Put Your Marketing on AUTOPILOT

Put Your Marketing on AUTOPILOT
By Fabienne Fredrickson

Would you be surprised if I told you I actually coach a LOT of marketing consultants and business coaches who help others build their businesses? Many of these consultants and coaches come to me because, even though they know how to put these steps into practice, they still don’t have a full practice, or at least not consistently. WHY?

The reason is simple. They don’t market consistently.

What usually happens (to most of us self-employed professionals) is that we get caught up in the everyday of our businesses and when we have clients, we focus our entire days on those clients. (Is that the case for you too?)

Until the clients leave and our well runs dry. So, we find ourselves digging our well when we’re thirsty. This is the scenario my clients tell me about: because they know what to do, when marketing consultants need clients, they market, market, market, market, and sign up a bunch of new clients. Then, because they have all these new clients, they stop marketing. No time to market!

But, sooner or later, the well runs dry once again and they have to start marketing furiously again. So they, market, market, market, and they again sign up a bunch of new clients. Then the same thing happens and they start living this unbearable life of Feast or Famine, an intolerable rollercoaster they wish they could stop. Well, now they can.

The solution: you can eliminate “Feast or Famine” by being systematic about your Client Attraction and putting your marketing on autopilot.

The only way to make sure you always have a full practice is to always market. The best way to do that is to make all the pieces of your marketing pie run on a system, like a well-oiled machine that doesn’t need you to be there the whole time, just once in a while to make sure everything’s going smoothly.

As clients get to know me in our one-on-one private coaching, they tend to see how fanatical I can be about systems. I’ve created systems for EVERYTHING, probably because I wasn’t always a very disciplined person by nature. (I know I’m not the only one, so don’t start throwing stones!)

So to counteract that (because I need to have a full practice at all times or else I’d have to go back to being corporate, which is a big no-no for me), I make sure everything I do runs like clockwork.

Here’s how I do it and how I’ve taught hundreds of clients how to do it too:

• Breakfast networking group (WEEKLY MEETING, paid for once a year and booked in my calendar for the entire year).



• Associations (MONTHLY MEETING, paid for once a year and booked in my calendar for the entire year).



• Free teleclasses on how to attract clients, MONTHLY.



• My own seminars (BIMONTHLY, paid for and booked at the beginning of the year).



• E-zine (WEEKLY, goes out ever week, without exception—my assistant makes sure that it does).



• Articles for association newsletters (MONTHLY, schedule of articles and deadlines are set by the association).



• Speaking for associations/organizations/conferences (OFTEN WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY, I have a list of speaking opportunities that I’m constantly following up on to get booked regularly).



• Strategic alliances (OFTEN WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY, I have a list of strategic alliances that I’m constantly following up on to do things with regularly).

Do you see a trend? Everything I do in terms of Client Attraction, every single piece of my own Marketing Pie, is set up to work automatically and systematically. I set these things up ahead of time and then all I have to do is show up. I don’t ever have to worry about what I have to do next. It’s already in my calendar.

This is the one thing that I have rarely seen in any book or course that teaches you how to get clients, yet I think it’s one of the most crucial.

If you don’t set things up to be systematic, then you won’t stay on track. If you don’t stay on track, you won’t market consistently. If you don’t market consistently, then you won’t take action and get results consistently. That means you’re going to have a much harder time keeping your practice consistently full, UNLESS you set things up to work on their own, with a little tweak from you here and there.

Your Assignment:

Set up systems for everything that is marketing and Client Attraction. Figure out what you will do daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly so you too can go from being undisciplined with not enough clients, to disciplined with a full practice.

If you’re not sure where to start, everything’s laid out in the Client Attraction Home Study System™, the “bible” for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed. Here’s where you can get your own copy: TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2006 Fabienne Fredrickson

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Craft Marketing Questions That PULL Clients In

Craft Marketing Questions that PULL Clients In
By Fabienne Fredrickson

Do you dream of picking up the phone and hearing the person on the other end of the line say, “Hi, you don’t know me but I’d like to work with you. Here’s my credit card number. When can we start?”

You might laugh, but isn’t that what we all really want, deep down?

