How involved are you with your clients?

I have a client that thinks he’s above any form of involvement with his clients!

I've tried to get him to change his mind on numerous occasions, but never got close to doing so.

Yet, I have a number of other client that take great pleasure in totally immersing themselves in their client bases.

One in particular told me recently, “you can't learn what's going on in the minds, hearts and souls of your clients by sitting around trying to be clever. What you must do, if you really want to learn how to market and sell your products and services, is to ensure that you make contact with and get amongst them.”

He also said, “to be successful you need to talk, laugh, weep, eat and drink with them, in fact do whatever you can do to get to know your clients as well as possible.”

So how do you stand on this?

Steve Jobs’ Top 3 Presentation Tips

I do a lot of presentations and workshops in my line of work.


But, because I’m professional and a bit of a perfectionist, I am constantly searching for better and more effective ways to engage with delegates.


As a consequence, I recently came across a transcript of a lecture Steve Jobs gave to a group of business development people.


He made three suggestions:

• Use personal stories to make a Point
• Speak from Your Heart
• Connect the Message to the Listener

Rather than lecturing them about the importance of following their dreams, improving abilities and having the confidence to know that everything will work out OK in the end; Steve Jobs’ chose to share three of guiding principles for ensuring an effective presentation. Presentations that are hugely effective because they are personal, memorable and connect with the listener on a heartfelt level.


Each of Steve Jobs’ three guiding principles forms both an anchor and a hook to the presentation and help to embed it in the listener’s memory.


So Tell a Story to help you make Make a Point!


If you have ever listened to Steve Jobs’ you will know that he always spoke from his heart. His stories were true, genuine and heartfelt, and his listeners could easily detect them as such.


So, how can YOU speak from your heart?


Well you need to speak about topics that you care about, things that you are genuinely passionate about. If you do, it will show through in your presentation.


So speak from your Heart!


Steve Jobs’ tells heart-felt stories that connect us and the lives we lead to his message.


Each of his stories has a key-takeaway message that the audience can apply to their lives.


e.g.  “You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, luck, life, karma…because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart”


So connect your heartfelt message to your listeners!

My Daily Actions

From time to time clients have a tendency to side track our conversations.

Often a conversation may go from “our marketing gets us to this point in the process then it just stops, so what can we do to improve things”  to “Terry you’re a really organised person, what’s your secret for always appearing to be on top of things?”

Once I’ve worked out that they are not ‘pulling my leg’ I tend to answer as follows:

1.  Plan – plan what you need to do tomorrow the evening before; and bring outstanding actions forward and prioritise them. Then, as faithfully as possible, action each in priority order. At the end of the week do a similar exercise but to cover the whole week ahead.

2.  Records - keep a record of your actions, outcomes and progress. What you might record will probably be different to what I would. Just keep a record of what’s important to you. Then review it periodically and try to deduce from it what it’s trying to tell you. Sometimes getting the ‘message’ is not that obvious.

3.  Positive Mental Attitude - your positive mindset will help you face all your challenges. Stay focused and be positive. If you do your actions (which in the fullness of time will become constructive habits) will significantly shape how successful you will be.

4.  Speak to others - if you keep your services to yourself, don’t be surprised if you don’t get any work. So be visible, speak to as many people as you can each day i.e.  Clients, prospects and contacts. This will keep your name and services ‘front of mind’ within your current and expanding network. It helps them to get to know you, like you and ultimately trust you; which will inevitably lead to more business.

5.  Write to someone - and make a significant impact! ‘Snail Mail’ is making a comeback. In an age an instant electronic communication how good is it to receive a real letter or card from someone who has taken the time and trouble to write to you personally. Receipt of such methods of communication will pay off in spades!

6.  Keep up to Date - we are only as valuable as the knowledge, service or products we can deliver that benefit our clients .So ‘read’ widely and your competence will increase and you will be more able to communicate with everyone more effectively.

Sometimes of course, clients don’t actually ask for my opinion - Their loss perhaps?

Call me back, pleeeaaase!

I don’t know about you but I use the telephone a lot, particularly my bright shiny new smart phone. Which I readily admit is a lot smarter than me i.e. it runs bills up that I‘m not even aware of!


So the telephone is a fundamental and irreplaceable resource to me.


