By Chuck Boyce
As a business owner, I have tried numerous techniques, campaigns, and media in my efforts to persuade customers to buy my products and services. I have spent countless hours and lots of dollars attending workshops, conferences, and on webinars featuring the latest “secret” to be revealed. In the end, they almost always boil down to the fact that prospects will buy from people they know, like and trust.
So I did what I see most people do. I bought ads. Online, offline didn’t matter. The ads touted how great the company was, and featured pretty pictures of our building. They didn’t lacked personality, and there was no compelling reason for prospects to engage with us. We were just another faceless business, trying to look bigger than we were.
About 5 years ago I was sold into a program that was based upon making me a “celebrity” as part of our marketing. I was skeptical, and more than a little uncomfortable being the spokesperson and face of the business. However, I made the investment and worked through the program. The results included a best selling book, print media mentions, and appearances on network TV.
All of this stuff looked cool on the walls, but was it really going to help? The short answer is, it did.
By creating an authority profile, when someone does a search on my name, they see a carefully curated set of videos, articles, and media mentions. All of these items help to support my authority positioning and put the prospects mind at ease.
So how could this work for your business?
One of my clients is IRS Tax Attorney Darrin T. Mish, Esq. (GetIRSHelp.com). This is a pretty crowded specialty, and there are huge firms that spend tons of cash advertising on TV, Radio, print and online. Darrin runs a small profitable, tax law practice in Tampa, FL.
Darrin has written several books about dealing with tax issues, several of which have been Amazon Best Sellers. His office regularly gets calls from prospects that have found his books on Amazon, and after reading it decide they need help. He shared with me that it is most common for the caller to practically plead with him to take on their case. His book and authority positioning change the dynamic of new client acquisition from him persuading prospects; to prospects trying to convince him to take them as clients. He has moved from chasing to being chased by new business.
Now it’s decision time. How can you position your expertise and claim your own authority position for your business to attract clients instead of pursuing them?
Chuck Boyce is a serial entrepreneur based in Newark, DE. Connect with him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChuckBoyceJr or LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/cboyce
You bring up some excellent points about effective ways to market one’s business. I know that I prefer doing business with someone that I know and trust and it always helps if the business makes an effort to engage in this relationship.
Recently I saw an article from early 2013 where a small business owner was suffering from the economic downturn. He was used to spending heavily on advertising and now he didn’t have the funds to do that anymore. So he decided to use his blog to answer all of the questions that were on the minds of most prospects and customers. He even talked about pricing. He didn’t try to put a ‘sales spin’ on these blog posts. He even published information about the best businesses providing his line of services in the area and left his name out. The irony was that when people did a search for those services, his site always came up! He genuinely worked to help everyone with this new approach and his business rebounded without having to spend big time on advertising.