Seven Types of Hubs:

When you start thinking about your niche market, and how to reach them with effective word of mouth marketing - you immediately need to start thinking about the 'hubs' in their networks. You need to ask yourself, "who do they already trust?"

Luckily, it's not that hard.

These seven questions will take you most of the way there.

1. EVENTS & LOCATIONS: Where does your niche gather, congregate, celebrate and hangout?

2. BUSINESSES: Where do they already spend their money?

3. GROUPS: What formal groups are they a part of?

4. SUPPORT: What resources or groups exist to support them?

5. WEBSEARCH: if your niche were to search for a solution to their problems on google, what would they type in?

6. PUBLICATIONS (on and offline): Where do they go for news and information that is relevant, credible and valuable for them?

7. INDIVIDUALS: Which individuals do they most trust (whether globally or locally)?

9 QUALITIES OF A GOOD HUB:

Once you've identified the niche you want to attract, it's probably a good idea to ask yourself, "Where do they already spend time, money or attention? What are the events, groups, businesses that they already trust? Who are the individuals they respect?" After all, if you can align yourself with those groups - those hubs - well, you've made your life much easier.

But what makes a good hub in your niche's network?

9 things . . .

1. credibility: they are trusted and respected by your niche, they are influential to the life, work, opinions and practices of your niche (e.g. maybe they’re pushing the envelope, on the cutting edge and an industry leader or maybe they’re committed to the basics etc).

2. reach: they have a large sphere of influence and reach a lot of people within your niche

3. list: already established, well organized and set up communication mechanisms through which they are regularly in touch with your niche (e.g. email list, mailing list, blog etc).

4. mutual respect: you already know them and they trust you, you have an authentic relationship with them, you genuinely respect them and already endorse their work to your clients and friends, you’re a really big fan of theirs

5. cooperative: they are open to endorsing quality things to their list, they’re excited to partner and collaborate

6. active relationship with niche: your niche already spends a good deal of money, time and attention on or with them

7. shared vision: you share a common vision and set of values

8. fresh: you haven’t maxed out this relationship already (e.g. maybe they’ve already endorsed you to everyone they can think of)

9. service: they’re passionate about meeting the needs of your niche

NOTE: You may have to create your OWN hub if none exists and be a host for your community.

14 PREMISES OF EFFECTIVE WORD OF MOUTH:

The most effective marketing is, we all know it, word of mouth. Here's 14
"seed thoughts" to consider when you think of word of mouth marketing.

warmest,
tad

1. The Law of the Niche: Trying to reach everyone is futile. Life becomes easier as you choose a focus.

2. The Law of 1000 Miles: the conversion of stranger to client is one of many steps.

3. The Law of Irresistible Steps: Make each step irresistible. Each step must be low risk and high value (high R.O.I.) to your niche - and ideally low cost to you. Remember: people want solutions to problems and relief from pain - they want you to do it for them, to have it already figured out and be told what to do, they want you to hold their hand. They don’t want to have to spend years educating themselves and read reams of info and listen to hours of audio. What drives sales in this process is not “closing techniques” but “irresistible offers”. Marketing is best woven in from the start - not plopped on at the end

4. The Law of Push-Back. Pressure is deadly. The entire process must be pressure free - they must be 100% in control. People love buying but they hate being sold to.

5. The Law of Gossip. People love to share their opinions and experiences (good and bad) with their friends. If people like you and like what you do they are already talking about you to their friends. The stronger the emotional intensity of their experience the more often and more intensely they will share their experience (whether positive or negative).

6. The Law of Advertising: People don’t trust ads & pitches. People mistrust things that look like advertising or sales pitches. Their defenses go up. The most successful marketing will therefore be authentic, genuine endorsements from people they already trust.

7. The Law of Problems: In the prospects mind, they are not looking for your product or service, they are looking for solutions to problems. They want relief from pain. They’re look for a particular result that is self serving to them. There is a particular need that they are trying to fulfill. Everything in your marketing must be geared around this.

8. The Law of Empathy: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. In old sales, you would spend hours identifying people’s problems. In today’s market you need to walk in with a deep understanding and empathy for the pains they are experiencing and the frustrations that they have with your industry.

9. The Law of Alignment: In order to influence people you must know what already influences them; you must know what is most important to them. And then you must do whatever it takes to make your business a living, breathing expression of those values.

10. The “Birds of a feather” Law:

11. Bigger Birds: Some birds are bigger and sing louder and more beautifully than others.

12. The Law of Endorsement: In order to influence people you must know who already influences them. And then you must do whatever it takes to get the endorsement of those people and groups.

13. The Law of Hand to Hand: There are things you can do to support people in talking about you. You must create materials that can be passed on at the point of conversation.

14. Marketing = community building. Pick a niche and become a champion of that community, help it to thrive.

Eight Qualities of a Good Niche

So, you've decided that you want to fiddle with a niche. That's a very good decision, but how do you know if the niche you're thinking of is a good one?

The list of eight criteria below probably isn't a bad start.

warmest,
tad

1. common set of easily identifiable needs, problems that you can help them with

2. common lifestyle: desires, passions, values, interests, hobbies, that you can cater to

3. established, high quality hubs, communication networks etc. You can find them and reach them easily.

4. there’s enough of them to meet your needs

5. they’re fun to work with and in alignment with your nature (these are likely the kinds of clients you most easily and naturally attract and the ones to whom you feel the most attracted - it’s a niche or community that you want to see thrive).

