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THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF POWER POSITIONING
Magical Marketing Strategies for Creating an Endless Stream of New,
Repeat, and Referral Business
Copyright © 1998 Michel Fortin, Ph.D.
COMMANDMENT #10
THOU SHALL MAKE THY NET WORK
Yes! We've made it! The last Commandment. And what better way would
there be to end this booklet that's chock-full of marketing secrets
other than by telling you about something I truly hate. I hate
networking. Really, I do! I hate it because, in my experience, it hasn't
brought me anything substantial in return.
But wait a minute. Hear me out. Networking isn't a bad concept, far from
it. If the above Commandments have been properly followed, especially in
today's world of hypercompetitiveness, networking can be a fantastic
marketing tool. If you can be at the top of your prospects' minds, you
can also be at the top of your network's mind, right? Your special name,
your tagline, your "unique" product or service, your free reports, your
lead generators, your "celebrity" status, and your support systems, all
added to your network of referral-sources, can and should bring you an
incredible amount of business.
However, here's the problem. Having a network and having a networking
system are two entirely separate things. When you're only networking,
more often than not people will want something in return or else they
will either stop sending you clients or simply lose interest (if you
don't take the time to recognize their efforts, and that's if you have
any time left at all). So, how can you reward your network? Better yet,
how can you turn your network into a networking system? The answer is by
developing and establishing a network of strategic alliances.
All throughout this report you have read about techniques in setting up
strategic alliances in some form or another. They were included in the
many examples you've read up to now. Essentially, there are as many
different forms of systematized networking opportunities out there as
there are businesses, and I strongly encourage you to vigorously seek
them out. But in my experience, I have found that they mainly fall into
3 major categories. The first is what I call the info-network, the
second the auto-network, and the third one the intra-network. Let's take
a look at each of these systems and how you can apply them to your
situation.
Info-Networking
The information-based network is one in which a strategic alliance is
created where information is exchanged in some form or another between
parties. Basically, that information includes qualified leads that both
you and your alliance share, or information about each other that is
promoted to each party's market. As long as your strategic alliance
logically shares a same target market without directly competing with
you, there is an immense potential there for you to consider.
For instance, I mentioned to you earlier about the power behind the free
report and especially the newsletter. Advertising space can be sold at a
nominal cost in order to pay for the printing and distribution of your
newsletter, or it can be offered to alliances that might be happily
interested in being directly promoted to your market. In turn, you
should seek out advertising spaces in newsletters, brochures, corporate
literature, or catalogues of potentially mutually beneficial alliances.
If you have a newsletter, the obvious advantage is that it can save you
money by "swapping" spaces in each other's communications, without
costing you a great deal if not anything at all.
This also refers to mailing lists where you can "swap" each other's
prospect or client lists. Mailing lists seem to have increased
tremendously in popularity these days and, if used properly, can produce
pretty good results. Mailing list brokers sell or lease mailing lists
you can use to conduct direct mail and telemarketing campaigns – lists
of people that fit into your specific set of demographics. However,
beware. Brokers' mailing lists will be limited to only the demographic
data you specify and not the psychographic element of your target
market. (That's impossible to discern, unless you or the brokers were
psychics!) But should you decide to use these lists to market your free
report offer, it should yield you a substantially greater result than
ordinary, unsolicited, general public mailings.
For instance, direct mail directed to the public, according to
statistics, usually result in a mere 1 to 5% response (if not less),
while direct mail to a predetermined demographical market will likely
produce an 8 to 13% response. However, if your free report is used in
your campaign, and if your goal is only to generate pre-qualified leads
and not immediate sales or clients, your chances of beating the 25% mark
will be easy.
Now, mailing list brokers aside, you can seek out strategic alliances
and ask, rent, or buy their list of prospects and clients. Most of them
will approve especially when you trade your list of clients or prospects
with them. But if you have to rent or buy their list, the cost will
definitely be far less than that of one coming from a broker. (They're
not cheap!) And most strategic alliances are not accustomed to the idea
of "peddling" their lists out and will therefore be happy with just a
few bucks.
