Does Your Voicemail Get You Clients? Time to Change That!

If you're serious about attracting clients consistently, I believe you should use every single piece of marketing "real estate" you can. Whether you've been in business for one year or 22 years, when you're marketing your business, you want to have systems in place that PULL in clients without you having to do much to make it happen.

It can even be as "little" as using your outgoing voice mail as a Client Attraction tool. One of the key things you can do to PULL people in that most people in business do not do, especially when they're working from home, is have an outgoing message on your voice mail or answering machine that describes exactly what you do, for whom, and what results they can expect.

The idea here is to have your voice explain what you do and how to give you referrals. So, instead of saying, "Hello, it's Mary, leave a message," you can say, "Hello, it's Mary of so-and-so business, helping (insert target audience) who struggle with (insert common problem) achieve more (desired outcome)."

Once they know exactly what you do and for whom, don't forget to list the best ways to reach you (other than phone): your e-mail, your website, and your tag line. Oh, and don't forget to include a call to action, like inviting them to visit your website and signing up for something. There are lots of different ways you can use your voice mail outgoing message as a way to get new clients. Remember to keep it pretty short or people will not want to call back.

Here's one version of mine, as an example:

"Hello you've reached Fabienne Fredrickson, creator of the Client Attraction System™ and ClientAttraction.com, where we teach self employed professionals and small businesses to attract more clients, in record time, every time. For more information or to grab your F.R.E.E. Audio CD and get weekly Client Attraction articles, visit ClientAttraction.com. Please leave a message and I'll call you back."

You'd be surprised how many people over the years became my client, when all they had originally was my phone number. As a result of the voicemail, they all told me they went onto the website, signed up for the ezine, attended teleclasses, and after a while, wrote in to say they were ready to work with me. Not bad for a simple voicemail message!

My motto around marketing real estate? "If you've got it anyway, use it to attract clients!"

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Create an outgoing message that can also act as a marketing tool, if it is brief. Include your tagline and e-mail address if it is easy to remember, direct callers to your website, and make sure to tell them about your newsletter or list any upcoming workshops you are promoting. You'll not only impress callers, you might just get a few new clients out of it.

Interested in more of these simple, highly effective marketing tools that attract new clients in the "real world?" Then it's time to invest in a step-by-step marketing system that will feel easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids all the unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most important things to do to find your niche, get out there in a big way, set up simple, solid systems, so you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It's all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you're done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com. (Reminder, it's going up from $247 to $697 in January, so act now.) You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com. (Reminder, it's going up from $247 to $697 in January, so act now.)

© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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.

Stop "Moving Your Own Piano" (You'll Then Attract More Clients While Making More)

Quote: " Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future." - Brian Tracy

Sometimes, the signs that it's time to invest in taking your business to go to the next BIG level show up without notice. Take this past summer, for example. The second call of my Preview Teleseminar Series for my workshop was scheduled and I was set to interview two inspiring and motivating solopreneurs on how they use the Client Attraction systems daily to make well into the 6-figures. We had close to a thousand entrepreneurs registered for the call and I was excited to host it.

Then, the unthinkable happened. As instructed, hundreds of people starting showing up 10 minutes early to make sure they would make it onto the line before it was maxed out. As I was greeting them, I kept asking if my two featured guests were on the line. My heart kept sinking further and further into my stomach as I realized neither of them could actually get on the line as moderators.

Call it a systems glitch, call it a disaster, there was nothing I could do. Emails were going back and forth, with my special guests telling me they were indeed on the line but no one could hear either of them. Meanwhile, nearly a thousand people were waiting patiently for us to figure out what was going on.

At that moment, I would have paid ANYTHING to be able to get an operator on the line to fix it for me. Anything.

I was crumbling inside, unsure of what to do. Have the call WITHOUT my two featured guests or reschedule it entirely? I chose to go on (perseverance) and asked everyone to hang up and dial in again, and was then able to get ONE of my guests on the moderator line. I interviewed her and it went great. Then, as she hung up to let the other guest onto the moderator line, I got cut off of my OWN call! I tried several times to get back onto the line and was blocked out for several minutes. (I found out later that Mercury was in retrograde.)

