Why Dirty Harry wouldn't win a Gold Medal

by Tony Vidler.

One of the great movie lines spoken by the character Dirty Harry was "a man's got to know his limitations".  A line which always seems to apply to financial advisers.

But this doesn't apply to Olympians does it?  

I am captivated by the incredible achievements of humans that is demonstrated at the Olympics, and their ability to continually re-define their (apparent) limitations.  

You cannot help watching them, admiring them, and then wondering how you can apply what they know and do, to the non-Olympic and mere-mortal world we live in.

At the London 2012 games 2 athletes standout for me personally, on the basis of how they continually have re-defined their own expectations (or self-limitations).  

Michael Phelps must be considered one of the greatest athletes of all time, and his record is remarkable.  The second athlete to stand out for me is also a swimmer - who did not win a medal.

Lauren Boyle, from New Zealand. What a remarkable young lady - and the epitome of a "champion".

She came 4th in the 800m freestyle final.  But to get there she had to continue, race by race, to swim faster than she had ever swum in her life.  Breaking her own national records to get to the final, and then under the immense pressure of the final of an Olympic glamor event, she lifted another notch again.   And at the end of the race, was she upset at getting 4th?  Not on your life...she recognized that she had challenged her own beliefs, re-defined her apparent limitations, and found a new confidence and performance level.

So what do Lauren & Michael Phelps have in common?

Well, they both have a coach that they listen to and learn from.  They apply process and systems to enhance their training and "professional development".  They take advice from their mentors.  It is up to them to put that advice into action and performance though.

According to a study of Olympic Champions here are their common denominators for success:

Characteristics of Champions

  An ability to cope with and control anxiety.

  Confidence

  Mental toughness/resiliency

  Sport intelligence

  An ability to focus and block distractions

  Competitiveness

  A hard-work ethic

  An ability to set and achieve goals

  Coachability

  High levels of dispositional hope

  Optimism

  Adaptive perfectionism

Source:  Psychological characteristics and their development in Olympic champions.

Gould, D., Diffenback, K., & Moffett, A.

If you want a self-improvement checklist of things to work upon, you will not find a much better list than this one.

On this basis, would that excellent pistol shooting Dirty Harry have got a gold medal?  

I don't think so...at the very least because he wasn't too "coachable", or open to learning.  There are a couple of other attributes that he didn't share with the Olympians either, and we can't overlook his tendency to adopt a cynical "me versus the world" attitude combined with a mindset of "my way is the only way, and winning is everything".  Brute force as a method of problem solving also has its limitations too I guess.

What led me down this line of thought in recent days is the realisation that there are more business owners like Dirty Harry than there are business people thinking and behaving like Olympians.

Champions challenge themselves, and are continually focused on incremental improvement, open to new ideas and learning, and reinforce all they learn with sheer hard work.  

Any professional advisers or professional service firms looking to develop or just get business ideas and inspiration should think about adopting the mindset of an Olympian rather than Dirty Harry. 

You don't have to actually get a gold medal or be first in the world to be a champion.  You only have to have seen Lauren immediately after NOT winning a medal to realise that.

 http://www.3news.co.nz/No-medal-but-still-glory-for-record-breaking-Boyle/tabid/1706/articleID/264158/Default.aspx


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What are your clients REALLY worth to you?

by Tony Vidler.

How much do you really think a good customer is worth to you?

Most financial advisers will easily (I hope!) work through the basic formula of the average fee/sale per customer multiplied by the number of transactions they have with you each year, and then multiplied by the number of years you expect to work with them (see graph below).

That is all simple enough - if you know these averages and key business metrics for your firm.

But is that the total measure of what a good customer is worth to your business?

How many referrals to other great customers could you get from a really happy customer over the expected lifetime of the relationship?  What extra value can be attached to your brand, or business value, from having great advocates in your clientele?

How about a working example for a typical adviser who looks after their clients well and provides great value....

