I, for my part, am a Sun Worshiper, so I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the sun’s rays….especially given the LONG winter we’ve had here in the Pacific Northwest.

We were talking about taxes and how my parter and I were surprised, having recently moved to Portland, that income tax is assessed on ALL income, no matter where in the world it is earned.  For example, both my partner and I have employment outside the State of Oregon but because we live here, we must pay taxes on all of our income.

This was not a small surprise, thankyouverymuch.

The conversation led to my landlord (his name is Michael) relating to me a story that reveals how short-sighted entrepreneurs can be, rather than looking at the lifetime value of a client.

He was looking for an accountant.  My next-door neighbor recommended one in Lake Oswego, an affluent suburb of Portland.

Michael secured an initial appointment with the accountant, who, for an hour-and-a-half counseled him about how high the taxes were in Portland and that the first thing Michael needed to do was move himself and his business out of the City of Portland.

It was a lot to digest, so after the consultation he went home.

Several days later, Michael received a bill in the mail for $250.  Shocked, he called the accountant’s office to ask why he’d been charged for a free consultation.  There must be some mistake.

“Only the first 1/2 hour is free.  After 30 minutes have elapsed, you are billed at our regular rate.”

“What?  Why wasn’t I informed?  Besides, it was you who kept me that long in the office.”

Round and round they went, and — completely disgusted and fed up — my landlord eventually sent them the $250.

What an unfortunate experience.  Caught up with demanding this one-time $250, it obviously didn’t cross the accountant’s mind to calculate the lifetime value of this client.  Additionally, didn’t he realize this was a referral?  Landing him as a client was practically in the bag!

I’m not saying that a professional should give away their expertise.  In fact, some folks are of the opinion that you should never (or very rarely, at most) give free consultations.

But, clearly mistake #1 was lack of clarity about what was free and what carried a fee.  Have you similarly run into problems because you were wishy-washy, unclear, or didn’t even know your own policies with regard to fee versus free?

Even if in this instance it had been Michael who had been mistaken, this accountant lost a potential client-for-life (including any referrals my landlord might’ve sent him) by failing to look at the larger picture.  By making Michael wrong and subsequently losing his business, the accountant made mistake #2.

Not only will my landlord think twice about listening to my neighbor in terms of who she refers, but she herself will probably be reluctant to send referrals to this accountant again.

Oops.  Mistake #3:  tarnishing the reputation of the source of the referral.

Had Michael actually told me the name of this accountant (as most people who have bad experiences with service providers usually do), even more damage would have resulted from his short-sighted Ego-driven behavior.

As it happened, Michael merely cautioned: “Don’t do your taxes with anyone in Lake Oswego!”

Where in your business have you inadvertently made similar short-sighted mistakes?

When you choose to be concerned about the dollars and not the pennies, you’ll naturally seek to honor and add value to your referral partners, to your clients, and to your potential clients.

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flickr image by Chris Halderman, Attribution No-Derivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

I rode my bike downtown today (Portland’s Pioneer Place) to purchase a new power adapter for my now pretty old school 17″ PowerBook G4.

When I walked in the store, it was PACKED.  I don’t think I’ve seen an Apple Store so packed with loyal disciples!

So, I walk through the crowd and before I get to the counter, one of the awesome Apple People ask me what I’m looking for and how can they help me.

When I tell him, he asks a couple of specific questions to make sure he understands what I need and then he goes in the back to get it for me.  While I wait, I drool over everything Apple staring me in the face.

He shortly returns and tells me he can take care of me right there.

What?  No cash register or computer terminal?

He pulls out an iPhone and I stand in awe as he swipes my card and completes the entire transaction right there!

“Would you like me to email you your receipt?”

Can this service get any better?

“May I get you a bag for your purchase?”

“Yes, that would be great, ” I begin.  And then I remember.  “Oh no!  I’m on my bike and I forgot my . . .”

“Oh, we have backpack bags.”

You.  Have.  Backpack bags.

It takes me a minute to pick my face off the floor.

“I Love Apple!” I tell him, wanting to kiss the ground he walks on.

Why didn’t I come to Apple in the first place?

