Archive for December, 2009
They’re the same thing aren’t they?
WRONG.
They will give you very different results but are only subtly different in concept.
If you try to build your company up with customers you will constantly be fighting and clawing your way to the top.
If you build your company and products around obtaining clients; success and wealth will flow in.
- Customer: (n) someone who pays for goods or services.
- Client: (adj) being a regular customer.
Can you see from the definitions that what we really want are clients? A Customer will come and go once, buying a product or service because you have what they need right now.
If you have the right sales processes in place you can turn this customer into a client. Then they will continue to come back to you and make you more and more money for less advertising dollars.
You turn customers into clients by providing extra VALUE.
If someone buys something from you, you want to start a relationship with them.
You want to build up trust.
You want them to think of you every time they have an issue that you can help them with. This means that you have to educate them on what you can help them with.
Just because they bought a hammer of you one day, doesn’t mean that they know that you also sell brooms. So you need to find a way to let them know this. You could send out a newsletter, brochure with discounts especially for them. Or you could have a loyalty card, buy 9 get one free. It all depends on what it is you are selling in the first place.
If you sell e-books and information on the web your best bet is to create a list of emails from everyone who signs up or buys from you. You then send out periodic emails, daily, weekly, monthly, with VALUABLE information, not just free stuff they can get anywhere but juicy, worth their time to read, trust building, valuable stuff.
You will then be in their minds when they are looking for information in the future. They love the emails and valuable information you have given them for free in the past and they are happy to pay for your best stuff in the future.
Let’s look at one of my favourite customer vs. client systems.
eBay.
What do you do if you want to buy a new camera or item? You do a little research to find out what you want then you jump on eBay and type in the model and find the best price from some online store. At least this is what I do, and it gets me the best price on nearly everything.
Do you remember the name of the online store you bought from? Probably not. To them you are just a customer.
Do you remember who gave you the extra value?
The lists of all the companies and options, the monthly emails with tips or latest specials, the watchlists, the autobids…
Of course you do, it was eBay.
Who do you think makes the most money?
eBay makes a profit on every sale on their site. The online company made a profit on ONE sale.
Customers are great to get a quick buck.
Clients are what will make you wealthy in the long run.
Every morning at LifePath Unlimited we have a “Fresh Start” call. This is a chance to get fired up for the day, gain a little inspiration and finish off with a 10-15min Q&A session.
Each Tuesday the presenter finds an inspiration movie online for us to watch. I’d like to share a little of that inspiration with you, so each Tuesday I will be posting the movie of the week here.
15 – 12 – 2009 – Jim Rohn: Words of Wisdom
Jim Rohn was an inspiration and a mentor to thousands. He passed away in early December 2009. There are a lot of tributes to be found on the internet and I recommend doing a little more research into him. To give you a taste these are some of his words of wisdom.
Attraction Marketing is the art of positioning yourself as a leader and having people come to you to help them with their problems.
In the case of Network Marketing, your potential business partner’s problems are that they need more personal, time or financial Freedom. So you need to position yourself in a way that you can help them with these things.
In other words; you need to look like you are knowledgeable and have the leadership to teach them and take them where they want to go.
We do this through content.
You need to get yourself out on the web in as many places as possible so that it is easy for people to find you.
The follow are some great places to start but by no means an exhaustive list:
- Articles – write and submit them to as many places as possible
- Videos – Definitely the new big fish in the pond as broadband access becomes the norm, however don’t just restrict yourself to YouTube, there are hundreds of places to put video these days
- Social Media – Facebook, twitter, My Space, Bebo, LinkedIn etc… get out there, make friends and provide worthwhile content
- Forums – Go to where your ideal prospect is and provide good content on what they are searching for.
- Press Releases
- Squidoo
- Hubpages
- And many many more…
The BIGGEST thing to remember with all these places is that you are providing CONTENT, not sales pitches, and nothing shouting “I am so great”.
Good, helpful, modest content.
If you provide enough good content then people will start thinking “you are so great” on their own, and that’s when they’ll start calling you.
This is actually a lot easier than it might sound.
If you have just started Network Marketing, then you are probably pretty daunted by the amount of stuff there is to learn and master in order to become a great leader.
Here’s the thing though; people who are NOT yet in Network marketing, don’t know this. They are most likely completely ignorant of all the work and learning that goes into being a true leader in this industry.
Therefore ANY information they find on “what exists on the inside” is new to them and it will appear like you, the person giving it, is an expert in the field.
The biggest problem with most people is that they just don’t start.
The fact that you have looked for and joined a company means that you know more about it than someone who hasn’t. So just start writing or recording your own experiences and go from there.
As you start to create content you will naturally learn more yourself, which will give you more topics to create content on. It’s like a self fulfilling prophesy, IF you start.
Before you know it, you’ll be rubbing shoulders with the big guns and having hundreds of people contacting you every week.
Every morning at the company I work with, LifePath Unlimited, we have a “Fresh Start” call. This is a chance to get fired up for the day, gain a little inspiration and finish off with a 10-15min Q&A session.
Each Tuesday the presenter finds an inspiration movie online for us to watch. I’d like to share a little of that inspiration with you, so each Tuesday I will be posting the movie of the week here.
08 – 12 – 2009 – The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.
An Inspirational story of William Kamkwamba from Malawi. Who, during the drought and famine of 2001, read a magazine that mentioned that a windmill could pump water and produce power. With no idea of where to start or any easy access to materials, he researched and eventually built TWO windmills for his farm and helped bring his family out of starvation. This is his story.
You’ve got yourself or you’re looking at a Network Marketing / Direct Sales / MLM business.
What’s next?
Gone are the days of cold-calling, making lists, hassling family members and generally alienating yourself from everyone you know and care about. In the last few years, there has been a small revolution in the Network Marketing arena. And the new game is called “Attraction Marketing”
So, What is Attraction Marketing?
Well, as the name suggests, it’s all about “Attracting” people to you.
In the past, you were told that everyone is a prospect. You were told to talk to anyone and everyone to try and get them to join your business. As anyone who’s been around for a while will know; this is not the case and in fact it’s a really good way to get very demoralised very quickly.
What you need to do is find people that want to change their lives or are looking for a business to join. Even better you want these people to find you!
Attraction Marketing is all about putting yourself out on the web so that these types of people CAN find you.
You take steps to position yourself as an expert in your field so that the people that find you gain respect and trust for you. They come to like and admire what they see and have genuinely benefited from what you have given them. They believe that you are the person that will help them get what they want; time, financial or personal Freedom.
They then contact YOU.
This instantly puts you in a position of power and control.
The person who makes the initial contact is always going to be in a weaker position. When someone contacts you first, it gives you a position of authority. Making you job much easier. No longer are you trying to convince anyone to join you and your company. You are now interviewing people to see if they are good enough to be a part of your team.
I’m guessing you can instantly see the benefits of this.
The way you do this is by providing Good Content.
This is where a lot of people get it wrong. It is not about putting out advertising and sales pitches everywhere you can. That makes you the person making first contact, putting you in the weaker position. You need to put Good stuff, Great stuff, out on the web for people to find that will actually enrich their lives.
Now I know that right now most of you are probably thinking…
“but I’m not an expert in anything”
You’re wrong.
Everyone is an expert at something. Even if it’s “stamps made in Australia between 1980-1990”. If there is a topic you know more about than most of your friends. That is where you will start. As you move along you will learn more and be able to provide better and more targeted content.
So grab yourself a cup of coffee, go sit down somewhere quiet and start brainstorming the things you know a lot about.