Nicholas Reese

How to Generate More Referrals For Your Business

Nick Reese — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 00:11:27 +0000

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in business for years, referrals are one of the easiest ways to grow your business.

Not only are referral clients more qualified than other clients, but they inherently trust you more than if they found you on their own.

But even with all of these benefits, referrals still have one big problem: referrals are unpredictable.

Where Referrals Come From

While most of us think we understand where referrals come from, as we’ll see the social dynamics behind referrals always as intuitive as they seem.

To illustrate let’s use an example.

Let’s say that you’re a talented web designer and a friend of a friend runs a law firm.

Now let’s say say your friend and her friend (the lawyer) are catching up over drinks when the lawyer asks the all important question: “Do you know anyone that builds websites?”

The likelihood of your friend recommending you to her friend depends on a lot of factors, but this post focuses on the 4 key elements:

How well your friend understands what you do.
How well your friend understands who you serve.
How well your friend understands the type of results you get.
How well your friend can explain all of the above.

Now if you want to generate more referrals, it is YOUR responsibility to empower your friends and other contacts about all 4 of these elements.

If you nail these 4 then your business is recommendable… if you don’t then you’re missing out on valuable referrals.

(How recommendable you are also is highly dependent on how all of the factors above are primed in his or her memory… but persuasive storytelling is the topic of another post.)

Becoming Recommendable

Rethinking Your “Network”

While the example of a friend referring you a client does happen… the majority of your referrals probably come from some place else.

Let me explain.

When you think about who is “in your network” the first people you probably consider are your close friends and family.

While these people are your strongest and most important relationships, they probably have the smallest impact on referring customers to your business.

Instead the real power of your network is in the people at the fringe of your network.

In social sciences these people are known as weak ties or more recently consequential strangers.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Consequential Strangers

Loosely defined consequential strangers are people who you have contact with that AREN’T your friends or family.

They sit at the border between the people you know well and the people you don’t know. (see image below)

In some case you may know quite a bit about them, but the key part is that you don’t have many of the same friends.

You might have met them at the gym, volunteering, on a business trip, or at a conference, but the key point is that they are outside your close friend network.

These consequential strangers are the cornerstone to amplifying the number of referrals you generate because they have a much more diverse network of people they can tell about your business.

The only problem is, they can’t recommend you if you don’t empower them with the right information and story.

3 Steps to Empowering Consequential Strangers

My thinking on consequential strangers has gotten a little more concrete since I shot the video above. That said, I believe there are really 3 steps to empowering consequential strangers to make referrals on your behalf.

Step #1: Be Specific on Who You Serve and Who You Don’t

The most important step is being specific with who you serve and who you don’t serve.

Just because you can work with many types of clients, doesn’t mean you should… and smart business professionals like to recommend people when they know it’s a win for both parties, so being clear with who you do serve is vital.

Understanding who your ideal customer is and isn’t is at the core of your businesses. To be honest, this is the #1 entrepreneurial homework that most people ignore. If you don’t know who your ideal customer is then my guess is that referrals aren’t your only struggle. Sit down and figure out who is your customer and who isn’t.

Step #2: Frame the Context

Once you’ve communicated who you serve, context is all about communicating makes you different from other providers.

Context is easy to overlook when you’re working on your own marketing because you’re so close to it.

For example, back when we did the data collection for the perfect contact page, we visited over 1,800 websites of consultants and freelancers.

While the purpose of the data collection was to look at the contact forms, we were astonished at how many companies claimed to be different but spent no time explaining it.

The problem with not explaining how you’re different is that in the whirl of thousands of sites or conversations, a business that doesn’t differentiate itself blend into the crowd.

Step #3: Build Credibility

Once you’ve established context, the last step is to build credibility.

Credibility is all about who you are and why you are qualified to do what you do.

In person the easiest way to establishing credibility is to use concrete examples of your work with past clients.

Now generally, I recommend people use the script below and then to have a planned case study you can talk about if the person seems interested in what you do.

A Simple Script to Become More Recommendable

One of the most effective tools to becoming more recommendable is a script I developed years ago to help people effectively answer the “So What Do You Do” question.

(If you use this script make sure you drop it in the comments below because I often personally respond and help people tweak their scripts.)

I (what you do) for (who you serve) so that they can (master, overcome, defeat) their (struggling point) to gain (a huge benefit).

I love this script is because it forces you to establishes who your customer is and context around what you do.

Then if the person is interested you can further build credibility by talking about your past client work or experience.

The Secret to Getting Better Referrals

One important element to remember is that the quality of the referrals you’re getting are directly related to the types of people who are at the edge of your network.

In my eyes, there is no better way to expand your network and increase the number of referrals you get then to go to a conference for the industry you serve not the industry you work in.

This is one of the strategies I used while building my email marketing firm.

Since I was clear that my best clients were luxury realtors, I didn’t waste my time going to email marketing conferences looking for clients, instead I talked my way into the luxury real estate conferences. The first time I was an attendee and the later I was a presenter.

