In my last article I discussed the importance of working with trusted professionals who have built a strong relationship with prospects that you would most likely serve in the future. They are centers of influence that complement your business rather than compete with your business.
This week finishes the Life Transitions chapter that will be published this summer in collaboration with Brian Tracy and other authors. I hope you realize the power behind this concept and what it can do for your business. Here are seven things you can do to start harnessing the power of Life Transitions for your business and become an important part of your customers’ lives.
First, identify the specific Life Transitions your current customers may be experiencing. If it’s not obvious, ask them questions to learn more about their situation and what motivates them to seek your products, and how does it benefit them. If you discover more than one Life Transition, prioritize them and examine the effectiveness of your current marketing strategy to attract individuals in the various transition points. For example, if you own a furniture store, you might identify these prior transition points: Moving to the area, buying a new home, birth of a child, etc.
Second, examine the Life Transitions that precede the one that motivates your customers to come to your business. Draw a timeline and label the specific transition points in relation to the one you primarily service. You may notice that some points are directly connected and occur shortly prior to the Life Transition that motivates your customers to come to you, or they may be at the same transition point and much earlier in the process. Other transition points will occur over a longer period of time on average. If the primary Life Transition that motivates people to buy from a furniture store is people moving into the area, then they will have also bought or rented a house recently.
Third, list the business categories and specific businesses that serve each of the Life Transitions identified in the second step. Using the example of a new home rental or purchase from the second step, you could list realtors, apartment complexes, and property management companies as the business categories. Once you’ve identified the categories, look through your local directory to list specific businesses serving each category.
Forth, identify what’s in it for them to work with your business. This will vary for each type of business and each business owner. Some professions do not allow a financial reward, while it may be the standard practice for others. Some may be more than happy to refer their customers to you once they feel you will deal with their customers professionally and provide outstanding service. In other words, you must sell yourself to the business owner, and then discuss how the relationship can be mutually beneficial.
Fifth, contact the business owners or managers to discuss your proposal to work together. This can be an informal visit over the phone or in person that is concluded with a handshake, or it could involve a letter of agreement to formally establish the relationship and expectations of each other. Make it convenient to refer your business by providing business cards, brochures, and other materials that will make it easy to recommend your business.
Sixth, follow-up frequently and keep the relationship active. Just like any other relationship, you must continue to make contact and communicate the results of the individuals or companies referred to your business. You are building an ongoing relationship to develop greater trust and benefit among everyone involved.
Seventh, analyze the Life Transitions your customers experience during or after you have served them. You want to do this for several reasons:
• By fully understanding and empathizing with what your customers are experiencing, you can provide better service to them and also refer them to other highly-qualified businesses that will take care of their additional needs.
• You could earn some form of a reward if the customer makes a purchase based on your referral. Again, this will depend on the type of business and the laws that regulate compensation.
• You may expand the products or services you provide to better satisfy that specific Life Transition and earn additional income. Using the furniture store example, you may discover that new parents are buying rockers, but many of them are complaining about the lack of quality cribs and other related furniture, so you could expand your product line to include baby furniture.
Your ability to work with complementary businesses in the same or different Life Transitions will improve as you continue to build a strong network where each business benefits. Over time, you’ll receive more qualified referrals, your marketing will be much more effective, and your profits will increase.
The 30,000-foot perspective offers a greater view for your business to serve your customers better by being there before they need you. It will also allow you to gain a competitive edge by positioning your business as the best and only choice for a successful transition, even in a crowded Life Transition intersection.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Building Beneficial Relationships With Complementary Businesses, Part III
Last week I talked about developing relationships with complementary organizations, and how they are the key to positioning your business as the best choice amongst a gaggle of competitors. Complementary businesses are focused on the same prospects as your business at an earlier moment on the timeline, and prior to the Life Transition intersection where most of your competitors are figuratively gathered.
Developing mutually beneficial relationships with these businesses means that they will recommend your products and services to prospects who are highly qualified. Using the example of an engaged couple, they would visit a jeweler early in their preparations to get married. At the lower level of a business relationship, the jewelry store will have the business cards or brochures on their counter for couples to take that promote other companies that will be visited in the future. At the highest level of the business relationship, the jewelry store owner and staff would highly recommend the services of a business they trust to assist the couple with the success of their wedding.
