Have you ever had one of those days where a particular topic or theme just kept showing up? For me, last week was one of those weeks! I was at an event a few nights ago and had the opportunity to hear the dynamic Annie Groth speak. Her speech was titled, “A Call to Action-What is Yours.” Warning side note- if you haven’t heard Annie-you should! She will get you thinking! So, I am at this event and Annie is talking about a Call to Action and she says, “It is not until your heart and your head are congruent that you will begin to take action.” As I thought about Annie’s words, I was having a flashback to the coaching class I taught earlier that day. In the class, we were discussing developing business and truly understanding our target markets including their urgent needs and compelling desires. During class we discussed that when your unique offering is in perfect congruence with your target markets’ urgent needs and compelling desires you will land the business.
The two events got me thinking about why congruence is such an important part of attracting new business. I think Annie said it best- when your head and your heart match, it is easy to take action. Thus, in the business world to attract more business, we must make it easy for our clients to take action (i.e. hire us) by making sure our business development approach aligns with our customers’ heads and hearts. If what you are selling doesn’t match the needs of your customer, you won’t get very far. If your marketing message doesn’t align with what you actually do for your client- you and your client will experience frustration. It is not until you have congruence both internally- knowing who you are and what skills and services you uniquely offer and externally-creating branding and marketing that aligns your offering with your clients’ urgent needs and compelling desires that you will really start to see momentum.
If you are struggling to attract clients or close deals-take a hard look at your approach. Are you efforts in congruence with your clients? Are you actually talking to your ideal client? Do you know your clients’ urgent needs and compelling desires? If not-there is no possible way you are in congruence. Without congruence-you will have to work twice as hard for half the results. If you don’t know who your ideal client is, you cannot possibly know what his/her needs are. As you are pitching business, your prospective clients will feel your incongruence and your business development efforts will stagnate. If you want the business, your efforts and your offering must align with your clients’ needs. I see a lot of people out in the world who know oodles about their own profession, industry, & product. They can tell you anything you might possible want to know about their service but have no clue about what truly motivates their client. Keep in mind-I am not talking about the transactional sales people who received their sales training at the local used car lot. I am talking about professionals (lawyers, CPAs, business owners). In fact, the more complex the person’s offering (Yes-commercial litigators, I am talking to you!) the less likely the person has taken the time to really understand why their clients engage them and not the person next door.
If you would like more clients- you must understand why your current clients hired you (and not the person next door), what it is that you uniquely do for your clients, and who your ideal future client is? I know, I know-in today’s economy, an ideal client is simply one that will pay. I get it; the last few years have been tough. It is fine to simply want more clients that can afford to pay you but if you don’t understand how to attract these clients it is as if you are fishing without any bait on your hook. If you are concerned about paying clients, do you have any remaining clients that still pay full fees? If so-why? I am going to guess that if you take the time to analyze your remaining full fee clients, you will discover that your unique skill set aligns perfectly with their unique needs. Viola-congruence! If I am correct (and I know I am) can you replicate the congruence you have created with these clients for additional clients?
The tricky part about congruence is that you cannot fake it. There is something unique about the way you conduct yourself and run your business. This uniqueness is exactly what certain prospective clients are looking for- but not all. If you try to tweak your message to align with the clients who don’t want or need what you uniquely offer, you will never reach congruence. At some point either during the engagement or during the courtship the mismatch will be discovered. You might land the client but will they pay your bill? More than likely, you won’t actually land them instead you will spend precious time courting them only to discover they hire someone else. Save yourself the time and expense of trying to court the wrong client. Be choosy about who your clients are. If you know what you uniquely do and who your ideal client is- you will discover an abundance of future ideal clients. Once you do, learn as much as you can about these ideal clients. Know their industry, learn what keeps them up at night, and figure out their urgent needs and compelling desires. Finally, put it all together in your marketing message and take it to the streets. Follow Annie’s advice, create congruence-align your head and your heart and make it easy for your customers to take action!
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