Meet Your Potential Customers Where They Are

First, we start with ‘here versus there.’

And what I mean by that is when clients are coming to you, when somebody is buying my book, or entering my funnel, they’re at a certain place in this journey. They’re here and what they’re really looking to do is get to there.

And the same thing is true for you.

Clients come to me, people come to me because perhaps they’ve been stuck in getting their book written. They know that a book would help them to grow their credibility, to grow their authority in the marketplace, to take them to the expert thought leader or even celebrity, a space in their market.

But they’re just not there.

Because they are not viewed as an expert, thought leader or celebrity, it becomes hard to get clients. Lead generation is an issue and it’s hard to close deals.

You feel like you’re always supposed to have these incredible sales skills instead of people just coming and saying, “you know what? I want to work with you because you’re the expert in this space.”

So my clients are here right now. They want to get to that place of authority, credibility and ease of lead generation and ease of working with the absolute best possible clients.

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The same thing is true for you.

Your potential clients are at a place right now where they have this problem that they need to be solved.

They have this difficulty that they’re trying to get over. And your magic, what you do, is what takes them from where they are right now to where they want to be.

Now you have to quantify that.  

You have to quantify all of what that looks like, just like we do in Publish Promote Profit.

My ideal client wants to write a book, maybe they’re struggling with it or they’ve written a book and the book just hasn’t done well, or they’re afraid it’s not going to do well.

They don’t know how to market it, they don’t have time to market it. So we helped them with the promotion. And then, of course, the profit phase, which is all about the three pillars of profit.

The three pillars of profit are speaking engagements, lead generation, and media and PR.

When it comes to speaking engagements, you can speak on your own stage and some of you may think “wow, that’s really difficult. I mean, I don’t know how to do any of that stuff.”

You know what?

I didn’t either until I decided to start this program we call the ‘free event model.’ I shared about it just a couple of weeks ago. It has added an extra million dollars in revenue to my business. And I’ve watched it add six figures and even seven figures to clients revenue, all because they wanted to speak on their own stage.

So you can speak on your own stage.

You can speak on other people’s stages, you can speak for paid or for free. You can speak online via webinars or a zoom call or even a Facebook live.

So we take the magic right that you can add to the marketplace, taking that ideal client from where they are right now to where they want to go. And then you add to that. Next, you ask “what are my skills and desires to meet these people?”

What I mean by that is you may say, well, I’m not a very good speaker and I don’t want to speak. I don’t want to speak on people’s stages. I don’t want to speak on anybody’s platform. That’s just not what I’m interested in doing.

Okay, then you’re probably going to cross that right off. But most people that have a bestselling book, they want to be on stage or they want to have some type of platform that you can share your magic with the world.

So in most cases, that’s going to be something that you’re interested in. So you’re going to have to decide, what do I really desire when it comes to speaking?

I’ve done all of these things.

I’ve been written a check to come and speak. That’s actually the least effective way that I found because what you have to do is you have to match up your magic with the right audience.

When someone wrote me a big check to come and speak for, you know, a one hour keynote, that was great and it was cool. It was 60 minutes away. So I drove there, got my big check and came back.

But then I realized, you know what?

None of those people were people that were going to buy my book package. None of those people were people that were interested in going to the next level with me. So I got paid for my time and I left.

Ideally, we want to do more than that.

We want to create some leverage.

So I decided that is not for me.

That’s not something I want to do. I don’t want to be on the road a lot.

I have also spoken at other people’s events where I’ve sponsored their events, like Shanda Sumpter’s event. A very large event over a thousand people, usually women business coaches (it’s a great event).

I’ve spoken on multiple people’s stages like Todd Herman for his 90 day year and other things like that.

And you know what? Those had proved very, very fruitful because those people have in their audience the right kind of people to do my Publish Promote Profit program.

While that’s something I interested in doing, at this stage in my life I really don’t want to be on the road a lot so it’s not something I’m going to do frequently.

So with of all these things, what are the things that I do right now when it comes to speaking?

I want to speak on my own stage.

And in fact, I do it right here in Pasadena so I can sleep in my own bed and drive in the morning to my million dollar author summit and speak to 40, 50, 60, 70 people. And know that at the end of those two day events, I’m going to invest 10 grand in advertising and in a venue and then at the end of that, I’m gonna make 150 to $200,000 in revenue and bring on a bunch of new clients at a local event that I never have to leave for.

That’s something that I can do three times a year. And I did that three times a year really successfully. So you have to add your desires and your skillset in with where are these people, these people that are here right now and want to get to there.

So you have these three pillars of profit.

The main pillar is lead generation.

