Do you know that one person who everyone goes to when they need something? There’s the one handyman that everyone uses, that one swimming pool service pro they can’t live without, that entrepreneur that has the answers? Have you ever wondered how to be a business resource go-to?
Rex Richard of Peak Dynamics, has spent his career nurturing not only his own coaching clients, but his swimming pool clients and other entrepreneurs. He is the go-to for answers or to be pointed in the direction of someone who has the answers.
How To Be A Business Resource Go-To
What can you to do hone your go-to-ability? Rex has compiled this list for your review and implementation.
Talk to your customers. Really talk to them. Get to know them, personally. Dig until you find the reasons why they need to work with you and buy and use the products and services you offer.
Listen to the customer. Keep in mind they are buying your expertise and even your personality as much as they’re buying what you have to sell. If you have two options of a business owner from whom to buy widgets and all things being equal, one of those business owners took time to talk with you and was more personable wouldn’t you choose that person? Of course you would.
Ask question. Remember it is not all about you. It is about the customer. Don’t assume you know what they want. You don’t. Or even if you do, their reasons may be different than the features or benefits you spout off.
Analyze what’s worked… and what hasn’t. Pivot and course correct until most all your interactions are wins.
Ask the customer why he or she would refer you. What experience did they have with you that would make them want to work with you?
Making a sale is great. Making a sale is important if you want to stay in business, but what about building relationships. The better the relationship the more loyal a customer will be to you and it’s much more cost effective to keep a customer than to bring on a new one.
What is your goal as a new entrepreneur? To get clients, make money and stay afloat. If you have put time and effort into creating your product or service, the next step would be to get that first client – then more and more after that, right? We have tips on how to get and retain leads to help your business grow.
How do you get those initial clients and how to you keep them with you for the long haul? By staying in touch and raising awareness of all that you do and all the benefits you bring them.
For the attraction phase you need to:
Build trust
Raise awareness
How can you build value when a new client doesn’t know anything about you or your products or services?
Give value right out of the gate. Give them a freebie, great content, a reason to give you a test drive.
Give a free consultation, 15- or 30-minute.
Give access to free video content
How To Get And Retain Leads
You want to entice prospects with content or a product that highlights your expertise in a way that gets a reader to give you their email address – a highly coveted piece of information.
Once your potential client consumes your free lead magnet your hope is that they see your expertise and will hire you or buy your product.
Segment your leads. If your lead only wants to know about dogs, don’t send them content about cats and vice versa.
What can you give that will offer value?
Templates or guides
Free trial offers
Free consultation
Free webinars
Money off a first purchase
A quiz or survey that helps your prospect narrow down or hone in on his or her… XYZ – whatever your niche is
How do you get a prospect to your free offer?
Write an attention-grabbing headline in your email
Drive them to a beautifully-designed landing page
Create the opt-in form
Ask them to opt-in. Make the call to action clear and pointed
List out the features and benefits and how your product or service will address their pain points
Business owners and entrepreneurs who succeed typically have a different mindset than those who don’t take the change on starting a business and those who fail. Do you have business owner traits? It’s kind of an ethereal idea, but your mindset will help feed your success.
Let’s get some of these phrases out of your thinking.
Do You Have Business Owner Traits?
I don’t need help. I can make sales, write blog posts, collect on invoices, take care of my finances, etc. etc. etc. Every entrepreneur needs help. Whether you’re a solopreneur or are surrounded by like-minded individuals or hire a business coach, having a sounding board or a team makes the work easier.
You think you know it all and now that you’re a business owner you stop learning. Keep learning. Keep taking classes. Keep working with a mentor or someone outside of your industry.
Diminishing the success of others. If someone is a success, congratulate them. Don’t say, “well, they had a lucky break.” Look at what they did and notice their innovation and work ethic – luck rarely builds businesses.
Laying blame. It’s easy as a business owner to blame a lower level employee or a vendor for a mistake. As a business owner, though, ultimately it is your mistake to correct. Apologize, make it right then put procedures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. Do you want a surgeon who is “good enough?” Do you want to go to a restaurant where the wait staff is “good enough” at cleaning up after the patron before you? Don’t give a customer – with whom you want a long term relationship – good enough. Give them your best. Every time.
Do you notice yourself in any of those phrases or mindsets? If so, it’s time to change your thinking and get an entrepreneurial mindset for success!
