More Clients Blog

Last week Apple released its newest product, the iPhone 4S. By all accounts, this is a great phone, but it’s believed to be an intermediate step between the venerable iPhone 4 and the already highly-anticipated iPhone 5. Still, preorders for the 4S were the highest of any Apple iPhone to date.

As the release date neared, once again people lined up at Apple stores around the world, hoping to be one of the first to get the new phone. Once again, the world watched. The lines of Apple fans were shown on television newscasts. Videos appeared on news web sites, You Tube, and others. Newspapers and business journals covered the event. All this over the release of a cell phone.

If you are not an Apple fan, you’re probably wondering why — why the world was so interested in the release of a phone that is merely a step up from what was already available. Other phones are issued all the time, but they don’t get this kind of attention. Occasionally one gets some hype, to be sure. But not like the iPhone does. Why is that?

If you’re an Apple fanatic, you get it. There is something special about Apple and its products — something you’ve experienced. Certainly people love other products. The Ford Mustang comes to mind. But do Mustang fans love Ford? Do they line up each year to be the first to buy what would simply be the newest edition Mustang? For the most part, no.

Apple’s success is the result of more than just creating products that people enjoy. It is the result of more than just developing entirely new means of communicating and being entertained. It is the result of more than just great publicity campaigns. Apple’s success is the result of creating a culture — a culture that begins at the top and emanates throughout the company. A culture that is infused in its products. A culture that radiates all the way to the end users.

Think about the coverage that the 4S received after its release on October 14. Sure some of it pertained to the phone itself. But much of it focused on the Apple fans, eagerly waiting to buy a product they could get the next day or next week, at the latest. The videos, photos, and reports featured the rising level of excitement as the clock neared the opening hours of stores in Tokyo and Sydney. They highlighted the fans walking through two lines leading up to the doors – lines consisting of Apple employees who greeted, applauded, and cheered the fans. They showed people who were ecstatic about being one of the first to own a 4S, jumping into the arms of Apple employees.

This article, however, is not about Apple. It’s about you. It’s about asking you how you make your clients say, “Wow!” It’s about asking you how you can make them thrilled that they do business with you. It’s about asking you how you can connect with them on an emotional level.

The answers are not easy to define, but there are answers. You must, however, go beyond the fact that you are providing a service. You indeed must search for that emotional connection. Perhaps your service allows them to accomplish goals or dreams that they otherwise would not have achieved. Maybe you provide the opportunity for them to spend more time with their families or enjoying their hobbies. You might provide a service that simply relieves them of things they see as mundane tasks. Whatever it may be, tap into the emotional side. Get them excited. Yes, even about things as bland as tax returns or consulting. When you do, you’ll be amazed at the gratitude they will express, the greater number of referrals you’ll receive, and the renewed excitement you will have for your business.

In case you’re wondering, I am writing this on a MacBook Pro and my iPhone 4 is in front of me on my desk. And, as you may imagine, I am chomping at the bit for the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 to be released.

In 1875, my home state of Rhode Island adopted the motto “Hope.” There are no records or accounts for the reason this particular motto was chosen. Consequently, there are numerous explanations as to what it could be. Likewise, arguments regarding its being an appropriate motto abound.

Whether or not “Hope” is a good motto for a state is for others to decide. I don’t have an opinion one way or the other. Where I have a definite opinion, however, is people relying on hope as a client attraction strategy. Doing so, as far as I am concerned, is imprudent if not foolhardy.

Attracting clients is meant to be a calculated effort. Small business people aren’t going to do market research, and they really don’t need to. Let’s take networking at business functions, for example. You can either simply go to a business after hours, hoping to meet one or more potential prospects, or you can up your odds. For instance, instead of going to the events you usually go to, attend those that pertain to the groups that make up your target markets.

When it comes to your prospects remembering you and therefore thinking of you when they need your services, you can hope they do, or you can make sure they do. Stay in touch with your best prospects on a continuous basis. Send greeting cards, non-sales-related e-mails, articles that pertain to their interests, businesses, or hobbies. Occasionally, send special offers.

If you get some publicity, you can either hope that your best prospects see it, or you can make send copies to them so you are sure they see it.

I could go on and on with examples. All I ask is that you just give your marketing some thought. Are your client attraction strategies based on an idea and a lot of hope, or do you take the appropriate actions to give yourself the greatest opportunity to attract all the clients you can handle?

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I’m sure you are very good at what you do … heck, I bet you’re great at what you do. Yet you are constantly asking yourself, “Why can’t I attract more clients and make more money?”

Now you can stop beating yourself up and start attracting more clients!

Every day you meet people who could use your services or know others who do. But unless you know how to tell them in a concise and compelling way how you benefit your clients, you are still going to be frustrated with too few clients!

So … what do you do?
How many times have you been asked, “So, what do you do?” Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?

Imagine if you had been answering that question in a way that consistently attracted more clients. How many clients you would have? How much more money you would have in the bank? What you could be doing with your extra cash and time?

You could take that once-in-a-lifetime vacation. You could be relaxing in that summer house you’ve always dreamed about. You could actually afford your children’s first choice of colleges.