Well, the good news is, it’s totally POSSIBLE. I’ve found a way to make this happen and can honestly say that a third of the private coaching clients I sign on, I’ve never met before and don’t know who they are until I get that phone call that says they’re ready to get started. Here’s how I do it and how you can too.

You need to stop pushing and start PULLING your clients in with your materials. To educate your environment and turn interest into a prospect and a prospect into a client, you’ll need some marketing materials that REALLY SPEAK to them.

You’re looking for something that PULLS them in and gets them to, at all costs, want to talk to you:

Here’s how you get ready for the next assignment:

• Put yourself in their shoes first.


• Stop focusing on yourself and talk about them and their struggles.


• Then, only then, can you position yourself as their problem solver.

A good example of something that will PULL ideal clients in is a set of compelling questions to which your ideal client would answer YES for each and every question.

Examples of this are on the back of my business card and on my website www.ClientAttraction.com:

• Not attracting enough clients to your existing small business?


• Do you love what you do but haven’t mastered that “marketing thing” yet?


• Are your current clients not sending you enough referrals?


• Do you wish you could turn more prospects into paying clients?


• Do you sometimes feel like you’re just pushing too hard?

The questions above were formulated based on what brand new clients were coming to me for. Many of them used the above topics as things they wanted to work on and resolve immediately with my help. So, seeing that this was what was drawing clients to me without much effort on my part (and they were very good clients), I decided to put together a set of standard questions that would begin to develop trust and credibility among other prospects and suspects. What would yours be?

The key here is to focus on your Ideal Client’s struggles and hot buttons first. To get them into the pain just slightly, so they realize their situation isn’t as great as they’d like it to be.

But mostly, the questions above will get your prospective clients to feel like you REALLY understand their situation and you’ve been helping people like them for a long, long time.

Once they feel that trust and see you can provide them with the results they need, they’ll be closer to picking up the phone to call YOU.

Your Assignment:

What questions can you use to PULL prospects in, based on the struggles, challenges and hot buttons they have?

Be sure the people reading the questions will answer “yes” to all of them (instead of yes, no, yes, no) and you keep it to no more than 6 or 7 of them, so you don’t overwhelm them in the process. Once you’ve written them all out, put them on the back of your business card, on your home page, etc.

You’ll get their attention with the questions, and they’ll be much more likely to read the rest of what you’ve got to say, and if you continue to talk to them in terms of the results they can expect from working with you, you’re golden! Just be ready for new clients…

That’s just ONE of the many tools you can easily implement to PULL clients in (and stop pushing so hard to fill your practice). Wanna know all the tools I use myself and thousands of my clients have used for the same purpose? Then you’ll probably want to either call me to investigate private coaching, or look into the Client Attraction Home Study System™ for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed. Here’s where you can get a copy: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2006 Fabienne Fredrickson

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Plan Out Your 3 Year Vision for Getting Clients (and the Life You Really Want)

Plan Out Your 3 Year Vision for Getting Clients
(and the Life You Really Want)
By Fabienne Fredrickson

In practice building (and getting clients) it seems to be that most self-employed people just hope for the best. They simply keep doing what they’ve been doing and don’t have a strategy for creating the practice they’d be truly and deeply happy with. This is a big mistake in my opinion.

I used to write down my goals each year, but it never really worked for me. I just didn’t feel really excited about my new goals. They didn’t seem to propel me in motion and so I kind of viewed them as being useless. I never really looked at them, probably because they seemed like “shoulds” rather than “really-meaningful-wants.”

Then I came across the concept of creating 3 year visions instead of just a list of goals for the upcoming year. This visioning wasn’t just about business goals, but also family, financial, spiritual and relationship goals. It became a “holistic” way of looking at what you wanted in your life. All the pieces looked like they would work together, but only because you were forced to make it all work together, which was the first time I’d done that in such depth.

The coolest thing about visioning 3 years out; however, came to me after I started doing this regularly. I noticed that ONE year goals were never too much of a stretch. They seemed like timid goals, goals that didn’t really get me excited. But having to create a vision of what 3 years down the line would look like allowed me to REALLY think BIG. Inhibitions dropped. My creative side started going and I really took the time to see, “Hey, what WOULD I want my life to look like in 3 years, if I could have time to create it?” SHAZAM! I felt like I’d hit the jackpot.