Let's assume that your client pays monitoring and service fees of $500 in fees each year (not all that much really) to you, and on average your customers require (significant) new advice every 3 years or so at about $2,400 per time.  So that's another $800 p.a. on average - meaning that the average annual revenue is about $1,300 p.a. for a happy client valuing your advice.

If you provide good service and advice they will be working with you for the rest of your working life - call that another 15 years for this example.  

So far this happy client that paid $2,400 in initial planning fees and provides ongoing revenue of $500 p.a. has an apparent lifetime value to your business of $19,500 - which in itself is pretty impressive.

However if that happy client refers other good clients to your business then their value to your business exponentially increases.  It is not as simplistic as using the same formula above for each additional referral, because over time (if your expected business time frame remains the same) then each new client in subsequent years has a lower incremental value, and it would be wildly inaccurate to attribute every new customers own "lifetime value" to the referring client .  But the acquisition cost per referral will be lower than most other forms of marketing, so that saving can in fairness be attributed to the lifetime value of the original referring client.

A typical advisory firm might spend (say) $250 in marketing for each new client it brings in each year.  so using the client example from above, there is another $7,500 in "value" in that client providing the referrals.

Not bad really....that $2,400 initial client is now looking like they have a lifetime value of $27,000 to your business over the next 15 years.

But the REALLY big value is within the impact these advocate customers have on your overall business valuation.  To illustrate the point let's continue with some further really simple assumptions.

If an adviser business had 500 clients, averaging $1,300 p.a in revenue (as above), it has a nice little turnover of $650,000 p.a. gross.  Depending on what valuation methodology is used, and what market conditions are prevailing, that business valuation might typically be (say) $975,000.  However, premium value is attached to those businesses where there is strong loyalty, constant referrals, and turnkey business operations.  The valuation on such a business (in comparison to one with little referral business and strong client loyalty) could be expected to be closer to $1,600,000 - a difference of $625,000 in this example.

That can be the difference for a retiring advice firm business owner between having a great boat to play on in their good retirement, or just having a retirement.

The concept of "lifetime customer value" is not just a simple one of how much revenue they generate for your business.  You should also be thinking about how much those engaged and happy customers can SAVE your business.  Get it right though, and it really becomes a matter of how much more your business is worth because you have happy and engaged clients that love dealing with your firm. 

That's where the real value is.

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Some customers you don't want...

by Tony Vidler.

Understanding the needs of different types of customers is essential in order to get your value proposition, service offering and process as RIGHT as you can to attract the right types of customers for your business.

Broadly speaking there are two groups of potential customers; 

1. Transactional focus

2.  Relationship based

The engagement, or "sales", process is quite different for each group.

Traditionally most advisers have been trained to deal with the transactional customer - which is hardly surprising.  Most of today's advisers were trained by product manufacturers in the past whose sole concern really was selling products. Today's professional adviser sells their expertise and time, and while there are often product solutions involved in the process they are not at the center of the advisers' value to the customer.

The customers with a transactional focus are pretty much focused on short term decision making.  They are essentially driven by price, or immediately perceived value for the price they have to pay.  In the absence of exceptional value in relation to other potential suppliers of advice or product solutions, they will focus on price alone.

Their greatest concern is paying more than they think they should right now.  As such, they will compare potential suppliers, or advisers.  They will haggle and express dissatisfaction at ANY price in a bid to get the best price-value they can.  They will question every recommendation, conduct their own research, ignore the commercial value supplied to them in time and effort by advisers, and be swift to complain of any perceived shortcomings.

Why would you deal with them if you are a professional adviser?  The very thing that differentiates you and adds value lies within your expertise and skills.  The core adviser value is not in the products you happen to suggest at any given time - and it is certainly not in the price of those products (which you cannot control much of the time in reality anyway).

