BILL DOERR, CCO
860-798-6964
BILL DOERR, CCO860-798-6964
I help you convert your competence into compensation — GUARANTEED.
HERE’S MY SKIN-IN-THE-GAME:
If you work with me, you’ll enjoy a 200% ROI or you’ll owe me nothing.
I’m either dumb as a bunny or smart as a fox. If I were you, I’d . . . bet on the fox! ‘-)
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Getting More Referrals?
Marketing, PR / Word-of-Mouth“I’d Like (a lot!) More Referrals!”
That’s the most frequently cited comment that I hear when I’m talking with providers in financial services, accounting, law, etc. It’s a definite issue. Maybe for you, too?
And why not? After all, isn’t meeting a prospective client through a referral from someone who knows, likes and trusts you . . . about as good as it gets? I sure think so.
Why You May Not Be Getting More Referrals
Reason #1: You’re Not Asking
The most likely reason is that you’re not asking for them! So obvious. So true, too.
Reason #2: No System
You don’t have a system for generating referrals. Referrals don’t happen by accident. That’s why many people aren’t getting the quantity and quality of referrals they want on a consistent basis.
Reason #3: No Skill
You have a system but you’re not skilled enough to be effective using it.
OK, So What’s with . . . The Boats?
Great question! In our Preferral Prospecting System® — it’s like a referral, only better — we show you how to create a referral system based on four (4) elements:
Profile … of the ‘Ideal Person’ you’d like to meet
Source … of the Preferrals you’d like to receive — e.g. a ‘Center-of-Influence’
Method … the means for making your sources produce Preferrals
Plan … the coordinated schedule of actions that will generate the Preferrals you want
PROFILE . . . is based on a few observable characteristics . . . that correlate highly with the kind of people who truly understand what you do, value the benefits you offer and are willing and able to pay you a ‘fair’ price to enjoy them.
Some examples . . . “a CPA” . . . “a parent with children in private school” . . . “a homeowner” . . . etc. The key is to choose a characteristic that doesn’t require someone to be psychic or make a subjective judgement that someone ‘needs’ whatever benefits you offer. And that’s why we have those ‘boats’ in today’s post.
One of my clients, a financial advisor, has found that asking, “Do you know anyone who owns a big _ _ _ boat — 42′ or bigger that is kept at a marina on Long Island Sound?” is the ONLY profile characteristic he needs to use to gain an introduction to someone who is most likely to understand, value and afford his services. See how that works?
KEY POINT:
Developing a PROFILE of your Ideal Client, based on observable characteristics, is a key element in creating a system for generating more and better referrals for your practice.
Building Valued Client Relationships
Marketing, Preferred Advisor, RelationshipsEmpathy Invites Emotional Engagement and Commitment
Jane Wurwand, Founder of Dermalogica wrote an article and cited author, Daniel Pink who argues that empathy is a right-brain quality. Jane feels empathy is more ‘feminine’ than ‘masculine’ and it’s why, more often than not, highly successful business people seem to possess this quality and exercise it liberally.
Empathy Is a Key Factor in Business Success
Wurwand’s article reminds us of how both the masculine quality of ‘assertive energy’ as well as the feminine quality of ‘connective energy’ are necessary for reaching effective decisions and building consensus to implement them effectively.
Gertrude Bell’s Legacy: Rim-Walker
Gertrude Bell was woman ahead of her time. A graduate of Oxford University in England, she was an advisor to Arab kings, European heads of state and spoke several dialects of Arabic.
Her ability to connect with her clients was incredible. She knew how her clients saw the world because she lived as they did. After graduating from Oxford, she learned Arabic by living with the Bedouin tribes in North Africa for several years. When King Faisal of Iraq (it was 1921) sought her counsel, she not only understood Arab culture, she spoke his language.
If western culture was in one ‘bowl’ and arab culture was in another, Ms. Bell was able to ‘walk the rims’ of each — seeing what both had to offer (or, protect!). Her role as advisor and liaison to powerful world leaders resulted from her being highly effective at providing empathetic counsel and using it to gain consensus from extremely disparate parties.
What You Can Learn From Happy Clients
Ask clients of highly regarded / desired advisors, “What do you like most about your advisor?”. They’ll tell you. Usually, it’s some variation on “S/he understands our business, our culture, our industry, our competitors but most of all . . . me”.
This makes it easy to ensure any recommendations you may make will be more acceptable and more likely to be implemented. But it all hinges on your ability to understand your client’s world, hopes, fears, concerns and desires.
KEY POINT:
Get out of your world long enough to get into your clients’ world and business
A System for . . . Business GROWTH
Management, MethodSystems.
That very word sounds so technical, doesn’t it? It conjures up images of NASA engineers sitting around small screens, white-shirted people in black glasses hunched over drafting tables, in large worksites, in small communities of connected cubicles.
What IS a System?
In the end, a system is just a group of related elements and coordinated actions that are designed to create a specific result.
Business Success Relies on Systems
In business, we have any number of systems. Generating clients (and, the revenues they bring into your operation) can / should be a system. Same for selling. If you need people to run your business or practice, then a system to recruit candidates and another to select the better ones each suggest a ‘system’ as well.
