I know I need to start a database and then contact those people. HOW DO I DO IT? I’m getting super frustrated with all the options and know that my repeat business is vital to what I do.
I’ll save a lot of typing here by suggesting you head over to my blog where I recently just finished a series on that topic. Click the title links below to go through to the articles…
Hi! I have developed a system that uses NLP and other simple, mental change techniques (not hypnosis) to help people to completely change their mindset around food and exercise; enabling people to ENJOY healthy food (rather than feel they are ‘dieting’), change bad habits easily (rather than using willpower) and be more motivated to exercise – clients also report feeling more in control of their emotions and an increase in self confidence and self esteem. (An interesting by-product is that it gets rid of any ‘emotional baggage’!) I feel that this Program could be an important development in the weight loss market however, as an individual consultant I can only physically see 150 – 200 clients a year maximum. I have started to sell the Program under Licence, with 6 days training, for a low start up fee (probably too low at a few thousand dollars!) and a minimal on-going licence fee. Income potential for Licencees is up to $200k per year.
I know that the Program is good for clients and achieves fantastic results and I know that the business is rewarding for potential Licencees, both financially and personally (as far as job satisfaction is concerned).
Do you have any suggestions as to how I reach a lot of people (several hundreds) who are prepared to invest a few thousand dollars and 6 days of their time in this ‘new’ concept.
Also, if you have any suggestions as to how to market the concept to potential (overweight) clients, that would also be appreciated.
I would also be interested to know if you could recommend anyone on the Sunshine Coast who could help me with my Licence agreement.
I feel like I’m being very cheeky asking all this however I’m a bit lost as to who to ask for advice….
Dear “Stuck on marketing a new concept”, as I see it there are a few issues here; firstly you need to educate people on the benefits of the techniques you use to assist people, and then communicate the benefits (both financially and personally) of them becoming a practitioner themselves under your business model. You also need to ensure the people who do ‘come onboard’ have a similar mindset to you otherwise they may damage your business… no mean feat!
Then we need to look separately at the marketing of the procedure to gain more clients.
The best way to gain more business partners is really to see them face-to-face, but that doesn’t necessarily mean one-on-one at least in the first instance. One way would be to conduct regional seminars, firstly to introduce them to the concept and explain how your business model would work for them and then to ask for interested parties to meet with you individually at a later date. The unfortunate thing is that there have and are quite a few seminars offering business opportunities to people, that in some cases haven’t been too reputable, which has created a bit of resistance in the market to this approach. You need to ensure any promotional material you produce for these seminars (flyers for gyms, press advertisements etc) make no rash promises and appeal to the readers emotions in a positive way. Ideally some professional assistance here would be well worth your while.
You could also advertise the business opportunity in selected publications which have readership profiles which suit the type of person suited to practice your procedure. That may be fitness magazines, or alternate living… but without more information on what that profile is that’s as specific as I can be at this stage.
Another option would be to run a geo-targeted Google Adwords campaign and push those leads through to your website. You need to add a business opportunity specific section to your site before you take that course. A Google Adwords campaign would also be a cost effective and very accountable way to source more clients for both yourself and your business partners. Again, I strongly suggest you seek professional advise to ensure this works as effectively as it can.
You mentioned you are “scared of blowing it” when approaching fitness clubs for more business. I’m assuming in this instance you are looking at more clients for yourself? Do you have any collateral which explains the benefit of the service you offer, if not you need to invest in some great material. Having this type of collateral will make the first approach to potential multipliers such as fitness clubs so much easier for you. Apart from that, just carry the confidence in what you offer into that first meeting and you should be fine.
From what you have said the business model you have to ’sell’ to potential practitioners seems a little cheap. You could adapt what you are offering to more of a franchise type arrangement, where you provide ongoing support and receive ongoing income. It would also help you control how the practitioners are presenting themselves to the market. There are several very good solicitor firms on the Sunshine Coast which will be able to provide the type of support you require to set up an agreement.
]]>‘We’ve owned a small cafe for about 5 years. It’s a good business and provides us with a reasonable lifestyle but, for a while now, I’ve felt like it just doesn’t have any ‘zing’ or stand out at all?. We’d like to invest in making some changes but because we can’t really put our finger on the problem, we’re not sure where to start?…any suggestions?
That’s a great way to look at your business! So many business owners get so tied up in managing the day to day, they never take the time to step outside and really take a good look at how their business really works.
