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The simple secret of follow up that works

Posted byIan Brodie on April 16th, 2017.

In the last few weeks I've been sharing strategies for effective follow-up. But it struck me today that I forgot to mention the most important factor that ensures you get results from your follow-up.

It's to make it a habit.

Follow up once and you might get noticed.

Follow up two or three times and you'll probably be remembered a few weeks down the line.

But follow up (in a way that people value) week in, week out for months and years and you'll become a key part of your clients and prospects lives.

It's like compound interest really. You don't notice the effect at first but each follow-up builds on the previous to create a lasting impression.

The secret of making follow-up a habit is to plan it into your schedule and ideally to do it at the same date and time every week. Like going to the gym or reading. Make it something you just do rather than something you have to think about.

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How to stand out with your follow-up

Posted byIan Brodie on April 9th, 2017.

In last Sunday's email we looked at a simple method for following up with people after you first connect with them.

Follow-up, you won't be surprised to hear, is incredibly powerful. Keep in touch, keep top of mind, and you can cut out layer upon layer of painful selling and instead be the first person your ideal clients turn to when they need help.

Unfortunately, you're not the only one hoping to do this.

If you want your follow-up to be effective, you have to do it in a way that stands out from what everyone else is doing.

Options: you can do more. Follow-up with more people, more often. 

It works. Most of your competitors are lazy. Work a bit harder and you can have an edge.

Personally though, I don't like working harder.

Better, I find, to follow up differently. 

Phone instead of emailing. Write a letter instead of phoning. Record and send a video instead of a letter. 

Don't send a Facebook message to say happy birthday, send a card (remember them!). Don't do it on their birthday, do it on the anniversary of meeting them.

Introduce two contacts to each other who you think would be able to help each other out. Arrange a dinner for your 8 best business contacts.

None of those ideas are earth shatteringly new, but the chances are that your competitors aren't doing them. I'm sure you could think of 7 ways of following up that are completely unique to you if you sat down and thought about it for a few minutes.

Invest a little bit of time to think of something different you can do to follow up and it will pay you back big time in terms of being memorable.

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Why you don’t get referrals

Posted byIan Brodie on April 5th, 2017.

I've been talking to a couple of people about referrals recently.

Or more specifically, why they're not getting many.

There seems to be this expectation that if you're good at what you do and play your part by referring others, then reciprocation will kick in and people will refer you.

I don't know about you but that rarely happened for me.

If you think about it, expecting people to refer you spontaneously just because they know you and you might have referred them is expecting a lot.

Just think of what's has to happen inside their head for them to be able to refer you confidently. 

Firstly, they need to know that the person they'll be referring you to really needs what you have to offer. Otherwise, they'll be wasting both your time and theirs. (Hint: have you made it clear who would be a good referral for you and what would indicate that they might need your help).

Secondly, they need to be confident that you'll do a great job. You might think it goes without saying, but it rarely does – especially since their reputation is on the line when they refer you. (Hint: focus your attention for referrals on people who have seen you in action – for example clients and ex-clients. And find ways like presentations to demonstrate your expertise to people who haven't worked with you). 

Thirdly, you need to be top of mind. Most people don't wander the streets constantly thinking about how to refer others. So you need to make sure they remember you. (Hint: do you systematically keep in touch with your top potential referrers in a way that adds value to them just like you would do with your top potential clients?)

Fourthly – and this is the most overlooked one – they have to be confident they're not just setting up the person they're referring you to for a sales pitch.

Now you might think your approach is not pitchy at all. It's friendly, you get to know the people you get referred to, you find out their needs, you only offer your services if appropriate.

But to a potential referrer and the person they'd be referring you to, that's still a sales pitch. It's still a meeting or call with the primary purpose of getting you some business – even if they would benefit from your services downstream. 

There's no inherent value in the meeting itself to the person they refer you to.

Is it any wonder they're hesitant to refer?

They have to be really convinced of the downstream value to run the risk of introducing their friends and colleagues to someone whose main motivation is to sell something to them – even if they're going to do it ever so nicely.

So change that dynamic around. Don't make the referral about you getting business. Find a way to make it about the person they refer you to getting value.

Have you written a book or created a benchmarking study or report that potential clients would find really valuable. Then make the referral all about getting that to them, not about meeting with you to talk about working together. 

Or turn a meeting into a “high-value briefing” where you share some valuable information about them. Not a “strategy session” or “needs assessment” or “initial consultation” that's all about finding out what they need so you can offer something to them. Make it a session where you give something valuable to them without expecting to discuss how you could help them.

Believe me, if you do those sessions, and the content is valuable and relevant enough, many people will ask how you could help them. But the key is that they're far keener to have a pure value session than one where the agenda is really about you finding out their needs so you can offer something to them or “start to build a relationship”.

(And, of course, they're far more likely to say yes to working with you if they've asked about it themselves rather than feeling they've been steered into it by your clever strategy session script).