The customer with a relationship focus may not articulate their needs in this way - they don't look for an adviser they can have a relationship with as such.  They do however understand that today's advice or product solution is simply a step in a much longer or larger process for them.  That is, they anticipate needing ongoing advice, service or solutions.  As such, their greatest fear is making a wrong choice.  That is quite a different motivator - and therefore underlying need that must be addressed and resolved - than the transactional customer.

The entire emphasis of your process is fundamentally different with each type of customer.

Traditionally trained advisers that retain an emphasis upon product as their core offering will naturally attract transactional customers - with all the haggling, stress and tyre-kicking that comes with that.  Advisers do so because the focus of their marketing and advice process is on that non-consumer-friendly process of "selling & closing". 

If you shift the focus of your marketing and positioning to one of engagement and building trust with customers you will attract those who value your ability to help them avoid making wrong choices, and with whom you will have much longer and valuable relationship with.

In the group of customers that seek relationship-based advice, there is significant lifetime customer value (which is a separate article in itself) for the the adviser business.  Those who seek transactional solutions focused on price are not really the clients for individual advisers of the future.  They will be the customers of the institutions that specialise in providing mass-market, not overly personalised, product solutions at the cheapest price they can get away with.

The business future for the professional adviser of tomorrow is in letting the transactional customers go to the institutions, and focusing on those who are more concerned with making wrong choices.  THEY are the ones who will value expertise and advice.

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Hustle while you wait!

by Tony Vidler.

One of the constant themes that comes up in coaching advisers to greater business performance, is the little matter of "hustling".

I'm not referring to getting out and pulling fast cons and sharp card tricks on unsuspecting folk of course...but the really simple and somewhat unpalatable fact that a seriously large part of any business persons success can simply be attributed to their ability to hustle while they wait.

It's about a work ethic.

As a general rule, very few advisers can afford to simply wait for the right, well qualified, potential customer to come walking through the office door announcing "I am ready to engage in a comprehensive financial review process - who wants to serve me?"

The unpalatable fact is that in the financial services business, advisers are usually as busy as they want to be.  There is a definite correlation between getting stuck in with a strong work ethic, and getting good business results.

As the diagram above shows, you have to be willing to make a good effort on the basic activities that generate results in your business, AND you do have to get stuck into it as quickly as possible IF you want to put the odds of success in your favor.

Make a little bit of an effort....eventually....and you cannot really expect great results can you?   You will probably get some results if you make a massive effort eventually....or perhaps put in just enough effort right now to get by.

Fantastic results come from getting into doing what you have to do as soon as possible, and putting maximum effort into it at that point.  

Not every week in business goes according to the grand plan...in fact, usually no week actually works out the way we imagined it would (or should).  That elusive customer who is going to walk in demanding your services at a premium price may well be coming, but in the meantime you have to get busy if you want to prosper.

Good things come to those who hustle while they wait.


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It's not about you...it's about the value.

by Tony Vidler.

Financial advisers often struggle to create a value proposition that accurately expresses how they work differently, or what makes them special compared to others.

It isn't that they don't have points of difference, or that they struggle to put ideas into words...generally they are very good at both. Each adviser has a unique way of interacting with customers, and maintains relationships a little differently, and has slightly different views of how and where product solutions fit in, and what the relative strengths and weaknesses of different strategies are.

Despite that, a room full of advisers when working through the process of trying to articulate their value proposition, almost always come up with the same line of thought (and often use the exact same words) to try and describe themselves and their businesses.  

It ends up sounding something like this:

"you should do business with me because I am honest, trustworthy and a nice person. I care about people and am very good at my job. I am clever and have qualifications and you will have peace of mind if you work with me"

This is the very simple summary of the typical statement advisers first come up with - as a customer might hear it.

So what's wrong with it? Well, pretty much everything....So let's pull it apart.

1. Honest, trustworthy, etc...these personal attributes are simply expected. There is no value-add here - customers expect this as a minimum standard of integrity.