Lead generation filters from both speaking engagements and PR and media. Everything we’re going to do, whether it’s speaking or media and PR or just pure lead generation via paid ads, etc. is going to filter back to generating leads to grow your business and sell your more expensive and high ticket offer.

That’s how the three pillars of profit all come together.

You can also do lead generation one-on-one.

What does that look like? Well, that’s networking events, the sphere of influence referrals. You bring on a great client, and you can generate leads by that client sharing your magic with somebody else and you bring them in.

Some of you may say, well that’s not really what I’m interested in and I want to move away from networking events.

Fantastic.

I don’t do any networking events because I’m not interested in that.

However, some of you do networking events and you need a plug your book into that networking event as a lead generation tool and strategy.

Here are a few ways to do that…

Paid advertising.

Paid advertising is something that we do and we do really well and that I love. 

Obviously there are a lot of knobs that need to be turned and there are things that are challenging with that, but when you get your funnel to convert, whether it’s a free plus shipping funnel like I’ve done with this, or whether it’s just using a book in some type of free funnel (offering a free pdf or something of value to somebody) then it is as close to printing money and having an ATM that you can go to and raise the volume or lower the volume anytime.

In fact, I emailed my Google Adwords representative this morning and I said, “You know what? We need to cut our ad budget down because right now we’re generating too many leads in the free plus shipping funnel on Facebook and Instagram.”

We can’t handle the number of leads and telephone calls that we’re generating, so literally, I have to add staff, add salespeople, or I have to turn the leads down.

It’s a good problem to have, right? I’m not complaining. It’s a good problem to have, but that’s what I love about paid advertising.

All of us should have that as a pillar of profit down the road. Maybe not right now because there’s a lot of testing and whatnot, but at some point, we need to think “how can I add paid advertising as a pillar of profit to generate leads using my bestselling book down the road?” 

The next is lead generation through content. You can do content in a number of different ways. You can do oral content, audio content via podcast. You can create content that’s written and you can repurpose stuff within your book for blog posts, etc.

There are lots of ways that you can create content that has a process that then offers something after you’ve given something of value to someone. It encourages them to take the next steps with you.

One-to-one paid ads or a content strategy. Then when it comes to PR and media, the last pillar is social media and that’s any of the main platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin, etc.

I have my ideal client who is here and wants to get over there and I need to find ways within these three pillars.

How often do I want leads?

Every single day. I want opportunities.

Your business may not have all of the pieces in place to get leads every day, but you still want to be generating leads every week. So you’re going to do it via speaking, lead generation or PR and media.

When it comes to speaking engagements, I generally do three events a year that are events that I shared with you. I sleep in my own bed, we call them the million dollar author summit.

They’re part of our free event model that we do and we actually teach and sell that in the marketplace as well. And that’s something that we do right here locally, but I do that three times a year, so that’s not going to generate enough leads for my business.

However, it’s a system.

Once or twice in a year I’ll speak on someone else’s stage, so I have that as well, but I don’t want to do any more traveling than that. That’s it for me.

I’m focused on paid advertising and I just hired a content helper, if you will, somebody that is going to take my content, like I’m doing a two video shoot right now in conjunction with this being a podcast and is going to repurpose all of this for articles, blog posts, quotes on social media as well as video and a podcast.

All of that’s going to be repurposed from this one thing that I’m doing now.

I either have to have somebody in-house that I’m paying because I can’t do all of that myself or have to pay somebody outsourced and that’s what I’ve chosen to do.

I want to keep producing content, not just the book that I did and as you know, I’m going to produce two more books this year, one on legacy and one that’s more a personal, a book that I’m doing for my kids called “Things You Should Know.”

We need to be producing an ongoing basis to generate leads. So we have to have a content strategy.

You might be thinking that this is too much content.

I did not have a content strategy for the first seven years of my business.

I didn’t. Now I do.

So it’s any one of these things. I’m not telling you that you need to add all of these to your business.

That would be overwhelming.

I’m telling you that you need to pick something that fits within your skill set, your desire, and you need to find your ideal client that’s here and wants to get to there. And then you use your book to attract them to you as the credible authority.

You don’t have to do all these things. You can’t, but you have to do something systematically.

 

And then the last thing, PR media.

So social media, part of my content strategy is that we’re going to be on social media on a regular basis. And not because of the stuff I’m posting, but because of stuff that’s going to be repurposed from the content that I’m already creating in my writing, in my books, in my videos, etc.

I probably appear on TV once or twice a year. What I do more than anything, is our podcasts because podcasts are the narrow place that I can find my ideal client I want to speak to.

