Referral-based business is fun.  Let’s not underestimate how much fun it is to get a call one, two, three days a week from someone who’s heard about you.  What it does is forces you to be even more intentional about the services you’re providing your clients and other folks who are associated with you.  It makes it more fun to just do a great job for them, give more value, and get those referrals.  When you start up the referral engine, it begins to create a buzz about you in the community that you’re providing services and this speeds your momentum.

Let’s talk a little bit about rewarding people up front for sending referrals.  Some people will be intrigued by this and some won’t.  Meaning, some people will appreciate and want to be compensated for referring people to you; and some just want to do it and they don’t want anything in return.  But, on your part, it’s a nice thing to do and a nice thing to offer.  You just add to the referral process an incentive for people referring you to other people.

There are several types of incentives you can offer referrals.  If you’ve never tried it, try giving a monetary incentive.

An example might be that for any client that you bring to me, I’ll write you a $100 check.  Now, let’s say that somebody’s paying me $350 a month.  I’d love to get that client given to me and give a hundred bucks for that.  Your revenue just goes up by $250 that first month and that $100 was guaranteed marketing dollars.

You could also give them a percentage of the revenue from the client.  You could make a donation to their favorite charity.  So, not only are you giving, but also you’re doing something unique and different.  And that resonates with people.

You could offer free services.

Get a gift certificate to restaurant that’s well known in the area.  What I’m saying is get creative.   You can send an email saying, “I will pay you to refer a complimentary consultation to me,” then give them an audio program, book you have, etc.  One person did this and got 23 complimentary consultations.  So, in a way, that was a paid referral.

Have some fun and be creative.  You can do different promotions at different times.  Of course, the opportunity to communicate these things is through your newsletter.  And everybody that becomes a client or has a complimentary consultation should be added to your newsletter mailing list.

I want you to think about where you’re spending your time.  Having a referral-based business is really fun.  You’re serving a lot of great clients, they’re happy, they’re sending you a lot of people, and focusing on doing everything you can to rev up that referral engine is a good marketing strategy.  Start thinking of ways to ask for the referral during your relationship when they have the win or at the end.  Don’t be afraid to focus on referrals as one of your engine strategies.

For example, don’t high school students hang around with high school students; and business owners with business owners and attorneys with attorneys and so on?  And what you service them on—for example, work/life balance, increasing profits, reducing stress, improving health and wellness—those people who want those things associate with other people who want those things.  So when you get clear on your target market and niche, referrals come automatically.  Just by really digging deep into your target market and niche–continuing to narrow your focus on that area–you will automatically get more referrals.  It can’t NOT happen.

Isn’t it true that there’s a specific group of people who are now getting measureable results from you?  That would be your clients.  And they know other people.  They hang out with other people who want that and they will automatically refer people to you.  But before I even get started on more proactive ways to generate referrals, don’t underestimate the incredible potential of really digging deep in your target market and niche and, then, letting it happen naturally.  Even if they’re competing, you get close to the people you work with.  A massage therapist is going to association meetings with other massage therapists.  And the word is going to spread how XXX is the one to call when you want to grow your business.

As a real life example, there was a coach who works with single people finding their life partners.  She launched an E-zine and got a phone call from someone who’s putting together a conference.  She wanted to get people together to help single people meet their life partners, and this person asked her to speak.

The kicker is they were referred by somebody she’d sent her newsletter to who was, in turn, referred by somebody she had coached.  So do you see how this process can work?

Now, the second benefit.  Would you agree that people who are referred to you are higher quality prospects than people who would reach out to you randomly?  Just by definition, they’re higher quality prospects.  When you have people that are referring other people, their reputation is on the line, so they’re not going to send someone that isn’t up to standards.  People respect and appreciate the opinions of others.  Very few people are going to refer your services if they don’t believe in it.  And that third party endorsement is more important than anything that could come out of your mouth.

When these people call you, their readiness is higher.  They’re more ready to utilize your services because they were referred to you by somebody who respects your services.  They’re already halfway sold.  They’re just calling to inquire about your services as opposed to you having to educate them on the whole process.

The third benefit is that it minimizes your effort and your time.  It’s wonderful because your effort gets minimized in a couple of ways.  One, because you’re so focused on your target market and niche it’s more powerful and specific.  Secondly, because you’re so focused you’re not having to do as much marketing.  Now, you’re not going to have to do any marketing because the bigger you want your business to get, the more you’ll have to do; but you’ll notice your business will eventually be 25, 50, or even 100% referral based, if you get strategic about this.