The 3 year vision was a way for me to create something to strive for that REALLY spoke to me. Something that made my heart beat a little faster after I read it, excited to get going, and just a little bit scared of the thought of me reaching it. Now THAT would propel me into motion the way a yearly list of goals wouldn’t be able to do. (By the way, my deep down secret feeling is that I strive to reach these in 2 years, not 3 and that’s usually what happens.)

So, each year, around this time, I create a 3 year vision of what I want my practice to look like. I write it in the present tense, as if it were 3 years later, that same day. For example, I wrote mine on January 3, 2006 as if it was January 3, 2009, and I talked about all the things that had happened since 2006. All the things I’d accomplished in my business, with my finances, my investments, my family, my house, over the “last 3 years,” which obviously haven’t actually happened yet.

Such a cool exercise and it really gets the blood flowing when you read it back to yourself.

“When you can clearly see yourself being there, you can see much more clearly how to get there. You can imagine the path to your dreams, then start to actually walk it. Play an active role in your own future. Imagine with passion and detail how you'd most like it to be.” —Ralph Marston, http://greatday.com—

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Your turn. Create a 3 year vision dated January 6, 2009. Do it today. Your 3 year vision must be one that will literally PULL you into your future, will scare you just a little bit, and make your heart beat a little faster than normal whenever you read this.

Make your 3 year vision very specific, realistic and a big STRETCH (that’s what’s going to move you forward quicker than you would if you didn’t have it.) If you’re right brained, use bullet points for categories such as these:

Business/Clients

Marketing

Financial/Revenues

Personal

Family

Spiritual

Fun

Health

If you’re left-brained, then write freely, and remember to keep it all grounded in the specific, with lots of MEASURABLES and TANGIBLES thrown in there so you can keep track of your progress over the next 3 years (that’s what I do).

One last thing. Make sure to write in the present tense as if it were today’s date 3 years from now… If it doesn’t scare you or get your mind racing, then it’s probably not enough of a stretch.

By the way, I just looked back to last year’s 3 year vision and I was SHOCKED to see how many of the goals in my 3 year vision I’d already achieved in just a little over a year. This stuff really works!!

Once you’ve done your 3 year vision and it’s time to get marketing in a big way for 2006, you’ll probably want to either call me to investigate private coaching, or look into the Client Attraction Home Study System™ for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed. It’s time. Are you ready? Here’s where you can get a copy: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2006 Fabienne Fredrickson

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

How Bold Can You Go With Your Elevator Speech?

How BOLD can you go in your elevator speech?
By Fabienne Fredrickson

“How LOW can you go?” is what you think about when you do the limbo. Since we’re talking about marketing, I’ll ask you this: How BOLD can you go, in describing what you do?

I was coaching a private client this week about how to turn his Kitchen Designer elevator speech into a conversation that elicits a prospective client meeting, right there at the networking event and in less than 5 minutes! The key? Come up with a claim for what you do that is the BOLDEST thing you can think of (while still being legal, of course).

Your claim should be so bold that the person listening to you will say “Wow, really? How do you do that??” This gives you permission to go into what you do and how you do it (preferably talking about your proprietary system). Now, whenever I talk to clients about this and we start working on this exercise, often the stuff they come up with is kinda bland, stuff we’ve heard before, and that doesn’t elicit that WOW we’re looking for. So, again, I stress, “What’s the BOLDEST THING you can say?” and then the good stuff comes out.

Use, the words below for some inspiration:

• Double in half the time


• A ___% increase over last year


• In less than 10 weeks


• Etc.

Here’s an example of a script I put together for my client:

Stranger: Hi, I’m Jane, we haven’t met yet.

John: Hi, I’m John Smith, founder of Amazing Kitchens.

Stranger: Hi, John, nice to meet you. So, what do you do?

John: I help homeowners increase their home’s value by up to 110% in less than 6 months. (BOLD CLAIM)

Stranger: Really?? How do you do that?

