Brains like an Internet
First in an occasionally-updated series on my brain’s inner workings when I’m ‘not thinking about anything’ in particular.
So while I was driving home from supper with friends, I realized I was moving my head around trying to get comfortable in my collar. Time for a haircut, apparently. The movement I made got me thinking how weird it would be if people turned around in sections, like some kind of robot – head, shoulders, hips, then feet. “Oh, I’ve actually seen someone doing that before, in this video of a North Korean traffic director.” I wonder what the process of buying a car is like in North Korea? They wouldn’t just give everyone a car, that would be horribly expensive. What if we all went totally green here in the US, and it became a requirement to have a bicycle? How much would that cost? It could probably be done with very high-quality bikes for $100 apiece, and you’d spend like 10 billion dollars on it. Wow, that’s a lot of money. There are bunches of cool charities and businesses now that help people get bikes either permanently or just for a few hours, those are cool. That reminds me of www.zipcar.com – but back to the bikes. It’s cool how the derailleur can change gears without messing up the chain, that’s some good engineering there. I wonder if recumbent ‘tadpole’ tricycles like this have the same kind of shifting technology? I’d probably get dirt on the back of my head if I rode a tadpole, though. There’s a really cool idea about shifting gears though, that doesn’t use gears at all – it’s a totally-enclosed ball-bearing setup.
Wow, my brain’s been just wandering around for almost 5 minutes now – I’m almost home!
To Do: Get a haircut
PS. It totally weirds me out that it takes 3 times as long to write this down as it does to think it. It makes perfect sense, given the linking, but it still weirds me out.
Do you want to make it hard or easy to invest with you?
I was talking with a client of mine recently, and she was asking me whether she should send a bigtime prospect a stripped-down sample, or spend some extra time and a little money and go for broke. I told her to take it seriously and make the darn thing purty, and here’s why:
1. Ideas take work. It’s work to think them through, and even if you’re like me and enjoy doing that, it’s an energy expenditure. There’s only so much energy in the day. Implementation is where the magic happens, and it’s also (not coincidentally) where most folks fall flat and give up.
2. Precedents can’t be ‘un-set’. If you’re trying to get a prospect’s attention, do you want them to think of you as being versatile or limited? In-the-box, or creative? A hard worker, or a time-suck? This concept goes beyond ‘making a good first impression’. First impressions are indeed important, but setting the precedent is an execution issue, not a relational issue.
The beginning of the situation will set the tone and the expectations for the rest of the situation. (Yes, this can be changed, but it’s a heckuvalot more work than just being your best from the start.)
Think about it. Do you want to compete on a level playing field? Or would you rather compete on a vastly tilted playing field, where your friends block the judges’ view of your competitors? How would you like to be the only one that’s even ABLE to score points – getting the judges on your side so they enjoy it when you score points?
You can. Your customers are your judges, and by default they’re on your side. Make it easy for them to award you points by offering several price points, complete packages, and ‘think-less’ buying options.
You’re Leaving Money Just Sitting There In Your Audience
If you’re a paid professional speaker, and you don’t have products for sale, you’re losing up to 75% of your potential income.
How?
Several ways:
1. No way for potential clients to meet you inexpensively
2. No way to immediately upsell your audience
3. No incentive for your audience to stay in touch
Here’s how that can hurt you:
1. No way for potential clients to meet you inexpensively.
If the only thing you offer is your services, then you must charge a premium for them. Not everyone in your audience is going to be OK with buying something premium-priced after one meeting, so there’s a good chance of simply losing those customers instantly. Well, I dunno about you, but I don’t enjoy being tuned out without a chance!
Offering information-based products allows you to help people get to know you, without wasting your time (on long, expensive, do-it-yourself sales processes) or their time (what if they aren’t a great fit for your business? They’ve just bought something usually non-refundable: your time).
Let your comparatively inexpensive products do the selling for you! There are tons of gurus out there that sell a new client a book, then a CD or 3, then a video, then a full-on home study course, then a live training, then a year-long group coaching program, then a one-on-one mentoring program. Why? Because the model works. People need not just sales pitches, but TIME, to get comfortable with you. Seeing your face on their shelf for a few months can bring them back to you at the most wonderful times – even if you’ve lost hope that they even know you exist.
2. No way to immediately upsell your audience.
If you had your choice between $1200 in your pocket today, and $2500 in your pocket today, which would you choose?
Do you even KNOW anyone that would choose the lower amount? What an insane choice to make! And yet hundreds – nay, thousands – of speakers make this choice every single day.
If you’ve got an unpaid speaking engagement, the choice is even more stark. Why would you be content with helping people only as much as they can remember from your speech, when you could help them as much as you can record on a CD or in a book?
If you really want to help people with your speeches and programs, you need to have products. They just aren’t going to remember most of what you say in one listening. They need repetition, they need to have you in their home, in their car, in their iPod. If you really believe in what you do and you don’t have products for sale, you are cheating your audiences of your in-depth help.
Why leave them with tidbits, when they need to learn how to cook? 
3. No incentive for your audience to stay in touch.
This one follows logically from the point above. I actually haven’t listened to TONS of speakers, and I do have a decent memory, but there’s no way I’m going to remember all the speakers’ names I’ve heard, much less what their message was about or if it was pretty good.
If that speaker wasn’t for me RIGHT THEN when I heard them, they went in the mental trash can. I just don’t have the space to keep everything around that might be helpful 10 years in the future.
Are you giving your audiences the ability to remember you? Because whether or not you can help them radically change their lives at the moment, if you have something inexpensive that can help them a little right now, then you gain a spot in their minds and hearts as a trusted helper. They’ll remember you later if they BECOME your perfect client.
In closing, let me remind you: On average, it’s 5 times harder to attract a new client than it is to resell to an existing client. Your audience has proven they are interested in you. Why not invest in them? They are already clients of a sort. Bring them with you as you move toward success and greater understanding!