6. they are underserved

7. they can afford to pay you full price for your products and services

8. they are in alignment with your long-term business goals (e.g. if you do eco-lawn care and want to work with “Golf Clubs" eventually, but now need to do residential, it might be wise to focus on people who golf for now so that you can bridge into that later).

Tad in the Globe and Mail

I was recently featured in an article in The Globe and Mail - one of Canada's national newspapers.

http://www.tadhargrave.com/Media/globeandmail

The Pain vs. The Problem - Ari Galper

You know, I'm sure that somewhere in your career
you've heard someone in sales tell you that if you
can 'find someone's pain,' they'll buy what you
have.

What they mean is, if you ask certain questions
designed to get the person you're talking with to
spill their emotions about a need or 'pain' they
have, then all you have to do is show them your
solution and you've got them right where you want
them -- grabbing for their wallet and buying what
you're selling.

In fact, digging for the prospect's pain is still
a common 'technique' taught by many of the
old-school sales trainers today.

I don't know about you, but asking pre-designed
questions that you hope will get someone into an
emotional frenzy, so they'll jump to buy what you
have, feels very manipulative. In fact, I strongly
feel that it's flat-out wrong to manipulate
someone for your own gain.

Growing up with a dad who's a psychologist and who
made it his mission to be sure I could discern
between right and wrong really sensitized me to
these kinds of inauthentic sales techniques.

What continues to surprise me is that these
techniques are considered standard practice in the
business world and that somehow, since 'everyone
else is doing it,' that makes it okay.

History is full of lessons about what can happen
when people start going along with what everyone
else around them is doing, even though they know
deep down that it feels wrong and is wrong.

If you're asking yourself, 'If I don't try to get
at the person's pain, how am I going to sell my
solution?,' that means you're looking at selling
in one narrow way -- with only the goal of making
the sale.

If you're already one of my Mastery Program
clients, you'll realize that what I teach is how
to be a problem-solver.

What that means is having intimate
knowledge of your prospects' problems
BEFORE you approach them.

How is that possible?

Well, that's the system I teach, and it's based on
understanding your prospects' world.

When you follow the Mindset of seeking the truth
instead of being fixated on the sale, you'll find
that:

* You'll get into deep discussions with your
prospects about their problems or issues

* They'll feel understood and not pressured by
you

* Without you ever trying to 'close' the sale,
it'll happen naturally if there's really a match
between their problem and the solution you offer.

If you've haven't experienced this before, it's
something you'll never forget... it's almost
magical.

And the funny thing is, more sales happen because
you AREN'T chasing the sale.

You might be thinking, 'I still don't
understand the difference between the problem and
the pain.'

The difference is really the connection
that's created between the two of you when they
feel you understand them and don't have a hidden
agenda -- instead of trying to engineer pushing
their 'pain button.'

For me, the common belief that playing in the
'gray area' of business, which includes
manipulation, is not okay.

Why? Because when you get down to it, there's
really only one playing field - life - and the more
authentic you are with the people in your life
personally and professionally, the more you honor
them AND yourself... something to think about.

Please let me know your thoughts.

To your success,

Ari Galper
Founder, Unlock The Game

P.S. You can learn more about the
Mastery Program here: http://www.UnlockTheGame.com/LearnMore

Unlock The Game 24112 Park Casino Calabasas, CA 91302
US/CAN: 877-641-3039 UK: 020 815 6147 AUS: 0402 600 387

a FREE workshop on identifying your ideal client

Hey there,

There's probably no more fundamental question in marketing than: who are you trying to reach? It affects everything you will ever do in your marketing. Your understanding of and empathy for the people you're trying to reach is the basis of all your marketing.

Do you really get them?

Do you understand their hopes, their fears?

It's an old burned out saying but it's true: if you want to influence someone, you must know what already influences them.

Do you?

My guess is that you have some understanding but that it could be refined.

Now, to be clear: understanding who your ideal client is is NOT the same as having a marketing plan. But it is the basis of every marketing plan you will ever devise. This is the necessary and foundational spade work for your marketing.

And what's the promise of it?

Well, think of your favorite clients. The one's you just love. Now imagine that all of your clients were like that.

Interested?

If you want to get started right away, just go to:

http://www.tadhargrave.com/idealclientworkshop

And download your FREE 10 page workshop. Feel free to email me with any questions at: tad@tadhargrave.com

This is material that, until now, I've only ever covered in my workshops live. But now I'm offering it to you here for no cost.

Because I want to.

So there.

Warmest,

tad

p.s. feel free to pass this onto anyone who you think might find it of use.

Finding Your Niche - Robert Middleton

(another brilliant piece from Robert Middleton that's right on the money)

warmest,
tad


Finding a Niche
==============================

=====================

I got an email from a customer recently with this comment:

"I can't make any progress with my marketing until I know what my
marketing niche is. Until I know who my ideal clients are going to be,
I can't start with my marketing, so I really can't get any of your
products until I'm clear about this."

You might want to substitute your own concern: "I don't know what
my services are yet," or "I don't really know what the ultimate
outcome is that I provide for my clients," or "I don't know what
makes me unique yet."

And with this declaration of what you don't know, your marketing
grinds to a screeching standstill.

My answer to this customer was the following:

You don't find your niche. Your niche finds you. And this goes for
your services, ultimate outcome, uniqueness, etc.

What I mean by this is that you can't really figure it out in your head.
You need to discover it. And the way you discover it is to jump into
the process of marketing.

I know this might not makes sense to you, but stick with me here,
because this is really one of the biggest issues Independent
Professionals face.

I've seen it hundreds of times.

I've seen people completely stuck because they can't figure out their
audio logo or perfect marketing message. And they "know" that
when they figure it out, all their marketing will fall magically into
place.