This gave me a huge edge over my competition as once I had a few luxury realtors who weren’t already in my network, I just had to impress them and use this system to enable them to send referrals my way.

Building a System for Referrals

Now if you really want to take your referral generating game to the next level, then you’ll definitely want to check out a small guide I wrote called the Referral Engine.

In the guide, I outline the simple process I used to increase my referrals 300%.

People have been getting insanely good results with it and I hope that you will to.

You can download the guide here: https://nicholasreese.com/downloads/referral-engine/

Always on your team,

ps. Do you have a strategy or technique to generate more referrals? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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Use This Simple Script to Ask For The Sale

Nick Reese — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:24:39 +0000

My palms were sweating and my mind was racing.

I was about to pitch my first client on why he should move all his marketing from an established competitor to my new, not even started, real estate marketing company.

I was 19 and as I sat in the front seat of my Honda Element rehearsing my talking points, I watched the clock slowly count down.

I was nervous and rightfully so, I had to land this client, or the following week I’d be submitting my application for a position at Subway.

This was my “make or break” moment.

My First Sales Pitch

As I walked into the president’s spacious office, he brought up the football game from the night before.

(I didn’t watch it. I’m not a sports guy and I was WAY too nervous about this meeting to relax.)

I mentioned that I had missed it and slowly eased the conversation towards business.

As I began my slide deck my hands were shaking uncontrollably.

…

5 minutes in the pitch seemed to be going well.

…

10 minutes in my slide deck ended and I struggled to keep the conversation going.

…

13 minutes in I was out of things to talk about and I froze.

…

The next few minutes where a blur… and while I still don’t have a clue how I closed the deal I learned a valuable lesson.

You must learn how to ask for the sale.

How to Ask for the Sale Without Feeling Sleazy

Today, I love listening to sales pitches.

I love hearing the logical and emotional arguments, the storytelling, and the case studies… but without fail the part I find most interesting is how people ask for the sale.

To be honest, this is the part most people struggle with and it doesn’t have to be nearly as complex as most people make it.

With that in mind, here’s a simple script you can use to ask for the sale without feeling slimy.

A Simple Script to Ask for the Sale:

While there is tons of advice online about the best technique to ask for the sale, I love this script because it’s simple, easy to remember, and genuine.

Script: I’m really excited about this project, how can we get started?

The best part is that it works really well if your business is B2C or if you work with and small to medium sized companies because everyone likes to buy, but no one wants to be sold.

Selling Shouldn’t Make You Feel Dirty

In many of the emails I get asking for advice, I find that most people who don’t like sales have a “Sales = Bad” mentality.

While this is the same mentality I had when I first got into business, I’ve found that by reframing the sales process can make all the difference.

Today when I walk into a sales meeting, instead of thinking of myself someone who is there to sell something, I try to think myself as “trusted advisor” who is there to help them.

This subtle shift of motives makes all the difference and it’s inline with new research that shows much of modern selling is about being an advocate/consultant for your potential customers.

Excited to see how you’ll use this script to increase your sales so try it on your next sales call.

Always on your team,

PS. Do you have any common scripts you use when talking with clients? If so, drop them in the comments so others can level-up their sales game.

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Why You Shouldn’t Follow Your Passion… and What to Do Instead

Nick Reese — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 21:22:55 +0000

“Telling someone to quit their job and follow their passion is irresponsible and reckless.” I said with a little too much emphasis.

Suddenly I had everyone’s attention… it was time for a little story.

“Just Follow Your Passion”

Earlier this year I got a call from a friend who was debating a big career decision.

“Alex” is a 37 year old electrical engineer with 3 of the cutest little kids you’ll ever meet.

On the call, Alex was looking for advice on how he could turn his passion for photography into freelance photography business…

… all while dropping lines like “I have to follow my passion” and “I just don’t feel fulfilled in life.”

Knowing his backstory and his family (his wife is a stay-at-home mom), I asked him a pointed question:

“How will your current skills give you an advantage over other photographers?”

“Well I don’t know… everyone loves my photos and I feel like I could make it a business.” he said.

“Without a competitive advantage why do you think this is a good idea to pursue?” I asked, trying not to feel heartless.

And after a few minutes of justifications he finally replied “I feel like if I’m not following my passion, I’m wasting my life.”

Why “Follow Your Passion” is Bad Advice

Always remember: Generic business advice is almost always bad advice.

I wouldn’t have a problem if people were preaching advice like “always wear you seatbelt” or “don’t drink and drive” but when a huge subset of the online entrepreneurship culture is all preaching this hurtful advice, there is a problem.

It’s a problem because telling people to “follow their passion” makes people who aren’t following their passion feel “less than” those who are.

It’s a problem because this conversation with Alex, is just one of many I’ve had over the past 2-3 years.

It’s a problem because it leaves thousands feeling “broken and empty inside” even though they make a real meaningful contribution to the world.