You worked so hard to get your customers on your marketing train. Don’t let your passengers fall off!  Keep them on your train, getting to know you, and soon you will have the trust built that is necessary to get them to buy from you in this Virtual World.

Register now, for FREE, and come with an open mind to find out how to keep your passengers on your Marketing Train, no matter where you are in your business!

Your experience in both your current business and prior to your business is huge.  For example, if you’re a virtual assistant and you had experience working with CEOs, it would be easier to justify pricing than if you had no experience in supporting CEOs.

If you’ve been running your virtual assistant business full-time for a couple years and have a track record that will determine how high your pricing can be as opposed to a new virtual assistant breaking into the industry.

Next, is what you’re offering.  If you’re working with large or established businesses and CEOs, you can charge more.  On the other hand, if you’re supporting new CEOs and helping them get up and running, they won’t be able to afford as much as the established CEO with a steady revenue.

The next factor is the number of clients you want.  If you’re focusing on a couple of clients and giving them your full, undivided attention and availability, you can command payment for that availability versus someone who works with multiple clients, may require a turn-around time, or may not be as flexible in their scheduling.

The next factor is your market.  What kind of income are they commanding?  This goes back to the CEO example.  A CEO who’s established and makes six figures is going to able to afford more than a small business, new start-up CEO.

Then, you need to consider what price is in your niche.  What are others in your industry and specialty charging?  Check out the competition.  There’s nothing wrong with just looking to see what the range is.  If you’re pricing yourself out, you’re not going to get the clients.  As a general rule of thumb, you don’t want to be the lowest, but you also don’t want to be the highest.  Typically, you want to be right about the middle range.

Know how much you want to make.  What do you feel like you’re worth?  Are you confident in your skills?  You could have the perfect Who and What; you might have the experience; you might even want to have a certain number of clients, but if you don’t believe in your pricing, you won’t get that fee that you’re asking for.  This is a critical factor in setting your pricing.

These are all areas to keep in mind when you sit down to determine your pricing.  Sit down and look at all these factors—your mindset is where you need to be, you’re confident in what you’re charging, it’s appropriate for your target market, and what you’re providing for those prices.  When you take that into consideration, you can start to craft good prices with which you are comfortable.

Your pricing will affect your ability to conduct effective complimentary consultations and overcome objections.  The more you feel comfortable and confident with encouraging people to sign with you will determine whether you’re priced appropriately or not.

Now, we’ll talk about the benefits of setting the range for your pricing.  I believe when you offer your pricing and have a range of pricing option that you’re more attractive.  You’ll also help set yourself apart from the crowd and make your services available to larger area of your target market.

I recommend three tiers in pricing rather than on set price.  It gives people a choice and they feel like they’re more in control.  If they want, they’ll pay for more.  But, if they’re on a budget you can fit in a little more.  Since I started doing this in my business, I don’t have a lot of objections or people trying to negotiate with me.

It’s time for you to sit down and dig deep into your fee structure, gain confidence, and eliminate the stress of knowing what to say.

A Complimentary Consultation in its purest form is a sales call.  I know this turns some people off, but I’m asking you to suspend judgment on the term.  When we get right down to it, don’t you want to help people?  Aren’t you creating a business?  You can’t be bashful about that.

A complimentary consultation is an opportunity for you to make a decision whether you want to take on a perspective client and whether they want to take on your services.  It’s an opportunity to give value and also an opportunity to determine if you’d like them as a client.  Many business owners forget about that last component.

Why is it important for you to be screening them to ensure that you want them as a client?  Working with someone you don’t click with isn’t worth the money.  You want them to be getting serviced by somebody who would be able to effectively serve them.  It’s really important that you look through a filter when you’re conducting a complimentary consultation.

When you have the mental shift that you’re also screening them, you carry a more confident, professional, charismatic, persona about you. This makes a complimentary consultation less stressful.  When you’re looking at getting a client, you’re looking to make that close.  And in a complimentary consultation where you’re screening the client you feel more comfortable if you’re deciding if you’re going to take that person or not.

I want you to know that NOW.  You’re using this consultation to determine whether or not they become a client.  Also, they don’t want to hire someone that feels like they’re trying to sell them too hard.   You will let them know up front that you’re screening them just as much as they’re screening you.  Truthfully, they like that.  It tells them you’re not going to try and sell them on something they don’t want.  They will trust you more when you say, ‘Would you like to be my client?’  And they know you really mean it.

