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How To Prove You’re Different

By: Tad | Published: July 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment

People have had rotten experiences with other businesses in your industry. You can’t just say, “We do it different.”

So, here’s the question: What are the policies, the procedures, processes and the standards that your business holds that ensure your are different?

Just one quick example on this, which I just thought of now and I’m hoping I can find, is New Seasons Market. They have this thing called the fine print. The fine print is their description of the standards, policies and procedures that they have in their store to make it a better shopping experience.

If you think about your own shopping experiences, you’ve probably had some frustrating ones, some ones that weren’t so hot. Well here’s what they do. They have this thing called the fine print. It’s not just something that they made and is on the back wall somewhere.

It’s in posters in the grocery store. It’s printed on every single grocery bag. It’s out there. People know about it. All of the employees know and understand this really clearly.

Let me read through them and you’ll get a sense of what I’m saying in terms of just making vague claims, they make specific ones.

Open the next register policy: more than two people in line, we’ll open another check stand right away.

Staffing policy: we hire people who really mean it when they say, “Have a nice day.” We treat them as well as we want them to treat you.

Helping you find it policy: We’ll escort you to the spot unless you just want directions. (I heard a sigh of relief when I read that).

Product returns policy: if it’s not exactly what you want or you don’t like it for any reason, bring it back for a no hassle return. We’ll replace it or refund your money with a smile. We promise.

Eating in the store policy: go for it. Please pay for it on the way out. (Isn’t that refreshing? Isn’t that so nice?)

Discount policy: enjoy a senior discount every Wednesday, 10% off almost everything for those 65 or better.

You break it policy: if you break it, don’t worry, accidents happen.

Problems policy: we have, find and make solutions. Visit the solution center at the front of the store.

Special requests policy: Yes.

Squeaky wheel policy: our shopping carts will be oiled and maintained so they don’t drag, squeak or otherwise annoy you.

Another sigh of relief. So you get the idea. They’re very specific in the case that they’re making. This is what all of our businesses have to do. A really good thing to do when you’re looking at your offer, the offer is really a combination of two things. It’s what they want, but it’s also what they don’t want to sort of oversimplify it massively.

You’ve got to ask yourself, “What’s most important to people when they’re buying what I sell?” “What’s most important to people when they’re buying what I sell?”

If this is an area you feel stuck in terms of designing an irresistible offer, the book I recommend you go and you buy and read religiously, is called Monopolize Your Marketplace by Richard Harshaw. It’s a really brilliant book.

They give a really clear explanation of how you go about building the case and what questions to ask. But one of those questions is, “What’s most important to people when buying what you sell?”

Not when buying from you personally, but buying generically what you sell. What you find is there are usually two things. One is there’s things about the product or service itself. But second, there are things about the experience of buying it.

For example, if you’re going to go buy a car, there’s stuff about the car you want to know, fuel efficiency, color, whatever. But there’s also the experience with the sales person that you want to understand is going to be comfortable.

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

| Categories: marketing strategy, marketing tactics, The Irresistible Offer - Tags: communicating value, irresistible offers, marketing, safety

Marketing, Education and the Wooden Monkey

By: Tad | Published: July 19, 2010 · 2 Comments

For most of us, there’s an incongruency in our business. There’s an inconsistency between how great we are and what people know.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia there’s this great restaurant called The Wooden Monkey. The woman who runs it, Lil McPherson, is one of my favorite people in the world. She is a really passionate lady and the restaurant is so cool.

But what was interesting was I didn’t really realize how cool it was until I had been there for a few weeks and I was overhearing things. Like, some of their tables were cross sections of trees that had been knocked over during Hurricane Juan when it came over, a whole bunch of trees and Halifax got just taken out.

But they took them, salvaged them, turned them into tables and used them as some of the wood in the restaurant, which I thought was just great. They don’t serve anything that’s grown more than 500 kilometers from the restaurant. They don’t serve any Coke or Pepsi, hooray!

It’s all Propeller stuff which is made like two blocks at a factory. It’s mostly organic. Everything they can do, it’s just there were so many incredible things about this restaurant, that it took me a while to find out.

Here’s some other things Lil told me about the Wooden Monkey with a bit of digging . . .

STAFF: The main Criteria is a positive attitude and respect for there own health and our customers. But our strength is our staff being very informed about our food and caring about the planet. When we hire on our new staff they have to be on board with our values and eager to learn new food items, and what these foods can do for their health. But, there is a lot to know at this restaurant. We have so many very different ingredients and have developed a 50 part questionnaire on all different veggies, teas, seaweeds, etc. and parts of the restaurant, from food to the construction of the restaurant which all staff must take after 6 months…. to see how much they know about everything. In this way we can ensure that all of our staff have the answers our customers want – at their fingertips. What it was built with? Where do certain foods come from (what farm)? What is Kombu, Bancha tea, etc, and what does it do? Our food is not only great, but some of the ingredients are healing for sure. I have just started a library of DVD’s about the environment for the staff to watch.