It’s a problem because there is a now a large industry of coaches and “mastermind groups” who profit from helping you find your passion.^[1]

A Gameplan for Finding Meaningful Work

As Alex and I dug deeper into his situation, and it was clear he was being micromanaged at work and wanted to make a serious change.

This “heavy internal feeling” combined with more than a few friends on Facebook preaching the “follow your passion” path, was more than enough to convince him that a DRASTIC change (instead of a subtle one) was required.

As we continued to chat, I shared with him the basics of Self Determination Theory and how it relates to finding meaningful work. ^[2] ^[3]

The 3 Key Elements of Meaningful Work

A feeling of relatedness or that your work matters.
Autonomy of how you spend your day.
Progression towards mastery

As we talked these 3 elements through Alex began to realize that his current work environment and boss where his real problem… not that he wasn’t “following his passion.”

What to Do Instead of Following Your Passion

After talking with at least 15 entrepreneurs in private settings and 100+ via email about this very topic, my advice is as follows:

YOU AREN’T BROKEN IF YOU AREN’T FOLLOWING YOUR PASSION

Get it? Good.

Now if you’re looking to add more meaningful work to your life, then here is a simple process that works:

Step 1: Do a thorough inventory of your current skills and expertise.
- What are you REALLY good at?
- What do you enjoy?
- What work do you never want to do again?
Step 2: Evaluate how your current work is satisfying the 3 elements of meaningful work on a scale of 1 to 10.
- Does your work impact the lives of others?
- Do you have autonomy of how to spend your day?
- Are you consistently “leveling up” your skills?
Step 3: Figure out what changes you need to make.
- Don’t do this part willy-nilly.
- Figure out 2-3 options and then have a candid conversation with your family and people you trust.
Step 4: If you think working for yourself is the answer… look for an overlap of your current skills/expertise with the new direction you want to go… instead of starting from scratch.

Did Alex Drop Everything and Follow his Passion?

After several conversations together, Alex decided that instead of “hitting the reset button” on his career and becoming a professional photographer… that he’d instead keep his photography a hobby and started freelancing within his expertise on the side.

Then once he built a runway and a small client base so he could work for himself and quit his job without big financial repercussions.

As of last week, (almost 3 months from our initial conversation) Alex has landed 6 small jobs to build up his portfolio on oDesk, has one client on a small retainer (about a 1/3rd of his required monthly income), and is now working on closing 3 larger contracts through his personal network.

If everything goes according to plan and he closes 1 of the 3 larger contracts, he’ll be in a solid place to begin working for himself and if they all fall through… there is no doubt he’ll be working for himself in the next next 4-6 months.

Note: The picture at the top of this post is not Alex. It’s my good friend Dan Jarvis.

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How to Start Freelancing From Scratch

Nick Reese — Thu, 22 May 2014 22:40:34 +0000

“This job is crushing me. I want more freedom.” he said.

On a recent trip to Tampa, I had a chance to meet up with “Alex,” a friend I graduated college with.

In college we were a lot alike, but today our lives look dramatically different.

Today he has a stable job as a financial planner, makes $65-80k a year, gets 4 weeks vacation, and just proposed to his fiancee.

And overall he seemed happy.

But as we caught up about the major life changes and our adventures since graduation, I could sense he was holding something back.

Then he let is out:

“This job is crushing me. I want more freedom. Nick, how can I start working for myself?”

As we continued to talk I laid out the proven repeatable path to building your own consulting business.

The Repeatable Path To Success

Step 1: Start Consulting Today

The biggest advice I gave Alex, is to start consulting today.

The best time to plan a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today.

Take the skills you already have from your job and start out as a freelancer.

This can be pro-bono or even low paying.

Your goal is to learn the true benefits you drive for others and how they value your work.

This phase is as much about understanding what type of work you want to do as it is about making money.

When you’re first starting out, managing your own internal dialog is key because our subconscious is consistently telling us to “play it safe.”

Posts on hacking your own psychology:

Step 2: Narrow Down Who Specifically You Serve

Once you’ve been freelancing a bit, take time to niche down and decide who you serve and who you don’t.

Most new business owners aren’t clear on who they serve causing them to flounder and market to everyone (a really bad idea).

Your goal is to get clear on who you serve as soon as possible.

Use these 3 guides to help narrow down exactly who your customer is:

Step 3: Build a Runway and Start the Transition

Once you’ve got some experience and satisfied customers under your belt, start building a 3-6 month financial runway.

This will give you that will allow you to shift 100% focus to running your own business.

These 3 guides will help you navigate the main challenge you’ll face in making your transition:

Remember: Mistakes = Tuition Cost

The biggest mindset shift I can challenge you to make is to begin thinking of your mistakes as part of your tuition cost.

In life and in business, your mistakes are just your tuition cost.

Entrepreneurship is messy and the best way to learn is to observe other people’s mistakes… and learn from your own.

