Have you ever become a victim of your own perfection paralysis when it comes to marketing yourself? I talked to a few clients this week who have been toying with the idea of putting together a talk to promote their services for months but haven’t done anything about it. The problem is they’re waiting to have the talk written, finished, practiced, the flyer completed and have a list of marketing sources that are lined up to promote the thing before actually selecting a date and getting it done. NONSENSE!
If I’d waited to have all things perfectly settled before moving forward with a talk, I’d still have only 3 or 4 clients in my practice, and believe me, I wouldn’t be moving forward very quickly. Instead, I believe in scrapping this traditional route and going backwards. Ask any clients of mine and they’ll tell you I’m notorious for getting my clients to commit to a date 4 weeks from today (yes, we actually have them pull out their calendar and select the date right then and there) and book the space, time, and title of the talk, before anything else is done.
What are my clients’ reactions? Yup, you guessed it… “YIKES! I need to get my butt in gear and get things going! I’m giving a talk in 4 weeks!!!”
Magically, everything always gets done. The talk is written, finished, practiced, the flyer is completed and they have a list of marketing sources lined up to promote the thing, and always before the deadline. I call this being PULLED forward by your marketing, instead of being a victim of Perfection Paralysis.
When you set yourself up to stop procrastinating and to start working to make it happen, it works every time. In the past, I too have dragged my feet on picking a date for an event I wanted to give. ‘Should I have it in the summer, should I wait ‘til fall?’ Since nothing was happening, I pulled out my calendar, picked a date, gave my credit card number to reserve the space and then made it happen, and you can too! There’s nothing like setting a deadline and getting in gear to make it happen.
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
Your turn. Are you procrastinating putting together a seminar or big event to market your services and reach out to your prospective clients? End the questioning NOW and just pick a date. Commit and then everything will fall into place because you’ll HAVE to get it done. Now, that’s what I call being pulled by your future. Use your business coach or a buddy as an accountability benchmark, and then send them an email with the date of your newly scheduled seminar or workshop. The most accountable thing you can do though is to pay for the space ahead of time. That’ll get you moving! 🙂
If you like the idea of this unconventional way to market that gets you clients, you’ll love the Client Attraction Home Study System™ for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed. Here’s where you can get your own copy: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine?
No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System , the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.
If you’re serious about attracting clients consistently, I believe you should use every single piece of marketing “real estate” you can. Whether you’ve been in business for one year or 22 years, when you’re marketing your business, you want to have systems in place that PULL in clients without you having to do much to make it happen. (more…)
Imagine you’ve worked hard to market your services; you’ve attracted a prospective client, set up a “sales conversation” and gone through the whole sales process. Great job, but sometimes, no matter how hard we try, prospects don’t always sign up on the spot.
Sometimes, a prospect needs some time to make the decision on whether or when they’d like to start working with you. What I’ve noticed over the years is that when this happens, most always, the sale never happens, probably because life gets in the way and what’s out of sight is out of mind.
Often, this means you’ve lost them for good. UNLESS you use the proven method to get indecisive prospects to slide right into your practice, instead of slipping through your fingers.
So I’ve come up with a fantastic remedy for this, which again, helps me close the deal 97-98% of the times that I use it.
If they don’t bite on the sales call, use what I call the “bookend” method. Here’s how it works:
When a prospect tells me they need to talk to their spouse or needs some time to decide, or wants to ideally start in 2 months, I schedule a 5 minute “check-in” call with them (next Tuesday at 3pm, for example) so that we can follow up with each other without having to play phone tag or have to follow up with one another.
The great thing about this technique is that it puts a time limit in the prospect’s mind as to when THEY would like to make the decision, and obviously, you let them choose when they’d like to have that 5 minute chat.
I essentially came up with this because I really dislike following up in this situation. It makes me feel like I’m chasing after them and I don’t feel that this is Client Attractive. So instead, we agree that they’ll call me on set date and 90% of the time they do, and out of those times, they don’t feel pressured, have had time to think about what we talked about, and are ready to make a decision to move forward. It’s a great tool!
If for whatever reason they don’t call during the time of your 5 minute check-in appointment, you can then call them or e-mail them asking if anything went wrong. This usually puts the prospect into a mode where they feel obliged to get back you, as they were the one who missed the appointment. Again, this is much more Client Attractive and ends up saving you a lot of time.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
If a client doesn’t sign up on the spot, make sure to bookend another date so you don’t have to follow up on each other for weeks. Use it as a “let’s see where you are in your decision making process then.” It works like a charm.
Having trouble with actually getting the prospect INTO the sales conversation in the first place? You’re definitely not the only one. The good news is, I’ve developed a way to close the sale 97-98% of the time and I share the entire process in my Client Attraction Home Study System™. It’ll help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, Guaranteed. Here’s where you can get your own copy: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
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Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine?
No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System , the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.
