Be more Relevant and Know what your clients want!
How often do you take a step back and think about what your clients want rather than what you think they want?
When you advertise your products and services how do you make sure that your words are relevant to your clients and prospects?
You can have a great product or service and you can run adverts and promotions, tell people about your business on social media sites and even offer special rates and discounts. But none of that is going to help you attract client’s or make product and progamme sales if it is not relevant to the client’s wants.
To work out if it is relevant to your client’s – look at how it will benefit them.
Will your product:
- Save them time or effort
- Make their life easier
- Save them money
- Make them FEEL happier
- Give them increased confidence
- Enable them to get that job they really want to get
- help them build a thriving practice
- Show them how to create a powerful website
- Empower them to achieve their goals
You know your business, you know what you do and how you do it, you know what your products and programmes are all about, you know your clients need what you offer, but do you know if they want it and why they want it?
It is more important to know your customers, what they think, how they feel, what their pains are, what they WANT.
When you know what they want, and can identify and tell them what benefits your product or service provides for them, then you can design your products and services, your promotions and marketing materials, so that they meet your clients wants and are relevant to them.
When you make it your Business to attract rather than chase after Customers and client’s, your life becomes easier and you choose when and how to spend your time instead of spending it running around, struggling to increase your profits and attract new clients.
Take a moment and think about this:
If you want to make a hole in your wall to hang up a cupboard – you want something that will help you to do this easily and effortlessly.
if someone simply tells you that they have a drill (the product) for sale and someone else tells you
they have something to offer you that will enable you to make a perfect hole easily and effortlessly (the benefits)
Which appeals to you more? Yes the benefits.
if someone tells you “I am a confidence coach and have lots of qualifications to help you do what you want to do ”
or they tell you “I help you discover how to easily create unstoppable confidence so that you can easily attract & get your dream job”
Which would you be drawn to more? Yes, the person who tells you the benefits of their service, and knows what you want and what benefits having this will give you, not the person that talks about themselves and their products.
focus on your clients and your customers, not yourself and your qualifications, create benefits driven messages, products and services and you will attract more clients more easily.
If you want to learn more about identifying and promoting the benefits of your business to your prospecitve clients and how to create powerful and relevant marketing and promotional materials that will attract you more clients, more easily and more often – why not join the Specialist Guild mastermind and network community today.
As a member of our worldwide community you will be able to:
- Attract more clients, more easily
- Work less hours and help more people transform their lives
- Tap into your true dreams and visions for the future and make them a reality
- Successfully partner with other like minded professionals to build and grow your business
- Find genuine and caring joint venture partners
- Create powerful websites, business cards, leaflets and much much more
- Receive hints, tips and advice from business success experts
- Find the resources and support you want as you create and build your business
Biggest Marketing Plan Mistakes
Marketing and promotion really is key to the success of your business success.
If you get this wrong you will find it a struggle to attract new clients, turn your prospective client’s into paying clients and grow your thriving succesful practice.
Many practitioners unknowlingly make a variety of mistakes in their marketing and many actually don’t write a marketing plan at all. Those that do often make common mistakes, so I have created you some hints and tips to help you avoid these common mistakes:
Marketing Plan Mistake #1:
“Not targeting the right customers”
Although many practitioners “think” they know their customers, in many instances this is not the case. Not everyone wants your products, so it’s a waste of time and money to attempt to target them all. To create a truly successful and thriving practice you simply must “know” who your clients are, where to find them and how to talk to them.
Marketing Plan Mistake #2:“Not understanding customer needs”
Continue reading »
To many to do lists?
Hi everyone -
Do you create yourself a to do list everyday/week/month?
Yes I do too, but I was sat today thinking about everything I had to do in my business and for some reason it all felt very flat and there was so much other stuff flying around in my head that felt much more exciting that I just couldn’t keep up with my own thoughts.
So I decided to do a little experiment and ignore my what I SHOULD do today list and take a few moments and just let my thoughts flow and write everything down that I WANTED to do today, as it came up for me, without thinking about what I thought I really should be doing.
I started by asking myself – what would I LIKE to do today to move me closer to my business visions and goals and HOW would that make me feel.
I then simply wrote everything down that was coming up for me in answer to those questions and realised I had a MASSIVE list of things I WANTED to to do rather than a list of things I felt I SHOULD do and it was making me feel really excited.
WOW so many things I WANT to do and a surge of exciting feelings flowing through me.