What that also means is that you’re ready for change which is also a great positive because sometimes aversion to change can hold people back from making things better in their life.
I would suggest that there’s a couple of areas you might like to take a good look at first. In my experience, good restaurants or cafe’s I’ve visited and remember fondly have at least one of these ingredients down pat… if not perfect, at least impressively good.
The first is food… do you have signature dish that you do memorably well? If you don’t I’d suggest looking for something that you could become ‘known for’… maybe it’s something that fits in with the local area, your personal heritage or the ‘theme’ of the cafe? Once you’ve got it, you need to promote it at every opportunity and create a ‘buzz’ around it… press releases, footpath signs, competitions… anything that drives people to you to try it out!
The next thing I’d look at is the ‘theme’ of your cafe… is it based on something in the area, your background, heritage or a hobby or interest?. If the answer is ‘none of the above’ then you need to explore a new ‘look and feel’ or decor theme for your business.
Lastly and definitely not least, is your people. It is possible to get people coming back day after day and telling their friends all about you simply because of the wonderful way you and your staff make them feel. I once knew a guy who made pizzas… his pizzas weren’t much better than anyone’s else’s but where else could you get a cheeky personal greeting shouted out each time you entered the shop… I always took friends in to experience it.
You need to really stand back and look at your people, or get someone outside to do it for an unbiased opinion, and ask yourself if they’re really adding to your business.
What you’re really looking for here is a way to make your business stand out from the crowd… Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable has some great insights on how to find it!
I’d also like to just add a personal note here about coffee… I’m a ‘good coffee’ addict and will ALWAYS go out of my way to revisit a cafe that serves up a good long black… crema and all so, that might just be a good place to start!
]]>How can I use social media for publicity?
There are many ways for you to utilise social media to engage the public and the media to pay attention to your message.
For the traditionalist online networker, you cannot go past LinkedIn. This tool provides many avenues to display your news. Firstly you could send important news through internal contacts via a personalised information email, or secondly you could post your news items on your Blog and attach it to your profile (LinkedIn is associated with Word Press, a free blog creation tool, which can be placed on the home page of your profile in LinkedIn for linking and easy reference purposes). Spend some time in the learning centre that LinkedIn provides to find out more great ways to communicate.
Alternatively you can keep people up to date with Twitter. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the details, Twitter is a service developed to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question – What are you doing? You have 140 characters to get your important message to key people who follow you on the service. While still in its infancy compared to the likes of Facebook or LinkedIn, this tool is swiftly gaining credibility with high profile users including Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull and almost every news outlet in Australia.
Finally there is Facebook, a tried and tested friend to the small business. This tool allows you to develop your own group, you invite people to join your group, and you then send your group quality information about your business. Whether it is an event invitation, important news, upgrades to services or product launches, Facebook is a well known and well used tool for both personal and professional PR.
While I am sure this is not the quintessential list of all social media that could assist with PR, they are the key social media outlets that you should be taking notice of to ensure your message gets to the right people in a timely manner!
]]>I’m a relatively new business operator and I’ve just found out that my competitor relies heavily on marketing to an existing database of loyal customers that they have built up over several years. How do I form a database of my own?
Collecting client information can be a very vital asset in keeping afloat in today’s decreasing and challenging market. The larger your database, the more potential it has when it comes to direct marketing. You should be trying to collect email addresses, mobile numbers and postal addresses from anyone that shows interest in your business or is an active customer. Direct Marketing such as e-newsletters to your database can be a cost effective and relatively easy way to directly target someone that is already interested in what you have to offer. It’s a great way to inform customers of special offers and new products and ultimately keep them as a continuing client.
]]>Can I claim a stamp duty concession of the purchase of vacant land?
There is lot of confusion about stamp duty (or transfer duty) when buying vacant land. First home owners can claim a concession on transfer duty when you buy vacant land. But you can’t claim claim a concession if you have owned property before, even outside of Australia.
The transfer duty concession for first home buyers of vacant land has rules that must be strictly followed if you are to claim the concession. Essentially:
1. the buyer must complete construction of the residence on the property in the two years after settlement; and
2. the buyer must then occupy the property as their principal place of residence for 12 months continuously.
Their appears to be a number of real estate agents advising potential buyers that transfer duty concessions apply to anyone who intends to build and live on the land regardless of whether they have owned land before. Be very careful about these claims. Transfer duty can be very expensive and failing to account for it when buying property could be catastrophic. Always consult your lawyer before signing a contract for the purchase or the sale of land..
