Meeting Topic: Getting to know the woman behind the business

This week I invite you to choose 2 – 3 questions below and share your answers with your group.

Growing profitable, sustainable businesses by building strong business relationships is foundation to the Venus philosophy. Our know-like-trust pathway is a key aspect in developing your relationships within Venus.

This week’s topic is about getting to know the women behind the businesses in your group. Sometimes we get a one dimensional view of one another in a business setting; with the focus always being on business. Here is your opportunity to learn and share a little more about you as a woman.

• Best book I’ve read and why?
• Best piece of advice my mother gave me…
• My favourite thing to do and why?
• The person who inspires me most and why?
• Your proudest moment and why?

Testimonials, or endorsements, are arguably one of the most powerful promotional tools we can have in our armoury, especially since recommendations are around eight times more powerful than anything we can say about ourselves.

When all other things appear to be equal, or at least largely similar, positive support from an independent third party can swing the odds in our favour. When a prospective employer offers a position to their preferred candidate they usually do so ‘subject to references’. Whilst we accept what the person themselves says, we look for independent comment to support their application.

The same is true for businesses. Feedback and testimonials from past clients are often sought when trying to decide which provider to choose. The one that has most positive, current testimonials will often be the one that’s selected.

For many of us, having someone say ‘you did an awesome job!’ is met with a response such as ‘aw, it was nothing.’ Not only do we fail to accept the compliment in the spirit in which it was intended, we also fail to capture it for future use and reference, even though the person making the statement may be more than willing for us to use it proactively.

Testimonials can help you position yourself effectively and allow you leverage not only your own reputation, but also the reputation of the person or organisation that provided it. So:

Get comfortable asking for feedback! When someone compliments you ask whether they might be happy to put their feedback in writing. The secret to receiving isn’t giving, the secret to receiving is asking! Done in a friendly, courteous and professional way, asking for feedback is the first step to receiving it.

Make it easy for them. Encourage feedback to be placed on online sites such as LinkedIn, TRUSTcite or Facebook – platforms they are familiar with or which are free and easy to use, and which are available 24/7. If feedback on official letterhead is important, explain to them why and how their feedback might be used.

Gain permission to use the feedback in full or in part. If you intend putting the feedback onto a website or other promotional materials be respectful and gain their permission first. They may be willing to provide feedback directly to you but might be less happy about sharing it with everyone else on the planet.

Be aware that the person making the recommendation or providing the testimonial is putting their reputation on the line to do so. Be gracious and professional and respect their time and effort. Use the endorsements wisely, in ways the recommender is comfortable with, and the goodwill you’ve earned will continue to stand you in good stead.

Copyright Hannah Samuel. All rights reserved. Originally published in Reputationz News May 2012 by Hannah Samuel. www.hannahsamuel.com

Referrals and connections happen when there is trust present in your business relationships. Part of building this trust is you showing that you are an expert in your field/profession. Whether you think you are or not, you have a wealth of information and experience about your profession/industry that you can draw from to educate your group.

At your next meeting: I invite you to educate your group about a particular aspect of your industry/profession.

The information you share at your next meeting will not only raise your credibility, and the trust your members have in you, it will give your fellow members tips/ideas/insights that they can share with their friends and colleagues. Which could open up potential referral opportunities. Click here to view examples and questions to help you >>

Examples:
•    Graphic designers – benefits of a professional and consistent brand
•    Accountant – brief intro into what a sales forecast is and why have one OR the benefits of different accounting packages
•    Beauty therapist – educate your group on a particular product and benefits of specific ingredients
•    Real Estate agent – education on impact that staging a home can make on the sale price and speed

Questions to ask yourself to help you think about what to share:
•    What do I know about my industry that I believe is very important
•    What do I want my clients to learn about my profession
•    What is a tip or key strategy that I know and use
•    What is something I could share with my group that would  be of value for them

If you’re in business it’s highly likely that at some point you will have been asked whether you follow a B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer) model. The question is usually asked to help clarify what kind of marketing, positioning and processes and systems you might need as these can vary depending on the type of business you operate.

Making distinctions of this kind can be useful in some cases, however what’s more important is understanding that every business needs to be P2P – Person to Person. People do business with people. More importantly people do business with people they like and trust.