2. Nice person...of course you are. If you weren't you would have no customers, in fact, you'd have no business if you had no ability to relate well to others and be a decent human.

3. I care....well, once again, you are expected to aren't you? If you did not actually care about others you would not be in a profession of trust where an essential component is the ability to think of the other persons objectives and be willing to work with them to get them the results they want.

4. I'm clever & have qualifications, etc....of course you do. Otherwise you shouldn't be in the business of advising people about money.

5. You will have peace of mind. NOW....the big problem with this is no customer actually believes it, and not very many advisers can actually deliver it.

So let's recap....5 parts to the typical value proposition statement designed by most advisers and 4 of them are "hygiene factors", and one is frankly unbelievable in the minds of the customers.  By "hygiene factor" I mean it is a given in the customers mind...as in any hospital will be hygenic.  It is not in itself a point of difference for hospitals.

In a previous post I outlined the formula, or the questions that must be addressed, to come up with a genuine point of difference that really means something to a customer.  

( http://tonyvidler.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/3-questions-you-must-answer-to-define.html )

Basically when trying to create an articulate value proposition it falls down in 2 key parts:

• The adviser doesn't think of how different they are to other advisers. They think of how different they are to the customers. So the proposition ends up sounding the same as all other advisers' value propositions...hardly a unique point of difference...and simply highlights the distance between the customer and the adviser. 
• Secondly, the value proposition doesn't really capture what benefits the adviser actually delivers to the customer.

And that is the core objective of it:  articulate the benefit to the client that cannot be obtained from someone else.

Here are some general areas where you might be exceptional and doing unique things, and are able to do what customers value:

• Customisation:  using the masses of data and information in a highly personalised manner, or perhaps providing service or advice that is tailored to highly specific customers.
• Risk Handling:  taking away risks for customers; transferring responsibilities; removing the need to consider specific risks - making their world less risky than it was.
• Convenience:  being able to combine things in a way others can't; getting access to what customers need and value faster, easier, and so on; being there - instead of them having to initiate action, etc.

This is just a short collection of concepts to highlight that creating a value proposition is not about you.  It is about the end result for the customer - the thing they value.  When you get that, and are able to express it succinctly, then they will get you and the value you bring.


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Danger: Great Expectations Ahead!

by Tony Vidler.

Nearly everyone agrees that good customer service is good for business.  What is "good customer service" though?

It can be made up of a lot of things, but let's focus on one simple attribute of customer service - time.

Speed is of the essence to consumers.  Speed IS service.

This is a simple concept, but it creates difficult performance targets. 

Some quick statistics:

• over 80% of customers want the phone answered within 4 rings.
• over 80% of customers want the phone answered by an actual human.
• over 65% want the person answering the phone to be able to deal with the problem.
• over 65% are dissatisfied if they are transferred and have to wait more than 30 seconds to talk to the next human.

It is important to bear in mind that these are desired service levels from most consumers across a range of industries, which is not the same as "adequate" service levels for any particular industry or business.  Which of these two levels of service you provide depends on your overall value proposition to consumers - and not all business models depend upon excellent service.  If one is in the business of providing lowest cost goods or services, there is an inherent consumer expectation that service levels will be compromised.  There is still an expectation that service must be adequate, but there is little more expectation than that.

If at the other extreme you are looking to command premium pricing in your business model, then there is a consumer expectation of excellent service.  Excellent becomes the new "adequate" benchmark, and nothing less than excellent will do. If you are promising to bend over backwards for your customers, you had better be able to as that will be their expectation of minimum standards from the outset.

There are many variables that can go into the overall service offer of course, but in virtually every type of service offer in the professional services firm, speed plays a part in the consumer perception of quality.  This is especially true with accessible internet at broadband speeds now being available on people's mobile phones.  The consumers perception of speed has changed...

