1. Educate clients about your excellent client service. Your clients aren’t as intimately familiar with your business as you are. They don’t realize all the add-ons and special treatment you provide over your competition, so whenever you go above-and-beyond for a client, make sure they understand that most service providers won’t do what you do. Always stress the benefits of working with you to manage your clients’ expectations and demonstrate your superior client service. Disappointed clients don’t refer business but happy clients will continue to sing your praises.
   
   
2. Educate clients about who you’d like them to refer. Put together a one-page guide explaining who your ideal prospects are, the best ways they can refer business to you, and what you’ll do when they give you a referral, such as how you’ll contact the person, what you’ll say, and how you’ll follow up. By outlining your referral process, you reassure your clients that you won’t hound or annoy the people they refer, and you can give them the opportunity to be involved if they choose.
   
   
3. Ask the right people for referrals. Ideally, the people who have the greatest potential to refer lots of business to you are those who have a large sphere of influence and are well respected within their social circles. Look for people who are natural “connectors” - people who are always telling you that you should meet “so-and-so.”
   
   
4. Ask for referrals at the right times. Whenever a client tells you what a wonderful job you did for them, thank them and ask for a referral. Ask when you first start working together. Ask after successful presentations. Ask after celebratory moments. Look for opportunities where your clients are particularly happy with your services, then don’t be afraid to ask.
   
   
5. Follow up quickly. Whenever you receive a newly referred prospect, follow up immediately. Ideally, you’d like the person who referred you business to be involved with the follow up process. Is he/she willing to set up a lunch meeting? Have a phone conversation? Write a letter of introduction?
   
   
6. Reward your referral sources. Keep your referral sources informed on those referrals they give you, such as whether they became a client. You might also consider rewarding your referral sources to provide additional incentives to refer you more business. Cash is always welcome (if your ethics board allows it), but you can be creative with other options. Perhaps you can hold a contest with each new referral being an entry. You can also partner with local service providers to offer special services to clients. For instance, if they refer three people who become clients, you will pay your personal accountant will do their taxes this year or you will give them a three-month membership to the gym.
   
   
7. Promote your best referral sources. People like to be recognized, so consider featuring your best referral sources in your monthly newsletter. If you want to do more to show your appreciation, hold a special lunch for “preferred clients” and their guests who have referred at least one new client to your business that year. At the lunch, you can recognize your best referral sources by handing out prizes or awards.
   
   

By putting a referral system in place, you’ll start to attract more and better clients from referral sources by motivating them to send you new business regularly.

A good example of social proof is the product rating system on websites like Amazon.com or Citysearch.com. Say you are looking for something (books, hotels, restaurants, etc.), and find two comparable options, one with an average 3-star review and one with an average 4.5-star review. You’re more likely to pick the one with the higher rating based on what other people have said. That’s social proof in action.

Testimonials not only help Amazon.com sell more books or Expedia.com book more hotel rooms, they can also help you sell your services by highlighting other people’s successes and results through working with you.

3 Ways to Collect Client Testimonials

For clients to give you testimonials, you need three things: (a) Great service that leaves clients happy; (b) An easy way to collect client testimonials; and (c) A reward system to thank clients who share their thoughts. Here are a few ways to collect testimonials from clients.

1) Send a testimonial request form or letter.
Send prospects a letter stating something to the following: “I’m putting together a list of testimonials from satisfied clients. Would you take a few minutes to tell me what you thought - good or bad - about my services? I look forward to learning what you liked, but I also welcome any suggestions you might have.”

Give prospects an easy way to return the form. If you ask them to mail it back, provide a self-addressed stamped envelope. If you ask them to fax it back, provide the fax number clearly on the form.

Be sure to include a signature section that asks permission to use their comments in your marketing materials. For instance: “You have my permission to use my comments in your ads, brochures and other promotions used to market your services.”

To boost response, you can also mention that if they complete the form, you will send them a “thank you” gift.

2) Collect photos and videos during celebratory moments.

Carry a digital or video camera to capture live pictures and comments. For instance, if you hold a live workshop, collect a few pictures or comments from participants during breaks. If you are holding negotiations or a new product is about to launch, be ready for the final celebratory moment afterwards.

Before you can use these photos or videos, make sure to have your client sign a short release form stating you have permission to use their photos in your marketing materials.

3) Use a client feedback phone line.

Advertise a client feedback phone number on your website. When clients call in, they’ll hear a short recorded message encouraging them to leave comments. They can then leave a message stating their name, their comments, and permission to share their comments with company staff and in your marketing materials.

