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Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek |
Make your marketing
The basis for the successful application of proven marketing strategies is personal relationships.
speak to your clientsRegardless of the medium you're using to deliver your marketing message, what your message is or what kind of volume you're dealing with, you need to keep one thing in mind. You're speaking to one person and only one person at a time.
And the number one focus of any marketing strategy you engage in should be building long-term relationships with your prospects and clients.
Why? Because once these relationships are nurtured, you can ethically build on them by providing your clients with many other products or services that solve their problems.
The fact is, if you are providing your current clients a truly valuable product or service that improves their life in a measurable way, you are doing them (and any prospects in the same target audience) a great disservice by not giving them every opportunity to enter into a mutually beneficial business relationship with you.
When your marketing is always focused on building long-term relationships (instead of trying to generate immediate sales) you're building what's called a "Relationship-Marketing Funnel" or an "RMF." It's a funnel that will channel an ongoing stream of new and repeat sales into your business along with organically self-replicating profits. But don't jump into building your RMF without taking care of some prerequisites crucial for your success.
If you want your RMF to work successfully there are three prerequisites that you must first fulfill:
1. You must know what your clients' wants and needs are and you must have a proven product or service that provides a solution.Now these may seem like simple principles to implement, but you would be amazed at how many business owners cannot accurately fulfill these prerequisites. Many business owners think they know what their target market wants and how the people in that market want to be communicated with; but, more often than not, their assumptions are dead wrong.2. Once you know exactly what your clients needs are, you must focus exclusively on those needs (not your own).
3. You must service your clients way beyond what any of your competitors are providing. Satisfaction is not enough. You must seek to convert every client into a raving fan.
They've never taken the steps required to discover their clients' true needs. They've never dedicated the time to plan how they're going to fulfill those needs in a way that's convenient for their clients. And they've never learned how to effectively communicate with their prospects and clients to let them know they have the answers they're looking for.
When you address these three fundamental prerequisites, you'll lay a solid foundation for exponential growth.
John-Paul Micek
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John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach at RPM Success Group Inc. Reach him at JPM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.
Deborah Cole Micek, chief executive officer of RPM Success Group, is a business success coach and life strategist. Reach her at DCM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.
Access an expanded version of this article at www.GetCoachedforFree.com.