SERVICE: Service is everything and we feel we work very hard on this, because this to me is the very heart of your business period. I believe and strive to go the distance for our customers to have the best experience, which always means a good meal and excellent service… but it’s when things go wrong that we have the opportunity to rise to the top and over compensate the customers. This is a very important part of making a bad situation into a great one, and having your customers leave feeling great.

LOCAL AND ORGANIC: We are focused on providing local and organic food, while offering fair trade organic coffee, locally brewed beers and wines. We use only Nova Scotia farm produced free-range meats, beef, chicken, port along with organic grains, flours, raisons and locally grown organic veggies. By using locally grown organic produce we not only ensure the quality of the food we serve is so far as this is possible, but we provide material support for the local farmers who share our commitments to human health and the environment.

SMALL PRODUCERS: Back then I decided that I was going to focus on buying from smaller producers, choosing to stay way from the traditional large soft drinks company’s, large multi food suppliers etc. Instead we choose to serve locally make root beer, other local sodas, real Nova Scotia cranberry, blueberry, and apples juices as well as homemade lemonade.

LOCAL ARTISTS: By providing a venue for local artists (we hang their art on our walls which makes our restaurant look beautiful and sell them for no commission which makes them money) and musicians (who play their locally grown music over dinner) we hope to also contribute to the cultural life of Halifax in which we have both been involved for many years.

HEALTHY FOOD PREPARATION: We don’t use any microwaves or deep fryers. There is no processed food at all in our restaurant. Everything you eat was made from scratch, and always will be (even our mayo – using maple syrup as our sugar!)

ENVIRONMENTAL: We use environmental cleaning products, toilet paper, biodegradable take out containers, cups, forks, knifes, we use recycling napkins, papers towels, etc…

EDUCATION: We are trying to educate the public on how very important it is to our future food supply to support our local, and organic agriculture. I am myself have been doing talks about what we are doing at the Monkey in University’s, schools, women’s groups, etc…I love the education part of the Monkey!

Does it work? When I last spoke to them in early 2008 they were thriving. They’d been selected as one of Halifax’s best new businesses. The Wooden Monkey had been featured on television, radio, local and national newspapers and several magazines. Says Lil, “There have been at least fifteen articles written about us and just recently we were mentioned in the book written by Jo Wood, the wife of Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones. Her book is called “Naturally” and it’s a great book about organics – we are on page 42.”

But the point is this: I had to dig to find out those things. Your clients should not have to dig.

A lot of us, we’re so close to our businesses that we sort of assume that people know these things, and they don’t. In a restaurants case, the thing I would encourage every restaurateur to do is, when somebody comes in, sit at the table and the waiter comes up. The first question out of the waiter’s mouth should be, “Welcome. Is it your first time here?”

If it’s their first time there, there should be a little one or two minute welcome talk that they get. You know, “Welcome to The Wooden Monkey. It’s so wonderful to have you. We always like to give a little bit of a welcome introduction to our restaurant so people can know a bit about it.”

And just tell them. Highlight all the great, wonderful things that they would have no way of knowing otherwise. In the menu have a page where it really tells the story, bullet points, flags the things. You could have bios and photos of the wait staff and servers there.

The key is we’ve got to educate people about the value of what we do. Sometimes, for some of you, it’s not going to be, you already have an irresistible offer. It may not be that there’s anything that you can add or change. It’s just that you are not articulating and educating people as to the value of what you do.

Marketing, if I had to sum it up in one word, is education. Education, if I had to sum it up in a sentence, I would say what a guy named Mac Roth said which is, “Marketing is about establishing the value beyond the immediately apparent.”

| Categories: becoming a hub, Case Studies of Inspiring Business, green economy, marketing strategy - Tags: communicating value, marketing

The Four Keys to Getting New Clients

By: Tad | Published: July 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Each of these components can help you attract more brand new clients and each level can help you get the most out of your existing relationships.

The first component is the niche. The niche is your target market. It’s who you’re going after. This is the center of any marketing. When I talked to Dominic he and I were both commiserating that whenever we would get confused in terms of helping clients or clients would get fuzzy about a next step, not being sure what to do, it always came back to this. About looking at the niche of who are you going after.

The second component is the irresistible offer. What are you offering to this niche? A lot of people make the mistake in marketing of thinking, “Oh, I’m going to design this product and service,” and then it’s like, “How do I market it?” is a separate step.

I think if we’re going to be successful in business we need to step back and think of the marketing in the design process itself. Meaning, how can we make the product so irresistible inherently, that it’s easy to sell, versus just a generic sort of bland, boring product and service and then figuring out how we can sort of sell the sizzle and not the steak. That’s the second component is the offer.