I can find a business owner and entrepreneur, a coach, a consultant that wants to write a book and grow their credibility and authority and lead generation. That’s who my client is.

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So I find them more easily on a podcast than I do on mass media. However, I continue to be on mass media. Why? Because it grows my own credibility and the credibility of my company.

Then video, audio, written, I already told you for me, I’m more comfortable doing video, but then I want that I want somebody to repurpose this stuff, right?

I have a story for you.

Marion van Dam.

Marion’s a great client and friend. She wrote, “Happily Ever After – The Magic Formula For Turning Your Divorce Into The Best Thing That Ever Happened To You.”

I know about it because Marion is my client and, and one of our authors. But I would want to ask more from Marion’s perspective, where are her potential clients right now and where do they want to get to?

Let’s ascertain from her title and or subtitle and surmise that her ideal client, and I know it’s a female, her ideal client is a woman that is either in the process of going through a divorce or is on the other side of the divorce, but is still feeling all the effects of the divorce. All the negativity is having a hard time. Rebounding is dealing with the difficulties, the trauma, the emotion of it.

And so Marion wants to take that person from where they’re at right now to them looking at their divorce as the best thing that ever happened to them in their life.

So I know that the media channels, both mass media as well as social media, are really hungry for people to talk on this topic. And honestly let’s think about, you know the ease of that.

Well, half of all marriages end in divorce and half of all marriages are women.

So we’re talking about a very large population base of people that are going through the very thing that Marion can help them get through.

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So we know we have a large and hungry audience on TV, on the radio, on blogs, and on podcasts.

Marion can easily on a regular basis, book herself or be booked for both radio, television, podcast, blogs, all kinds of media.

My recommendation starting at that pillar would be that there’s some type of system put in so that Marion can appear on a podcast or a blog or something on a regular basis.

I mean a monthly basis where you know, one or two or three podcasts where she doesn’t have to travel maybe one TV appearance here and there, but she doesn’t need a lot of television similar to us, but one podcast a week even and a blog post a month.

Some type of systematic outreach to continue to get her name in front, that audience, now that by itself is going to generate leads. It’s going to generate inquiries into her book. That’s the first thing that I would focus on.

The second thing and this depends on Marion, but let’s say that Marion enjoys social media and is good at posting on social media and even has a group that she runs of women that are going through this process.

How easy would it be on a regular basis to post, whether it’s a video, photo or some type of content, on a daily basis?

Maybe it’s a success story of somebody that’s come through it and you know where they are reaching the other side, coming through this traumatic period that would absolutely attract people via social media that are going through this exact same process.

You’re speaking also focuses back on lead generation, but there are things that you can do for lead generation on a regular basis so that you don’t have to speak very often or so that you don’t have to rely on someone else’s podcast every single week.

Next, I would do a test of paid advertising to see if I could find people going through this process. Now, I don’t know this for a fact, but I have heard that you can target people that change their social standing on Facebook.

In other words, if somebody goes from married to separated or married to single, I have heard in the past you could target people that are changing their status.

Well, that’s somebody that’s directly going through it right at that moment.

Let’s say you can’t do that on a paid advertisement, but what you could do is you could look demographically at who it is that you want to hear this message. We know that it’s women because that’s who Marion focuses on.

And she could put this book in conjunction with some type of free funnel. It can even be something simple like a free download or it could be something more complicated like a free plus shipping funnel that then leads into a course, etc.

She could put that in front of her ideal demographic, the age range, the socioeconomic status and the sex of the person that she’s trying to target. There would be millions upon millions of potential clients that she could get in front of with an ad and she could test and see if this is something that is working for her.

Last but not least, speaking engagements.

You can absolutely speak online.

You could use a Facebook live, you could do a webinar that is broadcast live on social media, etc. You could build your list through the free offer of your book and then offer those people a webinar that you do exclusive to them.

There are lots of ways that you can speak that would attract your ideal client.

So the idea is very simple.

We have a book, a bestselling book, right?

However, we don’t just want to sit and wait for the leads to come to us. We need to plug this book into these Three Pillars of Profit. And my suggestion to you is to pick one of these pillars that you’re going to focus on intently for a while and pick something within the pillar that’s going to be your focus.

Get that figured out and systemized, and then move on to the next pillar and the next pillar. You should have something working within each of these three pillars that are attracting leads into your life.

When you do that, it becomes very simple. It becomes systematic to get to a seven-figure and beyond income.

All of these people are gonna see you as the authority. All of them are going to see you as an expert. All we have to do is use the Three Pillars of Profit so we can get our message in front of that audience that we want.