The whole thing unfolded like that scene from the movie Swingers when he leaves those messages, one after the other, sinking deeper and deeper into trouble. Have you seen it? Finally, I got on as a "regular" participant and had to keep the line un-muted for the rest of the call.

As I mentioned, I would have done (and paid) ANYTHING to be able to press a button and get an operator to help me. Throughout this episode, my intuition kept nudging at me saying, "Fabienne, you should have invested in your business and gotten the help you needed BEFORE this happened." But after years of frugally using basic services, I'd gotten too lazy and perhaps too complacent to spring for that PAID bridge line the million-dollar marketers are using.

The good news is, the call ended up being a huge hit. People wrote me to tell me how inspiring it was, how motivated they got as a result and ironically, no one mentioned the technical difficulties. Several people signed up for the workshop as a direct result of that call, and I was thrilled that no one even brought up the snafus. But I learned three MAJOR lessons that day:

1. Persevere. No situation is ever as bad as YOU think it is. You may be crumbling inside, but in other people's perceptions, it's just another day at the office. Keep going. It will always work itself out.
2. Let others take care of details for you so that you can focus on your "genius work", the stuff that actually makes you mo.ney. You see, Sinatra didn't move his own piano each time he sang at a gig. He had a team in place to handle those details so that he could focus on two things: Singing and Getting More Gigs. And that's what you should be focusing on too: Working With Clients and Getting More Clients. Everything else can be delegated.
3. Sometimes, it's time to put the frugal part of you behind and REALLY invest in your business. No more holding back. When it's time to grow, it's also time to take out your wallet and INVEST in making mo.re. That's what all the millionaire marketers do. My experience has been that, when I do invest in my business, it always comes back to me at least 4 to 10 times over. And although "money" is usually the excuse I've used in the past for not doing something (and I'm not the only one, you have too!), I've found that if I really look at a situation, I almost always have the resources to invest or can find a way to get them.

Just for the purpose of today's article, I'm adjusting Brian Tracy's quote from above:

"Invest three percent of your income in yourself [and your business] in order to guarantee your future."

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

How will YOU invest in your business this week? Notice what you have NOT taken advantage of because you're using the excuse of "not having enough money." Using that excuse is an insidious form of self-sabotage. It's a mindset that keeps you playing small and limits your growth. Time to stop being frugal and take action. The money will naturally show up to help you pay for it (it always does.)

Like many others, you might be wondering what to do to take action in your business. Perhaps you're missing the how-to. Then it's time to invest in a step-by-step marketing system that will feel easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids all the unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most important things to do to find your niche, get out there in a big way, set up simple, solid systems, so you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It's all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you're done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com. (Reminder, it's going up from $247 to $697 in January, so act now.)

© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and http://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 http://www.clientattraction.com/.

Think BIGGER About What's Possible For You and Get Out of Your OWN Way!

In preparation for my Marketing and Mindset Breakthroughs Workshop, I asked a few people to be part of my R&D team to find out what stopped them from getting out there in a BIG way to get clients. I also asked them to tell me the MOST they could see themselves making being self-employed. Honestly, I was saddened by the answers that rolled in, and their answers were right in line with what I hear from many other people I've talked to about this.

You see, most people have very LOW expectations on what can be made in self-employment. The average from my polling was between $50,000 and $75,000, and the highest amount I heard was about $150,000. Using SYSTEMS and LEVERAGE techniques in marketing and running your business, you can totally change that to create an income that is FAR beyond what you've ever thought was attainable for yourself. (I know that it may not seem possible as you read this, but I promise you, it IS possible for you too. I've done it for myself and I've done it for countless clients.)