The more personally engaged and focused you are the more likely you are attract and retain loyal clients and raving fans. That means focusing on the individuals you deal with at a truly personal level and not considering them as a homogeneous mass.
So how can you become more P2P focused irrespective of whether you’re currently a B2B or B2C business?

• Walk your talk. Don’t just talk about being person-focused, actively demonstrate it in the way you behave. Make people feel good about themselves, and about interacting with you, by being thoughtful, respectful and truly present.
• Let your personality shine. Avoid trying to be something or someone you aren’t, instead allow your natural personality shine through in all your dealings with clients and customers. Encourage those who have high client-contact roles to do likewise, ensuring everyone who represents you is congruent with your organisation’s values and principles.
• Make processes P2P-centric. Instead of implementing systems from an inside-out perspective, that is having them suit you first and foremost, put yourself in your client or customer’s shoes and turn them outside-in so they are person-focused not system-focused.
• Be ‘Flawsome’. Don’t worry about being perfect, instead focus on doing the best you can in any given circumstance and when things go wrong, front-up, accept responsibility, and work to put things right in ways your client or customer thinks is awesome.
• Be recommendable. More than 85% of business comes from personal referrals and recommendations in many businesses. Deliver on your promises and behave in a way that makes it easy for people to feel good about putting their reputation on the line to enthusiastically recommend you.

Actively nurture a P2P focus and you’ll stand out from the crowd, attract and retain positive clients and customers, and create lasting connections no matter what business you’re in.

Copyright Hannah Samuel. All rights reserved. Originally published in Reputationz News April 2012 by Hannah Samuel. www.hannahsamuel.com

To increase word-of-mouth marketing you need to amplify the happy voices of your customers and make them your best raving fans.

This week share : a success story about a client (s) of yours

Telling your customers’ success stories in their own words puts a human face to your product. It shows both the challenges and excitements involved in the purchase, thus creating a more personal experience.

Everyone loves a story. Stories paint pictures. Stories evoke emotions. Stories are memorable. Stories give your presentations sticking power. The easiest way to tell a marketing story is by case study.

A case study is a product success story. It tells how you solved a problem using a specific product, process, method or idea.

Keep your case studies a few paragraphs and easy to read and understand.

A customer story is one of the most versatile and powerful types of promotional content any business can create.

Here are a few top ways you can use case studies or success stories to establish or reinforce credibility and educate audiences.

• Web sites - Tease and link to customer stories right from the home page
• Newsletters - Run customer stories in newsletters that go to customers, employees and partners.
• Direct marketing – Highlight a customer success in a mailer to prospects and customers, either a full story or overview.
• Case-study booklets – Create booklets that highlight several of your key customer stories.
• Email - Capture the attention of prospects or customers by using a compelling customer story in an email campaign or to a single contact.
• Advertising - Showcase a customer success in an ad run in a key industry publication or web site.
• Proposals - Include a couple of customer stories in a proposal for new business.

If you would like support to create your client success stories perhaps have a RAVE with another member this week and focus the meeting on Success Stories.

MEETING TOPIC: Share with your group the top strategic alliances that you would like to make for your business. You can be as specific or as broad as you like.

What is Strategic Alliance?

It’s any cooperative agreement where businesses come together for a specific duration and/or project and add value to each other through the alliance. It’s about leveraging your business relationships to help both you and your alliance grow.

Why form Strategic Alliances?

Because it can supercharge your referrals. Running your own business means you are spending a considerable amount of time on all the aspects of business ownership; sales, accounts, customer service, marketing, networking. By forming key strategic alliances with businesses you can maximise your time marketing. There is the potential to exchange a number of referrals between yourself and your strategic alliance.  Rather than looking for individual referrals all the time you could build key relationships where you get a consistent flow of referrals from one source.

Consider the many potential benefits for your business:
• Diversifying your product/service lines and markets
• Providing access to new markets and product knowledge
• Avoiding ‘reinventing the wheel’
• Accessing new resources

How do you work out who would make a great strategic alliance for your business?

