Into Every Life a Little Rain Must Fall - Part 1 by Elena Fawkner
"Into every life a little rain must fall." And into every business too.
Don't have the luxury of surplus cash to fund a rainmaker for your
business? Well then, it'll have to be up to you. As usual. Here's
how:
YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE COMPETITION
"Everyone wants to win on Sunday, but not everyone is willing to
practice Monday through Friday." Vince Lombardi
If you asked all of your competitors whether they want to be
successful, it's a fair bet that pretty much all of them would say
"Yes, of course, who doesn't want to be successful?"
But if you asked your competitors if they were prepared to do what
it takes to develop their businesses so they could ultimately
become successful, to pay the price in terms of effort, discipline,
perseverence and patience, although most if not all would
probably answer "yes, of course, whatever it takes", the reality
is that very few of them actually would.
Although everyone wants success, very few are prepared to pay
the price over the long haul. Oh, they may give it a good go for
a little while but when the results don't come quickly, they decide
their efforts aren't working and try something else.
The cold, hard reality is that success takes hard work, lots of
it, and lots of time. Overnight successes are very rare. That's why
successful people say there's always room at the top. It's because
most people quit before succeeding, even when success is
literally just around the next bend. This is why you have very
little competition. Although you may think you have a lot of
competition, in reality you're really competing against only
ten percent or so because the other ninety percent will drop out
before they achieve success.
Think of your business as a garden. The first stage is to
decide what you want to grow, the second stage is to go get
seeds and plant them, the third stage is to tend your garden and
the fourth is to reap what you have sown. The greatest challenge
for most people is to sustain themselves through the third stage.
This is where patience is essential because it may be some
considerable time between planting and reaping. Tending your
garden also requires, in addition to patience, creativity, self-
motivation, self-discipline, perseverence and resilience (all the
better to bounce back with after disappointment, my dear).
The good news, though, is that ninety percent of your competitors
can't or won't stick it out long enough to reach the harvest stage.
This is why you can be always be a success no matter how much
competition you have. So, let's get to it.
DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO GROW
Before you can plant your seeds, you need to know what it is
you want to grow.
"Communicating one on one is different. This requires
listening, never taking your eyes off that person, conveying the
impression that this conversation is very important to you." Rick
Pitino
The first step in communicating with anyone about your business
is knowing with absolute clarity what it is you and your business
are about. You must decide what it is that you offer and to whom.
This means finding your niche. It is the kiss of death to any
business to try to be all things to all people. Accept the fact that
not everyone is a worthwhile prospect for your business and don't
waste your energies targeting anyone who is not a worthwhile
prospect.
For example, let's say your business is about web site optimization
for search engines. You take your clients' web pages and you
optimize them for each of the engines, tailoring the pages to rank well.
You don't design web pages, you don't create them, you don't offer
credit card merchant facilities or shopping carts. You optimize
existing pages to rank well in the search engines. Period. This is a
very specific niche within the broader market of those requiring help
marketing their web-based businesses.
Although that broad market will include people interested in web
page optimization, it will also include people interested in learning
HTML, looking for shopping cart assistance, looking for website
design services or information on successfully promoting affiliate
programs. If you targeted this entire market, it would be like trying
to find a needle in a haystack identifying those people interested
specifically in web page optimization.
Instead, narrow your focus to that niche of the market that you have
decided to target and target ONLY that market. Everything you
do needs to be focused on web site optimization and nothing else.
Every communication you make must be to that end and no other.
Don't allow your message to be diluted by generalizing. Don't
allow your business to become fragmented.
The most effective rainmakers are very skilled at differentiating
themselves and their businesses from the competition because they
know exactly what they are selling and to whom before they ever
meet their first prospect. They have rehearsed over and over in their
minds what it is that makes them special and why a client would be
smart to do business with them. They relish questions such as
"So what do you do?", "What makes you special?" and "Why should
I do business with you?". While ordinary mortals may stumble and
fumble for effective responses to such questions, rainmakers have
no such problem. Effective rainmakers know, specifically and
precisely, exactly what they do and who benefits from their services
and they are ready with powerful statements about their skills and
talents.