Then you need to develop your new hires to perform effectively, yes? So a ‘performance development’ system for developing your people — by training, motivating, problem-solving, etc. all suggest yet another kind of business system. And lest we ignore operations, you probably have a system for how you manage your funds — an accounting system. In short, whether by design or not, an effective business is one that probably relies on using systems more than one that doesn’t.
GROWTH . . . Yeah, there’s a System For That, Too
One of the systems I find is most often not present is a system for creating growth in a business. Yes, there’s a system for that, too. We call it The Profit Project™
Check out a brief video on this
KEY POINT:
Business success is no accident. And a systems approach to achieving it makes it far more likely . . . for you!
How Can You Help People DO Anything?
Marketing, Preferred AdvisorAfter a week of being out of computer due to a myriad of mundane mistakes that produced a major disruption in my life, I’m back. Thankfully.
Today, I want to recognize an insight prompted by a Duct Tape Marketing Colleague of mine in Davenport, IA — AJ Perisho. (Check out his potent post right here!)
A Simple Three Prong Approach
AJ recently conducted a survey of his target audience — i.e. small business owners — about how they feel about ‘marketing’. Specifically, AJ asked people for three (3) things: “With respect to ‘marketing’, what are your biggest FEARS . . . FRUSTRATIONS . . . DESIRES?”
That’s a powerful question that YOU can use to learn more about what moves your prospective (and, existing!) clients to act on your value proposition.
People Act for Their Reasons, Not Ours
A wise person one told me, “People tend to maintain the status quo more than they are inclined to take actions and make changes”. I tend to agree. What I’ve also learned, however, is that changes are made when the need to do so is clearly understood . . . in a context defined by the person him or herself.
THAT . . . is why knowing what makes someone feel ‘less OK’ than they like . . . may hold the key to helping them take action with you.
KEY POINT:
If people do things for their reasons, LEARN THEM . . . and use them to help them take actions that make their lives better!
Skilled Expert or Valued Advisor?
Method, Preferred Advisor, Relationships, UncategorizedSkilled Expert: Going DEEP
Like most of us, you probably began your working career in some field — e.g. law, accounting, financial planning, etc. and developed a professional reputation and regard for ‘knowing your stuff’. Expertise in your primary field is a foundation . . . on which to build your professional reputation and regard. But it’s not enough if you aspire to build a long-term, trusted advisor relationship with your clients.
Valued Advisor: Going WIDE
Building on the foundation of being really, really good at what you do — i.e. ‘solving problems for your clients’ — you’ll next want to gain knowledge that is not directly applicable to the field of your primary expertise.
The primary value — to you — of gaining an education about topics outside of your primary expertise is so that you can see things from an entirely different perspective — unlike a skilled expert who ‘knows it all’ . . . and not much else.
An Example: “Learning To Fly”
Some years ago I had the privilege of learning how to fly. Fortunately, I also had the aptitude to do so effectively. While not critical to my later work as an advisor to salespeople and managers in the financial services industry, my pilot training proved to be an ‘edge’ that other ‘equally skilled’ experts did not enjoy.
At one point, an agency manager I was working with asked me, “How will I know that my training of a producer on some skill was adequate?” What he really wanted to know was, “When can I ‘stop worrying’ about my producer and ‘assume’ she’s developed the competency I’ve been training her to have?”.
It was a good question. Fairly common, too. Because of my earlier flight training, I recalled — and shared — what I learned on the day I ‘soloed’ my training aircraft.
It was a cold January day in New England. Snow squalls were coming in from the west. Grey, overcast day. The kind you like to think about while you’re on a Caribbean cruise!
“Today’s your lucky day, Bill!”
My flight instructor had me doing the usual take-offs and landings (known as ‘touch-and-go’) in the airport’s landing pattern. Nothing too eventful. I felt I was doing OK. “Make the next landing a ‘Full Stop’ . . .” I wasn’t sure why. I soon found out, though!
We taxied back to the hangar area. My instructor opened the door and said, “Bill . . . you’re ready . . . do three take-offs and make a ‘full stop’ after each. Taxi back to the active (runway) and do it again. I’ll be watching you from the hangar . . . don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Now GO!” With that, he got out of the aircraft and walked off toward the hangar area. I was not expecting that! But I felt excited at the thought that today I would fly the aircraft all by myself. Woo hoo!
The three take-offs and landings were (with one exception) ‘uneventful’ and (obviously) successful. After my third landing I taxied back to the hangar area. I got out of the aircraft and asked my instructor, “How did you know TODAY . . . was THE day to let me ‘go solo’?”
He told me, “Well, I sit in the right seat and I observe you. I want to see if you’re able to hold a steady heading and altitude. If you do, that’s evidence of your SKILL. If you stop holding either one, I want to see if you notice. If you do, that’s evidence of your AWARENESS. Finally, I watch to see if you correct the situation by using the controls and power to restore your heading and altitude. If you do, that’s evidence of your MASTERY. Once I know that you can:
1. make the aircraft do what it’s supposed to be doing,
2. spot it when it’s not, and
3. correct in a timely manner . . .
you really don’t need me to sit in the ‘right seat’ and today . . . you demonstrated all three factors so . . . I got out of your way of becoming the pilot I know you’re going to be”.
