By Barb Stuhlemmer, on May 15th, 2012
Spending money on perks may not be in your budget yet, but it should be. Perks are gifts given to customers to thank them for patronizing your business. There are two types of perks, the proactive and the reactive. I’m going to use Starbucks and Horseshoe Resort as my two personal examples, but I’m sure you will have many more.
Reactive Perks
These perks are incentives given as a bonus for purchasing now. Maybe you have received an additional upgrade, BOGO (buy one get one) at half price, or “buy today” incentive. These perks are usually open to anyone that is willing to purchase from you that day.
A few examples of companies that use these well are department stores and grocery stores. Both these types of companies have weekly specials and events to entice people to purchase today for additional savings. The benefit to them is, while in their store it is likely you will see and purchase more items than you came for.
What can you do in your business to entice people to buy today and maybe see and purchase more items then they came for?
Proactive Perks
These perks are aimed at previous clients. People they know have purchased in the past and they want to incentivize with options to continue to think of them first when purchasing in the future. The goal in your marketing this way is to stay top-of-mind with your clients. Go ahead and tier your perks to give more back to the people that give the most to your business.
I have two personal examples of places that have done this really well. I recently got a piece of gold plastic in the mail that made my day. In fact, when I showed others this card the ‘envy factor’ went way up and I felt even more special than I did when I received my Starbucks Gold card with my name on it. Check out this story about how the little things matter, on my blog.
The other event that happened recently was when I was looking for a venue to host my 2-day business workshop with my partner Lara Veltkamp. We had visited a few venues. Horseshoe Resort wanted our business and made it easier for us to experience their facility by giving us access to some of their offerings. By creating a relationship with us so we could feel what it was like to be a part of the day-to-day events and the atmosphere it made them the top runner for the location.
Additional Incentives – Issue reaction
The third place you should recognize that you may need to give an incentive to return and buy again is if your client had an issue with their purchase. You do not want many of these, but take a look at the lifetime value of your average client and decide if giving away something is a great investment in continuing the relationship. This cost comes out of your operations/customer support budget but may include some of the same perks you would give a great client.
How Do I Afford This?
To calculate what would be valuable to a client of yours you need to know how much your client is worth. Determine what an average client brings to your company in sales over the lifetime of your relationship with them. If you were to lose that client, it would cost your business their lifetime purchase value. Every client you lose, because you are not their first choice to return, is increasing your marketing budget.
Determine how much it costs to get a new client? Your time in particular is used up in so many channels of marketing just to reach the new customer. You can justify the cost of an incentive campaign by knowing what you spend, what you gain, and what you can save.
So, how much are you willing to pay into your marketing campaign to ensure that this client never leaves you.
If you do not have a marketing budget then you are not set to grow your business. Ask yourself, “do I want to get more clients, work less, and still make more money?” If you answered yes to this then you need to stop winging it and start planning your business.
Do you have more examples of some great perks you have received for being a valued client?
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on May 8th, 2012
If you are an Accountant or Financial planner then you have just gone through your most hectic time of year. We know that you have had a single-focus the last few weeks. The only way you could accomplish what you have to get done under the governed deadline is to have your attention and all your energy fixed to that one goal – get the tax returns out by midnight April 30th.
I bet you didn’t get an office update during this time, schedule new hire training, host a speaking series, increase your social media campaign, or invite your clients to a cocktail party. Now that it is over you will have room to focus on growing your business again.
This is a good example of how you can quickly implement something new into your business in a short period of time. Define the goal you need to reach and the deadline it must be completed in. The key here is that the deadline is non-negotiable. Then make 80% of your time, for a short period of time, focused on the tasks that will result in the completion of that goal.
Remember you still need to maintain your business, market, and client satisfaction, so if you cannot give 80% of your time, then hire a contractor to manage some of the smaller tasks for that short time. This is easier done if you have created systems to define the responsibilities you need to off-load, but that is another article.
By making a decision to prioritize a goal you move quicker into that business mindset and can take on that aspect of the growth with more confidence. I find that waiting until the time is right, spreading out the work, and implementing slowly adds to the procrastination effect and perfection paralysis.
Calculate the value of the goal being completed today versus 6 months from today and weigh your decision based on that value.