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“Gentlemen, this is a football.”
- Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi is legendary. His name transcends football and sports. Many people who have never watched a football game know that he was a coach who garnered high praise for his accomplishments. It would seem that he had a special ability or talent that other coaches unfortunately do not possess. However, he would have been the first to tell you that everything he accomplished came from concentrating on the fundamentals.

When coach Lombardi took the helm of the Green Bay Packers, he was faced with a team that had only one win in the prior year. He knew that no matter how talented (or untalented) the players were, they had to start at the beginning; they had to master the fundamentals. How fundamental? At the first team practice, he called all the players over — players who had been around a football since they were children — and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

That’s about as basic as you can get, and that’s were you need to be sharp—with the most basic fundamentals. Why? Because fundamentals are the foundation of success. Just look at what Vince Lombardi accomplished with fundamentals. In a year, he took a one-win team to 7–5. The Packers went on to win several championships over the next few years and then won the first two Super Bowls. His fundamental coaching style proved to be so dominant, the NFL named the Super Bowl trophy after him.

Being an expert at the more advanced skills may help you earn more money, but you will build a profitable business by mastering the fundamentals first.

Anyone who has known me well over the past decade knows that I was very close to my basset hound, Sophie. She came to my office each and every day. We were inseparable. Because she was around people 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she developed a tremendous vocabulary (as in understanding words, not speaking them). You would have thought, however, that as much as she was around “marketing talk,” she would have developed a keen understanding of the discipline. Not so.

For instance, take knowing who your profitable target audience is and focusing on it. She just couldn’t get it though her thick basset skull. On numerous occasions, she would be running in the grass, especially in the early evening, and spot a pair of rabbits. Without hesitation she sprinted (yes, bassets can sprint, sort of) toward one of the rabbits. Then, for whatever reason, she changed course and chased the other rabbit. Then, once again, she was after the first one. I could never figure out why she did this, and until the day she passed away, she could never give me a reasonable explanation. Many nights, she’d be sound asleep and start barking and howling, and her legs would be going as fast as possible. I figured she was dreaming of chasing the rabbits, and I’m sure she always caught them.

All too often, I see small business owners who are much like Sophie. They pursue a target audience for a short while, and then without any apparent reason, they go after an entirely different market. Not too long after that, they are either pursuing yet another market or chasing the first one again. When I ask why, they don’t have any better explanation than Sophie did.

Please don’t be like Sophie. Decide who your profitable target audience is and pursue it until you catch it. If you have more than one profitable target market, have a plan for each and work those plans individually. Otherwise, you may be just like Sophie and capture your target audience only in your dreams.

Recently, a colleague asked me why I do what I do — a question I have asked businesspeople dozens, if not hundreds of times. I quickly answered, “Because I like to help people.” But he did not let me stop there, seeing that as a superficial answer. He asked again. It took a while, but I determined the root cause.

My father was a firefighter. He dedicated his life to helping people — on and off the job. It should be no surprised that, as a child, I wanted to be a firefighter; I wanted to be like my dad. However, as I grew older, some things changed. I no longer wanted to be a firefighter. But then again, some things didn’t … I still wanted to be like my dad.

By sharing my client attraction expertise through my speaking engagements, writing, and coaching, I help others in my own way. I help them succeed … to reach levels they did not think possible … to not only reach their business goals, but also realize their life’s dreams.

I admire people who are excellent at what they do — who know what needs to be done and how to make it happen efficiently and effectively. But I also realize that just being good at what you do does not necessarily lead to financial success. (Think about all the “starving artists” in the world.) Someone has to show you how to have your profitable target audience coming to you … how to have your best prospects predisposed to do business with you and only you … how to have them willing, if not eager, to pay your rates — profitable rates.

That was my answer to my colleague — the answer to why it is I do what I do. It’s about helping people. It’s about showing them how to achieve their goals, if not their dreams. It’s about passion — a passion that was ignited in me by a firefighter.

I start this by letting you know that I am an Apple fan and have been for many years. For whatever reason, I enjoy the products the company produces. Whether it’s the way the computers, iPods, and iPads are designed or the ease I find in using their operating systems, most of the products suit me just fine. So it should be no revelation that, now that the iPhone is available on Verizon, I bought one. In fact, I bought one for my wife, too.

I knew I was going to like the phone; that was a given. However, I was surprised when I opened the box. I am not sure why. I know that Apple is virtually unequalled in the way it packages its products. But again, I was caught off guard. Let me explain.

The box is relatively small — smaller than I would have expected. On the front is a picture of an iPhone. Nothing earth-shattering there. But when you open the box, the phone is right there on top. That’s what you see first … the phone — not the instructions, not packaging, not the ear pods. It results in a sort of unexpected unveiling. Then, when you remove the phone from the box, the accessories are so neatly packed that it is obvious how much attention went into the detail of the packaging.

Does all this matter? It does to me, and I’m sure it does to many others. It matters because Apple is a company that charges a premium for its products. It matters because one aspect of the company’s brand is its design capabilities. It matters because Apple consistently tries to set itself apart from its competition. It matters because there is a lesson here for businesses of all sizes.