Auto-Networking
Auto-networking is the process of creating referral-sources that
automatically supply you with good quality leads, without you having to
lift a finger. Brochure stands, posters, flyers, coupons, and business
cards can be set up at the offices of potential referral-sources. Again,
I hate networking, especially when I have to work for them (or, in other
words, nurture them). So, auto-networking doesn't mean to give out cards
or literature to a possible referral-source and then hoping it will
produce something in return. It means setting up a system between both
of you where, since you are catering to a same market, you have made an
arrangement – in writing, if possible – to constantly supply each other
with materials.
An example is a dry-cleaner who discovered that the largest clientele of
a busy restaurant near its location was mostly made up of executives
having "power lunches" (those business lunches the tax people love to
hate). The dry-cleaner, knowing that her greatest clientele is also made
up of executives who bring their shirts or dresses in to have cleaned,
saw it as an opportunity. Coupons were made up and handed out by the
restaurant's waiters and waitresses along with their clients' food tabs.
They offered a 5% percent discount on dry-cleaning services and the
coupons could be accumulated up to a maximum of 25% – of course, they
were valid for a limited time only. In return, the dry-cleaner handed
out coupons (clipped to the garment bags of their clients' dry-cleaning)
offering a free appetizer or desert at that particular restaurant – good
for one per person per lunch – with every load of $30 worth of
dry-cleaning.
But it didn't stop there. They exchanged posters, flyers, coupons for
other services, and others (as, for instance, the restaurant's menu and
the dry-cleaner's brochure). They marketed it all under the banner of
"Don't let the spot on your shirt from the juiciest roast beef in town at
Carmichea's Restaurant ruin that big deal! Bring it to Sparkling
Cleaners, the first dry-cleaner for the busy executive, because Power
Lunches Deserve a Clean Image.™ With Carmicheal's Executive Eating™ and
Sparkling Cleaners, you can take your clients to lunch and take a bite
out of dirt!"
By the way, I must take a moment to ask you a question. ("Oh, oh," you
say. "Here he comes with another pop quiz again.") In the previous
example, particularly in the marketing approach the dry-cleaner and
restaurant took on, were included some of my other Commandments. Can you
guess what they are? The obvious ones are hard to miss. They both
carried the trademark symbols, indicated that they specialized in one
area, and had taglines added to their names. But the one that might have
gone unnoticed is the category in which the dry-cleaner placed itself.
Being the first dry-cleaner specializing in executive dry-cleaning is
probably a little misleading and most likely untrue, but by calling
itself the first dry-cleaner for the "busy" executive, it has created
its own unique category. (All right, all right. I was just checking!)
Another form of auto-networking is, as the saying goes, "You can't teach
an old dog a new trick, but you can surely teach a new dog to cook you
breakfast!" Potential referral-sources who are either approached by
competitors or already implicated in other commitments may make it hard
for you to create positive networking systems. So, what can you do? You
get them while they're starting out!
Previously, I showed you how important it is for you to make yourself
known in your market or industry as the expert, the celebrity in your
field. By conducting speeches, seminars, sponsorships, and the like, you
are making your name a household one and creating that all-important
top-of-mind awareness. Many of the members in your audience should
encompass possible referral-sources. But referral-sources have to come
from somewhere, don't they? So, if you can approach them while they are
just about to become potential targets for your competitors, you can
save yourself a lot of effort let alone grief.
For example, I teach hair transplant doctors to get themselves known
among the hairdressing community and possibly set up strategic alliances
with them by, among other things, setting up brochure stands in their
salons. However, many of these stylists may have already been approached
by other doctors or may have a fixed idea in their minds of which doctor
they would refer their clients to for cosmetic surgery.