The third component is the hubs. This was one of the things that really made so much sense to me when I was talking with Dominic. A lot of people at my trainings would say, “Well where do I advertise? Where do I market? How do I find people?”

I never really knew how to answer that. I always give kind of vague answers but now the answer’s really clear for me. Where you find them depends entirely on who you’re looking for. One group of people is going to hang out in one place. Another group’s going to hang out in another place.

It’s not just about where to find them. It’s also about a way to build trust with them. That’s a lot more powerful than other things you may have tried. So that’s the third component, the hubs.

The first is the niche. Second, what are we offering them? Third the hubs, where do we find them?

And fourth, word of mouth strategies. Again you’re already getting passive word of mouth but are there things you can do to accelerate it and get more word of mouth? Yes.

| Categories: identifying your hubs, marketing strategy, The Irresistible Offer, word of mouth - Tags: attraction, hubs, irresistible offers, marketing, niche

The Four Things People Need Most When They’re Lost

By: Tad | Published: July 19, 2010 · 4 Comments

I find that there are four things most of the people need most when they’re lost and stuck. I’ll use entrepreneurs as an example since that’s the majority of who I work with.

First is Empathy: Hell, being an entrepreneur can be hard. We can work so hard and take failure or rejection so personally. We can work so hard for so little money. The first thing I find people need to hear is, ‘You’re not crazy. You’re not alone.’

Second is Context: They need a map to help them understand where they are. They need to understand where they’re strong and weak. They need a clear diagnosis that helps make sense of their symptoms. All they know is that some things just aren’t working. But they don’t know why. They’re lost and they don’t know where they are. They need someone to help them understand where they are and why.

Third is Options: Once they feel heard and understand where they are – they need to understand the various options for getting to where they want to be. This is where more information, reading books, listening to audios can be helpful. It’s a general level of solutions. From this they can begin to pick and choose what feels relevant. This level is about learning the language in a certain arena. They start learning the general principles of marketing, some of the core strategies and tactics and maybe even hear a lot of examples.

You can start to feel really powerful, like you now know how to navigate the terrain. You walk a bit taller. But at a certain point it becomes clear that the more you learn, the more you know you don’t know. You become increasingly aware of where you’re still ignorant. And you start to suspect that you need more than just options and information.

Fourth is Guidance: In many ways, this fourth level is what they were really after when they were looking for options. At the end of the day, they can get too many options. So many that they feel overwhelmed and immobilized. “Overwhelmed by insurmountable opportunity” as Pogo said. I find that most people are silently begging to be led. They’re craving for someone to take their hand and walk them from where they are to where they want to be.

They don’t always want this guide to make the decisions for them (though often they do), but they do want someone who can not only explain the options but also give them their best advice and opinions on what would be best. And guidance can only be done one on one – in a personal relationship.

You just can’t get guidance by reading a book or listening to some audio or watching a video. That just becomes more information. And more overwhelm. In fact, all of these levels are more powerful when it’s person to person. You can get a general level, a surface level, of all of these through books and online – but working with a coach or mentor will be, obviously, far more powerful.

It’s one of the reasons I have issues with people selling their ebooks and information products for so much money. The idea that ‘information’ will save you. That if you ‘just buy this DVD series all of your problems will be solved.’ But it rarely works. How many unread books and course binders are sitting on your shelves and tables at home? How many have gone unread? I rest my case.

After they’ve absorbed enough information (and for some people it’s more than others) a question begins to surface: “How does this apply to me?” They understand that it works – and why – but they are still struggling to make that principle fit into their business.

But you need to go through these four stages in order. You’ve probably experienced this where someone tried to give you guidance without any real empathy or diagnosis and it felt awful.

If you try to give people guidance before they have any context they will resist it because they don’t understand why you’re suggesting it. It will feel like they’re doing what you told them to do. But if they understand the context then they’re more likely to share your opinion and do it because ‘it just makes sense.’

If all you do is get empathy – you’re still stuck.

If you get empathy and context but no new information – all you know is what’s wrong but you feel lost about how to solve it. A lot of flailing about can happen here.

| Categories: marketing philosophy - Tags: building trust, empathy, guidance, marketing, safety, trusted advisor

The Planet Wants You to Market Really Well

By: Tad | Published: July 19, 2010 · Leave a Comment

by Jerry Stifelman, The Change on 07.12.07

Organic jeans look just like regular jeans. Fair Trade, Shade Grown coffee can taste just like conventional coffee. FSC-certified wood looks exactly like wood that’s been poached from the rain forest. Unless you’re an eye witness or a direct victim, crimes against the environment take place out of sight, out of mind. Shirts hang from racks in America, while the sweatshops that created them are half a world and tons of emissions away.