Always on your team,

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How to Create and Amplify Your Entrepreneurial Luck

Nick Reese — Mon, 12 May 2014 17:08:46 +0000

Entrepreneurial Luck.

It’s “impossible” to predict, but has the power to transform your business.

It can show up via a lucky phone call, the stranger next to you on the plane, or just a casual conversation in a coffee shop.

Yet when Entrepreneurial Luck hits you, you know it…

…but when it’s not in your life, or you feel like you “just can’t catch a break” it’s easy to think you entrepreneurial luck is impossible to control.

But what if that wasn’t the case?

A Lesson in Entrepreneurial Luck

When I started my first email business back in college I kept wishing for my “big break” to come along.

I was always hunting for that mammoth client that would grow my modest little company into a multi-million dollar, jet owning, powerhouse.

I had big visions and I was hustling, but it just wasn’t happening.

At the time, I provided a service that people really loved and got value from, but I just wasn’t getting the business I felt “I deserved.”

And then it hit me as I was standing in line to pay for groceries.

I realized that the reason I was stuck eating PB&Js and not on my way to “success” was because I was so afraid of getting rejected.

I was afraid of being uncomfortable and I was waiting for clients to find me instead of building a marketing system to attract them.

In essence I was “wishing” for luck — instead of putting myself in situations where I could get lucky.

Creating Entrepreneurial Luck

Today I know without a doubt that luck is required for any business to be truly successful, and I think a lot of people undervalue its importance.

That being said, as an entrepreneur you can multiply your changes of getting lucky by doing the uncomfortable, taking risks, and putting yourself out there.

For me the simple shift of moving away from mindlessly browsing the internet hoping clients would find me toward building a repeatable system to attract clients, transformed my business.

How to “Get Lucky” In Business Today

Frat jokes aside (I think I’ve said “Get Lucky” enough times in this post and video to make my mom blush), if you want to “get lucky” or amplify your luck in business here are 5 simple things you can start doing today:

Send a cold (or semi-warm) email to an potential ideal client.
Sign up for HARO and respond to 1-2 leads a day.
Email 2-3 people outside of your vertical to guest post.
Followup with your clients and ask for referrals with the referral engine.
Email 1 person who influences your ideal client’s decisions. (Start by understanding their problem awareness.)

Making Entrepreneurial Luck a System

If you do any of the 5 action points above today then you may see results… or you may not.

But, if you make it a habit of doing them, then entrepreneurial luck is almost a guarantee.

Sooner or later, you’ll get a big break that makes a huge difference… and more often than not you’ll get a few “big” breaks a month.

That’s why in every business I build and advise we focus on doing 2 things to embed entrepreneurial luck into the “soul” of the business.

Every day we focus on getting the important stuff done instead of getting caught up in the urgent.
Every day we do one thing to put our business in a situations where we can “get lucky.”

Examples of Luck Creating Systems:

Here are some luck creating systems I’ve used:

For my email marketing business, every day I’d cold email clients until I built up a large portfolio and had to change tactics.
For our affiliate marketing business, we focus on building relationships with people outside our core verticals so we’d have additional link building opportunities.
For BroadbandNow.com, every day we reach out to state and local governments to share new (and shocking) broadband statistics about the area they serve. (For example look at Mississippi, West Virginia, or California’s broadband.)

In every business it possible to setup a system for creating luck, you just have to decide what your ONE THING will be and make it a system of implementing it every day.

Always on your team,

The post How to Create and Amplify Your Entrepreneurial Luck appeared first on Nicholas Reese.

3 Painless Scripts to Free Yourself of Problem Clients

Nick Reese — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 01:47:07 +0000

“Problem Clients”

Say these two words in a group of entrepreneurs and you’re guaranteed to hear stories.

Unreasonable requests. Fistfuls of hair. Sleepless nights.

Every entrepreneur knows what I’m talking about, yet most are reluctant to end these poisonous relationships:

“Oh, they’re not that bad.” or “They pay me better than my other clients.”

While rationalizing why you should keep these clients makes sense in the short term, not getting rid of them is cheating your business out of clients you love.

You’ve got to let your problem clients go, to make room for your ideal clients.

How to Fire a Problem Client

Letting go of your first “problem client” can be an emotionally charged experience, but honestly it’s one of the most important milestones in your businesses.

It’s important because with each problem client, you’re able to get clearer on what your “deal breakers” are and which customers are your ideal customers.

While you’ll never be able to filter out every “problem client” regardless of how good your client intake process is or how fine tuned your contact form is, letting them go does get easier with experience.

As you read the scripts below, remember the 4 main goals when ending the relationship:

Politely explain the situation
Focus on their interests
Be professional, you never know where people will be 5, 10, or 15 years in the future.
Set expectations of what to expect next

Remember the scripts below are just guidelines to frame your phone or in-person conversation. I’d never recommend ending a relationship via email (even though I did in my first as you’ll see below) always do it in person or at minimum over the phone.