In my consulting work, I help doctors to set up special presentations as
"guest lecturers" at local hairstyling and beauty schools. Schools love
it, since it's part of their curriculum to teach future hairstylists on
the mechanics of hair growth and hair transplantation. Some provinces or
states also make it an essential part of their licensing requirements.
By giving a lecture or presentation, the doctor not only gets his name
inculcated into the minds of these future hairstylists, but he has also
created an almost impenetrable barrier against competitors wanting a
"piece-of-the-pie."
By being part of their schooling, doctors naturally became a part of
their minds! This technique can be applied in almost every industry,
with trade schools, business schools, community colleges, government
services, unemployment insurance subsidized courses, and so on. A
government software programmer can give a small computer presentation
during courses that the government provides to recently-hired purchasing
agents. A wedding planning consultant can give small courses to church
groups offering pre-nuptial courses (often referred to as "marriage
preparation courses") for engaged couples in their parish or community.
An accountant specializing in corporate taxation can give small seminars
to young entrepreneur workshops (most chambers of commerce offer this
type of service). And the list goes on.
Intra-Networking
Think of intracorporate divisions, Intranet, and intrapreneurs (or
employees owning a portion of their employer's company). Intra-anything
simply means two or more parts of a whole that are independent but at
the same time inter-dependent. This is the old bartering system that
goes back since the beginning of time. In the context of
auto-networking, though, bartering is not a direct exchange of service
for service or product for product, but an exchange of a service or
product for information, clients, or referrals.
For instance, a restaurant owner makes an arrangement with a local gas
station to offer coupons to each client that comes to pump gas. They
were given the permission to hang posters in the station, leave menus at
the counter, and place stickers or "fridge magnets" on the pumps. In
return, for every 10 coupons the restaurant received, the employees at
the station were given a free meal at the restaurant. A freelance
writer/editor writes articles in corporate newsletters that target a
same market. She will have her articles and personal advertisements
published for free in exchange for editing their business correspondence
let alone the newsletter itself. Hotels make up the majority of the
clientele of an advertising agent specializing in elevator advertising.
Hotels place the agent's brochures in all the vacant hotel rooms and
executive suites for free in exchange for free advertising space in the
elevators of businesses and office buildings.
What kind of product or service do you offer from which a potential (and
potentially effective) referral-source may benefit? Think of ways of
being able to offer your services for free in exchange for pre-qualified
leads or, as mentioned in info-networking, client lists.
Intra-networking can also become powerfully effective if you were lucky
enough to stumble onto another company that offers products or services
that complement your products or services well, while at the same time
sharing costs as well as leads or clients.
Take the case of the printer and wedding planner mentioned in an earlier
example. Now, this might relate more closely to the auto-networking
style, but if the printer agrees to print your promotional materials,
business cards, brochures, and letterhead for free, in exchange for a
certain number of your clients, that's intra-networking at work!
Altogether, info-networking, auto-networking, and intra-networking are
powerful tools to help make you create good referral-sources that work
and never stop working. The idea is nonetheless to network but to do so
wisely so as to be able to create as many leads and clients as possible
with the least amount of effort. Don't network. Make your net work for
you!
BONUS COMMANDMENT!
THOU SHALL PUT IT IN WRITING
Here's a bonus Commandment. I thought I'd make it a bonus because 11
Commandments would sound a little funny, wouldn't you think? And it is
indeed a bonus since, with all that you have learned up to now, you
would never be as effective if I didn't tell you to put what you've
learned in writing.
I can never stress enough, whether it's in this booklet, in my
consulting work, or in my seminars, that in order to create endless
streams of new, repeat, and referral business, you must turn every
single nook-and-cranny of your business into an effective and profitable
marketing system. Every step you take during the normal course of your
business activities should include making yourself known as the king or
queen in your field, or at least in the minds of those who are in it.
Therefore, all forms of correspondence, literature, promotional
materials, advertising, and so on must contain at least 8 or 9 of these
Commandments – although all 10 would be much more effective.