A key concept is for you to work with trusted professionals who are reputable because of their excellent customer-focused orientation, are respected by their peers and clients, and their recommendations are warmly welcomed. The result of nurturing a mutually beneficial relationship with a trusted professional is you will be associated with a strong center of influence that refers qualified prospects who already trust you to offer the best Life Transition solution to their wants and needs.
As you develop more relationships with complementary businesses that cater to your prospects at a Life Transition intersection prior to the transition point you serve, you will create an ongoing stream of referrals. You will also begin to position your business as a trusted source because of the regular recommendations from other trusted, complementary businesses.
Years ago, before the Internet became a powerful marketing tool, I noticed that many of my clients served engaged couples as a common customer. They were all advertising in the same media with about the same message as their competitors and waiting for the couples to contact them. I worked with them for about a year to fine-tune a program that got the names of newly engaged couples and asked them to complete a checklist of the items they were still planning to purchase.
The couples were mailed a packet that included a checklist, useful information, and coupons from the businesses I worked with, and my clients received a useful database of names and the items the couple still needed so they could be contacted directly. Each of the businesses worked collaboratively to preempt the marketing efforts of their competitors, and the competition didn’t even know what was happening because we didn’t use conventional media to promote it.
This is a more complicated method to work in cooperation with several businesses in a strategic alliance. However, you can develop simpler Life Transition relationships working one-on-one with complementary businesses. Once you grasp the power of harnessing Life Transitions in your business and how you can become a part of your prospect’s life prior to their need for your goods and services, you’ll easily identify ways to keep customers loyal to your business and create a greater lifetime value from your customers.
To identify the complementary businesses that you can start working with, think of your most valuable target customer group and put them in the middle of a piece of paper with a circle around them. With the example I’ve been using, “engaged couples” would be in the center and circled. Now draw spokes radiating from the center circle and list all of the different categories of businesses the couple and their families will visit to prepare for their wedding. For example, the engaged couple will be visiting jewelers, restaurants, photographers, bakers, reception centers, etc.
Now that you have a list of non-competing and complementary businesses that serve your target market, the next step is to imagine the sequence or priority when each of the businesses would typically be visited so you can identify the businesses that will be seen prior to visiting your business.
Make a list of the specific businesses in each of the categories and identify those organizations that have the best reputation, and have built the strongest relationships with their customers. You will want to approach the best companies at the top on your list. In next week’s article, I’ll wrap up this series by sharing seven specific steps that you can take to make effective use of your prospects’ and customers’ Life Transitions.
Developing mutually beneficial relationships with these businesses means that they will recommend your products and services to prospects who are highly qualified. Using the example of an engaged couple, they would visit a jeweler early in their preparations to get married. At the lower level of a business relationship, the jewelry store will have the business cards or brochures on their counter for couples to take that promote other companies that will be visited in the future. At the highest level of the business relationship, the jewelry store owner and staff would highly recommend the services of a business they trust to assist the couple with the success of their wedding.
A key concept is for you to work with trusted professionals who are reputable because of their excellent customer-focused orientation, are respected by their peers and clients, and their recommendations are warmly welcomed. The result of nurturing a mutually beneficial relationship with a trusted professional is you will be associated with a strong center of influence that refers qualified prospects who already trust you to offer the best Life Transition solution to their wants and needs.
As you develop more relationships with complementary businesses that cater to your prospects at a Life Transition intersection prior to the transition point you serve, you will create an ongoing stream of referrals. You will also begin to position your business as a trusted source because of the regular recommendations from other trusted, complementary businesses.
Years ago, before the Internet became a powerful marketing tool, I noticed that many of my clients served engaged couples as a common customer. They were all advertising in the same media with about the same message as their competitors and waiting for the couples to contact them. I worked with them for about a year to fine-tune a program that got the names of newly engaged couples and asked them to complete a checklist of the items they were still planning to purchase.
The couples were mailed a packet that included a checklist, useful information, and coupons from the businesses I worked with, and my clients received a useful database of names and the items the couple still needed so they could be contacted directly. Each of the businesses worked collaboratively to preempt the marketing efforts of their competitors, and the competition didn’t even know what was happening because we didn’t use conventional media to promote it.
This is a more complicated method to work in cooperation with several businesses in a strategic alliance. However, you can develop simpler Life Transition relationships working one-on-one with complementary businesses. Once you grasp the power of harnessing Life Transitions in your business and how you can become a part of your prospect’s life prior to their need for your goods and services, you’ll easily identify ways to keep customers loyal to your business and create a greater lifetime value from your customers.