The sales racked up by businesses-as-usual are dependent on withholding information, not revealing it. Paul McCartney once said that “if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.”

It’s the same principle for most conventional products. Pesticides, particulate pollution, toxic runoff, industrial waste and shoddy labor practices are necessary to create most things — but to actually sell the stuff, it’s best to keep the public unaware of such things. The environmental sins of conventional businesses are invisible — unfortunately, so are many of the positive actions of good-for-the-world businesses.

As an environmentalist, and as a guy who leads a good-for-the-world branding agency, I suggest that treehugging businesses should become the most kickass marketers on the planet. Brand communication is a critical way to change the equation, and balance it in favor of responsibility over expediency, and in favor of products created with moral consideration as opposed to just cheap goods. Here’s some thoughts on how to do it.

The key points of difference that set “green” or otherwise mission-driven companies apart from their conventional competitors require communication. Indeed — unless principled actions are turned into a brand asset, they put your company at a competitive disadvantage simply because being sustainable in a non-sustainable world is expensive. By openly and transparently telling the story behind our products and services, we can flip the equation, and turn responsible business practice into a competitive advantage. Our conventional business competitors can’t tell their full story. We can. The truth is our best tool. And we need to use it consummately, consistently and artfully.

Jerry Stifelman is founder and creative director of The Change, a brand-strategy and design agency that works exclusively with companies and organizations that make the world more sustainable, equitable or authentic.

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

| Categories: green economy, marketing philosophy - Tags: building trust, communicating value, marketing

Playing “Marketing Ball” – by Robert Middleton

By: Tad | Published: July 18, 2010 · Leave a Comment

This piece is so simple but speaks to the heart of the matter. People often feel confused as to why they aren’t attracting enough clients. Well, Robert Middleton gives us the best and clearest answer I’ve ever heard.

You’re not attracting enough clients to your business for a very simple reason. You’re not doing the right things.

Not only are you not doing the rights things, you actually think you know the right things you ought to be doing. You most likely think you should be doing more networking, have a better web site, and do more speaking engagements. You think you need to “get out there more.”

But those are not the right things. After all, you’ve tried all of those things to some degree, haven’t you? If they really worked, how come you’re not doing them consistently? If they worked they would bring you all the new business you needed.

Right?

No, doing the right things first means understanding how the marketing and sales process actually works and then following a proven system for attracting new clients. Perhaps one of the best ways to look at this is through the game of baseball.

To win at baseball you need to do a lot of things. You need to throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball and run. Pretty simple, right? But consider this: I can take a bunch of people and put them on a baseball field and have them throw and hit and catch and run and you don’t necessarily have a baseball game going on. You just have a lot of activity that leads nowhere. You get some exercise but that’s about it.

And that’s how most Independent Professionals approach marketing! They get on the field of business and do some networking and calling and mailing but not a whole lot happens. They certainly aren’t playing the marketing game. Because if they were, they would be attracting more clients than they could handle. In baseball you’d never settle for those kind of results. Why would you settle for it in something that’s responsible for your livelihood?

Now interestingly, baseball is not only a good analogy to marketing your professional services, it’s an excellent model to use. If you want to win at “marketing ball” you need few things:

1. Knowledge of how the game is structured and what the rules are.
2. The skills to play the game.
3. An organized plan to play and win.

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

| Categories: marketing philosophy - Tags: marketing

Are Newsletters Worth the Time & Effort?

By: Tad | Published: July 18, 2010 · Leave a Comment

A question I get a lot at workshops is: “should I have a newsletter? I just delete most of the ones I get. Are they worth the effort?” My colleague Linda Claire Puig (who’s running a ‘Best Newsletter Contest‘) shares her perspective as to why they are . . .

Measuring Newsletter ROI (Return on Investment)

The other day I ran across an online ROI calculator that purports to tell you whether your newsletter is worth the effort and cost of doing it.

Cool! I thought. Someone finally found a way to quantify everything I’ve been teaching.

But what I found missed the mark. It treated a newsletter as a purely promotional tool, something you use to generate leads that you or a sales team would follow up with and “close.”

While I always encourage you to promote a little (like about 25%), a newsletter is about FAR, FAR more than cold lead generation and closing sales.

A newsletter is the kingpin of your keep-in-touch strategy. It’s what you use to position yourself as a trusted, credible expert. It enhances your influence in your marketplace. It’s how you BUILD RELATIONSHIP with your community. And yes, it helps bring in clients.

So how do you measure the ROI of relationship, of influence, of status, of trust, of repeated exposure to you?

It’s a difficult proposition, but I have a few ideas:

Compare Overall Income

Five years ago, I didn’t walk my talk. I provided a regular newsletter service to hundreds of professionals, but I only did occasional newsletters myself. (Bad girl!) Since then, I’ve begun practicing what I preach, and my income has TRIPLED.