To help you change your mindset around that, I wanted to share a paragraph in Louise Hay's book ‘You Can Heal Your Life,' which has stayed with me since the very first time I read it years ago. Here's what she writes:

"I love the visualization of standing at the seashore looking out at the vast ocean and knowing that this ocean is the abundance that is available to me. Look down at your hands and see what sort of container you are holding. Is it a teaspoon, a thimble with a hole in it, a paper cup, a glass, a tumbler, a pitcher, a bucket, a wash tub, or perhaps you have a pipeline connected to this ocean of abundance? Look around you and notice that no matter how many people there are and no matter what kind of container they have, there is plenty for everyone. You cannot rob another, and they cannot rob you. And in no way can you drain the ocean dry. Your container is your consciousness, and it can always be exchanged for a larger container."

I was totally floored when I first read this. I remember "looking down at my hands" and seeing a very large bucket, one bigger than I could carry by myself, thinking that was a LOT. But when I read about the possibility of having a PIPELINE connected to this ocean of abundance, I was struck by the very small thinking I was doing. And frankly, I was upset with myself for having thought so small before.

It hit me like a ton of bricks that I wasn't asking the Universe for nearly as much as I could. So, I started "asking" for a bigger income, little by little, every year by adding about $50,000 to the previous year's revenue goals, believing that I COULD achieve it. And at the end of every year, I did achieve it, sometimes by a lot more.

Now, each year, I ask to DOUBLE my income, and my ability to help twice as many people attract more clients, and I either reach it, or come pretty close each time. Knowing that you can always trade in your container for a bigger one, and that you cannot "rob another" because there is an unlimited supply of what you want, what are YOU asking for and going after?

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Close your eyes and imagine yourself standing on the sand, toes in the water, looking out into the vast ocean of abundance. Yes, even if it feels corny or goofy, just DO it, no one's watching you! Besides, how you do anything is how you do everything, in business and in life. (If you're not willing to do THIS, then you're probably not willing to do much to change your mindset or what it takes to grow your business.)

Imagine that you cannot ask for too much because you can never exhaust the supply that is available to you and everyone else. No matter what you've thought up to now, know this:

• There will never be a shortage of clients you can attract.
• There will always be enough people who will pay you what you want to be paid and more.
• There will never be a cap on how many clients you can help.
• There will never be a cap on how many products you can sell.
• There will never be a cap on how many attendees will attend your workshop or teleclass.
• There is an inexhaustible supply of ways you can offer what you offer that your competitors don't offer.

The only person who sets that limit is you. The good news about that is you can break your current paradigm and situation at any time you choose. You can find a way to innovate and break the mold. You do not need to be tied down to what you have thought up to now.

Heck, if you're gonna dream, well darn it, dream BIG! Look back at your list of wants. Were you playing small? Were you playing too safe? Were you afraid to ask for a lot more? What came up for you? Now, tweak the list to think BIGGER. You deserve it and once you believe it is possible for yourself, you can indeed have it (that's what's been happening with me, so it can happen to you too.)

That being said, you might be having trouble imagining yourself achieving a BIGGER goal in your business. It's probably a fear of overwhelm, fear of success, or fear of failure, a fear of rejection, or perhaps a question of whether you DESERVE that much abundance and success. Not sure if you'll be able to actually HANDLE the success?

Many entrepreneurs stop themselves from having more because of limiting beliefs, self-doubt, and self-sabotaging behavior or procrastination and this currently keeps them from having what they say they want. I see this DAILY and it's got to stop. The good news is, it's easy to stop, when you know how.

I'll be giving you the solution to eliminating this in the soon-to-be-released ‘Client Attraction Marketing and Mindset Breakthroughs Workshop-in-a-Box' (including the 16 CD's from the sold-out 3-day August 2007 workshop.) It's truly life-changing. In it, you'll get all the easy-to-implement Marketing, Leverage and Systems strategies you'll need to FINALLY have more clients consistently, but also the MINDSET techniques I've created myself, to help you make the mo-ney you deserve, and have a lot more time off to enjoy it all. Why stay small when you can have it all? Look for the pre-release priority announcement soon.

© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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.

To Attract More Clients, Plug Into Your Purpose

If you've been in business for a few years, you've probably been marketing your business for just as many years (hopefully). You've tried marketing tactics that worked, and if you're anything like me, you've tried some that didn't and failed miserably.