Being good at what you do and being generous at giving referrals is the foundation.

But you'll get far more referrals yourself if you can follow all four of my steps (especially the last one). And your contacts will refer you enthusiastically rather than doing it out of a sense of duty.

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Do you do this? You should

Posted byIan Brodie on April 2nd, 2017.

Ever had someone make a really great first impression on you ?

Probably quite often.

A lot of people are pretty good at making an impression when you first meet them. Do some decent training on networking and you can get pretty good too.

Ever had someone make a really great second impression?

It's much rarer.

Most of the time the folks who make a good first impression leave it at that. They don't follow up.

A few days later, you've probably forgotten them. They've merged into to the mass of other people who made a good first impression too, but you never heard from since (unless they wanted something from you).

Good second impressions stand out because you rarely get them.

When I'm on my game, I'm pretty good at second impressions.

If I meet people I think I could be helpful to and vice versa, I'll check out their Linkedin profile and see if I can find them on google. If they mentioned something they were interested in when we spoke I'll check that out too to see if I can find something helpful for them.

Then I'll email them the next day and try to say something relevant and useful.

Same goes with Linkedin connection requests. You go to all the effort of requesting to connect with someone, or someone interesting offers to connect with you…you click yes to accept the connection…then nothing.

What was the point? Are you hoping the mere fact of connecting with them will burn you into their memory forever so they'll contact you when they need you?

Highly doubtful.

You need to make a great second impression. Check out their profile. Do a little bit of deeper research. Send them a “thanks for connecting” message that's funny, useful, interesting. Anything to make you stand out, and to get a conversation going.

Now in all honesty, I'm not “on my game” on this one all that often. Most usually I'll just click “accept” and leave it at that like everyone else.

So this email is as much a reminder to me as to you that making a great second impression can be hugely valuable. It really makes you stand out.

It might feel like a bit of a drag to do that research and type out the personalised email – but it works.

Some of my best contacts have come from people I've made a great second impression with (or people who've made a great second impression on me).

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realise how foolish I am not to use this technique every time! It only takes a few minutes really.

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Even the painfully shy can do this to get clients

Posted byIan Brodie on March 23rd, 2017.

Sometimes I marvel at the folks who have no problem (in fact they actually seem to enjoy) networking and chatting to people they don't know.

Or they're quite happy phoning up their contacts just to see how things are going.

My toes are curling right now just at the thought of it.

But there's no doubt it works. Follow-up and keeping in touch is one of the “big rocks” I mentioned yesterday that make a huge difference to your success at winning clients.

But for many of us, the thought of picking up the phone or even emailing to check in with people is a huge challenge.

What do I say that won't come across as awkward? What if they think I'm just trying to sell something to them?

That's why email marketing is a godsend to us painfully shy people.

I might feel uncomfortable calling someone up or even emailing personally. But I'm quite happy to think of something I think my subscribers would find useful and mailing it out.

And then what happens is quite a few reply. We get into discussions.

I feel good about sending something useful, and the discussions happen naturally. No awkwardness. No feeling like I'm a pushy sales guy.

Now I know that really I ought to get my mindset fixed and learn to be less shy. But frankly, it's easier and quicker for me to use email marketing instead. 

Maybe one day I'll become Mr Assertive. But for now I'm happy being me and using email marketing instead.

If you're a bit like me, it might work for you too. 

Stay strong.

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Big rocks first (not what you think)

Posted byIan Brodie on March 22nd, 2017.

There's a famous saying in time management attributed to Steven Covey about “putting the big rocks first”. In other words plan (and do) the big important things first and fit your less important tasks around them.

I've found the same is true in marketing.

In marketing, your big rocks are the big factors that have an impact across the board: your positioning in the marketplace, the value you're seen to offer to clients, your strategies for follow-up to nurture relationships.

Far too often we get obsessed by the tactics (and I have to say mea-culpa here – tactics are so interesting!)

We spend ages worrying about the subject lines for our emails. Obsessing over the elevator pitch we use to introduce ourselves. If we're technically minded we build big, complex marketing funnels to squeeze every last drop of profit from our campaigns.

But we often ignore the big rocks.

If we're seen as an authority in our field, we don't need super-optimised marketing.

If we have a lead magnet that's incredibly attractive to our ideal clients we'll get a steady stream of new contacts without having to spend every waking hour posting on social media.

If we have a systematic follow-up system we won't need to chase every shiny new marketing toy hoping for some kind of magical breakthrough.

Getting the big rocks right = big leaps in your impact. Focusing on the little rocks = incremental improvements.

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Do this to magnify all your marketing

Posted byIan Brodie on March 19th, 2017.

After a few years of doing OK with my marketing, I tried something that worked unexpectedly well. Way, way better than I thought.

Honestly, I fell into it by accident. I basically ran out of ideas for the regular emails I was doing.