Examine How Your Business Has Changed with a Newsletter

It’s interesting…having a regular newsletter forces you to step up your game, and it translates to all areas of your business. You’ll find yourself looking for ways to build your list, which helps you build your business in a big way. You’ll find yourself doing new things, perhaps giving teleclasses for the first time, or creating info products.

Look to the High Earners

At an event last September, I asked a room of 20 entrepreneurs — all with six- and seven-figure businesses — how many of them send regular newsletters. How many do you think said yes? Nineteen out of 20 send a regular newsletter. Look around you…how many of the people whose work you pay attention to and whose services you buy do a newsletter?

Consider the Anecdotal Evidence

One of my favorite examples of the power of a newsletter — and its ROI — comes from my friend Michelle. She was at a conference whose host challenged participants to see who could make the most money that very weekend. She went to her hotel room that night, put together a group coaching program, created a quick sales page and sent out an email to her list.

She made $15,000 and won the conference prize.

To be clear…she sent a promotional email, not a newsletter, but she sent it to a list of people she’d been in touch with for years with great newsletters. They had come to know her through her newsletters and were ready to work with her when she made the offer.

Michelle isn’t alone. I know hundreds of stories just like this one. It can happen to you, too.

But it all starts with the newsletter.

Linda Claire Puig is a newsletter marketing expert whose company, Claire Communications, provides busy coaches and personal development professionals with high-quality, education-based content and newsletters to grow their businesses. She also teaches unique, action-oriented programs on how to create newsletters and use them to make more money. An award-winning writer since 1983, Linda’s articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and newsletters throughout the world. She has produced newsletters for small businesses and professionals since 1990 and has trained thousands of individuals in “the way of the newsletter.” For a free copy of two special newsletter resources from Linda, “75 Best Newsletter Success Strategies” and the “Easy Ezine Content Creator,” click here http://www.nexttopnewsletter.com/freebies

If you’d like get cool posts like this in your inbox every few days CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog and you’ll also get a free copy of my fancy new ebook “Marketing for Hippies” when it’s done.

| Categories: becoming a hub, marketing strategy - Tags: becoming a hub, building trust, marketing, newsletters, online marketing, pink spoons, stay in touch marketing

Top Ten Ways to Become a Hub

By: Tad | Published: July 13, 2010 · 6 Comments

I’ve been talking a lot about ‘becoming a hub lately’. But, while that’s a nice idea and theory – what can you actually do about it. I can think of at least ten things – can you think of anything to add?

You don’t need to be almost naked on a unicycle to be the center of people’s attention (but it always helps):

host a directory: consider this brilliant strategy from Eric Brown. The short version: make a list of everyone you refer out to. Who are the complimentary businesses and services you refer your clients to? If you’re a massage therapist, I bet you often refer to (or get asked for referrals to) naturopaths, nutritionists, yoga teachers, chiropractors etc. Make a list of them all. And them put them into a little directory in a word file. Make it look nice. Put everyone’s contact info, bios and photos. And then send it to everyone in the list and say, “Though you should all meet each other. I refer to you all and want you to know that everyone in this list is solid and can be trusted entirely. Is there someone you should be added?” And you become the host of this directory. You’re like the mayor of this town. And people will be thrilled you stepped up and did this. They’re happy for the promotion and happy to help others they respect get more business.

host a big party: If you can organize a big old party for your niche and the key hubs and influencers in your niche, it can do a lot to set your reputation (if it’s a good party). Some organizations end up doing most of their business by hosting big parties at key times during the year – or in the evenings at trade shows.

host hubs in an event: But you might also consider the incredible benefits of hosting a smaller party (30-40 people) that focuses entirely on the key hubs and influencers in your scene. The invite might sound something like, “Hey, we’re all working with this same crowd. I thought it might make sense for us to meet and learn about what each other do.” This positions you as a leader in the minds of other leaders. They will absolutely know who you are and what you do by the end of this. No amount of advertising dollars can generate this kind of clarity and goodwill. I heard of a green architect in Victoria who hosted this kind of party. He invited those who’d been voted the 100 leading environmentalists in Victoria together to his studio for a mixer. People were thrilled to be invited and loved the event. My colleagues Robert Middleton and Bill Baren have done similar events where they are hosting key leaders in their field to come together for a weekend to explore possible joint ventures and learn from each other. Brilliant!

give an award: A lot of businesses secretly hope to get an award. Why not give one? Why not choose a person, non-profit or complimentary business that you think deserves some recognition and give them an award. Host an event for the community to honour them. Get a selection committee together of respected people in the community.