You can then use these audio recordings as testimonials on your website, in ads or by another hotline for prospects to call in and listen to “what our clients are saying about us.”

Reward Clients Who Give You Testimonials

After you’ve collected a testimonial from a happy client, be sure to thank them because they are not only sharing their thoughts with you, they are also granting you permission to use their comments and picture in your marketing materials. In other words, they are helping you out considerably. Potential gifts ideas can include a free report or product, a discount on additional services, a gift card to a local store or restaurant, or free services from another vendor.

By collecting testimonials and including them in your marketing materials, you’ll drastically enhance your credibility and more easily sell prospects on the benefits of your services.

The concept of the USP started with adman Rosser Reaves back in the ’60s. He wanted a short sentence that would make the products he was advertising memorable to his audience. What he wanted to do was tell prospects the reason why his product existed.

So, you’ve probably heard the following USPs:

• Dominos: Fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed.
• Palmolive: Softens hands while you do dishes.
• FedEx: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
• GEICO: We’ll help you save you up to 15 percent or more on car insurance

Each of these highlights a core benefit of a product or service. Dominos revolutionized the pizza delivery business when they decided to guarantee they’d get hot pizza to you in 30 minutes or you didn’t have to pay. Since they’ve grown bigger, they’ve removed the “or your pizza’s free” benefit, but they still focus on delivery in 30 minutes or less.

If you order a pizza through their website today, you can even see the timeline from when your order was placed, to when it was being made, to when it was put in the oven, to when it was given to the delivery guy. They keep you updated with a 30 minute tracker that even lists the names of who was in charge of which task. And the pizza does arrive pretty close to 30 minutes later. It’s a pretty cool technology to really stress that 30 minute delivery timeframe.

In the case of Palmolive, they aren’t the only dish soap that will soften your hands while you’re doing dishes, but they were the first to stress that benefit and claim that USP. This is a great way to differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace: Stress a benefit that others do too, but no one is explaining to prospects.

Your USP must position you uniquely in your market and be beneficial to your prospects. It’s not enough to just be unique or different from your competitors. You must also position yourself in a way that’s beneficial to your niche. If your prospects don’t see your USP as beneficial, then it won’t do much for you, so look at your marketplace and your competition. What aren’t they doing for prospects? What aren’t they explaining clearly to prospects? Look for the glaring holes and aim to fill them.

So how do you go about creating a USP? Your USP is based on:

• who your target audience is
• what you’ll do for them
• why that’s different from what others are offering
• why that solution matters to your target audience

Here are four steps to creating your USP:

1. Brainstorm. The first step to creating your USP is to write down whatever comes to mind when you think about your business. What are you most proud of? How do you enhance your clients’ lives? What do your best clients say about you? Where does your expertise lie? Try filling out the following statement:

   “I help _____________your target audience______________
   who are struggling with__your target audience’s problems______________
   by ______________________ your solution______________________.
   For instance, _____give an example of a success story__________________.”

2. Shorten and clarify. For your USP to be effective, you must be able to explain it in a short sentence or two. To that point, you’ll probably need to sit down and write a few pages about what you do, who your competition is, what market you’re in, what your prospects want, what needs aren’t being fulfilled, and even the history of your business. The goal is to eventually craft a concise statement that addresses prospects’ needs and clearly explains why you are the go-to company for a specific niche audience.
3. Be able to prove what you say. Bragging won’t sell your services. People are skeptical and to them, you are an unknown. They don’t know your reputation or success record. For all they know, you could be blowing a lot of hot air and wasting their time.

   Instead of bragging, get good testimonials that describe how great a job you did, how easily you solved their problem, how clearly you explained the steps in the process, how frequently you were in contact with them, and ultimately, how much time or money they saved by working with you. People are much more likely to believe what other people say about you than what you say about yourself.

4. Test your USP. The only way you’ll know if your USP resonates with your target audience is to test it. That means getting it in front of your potential prospects. Don’t bother asking friends for comments. They aren’t your niche prospects. They aren’t looking to hire you. And when they view your USP, they are looking at it in a vacuum, not the environment where you’ll actually use it.

   Instead, try putting it on your blog or website, in your newsletters, or in your ads or mailings. Another great place to test it is by running a pay-per-click campaign with Google Adwords. You can run a campaign with a few different variations of your USP for a week or two to collect data. Then compare which ad campaign is getting the most click-throughs. Once you find something that’s working, you can try the USP in your offline advertising.

While crafting your USP, look at both your prospects’ biggest frustrations and what your competition is saying. Your USP should address those concerns and explain why you’re the best company for the job. Because you understand them. Because you’ve been in their shoes. Because you have the passions, skills, knowledge and success record they’re looking for.