A business that has the same target market as you is a great place to start. They have already built up trust with this group of people (their client base) and by building this one key relationship you may have the opportunity to by association gain the trust of all their clients/customers.

You can be specific by naming businesses that you would like to be introduced to or be broad by saying the type of industry e.g.: an Accountant or Personal Trainer who you would like to be introduced to.

Examples of what you could create together with your strategic alliance:

• Ask your alliance to run a workshop for your clients. E.g A business coach in Auckland Venus is providing complimentary goal setting workshops for an accountants client base.
• Cross promote services in a brochure or flyer
• Offer business listings of key alliances on a ‘My Network’ or ‘ Our Friends’ page on your website
• Run a joint event or workshop where you both invite guests; the guests to enjoy the event while networking with likeminded people

Examples of some win-win alliances;

• BNZ and Plunket – BNZ are currently selling blue teddy bears in their stores. Plunket have an avenue to raise the awareness of their brand, services and fundraise and BNZ are being seen to  ‘give back’ and ‘support the community’. Providing a point of difference for new and existing BNZ customers.
• Nourish Magazine and local cafes – Nourish is a gorgeous free food magazine and has built great alliances with local cafes where they are distributed free. Cafe’s love them because their customers get a free foodie magazine and often times come into the cafe because they want to read the latest issue. Great win/win.
• Venus and our Members; Within Venus we have experts who have started delivering complimentary workshops in their area of specialty to our members. A great way for members to raise their profile in the network and be seen as an expert in their field.
• Healthy Inspirations and Venus members;  Vickey, owner of Tauranga Healthy Inspirations has put together a ‘ Thank you for joining us’ package filled with vouchers for free or heavily discounted services and products collected from her Venus members. A great way to say thanks to her new clients and showcase those women in her network.

MEETING TOPIC: Share with your group the top FAQ’s for your business OR ask your group to brainstorm FAQ’s you could use to create or improve your FAQ list or page.

What is an FAQ list/page?

FAQ stands for “frequently asked questions.” As the name implies, it is a list of questions frequently asked by prospects or current clients about different aspects of a business’s services or products. The answers are typically shown with the questions. The most common place to display a list of FAQ’s is on your website. However you could also put it into a sales pack/presentation, include in your brochure or on your social media business pages.

Why have an FAQ webpage?

• Improves your Google search rankings by the inclusion of keywords in your questions and answers
• Saves both prospects and yourself time; they get instant information
• Improves sales conversion; helps prospects to reach a decision
• Extends support to clients; Helpful for new users of your product or service

How do I create an effective FAQ webpage?

To write an effective FAQ page, simply think of the questions that prospects ask most often. Do they ask about your products features? Do they request proof of credentials? Are they seeking directions to your store? Whatever it is that your prospects want to know, incorporate into your Q & A.

Here are 7 tips and strategies to think about while you’re creating or rewriting your FAQ page:

1. Find Your KeywordsGet together your list of keywords and searched terms for your industry/type of business. Use these to develop your questions around.

2. FAQ or WAQ?
   For a long time FAQs have been misused, instead of real and relevant content, businesses put questions they “wished” users would ask (WAQ, Wished to be Asked Questions). It’s very important to put prospects needs first, just cover topics that are really important to them.
3. Keep it Simple
   You don’t need to clarify every single question that may pop up about your product or service, just the key ones that your prospects keep asking you.

4. Speak to Any Objections That Hinder Sales
   FAQs are a great place to answer any sales objections. Let’s say one of the objections you hear most often about your product is that it costs more than competitor products. Use a question and answer to explain why your product offers more value than your competitor’s.

5. Create Links to Your Main Pages
   FAQs give you an opportunity to promote some of your main pages and some of your more obscure ones too. Simply write a question that targets those pages and then include a link in your answer. The links will drive traffic to those pages and will also help the search engines to find them too.

6. Remember the Call to Action
   At the end of the FAQ, make sure one of your last questions is a call to action. Tell the prospect how she can get more details, request further information or buy from you. After reading all that great information, she should be ready to take the next step, so be sure to guide her along.
7. Make It Easy to Ask a New Question
   If someone can’t find the answer to their question within your FAQ, it’s likely they’ll want to ask you directly. Make sure you include a question form or a contact form that’s easily accessible from your FAQ page.