The greatest success stories are always of people that took action right away. Take action and make your business growth happen now. You will see more successes over the life of your business.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on May 1st, 2012
OK Barb, where are you going with this? Last week I found out how loving myself can affect my business and now you are going to tell me about forgiveness and kindness? When are we getting back to concrete business?
Did you have a twinge of this thought when you read the title? It’s OK because I promise I will tie this into some concrete business ideas, contacts and opportunities.
Recently one of my shifts in my marketing was to change my networking focus. This shift took me to the Evolutionary Business Council (EBC). The focus of the EBC is to increase the reach of its members through the giving and sharing of others. It is truly effective and has connected me to some amazing people creating some incredible change in business. Two projects I want to talk to you about are around forgiveness and kindness.
If you are following me online recently you would have seen the reference to “Project Forgive“. This well planned marketing and outreach campaign has achieved its first milestone of raising $100,000 to start producing Shawne Duperon‘s movie about forgiveness. This inspiring documentary is on track to be a global success even though filming has yet not begun.
I was given the opportunity to help share the information that led to accomplishing this first milestone. There was no promise of remuneration, so how does this help my business?
 Forgiveness
There are many others helping this cause. The partners, Shawne Duperon and Teresa de Grosbois, have a very comprehensive marketing plan that included incredible communications reaching out daily to those involved and connecting personally with a genuine heart to see everyone on the project succeed somehow.
Because of this I have been introduced to others by them in a genuine personal introduction. You cannot effectively write this type of language for yourself and have someone convincingly perform it. I was honoured by their love to see those that help be helped. With this type of introduction I have been invited to share my passion with other large audiences, allowing me to get my word out to so many more and increasing my reach for my business.
In a short time frame a community has grown up around this cause. In this community are entrepreneurs and industry leaders of note, which I am now connected to. It would have taken more than a year in a traditional service club to create these types of connections and it is just starting. I have seen an increase in my list and my online contacts. I am now reaching more people and can help more people because of that.
If you can find a cause that aligns with your business, creating a project to fund it is one way to make it happen like Shawne and Teresa have done or you can support a project as I did and find gratification being a part of a team where so many others succeed.
Kindness
That brings me to ‘kindness’. Today I was asked if I could help share a million acts of kindness. This aligns completely with my beliefs and seeing Charmaine’s Kindness site (not yet live) fill up with videos and stories of acts of kindness will be exciting.
My part will be to add one video. This ‘Yes’ has opened the door to personally connecting with Charmaine Hammond, another incredible author, speaker and successful entrepreneur and be a part of something way bigger than either of us.
Success
You know what they say, “If you want to be successful at something, surround yourself with successful people doing what you want to do.” So forgive yourself for not seeing that connecting to a project and helping it succeed without compensation will help grow your business. ‘Project Networking’ is not the traditional marketing channel. Now engage that kind heart of yours to drive your passion, find your cause, and connect in a way that gets you in front of your clients and surrounds you with the type of people that you want to become.
Reach out to Shawne, Teresa, or Charmaine and let them know you can help them create an Academy Award winning documentary or add to the 1 million list.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on April 24th, 2012
We make hundreds of decisions each day, from ‘where should I sit in Starbucks’ and ‘what should I eat for breakfast’ to ‘should I make that cold call’ and ‘what should I say’. When we make decisions in life and in business they are based on our beliefs and experiences.
Some beliefs we have can control our perception of our experience and hence our response to a decision we have to make. For instance let’s say a friend says to you, “I love your new coat.” You may respond in a few different ways, such as:
- Thank you
- Thanks, I got it on sale at Marshall’s
- Thanks, I am not sure it looks right on me
Each of these responses creates a different feeling in yourself and your friend. The first says, you are grateful for the compliment. The second response says you recognize you are somehow not completely deserving of such a nice jacket and the third response says you are not confident about your purchase and you are fishing for a way to justify the expense.
This is your Love Belief. Your Love Belief is your love in yourself is based on these feeling you have around the choices you make; your ability to competently shop, to dress appropriately, to spend money, or simply to make a decision all add to that feeling.
If you cannot accept the gift of a compliment from a friend then how are you going to accept the criticism of a client or competition in your business? You have to be confident in your decisions and your ability to get things right.
