Sing-Your-Praises Marketing for Solo-preneurs
June 28, 2009
How do you get your clients and customers to sing out for you? And how important is that, anyway? One 
recent piece of research says that 15% of your customers will be “influencers.” These people can bring a fair amount of new work to you on a consistent basis. Makes you want to spend a little time thinking about who your “influencers” are, doesn’t it?
We all already know that word-of-mouth marketing is 5 times more powerful in its effect than advertising. The statistics vary, but one article I read a few days ago stated that about a third of consumers try a brand due to a personal recommendation by someone they know. Even in the business-to-business (B2B) world this holds true. And here is a HUGE important point – the “influencers” who talk about your business have to know you but do not have to be an existing client. You can get a significant amount of business from someone who knows and likes your work even if they have never spent a dime with you! Don’t forget that, it’s important.
So, how can you get this “sing-your-praises” word of mouth buzz going?
- You can’t beat starting your “sing-your-praises” marketing by making sure that you meet your customer’s need each and every time. ASK if what you have provided has solved their problem, and if it has not then offer to change it now.
- Notice who naturally send others to you, and make sure to thank them each time with a note or phone call. Let them know you notice how they are helping you build business, and keep in mind that those who refer to you may not be buying from you. Treat them as if they ARE customers, for they are of great value to you.
- If you have customers who sing your praises to YOU but have not referred others, send them a carefully crafted note and ask them to consider referring their friends or business acquaintances who might need what you offer. If they follow through and you gain a new customer be sure to offer your thanks for the follow-through.
With consistent follow-through, you can thank those who sing your praises and create even more good will and good energy for your business. Set up a system to do this, delegate it to a trusty assistant, and watch your business grow.
(C) Sue Painter
Twitter’s Ability to Re-Shape Opinion
June 28, 2009
Unless you have been asleep for a long time, you know what Twitter is. The social media micro-blog is no longer just for computer junkies – the big corporations have jumped on board, with staff dedicated to maintaining a Twitter presence. Consider Ford Motor Company, whose “twitter guy” Scott Monty has over 11,000 followers and himself follows more than 10,000 accounts. Ford has discovered that the public’s propensity to bad-mouth big corporations (and, perhaps especially, American car companies) can be mitigated by having someone who responds to you personally. When there is a face (and a Twitter friend) for a huge corporation, it is easier to quieten criticism and even turn it to a positive energy. Monty responds via Twitter to negative comments about green issues and bailout money, for instance.
Smaller businesses and entrepreneurs can effectively form these relations, too, of course. While you may not aspire to 11,000 followers, you can build a network of other Twitter-folk who can help you pass the good word about your products and services, or about useful information and ideas that you wish to pass along to the public.
Twitter has its own little social code, so here are a few tips if you are just getting Twitter-ized.
- Share information that is inspirational or of value to your audience. No one really needs to know that your coffee was cold this morning.
- Don’t market yourself first and foremost. Build up some followers and relationships first, and the weave some of your offers into the mix now and then.
- Retweet (RT or just R) information you see that is particularly valuable to your target market. Always give credit to the original Tweet-person when you reTweet.
- Use related software (often freeware) that helps you manage the massive amount of information coming your way on Twitter. For instance, try TweetDeck to get a handle on who is saying what to whom, and TweetLater for putting your Tweets in line to be delivered throughout the day.
Twitter is a very rapidly growing online community – and just like any community there are the givers and the takers. Be a giver, and remember that the primary purpose of Twitter is to build relationship, not sell. If you keep that in mind, oddly enough, Twitter will impact your sales positively in the future.
(c) Sue Painter
Bad Mood – A Saboteur of Your Success
June 21, 2009
Entrepreneurs have great freedom in their work and personal lives, and most of us wouldn’t have that any other way. That freedom comes with responsibilities, one of which is to be conscious of one’s mood. Self-employed, we often work alone, because our team members are usually not co-located with us. And when we have an “off” day we can slip into non-action, downward spirals of negative thinking, self-doubt, depression, and lack of follow-through.
I’ve noticed in many of the fabulous, smart, talented folks I mentor that mood ends up being a huge saboteur of success. We all have what I call the “doubt days” – what am I doing, am I good enough, can I do this REALLY? – feelings of lower self-esteem, fatigue, or hurt that someone has acted rudely. Entrepreneurs need faith and resilience, and we need those to a much higher degree than those who can count on the workers around them to pull them out of a bad day or even to cover their work now and then. The joy and privilege of being self-employed also comes with a responsibility to monitor our own mood and have our Plan B in place to pull ourselves out of the dark places. I coach entrepreneurs to have their special Plan B people, those they can call on for a listening ear and new perspective, built right into their business plan.