Yeeks! – now what should I do, go back to my SHOULD do action list and Continue reading »
Masterminding really is key to your business success. As an online or offline (or both) Specialist Guild member you are automatically part of a like-minded powerful mastermind group, if you choose to utilise the tools and techniques available to you.
By exchanging your thoughts, commenting on the blogs, sharing ideas and posting your own articles and blogs, working with each other, you can increase the power of your own business and help others to do the same.
Not a member yet? – Join us today and utilise the power of learning powerful business success solutions and mastermidning with like minded professionals.
Mike fountain talks about the power of mastermind groups
Click here to visit his blog
July’s Competition
Hi everyone – this month we are offering a completely FREE one months Specialist Guild Membership package for the best idea on how you can attract more prospects and clients to your website.
Simply pop your ideas below and the best suggestion will receive a complete one months FREE Guild membership
Carol
What is holding you back?
I am really confused as to why people are so happy to invest in themselves, pay for expensive training courses, take time out – often using their annual leave from their present job, to gain the skills and knowledge that will enable them to help so many people change their lives, as they become an EFT practitioner, a coach, therapist, helping professional, self-development consultant, trainer, only to then, at the end of their training stop investing in themselves and their vision to create a thriving successful practice?
We know and research shows that 84% of people who attend practitioner or coach training programmes NEVER build themselves a successful practice when they have completed their training. And 97% of all small businesses FAIL in the first two years!
From my own research – I have found that many people who become coaches or practitioners have been so full of excitement and enthusiasm at the end of their training but at the same time also full of fears and overwhelm as all the reality of everything you need to do to create a successful business kicks in.
I have also found that many people who want to help others change their lives, come from a caring, heart based mindset, rather than from a business mindset and whilst everyone I have spoken to would expect to receive a generous wage for a days work in an employment position, they struggle to ask people to pay them for their valuable life changing services and many end up giving away almost all of their services for next to nothing.
If this sounds like you and you feel overwhelmed, frustrated, stuck and don’t know how to find more clients, how to create the income you need that will enable you to leave your day job and create a thriving practice, if you really want to achieve your dreams of helping others change their lives, you MUST value yourself, and continue to invest in yourself and work on your inner mindset, create your rock solid professional foundations, then take the steps to build and grow your business in the right order.
Without investing in yourself and your business, you will be struggling to attract the right clients, you will be struggling to setup your website, build a list of future clients that you can create a relationship with and turn into paying clients.
Take a few moments right now, ask yourself why you are not investing in your future success, why you have not identified and begun to work with your own personal coach and mentor, why you haven’t signed up for that programme that will teach you everything you need to know to kick start your practice, why you haven’t joined the Specialist Guild so that you can learn everything you need to succeed, why you are struggling to do everything yourself, on your own, without the skills and knowledge, when you don’t have to?
No-one can do it all alone and we all need a helping hand, a supportive infrastructure, people to mastermind and collaborate with and people to mentor us to the next levels.
Why not join hte Specialsit Guild today and receive all the help and support you need as you create and build your business?
The unknown power of a business card
Hi everyone
Do you have a business card?
Does your business card work for you?
Do you know that your business card is the cheapest pot of gold your business can have available?
I have been looking at business cards, why people use them, what people use them for and whether or not they are a cost effective business tool or an expensive, although seemingly cost effective investment and have realised that in almost all cases they are actually an expensive, although seemingly cost effective investment.
Now you may be wondering why I say this and you may be thinking:
But everyone has a business card
Of course it is a cost effective investment
How else do I give people my contact details?
Carol, what are you talking about?
Ask yourself – is your business card simply a piece of card with your:
name
contact details
job title
or is your business card a powerful marketing and promotional tool? If you card is simply a way to give people your contact details you are loosing and throwing away over £4,000 per year! (pop me a comment below if you woudl like to know how a business card can cost you over £4,000 a year in lost revenue)
Does your business card stand out from the crowd?
Does your business card tell your prospective clients that you understand their pain and problems?
Does your business card offer your prospects a solution to their pain or problem?
Does your business card tell your prospects what to do now they have your card?
Does your business card tell yoru prospects how to do what you want them to do?
if you haven’t answered yes to all of the above then you are missing out!
Your business card needs to have all of the above ingredients if you are going to receive any phone calls, emails or new visitors to your website.
Do you know what your prospective clients and customers are looking for?
Do you know how to tell them that you are the person who they are looking for and who can help them?
Do you know how to make your business card stand out from the crowd and answer all of your prospective clients and customers’ questions and let them know that you understand their challenges and their pain and that you can offer exactly the solution they are looking for?
