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Following the series and whitepaper on the Community Driven Marketing process, a number of people have asked: What do I do if I don’t have any Raving Fans?
Part 3 (here is part 1) in a short series on how to create them (Also, available as a whitepaper).
How To Get Prospects to Beg To Become Your Clients
You are selling an experience.
You are selling knowledge.
You are selling yourself.
The sale is far less objective. With a product, a potential customer to touch it, smell it, use it and assess it: will this solve my problem?
With a service, the assessment is far less rational. It’s a series of feelings over time.
You are selling knowledge.
You are selling yourself.
The sale is far less objective. With a product, a potential customer to touch it, smell it, use it and assess it: will this solve my problem?
With a service, the assessment is far less rational. It’s a series of feelings over time.
- Do I like these people?
- Do I feel good around them?
- Do they think about my problems and advocate for me?
In a services market, you have hundreds of opportunities to leave your prospects and clients with a positive experience, the cumulative effect of which will lead them to the conclusion that you are the only company in the world that can help them.
That is what you want. That is how you can charge premium pricing and become recognized as “the” expert.
As Seth Godin says, the best middle name in the world is “the”.
Like hotels that leave mints on your pillows or restaurants where the maitre’d knows your name, every single interaction with your prospects or clients leaves an impression. It’s up to you as to whether that is a positive or negative one.
That is what you want. That is how you can charge premium pricing and become recognized as “the” expert.
As Seth Godin says, the best middle name in the world is “the”.
Like hotels that leave mints on your pillows or restaurants where the maitre’d knows your name, every single interaction with your prospects or clients leaves an impression. It’s up to you as to whether that is a positive or negative one.
The $500k Business Card
Now, how many of them would you willingly keep, once you had all of the information?
If you are like most people, the answer is close to zero.
These days, by the time you have met most people, you already have their information, so the business card is perhaps the most generic and even useless part of the business experience.
It is easy to look at it as a ‘necessary business expense’ and “just do it.”
Joey Coleman looks at it differently.
He recognizes that when you meet him in person, the business card he hands you is the first impression that he really makes on you (aside from the fact that he dresses presentably-kind of a given, right?)
His business card is made of hard plastic. It is translucent blue. It has scratch-offs on it that reveal a story about his services. He has a section on his card where he can write where you met him.
The card is truly “remarkable.”
It was so remarkable that when I met Joey, I invited him to lunch. We chatted. Then, I invited him to present to my team at Microsoft. He put that presentation on his website. Some months later, he was contacted by MIT to present to their business school and they said, “Oh, I see you presented at Microsoft.”
The MIT presentation led him to a meeting with a prospect that turned into a $500k sale.
When I initially tell people that Joey spends $4 per card, they react with surprise. Too expensive, they say.
Well, if that $4 turns into $500k simply because it was remarkable, memorable and immediately tells people that you are different; it starts making more sense, doesn’t it?
But it’s not just about business cards. It’s about all of those moments of interaction that can leave an impression.
- What does your voice mail message say?
- How about your email signature?
- The “hold” music on your PBX
- Is your invoice fun? Does it have personality? Or is it boring?
Overlook nothing.
How do you go about finding all of those moments of impression so you can them memorable and unique?
I use a Customer Touchpoint Assessment, where we look at every single angle of the customer experience and ask ourselves, “how can we make this truly remarkable?”
Sure, it is hard work, but better than flailing about trying to figure out how to drum up business when your own clients and prospects cannot tell their friends what makes you so remarkable.
Once you start making modifications to your organization based on a ‘Customer Touchpoint Assessment,’ you will start finding some Raving Fans emerging.
How do you go about finding all of those moments of impression so you can them memorable and unique?
I use a Customer Touchpoint Assessment, where we look at every single angle of the customer experience and ask ourselves, “how can we make this truly remarkable?”
Sure, it is hard work, but better than flailing about trying to figure out how to drum up business when your own clients and prospects cannot tell their friends what makes you so remarkable.
Once you start making modifications to your organization based on a ‘Customer Touchpoint Assessment,’ you will start finding some Raving Fans emerging.
Next: The Last Word
Comments
Dianna Lopez said on 4.10.2009 at 4:35 PM
Bless you for writing this. I am eager to take a look at the Touchpoint Assessment and share it with our owners!