Features are the characteristics or attributes that physically describe your service. These might include things like:

• you provide weekly Q&A coaching calls
• your products are available for instant download
• you offer several payment options such as cash, check, or credit card
• you offer a 90-day money back guarantee
• you provide a 24-hour tech support hotline

Benefits emphasize the magnitude of the problem and how your solution makes your prospect’s life easier. They answer the question “so what?” Benefits can be classified into three types:

• Economic: Economic benefits stress cost savings or emphasize value.
• Psychological or Emotional: Psychological benefits stress security, reliability, expertise, friendliness or other feelings or beliefs associated with your service.
• Functional: Functional benefits stress what you promise to do such as help single women buy their first home at an affordable price.

In the previous examples, the benefits from your customer’s perspective are:

• Weekly Q&A calls: If I don’t understand something, I have a place to ask questions without feeling dumb for not understanding the materials or wondering how they apply in my situation.
• Downloadable products: I have access to the product now, even if it is 3:02 a.m. and my presentation on the topic is due in 5 hours.
• Payment options: I can pay online by credit card so I don’t have to worry about having cash on hand when the pizza delivery guy comes.
• Money back guarantee: Even if I don’t like the product or it doesn’t fit my needs, I have 90 days to ask for a refund.
• 24-hour tech support: It is 9 p.m. and my computer just crashed. I don’t know why and am incredibly frustrated, but at least I have friendly people to call who always pick up the phone immediately and have been able to solve any problem I’ve had in under 15 minutes so I can get back to work.

People buy benefits, not features, so don’t assume just because you tell people all the things you’ll do for them, they’ll understand why that’s useful and beneficial to them. Spend some time thinking about how your features enhance your prospects’ lives. Then stress the results in your marketing materials.

Stop Bragging and Let Go of Ego

Most small-business owners tell prospects how long they’ve been in business, how many years of experience they have, that they provide exceptional customer service, that they pride themselves on doing good work, and so on. In other words, they brag about all the positive features of their company.

It may seem counterintuitive, but bragging about your accomplishments won’t net you more clients. Instead, look at your business critically … and from the perspective of your prospects and clients.

When you have your own business, it’s really easy to get caught up in your own ego. It’s easy to think that your prospects should be as excited and enthusiastic about your business as you are. And it’s easy to think that when prospects go with another firm, that they’re rejecting you, personally.

Start Educating Prospects About their Needs and Concerns

To be successful in business, you must let go of those beliefs when you’re marketing your services. Business is not personal. Your prospects are making the best choice they can based on what they know at the time and how that fits with their worldview. It’s up to you to show them why you are the best choice - not through bragging, but through educating them about their problem, key issues and concerns they have, and potential solutions.

One of the best ways to do that is to not assume things about your prospect. Being in the trenches of your industry day-to-day, you take a lot of things for granted. You keep on top of trends. You know the lingo. You’ve helped many clients solve similar problems.

Don’t Assume Your Prospects “Should” Know Something

Your prospects, on the other hand, don’t know any of that stuff. They don’t know the jargon. They don’t understand everything about the transaction. They don’t know what you will do for them. They don’t understand why you are the best choice for them.

It’s up to you to not only explain, but demonstrate, why you should be their top pick. Speak in plain English and be as clear as you can. This isn’t about giving a sales pitch or persuading them to buy something they don’t need.

Your marketing should clearly state your case: Why should they choose you? Why will hiring you be the best solution to their current problem? What do they get when they do hire you? What should they expect when working with you? What’s the intended outcome of working with you? In other words, “What’s in it for me?”

To be meaningful, your differentiating factor (aka Unique Selling Proposition) must be:

1. Specific to a niche - You have to pick a niche and craft your message based on their concerns and frustrations. If you have multiple niches, you’ll have to craft a different marketing message for each.
2. In line with your strengths - You have to be better than most - preferably all - other companies in something that is meaningful to your niche.
3. Different from your competition - If everyone else is promoting themselves the same way you are, then prospects perceive you as “just like them.” Take a look at how similar businesses are marketing themselves - who else is out there and what are they saying? What aren’t they talking about?

The key to differentiating yourself is to put yourself in your prospect’s mind. They are thinking, “What’s in it for me? How do I benefit?” Give prospects a compelling reason to hire you over all the other options out there.

The biggest issue with clever slogans is that they are designed for TV commercials you’ll hear 30 times per week. That’s why we know Coke is “the real thing” and Wendy’s asks “where’s the beef?” and Nike encourages to “just do it.”

