I don’t know about you, but as a CEO running and growing a business, I create at least four strong pieces of content per day. I work with clients, and I have a team of people who depend on me. Most of my time is committed and extremely valuable. Is it the same for you? When I meet clients and work with them, they have paid me at least $997 for the hour. So, when I give a free hour to someone, it is precious time. I could be doing many other things such as:
-Spending more time with my family
- Speaking to a new client
- Consulting a current client
- Writing an article for my online community
- Creating a video for my YouTube Channel
- Putting together a PowerPoint presentation
Serious business owners don’t have a free hour to throw away, especially on a FREE strategy session or webinar when it is really a code word for sales pitch. Yesterday a ‘Business Coach’ pitched me on LinkedIn and invited me to have a free ‘Strategy Session’ (basically an hour-long sales call).
Many of us have experienced that, haven’t we? This person was pushy and super insistent. They promised me it would be “the most valuable time I’d ever spent on my business’’ and they were sure they could “help me.’’ This sales tactic has been VERY popular as of late. It is being used by a lot of inexperienced people who barely have a web page, let alone actual long-term clientele. This is hustling and grinding as business building.
Please, stop wasting my time on your free webinar, masterclass or strategy session when you offer no real value in your value ladder. Are you hoping I spend at least four figures from watching your marginal webinar and then hope I jump into your community without thinking?
If you are, then delivery of your service is not worth my four figures. Let me be clear on this… I have paid well into the five figures for services that deliver on their promises and care about my success on a business and personal level.
Don’t attempt to take me through your value ladder when you know ZERO about my business or about me. I’m unwilling to pay $20k or more for someone who underestimates me and offers marginal guidance as a consultant. Most coaches and consultants want big money without doing what they are asking their clients to do.
Some coaches that have pitched me didn’t know that I had already built 11 successful businesses or had written 23 books. They didn’t know how many people I had on staff or what our web page was. This isn’t the first time this has happened. To me this is you wanting me to buy your fictional credibility.
I’ve been pitched by coaches and consultants who want me to hire them, who haven’t made as much money as I have. They are hustling for their bread and butter. I had one such consultant who met me at an event and overheard from someone else how much money my company had made that year, literally stalk me on the internet for about 6 months, hoping I would hire him. Even though he confessed to me he had lost his business, was going through a divorce, and felt down and depressed, he still wanted me to hire him. I’m calling this out right now for how bad it is…
There are a few things I look at when hiring someone to work with:
I won’t work with you if you use FOMO or ‘high scarcity’ closing tactics
If you have researched me and my business and know about my industry
If you have a real community of people that enjoy working with you and with each other
The quality of the work presented to me
If you are hoping to pitch me your strategy session, whether 15 mins or one hour, please don’t waste my time with a marginal solution that really only benefits you. These cheap tactics don’t work with me. I built my businesses before social media was born and I value long-term relationships in business.
Relationship marketing and networking may be “old school” but they are stronger than quick fix tactics used today because they last. My average client stays with me five and a half years. I don’t hustle for a living. I connect for a living and there is a big difference. I also don’t pay huge Facebook costs.
What’s important to know is that I can tell when someone simply wants my money. I value authenticity and I can hear authentic concern vs. someone who is actively listening. I know the difference between someone who doesn’t want to bother building a relationship, it is obvious from their contrived message that they are just trying to close me and those people who deeply care about the success of their clients and understand that they need success stories in order to win.
There are a boat load of GREAT coaches and consultants that are thriving because they understand the power of having a relationship with their client and aren’t simply trying to make a buck selling their products in a “Scarcity” kind of way. These sales tactics don’t work long term. Building a relationship with your client means working harder than simply buying a Facebook ad, that leads to your webinar, that leads to your sales funnel so you can cash in and look like a hero.
If you want to have a business long term, you will benefit most by looking at your client-care system long term. There are so many benefits to using relationship marketing to grow your business and stabilize it, that it is worth the effort to go the extra mile now. Relationship marketing doesn’t use high pressure closing and sales tactics. We are moving into the relationship and community marketing models which allow for the benefits of:
· Subscribers
· Fans
· Collaborators
· Networks
· Communities
· Tribes
· Audience
In 2008 Wired Magazine’s Executive Editor, Kevin Kelly, wrote an article called “1,000 True Fans.” In that article he said, “A creator such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, video maker, or author, in other words, anyone producing works of art… needs to acquire only a thousand true fans to make a living. A true fan is designed as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce.
They will drive 200 miles to see you sing, they will buy the Super Deluxe reissued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google alert set for your name, they bookmark your eBay page when your out of print edition shows up. They are true fans.”
It’s commonly accepted as the most critical piece of advice for anyone looking to start their business. Kevin Kelly says, “Whatever your interests as a creator are, your 1,000 true fans are one click from you. As far as I can tell there is nothing — no product, no idea, no desire — without a fan base on the internet. Everything made or thought of can interest at least one person in a million. The trick is to practically find those fans, or, more accurately, to have them find you.”
The difference is where you put your attention and focus. If you want to build a business long term, then your attention and focus must be on gathering a thousand fans, and not a thousand sales. When you focus on sales, you lose the long-term stability and scalability of your business, although it looks as if you are successful because you have sales. Russell Brunson, in his fantastic book, “Expert Secrets” said, “Each of us must focus on building our own cultures, creating true fans.” You will benefit most when you learn how to create true fans versus a simple product sale.
This is where the work begins. You have to put some time into thinking about what you were going to create in the first place to get a thousand true fans. You will benefit most by thinking about your business as a community builder. Meaning, in your business, how can you add an element of community? Where can you build your tribe or audience? What benefits are there to being a community member? What new opportunity can you provide them? How can you help them feel better about themselves by working with you?
Taylor Swift uses her hugely popular social networks, (she has over a 140 million fans), to form relationships with them. She has made this an active part of her business model. She blogs and puts up posts for them to read, makes playlists, leaves comments for them, and is in constant connection with her fans, even going so far as to give them heartfelt relationship advice.
Taylor spends a lot of her spare time interacting with hardcore fans. This is a great example of relationship marketing. She genuinely loves her fans. It’s not a publicity stunt. She sends Christmas presents to fans with handwritten letters. This is going the extra mile and why she’s such a celebrated artist.
Taylor Swift doesn’t see her fans as product buyers, but as a relationship that will carry her business long-term and scale out her message and music to more people. Today, we are seeing the power of celebrity begin to fall and the power of the influencer rising. It only makes sense to begin seeing the person you’re selling to as the relationship that will fire up your business long term.
Vickie Helm is a bestselling author, business and asset strategist, and the CEO of Smart Group Firm. She has improved the success of more than a thousand companies and the lives of thousands of individuals throughout her career. You can learn more about Vickie at https://thesmartlifeclub.com or https://vickiehelm.com.