Instead, I search high and low for the best deal on the Internet and wait for UPS to deliver it, only to discover the power adapter they sent didn’t even work.

Damn.

To add insult to injury, I had to report that it was faulty or defective or whatever, package it all back up, and send it back.

Some deal.

At first glance, $79 for a power adapter from Apple appears pretty steep.

For the love I always get whenever I go to the Apple Store (not to mention the fast and friendly service), $79 is the real bargain.

_ _ _

image by Terry Johnston, used with permission under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License

In fact, you may find that you are doing more repelling than attracting.

Why is this?

Well, there can be many reasons why the magnetic poles between you and your ideal clients are all askew, but a foundational piece may be a focus solely on what YOU want, rather than what your (potential) clients want.

Of course, you want to sell your products or services.  As an entrepreneur and/or sales professional, that is one of the main reasons your business exists.

But the problem with focusing on making the sale at all costs is the tendency to become blind to the wants, needs, and desires of the client.

Understanding this mentally is easy, but actually catching yourself in the grip of this blinding challenge is another question entirely.

The sales profession is unfortunately set up to orientate and incentivize extreme laserlike focus on quotas at the exclusion of all else, such that the whole game of selling sees leads, prospects, and clients as a numbers game rather than a magnetic, spiritual practice.

You especially see the results of this institutionalized mentality near the end of every quarter.  At this time, you can feel the crescendo of feverish madness, as sales professionals neglect family, food, and fun in the quest for whatever financial or material carrot is dangling in front of them.

This, of course, is counterproductive.

On a conscious or unconscious level, people feel and are repelled by your desperation and have-to-sell-now energy.

I was talking recently with a salesperson who had actually bothered to find out what made his client tick.  He learned what he liked and had even given thought to the perfect gift that would be meaningful to this qualified prospect.

Unfortunately, he lost sight of this as the end of the quarter drew close and the sale remained pending.

The salesperson did not get the sale, and he attributed its loss to this suffocating “pushing” energy that motivated him to go against his intuitive sense to do the right thing.

So what to do?

1. Acknowledge and recognize the tendency to put the blinders on and to forget to inquire about, discover, and engage the prospect or client’s wants and desires.  Sometimes awareness alone is curative.
2. Make a commitment to build into all of your marketing and into your sales process a Client Attraction Plan that actually attracts (rather than repels) your Ideal Clients.
3. Use quotas for guidance and accountability, not as tools to support a winning-at-all-costs attitude.  Quotas should guide your actions and mark your progress, not override your values.
4. Enroll in my upcoming Get Your Year In Gear! Coaching Program where together we create and implement a Magnetic Client Attraction Plan that is fun, sustainable, and client-focused.
5. Have fun!

You’re excited (and a little nervous) because you’ve heard all about the iPhone, and you know it costs a few hundred dollars, but if it delivers what you want, you are happy to make the exchange, value for value.

When the sales person approaches you and offers to assist you, you tell him you’ve been thinking about an iPhone.

Twenty minutes later, you find yourself trying to figure out how to extricate yourself from the situation and get the hell outta there, as the sales person is excitedly telling you it has voice control AND a compass; didya know it’s super-fast (“web sites render in a fraction of the time”) and you can shoot video and edit it and share it on YouTube, Mobile me or whatever you want and for backups in allows you to sync to your PC and didya know it has a camera with autofocus and you can even type in landscape if you need more room and oh I almost forgot about the search function and how you can send messages with video, photos, plain ol’ text, locations, and so much more, yaddayaddayaddayadda, up the hill down the hill, blah, blah, blah…..

What happened?  Isn’t that what customers buy?  features and benefits?

“Absolutely not,” says Peak Performance Coach and Integrative Psychology Expert, Paul Anderson of ProLango Consulting, based in Redmond, Washington.  “Benefits alone don’t sell”, even though sales trainers will tell you all day long that they do.”

“No, it’s the benefits the customer cares about that sell.”

Not what YOU care about, Dear Zealous Sales Professional.

Unfortunately, sales people often get so excited about the features and benefits THEY (the sales person) love, they think everyone else has the same values as they do and will be as excited as they are.