Those slogans don’t say a lot because if the TV commercial does its job, it will explain the meaning of the slogan. The slogan is designed to be memorable - so it sticks in your head and you remember the commercial when you’re ready to buy their product. Many times, they make that slogan into a jingle to make it even more memorable. If they can get it stuck in your head, they think that will get you to buy more of their stuff.

How Madison Avenue Measures TV Commercial Success

How well it works is negotiable. The Madison Avenue executives who design TV commercials don’t really have to show that their commercials are directly influencing sales. They just examine the year’s revenues - and if there was a blip upwards, they declare that the commercial worked. If they made less money, they assume the ad didn’t work. Of course, there are all sorts of factors that might come into play that they don’t track, but for the most part, that’s how it works.

And even if something seems popular, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is driving sales. You might remember the Taco Bell Chihuahua who used to say “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!” That little dog made its debut in 1997 and immediately became a cultural phenomenon. They made all sorts of TV commercials featuring the adventures of the Chihuahua and even started selling toy dogs because people loved it so much.

Yet, as much as people loved this ad campaign, it didn’t help Taco Bell’s bottom line. By 2000, Taco Bell sales were down considerably, and the company decided to abruptly end the ad campaign and try something else.

The funny thing is that once they did that, rumors started flying all over the internet that the dog had died and that’s why they stopped running the commercials. Most people thought that ad campaign was a huge success, so the only reason they could think of for why Taco Bell stopped running the Chihuahua commercials was that something must have happened to the dog.

So, just because you see something witty or clever or entertaining on TV, doesn’t mean it’s actually effective in increasing sales.

A lot of small business owners fall into that trap because they think these ways are how they can “brand” themselves, thereby setting them apart. While these things may be part of your “identity” or how you package yourself and your services, they are not, by themselves, differentiating factors.

What is a Corporate Identity?

Your corporate identity the combination of your logo, visuals (typeface, colors, imagery), and tone for your company’s image. Large companies have style guides that define exactly what you can and can’t do with their logo. If you are an employee and are going to publish something under their company name, they’ll have specific pictures or fonts you have to use - so all of their marketing and promotions look consistent.

What is a Brand?

Your identity is not your brand. Your brand is the perception your prospects and clients hold about you or your firm. A designer cannot design a brand. You must strategically determine who you are, what you do, and why that is meaningful to your target audience. Then, your identity and marketing materials communicate that message.

Your brand is the collective sum of how each person you come into contact views you and your services. It’s the positive feeling they get when they think about you. It’s how they expect to be treated when they call you on the phone. It’s the service they anticipate when they hire you. And it’s how they convey who you are and what you do to their friends, family and coworkers.

What is Branding?

Branding is about trying to shape the impressions people have about you and your company. It’s not about manipulating people. People are much too smart for that to work. No advertising or branding campaign will help you if you are nasty, unethical or incompetent.

Instead, branding is about understanding who you are at your core and explaining clearly why people should do business with you (or on a personal level, have a romantic relationship or be friends with you.) It’s about making sure that every interaction people have with you is consistent with that core message.

Brands take time to build. In most cases, small businesses give up long before they have a brand established. In service-based businesses, you build a brand by presenting yourself as a specialist in a niche area, you become a leader in that niche, you consistently communicate your expertise by educating your prospects with your marketing, and you build up your reputation as happy clients talk about and refer business to you.

Unfortunately, becoming a specialist isn’t as easy as saying I’m a “specialist” or an “expert” in a particular area. To actually be perceived as the specialist, you must really and truly master your area. You must be aware of all the pitfalls and mistakes and obstacles your prospects will face, and know the solution to whatever the problem is - or at least have a good idea of where to look for that solution.

Just as athletes train for their big match or game, you must keep on top of whatever is happening in your niche. That requires continual education and listening to what your clients are telling you. It also requires keeping on top of industry changes like legal regulations, economic downturns, and local issues that might affect your clients.

The benefits of being a specialist are great.

1. You differentiate yourself from your competition so much that you are the obvious choice for your prospects - which gives you greater freedom to choose ideal clients and even turn away business that might not be right for you.
2. You gain authority and respect among your prospects, clients and peers as someone who can get the job done seamlessly and by providing excellent client service to boot.
3. You get a stable of happy clients who provide testimonials about your service and refer more business to you.

Most people don’t make it to that level because they don’t stick with it long enough. They want instant success. They want to skip the long hours required to learn and master the trade and go right to expert status. Those who do stick with it reap great rewards.