Think about this:  15 years ago we were delighted if a computer worked.  5 years ago we were delighted if the computer and the line connection worked long enough for us to finish booking a hotel room.  Now over half of consumers are dissatisfied if a web page takes 3 seconds to load. What is their expectation of speed in a years time?

So what is your speed promise?  What is the "adequate" level of service that your consumers expect?

To determine how you might create superior service, and a superior value proposition, you need to know where the minimum performance benchmark is.  

Be aware though: there are great expectations ahead.  The consumers' perception of speed is changing faster perhaps than we can change speed of service.  Are you promising excellence, or acceptable and adequate standards in this area of your customer service proposition?

Whatever the level of service is that you promise, be sure to include a reliable performance level for speed of response.  It matters to your customers.


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More Bulls**t Jargon on its way?

by Tony Vidler.

Heaven help us...the financial services sector is apparently getting new jargon! Because we need it.

It can only be a matter of time before the new buzzworders suggest we also need new qualifications to qualify for the new buzzword, possibly with a recommendation for new acronyms to describe the new Jargon.

In the last 24 hours two interesting articles appeared on my radar screen suggesting that financial services - or more specifically, financial planning - has some new buzz words now because we need them.

Yeah, right.

In one story I read with interest that "Finology is the new buzzword in US Financial Planning circles". In the other, I read that "financial life planning" has arrived. Dammit....I think I'll have to call myself a Life Finology Planner. Actually, I thought the Financial Life Planning wave was rather late in being reported given it has actually been around for quite a few years now as a school of thought. Nevertheless, I am now reassured to learn that it has in fact arrived.

Finology though? More on that shortly....but it does sound rather like the scientific study of the back end of rockets doesn't it?

Let's begin with the tardy Financial Life Planning that took so long to arrive. Well this is the "core of a fast-growing American financial advice movement that is spreading across the world", and credited to George Kinder. According to one practitioner quoted in the story this discipline is about "connecting money with life rather than sitting down with people and telling them they need to buy a pension". The Financial Life Planner quoted contends that ordinary financial planning consists of planners attempting "to find an individuals secret sorrow".

This intrigued me, as I have never heard - from the hundreds of financial planners, or the many more hundreds of other types of financial advisers that I know who effectively do financial planning work - that the business is about finding someone's secret sorrow. Doing a little digging via Google around the financial planning world didn't reveal anyone focused upon uncovering sorrows or vast regrets for individuals either.

The focus of the Financial Life Planner is oddly enough precisely upon doing what your common garden-variety financial planners say they try to do: ask clients questions and get to know their aspirations, and then helping them to put together a plan that is most likely to help them achieve it.

So back to "Finology"...with full credit to my faithful assistant Google....it seems the founding Finologist is a chap called Richard Wagner, who claims credit for inventing this word. In an interesting article he says that the profession needs this new word because there is no word that describes the relationship between an individual and money in the English Language. What about "dependence" Richard?

Just as an aside; the word "relationship" itself is defined as "a connection, an involvement or an association". So conceivably the apparently missing word to describe a persons relationship with their money is "relationship"? Just sayin'...y'know?

Regardless, Wagner postulates that the profession's progress is limited by the absence of our own vocabulary to describe this link, and the term "Life Planning" is dismissed as being too broad a term to accurately describe what planners do. Ergo: Finology. Hurrah!

What a huge yawn....and that is just for those in the business. It will be an even bigger yawn for consumers.

The questions that arise whenever this sort of nonsense is mooted should be:

1. How will coining a new term to describe an existing professional competency help the profession or the consumers of its services?
2. Who is this term being developed for? (i.e. for whose benefit?)
3. If the new term is to be valid, how is it really differentiated from existing disciplines?

When reading of these latest hot pieces of jargon sweeping the world of financial planning, I could not work out an answer to the first question. Neither of these buzzwords describe methodology or systems or competencies that apparently differ from what good planners - indeed, from what good financial advisers - already do.