They’re not doing you a favor by having a complimentary consultation with you.  You’re doing them a favor by engaging with them in an opportunity for a complimentary consultation and to see if there’s a fit to engage with you for long-term services.  When they feel special, they trust you.

And you’re allowed to say things that a person they don’t trust cannot.  Then, you have a good opportunity to help them and turn them into an excellent client.

Let’s talk about the Purpose—in particularly the fact that a complimentary consultation is the reason you do all of your marketing.  All your marketing is for the sole purpose of securing complimentary consultations.  Whether you do speaking, a booth at a tradeshow, networking, strategic alliances, or all of the above the whole purpose of all those activities is to secure complimentary consultations not to secure clients.

It’s easier to give away something than to sell it.  If you make the mind shift from selling your consultations to giving them away, it’s freeing and allowing you to have fun marketing.  When thinking about your marketing, you think of it for the purposes of securing complimentary consultations.  It’s all about giving value.  The more value you give the more opportunities you have with complimentary consultations and the more clients you’ll have.

If you give value—meaning you teach or give something in your marketing—they’re receiving from you right away before they pay you a dime.  That’s great if it works for them.  If not, they’re going to know how effective it would be to refer you to someone else.  By giving value, I’m talking about giving to people, teaching them, and educating them before they even become a client.

Think about some of the strategies that I’ve talked about and how using them to give value can be very effective.  You’ve given value and, then, you make the offer so people know who to engage with you next.  Your goal is to educate, to help, and to serve.

For example, there’s a coach who works with people with MS and she wrote a Top Ten list on how to deal with MS that she sent to all MS chapters and their presidents around the country with a note to share with their people.

Do you think that’s going to being her business?  Yes!  In one week, she sent 10 letters and got two requests to come speak at chapters.  Of course, in the Top Ten list she gave the link to her website.  That’s the beauty about giving value.  When you give to people, when you serve them they also allow you to sell to them.

Let’s examine newsletters.  You give tips, strategies, and teach them something.  You’re also allowed to inform them about and invite them to a speaking engagement you have or tell them about your new product.  They allow you to do that because you give them something for free and constantly provide them with value.

Another good way is to give a free report.  It’s like a newsletter times 10!  A free report might be a partial or full chapter of a book that you’re working on ranging from three to ten pages.  Remember, the more you’re seen as an expert on your What the more effective you will be.

People buy in bite-sized pieces.  Let’s say you meet someone at a networking event.  What are the odds that after a three-minute conversation they’re going to give $300 a month for your services?  The odds are better that you have a five-minute conversation and they’re intrigued.  Then, they give you a business card and say, “Put me on your newsletter mailing list.”  The odds go up that, after receiving four newsletters, they’ll be ready engage you in a complimentary teleclass or speaking engagement on a topic related to your services.

If you do a nice teleclass, they get to hear you speak and at the end you say, “Those who would like a complimentary consultation with me to talk about how I can blow your business out of the water, email me right after this class.”  The spots are limited, and I do them on Fridays.”  What are the chances that a few of them are going to say yes?

It’s ridiculously simplistic and incredibly powerful.  It seems like everyone should know that, but we don’t.  I think sometimes we overlook the simplicity.  Giving is a valuable tool with great results.  But this does not mean that you should be afraid to sell.  It doesn’t mean that you should only be giving constantly.  You have to give and, then, you have to ask for the fee.

Do you feel like marketing is a scurry of activities that seem never-ending, and you don’t know what to do next?  I can say this because that’s how it felt for me when I first started my business.  Although you can’t get away from marketing, it can become a lot easier and more fun.

It is essential to Have Your Marketing Strategy Focus on Your Who and What.

It is not only important, it’s impossible to build a successful business and a successful long-term marketing system without your Who and What.  When you know what you provide your service on, you become an expert on it, build your confidence, and one thing leads to another.  It also helps you determine where to focus your marketing efforts.

When you reach your target market, you can talk to them.  It helps people know who to refer to you for business because you’re telling them exactly who you work with and what you work on.

Let’s correlate this to some specific marketing strategies using Direct Mail as an example.  If you were to choose this as a strategy, to whom would you mail if you didn’t know your target market or niche?  It would basically be spam.  To whom would you rather mail?  If I knew who my Who was, I’d send it to them versus just sending it to anyone on a random mailing list.

What percentage of people would have a chance of responding to the mailing list created from your Who versus a random mailing list?  You have higher chances of getting responses from that targeted mailing list.