For many people, FAQ pages are often the first page they go to after Home. The value an FAQ page brings to your website is well worth the effort in doing one. Unlike most other pages of your website, your FAQ page should be one that you update on a regular basis. If a prospect poses an interesting question you haven’t heard before, add it to your FAQ page.

For your group to develop a greater understanding about your business and the services and products you offer this week we’re inviting you to bring something along to ‘Show and Tell’ to your members.

Show and tell is the process of showing an audience something and telling them about it. It is usually done in a classroom as an early school technique for teaching children the skills of public speaking. With Venus we are using it as another tool for educating your members about an aspect of your business.

A number of us are visual and kinaesthetic learners – we learn by seeing and touching. This exercise will help your members, your sales force, to understand more fully an aspect of your business.

We had this as a meeting topic back in March and it was so widely enjoyed that we thought, lets have it again. The only limit is your imagination. Allow yourself to get creative with this.

The idea is to provide your members with a sensory experience either visual or kinaesthetic. Better yet – if you can provide something that your members can take away then they’ll definitely remember you and your product or service over the next few weeks.

Examples of what you could bring in your Show and Tell:

• Graphic designer –bring a selection of brochures they have designed
• Image consultant –bring their colour swatches to explain the different range of colours in each group
• Real Estate Agent – bring their 5 top listings with photos, descriptions to read
• Accountant – bring a few case studies of the $$ they have saved clients or a top 10 list of business expenses you can claim through your business
• Massage Therapist – bring a range of their oils for her group to smell and show her group a small technique they could use to relieve stress in their day to day life
• Travel Agent – bring a photo display of one of their trips or provide a colourful brochure for their group to take away with them to look through
• BNZ –bring their range of ‘in a box’ series and talk about them as they pass them around
• Marketing – bring examples of some great marketing ideas and in comparison some not so great ones
• Mortgage Broker – Bring a visual diagram of the amount of money they have saved a few ‘case study’ clients by finding them the best mortgage deal

Have fun,

Vanessa

Don’t Sell Your Services; that’s Not What People Buy

Believe it or not, no one actually buys your service. No one buys coaching. No one buys consulting. No one buys financial planning. So what do people buy? Well, there are, in fact, two things people buy.

The first thing people buy is a solution to a problem. People buy a service only because they believe it will solve certain problems and give them certain results.

For this weeks meeting write a list of 5 – 10 problems that your business solves for your clients/customers.

They are not buying the “how” of a service. Your service is simply the “how” you do it. Your service is the tool or method you use to solve problems and deliver results. Do you buy a hammer because you just want a hammer? Do you buy a car because you just want a car? Do you go to the dentist because you happen to feel like being drilled?

These examples show you that you are buying a solution to a problem; you are buying a result. You would not buy a hammer, a car or go to the dentist unless they all solved problems and delivered results. Just suppose you focus on telling someone all about “how” your coaching and consulting service works and what it is.

At the end of the conversation (if they are still listening), they will have a good understanding of your “how” but they’ll be left wondering what problems you will solve for them and what results you will deliver. If people do not know what problems you will solve for them and the results you will deliver, it is highly unlikely that they will buy your service.

If however you focus on understanding their problems and the results they will get, you will be focussing on what people are buying and your chances of success will be dramatically increased.

The second thing people buy is YOU

Once someone has decided they have a problem they want solved, they then make a decision as to who will solve it for them.

If you have focused the conversation on telling them all about your “how” and what your service is, they will feel that you are focussed on yourself and your needs. When the focus is on you, people get the sense that you have your own best interest at heart and don’t really care about them. They will start to think you are simply trying to sell them something, and all sorts of sales resistance will surface.

If you have been focussing the conversation on understanding their problems, they will feel that you have their best interests at heart.
They will start to trust you and open up to you. They will naturally decide you are the person to solve their problems (assuming of course there are problems to be solved, etc).

So in summary, don’t focus on selling your services.

Instead, have conversations where you focus on understanding problems and then people will assume you know “how” to deliver results. The more you focus on understanding their problems, the more they will trust that you are the one they should be working with.