I am not saying that you should look to separate your company from your competition by going above and beyond with packaging. But as a marketing coach for solopreneurs, I am saying that there is always a meaningful way to set yourself apart from your competition. There is always a way to do what your competitors cannot or will not do. When those ways make a difference with your target audience you have a tremendous opportunity to further connect with your audience and increase sales. As an added benefit, your clients/customers become cheerleaders and spontaneously initiate positive word-of-mouth marketing for you.

So here’s my question. How have you distanced your company (or how are you going to distance your company) in the eyes of your target audience? I ask because it matters.

Whether you are a football fan or not, try to imagine this. You’re favorite team is in the Super Bowl. To make things even better, you got tickets for the big game. Sure you had to pay multiple times the face value, but that’s okay … you’re going to see your team play in the biggest game of the year!

Of course, you don’t just buy tickets to the Super Bowl. No, there’s much more to it than that. You book a hotel. You buy airline tickets. You schedule time off from work. And now that all the plans are made, that special Sunday just won’t get here soon enough.

But time passes, and the day finally arrives. You couldn’t be more pumped up. You leave your hotel and arrive at the stadium. It’s an atmosphere you couldn’t have imagined — the biggest spectacle on the planet. The doors open, and it’s time to find your seats. Or is it?

Not so fast. You’re told that your seats technically don’t exist. Immediately, you experience an incredible mixture of emotions — confusion, fury, disbelief. How could you not have seats? Then people escort you to a lounge where you have to watch the game-of-games on a television — something you could have done at home in your favorite chair.

This is what happened to more than 400 fans at the Super Bowl in Dallas. The NFL could not get permission from the fire marshal to use temporary seats it had installed just for this one game. So the league made other arrangements for the fans.

Unfortunately, things like this happen, but unfortunate experiences offer great opportunity to make fans out of unhappy customers. Here’s where a company can have otherwise furious customers raving about how wonderful the company turned out to be. But the company must step up and go well beyond what one would expect. Did the NFL step up to the plate? (Yeah, I know, I’m mixing sports metaphors.)

In return for missing the live action and having to watch the game in a lounge, fans were given $2,400 (three times the face value of each ticket, beverages (although it’s reported only soft drinks), food, merchandise, and a free ticket to next year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis. But …

Many of those fans paid more than face value for their tickets. They have lost income. They paid for travel and accommodations. The didn’t get to see their team in person. Furthermore, because of contract problems there may not even be a Super Bowl next year. And if there is, who is to say that the fan’s teams would be playing?

Is what the NFL did to make up for the situation acceptable? You would have to ask the displaced fans for an answer to that. Perhaps the league has done all it can. Let’s face it, it can’t guarantee that the Steelers will be playing the Packers again in next year’s game. So one may assess the league’s reparations as fair. However, what would you think when you learned that the league knew about the situation in advance of the big day and did not notify the ticket holders?

The point of all this is that when we goof, we have an opportunity to make real fans from our clients and customers. But for that to happen, we need to go well beyond just making amends. The next time things don’t go as planned, be sure to exceed what your clients would expect as an apology.

Here’s to your success!
Peter George - Speaker, Author, Coach

The hype surrounding the commercials is almost as great as that surrounding the Super Bowl itself. Newscasters report on the cost of a 30-second spot. The list of advertisers is pored over, as is the list of previous advertisers that decided not to participate. It’s covered on television, radio, newspapers and magazines, blogs … seemingly just about everywhere.

The big question
It used to be that people talked about the commercials the day after the game. Now, discussions take place immediately. Focus groups are assembled, interactive polls are done, marketing groups watch and grade the advertisements. It’s become a game onto itself. And then there’s the question — do the commercials make you want to buy the products?

This question (and the answers to it) are cause for a great deal of debate. “Sales,” some say, “are the barometer of a commercial’s effectiveness.” Others profess that, “People talking about a commercial is what matters.” Well, the answer is “it depends.” The success of a commercial is determined by how well it addresses the intended results. Some commercials are made to drive sales, while the function of others is to create and sustain publicity.

For your greatest success
When it comes to your marketing, you have to know exactly what it is you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to increase sales, or are you looking to generate publicity? Do you want immediate return, or are you planning on bolstering your long-term exposure? Once you decide on the purpose of a particular tactic, then you’ll have a much better idea about how you want your audience to react. That’s how you develop strong marketing with worthwhile results. That’s how you build a profitable business!

An idea for one of next year’s Super Bowl
If I were marketing a company that was looking for publicity and willing to spend more than $3 million in order to get it, here’s what I would do.

First, I’d contact the major national and local news organizations, alerting them to a very special news opportunity, taking place during the Super Bowl’s halftime. When they arrived in the company’s parking lot, they would see three million $1 bills, piled high. Then, when they were all set up to record, I would pour lighter fluid on the money, light it, and let it burn.

Think about the coverage. Think about the number of times the images would air. Think about how many hits on You Tube there would be — people watching in amazement as $3 million goes up in smoke. It would work, and I’ll prove it to you. I’ll do it next year. All I need is $3 million.