Music and the Rose

Today I thought I’d share a bit about me personally. I feel it’s very important to find out something personal about our prospects and clients and thought you’d enjoy learning something personal about me. Now I’m not advocating we get nosy with prospects and clients. But knowing a bit about what they enjoy doing, reading, the type of music they enjoy listening to, or hobbies they enjoy, can help you develop a meaningful relationship. And relationships is what business is really all about. So here’s something about me and my husband Joel.

My favorite flower is a rose. When I was very young my favorite books were the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She named her daughter Rose and that’s one reason why I like roses. In our yard we had a huge rose bush with white flowers. My favorite color rose is actually more yellow – not bright yellow but a very pale yellow. I like roses so much that our six-year old’s second middle name (yes, she has two middle names) is Rose.

My husband’s favorite thing, after me, is music. He loves music! He’s dedicated a whole website to music. Joel is constantly listening to music – at his desk with his headphones on, in the car listening to CDs, while taking a walk and yes, even all night long. We have our MP3 hooked up to the stereo so we never run out of our favorite music to listen to each night.

So now that you know something about us, we’d love to hear something about what you love!

Are You Proactive?

It’s fairly easy now market your business in a passive manner. Just schedule regular Tweets and autoresponders. You never have to lift a finger? But is this really the best way to market? No, it’s the lazy way if it’s all you do.

You want to be a proactive marketer. That does not mean you want to become a pushy sales person. You do want to really connect with people with a specific purpose in mind. Don’t just aimlessly market to everyone.

Proactive marketing includes effective follow up. Instead of waiting for your prospects to call you after they’ve downloaded your free report or attended your teleclass, send a follow up message by email or even pick up the phone and give them a call. Set up a time to discuss your services with them now that they’ve had a chance to review your free report or attend your teleclass.

When you follow up you need to do so in a focused, organized manner. To do that you need to take these steps:

1. Assess the current challenges of your prospect
2. Ask your prospect what their desired outcome is if they use your services
3. Present a solution that fits your prospects needs and will give them that desired outcome
4. Provide a clear call to action

Another important way to proactively market your business is to get out there. We often get so busy we never seem to leave our office. There’s always just one more thing to do, one more Facebook post to reply to, another Tweet to send out, another email to respond to. When’s the last time you got out of the office and attended a live, in-person networking event, meeting, seminar or conference?

Though social media is a lot of fun and can be a great way to network, nothing replaces the face-to-face connections you make when attending networking events. So get out there and network in person!

Once you’ve connected with someone in person, take time to follow up and stay in touch. Call someone you met to meet for coffee. It’s a great way to get ideas and information from your new contact, find out who their ideal client is so you know who to refer to them and then allow them to ask you about your business.

What will you do this week to be proactive (not pushy) in your marketing efforts?

Follow Up Pays Off

Four months ago a prospect contacted me to create a spreadsheet of all her contacts. She’d been collecting business cards and scraps of paper for sometime and wanted them all in one spreadsheet so she could upload them to a contact management tool. She explained it would take her several weeks to compile all the contacts and send them to me. We agreed upon the cost and she said she’d be in contact in a few weeks.

Knowing this client was very busy and was going to be compiling scores of contacts from different places, I scheduled to follow up with her in three weeks if I hadn’t heard from her. So three weeks later I sent her an email asking her if there was anything I could do to help her with the compiling since I knew she wanted to get these contacts uploaded to her contact management tool in time to send out cards before the end of the year. After a few emails back and forth in which I sent suggestions she replied, “I truly appreciate your professionalism.  You are inspiring me to get moving!”

Several more weeks passed and I still hadn’t heard from her so I sent another follow up email reminding her that I was available and asking again if there was anything I could do to make it easier on her end. Though she still wasn’t quite finished compiling all her contacts she said, “Thanks for keeping in touch.”

Now over three months had passed and many of you may be thinking, “That client is so disorganized she’ll never get the contacts compiled. You’re wasting your time following up with her. It will never turn into paying work.” Wrong! It did take longer than she hoped to compile all the contacts. However, she really does want this project to be done.

After nearly four months the check and contacts are in the mail and this project will be completed in time for her to send out cards before the end of the year. Yes, it did take some time to follow up. The client appreciated that I took the time to stay in touch. And who do you think she’ll call when she needs additional work?

So don’t write off those prospects that seem to be dragging their feet. No, don’t pester them. But send a friendly and helpful reminder. Perhaps send some tips they can use. Let them see that you are interested in helping them and providing valuable information, whether or not they are yet a paying client. Developing this type of relationship does pay off!

Take care of your current client or the potential prospect?

Show your client loveFaced with this decision, many small business owners will pursue the potential prospect. They may figure they already have the current client and go after a new one. But let’s consider doing just the opposite.

Today I had to make this decision. I had arranged a meeting with a potential prospect tomorrow just to talk about our businesses to each other and see if there was a possibility we could refer one another and maybe, just maybe this potential prospect could use my services. Then a current client had an emergency job that needs to be done by end of day tomorrow. There was no way I could commit to getting this job done if I kept the meeting with the prospect. So I called, sincerely apologized, and rescheduled.

My current client is going to get her emergency project taken care of within 24 hours and just imagine all the great word of mouth that can generate. Can you imagine it – ‘she took care of me, put everything else on hold, and got the job done’? A for sure thing instead of a possible new client. It makes me feel good to be able to take care of my clients like that. I call that ‘remarkable’ customer service.