Your business card is perhaps the most cost effective and simplest way that you can do all of this, if you know how to use it properly and follow the vital steps to success with your business card.
If you want to gain more referrals, attract more clients and customers and receive more telephone calls, emails and visitors to your website, you can do this by making just a few simple tweaks to your business card. Doing this is one of the quickest and most effective ways that you really can increase your visibility and see results easily!!
If you are a member of the Specialist Guild, Go for Gold with your business card is one of the completely FREE monthly business success programmes you will receive
If you are not yet a member why not join us and receive over £1,000 worth of business success programmes every year OR you can also purchase any of our products and programmes from the online shop too.
Build relationships & build your success
Are you struggling to attract clients and create a successful practice because:
- You don’t know where to find your target audience
- You don’t know how to convert them from interested in working with you to actually working with you
- You want to follow up with people who visit your website but don’t know how to ask them for their contact details
- People you are currently contacting, talking to, discussing how you can help them just don’t seem interested
Many professional practitioners, therapists, trainers, coaches and helping professionals find this happens to them and because they don’t have a way to build themselves a list of interested prospects, who they can then keep in touch with so that these interested people can get to:
- know
- like
- trust
them (because after all no-one will simply come along to your website and simply sign up to be your client or purchase your products if they don’t know like and trust you will they?) and then enable these interested prospects to move from being interested, to becoming your personal client, it is a hard road to attracting the perfect client’s for your practice.
So how do you overcome this challenge and build a list of interested prospects who you can then begin to offer valuable information to, build a relationship with and convert them to raging fans of what you offer and your future long term clients?
The best way to do this is to offer something of value completely FREE to every person that visits your website, and to do this in return for them giving you their contact details
You then begin to build a list of people who really are your perfect clients, looking for the solutions you offer and who are happy for you to contact them on a regular basis and build those relationships with them. This allows you to continue to add value for your prospective client’s, it allows you to show them that you really do understand their challenges and can offer the perfect solutions for them, it enables you to build that trust and rapport with everyone on your newsletter list and then, when they
- know
- like
- trust
you they will become your client’s, ask to work with you, purchase your products.
So how do you actually offer something FREE so that people will offer you their contact details and you can then follow up with these future clients?
The best way to do this is through using an auto-responder, creating a web form, giving your web-page visitors a call to action so that they pop their contact details into your form in return for receiving a FREE and valuable gift from you.
Which auto-responder system should you use?
There are a variety of auto-responder options out there for you to choose from – if you are just starting out with auto-responders and building your list and your business, Aweber is the perfect solution -find out more and begin building your list here:
As a member of the Specialist Guild, you receive a completely FREE step by step: Go for gold with your mailing list programme which is just one of the priceless FREE monthly programmes that we have created for you, so that you can easily and without overwhelm and frustration add the building blocks of success to your professional practice, and attract your perfect client’s.
If you are not yet a member Simply click the members tab at the top of the page to 
and join us today to receive over £1,000 of business success programmes and support completely FREE.
Make your book a best seller
How you Can Make “The Inspirational Life Design Planner” a Best Seller (and your own book too)
Thank you to Jeff Hayzlet for these great tips and ideas:
One of the most important things I have learnt in my life is having great friends and building amazing relationships with everyone I meet, no matter who they are or where they live, no matter whether they are in my life for a moment or a lifetime.
When you build true and genuine relationships with everyone you meet, when you care about them and you share the joy of life with them, they feel important, valued and inspired and are always there for you as you are for them. When you ask them to support you and at the same time themselves too – they are there for you, because they know that you will be there for them too.
Today I am asking you to really start living life to the full, create your dreams, take action each and everyday to make them a reality and as you do this you will be helping me to make the Inspirational Life Design Planner – the book that has been recommended by three of the worlds most successful personal development experts, who believe that when you begin using this daily life planner in your life, you really will be on track to achieving everything you always wanted to achieve – a best seller.
Here’s what you can do to help yourself change your life and also to make this book a best seller too – I appreciate anything and everything you’re able to do!!
1. Buy it!
I would be honored if you choose to buy it for yourself and for any of your friends or colleagues. It is available here
2. Tell everyone about the planner
Word-of-mouth is one of the best recommendations anyone can receive. It would be great if you could tell all your friends about “The inspirational Daily Life Design Planner” how and where they can purchase it. (it’s right here)
Need a little help – Here’s a suggested email you can send: “My friend, Carol Dodsley, a lady who inspires everyone she meets to live life to the full, has just written a book that’s will soon become a best seller. It’s called ”The Inspirational Daily Life Design Planner”: It’s available here and through Amazon.com and will soon be available from www.lulu.comtoo. Carol is well known for her enthusiasm and inspiration and has worked with many individuals and specialist business professionals and has written this powerful book to empower everyone to create their visions and dreams for the future and make them a reality.
