Wah, wah, wah. Wah-wah, wah wah.

That is how Charlie Brown’s teacher sounded to me. Do you remember her?

Probably not. We never got a chance to see her. Was she a “virtual” teacher?

For some reason, she came to mind as I was studying webinars and their effectiveness as    marketing tools. The funny thing is I have been a version of Charlie Brown’s teacher for 7 years now.

Yes, I have been a distance education instructor for students pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education from North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina for 7 years.

Me? Teaching Online? NEVER!!!

When I majored in education in 1989 and when I went to graduate school in 1999, you couldn’t have told me that I would be teaching full-time behind a computer screen…nor could you have told me that I would learn to enjoy developing courses online, either.

I am the hands-on-interactive-type of teacher. I like to see, hear, and experience my students–their questions, their laughter, and get a feel for their personalities.

On Second Thought….

But, today, I have grown to love it. I love it for many of the reasons that I share in this video.

So, whether you are an educator, an entrepreneur, a pastor, or an advocate of some sort–you have people that you are trying to reach. You have something you want to teach, share, explain…and you may want to hear from those that you can reach from all over the world.

The Video Tutorial

In this video, I share four reasons that webinars are such incredible ways to communicate with your ideal clients–prospects, buyers…and even, students. 

Find out why they are–

1. Interactive
2. Convenient
3. Affordable
4. Effective

And…why they open the gateway for you to continue connecting with your ideal clients on and off the internet.

For more information on an affordable way to create webinars, with or without video, visit www.powerofvideo.com. Watch a webinar on the spot and see how it works! You will love it!!!

No matter what kind of business you have, you need “leads.” For the purpose of this post let me clarify 3 terms–leads, prospects, and customers (or clients).

Lead

Someone you want to talk to about your business, product, or service; someone who wants to talk to you about your business, product, or service.

Prospect

Someone who is progressing through the steps of the “sales” process. Think of this person as someone you are “working with”. Someone who is already past the “opening step” of warm chatter and introduction.

Customer/Client

Someone with whom you have closed a “sale”–whether that be a product or a service.

Telling People What You Do When You Meet Them

Now, according to Stephan Schiffman, world-renowned motivational sales trainer, executive business coach and author, with 32 years of experience under his belt,

The most important tool you have for lead generation is probably word of mouth–every single person you know probably knows an average of 250 people. Therefore, its important that you understand the value of telling people what you do. The problem is that most of us fail to let people know what we do when we meet them.

Think about that.

Whether you are an author, coach, actor, trainer, network marketer, doctor, lawyer, business mogul–at some point in the conversation, upon first meeting someone, you ask them questions about themselves, and hopefully, they ask questions about you.

Oftentimes, the question about “what each of you does” comes up. It is important that you are able to articulate exactly what you do with clarity.

For example: I am a video marketing specialist who helps small business owners expand their brand by marketing and communicating, globally, using affordable, high-definition video technology.

In other words, whenever someone asks what you do, you give a “mini commercial for your business,” as Schiffman puts it.

Now, of course, you don’t want to sound like a robot or some sterile business geek who has no life. But, ultimately, you want that person to walk away knowing what it is that you do, and every person thereafter.

The key is to be consistent in your message and say the same thing every single time.

Use Your Warm Market to Generate Leads

Now, let’s go back to the quote by Stephan Schiffman. If every person you know, truly knows at least 250 people, is it not likely that at least a handful of those people may need the products or services that you provide?

Let’s break it down. (Remember, F.R.A. =Friends, Relatives, & Associates.)

In order for an insurance agent to be ultra successful, Stephan Schiffman says, he must sell to approximately 1200 people. Now, if you do business with your insurance agent, is it not fair that he either do business with you or at least refer those who will?

So, it is important that s/he knows what you do, so that s/he can make those individuals known to you. If you have marketing materials, your agent will surely allow you to leave them as reading material in his/her office. Right?

(If not, you need to take your business elsewhere.)

That is one effective way to use your warm market to generate leads.

Personal Introductions, A Special Touch

Another strategy…

Your accountant probably does at least 300 tax returns a year. I am sure more than a handful of those people are “repeat clients” of which s/he has a rapport.

You could simply pose this question: “Do you know anyone that you might be able to introduce me to? (That is not the best grammar, but you get the jist.)

Personal introductions are even better than just a name and a number. They really say to the “lead” that this person respects you and feels comfortable introducing you to his associates, acquaintances, and friends.

Implement Within 72 Hours for 21 Days

So, now that you have been given three strategies to generate word-of-mouth leads–1) Always tell people what you do, 2) Give a mini-commercial about your business, consistently, when you tell them, and 3) Utilize your friends, relatives, and acquaintances as “referral generators”, it is time to take action.

Stephan Schiffman teaches that if you learn a new skill, you must implement it within 72 hours and do so for at least 21 days, or you will back down and lose steam. In other words, you will fail to apply and fail to succeed.

We don’t want that for you or for me. So, implement these strategies consistently and come back here and share your success!

If a potential customer were to ask you about your product, would you be knowledgeable enough to respond?

Well, according to Robert. W. Bly, author of The Marketing Plan Handbook: Develop Big Picture Marketing Plans for Pennies on the Dollar, there are four things you should know about your product–1) features, 2)advantages, 3)benefits and 4) ultimate benefits.

Think of these components as levels on a product description hierarchy or pyramid.

Features

A feature is what a product is or has–the literal physical description of the product. It is the lowest level on the pyramid.

Advantages

An advantage is a feature your product has that competitive products DO NOT HAVE. The advantage is that point of differentiation of your product from your competitor’s product. It is the next level on the pyramid.