Script 1: The Scapegoat

[Name] — After doing strategic analysis of our long term goals, we’ve decided to shift our focus to only serve a specific subset of customers going forward.

That said, our team regrets to inform you that we won’t be able be able to work on your account any more as of [date].

As you move forward in looking for other providers, we’d recommend [competition] or [competition].

Thanks for your understanding. Below is a list of next action steps you can expect from our team.

[list of action steps]

This script is my favorite for 3 reasons:

It positions you as a business owner making a business decision.
It sets clear expectations of the relationship going forward.
It gives you the opportunity to send your competition your less than ideal clients.

Sending your competitors business: While recommending your competition may seem backwards at first glance, I’ve found it to be effective because most businesses will take ANY client and few have a systems in place to weed out problem clients.

By sending your competition the time wasters, the emotionally abusive, and scarcity minded, not only do you look like a “complete pro” to the client, but you let your competition handle the problem clients so you can get more of the ideal clients.

(I’ve even gotten legitimate thank you letters from former competition for sending them clients that weren’t a fit. lol.)

Providing a list of action steps: Since you’re goal is to sever the relationship cleanly and professionally, it’s your job to manage the client’s expectations.

By providing a simple list of next steps, you can often prevent huge misunderstandings and future headaches.

Trust me. Use a list, it will make your life easier.

Real life example:

Below is a screenshot of the first “problem client” I ever let go.

Today I’d never let a client go over email — be a pro pick up the phone or schedule a meeting — but I’ve included this so you can see how I used a form of this script below.

The only problem is that I didn’t include a list of expectations and the transition period dragged on and on — just prolonging the headaches.

Make sure you include a list of action steps.

Script 2: It’s not you it’s me

[Name] — It’s been great working together but due to personal reasons as of [date] I’m no longer going to be able to assist you with [what you do].

I know it’s short notice, but after thinking about how to approach this as professionally as possible, I decided some notice was better than no notice.

[Feel free to elaborate on your reason. You don’t have to]

To avoid an interruption in service please find another person who can meet your needs. I’ll do my best to make sure there aren’t any issues during the transition process.

Thanks for your understanding and support, below is a list what you can expect from me between now and [date].

[list of action steps]

This script works particularly well for small freelancers allowing you to be as vague or specific as you desire while still setting expectations.

Script 3: Direct and Polite

[Name] — Recently I’ve been noticing some problems with our working relationship.

Although it isn’t easy to say, I think that another company may be a better fit for you and your specific needs.

As of [date] my company won’t be able to assist you with [what you do] any further.

Thanks for your understanding, below is what you can expect from us between now and [date].

[list of action steps]

If they are aggressive or emotional:

Thank you for the feedback, but this decision is final.

As mentioned before here is a list of what to expect between now and [date].

This script sets clear expectations and finalizes the relationship in a professional but firm manner. I’ve only had to use a form of this script a handful of times but with particularly “bad” clients it can be justified.

TIP: Understand Your Deal Breakers to Get More Ideal Clients

While I’ve written a thorough guide on how to avoid problem clients and even created a free PDF on how to build a system to filter them out, before you can get more of your ideal clients, you need to know exactly who your ideal customer is and isn’t.

One of the easiest ways to do that is to make a list of your own “deal breakers” or things you just won’t stand for.

Over the years my list of deal breakers has grown pretty long but here are a few that I’d recommend you add to your list:

Incessant haggling on price (you should be positioning yourself as a premium provider)
Lack of integrity
Scarcity mindset (this is contagious so keep it away)
Abusive working relationship
Bad emotional barriers (wants their consultant to be their friend.)

Now You’re the Expert:

In the comments below, share your list of “deal breakers” and any crazy stories that might have helped you develop that list.

Remember, thousands of people around the world read these posts, so you never know who your comment or insight will help.

Always on your team,

The post 3 Painless Scripts to Free Yourself of Problem Clients appeared first on Nicholas Reese.

A Tiny Guide to Infusing Word-of-Mouth Marketing into Your Business

Nick Reese — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 04:11:40 +0000

You’ve heard it before:

Word-of-mouth marketing can TRANSFORM your business!

…Then you’re shown a case study of a big business’ viral social media campaign, just to end up being linked to “Dollar Shave Club” and told you can do it, too.

While these stories are impressive, they leave you thinking “Well, that’s really cool,” because they don’t give you actionable advice on how to engineer word-of-mouth marketing into your business.

So, instead of pointing at the remarkable successes of huge businesses or viral breakaways, I want to break down two tangible examples of small “boring businesses” and how they’ve leveraged word-of-mouth marketing has bring in additional leads and sales.

For a long time I wanted to write a book on this topic, but, instead of coming up with a 200-page dust magnet, I’ve created this short post as an “action magnet.”

At 1,600 words, it’s designed to arm you with a simple framework that will leave you saying, “I can implement this into my business, too,” — all in less than 15 minutes.