Contact Rex Richard to discuss your business and your plans for growth.
Is your business relevant? Did your business thrive or suffer during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic? As we saw some businesses — restaurants suffered. Other businesses — online shopping and delivery and food delivery — thrived. If 2020 taught us nothing it’s that we need to pivot and stay flexible. We have put together this list of 5 ways to keep your business relevant.
Rex Richard works with business owners, many in the pool industry (and this is a thriving industry because of the pandemic!) to help them grow and thrive. To stay relevant you need to stay top of mind and front of mind. But how?
5 Ways To Keep Your Business Relevant
Here are ways in which we have found to help our clients keep their eyes on the prize — continued entrepreneurship while remaining true to themselves and their business mission and vision.
Believe in yourself. You need to believe in yourself, your business and the goods or services you provide because if you don’t, why would a client?
Work through fear. We know that every day can bring fear with it, but you need to face it down and push through. Will you fail? You might? Should you give up? Not if you want to be an entrepreneur. Get up. Dust yourself off. Figure out what happened. Start again.
Just make a decision. If you keep weighing the pros and cons (and yes, you do need to do that) too long you will be weighed down with the emotional stress of not having made a decision. When you procrastinate you kill your motivation.
Be true to your word and be ethical in all your dealings. If your reputation suffers it will be difficult, if not impossible to rebound. Know what boundaries you won’t cross. Never waver in your ethics.
Take care of your physical and mental health. Take breaks. Eat well. Get out and enjoy nature. Take time to be with friends and family.
What can your business do to remain on top? Did you suffer during the pandemic and are you still trying to recover? Reach out. We can help.
When Rex Richard talks with business owners and swimming pool business owners in particular they ask, “is blogging still a viable marketing tactic?” and Rex and the professionals at Peak Dynamics, say yes. They say “yes” with the caveat that you need to have a strategy behind blogging – as you do with any marketing tactic you’re attempting.
We realize the internet is loud and gets louder every day. You will have to shout to be heard and that is okay – especially if you have a unique niche and a unique voice and a unique way to talk about the same old same old.
Is Blogging Still A Viable Marketing Tactic?
We discovered there are more than 70 million posts – new posts – going live on WordPress alone every single month. Wow! That is a lot of new content and what can you do to stand out? It’s all about community!
Blogging and your website can influence sales
Blogging regularly will help you come up in a search by potential clients
Blogging regularly helps you be seen as a thought leader
How can you use blogging as part of your overall marketing strategy?
Blog regularly
Blog with a purpose
Blog to answer the questions your potential customers are asking
Share your blog content on your social media platforms and in your enewsletters
Use keywords for SEO but don’t keyword stuff. If you don’t know what your keywords are, or should be, reach out to us.
Make the content easy to read. Use bullet points, subheads and images.
Have a call to action in each post. Click here. Read this. Contact us. Download our ebook, etc.
Repurpose your blogs into videos or podcasts
Be and blog consistently.
Are you blogging? Is it helping with your search results? Are you sharing your blogs on your social sites? If you want more bang for your blogging buck, contact us.
Do you have testimonials on your website? Have you asked for recommendations on your LinkedIn page. Will you recommend me? These four words seem like they’d be easy to say, but many entrepreneurs find they can’t get them out. It’s not easy to ask someone to help you toot your own horn BUT you need to.
Chances are, none of your potential referral partners or those from whom you will ask for a recommendation will be someone you’re not sure about. Start asking for recommendations from people you know will be happy to do so. The more you ask, the easier it will get.
Will You Recommend Me?
Why do referrals matter? Because they show another potential client that you know your stuff, that you have clients and that they are happy with you. That carries a lot of weight.
How can you ask for a testimonial? Here are some ways:
Take a deep breath and ask. It’s that easy. If a potential referral partner or person you’re asking to recommend you asks for input on what you’re looking for, help them out. If you loved how I did XYZ would you mind writing a testimonial or recommendation for me?
Make it easy for them to do that. Remember, they may never have been asked before and might not know where to start, help them out.
When should you ask for one? Right after you’ve completed a job. Right after you’ve finished a project. Immediately.
Quid pro quo. Ask for a testimonial and return the favor. If you write one for a client, it may prompt them to say, “Hey, let me do that for you as well.”
Ask for testimonials. IfIf you’re not asking you won’t receive. When, and how, will you ask?