If you’re anything like me you have to initiate a lot of telephone calls for all kinds of reasons. Not surprisingly a lot of my calls are associated with marketing/sale in some form or other; and yes I don’t get through to folk all the time. Which is OK because we are all busy people aren’t we? 


But you know some people are so busy they never return my calls. 


Why not?


Well I don’t really know, but I do suspect that these people are missing out a lot of the time, or as my American friends would say “they are just leaving money on the table”.


How’s that?


Well, if they did return our calls they may benefit significantly. Let’s say that the person calling:

• Could be your very next client! 
• Was wishing to refer you to your very next client
• Could have a significant influence in one or more of you most important areas e.g. industry, sector, region or client; or even in some other way that if you ignore them, it could prove not to be a good thing for your reputation or business profits. 
• Could know someone or something that you need to know to help you grow your business; make it more profitable or sustainable.

So don’t just assume its someone trying to sell you something (and strangely enough that could even be to your advantage) they may actually be wanting to do you a good turn!


Think about it!

When did you last receive a postcard from someone?

One of my clients uses a postcard system that I introduced him to a couple of years ago.


It works wonders for him in that it warms prospects up to consider the use of his services, get’s him referrals to other prospects and helps him retain clients.


He sends about 200 cards out per month and he gets about 30 responses as a consequence.


His cards look great. They always have great photographs and illustrations on them; and some really thought provoking copy.


Printed at the top of every card are the words:



"The World's most helpful Postcard"


He reckons it’s the best tool he has and its great in terms of ROI (return on investment) 


Why not try it yourself?


As a trial exercise, put a list of 50 of your contacts, prospects or client together and send them a postcard. Obviously it’s got to carry a personal note from you and should ask them to do something for you i.e. a call to action from you.


How much is that going to cost?


Nothing at all once it starts delivering the results you want.


Even if it were to produce only one referral, or repeat client  or reminds someone that you still want to do business with them  what could that be potentially worth to you?


Plus it's easy to do!


If you don’t know how you know a man who can help


Terry O'Mahony

WORDS ARE TRULY POWERFUL

It’s true, the right series of words can describe your company and the services or products it provides in the most positive terms possible. Such words will, if chosen wisely, help you break through all the other advertising messages out there and it will differentiate you from your competition.

 Alternatively they can actually break you!

So don’t wait, get yourself a really good copywriter and experience the difference he or she can bring to your sales performance.

They will, through the power of words:

·        write headlines that quickly attract your ideal clients

·         make your marketing message crystal clear & simply irresistible

For example, what do you make of the following copy?

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Did it motivate you to make contact?

Apparently it was one of the most effective methods used to generate new enquiries; it increased them by 63%.

So words can be extremely powerful, they can get people to do what you want them to do i.e. respond or be moved onto the next planned sales step.

If you need some help, you know a man who can.

IN RECESSIONARY TIMES, IF CASH IS KING, THEN MARKETING MUST BE QUEEN!

Jack, King or Queen, does it really matter?

Yes, in the sense that we have to recognise the effective marketing of your firm’s services or products is essential, especially in difficult recessionary times, and it must be given the appropriate level of attention and resources.

For instance, in a recent survey of construction firms and the types of marketing tactics and tools they employ, the following results were obtained;

Brochures and other printed sales materials-85.7%

Email-81%

Social Media-76.2%

Events-76.2%

Branding-61.9%

Public Relations-59.9%

Advertising-57.1%

Direct Mail-42.9%

Marketing Plans-28.6%

Website/SEO-28.6%

Blogs-23.8%

Lead Services-23.8%

Market Research-19.1%

Other-14.3%

Convincing stuff, yes?

Well, not in my experience. I have found that when I work with clients to create a better future for their firms, we tend to track the following steps.

Gain a perception of what business they are actually in or want to be part of

Develop a Marketing Plan

Produce a sale orientated and fully optimised website that generates leads

Re-engage with existing customers

Utilise planning report data

Make telephone introductions

Combination of automated direct mail, email and newsletters.

Social Media

Networking events (construction related)

The above actions tend to get clients on track, they know how to contact people, how to get them to move logically and smoothly to the next step that leads prospective clients towards closing out the sale.

Obviously, other clients find them selves driven and controlled by the procurement processes of others. Some clients insist on us following their methodologies which require a different approach.

But that’s for another occasion.

If you need help, you know a man who can