Strategy # 1 - Don't Just Offer A Service Provide An Experience:
When was the last time that you popped into Pizza Hut? Remember the full tables, the noise, the line at the door? Remember the prices?
Now ask yourself why you and so many other people are prepared to cough up more than ten bucks for a plate of bread and cheese. Its not just for the food. That couldn't cost more than a couple of dollars. Its for the experience.
When people come to Pizza Hut instead of ordering in or going to some other pizza parlor they're buying the Pizza Hut experience: they're buying pizzas with thick bases, funny names and a family atmosphere. The food they can get anywhere. The experience is unique to Pizza Hut.
Now, how does this affect your business?
You need to make sure that your clients argent just buying insurance, annuities, college funding programs or retirement plans; you need to be certain that they're getting an experience that they just cant get anywhere else.
Here's how to tell if you currently give your clients a service or an experience:
- Does your sales letters and marketing pieces use shocking headlines and copy?
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When you give seminars and workshops, do you act like a pro or let your personality show?
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Do you pass out goodies, cookies and other nice things during your workshop? In short, do you make your work fun?
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Do you hold client appreciation events, send your clients gifts just because and make an effort to seriously bond with clients, prospects and referrals?
If any of your answers are no, you're selling services, not an experience...
Strategy # 2 Turn Your Business Into A System:
As an entrepreneur, your job is simple:
You bring order to chaos!
As soon as you find a way to turn prospects into clients that works for you, systematize it. Do the exact same thing for your methods of acquiring clients, generating referrals, encouraging renewals, and every other aspect of your business.
All you have to do is create a process, test it, and as soon as you see that it works, systematize it.
When every aspect of your business is systematized, your company will function independently of you. That will give you a steady stream of sales and revenues, an experience that your clients can rely on and an independent, profitable business that you can sell for a high price if you want to...
Strategy # 3 Name Your Phases:
One of the most valuable lessons I learned from one of my first mentors was the importance of giving a name to everything that I do for my clients.
And I don't just mean some dull, insipid name. I mean something truly outstanding that tells the clients that they're getting value as soon as they hear it.
These are some sample titles that a financial advisor, who also specializes in college funding services, could use can use to name each phase of his or her financial services business:
- The Financial Solution - Your service isn't just a financial plan; its comprehensive solutions to your clients financial problems and college funding needs!
- The Tax-Favored Mortgage Solution - There's a title that grabs attention! Everyone hates paying taxes heroes a college funding solution that lets people use their home equity instead of taking out a commercial loan. No ones asking about your fees now!
- The Early Retirement Solution - And heroes the big prize. You're showing your clients that they will be able to pay college expenses on a tax-favored basis using their mortgage while still paying off their home, be done in seven years and be on the golf course while they're still young enough to enjoy it! No one is going to care what you charge now; you've answered all of your clients biggest financial questions!
Of course, you don't have to use these titles if you don't want to although they're pretty good! but do make sure that whatever names you use each represent one phase in your process...
Strategy # 4 Define Your Market Carefully:
Heroes a valuable piece of advice: try to be everything to everyone and you'll be nothing to anyone!
You might not realize it, but you already have a small but incredibly valuable core group of clients. These people like you as a person, respect your knowledge, trust your integrity and don't care how much you charge for your services.
You need to find out who these people are. You want to know where they live, what sort of jobs they do, what they do in their spare time, what their political beliefs are, what keeps them awake at night and what are their goals.
You want to create a complete profile of your A clients.
Once you've done that, you'll find that...
Your A Clients Are All Pretty Similar!
That means that if you want double your profits within the next half-year, all you have to do is target more of the same sort of people.
And that's easy to do. Just identify your top 20 A clients and ask them each to refer up to three friends to your practice. You could even invite them to a Client Appreciation Dinner and tell them that their only expense will be to bring a friend or relative to enjoy the meal.
Similar people tend to gather together, so your A clients friends are likely to be other A clients...
Strategy # 5 Create A Club Of Similar Clients:
Just about everyone wants to feel that they belong. That knowledge is a great marketing tool.
Give your clients a chance to belong to an exclusive membership club and you reduce the chances that they'll turn to someone else.
Here are four easy ways to build a community:
- Create a monthly newsletter - It should be fun, informative and keep you in touch.
- Hold regular teleconferences - Give your clients a chance to talk to you, guest experts and each other every week or every month.
- Build a members-only website - Chat rooms and forums can let clients post questions and see what everyone else is thinking. Its a great and easy way to spread knowledge and ideas.
- Organize Client Appreciation Dinners - Your A clients will have a chance to chat, relax and hang out with you and your other A clients in a fun, laid back environment.
That's four simple things that should be enough to quickly build a special, exclusive community.
Strategy # 6 Keep Growing:
I was recently listening to a tele-seminar that was held by a top producer a high-earner in his seventies and he was talking about something he called:
The Arrival Syndrome
What's The Arrival Syndrome? Its when advisors start to feel that they've arrived. They have the lifestyle, the income and the achievement that they've always wanted. To put it another way, its the end of their success.
Businesses grow all the time. Clients demand change. You have to change with them. The moment that you sit back and rest on your laurels is the moment that your business comes to a halt.
You should always be looking for opportunities to add value to your business most important relationships.
The 6 strategies outlined above will help you to do that. They'll prevent your business from being commoditized.
Your clients will always be coming to you for the experience and not your products!
If you would like more information on insurance marketing ideas and how to get more leads, sales, and referrals for your business, CLICK HERE to get a copy of our FREE report which reveals "How Any Insurance Agent OR Financial Advisor Can Add An Extra $5,000 - $25,000 Per Month To Their Existing Business With No Cold-Call Prospecting!"