Utter nonsense, I'm afraid.

Here's the big secret that nobody has told you: You take your best
guess, give it a shot and see what response you get. That's all,
really. You don't get it right. You get it wrong - maybe for a long
time - until it finally falls into place.

My customer is confused about which clients she should go after. But
she doesn't have to decide - yet. All she has to do is take a mad
stab at it and say, for the time being: "These are the clients I'll work
with for now." And then build a marketing message around that.

She'll discover soon enough if it's the right niche or not.

She'll talk to a lot of people. She'll use her newly created audio logo,
ultimate outcome, etc. She'll get responses or not. If not, no
problem, back to the drawing board.

If she gets a few clients in this niche, she'll soon discover if they are
ideal or not. She'll learn as she goes, and fine tune her message
along the way. After awhile the niche will find her. She'll stumble
upon it. Aaha! that's it! And then the next version of her marketing
message will be right on target.

Let me give you an analogy in another field.

A new music student says: "I can't learn music until I know what
composers I'm going to play. I'm really conflicted. Will I play Mozart
and Bach, or Betthoven and Brahms? Difficult choice. But when I'm
clear on who, then I'll start to learn music.

Wouldn't we roll our eyes if we heard this? Then why do we take the
declaration so seriously that someone can't find their niche? It's nuts.

Sadly, the chance of the above person ever becoming a musician is
pretty slim. And with this approach, the chance of my customer ever
becoming a successful Independent Professional is pretty slim as
well. The good news is she's willing to try.

And starting is easy.

Get a book, manual, or tape program, or attend a course. Start with
the first lesson. Do the homework. Apply it the best you can to your
business.

You won't be a marketing genius in a week or two, but you'll be way
beyond where you are now. So get out of your head, let go of the
need to have things perfect, be willing to fail fast and just do it!

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: You don't figure out all your marketing
strategies first and then start marketing. You start your marketing
with one imperfect message at a time and figure it out as you go.

*

What holds you back from starting your marketing? What could you
do to get started... now? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

http://www.actionplan.blogs.com

===================================================
Marketing Tools to Get Your Marketing Started
===================================================

One of the most frequent questions I hear from customers is "What
Action Plan Marketing product or service should I start with first?
The answer is that is depends upon where you are in your business and
marketing. Here are some suggestions:

The InfoGuru Marketing Manual - This is for Independent Professionals
who are starting out, who haven't done much marketing or who
haven't had much success with their marketing.

http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html

The Web Site ToolKit - This is for any Independent Professional who
wants to create a high quality web site - the first time. I will walk you
through every step of the process of developing your content and
then give you guidelines for getting it designed.

http://www.actionplan.com/wstk.html

The Action Plan ToolKit - This is for Independent Professionals who
need some support in getting their marketing off the ground. It will
guide you in creating targeted marketing action plans.

http://www.actionplan.com/aptk.html

The MAPP Program - This is a live teleconference program held over
six weeks and seven sessions. It's for Independent Professionals who
want to accelerate the implementation of their marketing.

http://www.actionplan.com/mappwkp.html

Audio Programs - These programs are recorded interviews with
marketing experts on specific aspects of marketing your services and
are appropriate for anyone who wants to increase their skills in that
area.

http://www.actionplan.com/teleclasses.html

All of our products and services are very hands-on and how-to. They
get to the heart of how to attract more clients and how to make
marketing less of a struggle. They all come with a money back
guarantee, so it can't hurt to check them out.

Just click on any of the links above to learn more about these
products and services and to order on our secure shopping cart
system.

As Radical as We Wanna Be

The Secret to Being as Radical as We Want to Be is to Finance the Revolution Ourselves

If Mohandas Gandhi were a typical North American activist these days, he would probably be wearing a three-piece suit and working in a plush office with his law degree prominently displayed. He would have little time to lead protests, since every other week would be spent meeting with donors – and those power lunches would hardly go well with fasting. He would be careful to avoid salt marches or cotton boycotts, so as not to offend key donors. To sharpen his annual pitch to foundations, he would be constantly dreaming up new one-year projects on narrowly focused topics, perhaps a one-time conference on English human-rights abuses, or a documentary on anti-colonial activities in New Delhi. To ensure that various allies didn’t steal away core funders, he would keep his distance and be inclined to trash talk behind their backs. In short, there’s little doubt that the British would still be running India.

The problem with activism today is that it is largely funded by grants and gifts from rich foundations and individuals. The long-standing assumption that you can take the money with few strings attached, and then run, needs to be fundamentally reexamined.

Building a philanthropic base of support can cripple an organization’s mission and wreck it altogether when the well runs dry. Most nonprofits have engaged in a kind of fundraising arms race in which our best leaders focus more time, energy and resources, not on changing the world, but on improving their panhandling prowess to capture just a little more of a philanthropic pie that actually expands very little from year to year. Armies of “development” staff spend as much as a third of an organization’s resources, not to advance the poor, but to cultivate wealthy donors. Significant numbers of our colleagues create campaigns, direct-mail pitches, telemarketing scripts, newsletters and other products exclusively to “care and feed” prospects and to frame positions that will not offend the rich.

Nonprofit structures dictated by this mode of funding also burden organizers with the heavy regulatory hand of the state. To qualify for tax-deductible contributions, for example, US nonprofits must agree to limit lobbying and not to campaign for political causes of candidates.

