A 10-Step Pitch to Prospects to Buy Your Expert Service

October 10, 2012 By

A client and I were concluding my 7-session private process, The Powerhouse Method, and now armed with her one-of-a–kind differentiation and message, we had time to role-play the pitch she was going to make to decision makers at NYC media companies. We had developed a strategy where she would go to those whom she knew best first, so the “pitch arc” we created keeps in mind the warmth of her relationship to them.

I am sharing it here with my answers, rather than hers for confidentiality’s sake. The example should help you adapt it to your own situation and content.
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Filed Under: Business Articulation, Sales and Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Determining Your Target Market: 6 Ways You’ve Probably Not Considered–Part 3

August 16, 2012 By

Today, we’re moving to the 3rd post in a 6-part series designed to help you determine whom you should be leading. I expect this will be enlightening and helpful to even the most successful service entrepreneurs.

 3. Who are YOU? BE your market.

Richard Branson was featured yet again in Entrepreneur Magazine, June 2012, and was quoted as saying, “All startups should be thinking, ‘What frustrates me [as a customer] and how can I make it better? It might be a small…or…a big thing, but…if they think like that, they’re likely to build a very successful business.”

The most relevant piece to our discussion is this: he spoke of the fact that he has always been his own customer. Everything he ever created, from Virgin Records to Virgin Airlines and everything in between and after, came from his own need. And he credits “being his own  customer” to his success.

This has now become a topic of conversation between me and my clients who go through my 7-session private program, The Powerhouse Method, looking to build a highly-marketable, one-of-a-kind business. The first order of business is to determine whom they will be serving. To aid in this extremely (for most) challenging act, I tell them what Branson advises: You should be your market. But the converse is equally true: your market should be you. Either who you once were, or who you are now. Do not try marketing to a group you are not. Branson never did. Help those with the same needs you had once upon a time. If you’re frustrated now by how things are being done in your field–close the gap with an innovation and then sell it to others just like you with that need.

When you are your market, and your market is you, you secure one of the most important factors of success in business: credibility. They will listen to you because you are them and have an answer relevant to them. It means you will communicate (i.e. sell) to them like no one else because you speak their language and understand them at a deep level. It means you will design “urgently wanted” programs and products that nail their needs and desires because you know them so intimately.

I have always been my market, and as a result, every one of my programs through the years has knocked it out of the park. I have also always sold quite easily (once I overcame my issues with selling), because I created content *I* would have wanted and that my market (me, in an earlier time) wants and needs.

So, in trying to decide who your market is, look no further than your own mirror.

Filed Under: Business Development, Business Strategizing, marketing, Sales and Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How I Got Certain of My Career Purpose: Letter to Client

March 16, 2012 By

A client asked me the other day how I came to have such conviction about my
purpose. It came on the heels of my having told her that, as a leader of change,
 she needs to have “certainty” about that. That it’s her time now to move into
power and play much bigger.  When she wrote me a couple of hours later, asking
me how I’d come to eb so certain,  I had to think about it!  I’d never had to “pull apart”
or articulate HOW it is that I know with such certainty that I am here to “activate”
the leaders and help them build successful one-of-a-kind business empires. Here’s 
how I answered her:

Here are some contributing factors:

1. I am really in touch with my emotions; always have been, and I don’t like anything
that feels bad. That’s why I could never work for anyone else, because I hated it. I
couldn’t stay in a marriage that felt wrong, and am 10 years into a relationship that
feels  great.  There are downsides to only wanting what feels good: I tend to
procrastinate on anything that doesn’t feel good and am rather moody when
doing something I hate.

However, all of this fine-tuned awareness of my feelings has repelled career paths
that felt bad, and drawn me to those that feel good, and 25+ years of that kind of
intuitive “tacking” has brought me to a spot in my life where I’m doing what I love
and am good at because I only cultivated the skills that I really enjoyed. After all of
these years, sorting out good-feelings from bad-feelings, my intuition is a finely
honed and powerful tool in my arsenal and it has led to “I KNOW.”  That kind of
certainty. I work with clients whose feelings aren’t that keenly felt, and so making
decisions can be very hard. And decisions are “certainties.” There is a great deal of
neuroscientific research that proves that if we can’t feel, we can’t decide. Read this
USA Today article  here.

2. Honestly, another answer that comes to mind is that I’ve done my own work–
meaning, the work I take others through. I know so well my own convictions because
of those deep, penetrating questions. For instance, in The Powerhouse Method(TM),
clients must assert their *single* contention for their market–and this is a very large
step in revealing their purpose. Then, I have them excavate their “mountain top
message”–their leadership message, that is their message for humanity. It’s really a
big message. When they get this clear, they’re almost home to certainty. Then, we
craft their mission statement and determine their one-of-a-kind solution and after
all of this, they are convicted about their reason for being here. I did all of this for
myself, of course, and no one can walk out of that not KNOWING.

3. I also have the certainty I have because of my career history. I have spent years
developing  my expertise–skills, again, that I am good. My conviction comes from
knowing my value to my market.