create a kick ass newsletter: I’m not talking about a typical newsletter. Check out the newsletter we’ve created for e-sage (go to this link and then look for the most recent newsletter). It’s a listing of all the cool workshops, parties, festivals, workshops, movie screenings etc. that celebrate local and green living in Edmonton. This newsletter has become the go-to resource for many in Edmonton to find out what’s going on in town. Create a newsletter that adds value. That let’s people know what happening in their scene. That connects them with good things.

post cool things on social media: So much to say here. But if people aren’t regularly telling you that you post cool stuff on facebook or twitter, chances are you aren’t. People tell me I post cool things. Make a commitment to only post remarkable and positive things that inspire you. Think of your social media as a channel. What you post is your programming. Just like TV. And, in the TV world, if the programming starts to suck, you lose advertising dollars. In your world, you won’t lose advertising dollars, you’ll lose people’s attention. That’s even worse.

play match maker when at networking events: An easy thing to do – whenever you go to a party or networking event – be curious about people. Ask them what’s coming up next for them, what they are needing etc. And then connect people with each other. Don’t force it. But pay attention. Having this attitude of giving and real listening also makes you incredibly charming and magnetic. And people are so grateful for this lovely person helping them.

host networking events: can you host networking shindigs for your scene? Or get involved in ones that already exist? In Edmonton, we’re hosting a monthly Green Drinks for our e-sage group – the response has been wonderful. It’s helping to strengthen e-sage’s position in Edmonton as a hub for local and green living.

have a hubs database: this is something I wrote about here in my blog. Do this.

take great care of your database: if the heart of being a good hub is being seen as a source of good things, then having a super up to date, segmented and well organized database matters – so people only get relevant stuff. Make it your (obviously unobtainable) goal to only ever send things that are totally useful to them.

| Categories: becoming a hub, marketing tactics - Tags: becoming a hub, building trust, marketing, safety

The Biggest Mistake You Can Do With Pay What You Can Workshops

By: Tad | Published: July 13, 2010 · 2 Comments

The following is an excerpt taken from an interview I did with the brilliant Robert Middleton. A lot of my core marketing philosophy, I got from this man. This material will be compiled into a book called “Pay What You Want” in 2011.

Robert: What are some of the mistakes that you might make with Pay What You Can? What have you seen?

Tad: The biggest one I call the “Put the Money in the Basket.” People will do an event or concert or whatever it is. Then they say, “Everybody, thanks for coming. Thanks so much. There’s a basket at the back of the room. Put some money in it if you want to put some money in. You don’t have to. There’s no pressure. Please, don’t bother. You’re probably broke. Don’t put any money in. It’s cool. In fact, if there’s money in the basket and you need some, just take some out. In fact, I have $5 here. Who wants some money?”

There’s this crazy awkwardness about it, and it’s very disorganized. There’s so many challenges with that. One of the biggest ones is you’ll have people who want to give you money who will just forget.

They genuinely are like, “I’m going to give $20.” They’ll have it in their hand and walk by. They just get caught up in a conversation. They’ll feel bad about it later. So there’s that.

Robert: So don’t do that.

Tad: Don’t do that. The other mistake I’ve seen, there’s so many, one is this. It’s funny. I was talking with a street performer, Nick Nickolas, who’s this brilliant guy from Australia, and I asked him. You know street performers will do their whole show. They’ll do their pitch at the end. I noticed how different street performers had a different pitch at the end. You know how they phrase it differently. His pitch was really short. A lot of performers would be really long.

I asked him, “Nick, what do you say is the biggest mistake street performers make when they do their pitch? “He said, “They save too much of it for the end. They do this whole show and then there is this whole thing. If you watch my show, you’ll notice that I’m sort of doing the pitch throughout the show.”

So he’ll do a trick, and he’ll be like, “An old lady saw me do that trick, and came up to me and said, ‘I like that. That show was really good. That show was worth $5.’” Then he looks at the audience, “I just thought I’d point that out.”

He may make a reference, “If you’d seen me do this at a pub, you’d buy me a beer and a beer is $5. I just thought I point that out.” He’s naming it.

Robert: He’s priming the audience for them to expect that he’s going to ask for some money, but it’s going to be reasonable.

Tad: Yeah and he’s also saying, “Here’s what I think it’s worth. Here’s what you’d pay anywhere else.” He gives a number of examples throughout the show.

When I do a weekend workshop, it’s not like, “Hey, it’s a Pay What You Can workshop,” and then at the very end, “By the way, you’d pay $2,000 anywhere else.” That would be a real shock for people.

In the sales letter and in the flow of the weekend, I’m making reference to it. I’m saying, “I was at this Jay Abraham marketing workshop. It was $5,000 for five days, and he had 600 people there.” I’m using it to illustrate the principle of risk reversal, but I’m naming that so there’s some understanding as we go through.

I think another mistake people make is pretty rare, but I’ve still seen it. People say it’s basically a free event, and then they pass the hat at the end. That’s terrible. Or they charge something at the door and then do a pass-the-hat as well. That’s a terrible mistake.