We believe it’s time for North American progressives to break free from the philanthropic plantation. Those of us serious about social change increasingly must get down to business, figuratively and literally. Every social change group may not be able to generate all its funding through revenue-generation, but every nonprofit certainly can generate a greater percentage than it is doing now. In other words, we should become our own funders. Once we start generating our own resources, we can invest them politically – as corporations do now – largely without limitation, without wasting our time on fundraising appeals, without worrying about that next grant, without apologies.

To get a sense of the possibilities, check out Cabbages & Condoms, a popular restaurant in Bangkok. As your senses become intoxicated by the aromas of garlic, ginger, basil, galangal and lemongrass, you cannot avoid noticing the origins of the name. On top of each heavy wooden table is a slab of glass, under which are neatly arranged rows of colorful prophylactics. Posters and paintings adorn the half-dozen large rooms, all communicating the restaurant’s central message: the AIDS epidemic afflicting Thailand can be checked only through the unabashed promotion and use of male contraception. With balloon animals made from carefully inflated and twisted condoms and the after-dinner candies replaced with your own take-home “condom-mints,” even teens cannot escape the message prominently framed on the wall: “Sex is fun but don’t be stupid – use protection.”

What makes the five “C&C” restaurants unique, along with an affiliated beach-front resort and numerous gift shops, is that they are all owned by the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), a rural development organization that has been a leader in promoting family planning and fighting aids in Thailand. Seven out of every ten dollars spent by the PDA on such activities as free vasectomies and mobile health clinics are covered by the net revenues from its 16 subsidiary for-profits. Were the PDA dependent on funding from the Thai government, the World Bank or even the Rockefeller Foundation, it no doubt would be told to tone down the message. Jokes on its website – like “the Cabbages and Condoms Restaurants in Thailand don’t only present excellent Thai food, the food is guaranteed not to get you pregnant” – would certainly be discouraged.

The cash flow gives the PDA a measure of confidence and boldness. The founder, Mechai Viravaidya, has no qualms about his decision to employ for-profits: “Unlimited demand is chasing limited supply [of charitable donations]. No longer are gifts, grants or begging enough. From day one, thirty years ago, we have been acutely aware of sustainability and cost-recovery.”

Consider some US examples of social entrepreneurship:

• Housing Works in New York uses its Used Book Café to generate more than $2 million annually for its work, which prioritizes advocacy for homeless people with HIV. The organization runs clinics, conducts public policy research, lobbies federal and state officials, even leads sit-ins. It is fearless, aggressive and stunningly effective – and its $30 million of annual work would be impossible were it not for its vast range of real estate, food service, retail and rental companies that help pay the bills.
• Pioneer Human Services is a community development corporation based in Seattle that assists a wide range of at-risk populations, including the unemployed, the homeless, ex-convicts, alcoholics and addicts. The organization serves 6,500 people a year and generates nearly all its $55 million budget through a web of ambitious subsidiary nonprofit businesses: cafes and a central kitchen facility for institutional customers, aerospace and sheet-metal industries, a construction company, food warehouses, a real-estate management group and consulting services for other nonprofits. Most of the jobs in these businesses are awarded to its at-risk clients, allowing it to further its mission to integrate clients back into society.
• The Rocky Mountain Institute, a leading promoter of alternative energy technology in Snowmass, Colorado, created E-Source in 1986 to provide in-depth analysis of services, markets, and technologies relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy production. In 1992 RMI secured a program-related investment from the MacArthur Foundation to move the work into a for-profit subsidiary. By 1998 it was generating about $400,000 for the parent nonprofit, but rmi decided it could do even better under new management, so it sold the company to Pearson plc in Britain for $8 million. Today, RMI assists and benefits from other for-profit spinoffs, such as Hypercar, Inc., which aims to create a lightweight body architecture to improve the efficiency of the entire US automobile fleet.
• Judy Wicks’ White Dog Café in Philadelphia is as much a community organizing center as a restaurant. Radical speakers from around the country provide a steady stream of public lectures. An adjacent store sells fair trade products and will soon be introducing a line of locally made clothing. The White Dog itself embodies principles of social justice and environmental stewardship by paying all employees a living wage, insisting on humanely raised meats and eggs, using locally grown ingredients and running on wind electricity. Twenty percent of profits from the restaurant go to the White Dog Café Foundation, carrying on the café’s mission through nonprofit activities.

These examples embody many possible models. A for-profit subsidiary can generate money for a parent nonprofit. Or, better still, a for-profit can become the change it seeks, by producing and selling socially important goods and services.

While we reject the libertarian argument that every human problem has an economic solution, many social-change issues clearly have economic dimensions that are susceptible to creative business plans. Hate nuclear power? Launch energy-service companies to spread conservation measures, or build local wind farms to take control of your own electricity future. Concerned about the poor, minorities and women having equal access to credit? Create more community banks, credit unions and micro-enterprise funds. Troubled by pharmaceutical prices that make life-saving drugs unattainable for impoverished people across the globe? Start, as several companies based in the developing world did, companies that mass-produce affordable generic versions of high-priced American drugs.

Socially responsible business should be not just a boutique sector of the private economy, but its mainstream. We have been impressed in recent years by the growing number of local businesspeople who not only “walk the walk” of social justice in the small details of their operations and products but also tout the virtues of local ownership. This third generation of entrepreneur-organizers is being led by groups like the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and by the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA). Each promotes local ownership of business, champions social justice and neighborhood revitalization, and pushes for new public policies that remove the tilts in a playing field that favors badly behaved big business.

Sooner or later, the concepts of social-change organization and of social-responsibility business should become indistinguishable. Truly responsible businesses would be owned by all members of a community (rich and poor), hire locally, expand local skills, comport with local labor and environmental standards, produce goods and services that meet urgent local needs and become allies of social justice movements. What better way to help the poor than to transform them into the captains, worker-bees, shareholders and customers of community-friendly business?