The power of the written word has been proven scientifically, time and
time again, to be of immense proportions. It all boils down to what I
call a universal law, which says, "People will believe more what they
see in writing than what they don't see in writing." If you don't have a
brochure or publicity kit already made up, make one! If your fees are
not listed on a fee schedule for all your clients to see, print one! If
articles written by or about you have been published, put copies in one
single binder for your clients' perusal! If you have reference letters,
especially letters written by clients who initially had concerns or
objections, offer copies of them to prospects who have the same concern!
If you don't yet have a catalogue of your services and/or products (both
in a packaged form and in "divisions"), create one!
I may be overly emphasizing the importance of putting things down in
writing, but I feel that I can never stress it enough. Realize that the
above items, along with the tools you've learned in the 10 previous
commandments, are crucially important to have in writing in order to
create top-of-mind awareness. In my car, I have a large suitcase that
contains the following items:
A Business Portfolio
Containing copies of ads, books, business forms, radio scripts, flyers,
direct-mail pieces, infomercials, and commercials I produced.
A Reference Binder
Containing letters written by clients who had previous concerns and
neatly divided into sections for quick retrieval in case I have a
prospect with a similar objection.
A Presentation Binder
Containing an overview of my company, my brochures, lists of my products
and services, fee schedules, lists of past clients, and sample
contracts.
Media Kits
Containing press and news releases, articles written by and about me,
transcripts of taped interviews, my brochure and business cards, my
reports, recent copies of my newsletters, and my résumés.
And a Special Interests Portfolio
Containing stuff I do on the side, including CD's I've recorded with my
band, motivational tapes I've produced, brochures on lectures and
seminars I give on spirituality and philosophy, and non-work related
articles I've written.
On top of all that, I have a laptop computer on which I have a
pre-designed PowerPoint presentation that I give during initial
consultations with prospects. It contains charts, graphs, statistics,
and "ticklers" that will help to inform potential clients of the fact
that I know what I'm doing, that I am who I say I am (the expert in my
field), and the importance of using my services.
If you don't have a laptop computer or can't afford one, you can create
a special presentation binder using the same materials and information I
just described. You can purchase a special binder that bends halfway in
order to prop up on a table or desk during the presentation. While you
don't have to have the entire package I just gave you as an example, you
can fit most of it into your special presentation binder, and be sure to
use sheet protectors! Pages are not only easier to handle but it also
looks much more professional.
Finally, a quick word about written materials. A recent survey conducted
by a direct-mail marketing firm for a credit card company found the
following results. Documents that are high in contrast (print versus
paper) have pulled a greater response over colored print on colored
paper. Traditional white on black is best, yet color on white, or black
print on light colored paper, is just as good. Remember that, as long as
you maintain a contrast between your text, graphics, pictures, and the
paper you print them on, you're rolling.
The research also showed that borders around texts have also increased
readership by 20% over plain text with faint or non-existent borders. It
also found that certain words "pulled" more than others. These words
include "save," "free," and "discover." Try
using these words in your printed materials as much as possible.
(By the way, one of these 3 words
became the name of that credit card company conducting the research!)
And more important, make sure they all contain if not highly stress your
unique name, tagline, specialization, unique category, and any special
memberships, accreditation, or affiliations you may have. You're now on
the path to producing a profitable parade of patrons!
I hope that these strategies will help you create endless streams of
new, repeat, and referral business – they have for many others, let
alone for me! I wish you good luck, both on your quest for increased
business as well as successful business health!
Dynamically yours,
Dr. Michael Fortin
THE SUCCESS DOCTOR®
Michel Fortin, Ph.D. is THE SUCCESS DOCTOR®, an
internationally -acclaimed business development consultant,
author, speaker, and copywriter. He is the author of "Power
Positioning," "Marketing Medicine," and "Drop Your Goals!" If you
like the ideas expressed in this article, you may click on this link to obtain a FREE
copy of "The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning,"
or call him at (613) 482-4828 or e-mail michel@successdoctor.com.
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