Also a mistake is giving no context for what it’s worth and then being shocked at how little they receive at the end. It’s like I do a whole weekend, but if they have no idea what to pay, they will generally pay like $20 or $50. There’s got to be a context.

And not developing their back end. Pay what you can is great, especially as a lead generator, but like you’re saying, they may go through the weekend and then decide to work with you one on one or sign up for an advanced thing. It’s really important to think about what’s going to happen after.

Robert: In marketing we call that the back end. The front end is the initial sell. The back end is long-term sales and business that you generate.

Tad: I think it really is a mistake to think about doing everything as a Pay What You Can. It just isn’t going to be appropriate in every situation.

I think a mistake, too, is giving up after one event because it didn’t make the money they thought they deserved, versus getting really curious. “How can I tweak this to make this even better and make it more valuable?”

I think actually one of the bigger mistakes is when people who are using Pay What You Can treat it too casually. It’s sort of like, “Pay whatever you want,” versus really, especially in a workshop setting, creating the space to talk about it. I take about half an hour at the end of my workshop to talk about money and to talk about the payment for the workshop.

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| Categories: marketing strategy, PWYC - Tags: communicating value, generosity based business, marketing, pay what you can, stories

Where is Pay What You Can Most Useful?

By: Tad | Published: July 13, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Robert: Tad, where does Pay What You Can seem to work best? We talked about workshops, but that is not the only thing. What are some other kinds of services that you could use this for?

Tad: You can use it for special events, like it’s a one-time sort of thing.

Here’s the biggest overall thing that I’ve found. Pay what you can seems to work best in situations where people have a really clear sense of what it already costs. If it’s a Pay What You Can restaurant, people kind of know what they’re going to pay at a restaurant generally. If it’s an album, people know.

But if it’s a marketing workshop or it’s a retreat or it’s a consultation, people don’t necessarily know. In that case you have to educate them.

I think it works really well for group events. I do some one-on-one Pay What You Can, and it works okay, but I definitely think with group things it’s more financially viable.

It tends to work really well in the industries where no one else is doing it. If you’re a theater and you’re like, “Hey, cutting edge new thing: We’ve got a Pay What You Can matinee.” Well, everybody does that.

So I think it also does exceptionally well in traditionally high-ticket industries where you’re just expected to pay a lot. If you suddenly say, “Hey look, you’d be spending $3,000 anywhere else for this, but I’m going to offer it on a Pay What You Can basis,” that’s great.

Robert: Something I noticed in your letter about your workshop is that you give a little comparison chart of what some of the high-end marketing workshops are charging. They’re charging anywhere from $5,000 to $1,500, or something in that ballpark.

People are seeing, “For this workshop, we’re going to give you comparative value and you Pay What You Can,” so you create the perception that, “Wow! This sounds like a really good deal. I’m not sure I’d risk $5,000, and there seems to be so much hype. You’re not giving me so much hype and it sounds good anyway, so why not try?”

That’s sort of how the mind thinks through this before you sign up.

Tad: Yes, and I think obviously Pay What You Can is best placed for people who are really wanting to grow their business and attract more clients, versus doing more with the clients they have.

Even so, this could be used with existing clients. You say, “Hey, there is this new second-level thing and I want to try it out. I’m willing to try it for the first one on a Pay What You Can basis.”

It can be used as a gift for existing clients like a reward. “You’re some of my favorite clients, so I wanted to offer you this on a Pay What You Can.”

If you’re rolling out something new and you want feedback on it, this is practice time for people who feel like they’re still apprenticing.

You know, I just feel like real humility is not our biggest virtue in this culture. For people who are starting out, I think sometimes there can be this pretense of needing to position themselves more strongly as an expert than they are and try to charge the same rates.

I was probably guilty of that when I started. When I started doing Pay What You Can, it felt so good. I really felt like I was apprenticing. I thought, “I am still learning this, and let me figure out from other people what this is worth. Let me get that real feedback.”

It’s funny. I’ve done some crap weekends where I tried it. I thought, “I’m going to try this new exercise.” It was a disaster. I got paid less, and I thought, “How appropriate.”

Robert: If you do stuff that’s not so good, they’re going to pay you less. You’re always thinking, “How can I put this together to give the most value so they’ll reciprocate?” That’s great. That makes a lot of sense.

I think there are a lot of people in this club who are coaches. I can see beginning coaches using this as not-a-forever strategy but for a beginning strategy.

“I’m starting coaching. Most coaches charge X hundred dollars a month. What I’m doing is offering the first three months totally based on a Pay What You Can basis. Pay what you think it is worth. Then after that, we’ll continue it on a slightly different format perhaps.” It’s a good way to get started and get some initial clients.