Let’s get into it.

The “AIR” Framework

While there’s been lots of research into why people share things, ^[1]^[2] it’s most actionable to break sharing activity down into three categories which I refer to as AIR:

Aspirational: When the act of sharing shows other people something about you or your aspirational self. (Why you might share this post)
Insanely Useful: When the act of sharing is seen as useful or helpful to the people that you know. (The reason you’ll share this post.)
Remarkable: When you have a story or insight so remarkable you can’t help but sharing it. (We haven’t gotten to that point yet.)

With these AIR as our lens let me introduce the two companies we’ll be using in this tiny case study:

My first email marketing business and a little report that unexpectedly generated lots of business.
A small yet remarkable laundry service in NYC that has a “shrink wrap” policy.

Full details in the video:

Before we get into the specifics of each of these businesses, let’s talk about the psychology of sharing and the two principles present in almost all word-of-mouth marketing.

Two Repeatable Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies

As I’m sure you know intuitively, word-of-mouth marketing is mostly psychological.

There isn’t a secret location where you can put your share buttons or a better email subject line that will get people talking.

So, instead of looking for tactics — I hate tactics — let’s look at two repeatable strategies that you’ll magically start to see everywhere.

Strategy 1 — Help them look and feel like a genius.

Since the first two AIR categories are all about helping the person express their aspirational self and helping others by offering useful information, one of the easiest ways to get people talking about your business is to make them look (and feel) like a genius.

Make them look smart at dinner parties, at the water cooler, and to their bosses and you’ve given them an easy way to talk about you.

I call this the Genius Principle and my close friend Derek Halpern is brilliant at it.

If you look over his 50+ videos he regularly gives people actionable insights based on psychology that empowers them to not only grow their business, but also look like a rockstar when talking with their friends and clients.

(If you aren’t subscribed to his stuff yet, you probably should subscribe now.)

Strategy 2 — Give them a story to tell.

For our final AIR category, we look to the power of stories and how you can actually give your customers and clients a remarkable one to tell about you and your business.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to infuse delight into your products and/or services.

To break this down, it helps to understand that delight in itself comes in many forms but that it is most powerful when it is unexpected.

For example, it’s one thing to have a great meal at a five-star restaurant, but it’s completely different thing when you stop at a random “hole in the wall” and are simply blown away.

Sure, you might talk about the five-star restaurant on Facebook to appeal to your aspirational self, but you’re more likely to tell your friends and family about the “hole in the wall” because of the way that they delighted you so unexpectedly.

Digging into the Case Studies

Now that we’ve got AIR as our lens along with two repeatable strategies to look out for, let’s get into a little more detail on each of our case studies.

Boring Business #1: Email Marketing for Real Estate

My first business was email marketing for luxury real estate.

It wasn’t sexy or flashy and I didn’t really know what I was doing, but three to four months into my business I had a realization.

Email marketing was one of the few marketing activities that could give Realtors trackable data about the marketing they were conducting for their clients’ properties.

(Being able to provide such data was particularly important to Realtors who were being entrusted to sell multimillion dollar homes in staggering real estate economy of 2006.)

To start, I generated a handful of branded reports — their logo not mine — and sent them to my best clients, recommending they that they share the impressive results with their clients.

Then, I waited and listened for the response.

Not only did these Realtors share it with their clients as a “point of good news” — it was a tough time for the economy so they really needed this — they also bragged about the results with other successful Realtors.

Soon, these statistics reports that took less than 30 minutes a week to generate became one of my word-of-mouth marketing campaigns as well as a key factor behind that business’ rapid growth.

AIR: This campaign worked well because it gave these clients a remarkable story to tell and an insanely useful tool for their business.

WOM Strategy: Made them look like a genius to their clients and gave them a story to tell.

Boring Business #2: Just Another NYC Laundry Service

If you’ve ever lived in Manhattan, you’ll understand the necessary evil of laundry services.

On just about every block you’ll find one.

Most of them will take your laundry, ship it to a central processing warehouse where they perform scary unthinkable things before they have your clothes come back and ready for pick-up in a tightly wrapped plastic bag noticeably faded and smelling just a little “funky.”

Faced with the choice of dropping your laundry off or carrying 50 pounds of laundry down to the boiler room just to realize you’re 25 cents short because the machine stole your quarter — just for the frustration-to-benefit ratio — there is no doubt that laundry services are the way to go even if it meant possibly ruining your clothes.

That was until I walked past a place called Brown Bag Laundry.

They had their own machines, offered reasonably priced pick-up, and promised to do all of your laundry like you’d normally do it at home — using energy-efficient appliances and eco-friendly detergent.

Convenience, cost effective, and eco-friendly? I was sold on all levels.

But that wasn’t enough.

When I picked up my first cleaning, they gave my clothes in a nice canvas bag and told me about their “shrink wrap policy.” (If you haven’t already seen the video, do so now.)