I'd written a whole “soup to nuts” series covering all they key aspects of marketing and sales for service businesses. At the end of the series I was basically worn out. No more ideas.

I dredged my brain for something I could use that might be useful for people to hear and I came up with zip. Nada.

Then eventually I remembered an incident that had happened a few years earlier. No huge marketing insights, just an important lesson for me about grasping the nettle when you really want to get something done.

I called the email “So, are you going to do this?”.

It was a very personal story and frankly I was really worried when I sent it out. I thought that because it didn't have tons of details marketing tips in it that people would get cross or feel cheated.

I needn't have worried.

The exact reverse happened. I started getting all sorts of email replies from people saying they'd had the exact same experience, or how much of an impact the message had on them.

It's happened time and time again. My simple, story based emails based on my own experience get the best results.

I still use the “Are you going to do this?” email today and it still gets great results.

Being open. Sharing things that mean something to you (while being useful to your readers at the same time, of course). These things build a closer bond to your audience. They build trust.

And recent research shows they enhance learning too.

So if you want to magnify the results of your marketing: be brave and bring more of yourself into your marketing. Say what you feel and think. Share personal stories.

Now you can't just be self indulgent. Each of your stories has to also include a nugget of useful information for your audience. But a small nugget wrapped in a personal story has much more impact that a huge list of tips written without the personal connection.

Try it

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Peter Thiel’s powerful question

Posted byIan Brodie on March 12th, 2017.

You might well have heard of Peter Thiel. He was one of the founders of Paypal, was the first outside investor in Facebook and made a bunch of other successful early stage investments.

He has a question he asks of businesses he's thinking of investing in:

“Tell me something that's true, that almost nobody agrees with you on”.

According to Thiel, it tests for originality of thinking and the courage to say something the interviewer might disagree with.

I think it's a great question to ask yourself too. It can really highlight how you're different to your competitors.

What you do can be copied fairly easily. Skills can be developed. But beliefs are deep seated.

What you believe about your your industry, your clients and your competitors sets the frame for how you run your business. It makes you, you.

I spent some time recently thinking about what I believe about marketing that most others in my field don't. Here's what I came up with:

1. I believe that great marketing is simple marketing. It doesn't have to be super complicated and convoluted to work.

2. I believe that ethical marketing can work. That being nice, being generous with your time, giving value in advance instead of holding back can deliver results.

3. I believe you don't have to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to be successful. You can fit good marketing into 1 day a week. And you can have a good life outside of business.

4. I believe that giving value in advance and nurturing relationships until people are ready to buy leads to a stronger, more sustainable business that trying to cash in with short term promotions and product launches.

5. I believe you can (and should) build strong personal relationships online through email, video, interactions in groups. Relationship building doesn't have to be face to face.

6. I believe that online marketing offers the biggest opportunity there has ever been for small and solo businesses to win out over large competitors, if they can master it.

There's probably nothing too controversial in there. But taken together it's a different way of doing business to most.

I know many people who don't really believe online works for consulting and coaching. I know many online businesses who focus on launches and affiliate marketing and getting as much cash in to their coffers in as short a time as possible.

And I know far too many people who have given up their social and family lives in the pursuit of business success.

What you believe helps you stand out.

What do you believe that's different?

No need to tell me. Write it down. More importantly, live it.

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Rethinking 80:20

Posted byIan Brodie on February 26th, 2017.

Many years ago I wrote an article called “Challenging the 80:20 rule”.

In it I pointed out that the 80:20 rule doesn't always work.

There are plenty of sectors, for example, where 20% of your customers don't make up anywhere near 80% of your sales. Often more like 50% at best in many retail businesses for examples.

Or they make make up 80% of your sales this year, but a different 20% will make up 80% of your sales next year.

I kind of regret writing that article.

Not because it was wrong. It wasn't.

But because I worry that some people, after reading it, might have abandoned the whole idea of 80:20, which is not what I was trying to say.

My point was that you need to be smart in your application of 80:20 and to check it with data rather than blindly assuming it always works.

In my case for example, I definitely don't have an 80:20 rule with my clients. Because right now (as of 2017) most of my focus is on Momentum Club and its members, the most anyone can pay me most of the time is $97 a month. I don't have any “mega clients” who pay me a ton more.

But while I don't have a client 80:20, I absolutely do have a product 80:20. And I have a marketing 80:20. Most of my subscribers and new customers come from a very small number of marketing tactics I use and almost all my customers go through my email marketing process.

That means that I can really focus my time on mastering and using a handful of marketing techniques. And I save a ton of time by not doing the rest.

Do you have an 80:20?

It might not be in your client base, it might be in your activities. Or your products. But there will be one somewhere if you look hard enough.

Find it and you can save a ton of time and get better results by cutting out the stuff that's not high value and doing more of the stuff that is.