They forget to be curious, and to really find out what’s important to the prospective customer.

Want to be super-magnetic and irresistibly attract your perfect customers who ask YOU if they can buy what you’re selling?

Be interested, not interesting.

You’re not buying from yourself, so don’t sell to others as if they were you.  Sell them what they want/

Relate to them on their terms.

And the rest is gravy.

This question was put to her (and 6 others) by Mike Damphousse, who sought various perspectives on what he should do after discovering that a prospect had apparently visited Mike’s web site.

This situation is similar to what sales professionals everywhere encounter in some form or another.  “What do I do next?”

Regarding the prospect that visited his site, Mike asked

How aggressively do I go after them?  Do I pounce immediately? Do I pause and call shortly thereafter? Do I just nurture them? Do I wait a couple days then call?

(You can read the responses the various sales and marketing authorities offered, as well as Mike’s assessment and final analysis by clicking this link.)

For her part, Jill Konrath said that this was a great question.  I, however, believe it is entirely the wrong question.

It unfortunately comes out of an old “I got a live one!” mentality, rather than authentically considering what the potential client might want or be looking for.

(“Do I pounce immediately?”  Good Grief!  Pouncing and Selling should not be uttered in the same context.  Neither should the word “aggressively,” in my opinion.)

A better question is based on what I know now, how can I engage the prospect in a conversation and/or add more value to their experience so that I better understand their needs, wants, and desires?

I think the technology that tracks what a web visitor is doing, what they are clicking on, and how long they remain on the site is great.  We should be looking at these behaviors in order to enhance the visitor’s experience, to magnetically attract them rather than cause them to feel they are being targeted or hunted or pounced upon.

I am no web guru by any stretch of the imagination (I don’t think they make elastic that stretchy!), but I do know that there is much in the way of interactivity that can be added to a site, based on individual web visitor behavior.

Examples might include strategically-placed polls or surveys, live or semi-automated chats, invitations to interact further on a blog or twitter, or even a page that pops under after the page is closed asking for feedback on what drew them to the website and what would encourage them to visit again (or an offer to receive a newsletter or white paper or some other information product).

It seems to me if a company is already tracking web visits in real time and analyzing behaviors, it should also be thinking about how it is going to serve those visitors.

Remember the choose-your-own-adventure books?  When my sister was a kid, reading was not her favorite pastime, but she LOVE the choose-your-own-adventure books.

Why?

Because they gave a sense of interactivity and choice.

Our prospects likewise want to choose their own experiences with our product and service, based on how it makes them feel.

We facilitate this not by pouncing, but engaging.

To his credit, Mike did note in his article that his intuition told him to engage the prospect by nurturing the relationship rather than pouncing.

Moral of the story?  If we desire to magnetically attract perfect clients, asking ourselves questions based in a how-can-I-serve foundational framework will yield the best, most productive answers.

After all, selling should not be merely transactional.  Instead, at its best, selling is about creating a valuable, long-term, magnetically attractive relationship.

It was posted the end of April 2008, but still very relevant to real estate agents today and really, to any and all sales professionals.

Marc begins by alluding to the good ol’ days of real estate when the agent really took care of the client and went the extra mile.  The client trusted that the real estate agent would be genuinely interested in her, diligently do the research, scout out the best deal, cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s.

She didn’t have to worry.  She was in good hands.

With the advent of technology and Web 2.0, Davison asserts that real estate agents are making the false assumption that clients are empowered to do all the work themselves.

And when they do, that they will still be all too happy to pay the agent top commission for serving themselves.

An example of this happened to a good friend of mine who was in the process of opening up a restaurant last year.  This is clearly a commercial real estate transaction, but the principle is the same.

She enlisted a real estate agent, but barely saw him.  She found her own property and essentially negotiated (with the help of her lawyer who carefully reviewed all documents) all the terms of the agreement.

Just as it was closing, here comes the real estate agent seeking his commission — a pretty hefty sum, given this was a commercial transaction.  Needless to say, she was flabbergasted.  “I couldn’t believe his audacity,” she remarked.

Neither could I.

