Into Every Life a Little Rain Must Fall - Part 1
"Into every life a little rain must fall." And into every
business too. Don't have the luxury of surplus cash to fund a
rainmaker for your business? Well then, it'll have to be up to
you. As usual. Here's how:
YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE COMPETITION
"Everyone wants to win on Sunday, but not everyone is willing to
practice Monday through Friday." Vince Lombardi
If you asked all of your competitors whether they want to be
successful, it's a fair bet that pretty much all of them would
say "Yes, of course, who doesn't want to be successful?"
But if you asked your competitors if they were prepared to do
what it takes to develop their businesses so they could
ultimately become successful, to pay the price in terms of
effort, discipline, perseverence and patience, although most if
not all would probably answer "yes, of course, whatever it
takes", the reality is that very few of them actually would.
Although everyone wants success, very few are prepared to pay
the price over the long haul. Oh, they may give it a good go for
a little while but when the results don't come quickly, they
decide their efforts aren't working and try something else.
The cold, hard reality is that success takes hard work, lots of
it, and lots of time. Overnight successes are very rare. That's
why successful people say there's always room at the top. It's
because most people quit before succeeding, even when success is
literally just around the next bend. This is why you have very
little competition. Although you may think you have a lot of
competition, in reality you're really competing against only ten
percent or so because the other ninety percent will drop out
before they achieve success.
Think of your business as a garden. The first stage is to decide
what you want to grow, the second stage is to go get seeds and
plant them, the third stage is to tend your garden and the
fourth is to reap what you have sown. The greatest challenge for
most people is to sustain themselves through the third stage.
This is where patience is essential because it may be some
considerable time between planting and reaping. Tending your
garden also requires, in addition to patience, creativity, self-
motivation, self-discipline, perseverence and resilience (all
the better to bounce back with after disappointment, my dear).
The good news, though, is that ninety percent of your
competitors can't or won't stick it out long enough to reach the
harvest stage. This is why you can be always be a success no
matter how much competition you have. So, let's get to it.
DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO GROW
Before you can plant your seeds, you need to know what it is you
want to grow.
"Communicating one on one is different. This requires listening,
never taking your eyes off that person, conveying the impression
that this conversation is very important to you." Rick Pitino
The first step in communicating with anyone about your business
is knowing with absolute clarity what it is you and your
business are about. You must decide what it is that you offer
and to whom. This means finding your niche. It is the kiss of
death to any business to try to be all things to all people.
Accept the fact that not everyone is a worthwhile prospect for
your business and don't waste your energies targeting anyone who
is not a worthwhile prospect.
For example, let's say your business is about web site
optimization for search engines. You take your clients' web
pages and you optimize them for each of the engines, tailoring
the pages to rank well. You don't design web pages, you don't
create them, you don't offer credit card merchant facilities or
shopping carts. You optimize existing pages to rank well in the
search engines. Period. This is a very specific niche within the
broader market of those requiring help marketing their web-based
businesses.
Although that broad market will include people interested in web
page optimization, it will also include people interested in
learning HTML, looking for shopping cart assistance, looking for
website design services or information on successfully promoting
affiliate programs. If you targeted this entire market, it would
be like trying to find a needle in a haystack identifying those
people interested specifically in web page optimization.
Instead, narrow your focus to that niche of the market that you
have decided to target and target ONLY that market. Everything
you do needs to be focused on web site optimization and nothing
else. Every communication you make must be to that end and no
other. Don't allow your message to be diluted by generalizing.
Don't allow your business to become fragmented.
The most effective rainmakers are very skilled at
differentiating themselves and their businesses from the
competition because they know exactly what they are selling and
to whom before they ever meet their first prospect. They have
rehearsed over and over in their minds what it is that makes
them special and why a client would be smart to do business with
them. They relish questions such as "So what do you do?", "What
makes you special?" and "Why should I do business with you?".
While ordinary mortals may stumble and fumble for effective
responses to such questions, rainmakers have no such problem.
Effective rainmakers know, specifically and precisely, exactly
what they do and who benefits from their services and they are
ready with powerful statements about their skills and talents.