Benefits

A benefit is what the product does and how the consumer comes out ahead as a result of this capability. This is the second highest level of the pyramid.

Ultimate Benefits

An ultimate benefit is “the benefit of the benefit”–the most important way in which the product improves the user’s life. Ultimate benefits include saving money, saving time, making money, success, self-esteem, security, joy, pleasure, and happiness. This the highest level of the product description hierarchy or pyramid.

Stressing Benefits Instead of Features

You may have heard it said that you should stress the benefits of the product to potential customers instead of the features. Well, Bob Bly advises you to use both.

His rationale, which is based on his experience as an independent copywriter and marketing consultant for more than 25 years, is that potential customers (prospects) are normally skeptical about whether your product will do what you say it will do because your competitors are typically making the same promises.

So, when you “show how a particular feature delivers the benefit, it becomes more believable to the prospect.”

The Naked Truth About Your Product

Always keep in mind that there are no absolutely perfect products. Your product will have flaws or imperfections, as well as strengths….and likewise with your competitor’s product.

With that said, it is important that you highlight the strengths of the product, but also be truthful about the flaws the product may have. Just think of the credibility you would gain with a potential customer as a result of your honesty.

But, don’t just leave it at that. Bly instructs you to take it a step further:

Pick one weakness of your product or company. Talk about it frankly in your marketing. Show why either (a) the weakness is not really important or (b) how you have designed your product or service to overcome, solve, or compensate for the weakness.

Get to Know Your Product, ASAP

The bottom line is whether you are a distributor or the creator of a product, it is critical that you are able to articulate the features, advantages, benefits, and ultimate benefits to a prospective customer and the best way to do that is by using it, if not daily, as often as possible.

Related Posts

• Now Featuring Benefits
• Marketing Features vs. Benefits
  

This post is for network marketers who may have made a decision to never ever call another person on your warm market list, as I had, months ago.

The Rude Awakening

Well, recently, I was in Books-A-Million looking for some resources for the eBook that I am writing; when, low and behold, this book seemed to be calling my name. “Pssst, Kellie! Take Me!”

I looked around, up and down the aisle, and then I looked at the book thinking, “I did not come in here to get another book on network marketing.” But, that book, Make Your First Million in Network Marketing, was persistent.

I am sure you know what happened from there.

I picked it up. Went to a bench in the back of the store, right in front of the magazines and wondered what this book could possibly say to me that I had not heard before at one bazillion trainings.

As if the book knew what I needed to “hear”, it fell open to a section called Building Your Business Base.

Guess what that section was ALL about?

You guessed it, my warm market…the people I know.

I was like, “OH, no you don’t. I am not going there!!!  But, the book just sucked me into the pages.

The author, Mary Christensen, an extremely successful network marketer, broke it down.

She basically said making a list of 100 people you know was not going to get it.

Period.

Your warm market is so much larger than that. She put it like this:

I have never done the final count of the number of people I know but some experts say that if we’re over the age of 21, we’ll know 700 people. Others claim that if we’re over the age of 25, we probably know up to 2,000 people.

The point is, you know hundreds and hundreds of people! These people, people you already know, will form the basis of your prospecting list. THEY are your warm list, because you know them and they know you. Start writing their names down.

She then painted a picture of you, winning $10 million in the lottery and inviting everyone you ever knew so that you could “shine” and celebrate.  Her advice was to tell yourself that you know 1,000 people and to write their names in groups of 20.

Where they lived would not matter because you had enough money to pay for their flight.

How long it had been since you’d seen them didn’t matter because you just wanted every single person you ever knew to know that you were now a multi-millionaire.

Well, long-story-short… she basically explained that if you were to write the names of every single person you ever met, every single person whose face came to your mind, with a goal of reaching 1000, you would be sitting on the possibility of hundreds of business partners.

Even if only 30% of them said “Yes! I want to use this opportunity as a vehicle to help me access freedom and wealth!”, that would be 300 personal recruits. Imagine that!!!

With that in mind, you would not cling to the first 25, 50, or 100 people on your list for dear life.

There would be no need for disappointment because you knew that you had more prospects in line.

You wouldn’t get caught up on Suzy, who complained about her circumstances, but would not do anything about them or Tom, who paid his “enrollment fee” to start a business, and then went on the witness protection plan.

You would just be going through the numbers…on a mission.

In other words, you would not get emotionally attached to the “yeses” or “nos.”

As a master sorter, you would understand that everyone would not and could not be the MVP of your All-Star Team.

IT GOES ON AND ON AND ON

The great thing about this list is that it may take you several days to complete, but, honestly, it would never end.

Every single time you would meet someone new, you would add their name.

EVERYONE’S name went on the list…no pre-judging, no evaluating.

AND THE VIOLINS PLAYED, SWEETLY

Now, the floodgates began to open for  me.

It was as if the windows of heaven opened up and showered me with a new perspective and a new determination.

I was so excited! I even wanted to share my good news with the associate who rang up the book (’cause you know I bought it). But, it was already 11 p.m. and she did not look like a happy camper.

Although, this information wasn’t new, I guess I was ready to hear it…and,  “When the student is ready, the teacher will come.”

So, the moral of this story is, don’t get caught up in whether your opportunity is for everyone. You are just the list creator taking a message of opportunity to every person on the list.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Understand this:  Your job is not to decide for them, coax them, or even get disappointed in the choices that they make for their lives.

They have the right to make those choices, just as you had the right to choose your opportunity.

Let your confidence never wane.

Because, in your mind you always know….Some Will. Some Won’t. So What! Who’s Next?

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