If foundations and donors had never existed and professional panhandling had been outlawed, social-change groups would have been forced to turn to creating and running new enterprises or new networks of local businesses, and our movement would be considerably healthier than it is today. Progressives have become the classic 20-something kid still living at home, expecting an allowance from deep-pocket parents for a few basic chores, while agreeing, as a condition for the chump change, to obey someone else’s rules on social change. It’s time to grow up and strike out on our own.

Here’s a challenge to activists (one we take seriously ourselves): let’s try to wean ourselves from the charity habit, say by three percent per year. Think about just one piece of your agenda that could be framed as a revenue generator, dream about it a little, develop a business plan and give it a try. If you lack the skills, skip your next fundraising class and instead attend one of thousands upon thousands of entrepreneurship programs around the world. Or hire someone who might start the entrepreneurial subsidiary of your nonprofit.

Gandhi understood that the key to freeing India was to transform his fellow citizens into economically productive agents by spinning their own cloth and taking their own salt from the sea. Martin Luther King Jr. implored African Americans to form their own credit unions and community development corporations. The secret to being as radical as we want to be – and as radical as we need to be – is to finance the revolution ourselves.

Michael Shuman is the vice president for enterprise development for the Training and Development Corporation. Merrian Fuller is a managing director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. This article was adapted from “Profits for Justice,” which first appeared in The Nation.

Admit it, you're scared to death of marketing and selling - Robert Middleton

===================================================

Fearless Marketing
===================================================

It seems I really hit a nerve last week with my eZine on "Ruffling
Some Feathers." The point I made was that those who disparage
marketing and selling tend to be those who most fear marketing and
selling themselves. (Fear of X means X is bad.)

My main point wasn't to make these people wrong.

My real intention with the article was to hold up a mirror to those
who have problems with marketing and selling. Hopefully it was a
wake up call. (Not to "them" - to "YOU!")

If you saw yourself in that mirror, great, that's a first step.

But I'm not done.

The resistance, antipathy and downright fear you have about
marketing and selling yourself is probably hurting your business
more than you realize.

(Note: If this is a non-issue for you, great. Skip this eZine and get
out there! If it is an issue, pay close attention.)

You know the symptoms:

- A tendency to avoid picking up the phone
- staying away from networking activities
- putting off writing a letter or an article
- not closing at the end of a sales interview
- avoiding speaking in public at all costs
- not promoting or selling in your eZine
- neglecting to ask for referrals

When I used to work with clients as a marketing coach, you'd think
their main question would have been, "How do I do these things more
effectively?" But no, the question was, "Why don't I get around to
doing these things, even though I know I should do them?"

A lot of my time was spent working people though their resistance
and fears to marketing and selling themselves. In fact, many of my
clients called me their "marketing shrink!"

A big part of my work consisted of taking my clients slowly, step-
by-step, through the marketing process. I demonstrated that if
they picked up the phone and said the right thing, people would
actually not yell at them. I showed that if they wrote an article,
they would likely receive more praise than scorn.

I called it "jumping off the diving board" marketing: Start with a low
board. Don't worry about getting it perfect, just jump. Then
gradually go higher and improve a little each time.

This approach is actually quite effective. It's how we learn things.
It's how we improve gradually and let go of our irrational fears until
we are fully competent and confident.

In fact, this is the approach I took in the InfoGuru Manual and the
Web Site ToolKit. If you take it one step at a time, and do the action
plans at the end of each chapter or section, you'll begin to
understand the underlying principles and practices of marketing,
and start to get some results.

Many of you have used this approach to become better marketers.

However, being by nature an impatient person, I never felt that this
approach was enough. Sure, many of my clients would take things
step-by-step and ultimately get great results.

But many others would never get past first base. Their built-in
distaste for marketing was stronger than their will to succeed.

So I started to build "belief work" into my marketing coaching. I used
it in my Marketing Action Groups, and integrated it into the Action
Plan ToolKit, which includes exercises for changing beliefs. For
many, this made a huge difference.

The first step is to recognize the limiting beliefs underlying some of
the symptoms I listed earlier. Here are some typical ones I
discovered:

- A tendency to avoid picking up the phone
(People don't want to be bothered. I'm an interruption.)

- staying away from networking activities
(I'm just not a people person who is comfortable meeting strangers)

- putting off writing a letter or an article
(I'm not a good writer. And who would be interested, anyway?)

- not closing at the end of a sales interview
(If they want to buy, they'll let me know. I shouldn't be pushy.)

- avoiding speaking in public at all costs
(I'd probably make a fool of myself. Nobody wants to hear my ideas.)

- not promoting or selling in your eZine
(If I promote myself, people will hate me and unsubscribe in droves.)

- neglecting to ask for referrals
(If they're happy they'll give me referrals when they're ready.)

I'd be willing to bet a buck or two that you hold several of these (or
similar) beliefs very dearly. And if you hold them strongly enough,
you're not even going to take the small steps necessary to improve
in that area of marketing. You'll give up before you start.

So what works best? Taking the small steps or changing beliefs?

Both are equally important. If you don't have any big issues about
writing, for instance, get started now, one step at a time. But if
you're terrified of speaking in front of a group, doing some belief
work first will make the process a whole lot easier.

But no matter what your situation is, make that commitment to
being a fearless marketer, and you'll find a way.