I’m a fan of Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet. One of his poems instructs us about bad mood, and what to do when it hits. Here it is for you. Try a little Rumi the next time bad mood comes calling, and keep yourself on the path to success.
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
(Rumi)
Rumi
Marketing for Entrepreneurs – What is BANTS?
June 4, 2009
Entrepreneurs and solo-preneurs most often are the face of their business. That means YOU are the one out meeting people and talking about what you do to folks who might potentially be a good match for your product or services. I often ask my clients how they “know” someone is a good lead or prospect, and the answers I get tell me that we each develop a vague sense of how much interest or need there is. Vague sense is a good start, but we’ll be more on point and successful if we have a stronger way to classify and prioritize our potential customers.
Large companies often use a system called BANTS. Entrepreneurs can use a simplified version in their own marketing. It’s an acronym that stands for five issues that we usually address informally in sales conversations.
B is budget – is this person willing to set aside the money necessary to purchase your product or service?
A is authority – are you talking to someone who can make a yes decision to buy? And if you aren’t, who is the authority, and can the person you are speaking with introduce you or include that person in your meeting?
N is need – does this person have a need for what you offer?
T is timeframe – when does the person see moving forward, or when must the need be solved?
S is sales-ready. Is this person ready to buy now?
Some companies use the S as size, meaning, how large will this sale be in monetary terms? Is the opportunity large or small?
If you are the marketer for your business, you can use this acronym to quickly see what is lacking when a sell is not moving forward. Maybe everything looks good but budget won’t be in place for another six months. By asking the right questions you’ll know that – and you can make a note to reach out again in 4 or 5 months rather than spending your wheels and getting a constant “no deal.” Try using BANTS or adopt it to your own unique situation. I’ll bet you will more clearly see where things are stuck, and learn to use these criteria to market more successfully. And that will be one more way to make your business thrive!
(c) Sue Painter
Collaborative Marketing – Do You Really Give More Than You Receive?
June 3, 2009
As a member of many associations and groups over my ever-lengthening life (!) I’ve come upon the issue of parity more than once. It usually raises its head when one person in the group complains about “giving” more than “receiving” or accuses others in the group of “ripping off” what the person considers to be valuable that he or she is having to share.
This often comes up in networking groups, for instance, when someone feels that they “give” more contacts, resources, information, and leads than others in the group – and it usually arises from a feeling of lack and smallness in the very person who believes she (or he) is giving so generously “without receiving in equal measure.”
The truth is that parity can absolutely never be measured one for one. We don’t know what any one new person added to someone’s mailing list will bring or not bring to that list in terms of value. We can’t go down the road of thinking that way or the group becomes, eventually, a snarky little group whose members all believe that they are of greater value to the group as a whole than the other members. We don’t know this, and once we begin to buy into that belief and philosophy it goes against the universal laws of abundance, openness, and love. One – even one – new person who is added to my list may be a “connector” – a person who forwards my offerings to so many people that that one person is solely responsible for 20 or 30 other new people to my list. And on the other hand, I may get 25 people from someone else who has a huge list but has on it a ton of people who never purchase a single thing. We never know. We cannot honestly nor from a basis of collaboration and abundance judge the value of any one person or any one “collaborative” effort. Entrepreneurs who begin to think and speak and act from that place go down a misguided path. The trouble with that path is that it begins to poison the well that we all drink from. It comes from a ground of scarcity, not abundance. It comes from a ground of fear, not love.
Sometimes the smallest, most quiet person has the longest arm and deepest reach. In my massage clinic I have a “customer” who has never been on my table at all and yet over the past eight years she has referred over twenty people to Touch Therapy Center, and they, in turn, have referred more. That’s just one example of how inexpert and rash it is to judge that we are giving or receiving “more or less” than someone else we have contact with. It’s a great example of the complete unreality of the issue of parity. We just never know where even one person will lead. Sometimes quieter people have much more depth and value than we may think. To start judging that “I give more than you give” is scared, small-minded, contracted, selfish – all lesser energies that do not lead to openness and abundance. Think about the ramifications downstream before you get up in arms about parity and buy into the belief that you give more than you receive.
(c) Sue Painter