The terms appear to be feverishly capturing the imagination of the advisory community only. Or not maybe. But there is no discernible cry for these "different approaches" from consumers, or even necessarily the majority of the advisory community that I can find. It does seem more likely that the driver is advisers struggling to articulate their own value proposition to clients - or desperately wanting to distance themselves from the image of being seen to sell anything.

Hello? You're in business. You ARE selling something. Do you honestly think that a new piece of jargon will obscure that? Even if that jargon is meant to convey you don't "do product" or somesuch?

The broad claim of differentiation between conventional financial advisers or planners and the Finologists or Financial Life Planners seems to be a disassociation from product recommendations. The buzzworders appear to be driven by understanding the real issues that drive human behavior, in order to be able to help behavioral and circumstantial change.

But then not use manufactured products perhaps. (This is not actually entirely clear though).

Funnily enough, the process just described is what you get taught in financial planning. It is also what you get taught in other financial services specialist training. It is what most professional financial advisers do every day with their clients. But you also get taught and learn how to use products as tools. 

Products are merely a means to an end. A New Zealand consumer who wants a fantastic holiday in London may well choose to work with a professional travel consultant. That person will inevitably recommend a mode of transport because even our best triathletes would struggle with the 18,325 kilometer run/swim/cycle leg, and probably not enjoy the holiday part quite so much. So a product (e.g a plane ticket) is often a necessary component of the advice. The advice however is absolutely centered upon how to achieve the goal of the fantastic holiday, and ensuring that the details required to make it work as seamlessly as possible, and to be as enjoyable an experience as possible are thought of and covered.

It is absolutely true that in times gone by - when the industry was young and still thought it knew everything - products were the center of the process. As the profession has learned and improved though, products are secondary. Advice is the key value component.

Financial advice is no different in reality to the example of the travel agent, and it doesn't require new labels or buzzwords or jargon to highlight that. Professional financial advisers do try to know and understand the "soft" issues - the needs, the aspirations, the goals of the clients. Often they have to help the clients actually define those things as many consumers haven't really done it. In putting together plans to help the clients achieve those aspirations and goals, products get used. But the products are tools.

The advice and the coaching make the difference. No matter how you label it.

The story on Financial Life Planning that caught my attention:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/9319327/A-new-kind-of-financial-adviser-or-a-waste-of-money.html

More on Finology by the very Finologist himself....
http://www.worthliving.com/2010/08/seeding-the-garden-of-knowledge/


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The 8 steps of a great sales script

 by Tony Vidler.

 One of the most under-rated tools for success in any sales-orientated job is "scripting"...actually writing down the words you are going to use - in advance - and thinking about how those words work together.

Unbelievably though most sales people seem to prefer to pick up a phone, or make a call on a prospective client, and basically just work it out on the fly. 

They say they want to sound "natural", or don't want to sound "canned"....and after a little role play I can often assure them that their natural and un-canned approach to a prospect certainly doesn't sound like a rehearsed spiel at all. 

It usually sounds more like a spluttering teenager hesitantly asking a shotgun-armed father if he can take his daughter out....

The same salespeople then ask for help with improving their conversion rates....improving the proportion of the people they talk to initially wanting to talk further with them.  But they want to be natural while doing it.

So why bother scripting out what you are hoping will sound natural and easy?  Well, it is so you can be natural and easy....while being effective.

In any presentation, whether it be over the phone to a stranger or in an auditorium of attentive acolytes, you will be far more relaxed and easy with your audience if you know precisely what you are going to say and do.  Practice really does make perfect in this regard...rehearsing and practicing to get the right words in the right order and with the right inflection and impact makes a massive difference to your conversion rate.  It follows of course that a big difference in that conversion rate means far more effective advertising and marketing spend, and a far healthier bottom line for your business.  And you annoy less people.

What goes into a good sales scripts?