Love Belief Exercise
Here is a quick exercise to help you start the process and grow your Love Belief.
- Think of one or more people you love. They may be close family or friends or they can be mentors, leaders, people you idolize or look up to.
- Start with this statement, “I love you because…”
- Fill in the statement with the reasons you love the person or people you identified in step 1.
For Example – I love you because…
- You make me feel safe
- You make me feel I can accomplish anything
- You are helpful
- People love you
- Replace the first statement with “I love ME because…” and then read the answers your wrote for the other people.
For Example – I love ME because…
- I make others feel safe,
- I make other people feel they can accomplish anything.
- I am helpful
- People love me
Even if the statement does not completely fit yet, these are the things you would like to see in yourself.
Loving yourself will lead to becoming a more confident and competent business leader. People who experience you will be more drawn to you, building rapport will be easier, and having the opportunities to get in front of your clients will increase.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on April 17th, 2012
Have you ever been called “the Queen of Process”? No? I have along with “Miss Organized”. I’ve been in technology for over 25 years and in technical writing for almost 20 years. What I do know is that if you want to have something very specific at the end of a long development process you have to have systems in place to ensure everything gets done and nothing gets missed.
I have been on projects where the final product was continually being changed to meet newly perceived needs. The problem with this was that people coding and developing to the original specification often had to request additional time to rework something to be able to incorporate the new aspects. Sometimes this additional time was significant and would lead to what the industry called “project creep”, a very costly delay in development.
In business operations this is called redundancy. Any time you redo, rebuild, reevaluate, or rewrite something, because you have to recreate it every time you get a request, you are losing money and wasting time. Try this instead. I am going to use the process of preparing for my Entrepreneur Club Expert calls to give you an example.
Define the Final Outcome
Know what the big picture or final outcome will be for each task in your business. Is it social media marketing on Facebook or closing a sale? You need to know what you are trying to accomplish before you can define the steps. This also helps other people know what they are trying to complete if they are to follow the process you will define.
Example
The expert call outcome is to host a monthly 1 hour free call with a guest expert bringing business strategies and training for business growth.
 Walk Through the Process
Take notes as you go through the process. Don’t just note the steps, note also where you found information, what was needed to get ready, what you had to do to follow up.
Example
After identifying the expert I have to book the date they are available to speak. I will follow up with an email that includes the information they needed to send me, what they will be required to bring, and an overview of the call. I have to update my webpage and update my ezine with the expert’s information for that month. I have to send reminders of the call to the members of the Eclub. I have to have read their bio and have it open for the call. I have to have my conference program running and the recording started. I have to upload the recording to the members’ forum along with any information from the expert.
Create a Process
Now that you know what you have done, create a process with steps. Write it for someone else to follow. In fact, once you are done, have someone else try and follow your instructions and then tweak it to ensure it is clear and easy to understand.
Example
You can easily see the general steps of my process in my explanation of what I have to do, but what you cannot see are the details. The details are the questions another person would ask if they had to follow the steps above.
- What do you usually put in the email when asking the expert for their information?
- Where do you store the expert’s documents?
- How do you get access to the members’ forum or the conference line?
- How do you start and end the expert call?
After answering the details I have documents and instructions to help someone else do the work. I have an email template I send to experts so I don’t have to rewrite my instructions to them; I have a template for the call flow and a listing for all the access information.
Defining the process takes the most amount of time. Follow these three steps and you can create instructions that will define the processes in your business so you can save yourself and your employees time and money. Create it once and use it over and over.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on April 10th, 2012
What are you doing today to get clients? Every day of your business should include client-attraction activities. Here are my top 10 things you can add to your day. There are a lot more, so don’t stop here. Do what works and then add some more.
-
 Make Calls
Call the people that have said in the past they are interested in purchasing from you or working with you. Check in with them to see if they are ready to move forward.
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Create An Event
Use the event to market to your opt-in list for the weeks leading up to the event. It can be a free teleseminar, training, product launch, or a trade show. Committing to doing the event will give you the incentive to get started. Committing with money will help you get it filled.