Wow! That was brilliant. I shared both that story as well as the lesson it taught me . . . with my agency client. Technically speaking, learning to fly had ‘nothing’ to do with getting his producer to generate more revenues for the practice.
But it had a lot to do with helping my client become more effective as an agency manager whose success reflected the quality of skills his producers were learning from him –– just as my own piloting skills reflected my talented and caring flight instructor from many years before.
KEY POINT:
Go deep AND wide. Deep = expertise in your primary field. Wide = broadening experiences in other (often unrelated!) fields. You’ll be more of a Valued Advisor and . . . more difficult to replace!
Professional Advisors are Personal
Marketing, Preferred AdvisorIt’s a Matter of Balance
When the solution being sold is more or less understood and tangible in nature — like a flat-screen TV is a ‘solution’ to not experiencing the Super Bowl in an exciting manner — it’s easy to see that buyers of that solution are more likely to be viewed as ‘customers’ than ‘clients’.
But when the solution being sold is more reflective of the applied expertise and insight of the provider of a problem-solving service — like the physician counseling her patient in the above image . . . then the relationship is less ‘customer’ and more ‘client’.
Advisors . . . Have Clients, Not Customers
When a solution requires an accurate assessment and expert insight into the buyer’s needs and situation . . . as well as the technical aspects of the solution being rendered . . . the relationship is decidely more ‘client’ than ‘customer’.
Consider the fact that if you were about to undergo a surgical procedure, you might be unhappy if you discovered — as you’re being wheeled into surgery — that your regular doctor had to leave on a personal emergency and ‘some other’ doctor would be performing your surgery. Granted, the ‘other doc’ is licensed by the state to practice medicine and has staff privileges at the hospital but the fact that you don’t know WHO this replacement doctor is . . . might be unsettling to you.
KEY POINT:
It’s your personal relationship with someone — as well as the technical expertise of whatever solution you offer — that makes you an advisor. And the people who seek you out for the solutions they want and you offer . . . are clients rather than customers.
Trusted Advisor or Technical Expert?
Marketing, Preferred AdvisorBeing a Trusted Advisor vs. merely being an expert in your field — is kind of like that, too.
“Trusted Advisor”
This term is so overused, it’s become a cliche. But there is serious financial benefit and value in being seen as one regardless of the professional field you happen to be in — law, accounting, financial services, consulting, etc.
Relationship vs. Transactions
Advisors who earn the professional regard and respect of their clients are truly different from other vendors offering the same problem-solving expertise but without a deeper relationship in place. Being in the right place at the right time with the right answer will probably suffice to generate a transaction with you.
Being a preferred provider — being someone whom a client would, all things being equal, prefer over others is probably the only sure way to operate profitably and productively over the long haul. Why? Because almost any thing a competitor in your field can offer a client creates a level playing field. That removes the competitive distinction between you and your alternatives. So what’s left? The unique relationship YOU offer a prospect or client.
In future posts, we’ll be exploring more about this opportunity to differentiate yourself in the eyes of your prospects and clients by becoming (or, more effectively communicating!) that you are a Trusted Advisor and . . . a Preferred Advisor, as well.
KEY POINT:
Experts who solve problems are going to get sales. Experts who solve problems and build relationships are going to get clients.
Building Your Client Development System
Marketing, SellingSome call it ‘Selling’ or ‘Closing’. It’s critical to the ultimate outcome you’re seeking — i.e. to go to your bank with a lot more more money than you’re putting in there now.
I just returned from a business trip from the west coast. It was a long flight – over 4 hours. Apart from occasional turbulence, nothing exceptional. Now we’re on ‘final approach’ to land. Seatbelts fastened. Check. Tray tables in their upright and locked position. Check.
About 50 feet off the runway, a gust of wind hit the aircraft and almost put one wingtip into the runway. Fortunately, the pilot recovered (Thank God!) control and the landing continued ‘as planned’. But what if, in the last 10 seconds of the flight, the pilot ‘lost control’ of the landing? The entire flight would have been deemed a ‘disaster’.
Selling is a ‘Mission Critical’ Function
Converting qualified opportunities into realized revenues is what really brings closure (no pun intended!) to your Client Development System. It’s the last ‘key piece’ of the puzzle that makes it possible for you to go to your bank. So you must do it as effectively as each of the three (3) previous elements — Fueling, Qualifying and Cultivating.
Use a SYSTEM!
If you have a business function that is needed repeatedly, done routinely and produces results that are critical to your success . . . please . . . don’t ‘wing it’. Do it by design, not accident. Otherwise, you’ll get the results you want sporadically and erratically instead of consistently and conscientiously.
KEY POINT:
If you’re seeking to gain the skills and attitudes needed to be effective at converting opportunities into revenues, I highly recommend you find a good sales training organization or coach and work on building the skills and attitudes you need to be effective in this key function. (Psst — if you need a good recommendation . . . call me! 860-798-6964)