Not only were my clothes cleaned by a great service, they also gave me a story to tell to spread their message.

(I don’t know the owners and receive no compensation for telling their story, yet I do it anyways because they have simply made it easy.)

AIR: Being eco-friendly made them aspirational, being the kind of service that I really wanted (and my friends would want) made them insanely useful, and their shrink wrap policy gave me a remarkable story to tell.

WOM Strategy: Made me look like a genius to recommend it to my friends and, due to their “shrink wrap policy,” they gave me a story to tell by leveraging unexpected delight.

WOM Action Points: The Reason You Read this Guide

When you’re inside your business hustling on the day-to-day items, it’s often easy to conclude that implementing a WOM strategy is “hard.”

But, if you see things through the AIR lens and look for a repeatable WOM strategy that you can use, engineering a word-of-mouth marketing campaign isn’t nearly as hard as it looks. In fact, I believe that any business can engineer one regardless of how “boring” they seem to be.

To help get your creative juices flowing, below is a list of pointed questions to help you identify some of the most easily overlooked opportunities:

What dysfunction do you help solve for your clients? What story is your business giving them to tell?
What small tweak could you add to your service that might provide your customers with unexpected delight?
How can you remind your customers that your service is INSANELY useful to them in a way that they can not only logically, but more important, emotionally connect to?
How can you get your customers to be public about working with your company? (What’s in it for them?)
Is there a third party that could benefit from the interaction between you and your customers? (Think Tom’s Shoes)
If your business is going the premium positioning route, how can you infuse MORE aspirational qualities into the story that your clients are telling?
What can your business do that is remarkable enough to get your customers to tell their family and friends?

The Big Picture

When you really get down to it, word-of-mouth marketing is about the emotional connection you build with customers and the story you give them to tell.

There are no tactics.

There are no shortcuts.

Word-of-mouth marketing is about understanding how you fit into your customer’s life and engineering your experience in order to get them talking about you.

The tools are in your hands, excited to see what you do with them.

Always on your side,

PS. My hope is that you’ve been unexpectedly delighted by this short guide and that you’ll share it with just one friend whose business could use it.

The post A Tiny Guide to Infusing Word-of-Mouth Marketing into Your Business appeared first on Nicholas Reese.

How to Communicate Your Expertise Without Sounding Arrogant

Nick Reese — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 03:00:55 +0000

How do you communicate your expertise in a fun, relatable way without coming across as arrogant?

That’s the question our team stumbled across as we did even more analysis into the data behind “the perfect contact page.”

While there is definitely a fine line between arrogance and confidence, the way that you communicate your expertise directly impacts the type of clients your business attracts and type of prices you can charge.

That’s why we created this guide.

The Juxtaposition of Talent

As we pored over the data of over 1,800 websites and their contact forms, we stumbled upon a surprising trend:

Many of the most talented companies did the worst job communicating their expertise.

One glance at their portfolio and it’s obvious that they’re awesome at what they do, yet these same “insanely talented” companies are also the most likely to use the dangerously ineffective lines of “Please contact us” and/or “We hope to hear from you.”

Or worse, they bury their email address in the footer where no one is looking. (facepalm)

It’s easy to write this off as a case of the “shoemaker has no shoes” but as we were collecting our data we couldn’t help but notice that the companies with less robust portfolios were better able to communicate their expertise.

Needless to say, this juxtaposition is interesting because it points to the broken mental construct of “my work should speak for itself.”

Even if you’re the best in the world at what you do, it doesn’t matter unless you can communicate it effectively.

That is why I’m on a crusade against horribly ineffective contact forms.

That’s also why I’ve created the “Power Analogy” to help you more effectively communicate your message without resorting to silly animated line graphs which can never do your skills justice.

The Power Analogy to the Rescue

To help you communicate your expertise in a fun but human way, I’ve finally decided to talk about a little formula I’ve used for years called the Power Analogy.

Essentially the Power Analogy is where you compare yourself to a celebrity or well known expert and use that “frame” to highlight your skills and abilities.

It’s a solid way for you to communicate your skills with confidence without being overly arrogant and saying, “You should hire me because I’m the best.”

Here is the Power Analogy used in the video:

If Michael Jordan was a designer he’d be me.

I’m a meticulously trained all-star who can help take your team to the championships.

While I’m not a ball hog, I’m more than comfortable making your project a slam dunk through proactive problem-solving and goal-oriented design.

So if you’re ready to pass the ball to a seasoned yet coachable pro, use the project detail form below and we’ll get the ball rolling.

Then we can work on our victory dance and talk about taking the kiddos to Disney World.

As you can see using a Power Analogy is a simple yet effective way to show off your confidence and personality, but it is still easy to cross the line and be arrogant.

