Meet Calvin (Left) and Hobbes (right). They
are cousins (their moms were sisters). Yes, we know the comic
strip characters are a boy and a male tiger, but in this case
our Hobbes is a girl.
It might seem strange but in the 4+ years
these two have been a part of our lives, they have taught me
much about marketing. This article is just the first of three.
I’ll post the final two on my blog over the next couple of weeks
and send you a notice so you can read them as they are pubished.
I think you will enjoy the comparisons and
learn something yourself. If you're not a cat lover, just go
with it and see what these revelations bring for you.
We rescued our two kitties from the outdoors
when they were just 4 and 6 months old. They are definitely our
furkids and are the most high maintenance cats we've ever had,
but we love them anyway. When we got them they didn't trust
anything or anyone. They hid under the couches a lot. It took
them both about 2 years to stop jumping when the furnace kicked
on. It took them until last year to finally really be
comfortable and trust the people and noises that were common in
the house. They even started coming out from hiding when we had
company. Calvin would finally accept attention from strangers
even. Hobbes, not so much.
They had plenty of reasons to be scared. They
had spent their early years living in a yard with about 20 other
cats, a dog and a dangerous street with cars. It was a tough
life fighting for food, trying to stay healthy, and not get
hurt. Humans were just people who tried to trap them and do
scary things to them like use cotton balls and wipe their ears,
poke them, or take them to the scary Vet. No wonder they didn't
trust the new house and the humans that came with it. This
brings me to the first comparison and how it affects you and
your business.
Lesson #1 - Consider where your clients are
coming from.
Hubby and I have had many cats in our lives,
but never such skittish ones. These two challenged us. We had to
work hard to get them to trust us. We had to figure out the best
way to go about touching them so as not to scare them. We had to
figure out how not to make too much noise with their food and
even our footsteps. We had to deal with the fact that Hobbes
wouldn't let us hold her at all even though she wanted all the
attention we could manage to give her. We had to completely
rethink how we interact with cats. And cat’s aren’t the only
ones who can come to us a bit skittish.
Clients are the same in that they have a
history that comes with them. Perhaps they have had negative
experiences with someone else in your industry. That will show
up as they decided to work with you. So you need to adjust and
accommodate the fears they are bringing with them. You need to
speak to the experiences they may have had before that would
hold them back now. You need to eliminate fear of moving forward
as much as possible. You need to show them you are different
than those who have let them down in the past. You can't
just tell them. That's not enough. You have to SHOW them in
every piece of marketing you create. Through the words you use,
the personality you show, the tone of voice you use on calls and
in recordings. Everything you say and do has an impact. Even in
your marketing.
I have spoken to many potential clients who
have had baggage from a previous marketer who tried to help
them. One such person had paid over $10,000 to learn some
marketing techniques. In the end she got some great strategies,
but had no idea what her next steps were or even the technology
needed to accomplish those steps.
She had talked to some other marketers but was
hearing the same thing she’d heard from that first marketer, so
she was about ready to give up. She was considering whether she
could even run her own business.
Then she stumbled upon my website and
contacted me for an appointment to discuss the possibilities of
working together. I always ask potential clients what it was
that made them want the appointment. This potential client said
that there was something about the way I talked in my articles
that she could relate to. My honesty and candor really appealed
to her. She also had seen me using a lot of the marketing
technologies that she didn’t feel she had the capacity to use.
At the same time, she also noticed that I specifically worked
with people like her. She was pretty well sold by the time she
got me on the phone with her. The reason is because I
demonstrated my own knowledge and skills. I knew that these
things were hard to come by when I created my marketing and I
made sure that I highlighted it wherever I could. I SHOWED
her through my marketing that I was different and not like the
person she’d just finished working with. I also showed her
that I work with people just like her. I spoke directly to her
in my marketing, because I know who my target market is and what
they are looking for.
She trusted me because of all these things and
wanted to work with me right away. So, take a look at the next
piece of marketing you create. Are you injecting what makes you
different? Are you integrating who you are? Do you know where
your clients have been and what they need as a result of that?
Let me know your thoughts by hitting reply to
this e-mail or contacting me at
http://www.coachesmarketingsource.com/contact.html.
Watch your inbox for Lesson #2 which I learned
from Hobbes. |
Kristen
has had many different careers before creating Coaches' Marketing
Source. She's been a Music Teacher, Professional
Singer/Actress, and held many different administrative positions
over the years. Since 2000, Kristen has been a marketer for
herself and many others in the online world. Add that to
overcoming a childhood where she tested and researched people before
she'd give them an ounce of trust. Together you have Kristen
Beireis, Trust Marketing Expert, who can test your marketing and
find the places where you can improve your trust factor in the
writing, technology, and systems you use in your marketing.