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Networking
This is an important part of your business. You cannot run a business in seclusion and networking is a great way to build the ‘know, like, and trust factor’. You are building relationships with people that may be able to get you other marketing opportunities or can introduce you to your client. Add at least one networking event each week to your calendar.
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Mailing Campaign
Using traditional mail can get you in the hands of the people that may not open your email. Try sending something out each month to let people know what you are up to, wish them well, or inform and make sure you add a call-to-action.
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Blog – Podcast – Vlog
Regular communication with your audience helps keep you top-of-mind. Be consistent with your effort, more than once a month is necessary. This media is used to inform and engage, so make sure you are bringing lots of value to your topics and answering questions that your clients want to know about.
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Joint Venture
Create a joint offer with a strategic partner. Identify 2 or 3 key strategic partners that will help you reach more people in your business. You can use each other’s lists to connect with more people and grow your own potential client list.
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Social Media
Engage people online. It is possible to create a great connection with someone online, strong enough that they will send clients your way. As proof this is possible here are two people I have never met but could easily recommend for business: Shawne Duperon, and Teresa de Grosboi. Here are two people that others recommend regularly: Seth Godin and Darren Hardy. That said, you should solidify this relationship and build on it by making an effort to connect offline as well.
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Host an Open House
If you have a physical location create an open-house day where you invite your clients and the community to come see what you are doing. Make it free and fun. Remember to invite the local media (news and papers), political figures, and community leaders. If you know they are coming make sure you let people know who will be there in your marketing leading up to the day.
-
 Speak
Get out there and say something. Make your opinion valuable and be visible. There are many speaking venues in your community. Check your industry associations, the chamber or board of trade, local schools, groups or start your own group. Become the expert in your field people will turn to and think of; especially when they are ready to buy.
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Article Writing
If you are able to write then use this media to become an expert online. Become that someone sought for their knowledge about your industry. There are plenty of places online where you can get your articles published (e.g. EzineArticles.com)
Remember to add some client-attraction activities to your day, every day. If you are not constantly filling your funnel you will not always have people to sell to and then you won’t have a viable business.
Only sales = staying open.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on April 3rd, 2012
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People who move up ‘the ladder’ quickly have a few things in common. You may notice this in people you admire; managers, team leaders, business owners, yourself. You may also notice this in people you don’t admire; people that have somehow got that promotion or landed the big project and yet they don’t have the qualities you would expect in a leader.
Well it doesn’t take a leader to ‘climb the ladder’ of success, but it does take a few other qualities. If you want to climb with them then work on these 5 qualities. If you want to exceed them then work on being an amazing leader (check out John C. Maxwell’s new book “The 5 Levels of Leadership” for help with that).
1. Stop Doing All the Work
If you are worth $75/hour then stop doing the work that you could pay someone else $20/hr to do. If it takes you 2 hours to do something you could pay an expert $75 to do in one hour then hire the expert. As Darren Hardy has said, “Stop trading your time for money and start trading your money for time.” If you want to do amazing things you will need your time to truly focus on what you want to achieve.
2. Have a Giant Goal
Make it something that stretches you and takes you out of your comfort zone. Treat it as if it is real and emanate. Visualize it, describe it and work out exactly what it means to you. Maybe you will purchase your first house as a single person at 24, take your the family for 2 weeks to Disney, pay off your $60k school debt in 2 years, or maybe you expect to become the head of the department or the CEO. You want something that feels real and will help you stay motivated.
 3. Invest in Yourself First
No matter what you do, where you are, how old you are, or who you are with, if you are not healthy and constantly gaining knowledge then you are in trouble. In this conceptual age you will be required to know more and more. Get on the learning train and stay on. Learn about your business, industry, competition, wellness, technology, etc. I am not suggesting you need to be an expert at everything, in fact quality #1 takes care of hiring experts to do what you should not be doing. You need to understand what is changing, what is relevant, and what is going to affect you or your business.
4. Have a Destination
Always know what short term goals you are working towards. Set 2-3 goals that will add to your bottom line. Goals like; add 6 new clients in three months, increase online list by 1000 people in one campaign, hire a marketing specialist by the year end. Break down your goals into monthly and weekly goals and then define 2-3 daily actions to help you achieve those goals.