1.  The clients name.

The one thing guaranteed to get someone's attention is their own name, and it is a basic courtesy.  Try and use it 2-3 times early in the script as it gets their full attention on what you are saying.  You are also being courteous and polite in doing so, which creates a positive impression.

2.  Pauses.

Especially when engaging with a prospective client on the phone and they have no non-verbal clues to help them, you have to give reasonably frequent pauses.  It is difficult for most people to follow a conversation with someone they do not know well when they can only hear them, so you have to slow down and give them time to process what you are saying.

3.  Tone.

The tone can in itself make or break any approach - we all know that.  Think beyond the obvious though - it isn't just about being friendly and professional, but where you put inflection on particular words, and how fluidly you move through what you want to say can also make a huge difference to how positively it is received.  And a light mildly humorous tone can be magic - if you (or your line of work) can carry that off.

4.  Brevity

Life's short. Keep it brief.  Make it as short as possible - but no shorter.  One of the real advantages of scripting and role-playing is that you can actively refine what you want to say to get that optimal balance of brief, but detailed enough, to get the point across.

5.  WIIFM.

Every prospective client has Radio-WIIFM playing in their own head the whole time you are talking to them.  What Is In It For Me?  That's the question in their minds that MUST be answered sufficiently for them to agree to go further with you.  It is at the core of your script.

6.  Minimal choices.  

Too many choices confuse people, and their instinct is to either find a middle ground or refuse to choose anything.  The simple act of providing many choices creates a barrier for many consumers - it all gets too hard.  If for instance you are asking for an appointment, then just give them a choice of 2 times.  If you don't provide any choices, and leave an open question for them to solve, it just becomes too hard as they have to think of too many variables.

7.  Ask.

Seems obvious, but you actually have to ask for what you want at some point.  Clearly it is not appropriate asking for what you want before you've gone through the previous steps, however you do actually have to ask for the order, or the next step, or the appointment, or whatever.  This doesn't have to be complicated - in fact you are more likely to be trusted if it isn't some cunning "closing technique" - just simple and open, asking for permission to go to the next step, is very effective.

8.  Back-up.
No matter how good and polished your script and you are, there will be people you are talking to where they haven't quite got it and are hesitating.  Usually when they are hesitating or non-committal - but haven't hung up on you or thrown you out - they are saying inside their own minds "you haven't convinced me yet".

You have to be prepared with a back-up...something which cuts straight to the heart of the WIIFM again and helps them understand what the benefit is to them of doing what you ask.  It is not "objection handling" of the old fashioned variety where you supposedly will cunningly maneuver the prospective client into saying "yes" to something they will later regret.  This is your best shot...your key proposition put into words that show them how they will gain from doing what you propose.

There will still be people who don't go with your recommendation - and for lots of good reasons that they don't want to share with you.  But if you do construct a great sales script, and rehearse and polish it, at least you won't lose good people just because they couldn't understand you or thought you a bumbling fool.

A great sales script is founded on elemental psychology and an acute understanding of what is likely to be happening in the other persons mind.  The right words, put together in the right order, and then said the right way, and all done with conviction and certainty make for success.


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5 Marketing "places to be"

 by Tony Vidler.

Free marketing always appeals, and it is often said that "any publicity is good publicity"? That's an exaggeration of course as not all publicity is actually good - some can cripple a business or brand. However, any publicity (or marketing) that is free AND where you can control the content has to be good.

Talking with advisers about the topic inevitably leads to the question:
"which social media platforms should I use?".

The answer (as it often is), is "it depends". In order to work out the right answer you need to understand the evolving trends, the broad differences between the most popular platforms, and then match that with your own skillset and target market.

Social media has progressed well beyond just being a convenient way of seeing the latest photo's of your overseas relatives, and the explosive growth of business and end-consumer users is phenomenal. Twitter grew from 6,000,000 to over 250,000,000 in just 3 years. Facebook has over 800,000,000 users now. Little old Trademe in New Zealand has over 700,000 posts per month on its message boards.