Technology is great, but, says Davison (and I agree) it must be integrating into an existing system of excellent customer service.  And then be done very well.  The benefit of enlisting a qualified real estate agent is the added value they bring in every stage of the process.

It’s not very valuable if you have to do everything yourself, which from the customer point of view isn’t very empowering.

Says Davison,

“Empowerment is not conning oneself into believing the consumer wants to do everything themselves.  Empowerment sunk when real estate began believing the consumer would have no issue paying top dollar for the privilege of serving themselves.”

It’s embarrassing to even have to mention this, but clearly real estate agents (and all of us sales professionals) need the reminders.  If you want to attract your very best clients, you need to do your very best work.

And then you deserve every penny (and more!) for the valuable service you provide.

I am on Joe’s e-mailing list, and he always offers something of value, something practical that I can take away and use in my life and/or business.

I came across one of his eNewsletters where he offers this great little story about how to create more “buzz” about you and your business, so that your perfect clients are drawn like a magnet to you.

I was listening to a real estate agent, who was explain how tough the market is right now, that there’s a lot of inventory out there that just isn’t moving very quickly.  This is a recurrent theme people in conversations across the selling professions.

In view of this, your proverbial ears should perk up at the prospect of becoming more magnetic in your marketing.

I thought about summarizing Joe’s article, but I’ve decided to share it in its entirety for you.  If you’re ready to learn the secret to creating good “buzz,” good word-of-mouth about how you are the best in your industry, read every word and then go out and find ways to put it into practice.

First, let me briefly give you some context.  Joe had just made the point that he is always looking for examples of companies who are great at Customer Service, who are proactive about implementing client retention strategies.

When done effectively, Joe says, this creates the good “buzz” that I was just mentioning that attracts business to you because everyone’s running around saying that you’re the best.

With that introduction, here’s Joe’s great article that drives the point home about how impressed he was with the awesome and unexpected customer service he experienced from the discount airline carrier, Jet Blue Skies.

Ask yourself as you read it how you, too, can consistently offer this same level of magnetic buzz-creating customer service.

– Tshombe

Jet Blue Skies
A few weeks ago I attended a terrific Internet marketing workshop hosted by my friend, David Frey.  He is a great marketer and truly a genuine person.  The event took place in his hometown in southern Houston.  I usually fly American Airlines, but they do not offer non-stop flights to Houston’s Hobby Airport.  Jet Blue had a flight going direct, so I decided to book my flight with them.

If you are not familiar with Jet Blue, they are a discount carrier based out of New York.  The key to their success is doing little things that make a big difference.  One of their greatest features is they have live satellite television at every seat.  You can watch your favorite shows, on 36 channels, as you fly.  They offer only snacks and beverages, no meals, and the staff is just plain nice to everyone.

Due to bad weather in New York, my flight home was delayed for 90 minutes.  We were already on the plane, so the Captain came out and told us we could stay on and watch television or we could de-plane.  I decided to stretch my legs and make a few calls from the terminal so I got off.  We were all told to stay close to the gate because if the weather improved we would be leaving earlier.

Approximately 15 minutes later, two Jet Blue employees walked to the gate, one carrying a stack of pizzas and another cases of water.  Every passenger was offered pizza and a bottle of water for their inconvenience.  The announcement made was, “we are sorry for any inconvenience, please have some pizza while you are waiting.”  I have been delayed on many airlines and at many airports, sometimes for more than 4 hours, and have never been offered anything.  In most cases, I would settle for an explanation and a smile.

This is something I will always remember, especially when booking my next flight.  In addition, I have told this story to many people and I am sending it out to my entire list of contacts [Tshombe sidenote:  and I – who had never even heard of Jet Blue before this, much less have ever flown them – am sharing this experience on my blog and will be sending it out to my contacts, as well].  Now that is what I call good “buzz.”  It was a simple gesture, but it is unheard of in the airline industry and was meaningful to me and all of the other passengers on that flight.

Creating More Buzz
Most business owners and salespeople are looking for dramatic events to create good word-of-mouth.  I have found that simple, unexpected things create the most goodwill and good “buzz.”  I offer a lot of free e-courses, tele-seminars, newsletters and coaching calls.  All of these things create good will between me and my clients.  I am constantly offering them information that will help them succeed.

