Pulling clients in is not only more fun than pushing hard to “get” clients, it’s MUCH easier. Who wouldn’t rather have clients call them instead of pounding the pavement? The concept is a no-brainer to grasp, but very few solo-entrepreneurs actually do anything about it. Most are wandering aimlessly, just waiting for clients to come to them, but with little strategy involved. That’s when creating PULL marketing systems comes into play.
There are 3 powerful “PULLING-them-in” marketing techniques I recommend in my programs and use myself, still today. In this article, I want to share one of them with you. I call it the ‘Irresistible F.R.E.E. offer’.
“The only difference between salad and garbage is timing!” At least that’s what I’ve been focusing on recently, especially for businesses that are time sensitive. Some chiropractors have this problem, so do lawyers, but my thought is when you’re in a service business, timing is EVERYTHING. If you wait around, let the proverbial ‘hot iron’ get cold, that hot lead turns into a cold lead, and you can just forget about turning it into a happy paying client.
The question then becomes, ‘How can we ALWAYS be around to have the elusive Perfect Timing?’ The answer to the timing problem is to ALWAYS be on their radar screen. You can never anticipate what’s going on in the lives of your prospective clients; otherwise, you’d be God (obviously) or at least very clairvoyant.
“A desire can overcome all objections and obstacles.” -Anonymous
You’ll always get objections. Let’s face it. You may have the world’s best service, the best product available in your category or industry, but no matter what you do, no matter how good you are, you’re always going to have to deal with objections.
What’s the nature of objections, anyway? I believe most people simply have limiting beliefs of some sort; old conditioning that often keeps them from succeeding. It may be fear of failure, fear of success, fear of being ripped off, fear of overwhelm, etc. Problem is that these objections keep them from finding the solutions that solve their most pressing problems. Their self-doubt gets in the way of their success.
“Everyone you know knows at least ONE person who is your ideal client. That means it’s YOUR job to continuously educate your environment on what you’re up to and who you work with.”
Have you ever felt strange about marketing your services for fear of people thinking you weren’t successful enough or good enough at what you do? I was reading a transcript of marketer Dan Kennedy’s Coaching and Consulting Business Boot Camp this past week at the beach and I came across a section about the fine line between the need for marketing and not wanting to look like you NEED business.
It struck a cord with me because I remember being stumped a few years ago, when a photographer I met at a networking function asked me, “So, if you’re such a marketing expert and you help people attract all the clients they need, what are you doing here at a networking group each week?” I didn’t know what to say at first. Never had it been posed to me that way.
The last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about aiming for MUCH bigger in our business, in our life, and in our purpose. We’ve stretched, looked into the fears of dreaming TOO big (is there such a thing?!) and looked at all the other emotions that come up once we’ve actually MADE the decision to play a bigger game. These are related to issues of safety, not rocking the boat, and self-doubt as to whether we really CAN play a bigger game in life and business.
But then, if this weren’t enough, there’s yet another thing that is likely to stop a lot of people right in their tracks. And that’s trying to figure out the “how”.
The quote, "The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings" originated with San Antonio sports broadcaster Dan Cook during a television newscast in April 1978. He coined the famous phrase after the first basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Bullets during the 1977-78 National Basketball Association playoffs, to illustrate that while the Spurs had won once, the series was not over yet.
And it’s not just for basketball. In Client Attraction, it’s just as applicable, especially when you’re closing the sale. You see, many self-employed professionals believe that once they’ve gotten an "OK", they’re home-free. And ideally that’s the case, but not in every situation.
Many times, you’re confident that this new working relationship is "good to go." Your prospective client signs on the dotted line, gives you their credit card information, you send them your welcome letter or package, and everything seems honky dory. But that’s not always the case.
In sifting through emails from a R&D survey I launched a couple of years ago, I read the responses, and honestly, I wanted to cry. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I haven’t been aware that most solopreneurs have very low expectations of what could be made in self-employment (I’ve been at this for almost 10 years after all!), but I just didn’t know how LOW. Until I got the responses to the following question: “What is the most amount of mo-ney you see yourself making as a self-employed person?” Not just this year, but EVER.
Close to 200 solopreneurs (mostly female) wrote in and shared with me their “Most-I’ll-ever-make-in-a-year” numbers. What shocked me was that the number itself was really LOW and the majority of people wrote in numbers within a short range: between $50,000 and $75,000. Sure, a couple of them wrote in $150,000, but even THAT seemed like a far cry from what I *know* is possible, when you shift the way you work, get good marketing in place, create systems for everything, outsource, and set up leveraged and passive streams of in-come.
QUOTE: “The biggest difference between an average income and financial freedom is… IMPLEMENTATION.” – Bill Glazer
I recently spent four long days and nights with information marketing millionaires at the Information Marketing Summit and was astonished to hear that many of them, when pressed for THE secret of their recent 7-figure success, named ONE and only one. Best of all, I was able to witness this theme with most everyone I met, particularly the VERY successful ones.
These entrepreneur millionaires have ONE secret in common: IMPLEMENTING new ideas quickly. At first, it sounded so simple that I didn’t believe it fully. Could implementation (getting things done) be so profound that those who’ve REALLY succeeded named it as their number one KEY? Then I started thinking about my own journey since attending this same conference last year.
Following up on leads is 90% of the game, right? At least that’s what we hear. You spend all this time networking, marketing yourself, making cold calls, looking for the right client, but what’s the point of it all if you don’t follow up on the leads you DO have? This was a major obstacle for one of my clients this week and a shift was created when I shared the Low Hanging Fruit List with her.
Let’s think about Low Hanging Fruit on a tree for a moment, as it relates to its counterpart higher up on the tree. The Low Hanging Fruit is heavier, probably riper and because of that, easier to pick. Think of your warm prospects, those that have already expressed an interest in working with you, as this type of fruit. Ready for the picking.