You cannot be effective in developing your business unless you
have mastered service knowledge. You need to know the features
of your products or services so that you can tailor the benefits
to the prospective customer's needs. Be sure you know the
difference between features and benefits. If you're selling bar
stools, a feature of the stool is that it has three legs. The
benefit is that sitting on it will stop you hitting the floor.
Remember: features tell, benefits sell.
Now, once you've identified the features and benefits of your
product or service, develop a fifteen second commercial that you
can trot out on cue whenever someone asks you, "So what do you
do?". Most people are unprepared to answer a question like this
effectively and so it is a golden opportunity to set yourself
apart. Your fifteen second commercial will help you seize the
moment and put your best foot forward. Use your fifteen second
commercial to let each person you meet know exactly what you do
and why you and your business are so special.
A fifteen second commercial for our web site optimization
service might go something like this:
Prospect: "So, what do you do?"
You: "I run my own business, "Web Site Optimization". I tweak
clients' web pages to optimize them for the various search
engines. By creating a web page that appears in the first thirty
search results for a particular search term, the client gets a
huge increase in traffic to their web site and their sales go
through the roof."
When should you use your fifteen second commercial? Each and
every time you are introduced to someone new. Get in the habit
of delivering your fifteen second commercial to as many people
as possible. The more times you deliver it the more chances you
have to create rain.
You also need to develop a uniqueness statement to respond to
the question, "What's different about your service compared to
your competition?". Use a three step format for your uniqueness
statement. Step one is to briefly overview the three features
and benefits that you will elaborate on in step two. Step two is
to use three tailored features and benefits to explain your
uniqueness to the potential customer. Select one about your
business's services/ products, one about something your business
has accomplished, and one about you personally. In step three,
summarize what you've just told the prospect.
Here's an example of a uniqueness statement for our web site
optimization service:
Prospect: "So what's different about your service compared to
your competition?".
You: "I'm glad you asked. What's different about "Web Site
Optimization" is the depth of our service, our results and our
people.
"Unlike most of our competitors, we don't just create one web
page for all of the search engines. Each search engine has
different criteria for pages to rank well. We create a different
version of each page specifically designed for each main search
engine. For example, one of our clients' rankings on Alta Vista
increased from the 75th position to 15th in less than a month.
He's experienced a 500% increase in traffic and sales as a
result. I have a background in software engineering for Yahoo so
I have access to inside information about how the search engines
work that most of my competitors just can't get.
"So, in answer to your question, what's different about us is
the depth of our service, our results and the unique experience
of our people."
It will take many rehearsals until you have your fifteen second
commercial and uniqueness statement down cold. At first it will
feel unnatural to you to give people a rehearsed speech but over
time it will feel less awkward and you'll be able to deliver it
with an ease and assurance that will sound perfectly natural.
PLANTING SEEDS
"A network is an organized collection of your personal contacts
and your personal contacts' own networks. Networking is finding
fast whom you need to get what you need in any given situation
and helping others do the same." Harvey Mackay
=> Your Existing Network
Now that you know what to say, you have to find people to say it
to. To establish your network, start with who you know. These
are your existing personal and business contacts ... the people
who will always take your call and who can help you reach your
goals. Consider people such as your attorney, accountant,
doctor, agents, sales people, family, colleagues, friends and
vendors.
Schedule a meeting with who you know for the express purpose of
exploring ways you can help each other expand your respective
networks. If there's a fit, create ways to support each other.
You are not looking to sell the other person on your product or
service. Instead, you are establishing a genuine relationship
with this person. It doesn't matter that although you may be
able to help this person directly, he or she may never be in a
position to reciprocate. The reason it doesn't matter is that
this person has a network of his or her own and may therefore be
able to put you in contact with someone else who can help you.
Noticing the strengths in others and communicating them is one
of the greatest relationship-building skills a rainmaker can
have. Much more than just paying idle, often shallow
compliments, effective networkers focus on helping others focus
on their strengths by using evidence to back what they're saying.