Example – For the goal of 6 new clients in 3 months – that is 1 new client every 2 weeks (approx.). You may need to attend 3 networking events to generate 10 prospects and then make 10 calls to get 1 new client. That means you need you will have to go to 3 networking events every two weeks and be making at least 5 calls a week to the prospects you had qualified at those events.
5. Tell Someone
You cannot do this in isolation. My best suggestion is to get an accountability partner, someone you can tell what is happening and that will give you honest insight and feedback. Think about the people you know have made it to the top. Many of them belong to elite clubs to be among their peers and find those people that can provide their level of support. You only need to find someone at the same level of success as you.
Make an agreement to connect daily (no longer than weekly) and spend 5-10 minutes discussing what you have accomplished, what you have to do, and what you will do next. Make sure you call them out if they are not meeting their goals. Your best accountability partner is one that will not only hold you accountable but is also willing to be accountable.
Climb the ladder with those that know how and keep on climbing by becoming the best leader you can.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on March 28th, 2012
If we can agree we all are only allotted 24 hours per day then to get more clients we have to be more efficient and effective at focusing on the things that generate new business. Here are three simple things to help you create more space in your day and thus more time you can spend on client acquiring activities.
 1. Clean Your Space
If you have to shuffle items from one side of your desk to the other, search through piles, or agonize over a growing mound that never gets done, you definitely are losing productivity in your work day.
- Clear off your workspace so it only has the tools that you absolutely need to get your work done. Try taking it down to 5 or less main items like your computer, lamp, printer, and blank notepad.
- File, offload, or discard items instead of placing them in piles on your desk.
- If you cannot get something done immediately then book time immediately to re-address it later.
2. Prioritize Your Day
Pick 3 things you absolutely must complete today. They get first priority. Tackle the toughest task first. If you would normally procrastinate making your sales calls to the end of the day, book them first.
Getting the top 3 things done early in your day will leave you tons of time at the end of your day for bonus work. You will feel incredibly productive and successful and that feeling will spill over in your interaction with clients and your personal life.
3. Automate and Systematize
If you are working on mundane tasks that could easily be completed by someone for much less money than you would charge for your time then you need to be giving up those tasks. Start honouring the value of your time and letting it go. To do this you will need to know that exact process you use to accomplish that task so that you can either automate the process or offload it to someone that you can pay less.
With this extra time you can focus on getting more clients and generating new business. Don’t let the small things in your day stop you from doing the big things for your business that can result in helping more people and generating more money.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on March 20th, 2012
When we think about the things we need to have in place to create a new product or service we often plan for the sales cycle. If your introduction does not include marketing you will not have a successful launch. Let me tell you what I put in place to offer a 2 day seminar to ensure the people we want to attend will know about it, be interested, have a way to pay and we would have a way to manage the money and the clients.
Creating the Program
This is the easy part for most people. We are great at our businesses because we are better than competent at creating our product or service and delivering it. In this case our product (a 2-day seminar) required some main development steps.
- Create event overview and outcomes
- Define investment ability and potential loss (what is our risk aversion)
- Determine where it would be offered and evaluate locations
- Sign contracts with partners and with venue location
- Create the program, handouts,
- Print workbooks, purchase gifts, event necessities (like pens), and other handouts
You will know your product better than anyone. My best suggestion is to picture yourself going through the program and taking note of the things you will need to easily run the event or distribute the product.
Pre-Launch Marketing
It has been recommended to me by all my mentors that it is extremely important to create interest in what you are going to do before you do it. I have seen this too. If people do not know it is coming, it will come and go and no one will seem to care. If you think you will create a product and offer it to the world and that same day you will sell out, you are wrong, unless you are Apple. Well, not even for Apple – they are the masters at creating anticipation and that feeling of urgency. People need what they want so much they are willing to line up for days to get it.
Have an introduction date of about 6 weeks before the launch. Don’t use words like ‘something new’ because they don’t have any value to your client. Use the benefit-rich words you have created to really reach your clients. Our language for the invitation to the 2-day event centers around what we know our clients need and what the outcome of the event is. If you have not built your brand around your clients’ needs you will have to spend some time defining what that benefit is. Remember, when your clients read the invitation to ‘try out’, buy, or join you for your new product/service they need to think to themselves, “Oh Ya! I really need this. This is Great!”