That's a lot of traffic and users engaging in the social media world. It's where you are most likely to find, and engage, likely future prospects for your business in a non-threatening and collaborative way.

The greatest benefit though for the business owner is the ability to grow your personal and professional network and reputation - which is valuable over the medium to long term. The connections you make, and the conversations you have with them, will provide good marketing opportunities. You will have an opportunity to engage with, and get to be known and trusted by, people you would not otherwise come into contact with.

Social media as a method of marketing is not totally free of cost of course - though it doesn't cost hard cash generally. It does however take some time and commitment from you. There are an array of really useful platforms and tools to help you manage multiple social media marketing efforts fairly rapidly and efficiently however - and many of them even have good free versions (e.g. Hootsuite), meaning you can manage the time commitments pretty well on a day to day basis.

For New Zealand businesses the 5 social media channels well worth considering are:

1. LinkedIn. For business to business connectivity this platform is without peer. If you want to be talking to business owners or executives/management then you need to be here. It is professional in its approach, there are interest groups for any market niche it seems, and there is a wealth of intelligence to gather. Linkedin appears to have the highest success rate of the social media platforms for generating new business.

2. Facebook. More than 2,000,000 users in NZ alone, it is without doubt the largest and best known social media channel. Particularly useful for engaging with consumers (as opposed to other businesses), and with an ability to provide quite a variety of content (images, links, video's, blog's). There is an abundance of evidence that consumers who engage with your business (or "like" you) on Facebook are far more likely to purchase from you.

3. Twitter. Still a little "wild west" in social media terms, as there is very little content control, and everything is short and sharp. It is essentially the internet in 140 characters or less...that is, there is an abundance of useful and interesting content on virtually any topic you can think of. It is extremely useful as a resource - communications, content sourcing, becoming a thought leader - or following thought leaders. An often under-estimated element is that it is often humorous and a little light-hearted, which is in itself excellent for a social channel.

4. TradeMe. Often under-estimated by NZ businesses as a marketing platform, beyond the obvious use as a place to sell the old office furniture. It truly is the social channel that Kiwi's flock to, and apart from the core auction-focus, there are advertisements, message/bulletin boards & market intelligence in abundance. Distinctly useful for any business aiming at retail consumers - they are here in their thousands by the minute.

5. You Tube. This ones surprises business owners when you talk about it, but it is the second most popular search engine in the world (after Google). This is a place where consumers go looking for things, so if you are looking for consumers.....here they are. Interestingly there is strong evidence indicating that businesses that use video in their marketing (via website, YouTube, etc) have far greater consumer engagement and dramatically increase the chances of obtaining new business. Most consumers seem to prefer watching a video rather than reading a detailed article.

Whatever social media platform appeals to you in your marketing, it is important to look at it as an element of the overall marketing strategy for your business. The more marketing tactics that are interwoven, the more effective the overall marketing strategy will be. It is smart business to create content for your own website, and then share it via social media channels (plural!) and extend the reach of your message. The social media platforms can extend the reach and knowledge of your brand beyond the passive "billboard" that many business websites are.

So; 2 big tips for being effective in your use of social media:

* Be Relevant. It is social - so remember to engage with people, communicate, inject fresh ideas into the mix, and above all - be interesting.

* Don't blatantly (and boringly) self-promote. Nobody wants to be bombarded with advertising, and people will switch off to your brand entirely if their only experience is being directly marketed to constantly. By all means let people know what you do - but no more than a third of the time in your communications. Make the rest interesting, engaging, entertaining, informative and so on. It has to be worth their while to continue following you.

Final thought: don't expect overnight dividends. It may take many months of actively engaging with the market before you have established the credibility and authority for your target market to decide you are worth hiring. But hang in there, with relevant and useful content being delivered to your target market via multiple mediums, you will become a trusted expert, and logical person to turn to for their business needs.


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