]]>I’m very proud to say that I’m in the process of starting up my very own fashion retail business for the first time. I’ve done all the hard work, hired several staff and set up a funky looking store. I’m ready to open up in 2 weeks but now I’m dumbfounded, how do I start getting customers in the doors without having to outlay more money?
A lot of first time business owners are surprised at the initial cost of setting up a new business but without a flow of customers there is no way for you to return on your investment. But don’t stress, there are some relatively easy and low cost ways to start a ‘buzz’ about your store!
Do you know the concept behind Public Relations? It’s all about free advertising. You should spend some time contacting local media to let them know about your new store and hopefully provide a point of difference and a reason for them to want to help promote your business to the public. It’s also a good idea to invest in some paid advertising, even if you can’t afford much think about advertising your opening day and make a big event of it. A simple suggestion is that you invest in a radio campaign and ask your local station to be involved in the opening day, they can give out gift vouchers on air and do a live cross from your store. Good Luck!
]]>I have been hearing a lot about Blogs lately, I already have a basic web site should I start a Blog for my business? If so, can this help with my publicity?
While sending your media releases and alerts directly to the media is still the most effective way to get your message to the right people in print, placing your news, events, product launches and company information on a dedicated blog allows you real time access to millions of people who may not use traditional media as their information source.
A company blog can serve as an ideal platform for writing about things that promote your company or products, showcasing your business news and it can also serve as an important channel in which to respond in real time to critical public relation issues.
The most important thing to remember is that a blog needs to be maintained and updated regularly with useful and interesting information for the reader.
]]>‘We are a B2B business with half a dozen reasonably good sales people (male & female) … problem is that they are currently experiencing a lot more ‘no’s’ than they have been used to over the last few years. I’m finding its getting them down and in turn making them less inclined to look for new business or even try to close existing customers… it’s a downward spiral… what do I do? (Sales Team Meltdown)
Firstly, I’d suggest your use of the description ‘reasonably good’ to describe your sales team is not a particularly good sign. What happens in boom times like we’ve just been through is that ‘reasonably good’ was good enough because everyone was spending up large. The challenge now is that reasonably good will turn into ‘average’ then ‘awful’ really quickly unless you start making some changes!
One place to start is to reintroduce a little structure back into your team. Good sales teams are always managed by the numbers… how many phone calls?, how many visits?, analysis of the outcomes etc so you could look at putting a formal sales reporting process in place if you don’t already have one. Weekly is good because then you can meet with them on Friday afternoon or Monday morning, go through the reports, discuss the outcomes and set some goals for the next week.
What you’ll find is that good sales people will rise to the challenge and get some structure back into their day and the slackers may well start to look elsewhere because they don’t appreciate the close scrutiny. Either way, you’ve got some accountability back into your team and some positive energy happening. There’s always opportunity in times like these and it’s those who keep ‘doing the do’ that will get the results.
Looking a little further ‘outside the square’ you could also consider a complete change of sales model! Why not look at investing in a very good inhouse B2B Telemarketer to cold call potential clients and ‘keep in touch’ with your existing ones. A sales organisation I worked with a few years ago developed such a model and it worked extremely well… in fact, it became market leading.
Professional Telemarketers, good ones, don’t get hung up on ‘no’s’ and simply move onto the next call. With potential customers, they can quickly qualify if there’s any need, now or in the future, and classify the target for a call back accordingly. If the target is ‘hot’ they can schedule the relevant sales person in for a visit immediately… and the sales person goes in with the right attitude because they know they are walking into a ’sales positive’ environment.
It also means you will probably need less sales people on the ground because they are only visiting ‘hot’ clients so, you could maybe look at cutting off the bottom 2 or 3 and focus on your best performers!
For this new model to work you’d really have to make a definite decision to change the way you do business … by using the Telemarketer to cover the ground quickly and efficiently and then bringing in your best sales people to close the deals!
A couple of different options there for you to consider… good luck.
]]>If I know that my competitor is selling the same product as me but at a far less quality than what I have to offer can I advertise their weakness to my customers?
This is called competitive advertising and it’s legal when it’s done right. I would suggest you seek legal advice and talk to a highly qualified advisor before you proceed to make sure you don’t end up in court defending yourself. If you are truthfully comparing facts about two products to highlight the advantages of your own you will have a strong cause for customers to either choose your product over another or switch their current buying habits. But beware, this type of advertising often results in a rebuttal!
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