If you are always trying to just sell something, people will begin to view you in a negative light.  We all want to make sales, but delivering additional value is critical to client retention.  When you are in the feeling of giving you are vibrating at a higher energy level.  Think about how you feel when you are giving someone a gift.  This is the same feeling you are vibrating when you are giving unexpected value to your customers.

This type of energy is positive and extremely magnetic.  People are drawn to this energy like moths to a flame.  Suddenly people are asking you how they can buy your product or service.  All good “buzz” is based on the energy vibration behind the action.  When your intention is to help others they have no choice but to want to help you.  That is how true magnetism really works.

—
So what’d you think?

What are you going to do next to begin generating buzz by adding value to the experiences your customers and potential customers have with you?

If you’re wanting to learn more concrete ways to attract business rather than chasing it, Joe offers a great program that will do just that.  It’s called the Attractor Sales Program, based on his best-selling book (which I have!), Spiritual Selling.

ALSO, Just in!:  I have the special honor of personally interviewing Joe Nunziata on what every salesperson needs to do to be successful in The New Economy in just a few short weeks, and you can join us!

Sign up at http://SalesSuccessSeries.com to get notified of the details of this exclusive tele-cast interview that will be happening on Thursday, June 18 at 3 pm Pacific Time.

This is very exciting, as the Joe Nunziata interview will kick off my new teleseminar Sales Success Series, so make sure you’re there as together we make some Magnetic History!

In the article, Marc explains why real estate agents are in the least trusted profession and what they can do about it.

He offers that some of the distrust stems from the fact that consumers “don’t trust what they don’t know,” but for much of it, agents have no one to blame but themselves.

Are you a trustworthy agent or an untrustworthy one?  I dare say, you should already know the answer, but Marc Davison offers a little help.

Where do you fall?

Untrustworthy agents hear what their clients say.   Trustworthy agents listen.
Untrustworthy agents make deals happen.  Trusted agents help people buy and sell homes.
Untrustworthy agents work hard and make a case for it.  Trusted agents work smart.  They perform magic and do it quietly, with grace.
Untrustworthy agents stress about deals. Trusted agents never lose their cool.
Untrustworthy agents are about me and I across all their brand touch points.  Trusted agents place their entire emphasis on “we” on “you.”
Untrustworthy agents claim they got into real estate to help people.  Trusted agents got into real estate to make a living.  They are transparent about that.Untrustworthy agents say what the consumer wants to hear.  Trusted agents tell it like it is.
Untrustworthy agents work with anyone.  Trusted agents hand-pick clients.
Untrustworthy agents hide behind templates.  Trusted agents speak in their own voice.
Untrustworthy agents use platitudes to market themselves.  Trusted agents have stopped marketing themselves in the conventional sense altogether.

It can be discouraging to find yourself lumped in with a group with such low numbers in the trust department.

Tim O’Keefe over at his Real Estate Marketing Blog also took note of Marc Davison’s comments and offers a great answer to the less-than-heartening statistics:  “First of all do not worry about the crowd and the low public numbers of the industry. And worry about your numbers.”

Be truthful and transparent, and keep plugging away offering great value regardless of the perceived state of the economy.  As you differientiate yourself in this way, the trust will naturally come.

He quotes a now-deceased colleague of his who said that he could work with a client who is either ignorant or arrogant, but not when both characteristics are present at the same time in the same person.

Bly gives reasons why he apparently is of the same opinion.

As for me, ignorance is fine, but if you’re arrogant…..well, let’s just say that “arrogance” doesn’t exactly fit into my ideal client profile.

(I learned that the hard way when I failed to listen to my intuition a couple of years ago and instead agreed to work with a less-than-ideal client, who ended up taking me to the cleaners.  It took longer than I care to admit to heal emotionally from the experience.)

What about you?  Do you agree with Bob Bly’s assessment?

Whatever the case, always listen to your gut.

If you feel that you shouldn’t be working with a certain kind of client, respect that the magnetic pull you are feeling is really a repellant telling you to run the other way!