*

The More Clients Bottom Line: Fear of marketing and selling is a big
issue for a large percentage of Independent Professionals. The key is
to recognize that fears are holding you back and then find the
support you need to get past them.

What works for you to get past your fears of marketing and selling
yourself? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

http://www.actionplan.blogs.com

===================================================
Four Fearless Marketing Tools
===================================================

Want to become a better marketer of your services and attract all
the clients you need? These four tools will help you build your skills
and get past the fears that are holding you back:

The InfoGuru Marketing Manual - Build your marketing skills
http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html

The Web Site ToolKit - Create a powerful web site
http://www.actionplan.com/wstk.html

The Action Plan ToolKit - Get on track with your marketing
http://www.actionplan.com/aptk.html

The MAPP Program - Build a bulletproof marketing plan
http://www.actionplan.com/mappwkp.html
(Note: Tuition goes up on Sept 1)

P.S. If you have any resistance whatsoever to marketing and selling
yourself, I want you to know that this is a temporary condition that
you can change permanently. The tools above will help you do it.

A Circle of Entrepreneurs is coming to your local living economy!!!

What? A monthly conversation circle like the ones that changed Philadelphia 250 years ago.

Who? Sustainable business entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial consumers who want to make a difference.

How? Act like brothers and sisters and focus on one business or issue at a time; communicate in the month between; return to get feedback and turn to a new story.

Ingredients? Trust, transparency, humor, good organic local food, listening, storytelling, stretching to reach new paradigms.

Format (please feel free to evolve)?

1. (15 minutes)Quick creative introductions with a theme (eg. Name, work/mission, something new you’re trying in one word).

2. (40 minutes) Leader summarizes the story and feedback focus from the last meeting/ feedback is given by all with duct tape on the entrepreneur until the end/ entrepreneur acknowledges feedback.

3. (10 minutes) Break for food and one on ones.

4. (40 minutes) New entrepreneur presents the romance, conception, incubation, birth, and development of their business, ending with the key questions they want the group to consider.

5. (15 minutes) Clarifying questions to understand, not to lead (eg not: “have you thought of X?”)

6. Close on time then go somewhere else to party!

Where? So far in Philadelphia, West Chester, Baltimore and Princeton. Start your own!

Contacts:

Ben Bingham,

george.b.bingham@smithbarney.com

800-610-3393,

or Lindsay Gilmour,

Organicplanetexp@aol.com

215-696-9780

Free 120 Page e-book on Marketing from Bob Serling

Hey there everyone,

Once in a while I get something in my email that I think is brilliant and that I want to pass onto you.

And just recently I did.

It's a special 120 page ebook from Bob Serling. Those of you who have been to my marketing trainings recently have seen an ad about his work. He's one of the best marketers out there and has written some sales letters that have pulled a 100% response rate: everyone who got it responded.

That's unheard of. 5% is considered really good.

I can't take any credit for what you are about to receive but it sure made me truly thankful. Enjoy.

Warmest,

Tad

* * *

FROM THE DESK OF BOB SERLING:

I have a special gift for you today - no cost, no strings, no obligation. I've just put the finishing touches on my new "10-Minute Marketing Success Interviews" ebook. If you heard the original audios, I've added 5 more interviews and had them all transcribed and put into pdf format.

In these interviews, I asked 21 leading experts the question, "What is your favorite marketing technique that's working really well for you and your clients right now?"

Even though everyone was asked the same question, each
expert had their own unique and extremely valuable answer.
I've personally come up with a list of excellent ideas for my own business by reading these short, powerful interviews.

Here's the list of all 21 experts, in alphabetical order: Bob Bly, John Carlton, Sean D'Souza, Michel Fortin, Randy Gage, David Garfinkel, Steve Harrison, Shel Horowitz, John Jantsch, Paul Lemberg, Clayton Makepeace, Perry Marshall, Robert Middleton, Paul Myers, Brad Petersen, Raleigh Pinskey, Bob Scheinfeld, Bob Serling, Yanik Silver, Joe Vitale, and Jeff Walker.

Wow, that's some lineup! If you'd like to get your own copy
of this ebook, as a gift from me with no cost and no obligation, you can download it by clicking here:

http://www.DirectMarketingInsider.com/21experts

I hope you enjoy it! Also, because I'd like to make this one
of the most downloaded ebooks ever, I'd appreciate it if
you'd tell your friends and business associates about it.

http://www.DirectMarketingInsider.com/21experts

New Radical Business Tour Dates

• Calgary, AB - Sept 8 - 10
• Edmonton, AB - Sept 22 - 24
• Halifax, NS - Oct 6 - 8
• Vancouver - Oct 26 - 28
• Seattle, WA - Nov 17 - 19
• Calgary, AB - Nov 24 - 26
• Fairfield, Iowa - Dec 1 - 3

Conscious Marketing Principle 1: Falling in Love: Serve Clients, Don’t Sell Customers

Principle 1:

Falling in Love: Serve Clients, Don’t Sell Customers

DISTINCTIONS:

These businesses have learned to cultivate and feel an enormous empathy, respect and love for their clients. They felt it was of supreme importance to honestly be able to say to them “I feel what you feel. I understand your problems.” They were able to articulate their pain better than their clients could.

• Customer: someone who buys a product or serve
• Client: someone under the care, protection or guidance of a fiduciary

Consider carefully the difference between those two words because this distinction forms the philosophical core of the Principles of Preminence. The question before the house is this:

“Do you want to sell customers or do you want to

serve clients?”

If you are willing to step up into a new level of impeccability in your business conduct then read on.

Let’s start at with the bottom line . . .

