Strategies for Winning All the Business You Want.
Category
Relationships
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05.09.12The Believable VoiceWhen you are reading a study published by a technology company on what technology does to our kids – do you believe it? When you hear a financial advisor talk about how extraordinary their services are – do you believe it? If a restaurant owner says they have the best food in town – do you believe it? Often, the message isn’t believable until someone who has experienced it first-hand speaks up. This is a significant reason that messaging the value of a firm can be off kilter. The business owner knows that their business is as they say, and they ...
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05.02.12It’s Magnificent! Getting Clients to Recognize Your Stellar ServiceIf your clients are not talking about how great you are – perhaps, just perhaps, they don’t recognize all that you do for them. If a client has been working with a financial advisor for a few years, do they recognize all the above and beyond activities that are being done for them or do they consider it just regular service? Do your clients know how unique you are compared to the competition? Do they have something interesting to tell their friends and colleagues about what you do? I was on a flight to Atlanta earlier this week and the pilot ...
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04.04.123 Steps to Create a Memorable StoryWhat’s Your Story? Telling a story or vignette around what your firm does is often the best way to get someone to remember you and what you do. Storytelling is the art of conveying events that paint a picture in the listeners mind. In fact, if you really want someone to remember what you are saying - follow your lists of data, statistics and facts with a story that allows people to better connect with and recall the information. And, sharing a story about someone who used your services is much more powerful than trying to sell someone on what you do ...
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03.07.12Loyalty Is DeadIt’s official. Loyalty is dead. When Peyton Manning, who IS the Indianapolis Colts franchise, is no longer a Colt, we have proof that loyalty doesn’t always win out. We want to believe that our favorite players will stay because of the strong bond that has been built. At our core, it is in our nature to want loyalty to win out! Both as a fan and in business, we want to believe that relationships matter. We hope that if we treat other well and build strong bonds that somehow this matters. It really makes you think ...
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02.14.12Creating a Surprising ExperienceThe litmus test of whether or not you are creating an experience that people find exceedingly valuable can be quantified by the number of referrals you receive. Acquiring referrals has little to do with how often you ask, but rather reliant on how you make them feel. Even more so, making an introduction happens most frequently when the client is actually surprised by how they feel about you. The ‘surprising experience’ as defined by a multi-million dollar producing advisor - “I focus on listening more than 50% of every meeting. If I can keep this in check and not talk too ...
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01.24.12He’s Just Not That Into You! 3 Ways to Connect Quicker with ProspectsIf you ever try to attract someone and feel you’re falling short of making your case, here are a few solutions. If you try to sell someone something, a typical reaction you may receive is that person becomes immediately not that into you. As the nation’s #1 sales expert Jeffrey Gitomer says, “People Don’t Like to Be Sold, But They Love To BUY!™” In businesses where the seller and the buyer’s relationship matters, instead of focusing on the product, it is smarter to focus more on the relationship and making a connection. Here are 3 ways I’ve observed from some of ...
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12.21.11Disconnecting Your Connected Kids During The HolidaysMy contention is that relationship skills are as important to ones future as math, science, and reading. But relationship skills are often overlooked because they are not graded in school like other important skillsets. During the holidays, kids, just like adults, are required to navigate a variety of social settings and utilize their relationship skills. And when we hear “…click…click…click…” (the sound of a teenager texting instead of answering Aunt Debbie’s question) it may be when we know that things could be improved upon. As a parent, the holiday season is when we tend to notice most acutely which of our ...
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11.23.11I Don’t Have Time To Be Grateful“I don’t have time to sit around and be grateful … I’m too busy working!” Have you ever thought this? Did you know that finding time to be grateful has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety, less depression, and longer-term satisfaction with life? A much more productive way of having an attitude of gratitude, though, may not be by sitting around and thinking about how grateful we are for our lives - but through thanking others. The CEO of Campbell Soup wrote handwritten thank you notes to his employees – nearly 30,000 – letting them know how grateful he ...
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09.14.11Disguising Networking as SellingHave you ever been asked to give up your client list, promote someone else’s product in your email newsletter, or introduce the latest strategy to those you come in contact with? Of course, no one would outwardly ask for these things – especially in the name of good networking, right? The truth is, I get asked for these things from networking contacts almost every day. And I have to say no. Since when did “networking” turn into convincing another person to sell your wares? It’s not even disguised well as networking. In the book The Connectors, I wrote about the research ...
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08.03.11Why do Firms Fail at Delivering Great Service?Is your staff required to give great service? Have you fully trained them on how to act, what to say, and how to handle service issues? If you have, that’s wonderful of course, but it will NOT guarantee great service. Unfortunately, the delivery of above and beyond service in firms both large and small is a requirement and often treated as such. Required activities are often delivered because a person has to, not because they want to…and people can tell the difference. Recently I was at a very nice hotel in New York. The staff there had most certainly been trained ...
recent posts
- A Competitive Spirit Fuels Business
- Guest Blog: Search Engine Optimization – Part 3: Links
- The Believable Voice
- Guest Blog: Search Engine Optimization – Part 2: Content is King!
- It’s Magnificent! Getting Clients to Recognize Your Stellar Service
- Guest Blog: Search Engine Optimization – Part 1: Keywords
- Multitasking Your Marketing