John: Well, you know how some homeowners... (insert CONVERSATIONALLY WRITTEN elevator speech, focus on struggles of the ideal client, and results and benefits they receive after working with you). Would you like to know more?

Stranger: Yes, please!

John: Great…what we can do is set up a complimentary meeting to talk about the approximate current value of your home, your kitchen “lifestyle,” and what we could do to increase your current living experience in your kitchen. We’ll then give you an estimate as to how much your home’s value would increase at resale time. Shall we chat briefly tomorrow to set up a time?

Stranger: Absolutely, let’s do that. Here’s my card.

John: Fantastic. (handshake) Nice, to meet you Jane. I’ll call you tomorrow to set that up, promise. (John made a date, now he’ll circulate and meet more people and do the same thing.)

CHACHING!

Now, granted, this is just a made-up example, but you get the point.

With a bold enough claim, you have permission to start a really compelling conversation, with an invitation to tell them your elevator speech. Not bad for 5 minutes, right?

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Your turn. What is the boldest claim you can make in the marketplace? If you put your creative hat on, how can you take what you do and transform it into something that prospective clients will be literally WOWED by and will want to know more about, eagerly? Take a pad of paper and brainstorm. Once you figure this out, I guarantee you’ll turn those ‘eyes-that-glaze-over’ into a lot more prospects in your pipeline.

Not sure how to get started with your compelling elevator speech or proprietary system to begin with? You’ll want to get a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™ for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed. Here’s where you can grab yours: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com. If networking is your nemesis, then by all means, you’ll need to check out the www.SecretsofNetworkers.com manual. It’s the bible on attracting a FLOOD of clients just by networking. Enjoy!

© 2005 Fabienne Fredrickson

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Overcoming Your Perfection Paralysis in Marketing

Overcoming Your Perfection Paralysis in Marketing
By Fabienne Fredrickson

Have you ever become a victim of your own perfection paralysis when it comes to marketing yourself? I talked to a few clients this week who have been toying with the idea of putting together a talk to promote their services for months but haven’t done anything about it. The problem is they’re waiting to have the talk written, finished, practiced, the flyer completed and have a list of marketing sources that are lined up to promote the thing before actually selecting a date and getting it done. NONSENSE!

If I’d waited to have all things perfectly settled before moving forward with a talk, I’d still have only 3 or 4 clients in my practice, and believe me, I wouldn’t be moving forward very quickly. Instead, I believe in scrapping this traditional route and going backwards. Ask any clients of mine and they’ll tell you I’m notorious for getting my clients to commit to a date 4 weeks from today (yes, we actually have them pull out their calendar and select the date right then and there) and book the space, time, and title of the talk, before anything else is done.

What are my clients’ reactions? Yup, you guessed it… “YIKES! I need to get my butt in gear and get things going! I’m giving a talk in 4 weeks!!!”

Magically, everything always gets done. The talk is written, finished, practiced, the flyer is completed and they have a list of marketing sources lined up to promote the thing, and always before the deadline. I call this being PULLED forward by your marketing, instead of being a victim of Perfection Paralysis.

When you set yourself up to stop procrastinating and to start working to make it happen, it works every time. In the past, I too have dragged my feet on picking a date for an event I wanted to give. ‘Should I have it in the summer, should I wait ‘til fall?’ Since nothing was happening, I pulled out my calendar, picked a date, gave my credit card number to reserve the space and then made it happen, and you can too! There’s nothing like setting a deadline and getting in gear to make it happen.

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Your turn. Are you procrastinating putting together a seminar or big event to market your services and reach out to your prospective clients? End the questioning NOW and just pick a date. Commit and then everything will fall into place because you’ll HAVE to get it done. Now, that’s what I call being pulled by your future. Use your coach or a buddy as an accountability benchmark, and then send them an email with the date of your newly scheduled seminar or workshop. The most accountable thing you can do though is to pay for the space ahead of time. That’ll get you moving! :)

If you like the idea of this unconventional way to market that gets you clients, you’ll love the Client Attraction Home Study System™ for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed. Here’s where you can get your own copy: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2005 Fabienne Fredrickson

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.