Since our goal in using the Power Analogy is to come across as confident and credible here are a few rules to keep you from coming across as arrogant:

Choose someone who matches your skill level. Comparing yourself to Lance Armstrong or Michael Phelps when you’ve only been in business for a year probably isn’t a good idea.
Don’t choose Kanye West or any other arrogant celebrity for your analogy. (Nothing can save you if you choose Kanye — nothing.)
Don’t take it too far. (You’re on your own if you do)
Einstein, Mozart, Richard Branson, Payton Manning, Tony Robbins, and Michael Jordan are overdone. Be original.
Don’t be “that guy” (or girl) who copies the Power Analogy in this post.

Why this Technique Works

The Power Analogy is effective because it communicates information based on a “mental map” or schema that your customer already has.^[1]

This allows you to build a very strong “mental picture” of the outcomes and benefits that your company delivers in a way that outperforms everything else I’ve seen.

With great power comes great responsibility so be careful and use the Power Analogy wisely.

For extra exposure, feel free to post your analogies (along with a link to your contact form) in the comments below.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Always on your team,

PS. This technique is particularly effective when used as a part of your premium positioning strategy.

The post How to Communicate Your Expertise Without Sounding Arrogant appeared first on Nicholas Reese.

How to Optimize Your Contact Page to Get More Leads and Sales

Nick Reese — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 05:10:13 +0000

The post How to Optimize Your Contact Page
to Get More Leads and Sales appeared first on Nicholas Reese.

The Secret Art of Asking for Advice (and Mentorship)

editor — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 04:46:28 +0000

Asking for advice isn’t easy.

It takes guts, vulnerability, and the willingness to acknowledge a problem that you aren’t sure how to solve.

For many, this can be a scary place…

…Yet good advice can be transformative, especially when it’s coming from someone who’s already been in your shoes and succeeded.

Let’s explore the secret art of asking for advice so you can get answers that you can act on.

A Mountain of Emails

Each week, I get hundreds of emails from entrepreneurs and freelancers asking for advice.

I love reading the stories, challenges, and triumphs that each of you encounter. So much so that I regularly find myself laughing, crying, and cheering for many of you.

That said, there are some emails that just linger in my inbox forever — emails that have been read but remain unreplied, and I hate it.

It’s not that I don’t want to reply to these emails. (I really do read every email and try to reply to most.) It’s just that, oftentimes, the people that send in emails don’t make replying an easy thing to do.

Frustrated, I have decided that it was time to share my go-to technique for asking for advice.

How to Ask for Advice

How to Ask for Advice Effectively:

When you boil down to it, asking for advice involves three key elements:

Context – Specific information the reader/listener needs in order to answer your question.
Goal – What your desired outcome is.
Struggle – What specifically is stopping you from achieving your desired outcome.

This isn’t complex, but let’s look at it in action.

A Script to Asking For Advice

The average length of emails I — and many of my peers — get is somewhere around 300 to 400 words. Here is a solid template that you can use to get your message across more effectively and efficiently:

[Name],

[Intro sentence]

I’m a [what you do] trying to accomplish [goal].

While I’ve had some results like [x] and [y], I’d love your input.

If you had to tackle: [specific struggle] how would you do it?

So far I’ve tried [a], [b], and [c], but I’m wondering if you might go about it in a different way.

Thanks in advance.

-[Name]

PS. [include a thank you for something they’ve written, spoke about, etc]

As you can see, this template is pretty straight-forward and it makes mention of all three key elements which I have talked about above.

Ideally, it provides the reader with enough context to be able to make informed and strategic recommendations without sifting through 300 to 400 or more words to weed out what the real question or struggle is.

What Advice Do You Want?

One of the key reasons I love answering reader emails is because it allows me to create better content.

Typically, when I get three to seven questions around the same topic, I’ll jump in and do a full-blown video or guide on it.

This is the exact process behind how the Referral Engine, Motivation Filters, and Picture Perfect Positioning guides all came into existence.

That said, do you have a burning question that you need advice or insight on? If so, drop it in the comments below or send me a note via my contact form.

Chances are that, if you’re struggling with something, then someone else reading this might be going through the same thing, too.

Interesting Stats: Structure is Half the Battle

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been timing how long it takes to respond to each email and the results are pretty interesting.

For the last 232 emails:

4 percent took less than 45 seconds to answer. (Spam, trolls, requests that aren’t a fit, etc.)
29.9 percent took between 45 seconds and 3 minutes to answer.
52.3 percent took 3 to 6 minutes to answer.
13.8 percent took 6 to 10 or more minutes to answer.

But the most interesting fact that emerged from the data was this:

The top 50 percent of emails that took the longest to reply to were all over 400 words with the longest being 3,232 words long! (No lie — seven pages printed!)

Now, this data set isn’t huge, but it shows the direct impact of having a well-structured email versus a virtual stream of consciousness because there is an almost perfect correlation with the length of an email and the amount of time that it takes for someone to respond to it.

So, the next time you’re in need of advice, I hope you’ll remember:

Effectively structuring your message is half the battle.

I’ll talk to you soon,

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