To identify the complementary businesses that you can start working with, think of your most valuable target customer group and put them in the middle of a piece of paper with a circle around them. With the example I’ve been using, “engaged couples” would be in the center and circled. Now draw spokes radiating from the center circle and list all of the different categories of businesses the couple and their families will visit to prepare for their wedding. For example, the engaged couple will be visiting jewelers, restaurants, photographers, bakers, reception centers, etc.
Now that you have a list of non-competing and complementary businesses that serve your target market, the next step is to imagine the sequence or priority when each of the businesses would typically be visited so you can identify the businesses that will be seen prior to visiting your business.
Make a list of the specific businesses in each of the categories and identify those organizations that have the best reputation, and have built the strongest relationships with their customers. You will want to approach the best companies at the top on your list. In next week’s article, I’ll wrap up this series by sharing seven specific steps that you can take to make effective use of your prospects’ and customers’ Life Transitions.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
A 30,000 Foot Perspective of Business, Pt. II
Last week I shared the concept of viewing your customers from a metaphorical 30,000-foot perspective. This means that you take a much broader, three-dimensional look at them on their journey through life, and prior to the point where they have a need for your product. That point on their life map is represented by the “intersection” where you and your competitors are vying for their attention with similar media and advertising. If you were the first business to grab their attention prior to the point where they have a desire for your goods or services, then you would be in a better position to establish your business as a trusted professional, and effectively eliminate the competition as a choice.
Business is ultimately about attracting and keeping customers by offering solutions with goods and services that uniquely satisfy their wants and needs. Those wants and needs will change as they move through life, and they are heightened when they experience specific events at the intersection of their lives that create added stress and require additional solutions. I refer to these events and changes as “Life Transitions,” and they act as milestones, or intermediate reference points in a person’s life. Almost all of our memories are established during transition points, or moments where life changing decisions are made that can take us on another route – for better or worse. Good decisions make good stories that we remember, and bad decisions make great stories that we never forget.
The starting point for everyone is birth and their final destination is to have lived a fulfilling life when their journey is complete. In between those two positions are numerous transition points throughout life that challenge a person to look for individuals and organizations that can provide better solutions to their wants and needs. Some of the major Life Transitions that many people will travel through on their life’s journey include parenting, starting school, employment and career development, engagement and wedding, pregnancy and birth, celebrating special events, moving and relocation, purchasing or renting a house, starting and growing a business, taking care of health issues, retirement, divorce, and coping with the death of a loved one.
When you view the lives of your prospects from a heightened perspective, you’ll see how each Life Transition is part of the continuous journey your prospects will encounter on their timeline road. The transitions also create stress in a good or bad way, and act as catalysts to trigger new needs and wants that were latent or did not previously exist. This drives individuals to seek out goods and services that they are motivated to purchase soon.
For example, when a couple becomes engaged, the event triggers a slew of needs and wants that will need to be satisfied before the eventual marriage. The bride, groom, and families will need rings, a cake, announcements, decorations, tuxedos, dresses, a bridal gown, photos, catered food, etc. Some businesses earn a large portion of their revenue catering to couples who are experiencing this particular Life Transition.
In addition, one Life Transition can be the catalyst for several other transitions. For example, when a couple weds, they may have graduated from school, are planning to move to a new location, and will possibly start a new career. In the near future, they may have a baby and experience parenting.
At the present moment, many of the prospects in your target market may be experiencing a specific Life Transition that connects them with you. Imagine, though, if you could figuratively use Google Maps to view your prospect’s life at the ground level, and then increase the altitude to an elevation that allows you to view all their Life Transition intersections that are before and after the ones you best serve.
Often, the specific Life Transition that you and all your competitors center your marketing efforts around is preceded by one or more transition points that are the focus of other non-competing businesses that are gathered at the intersections your prospects just left. Instead of doing what all your competitors do by figuratively standing at your prospect’s specific Life Transition intersection and just waiting for them to show up and take notice of your business, you should also develop beneficial relationships with those non-competing and complementary businesses.
I call them complementary businesses because they are focused on the same prospects as your business, but they are positioned earlier in the Life Transition intersection. In the wedding example, after a ring is purchased at the jewelry store and the bride accepts the proposal, many other businesses will be visited prior to the wedding date, such as flower shops and reception centers, to complete the process that ensures a successful wedding. It makes sense that a business visited later in the timeline should develop a mutually beneficial relationship with complementary businesses visited earlier in the timeline.
