What is your biggest asset? It is your existing customer and client base. Even further than that, it is a very specific SEGMENT of your existing base, something I call your E300. We’ll talk about that very soon, but for today don’t forget the people who ALREADY love you. I know from talking with you that many of you have been in business for quite a while. Not all of you, but some. But you still focus a great deal of your attention on getting NEW customers. Why?
If I could show you how to spend 1/10th as much on marketing while getting 1000% higher response rate, would you be interested? This is something I often go over with clients in great detail, because it’s REALLY powerful. It all BEGINS with focusing your attention where it will have the biggest impact.
Focus on your biggest asset
For those of you new to running your own business, you may not think this applies to you, but it does. Even if you’re new and don’t already have a list of 1,000+ past customers, this still applies to you. You have a base also. You have what many people call a “sphere of influence”. These are people who know you. They trust you. Your friends, fellow business owners, old bosses, etc. These are people you can have a real conversation with. This is bigger than you might realize.
There is a time and a place for spending thousands of dollars marketing to people who don’t know you from Adam, but why would you ever do this without FIRST engaging the people who matter most to you?
This is not a pitch to start selling your wares to your friends and family. That is old school crap. I’m talking about focusing on marketing to people whose attention you already have. Why yell when you can whisper? It takes way less energy, and it’s way more effective. What happens when you whisper? People listen more closely.
Can you whisper?
To whom can you whisper…and still be heard? This is where your focus should be placed. Please understand that building businesses is not dependent upon huge marketing budgets and how loud you can yell your message from the rooftops. That ain’t what gets it done. What does get it done? What does get people to buy from you? Engagement. I’m not referring to “grabbing people’s attention”. I’m referring to real, honest engagement. An honest-to-goodness exchange of ideas between people who actually LISTEN to each other.
What’s crazy to me is that marketing this way is not only accessible to EVERYONE, but it’s also dramatically more effective, less expensive by far, and most people DON’T do it. It blows my mind. Yes, there is technique, and there are tactics to learn, but it’s not more complicated than any other form of marketing. It just WORKS better is all.
Do you have the guts to admit the core of your business is really a lot smaller than you realize? It’s good news actually. It means you don’t have to spend your life yelling and doing other stupid things. You can whisper. You can communicate quietly and effectively, and you will be heard. And if you do it right, you can reach far MORE people than you can imagine, by actually ENGAGING just a few people.
How to engage fewer people and sell MORE at the same time
By engaging your most powerful assets (your existing base), you greatly increase your effectiveness. Do the math…it just makes sense, right? Your sphere of influence and existing client base is where the gold is. They’ve already bought with you. They already trust you. You already have momentum going, so you don’t have to push nearly as hard.
There is a key question you need to get good at asking. The question is not “Will you buy this thingie I’m selling?” The question is “How can I help?” And if you really WANT to help, the people who know you will let you. They’ll WANT your help. That’s how you build a sustainable, profitable business after all…by helping people. It’s not about selling thingies. It’s about helping people.
You MIGHT have a huge gold mine you’re sitting on that you don’t see right now. OR, your people may be best served by buying your thingies. I don’t know. What I DO know is that you learn, uncover new opportunities and grow your business by listening, not by talking and always trying to sell more thingies.
For those of you who’ve been in business a while…start focusing on your past clients. We’ll cover specific marketing tactics in future articles, and we can always hit this up in details during our consults as well. But for today, start looking at your biggest asset. There is gold. Lots of it. More than you think. So much gold in fact, that it will change your paradigm. I promise.
For those of you new in business…you may think your old boss or the friends you grab drinks with on the weekends are not good potential clients of yours. That is probably true. But you have their ATTENTION. You don’t have to make an ass out of yourself in order to have a legitimate, engaged conversation with them. This is more valuable than you realize. Given the choice between engaging these people first or spending your entire net worth on mass media, I think you know which I’m going to recommend.
And remember, the question isn’t “Want to buy my thingie?” The question is “How can I help?” Your friends know people, and those people know other people. With tact and some tenacity, building a million dollar client list is not more than a few months away if you really go to work on it.
Or, you can continue yelling. Louder…and louder…and LOUDER. Your choice 🙂