While the media is searching out anything to create panic in the eyes of consumers, I want you to think about your own life . When you went to the mall last time, was it empty? (more…)
I’m known in the marketplace as someone who takes a no-nonsense, no-excuses approach to marketing and getting clients, meaning, I do what it takes, and create systems for everything so that I’m always marketing. (By the way, my clients now do the same.) In turn, I always have a full roster of clients. That’s what I teach in my private coaching, in my Boot Camps, and in my Client Attraction Home Study System.
One thing though, which only my private clients know about me, is I also throw in a healthy dose of Manifestation, which means focusing on what you want in your life, in such a way that you start attracting what you want quickly. Some might call it “positive thinking,” but I believe it goes WAY beyond just thinking positively about something. It also takes action.
I use “manifesting” for just about everything I want to attract in my life (a certain amount of money, my boat, a new home, etc.); however, for the purposes of this article, let’s focus on attracting clients, lots of them, who happily pay your full fee.
As for just about everything in my Client Attraction System™, I’ve even come up with a formula or system for manifesting clients. Here it is:
- Figure out EXACTLY what you want in great detail (how many clients, paying you how much, with the best of circumstances).
- Come up with your BIG GOAL (“My practice is bursting at the seams with 15 clients happily paying my full fee of $_____.”)
- Each day, write it down several times (I do this at least 9 times), each time imagining how great it will FEEL to sign on these new clients.
- Go back and read the big goal OUT LOUD (this ‘locks’ it in place).
- Spend several minutes, eyes closed, imagining your full practice in all its details and glory.
- Write down one BIG action step you’ll take that day to make this happen.
- Notice the synchronistic, happy “coincidences” you experience during the day that seem like a sign from the Universe, as they relate to your big goal.
- Each day, spend a couple minutes writing down how very fortunate you are, what you are grateful for today, and what you would like to attract more of.
- While you’re at it, write a letter to whatever you call your Higher Power (I call mine “Universe”) and go into greater detail about what you want, asking for it to be done by a certain date.
- Have faith in the process. Don’t cancel out all your “manifesting” with negative comments or thoughts such as “why am I doing this anyway, it won’t happen, it never does.” If you start thinking that way, you can stop yourself right away and revert back to the big goal, and how it will feel to achieve it. Faith in this process is 80% of the game.
Granted, there’s a lot here and I do just about all of it each day, but you don’t have to. Even if you do only ONE of these things, consistently, you’ll start noticing opportunities coming out of the woodwork, happy coincidences pointing you in the right direction. Take action on these, they are divinely sent! As a result, you’ll start attracting lots more clients. I promise.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
It’s a new unusual way of attracting more clients, one that we’ve never talked about here and one that you might not be familiar with. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Even if you are familiar with it, perhaps you’ve not taken the time and effort to apply it consistently. Make some time for in your day for this, each and every day, and you’ll start seeing results quickly.
If you like the idea of this and want to try it in addition to the more pragmatic marketing stuff we regularly talk about, you’ll probably enjoy the book “Excuse me, your life is waiting” by Lynn Grabhorn. I did.
Back to “regular” marketing techniques next time. If you can’t wait until then, check out the Client Attraction Home Study System™ for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed! Here’s where you can get your own copy: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine?
No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System , the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.
“What you have to give is enough – if you give it with all your heart. “
-Chieko N. Okazaki
For years, I’ve noticed how many of my clients stopped themselves from marketing because (more…)
Every time I speak in front of an audience, whether it’s 50 or 1,200 small business owners, I get the same old question. Then following my answer, I always see a roomful of dropped jaws and gaping mouths.
The question? How often do I need to reach out to my prospective clients and clients?
The answer? A minimum of 25 times a year, preferably 52 or more times a year.
(more…)
We may have a different idea of service, a product that has more benefits, a specialty or niche that we know better than anyone else… Whatever sets you and your business apart from others is crucial for you to identify and communicate. Why? Imagine one of your potential clients looking through the phone book and seeing 65 listings and ads for your category. How would you stand out? What would make them call YOU as opposed to the next listing? (more…)
OK, so you’ve figured out where your best clients have come from and where your Ideal Clients can be found in large numbers, and inexpensively. It’s time to create a marketing plan that has you focusing on “fishing where the fish are.” The more focus you have, the better the results.
When coaching clients to do this in private sessions, I ask them to draw a large circle on a blank sheet of paper, and draw 4 lines to create a pie with 8 slices.
Then I ask them to fill out each slice of the pie with what they’re currently doing to attract clients (only the things that really work) and then fill in the rest of the marketing pie with marketing tools we’ve agreed will PULL their clients in. This comes from the list of where their Ideal Clients congregate, remember?
(more…)
“Just as it is you, and only you, who can take you from where you are to where you want to go in your life, it is you and only you that’s gotten you to where you currently are. You are responsible for your current situation (whether you like hearing this or not) because of the beliefs you have about yourself and the world, because of the habits you have and most importantly because of the actions you take — or didn’t take. This is good news, because it also means that you can change your life and everything in your life on a dime.”