Tad: I would almost recommend for coaches the Christian Mickelsen thing, “The 3 Sessions that Sell.” It’s so brilliant. I love that interview with him. (This material is included in Part 4.5 of the Fast Track – Selling Conversations.)

I think part of the challenge of Pay What You Can is when it’s a continual thing. I think what you’re saying about doing it for three months is probably the most I would do it for. I haven’t tried it. My sense is that it would start to feel weird. But if you sell it as a package, I think that could work really well.

Robert: Especially if you can look back and measure the results. We’re going to talk about conditions whereby you offer this. That’s very important. But nevertheless, that’s a possibility. Are there some businesses or situations where it doesn’t work as well?

Tad: I think ongoing situations I would just raise the flag on. Memberships or a series of workshops, I’m not sure.

Robert: I have this Marketing Club which is $29 a month. If I told everyone every month, “Pay what you can,” it would probably fall apart. It would also be very hard to administer.

Tad: Exactly and I think it would be stressful for people every time having to reevaluate.

Robert: I didn’t use it this month, so I won’t pay this month, etc.

Tad: I think also situations where people have no idea what to pay. Again, if you’re getting a magazine or staying at a hotel, you kind of look at it and say, “I have a sense of what this could be worth.” But if it’s something where people don’t know, that’s trouble.

Industries where it’s very low-ticket, where things have been commoditized so much that it’s really cheap, could be trouble. Then you do Pay What You Can, and people are going to look at everyone doing it and say, “It’s just worth this because that’s what everyone else is doing. “

If you’re in that kind of industry, you really have to innovate and differentiate yourself from that industry and say, “I know it would normally be this. Here’s how we’re different and better.”

I guess if an entrepreneur has a really huge list and they can’t handle any more clients or, you know, they’re not wanting to grow at all, it’s probably not a good thing. It’s probably better to just change to a finite amount.

Robert: Yes. For instance, I have a high-ticket program called the Marketing Mastery Program, and I can easily fill that and at the price that I want to get. Pay what you can just wouldn’t make sense for me.

Tad: Exactly.

Robert: But if I was maybe starting it the first time, it was experimental, and I wanted to see how it worked, then it might work in that situation. You really have to think through this. It’s not an overall blanket pricing strategy for your business, but it really can be used in certain places to get things going.

After all, if you did it as a workshop, you had a lot of people at the workshop, and then those workshop participants were people you talked to later who converted into one-on-one clients, it could be a fabulous marketing strategy.

One of the first things I did years ago when I moved my business from San Francisco to Silicon Valley was a couple of one-day workshops. I actually offered them completely for free, Tad.

If I’d known this, maybe I would have done this, but I didn’t want any resistance whatsoever. A ridiculous number of people showed up. Approximately 180 people showed up for these things.

I gave them a good one-day workshop, but it warmed it up for my business. I got clients from it. The next year, I did it again. I launched my InfoGuru Marketing Manual and started to sell hundreds of them. Things just took off.

Tad: People can get so precious. It’s funny. I want to see people getting their needs met in their business, and there can be a bit of ego in it. People think, “I am going to be paid what I’m worth.”

I remember Thomas Leonard. Some people are probably familiar with him. I was talking with him one time, and he was telling me how he started. He’d been doing it for awhile and he had this workshop.

He just was like, “I want to offer it for free,” and his branding coach was freaked out, “No, you’ll destroy your brand. People won’t perceive the value.” He said, “Whatever. I still want to do it for free.” He packed it so full with so many people.

Robert: He created some energy. I was in the same office as him.

Tad: No kidding?

Robert: It was in the late 1980s when he did that, and I actually attended one of those workshops.

Tad: That’s a trip.

Robert: It’s interesting. The difference between Pay What You Can, or even free up front, is infinity compared to even a low price like $50. If you do a Pay What You Can, you’ll get more people than even a low price of $50.

Tad: I’ll tell you, when I started I was doing a lot of the free intros. It took me honestly about five years to really figure out the intro that I wanted to do. I did a lot of them. I kept tinkering, and a lot of it was me figuring my own understanding of marketing.

I just did it for free, and I kept tinkering and fiddling. Then just in the last couple of years, people started paying me for them. I was like, “No, this is a free intro,” and they said, “Yeah, but I need to pay you.” I’d say, “No, no! It’s free.” They’d say, “Really, shut up and just take my money.”

Robert: They felt they got a lot of value obviously.

Tad: Yeah, that’s when I decided I’d start charging for it. Now I do my intros, which used to be free, on a sliding scale of $1 to $40, which is sort of a strategy.

If you’re going to do a sliding scale, why not make it the lower end? Again, if you have enough clients and can fill it easily, don’t worry about it, but why not make it $1 to $40? Nobody is going to pay $1, but the fact that it is $1, who’s going to say no to it?

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