Blog Gameplan Step 2: Know Your Customer Marketing Triad: Networking
Find More Prospects Through Industry Associations
For many independent professionals, knowing where to “fish” for good prospects is a crucial step in putting together a solid marketing plan. Once you know where your most promising prospects gather, you can begin to identify opportunities to connect with, serve, and support them.
There are a few key questions that can help you profile your customer and hone in on fantastic opportunities for serving them.
Gameplan Step 2: Know Your Customer Marketing Triad: Networking
5 Strategies for Attracting High-Quality Prospects
When was the last time you had a bad experience with a pushy telemarketer, or a clueless store associate, or an intimidating car salesman?
These experiences have an interesting affect on us as business owners … they can trick us into thinking that we have to develop aggressive “sales” skills for “overcoming objections” and “getting to “Yes,” and they simultaneously scare us into thinking we have to become these pushy people we detest if we want to get clients and become .
Finding clients is really much simpler than this. To attract customers, we have to first sell ourselves on what we offer. We do this by understanding who we serve and what they need, and packaging ourselves to solve their problems in a way that they want to buy. When we believe in what we offer, we have a confidence in the marketplace that can’t be faked, and it’s very important to our success! So SELL YOURSELF FIRST.
Blog Gameplan Step 2: Know Your Customer Gameplan Step 6: Execute Your Plan Marketing Plan
What if your marketing isn’t working?
I got an email today from a local coach who was referred to me by a colleague. Her dilemma: she’s having trouble getting business (“I’m having trouble marketing myself as a coach”) and doesn’t have much money for marketing. Can I help?
Have I ever heard this one a thousand times.
Just yesterday, I was talking to one of my copywriters about a significant challenge we see among “vendors” of marketing services–they either help a client get the message right but the client doesn’t know how to market the message well, or they help the client get the “marketing” right, but it doesn’t produce results because the message is crapola.
Blog Gameplan Step 2: Know Your Customer Gameplan Step 6: Execute Your Plan
How do I find good customers?
Deciphering who your customers are so you know who to market to–and how–is perhaps the most elusive part of the marketing puzzle.
When I speak, part of my presentation is often devoted to helping people get clear on where they are in relation to the customer question. It’s important to me that people get some clarity around this idea because it’s often the difference between success and failure as you’re marketing your business.
In a breakout session I was giving to a group in Houston, the attendees were starting to “get it” and their new understanding of where they might be stuck was bringing up a lot of questions. One woman decided to speak for the group. “We are all struggling with this customer thing, and we feel stuck. We don’t know how to determine who they are, and based on what you’ve been teaching us, this is our missing link. Until we figure this out, we aren’t going to get anywhere in our businesses.”
She was right.
Blog Gameplan Step 2: Know Your Customer Gameplan Step 3: Package Yourself to Solve Problems Gameplan Step 5: Develop Your Tools Gameplan Step 6: Execute Your Plan Marketing Triad: Grassroots Marketing Marketing Triad: Showcasing
What’s in it for ME? Answering Your Customer’s #1 Question
The purpose of business is to create a customer. –Peter Drucker I was talking to a colleague the other day who is struggling to take his business to the next level. He’s an IT guy who helps companies “maximize their technology dollars.” “I know when I stand up and say that I work with technology,
Blog Gameplan Step 2: Know Your Customer Gameplan Step 5: Develop Your Tools Gameplan Step 6: Execute Your Plan
What’s in it for me? Why people buy…
I just read a great article by John Alexander on uncovering the sales triggers that compel people to buy, and leveraging them in your search engine optimization efforts. Great promotional copy isn’t about “you”, though I’m sure you’re great! 🙂 It’s about your customer and what *they* want, what *they* are struggling to figure out,