3. Spread the word on Facebook
Facebook is a great place to tell friends about friends and share exciting and inspirational ideas! Why not post the links to this great book on you own Facebook page, you can tell everyone your thoughts about the book and how your daily journal and planning pages have helped you make those positive changes you really wanted to make, or you can tell them about Carol and all the inspiration shes shares with people across the world, that would be really cool and really appreciated! You can also join our Facebook fan page! http://www.facebook.com/the-specialist-guild-of-excellence-and-success or http://www.facebook.com/the-inspirational-life-design-foundation. Why not share these pages and links with your friends! IMPORTANT: Sharing our Facebook fan page with your friends and encouraging them to become a fan too, can be a fantastic way to spread the word, not only for the Inspirational Life design Planner and help it to become a best seller, but will also bring more people together to share more inspiration and successes with each other too.!!
4. Tweet on Twitter
If you have a Twitter account, Carol has many twitter followers and shares so many life-changing inspirational hints and tips on a regular basis with everyone. If you can tweet about the book and carol it will help everything go viral because Twitter reaches such a large number of people. Some tweet topics you may like to post could be ’I am buying a great book’, ‘I’m giving this book as a gift, to help someone change their life’, ‘I’m passing this book to all my employees’. You could attach a picture of where you’re reading the book, or where you use the inspirational daily journal and planner pages, You could shout-out your favorite life-tool or re-tweet someone else’s comments about the book. The key is to keep the conversation going with everyone on twitter!! You can follow Carol on Twitter (choosechanges).
Another Tweet idea is to add hash tags to your posts so that other people can follow and help the news spread. Use any of these popular hash tags: #biz, #social, # entrepreneur, #success, and #Inspirationallifedesign, #changeyourlife
A sample tweet could be: I just read “The inspirational life design book” from @choosechanges and you should too!! Order it here target=_blank”>!#success
5. Meet up/Tweet up:
Another idea is to arrange for all your friends, co-workers or clients to get together (maybe a summer bar-b-que or a cheese and wine evening and have Carol stop by to meet/greet everyone, talk a few minutes about the book and have a book signing. If interested, please contact us at info@hayzlett.com to find out when he might be visiting your city.
6. Adding Twibbons – Twitter & Facebook
7. let’s create a Webinar
A great way to use carol’s excellent speaking skills is to invite her to join the next Webinar you may be hosting or by suggesting her to someone you may know who is doing this. Think about using Carol and the topics from the Inspirational Life Design Planner, as the topic for your Webinar. Contact Carol via info@choosechagnes.comto schedule your inspirational and life changing Webinar soon.
8. Interviews and the media!!
TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, newsletters, blogs, online or offline media!! Interviews, presentations, talks, Q&A’s!! If you have contacts to any online, offline, print or broadcast media who would like to interview Carol about the book, and/or how people can be inspired and empowered to change their lives using easy to learn, proven lifestyle tools and techniques for success, please contact us via info@choosechanges.com
9. Add an inspirational post to your Blog
Do you have a blog or know someone who does? If so, invite Carol to a Q&A or interview that you can then upload to your blog, or write about your own personal interactions with her. You may also want to blog about your favorite topics and lifestyle tools that you have used from the book. If your blog is a business one, and you would like to do some kind of promotion or FREE give-away using the book to generate contacts, list build or inspire others, please contact us about your ideas via info@choosechanges.com
10. A picture says more than a thousand words:
Why not take a picture of yourself in an interesting place, reading the book or writing in your daily journal and send it to us to post on www.choosechanges.com and www.specialsitguildofexcellenceandsuccess.com/members ,our Facebook fan page, your own blog or someone else’s blog. Our Facebook fan page and website has a contest going for people sending pics of themselves reading the book and writing in their daily journal, all over the world. The prize for best pics is a private consultation with me regarding your personal or professional success.
11. Even more Word of Mouth
No rocket science here – tell co-workers, friends, family, and people on the street: “Have you read the new blockbuster by Carol Dodsley called “The inspirational Daily Life Design Planner” A free consultation with me for anyone who wears a sandwich-board while walking the streets handing out “The inspirational daily Life Design Planner” flyers
12. Book Signing
If you would like to help organize a book signing, please contact us at info@choosechanges.com so we can arrange one in a location near you!