Business is ultimately about attracting and keeping customers by offering solutions with goods and services that uniquely satisfy their wants and needs. Those wants and needs will change as they move through life, and they are heightened when they experience specific events at the intersection of their lives that create added stress and require additional solutions. I refer to these events and changes as “Life Transitions,” and they act as milestones, or intermediate reference points in a person’s life. Almost all of our memories are established during transition points, or moments where life changing decisions are made that can take us on another route – for better or worse. Good decisions make good stories that we remember, and bad decisions make great stories that we never forget.
The starting point for everyone is birth and their final destination is to have lived a fulfilling life when their journey is complete. In between those two positions are numerous transition points throughout life that challenge a person to look for individuals and organizations that can provide better solutions to their wants and needs. Some of the major Life Transitions that many people will travel through on their life’s journey include parenting, starting school, employment and career development, engagement and wedding, pregnancy and birth, celebrating special events, moving and relocation, purchasing or renting a house, starting and growing a business, taking care of health issues, retirement, divorce, and coping with the death of a loved one.
When you view the lives of your prospects from a heightened perspective, you’ll see how each Life Transition is part of the continuous journey your prospects will encounter on their timeline road. The transitions also create stress in a good or bad way, and act as catalysts to trigger new needs and wants that were latent or did not previously exist. This drives individuals to seek out goods and services that they are motivated to purchase soon.
For example, when a couple becomes engaged, the event triggers a slew of needs and wants that will need to be satisfied before the eventual marriage. The bride, groom, and families will need rings, a cake, announcements, decorations, tuxedos, dresses, a bridal gown, photos, catered food, etc. Some businesses earn a large portion of their revenue catering to couples who are experiencing this particular Life Transition.
In addition, one Life Transition can be the catalyst for several other transitions. For example, when a couple weds, they may have graduated from school, are planning to move to a new location, and will possibly start a new career. In the near future, they may have a baby and experience parenting.
At the present moment, many of the prospects in your target market may be experiencing a specific Life Transition that connects them with you. Imagine, though, if you could figuratively use Google Maps to view your prospect’s life at the ground level, and then increase the altitude to an elevation that allows you to view all their Life Transition intersections that are before and after the ones you best serve.
Often, the specific Life Transition that you and all your competitors center your marketing efforts around is preceded by one or more transition points that are the focus of other non-competing businesses that are gathered at the intersections your prospects just left. Instead of doing what all your competitors do by figuratively standing at your prospect’s specific Life Transition intersection and just waiting for them to show up and take notice of your business, you should also develop beneficial relationships with those non-competing and complementary businesses.
I call them complementary businesses because they are focused on the same prospects as your business, but they are positioned earlier in the Life Transition intersection. In the wedding example, after a ring is purchased at the jewelry store and the bride accepts the proposal, many other businesses will be visited prior to the wedding date, such as flower shops and reception centers, to complete the process that ensures a successful wedding. It makes sense that a business visited later in the timeline should develop a mutually beneficial relationship with complementary businesses visited earlier in the timeline.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
A 30,000 Foot Perspective of Business
I was working with over 20 clients in the U.S. when I stumbled onto the concept of building strategic alliances around moments called “Life Transitions.” The need for goods and services is intensified during such events as marriage, parenting, moving, and death. By developing a collaborative process among my clients, they were able to achieve increased brand awareness, more referrals, and ultimately greater sales and profits.
I’ve been developing a website for several months that will provide businesses with an automated, lead generation system by focusing on over 17 major Life Transitions most people will experience on their life’s journey. The goal is to position clients in each Life Transition as a trusted professional who offers outstanding solutions to the challenges experienced by people during each transition.
In the next few columns, I want to share a powerful concept about how you can position your business to become the best and only choice to your target customers, even if you’re in a crowded competitive group. These articles are actually a chapter in a book that I am contributing as an author with management guru, Brian Tracy. The book is scheduled to be published this summer and the following is the first of four articles that will comprise the chapter…
Flying in the Air Force provided an interesting three-dimensional perspective that opened my mind to the big picture in business. While flying between Abilene and San Angelo, Texas, I could see both cities on either side of the cockpit. The 90-mile distance between the two cities would normally take me about one and a-half hours to drive; however, flying between them from a 30,000-foot perspective allowed me to see both cities at once.