4. Additionally, I am madly in love with my market of service entrepreneurs here
to do big things in the world. Certainy comes from that and from knowing I’m a
perfect match for them.

5. And lastly (I guess, though I’m sure I’ll go to bed, thinking of more)…I bring my 
beliefs into it all (part of what I do in the PHMethod for others), so I’m clear that I
believe this is a special time in history, and *the* time for service entrepreneurs to
move into roles of leadership during this historic transition. I am DEEPLY convicted
about that…and that reinfoces my certainty of my role to ensure they succeed.

So, in summary: I am so certain of my purpose because I know how to feel what is
wrong from right for me, by years of sorting out what feels good from bad. If you are
not sure of how you feel, this will be a problem. You will stay stuck in analysis
paralysis and waffle for years. I encourage everyone to start small and notice their
” body’s speak.” Notice what your body says when you’re looking at a menu filled
with choices. It is what tells you if you want chicken or fish. Pay attention to those
cues. Then, start to notice how it feels when you’re reaching for the phone to call
someone: does it *really* want to talk to that person, or are you just doing it from
habit? I am also so certain about my purpose because I know my message to my
market and my message to humanity; I know what my unique offering is; I am
passionate about a certain population and have beliefs about their purpose that fuel
my certainty about my own. I encourage everyone to find a population they’re in
love with, and to look into their beliefs about what that population is here for; doing
so will help cement their own purpose.

I am thankful for this client asking me this question, and I hope my answer was
helpful for all.  Here’s to changing the world with your message!

 

Filed Under: A Little Inspiration, Business Development, What I Know For Sure Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The First-Ever Teleclass Game Show Was a Hit!

March 5, 2011 By
I gave a teleclass this week and last where my listeners were contestants! The entire group had to fulfill a single task in just 3 minutes, with some basic raw materials. I told them what needed to be accomplished but that “how” they accomplished it would be all up to them.  I let them know that to “beat the clock” would require creativity, ingenuity, fearlessness, passion and dedica- tion. In a nutshell, it would require leadership and cooperation—the two key words of the “new paradigm” we, as a species, are moving into. I then told them that this task was going to teach on many levels. It would teach them about how to teach (the reason they were on the call in the first place); it would teach them about leadership—theirs and others; it would teach about their own fears, inhibitions, doubts and strengths. And it would teach them about the ability to enroll others in a vision. So, how did they do on this task? Class One, from Thurs. Feb 24, did not beat the clock, set at 3 minutes. They came in at 4:23. Yesterday’s class came in at 4:52. First, I congratulate ALL of them for being there in the first place. I didn’t record this and they knew they had to be there live, and they were. And I congratulate them for playing the game at all, with a bunch of strangers!!! So, woo-hoo to them!! But what was the hold-up with the time? The task required “leaders” to step forward at 3 different points. Their roles were very simple. Nothing confusing (I’d made sure to give them a chance to ask any necessary questions), but they had to step forward. And do something that could have been viewed as silly by the group. Group One leaders came forward rather readily; their breakdown had mostly to do with time-management. Group Two, however, was reticent to step into leader- ship roles. To encourage them, I reminded them, “How you do anything is how you do everything!” Because, as I had told them, this would teach on many levels, not the least being seeing how they react to the threat of looking foolish, or to the threat of being imperfect (!) –because how they react here is how they react every- where.  And I reminded them of the truth: that they are being called into leadership, as this world we live in rapidly changes. I reminded them that this is their calling. Yet still, Group Two (and to some extent, Group One, too) hung back. Now, I was teaching them Page 13 from my Secrets of Impact & Influence public speaking training. I call it the  ”10-Don’t-Bother-Speaking-or-Teaching-Without- These” Factors of Deep and Rapid Learning (and this Beat-the-Clock game was implementing all 10, though they didn’t realize that until later.) But for me, what was taught most profoundly was the hesitancy around leadership. Group Two was in competition–and I could feel that there were several on the call quite into beating Group One’s time–and yet that wasn’t enough. Now, of course, eventually, all 3 leaders DID materialize.  And they did an amazing job of carrying the entire rest of the group forward. So, the leaders stepped up! But it took something for them to do it. And we didn’t have enough time on the call to review what it is they said to themselves to get them to speak up, but I’m going to ask them to come on over here and tell us their story. What got them to finally move into leadership? Have you ever been in a similar situation? Where your leadership was being called forth? How did you react? Did you wait to see if someone else would step forward first? Did you hear chatter in your head that had some- thing to do with fear of making a mistake or looking foolish? Or did you come barreling to the front of the proverbial (or not) room? Leadership is calling to all service entrepreneurs at this time. Inspired leadership, in particular. Are you ready? I’d love to hear some of your experiences! And leaders from the calls–let us know what finally got you to move onto center stage! Thank you to everyone who participated in the very first teleclass game show! It was a “hoot” and I learned so much! Hugs!
Filed Under: New Paradigm Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,