Thank you everyone for all your help in making your dreams come true and helping to make the “The Inspirational Life Design Planner” a best seller!!!
Remember – if you don’t yet have this powerful life changing book and daily journal – you can download or order yours right now here:
If you want to help even more people to change their lives, make this a best seller AND create yourself a passive income stream at the same time – we have a great thank you scheme available for you too (you will receive 50% of ALL digital download sale profits send straight to your paypal account each month – email us for full details via info@choosechanges.com)
Invest in your success
So many people begin their journey to build themselves a professional practice by investing in themselves and a training course or workshop, so that they can make sure that they have the skills and knowledge they need to move away from the employment market and create themselves their own business.
Once they finish their training they then rush out looking for clients and wonder why they are simply appearing and rushing to knock at their door the way they thought they were told they would be.
Does this sound like you?
Were you told when you started your training that you were going to learn how to help everyone solve all their problems and that everyone needed a:
coach
therapist
healer
trainer
helping professional
I know I was and I am sure you were too and whilst this may be true – clients don’t simply turn up on your doorstep – you have to find them and to do this there are some very important steps to take after you have gained your skills and a qualification and I have identified the vital steps that are often the most overlooked keys to success and that are missing for so many people.
So what are these steps?
Today I am going to tell you about one of them that I struggled with at the beginning of building my own business but that I soon learnt was absolutely vital if I was going to succeed:
Never stop investing in your growth, your education and your future
So many practitioners and therapists stretch themselves, to invest in their training and then as soon as they have their qualifications and the training is finished, they find themselves in a circle of fear in respect to continuing to invest in themselves and their future success. I know this as I was in the same position myself.
Many are starting out with a low or zero cashflow position and they believe that the most important thing to do is get some clients and then when they are earning money doing what they love to do, they can start investing in themselves again. Again , I was exactly the same and this was what I thought too, but then when I was not achieving what i really wanted to achieve and started to look at why, I realised that this is back to front – to attract clients you HAVE to invest in yourself first – you have to learn not only the strategies, business models and concepts for success, but also you have to ensure that you have the inner mindset for success too.
You would never open a shop without stock would you? that stock is your investment in your future as that is what you are going to sell to make money. It is the same with investing in your on-going growth and learning the right business strategies, the right marketing strategies and ensuring yuo have the right mindset for success.
Investing your time and your money in yourself on an ongoing basis, is key to your success. As soon as I understood this and began to invest in myself first and foremost, my business began to change, it began to grow and lots of hte thigns I had been struggling with previously started to become easy and effortless too.
There are so many ways to invest in your success – you can do this by
joining a mastermind group
attending networking events
enrolling onto success solutions workshops
working one to one with a success coach
purchasing books and programmes for success.
Ongoing investment really is key – BUT saying that, I am not talking about simply spending all your money on every programme, every workshop, every networking or mastermind group you can find, and I am not talking about financially investing to the extent that you are over your head in debt, putting your house at risk or similar. That is not what you want to be doing, but you do want to be investing in your growth and you can do this – even if at first glance you think that you just don’t have the time or the money – you do!
You can always find the time and the money to invest in your future – many of hte success solutions are available to you with very little financial investment – some high quality and powerful success solutions are available to you from less than £1 a day and less than a couple of hours of your time a week too – just think – less than £1 a day – that really is affordable isn’t it?
So where do you start – how do you decide what to invest in?
Start by doing some inner and external research, looking first at what you need then at what is out there, who is out there, what they are offering, how they can help you and then make a decision on who can offer you the solution to your needs, fill the gaps in your current skills and experience, your mindset, your knowledge, pin-point the next piece of the jigsaw puzzle that you want to put in place and that will take you a step closer and towards where you want to be and step at a time invest in yourself and take that training, join that networking or mastermind group, work with that success coach, whether it is a small or a large investment it is an investment in YOU and your success, it is key to creating a successful practice.
You don’t need to and you simply can’t do everything on your own, you don’t need to re-invent the wheels – someone else has already been there and done that, they have been where you are now, they have had the fears, they have felt overwhelmed and frustrated and they have taken the steps that you need to take, they have found the solutions, tried them out, used them and seen that they work and they are now there to help you do the same.
Take a leap of faith, know what you need to learn, ask for help, and invest in your future. Start today and see your success becoming a reality.
If you would like to take the first steps and learn how to create rock solid foundations for your business, join us at the Specialist Guild and receive your ultimate business potential complete foundations programme worth £97 completely FREE.
carol