You need to understand what they truly need at the deepest level – to help them gain clarity on what they truly want and then develop a clear strategy to get them that. You need to love them so much that you want to get the biggest and best possible outcomes for them.

Most people make the tragic mistake of falling in love with their business – rather than their client. You must do the opposite. An easy way to do this is to choose to serve those you already love. Before you even get into business – decide who it is you most love and would most want to serve and then it’s easy. It’s much easier to serve those you already love then to fall in love. But if the people you’re serving are not people with whom you are already in love – then start paying more attention to everything that is great and wonderful about them. Most businesses see their customers as numbers.

They hate being seen as a “number”.

They understood that most people inherently don’t like and don’t trust “the system”.

Most people feel static and out of connection. They really want to believe that there’s a much better way than the mainstream approach. Just look at the success of the movie phenomenon “The Matrix”. It deeply struck a chord in the psyche of our culture. It spoke to that nagging suspicion that something is fundamentally wrong with society – that the basis and very structure of society might be a lie. Most people feel this way.

Your role is to be the embodiment of a vision of something better. Most people, in the back of their minds, have the sneaking suspicion that there must be a more fulfilling, natural and easy way to do things.

They saw it as their job to affirm to them that their suspicions were indeed correct that, “You are not being told the entire truth. There is a better way.”

If you notice you aren’t really truly in love with your clients it’s because one of four things is going on:

A) Profession: You’re in the wrong business; you’re off your life’s path. Ouch. You probably need to change careers.

B) People: You aren’t clear enough on what your ideal client is and so you’re settling for poor quality clients who are draining your energy. Get clear on your perfect client and, whether slowly or quickly, weed out the energy drainers. Stop settling. Change your clients.

C) Perception: You aren’t taking the time to truly appreciate them – to notice what’s wonderful and loveable about them. You may have habitual and inappropriate questions, beliefs, language or metaphors about “clients” that block you from seeing their beauty. Start noticing how you think of clients, and what you say to yourself when you think of them. Are they “a pain in your ass?” “An interruption” or “an obstacle to you achieving your goals”? If so: Warning. Change the way your are looking at or describing your clients.

D) Procedure: You may be a night person but you’ve set up your job to see clients in the morning because you think you HAVE to; you’re a coach who hates his clients because his life is scheduled with unavoidable sporadic calls vs. setting it up so they “Call on demand”. You’ve made the client king and given them your cell # and said “Call me 24/7” …and they do. Change how you interact with your clients.

You need to set up your lifestyle so it works for you so that you have more to give to your clients. This “falling in love with your clients” likely sounds a little “woo-woo”. But it’s the most bottom line, highest ROI thing you can do. It’s a hard nose, business approach.

Do you get it?

Do you get that this is the key to obscene amounts of wealth and happiness in business?

“Great customer service” is respectable, even laudable… but trite. Focusing and creating “raving fans” is wonderful… but may be incomplete. Before your clients become raving fans of you or your company YOU need to be a raving fan of your clients.

Make sense?

Customer service is important but falling in love with your clients is a much more vast, expansive, deeper and connected foundation to build from. If you fall in love with your clients – if you come from that place – you will perform legendary service naturally. Legendary service is a byproduct of a great love for those you serve. Service is the flower but love of the client is the soil.

Is that a license to not develop systems? Is that a license to not develop policies and procedures around serving your clients? No. It’s an affirmation that, unless you really love your clients you likely won’t spend the time it takes – to develop such systems in the first place. You won’t invest the needed focus to make those systems not just excellent – but outstanding.

How do you know if you’ve fallen in love with them? Well, ask yourself “When I fall in love romantically what do I do?” Then translate these answers to business.

When you really love a particular client isn’t it true that:

• You perform legendary service
• You’re in constant contact – always courting
• You’re giving much more than you expect in return
• You are passionately and constantly trying to improve the quality of your products and services.
• You keep trying to think of ways to make doing business with you more fun
• You find yourself constantly thinking of ways to delight and surprise your clients.

These businesses realized that it was not their job to “dazzle them with their brilliance”. When they offered perspectives – they wanted their clients to say “ me too” not “so what”

The key is not that you think you understand them. Everyone thinks they understand each other. The key is that they feel understood. Read that sentence again. It’s not that you love them but that they feel loved.

Your clients need to feel cared for by you – to trust you’re not just looking at their wallet. People want to feel worried about. Like they matter.

Your job is to voice their innermost feelings and affirm them.

Most people are thinking:

• I don’t trust the system
• I don’t want to be average, a number
• I don’t want to be controlled anymore (by people circumstances, lack of resources, the competition)
• I want to feel powerful and in control of my life. (People hate feeling that someone else ultimately controls how their life will end up. But they don’t know what to do to change that)

When you are in conversation with your clients they need to think “What I feel, she feels too”

The most chronic blunder of most entrepreneurs is thinking that people want their product or service. They don’t. They want a result. They want a solution to a problem. They are looking for relief from an affliction. They are hoping that your product or service will help them achieve some desired goal. It isn’t about you.

In fact, they really don’t care about you or your business problems, how hard it is for you. They don’t care that you had a bad day. The sooner you realize that it was never about you or your business – the better.

Your product or service I just a means to an end for your client. What is that ‘end’?

Is there even a problem? Or do you just think that people should want it?

Most businesses fail because they fail to identify and address their clients' and prospects' deepest needs.

There are five levels of this. You know you’re making progress in this area when:

1) You realize that they have deeper needs than your product or service. You realize they want those for something.

2) You feel totally clear about what these needs are

3) You can articulate their needs better than they can.