Time seemed to slow down as I looked down at the spec of cars traveling on a thread of road because the cars seemed to be moving at an ant’s pace, and I could easily see most of the landmarks and intersections they had passed or would eventually encounter. Their limited perspective from ground level only allowed them to see a few thousand feet ahead or behind them, and it would take more than an hour before they could catch their first glimpse of their final destination.
Driving is a two-dimensional process that can be planned with a map to travel from a starting point to the end location. There are intermediate transition points of reference such as geographic landmarks, cities, and intersections that act as reference points to gauge a traveler’s progress.
Business planning is similarly looked at as a two-dimensional planning process that has a starting point and a final destination. Milestones along the route help gauge the progress of the business as transition points are passed.
Part of the planning process includes identifying groups of potential customers in various target markets, and then developing a strategy to effectively entice them to buy from your business. The marketing section typically takes a two-dimensional approach by looking at individuals who have an immediate need for your product. The plan also tends to use marketing messages and media that are very similar and easily accessible to your competition.
Using the driving analogy with your prospects moving along a road that symbolizes a timeline, they would approach a busy intersection where you and your competitors are gathered. As they continue to move through the intersection, all of your competitors are trying to grab your attention, similar to a political group gathered at an intersection, by waving brightly colored signs and screaming for the prospects to stop and buy from them. This creates confusion because of the numerous and similar messages that are promoted in the same media, and it positions each business as a commodity that is very similar to every other business vying for their attention.
What difference would it make in your business if your message was the first and only one they noticed, and you and your staff were viewed as trusted professionals who could best satisfy their wants and needs? Obviously, that’s a dream position to be in, and next week you’ll learn how it can become a reality for your business if you look at your future customers from a 30,000-foot perspective, and understand how you can distinctively position your business before they need what you have to offer.
I’ve been developing a website for several months that will provide businesses with an automated, lead generation system by focusing on over 17 major Life Transitions most people will experience on their life’s journey. The goal is to position clients in each Life Transition as a trusted professional who offers outstanding solutions to the challenges experienced by people during each transition.
In the next few columns, I want to share a powerful concept about how you can position your business to become the best and only choice to your target customers, even if you’re in a crowded competitive group. These articles are actually a chapter in a book that I am contributing as an author with management guru, Brian Tracy. The book is scheduled to be published this summer and the following is the first of four articles that will comprise the chapter…
Flying in the Air Force provided an interesting three-dimensional perspective that opened my mind to the big picture in business. While flying between Abilene and San Angelo, Texas, I could see both cities on either side of the cockpit. The 90-mile distance between the two cities would normally take me about one and a-half hours to drive; however, flying between them from a 30,000-foot perspective allowed me to see both cities at once.
Time seemed to slow down as I looked down at the spec of cars traveling on a thread of road because the cars seemed to be moving at an ant’s pace, and I could easily see most of the landmarks and intersections they had passed or would eventually encounter. Their limited perspective from ground level only allowed them to see a few thousand feet ahead or behind them, and it would take more than an hour before they could catch their first glimpse of their final destination.
Driving is a two-dimensional process that can be planned with a map to travel from a starting point to the end location. There are intermediate transition points of reference such as geographic landmarks, cities, and intersections that act as reference points to gauge a traveler’s progress.
Business planning is similarly looked at as a two-dimensional planning process that has a starting point and a final destination. Milestones along the route help gauge the progress of the business as transition points are passed.
Part of the planning process includes identifying groups of potential customers in various target markets, and then developing a strategy to effectively entice them to buy from your business. The marketing section typically takes a two-dimensional approach by looking at individuals who have an immediate need for your product. The plan also tends to use marketing messages and media that are very similar and easily accessible to your competition.
Using the driving analogy with your prospects moving along a road that symbolizes a timeline, they would approach a busy intersection where you and your competitors are gathered. As they continue to move through the intersection, all of your competitors are trying to grab your attention, similar to a political group gathered at an intersection, by waving brightly colored signs and screaming for the prospects to stop and buy from them. This creates confusion because of the numerous and similar messages that are promoted in the same media, and it positions each business as a commodity that is very similar to every other business vying for their attention.
What difference would it make in your business if your message was the first and only one they noticed, and you and your staff were viewed as trusted professionals who could best satisfy their wants and needs? Obviously, that’s a dream position to be in, and next week you’ll learn how it can become a reality for your business if you look at your future customers from a 30,000-foot perspective, and understand how you can distinctively position your business before they need what you have to offer.
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