them a link to sign up or offer to do it for them. But I won't add them to my list without permission.

The second step is to write down your goals for your relationship with your A and B category potential clients.

In particular, I focus on what I'd like to achieve with them (perhaps it's that they hire me for coaching, or maybe it's a big training project) and what they need to know and feel before they'll be ready for that.

So, for example, if I'd like them to become a coaching client, perhaps what they need to know and feel is that I understand their challenges and that I've got the skills to help them overcome them.

Maybe they also need to feel that I'd be a nice person to work with – we'd have a good time working together.

And perhaps they need to have confidence in their own abilities and that achieving the sort of goals they're aiming for really is possible.

Over time I've found I'm able to identify common patterns of what potential coaching or consulting or training clients need to feel to be comfortable hiring me – so I don't have to rethink this stuff from scratch every time.

I also write down what I know they're interested in and what would be useful for them based on my interactions with them so far and a bit of research with our friend Google.

Then the third step is simply to review my lists on a regular basis and take action.

For A category potential clients I'll look at the list of names, what I'd like to achieve with them and what would be useful for them on a weekly basis. For the Bs it's every month.

Then based on that reminder, I'll plan some activities for the week where I do something to help progress towards my goal.

Sometimes it'll just be sending them useful information or inviting them to an event I think they'll benefit from. But it's better if I can be sure that what I'm doing is leading us towards the goal.

So if I'm sending them useful information, I'll usually try to make sure it's something that will build their confidence in my skills (an article I've written that talks about a client I worked with, for example).

Or if I feel they need to grow their confidence that what they're thinking of doing is really possible, I may send them a case study of someone who's done something similar.

I don't always manage to come up with something every week. But I do manage to come up with things often enough to build a good, strong relationship.

And thinking about them every week increases the likelihood that during the week I'll spot something relevant for them as I'll be more aware of what would be useful.

It's this regular drip-drip-drip of action that makes the system work.

We've probably all made lists and categorised our clients before.

I'm sure most of us have identified our clients' needs and interests and promised ourselves we'll use that information to build a better relationships with them.

But where almost all of us fall down is that we fail to turn that into regular action.

If you're not doing this stuff week in, week out, it really won't have much impact.

So if you're like me and this systematic nurturing doesn't come naturally – make sure you build yourself a weekly habit like this and build it in to your schedule.

Because, as we said last week, for the majority of your prospects, it won't be your first contact that turns them into clients – it'll be your 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th or more