4) You can articulate the needs and inklings that they barely even knew they had themselves – you can put words to those vague discomforts, niggling doubts and unclear concerns

5) You inspire people to see more, you bring awareness of such higher possibilities that they raise their standards for their life, they stop settling, they get out of “no man’s land” and they grow – this creates a new level of need; a new gap between where they are and where they want to be.

Remember: you must fall in love with your client more than your business or product. You’re there to serve THEM, not you.

This comes from a commitment to not only having a transactional relationship, but a transformational one. It calls on you to go beyond the superficial and mundane levels upon which most business relationships exist. It calls upon you to be a little vulnerable and candid. At its simplest level, it asks you to focus on being truly interested not interesting; engaged – not engaging.

Most people in business are so busy focusing on how they can be the most interesting, dynamic and engaging person so that people will buy their product or service. But those people will never get as far as someone who truly and deeply cares about their clients and focuses on their problems, their secret desires and frustrations, their hopes and dreams and their well-being.

Your answer to the following questions forms the core concept or proposition that you are making. In marketing, nothing is more important than your offer. A good concept will always transcend bad writing but a bad concept will never transcend good writing. The core premise must be strong and valuable to the end user. And it must be communicated powerfully.

Ask yourself, “How can I elegantly and powerfully educate people that:

1) They have a problem?”

2) It can be solved?”

3) It must be solved?” (they need to feel this at the emotional level not just understand it intellectually)

4) It must be solved now?”

5) I can solve it?” How can you help them feel certain about this?

6) I can solve it better?” (e.g. faster/with more skill/with more advantage and less risk to them than anyone else).

7) I just solved their problem?” Sometimes people “don’t get what they got” and that’s your fault.

Notice that each of the seven levels above focus not on YOUR products or services but on your CLIENT’S problems and pain. The Preeminent business owner focuses entirely on the client.

Since most people don’t trust the system you must position yourself as a viable and refreshing alternative - one that helps them regain power and control their lives. But that will never happen unless you truly care. It will feel like too much effort. It's probably an incredibly burned out phrase, but it's still true that people don't care how much you know, unless they know how much you care. You want to understand the fabric of their life well beyond the “transaction”.

The leaders in pre-eminent businesses know that their role isn’t to simply ‘hock their wares’ but rather to nurturously guide their clients on a journey from where they are to a better place.

Some people say, “But my job doesn’t lend itself to falling in love with clients.” If you believe that then, “yes” that will be true for you.

But, when you get that your real goal in business is to help solve people's problems and you get that solving people's problems is probably the most loving act that you can do for them - things start to shift for you immediately, dramatically and powerfully. And, I would go so far as to say that until and unless you embrace some higher purpose and sense of identity in business you will never be truly fulfilled or happy. Some people might look at this as a life of sacrifice, but really, the life of sacrifice is the life that you live before you find this sense of higher purpose.

"Someday you'll find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own. It is something I cannot explain, something within that sends a glow of warmth all through you."

- Honore de Balzac

If you ask for people’s business from any place other than service and inspiration - you will feel diminished. You will feel reduced to mere sales.

"Ultimately, it is not our credentials, but our commitment to a higher purpose that creates our effectiveness in the world."

-- Marianne Williamson

I remember best-selling author Marianne Williamson speaking once about her experience working in a bookstore. The bookstore owner was constantly fussing about how to sell this or sell that. She told Marianne to look at every single client, who came in the store and think to her self, "There's a potential sale." But Marianne had a very different relationship to the bookstore. She saw it as her ministry. She saw it as a chance to really love people. She saw it as a church. She refused to see her position in the same mundane and mediocre way that everyone else held it.

And, as she did that, the sales did just fine.

If you walk into a bookstore and you feel you're being looked at only as a source of money - you aren't going to stick around very long. But imagine going into another bookstore, where you feel better every single time, you walk in it. Imagine going to bookstore, where you feel loved and cherished just from walking in the door. At one point, Marianne Williamson woke up and said to her self, "Oh, I get it. They think this is a bookstore!"

I remember seeing on TV one day, a special 15 minute report about the traffic cop. Now, I don't know about you but I can't think of many jobs more mundane than being a traffic cop. You're basically just directing traffic. There's no time for idle chitchat, and you don't have a lot of time to really connect with people and send them love.

Or do you?

This was an old African-American Man from Jamaica. And he didn't just direct traffic, he would dance and give people high fives as they went by, and made sure that every single person who passed his way got a smile and wave hello. In the special they showed interviews of people who drove 10 blocks out of their way just to make sure they got to pass this man as he directed traffic. He made everyone with whom he came in contact feel wonderful and loved. He made people happy. As the good Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "If you're going to be a street sweeper, be a great street sweeper."

Tactics of Pre-Eminence:

• Be interdependent not dependent – dependence creates desperation and desperation is incredibly unattractive in business. Handle your business. Take care of yourself. Get your emotional needs met. Manage your money. Create a life that works for you – create a solid foundation for yourself emotionally. To the extent you can do that you will be incredibly attractive to people.
• Keep Reviewing “The Only Four Questions That Matter” (below) until your answer is a solid and powerful YES! to four every time.

The Only Four Questions That Matter:

1) Do you, in your heart of hearts, know it to be true that your community and the world is better off for the existence of your company/product or service?

2) Do you, in your heart of hearts, know it to be true that your clients are better off for availing themselves of your product or service?

3) Do you, in your heart of hearts, know it to be true for your clients are better off under your care than with your competition?

4) Do you believe that you offer at least as much or more value than you charge for? IS it worth the price you ask them to pay?