Your target market should be specific and your niche should be benefits- and results- oriented.  If someone’s already having a problem in a particular area—finances, health, business, work/life balance, etc.—they know it.  They’ve identified it and they’re feeling it.  Then, they get something from you in terms of marketing whether it’s for a teleclass, speech, or direct mail.  Do you see how their chances of responding are improved?

If someone does marketing and gets zero results, it’s almost always because it’s not consistent with their target market and niche.  There’s no way you could do a tradeshow where many people there are your target market and not get clients from that.  It means you’re at the wrong tradeshow.  Reach out to those people, communicate effectively, and have them feel what it is you have to offer.

For some Who groups, there would be certain marketing strategies that wouldn’t be applicable, and you’d have to do something else.  Let’s say your target market is the over 60 bracket.  You’re probably not going to use social media as your marketing strategy because most of them are probably not on there.  You wouldn’t know that if you didn’t who your target market was.  Hence, the first key marketing piece being to have your marketing congruent with your target market and niche.

Remember, not everyone is your client and you shouldn’t prospect everyone you meet.

There are times to market as well as times when you don’t.  This isn’t about feeling that the three people in front of you in the supermarket line are your prospective clients.  I don’t know about you, but that stresses me out—thinking that every time I leave my house I have to be at the top of my game.  It’s not true.  This is done during my marketing times by creative, proactive marketing strategies.

Under the ‘what works for you’ are the things you enjoy.  Cold calling might be a great strategy, but it’s not one I promote because everyone I’ve talked to doesn’t really like it.

If you’re not good at doing something or don’t like it, don’t pick what I suggest as a strategy because you probably won’t do it.  Your goal in marketing is to enroll people in complimentary consultations and use that session to determine if they’re a good fit and if they’d like to hire you.  Marketing that works results in people signing up for a complimentary consultation.

In general, the marketing strategies that work best are those that allow people to experience you.  For example, when you’re speaking, giving a workshop, or hosting a teleclass, you’re out there showing what you can do.  You’re basically speaking on or about something related to your service in front of people.  Plus, they get a sense of your style and personality, which will allow them to determine whether you’re a good fit for them and see your expertise and skill level.

Have you noticed that people prefer to do business with people they know, trust, and like?  That’s huge.  When you engage in marketing that allows people to experience you it’s going to have a much bigger impact than if you just put a listing up on a referral site and they haven’t experienced you.

How do you determine what works for you?  Start by doing the things you like to do and find fun.  You can be much more effective when you have an element of joy in what you’re doing than if you’re going through a routine and trying to do things that aren’t’ comfortable.  If you don’t enjoy it, more than likely you won’t end up doing it.  A marketing strategy may not be particularly fun, but if you go for a thing that you enjoy and where you’re comfortable, that’s great.

Another piece is something that you’re good at doing.  You want to pick things that you do well or can learn to do well—things you know now or want to learn so you can actively do your marketing.  For example, when I chose speaking as my engine activity, I went out and learned everything I could about teleseminars—how to give an effective one, how to market them, how to get people in there, how sell during them, etc.  That’s what you can do once you pick your marketing strategy.  You can fine-tune it so that you become an expert at it.

Some of the things that personalize an office space in a very unique way are the renderings of the children in your life. These can come from your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or godchildren. You know those little drawings, finger paintings, and a host of other projects? They can all become a part of your office décor as well as showing anyone who enters just what kind of person you are.

You can take some of the really impressive paintings or drawings and frame them to hang up on your walls. Those cute little knick knack type gifts are perfect decorations for your desk. You are sure to have more than one collaged pencil holder presented to you by precious little hands. In fact, you may get a new one each year so you can swap them out.

If you don’t have children around to make things for you, use some of your own quirky ideas about things you like to lend your personality to this working space. For example, maybe you have a passion for baskets. This is an easy one. Fill baskets of all shapes and sizes with things that are both beautiful and necessary for an office. Put plants in some, and use others for things such as pencil and pen holders, paper holder, and other things you may need to get your hands on quickly.

What if your thing is lighthouses? You can have a wall calendar that uses photographs of different lighthouses, a small ceramic lighthouse to hold push pins on your desk, or paintings of beautiful lighthouses on your walls. This tells people that you enjoy the peacefulness and beauty of lighthouses. It shows them that you have a certain serenity about you and that may draw them to you. Lighthouses also keep your environment peaceful and serene in appearance.

There are many reasons to use things that you truly enjoy as a part of your surroundings when you are working. What can make you feel more productive than to be in the midst of the things that calm and soothe you the most?

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