You cannot be effective in developing your business unless you have
mastered service knowledge. You need to know the features of your
products or services so that you can tailor the benefits to the
prospective customer's needs. Be sure you know the difference
between features and benefits. If you're selling bar stools, a feature
of the stool is that it has three legs. The benefit is that sitting on it
will stop you hitting the floor. Remember: features tell, benefits sell.
Now, once you've identified the features and benefits of your product
or service, develop a fifteen second commercial that you can trot out
on cue whenever someone asks you, "So what do you do?". Most
people are unprepared to answer a question like this effectively and
so it is a golden opportunity to set yourself apart. Your fifteen second
commercial will help you seize the moment and put your best foot
forward. Use your fifteen second commercial to let each person you
meet know exactly what you do and why you and your business are
so special.
A fifteen second commercial for our web site optimization service
might go something like this:
Prospect: "So, what do you do?"
You: "I run my own business, "Web Site Optimization". I tweak
clients' web pages to optimize them for the various search engines.
By creating a web page that appears in the first thirty search
results for a particular search term, the client gets a huge
increase in traffic to their web site and their sales go through the
roof."
When should you use your fifteen second commercial? Each and
every time you are introduced to someone new. Get in the habit of
delivering your fifteen second commercial to as many people as
possible. The more times you deliver it the more chances you have
to create rain.
You also need to develop a uniqueness statement to respond to
the question, "What's different about your service compared to your
competition?". Use a three step format for your uniqueness
statement. Step one is to briefly overview the three features and
benefits that you will elaborate on in step two. Step two is to use
three tailored features and benefits to explain your uniqueness to
the potential customer. Select one about your business's services/
products, one about something your business has accomplished,
and one about you personally. In step three, summarize what
you've just told the prospect.
Here's an example of a uniqueness statement for our web site
optimization service:
Prospect: "So what's different about your service compared to your
competition?".
You: "I'm glad you asked. What's different about "Web Site
Optimization" is the depth of our service, our results and our
people.
"Unlike most of our competitors, we don't just create one web page
for all of the search engines. Each search engine has different
criteria for pages to rank well. We create a different version of each
page specifically designed for each main search engine. For
example, one of our clients' rankings on Alta Vista increased from
the 75th position to 15th in less than a month. He's experienced
a 500% increase in traffic and sales as a result. I have a background
in software engineering for Yahoo so I have access to inside information
about how the search engines work that most of my competitors just
can't get.
"So, in answer to your question, what's different about us is the
depth of our service, our results and the unique experience of our
people."
It will take many rehearsals until you have your fifteen second
commercial and uniqueness statement down cold. At first it will
feel unnatural to you to give people a rehearsed speech but
over time it will feel less awkward and you'll be able to deliver
it with an ease and assurance that will sound perfectly natural.
PLANTING SEEDS
"A network is an organized collection of your personal contacts and
your personal contacts' own networks. Networking is finding fast
whom you need to get what you need in any given situation and
helping others do the same." Harvey Mackay
=> Your Existing Network
Now that you know what to say, you have to find people to say
it to. To establish your network, start with who you know. These
are your existing personal and business contacts ... the people
who will always take your call and who can help you reach your
goals. Consider people such as your attorney, accountant, doctor,
agents, sales people, family, colleagues, friends and vendors.
Schedule a meeting with who you know for the express purpose
of exploring ways you can help each other expand your respective
networks. If there's a fit, create ways to support each other. You
are not looking to sell the other person on your product or service.
Instead, you are establishing a genuine relationship with this person.
It doesn't matter that although you may be able to help this person
directly, he or she may never be in a position to reciprocate. The
reason it doesn't matter is that this person has a network of his or
her own and may therefore be able to put you in contact with
someone else who can help you.
Noticing the strengths in others and communicating them is one
of the greatest relationship-building skills a rainmaker can have.
Much more than just paying idle, often shallow compliments,
effective networkers focus on helping others focus on their strengths
by using evidence to back what they're saying.
About the Author
Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical home business ideas for the work-from-home
entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com/cgi-bin/mmp/sub.cgi?ahbbo=!FLM
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