Take your language and build a schedule to touch your clients a few times before your launch. Maybe even pre-sell the product at a lower price to engage some of your most interested clients as soon as possible. Promise them a little something extra if you are going to take their money weeks before they get your product or service. Follow your schedule and offer ways for your clients to share the information with others (e.g. make your statements clear and short so they can Tweet it).
During the Launch
While you are selling your product or offering your service you should be getting testimonials. Find out what people think. Give them an incentive to fill out a survey after they have used the product or bring your camera to the event and get people’s feedback how the event affected them and changed their opportunities.
Afterwards
Post your testimonials, review your survey responses, create post event videos with people’s genuine reaction. Get the information out there and then share it in your usual marketing channels.
Follow up with your clients. If you have someone that was not satisfied it is better to have them telling you to your face then talking about you publicly behind your back. This may be your only chance to make it right if you can.
If your clients loved what you had to offer then give them more. More time with you, more opportunities to be first to get your products, more discounts, etc. Your past client is your best client and the more you do for them the more you will get in referrals and ongoing business.
So don’t just build your product, plan and develop for all steps in your launch so you will have lots of clients for this launch and every launch in the future.
By Barb Stuhlemmer, on March 13th, 2012
We covered the Positive and the Negative aspects of your attitude towards your current working condition and your future options. For this post let’s talk about the middle-ground. This is where many of us ‘sit’ in business. We work like crazy for many years with limited growth and intermittent short term success.
The Negative Optimist
When you have an optimistic view of the future but a negative outlook on your current situation, you may end up becoming your own taskmaster. Working hard with the hope that something good will eventually happen is not enough, you have to create the perfect situations right now. Jump on opportunities right now. You cannot manifest future success without accepting the current opportunities. The problem lies in that the negative person will always find an excuse to say ‘no’.
So a great exercise for you is that you are not allowed to say no. That doesn’t mean you accept everything but what it does is helps you start thinking of other ways to refuse or accept a situation.
For example, if a client says to you, ‘I really think you should be offering X’ and you would have normally returned, ‘we looked at that and it didn’t make sense’ then this is how you will change your response. Start by asking a question, listen carefully to the answer, and then acknowledge your client for wanting to see your business grow.
- ‘Why do you think that would be good for us?’
- Listen to the answer
- ‘Hmmm, interesting point of view. Thank you for suggesting that. I will think about how that might fit with our current offering.’
Be genuine because after you leave this client you need to actually think about how that might work. After you have visited the concept you might find it does not fit, or maybe not now, or you might bounce the idea off of your support team and get something else that would also appeal to your client. The act of just engaging in the review of the possibility will change your outcome and open new doors.
The Positive Pessimist
This person is often living a lie. With a pessimistic view of the future it is not likely that the positive outlook on the current situation is genuine. Likely it is a facade of positive energy meant to let people believe things are OK. It is very easy to end up in the fourth quadrant (The Negative Pessimist) from here, so it is important that this be a very short lived attitude and that you focus on finding the future you want to work towards.
You can still be very successful when this attitude is short lived. You need to re-evaluate your future goals so that you can take action and start making changes to get there. If you cannot see yourself in that future being successful then seek the help of someone else that can help you look past the worst things that are challenging your point of view.
Let me give you an example. The current economic situation of the world is often not promising. If you were to focus on the fact that some economists are forecasting little growth and higher unemployment rates, which equates to less business, then it will be hard for you to look into the future and see your own business growth. But if you look at the people that have successfully launched a business or been able to increase their sales during this time, like 99 Designs or Success Magazine, then you will start thinking, ‘well, how did they do that’ and ‘ how can I replicate those results’. Changing your point of view will give you something different to focus on and more possibilities will become available to you.
Work towards being The Positive Optimist. It is true that you cannot always be in this quadrant in all aspects of your life at all times, so recognize when you are not, make your changes, and strive for something better.
Here is the full 4-Quadrant Evaluation
Article 1 – Succeed or Fail: Which Quadrant are You in?
Article 2 – Succeed or Fail: The Double Negative is NOT Positive
Article 3 – Success or Fail: The Middle Ground – Don’t Sit HERE! (this article)
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