After a while, I believe everyone gets into a slump with their marketing plan. This happens with a majority of my clients at some point or other, and has happened to me too in the past. There are many reasons for this:

1. We get bored.
2. We get complacent or lazy.
3. We become greedy or simply in it for the mo-ney.

I could give you solutions to all three of these reasons, but these would be using your willpower and discipline. Today, I want to appeal to your sense of purpose.

If you want a successful business, having a purpose in marketing your business is an absolute necessity, and it shouldn't be just making mo-ney. Yes, making lots of mo-ney is great. Mo-ney is necessary and it makes life way easier. But if the ONLY reason you're in business is to make mo-ney, I believe that for most people, it's much more difficult to get up the strength to market something that just takes from people, without giving back more than what you give.

Besides, people will feel that energetically and read right through you.

The solution? Connect (or reconnect) to your purpose. If you've been dragging your feet about getting out there to market your business, perhaps it's time to reexamine if you're connected to the original purpose for getting in business. I'm a big fan of Ralph Marston's Daily Motivators and he recently wrote something on the subject of purpose that really resonated with me:

"Where there is purpose, there is energy. Actions directed toward a compelling purpose will create a powerful momentum that lines up events and circumstances in your favor. Purpose gives you a reason to get going each day and strengthens your determination to persist when the going gets tough. Purpose pushes you firmly toward your highest level of accomplishment.

I couldn't agree more. I've talked in the past about letting yourself be pulled by your future. Today, we'll call it being pulled forward by your PURPOSE.

If you look at any great humanitarian leader, you'll notice they've had many obstacles and tribulations along the way. Somehow, they always seemed to get right back on that proverbial horse and try, try again, didn't they? If they'd been in their cause just for the power or the mo-ney, they may have given up shortly after starting. But I'll guess that their strong purpose gave them the strength and determination to keep going, to push through the obstacles and reach their goals, because there was a greater purpose to it all.

When I see a client who drags their feet or for whom something's not going well, it's usually a sign that something's not quite right, as opposed to just procrastination. Either they're marketing something for the wrong reason or they're not being true to their purpose and the reason that they're here. For many, they've chosen to ignore the nagging voice within that tells them something's not right.

Perhaps they don't even know WHAT their purpose is. For many of us self employed people, it's to serve others and make a difference in people's lives, in one way or another. My opinion is that when we get away from that, marketing or doing anything in business is much more difficult.

And yeah, by the way, when we are authentic, serve people well and stay connected to that purpose, the mo-ney inevitably flows. The best part about making good mo-ney doing something that really matters to you is that the mo-ney is a byproduct of doing things well and for the right reason. It feels great, not sleazy or like we've ripped off someone.

Your purpose is to help others AND to feel good doing it. Once you find it, throw yourself into it. Since having a strong purpose in your business gives you more energy and determination, it's time to either get reconnected to the reason you originally got in business or to figure out what yours is. Remember though, sometimes our resolve gets tested to make sure we REALLY want this badly enough. Persevere; don't give up.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

What's YOUR purpose? Here are questions to ask yourself to find your own purpose or reconnect to it:

1. What section of the bookstore do you gravitate towards? (Hint: I was reading success-mindset and marketing books on my honeymoon and it didn't feel like work.)
2. What is the greatest challenge you overcame?
3. What brings the most meaning to your life?
4. If you had all the mo-ney you needed, but still wanted to work, what would you do to make a difference in the world while bringing you happiness?

Whether it means connecting to it for the first time or simply reconnecting, do what it takes to live as close to your purpose as possible, no matter what the setbacks. Tweak the way you do things right now so it feels right and like there's real meaning in your life. Success will naturally come to you when you do. You won't believe you get paid to live it.

Got your purpose but having a difficult time marketing it? Then it's time to take action and invest in a step-by-step marketing system that will feel easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids all the unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most important things to do to find your niche, get out there in a big way, set up simple, solid systems, so you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It's all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you're done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and http://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 http://www.clientattraction.com/.