Welcome to the Business Abundance Podcast, providing
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www .businessabundance .online. Hello. Welcome
back to the Business Abundance Podcast. I am
here with Rowan and Ian. I am Zee. And today
we're going to be chatting about small business
owners and how to stand out despite the fact
that you're doing a really good job. You know
that you have a product or service that works,
people want it, but you've just got to take that
next step in getting out and networking. And
I know networking is not everyone's favorite
thing to do. Certainly, I used to view it as
going to one of those lunches and sit down, share
what you do. And I mean, that is what you can
do. But I think there's different ways that you
can do it and get your name out and about. And
it's just small things that come back to who
you are as a person and getting out about and
getting some grit, basically. But Ian, how do
you reckon you without getting into gimmicks?
How do you reckon you'd stand out within your
industry or business? Oh, without gimmicks. Yeah.
Yeah. Because you can pay people to like you.
Just took a little fun clean out of that. Well,
you're either networking or you're not working,
was the old saying for us, old types. See? He
didn't say that. No, not on microphone. Yeah,
you talk to people. A lot of people I talk to
when you come up with strategies for getting
your business out there. A big popular one was
social media a few years ago. X amount of posts
per day. Ra, ra, ra, get it out there. And people
would say, I don't want to bother people with
that many posts. Well, you don't believe in your
business. If you've got something you truly believe
in, you'd want everyone to know about it. So
maybe look in the mirror and go, do I believe
in what I'm doing? If so, tell everyone about
it. No one's going to blow your horn for you.
Exactly. Might have been Branson, getting me
nearly said something like you could have the
best product in the world, but if no one knows
about it, you're going to be broke. It's true.
I think social media is okay, but when we're
talking about getting Like you can post on social
media and have like 200 views. No one really
knows about it. So what are you doing to take
that step from that to slowly developing your
network over time? Cause I know unless something
goes viral, you're not going to be that popular
that quickly. Well, social media is definitely
not your starting point. No, definitely not.
So I'm thinking about something you can consistently
do authentically. For example, thinking about
a coffee shop, if you're the owner of that coffee
shop, you could be simply providing the person
with the coffee. But if you're creating a relationship
with the people that come through your door every
single time, and you start remembering their
name, and then you start remembering their order,
and then you start to get to know what they're
doing that week, that effort - Huge. Will be
so much more valuable than a social - It can
be part of your daily routine. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
If they're - going into their coffee shop with
their friend and then you get to know the friend's
name and then that's how you can authentically
grow that. It's a completely different way of
looking at there, isn't it? So you have a coffee
shop, make good coffee, let everyone know all
those standard sort of things, good milk, good
this, good that. Really what we're saying there
is it's more important to become part of the
daily routine than have a good coffee. Well,
who are they thinking of when they think of coffee?
Your brand. So if they're thinking, I've got
to go get a coffee. I know where I'm going for
my coffee. Uh, it's the same place. We've talked
about it in previous podcasts. They've got a
little reward card, every, it's not so much even
that it's not to get coffee. It's I've got to
go to so and so. Yeah. So if I think of hardware,
I think of a multinational chain here in Australia,
that's kind of, I'm going to pop down there.
Cause I know they're going to be the best prices
guaranteed. If I'm thinking of fast food, you're
probably going to think of the golden archers.
If I'm thinking of this and that hasn't happened
by accident, that's happened deliberately over
time with Very, very intelligent and expensive
branding and marketing strategies. And very good
cheeseburgers. Apparently. Yes. My son likes
the cheeseburgers. And disagree. One of us is
healthy here. So yeah, we're, you just need to
know that you don't. It's hard because in the
same sense, I'm literally reading a book right
now that talks about mass marketing as opposed
to target marketing. And it's not a right now
as we speak, but it talks about how target marketing
probably isn't as effective as what, um, it's
made out to be. I mean, in every marketing textbook,
you, you read that you need to have a target
market. You need to. I think any book though,
it's got a. disprove or discredit the other things
because that's why you're buying that. That's
what you're selling. Take it with a grain of
salt. Yeah, 100%. But when I say this, yeah,
I'm a bit torn because I'm yet to come to my
conclusion about where I sit with that. But you
can be known and you can be famous, but I don't
think that's necessarily going to help your business
in the sense that it's not about being everywhere.
It's being known by the right people. Fundamentally.
nothing's changed in 50 years. Be seen. What
we're doing right now in marketing and advertising
hasn't changed. It's just that the method of
delivering that information has changed. But
you're still trying to get your message in front
of as many eyeballs as you can and have them
receive that message in a way that says, oh yeah,
I can connect with them. That's who I want to
buy from. All the new books that have come out
over the last 20 years, are all saying the same
thing just in a different way so that they can
sell books. The fundamentals haven't changed
since Procter and Gamble first opened their doors.
Yeah. Yes. But then, so why would, well, again,
that's the social media side of things. And I'm
trying to move away from just social media being
your mode or method of networking. How do you
do? What do you do for the recognition? You reverse
engineer the numbers really. So if you're going,
well, if we need a hundred clients, like how
many proposals do we need to send? Or how many
people do we need to go to our store, for example?
What's your rate? And then, okay, to get those,
how many times do we need to be in front of people?
If we're in front of people, how many of those
are going to convert? So like, for example, if
it's targeted, you'd probably expect more people
that you get in front of to convert into proposal
or an opportunity. Whereas if it's mass marketing,
it's no right or wrongs, right? You expect to
be in front of more eyes to get the same. So,
okay, what are the conversion rates at all those
different stages? And then you go, okay, well,
what's going to be the most cost -effective or
what's going to be the best result overall? But
work it out backwards. So there's no right or
wrong with which way you do it, but you fundamentally
need X number of clients. Not just social media.
I mean social media is one tiny little arm of
your overall branding advertising marketing strategy
Sometimes it's knocking on the door Sometimes
it's you've got a happy customer. Here's a referral
program Sometimes it's a good old -fashioned
billboard which gets a million people driving
past it every day Yeah, I would probably break
it down even further in the sense that you've
got a Break it. You've got a no who you are and
what you want to do and then, and what you want
to be known for. And then align that as a small
business. I know. I mean, we do. And we have
talked about in previous podcast episodes about
not becoming a business because that becomes
quite overwhelming. But I do think it is easy.
Uh, easier in the sense that you. Your your business
takes on your behavior and branding of who you
are as a person if you're a very professional
Individual straight down the line very dry sense
of humor. It's gonna be really difficult for
you to have a small business that is Loose and
fun. Yeah, exactly. And so if you align those
two then that's everything you do is going to
be a lot easier and people are going to perceive
you with the business and you're going to be
able to grow that network instead of walking
through a door and trying to put on this attitude
that you don't naturally have. One time it's
going to break, but you need, you need to know
how you're going to be able to do that. And then
basically build trust with people. So what's
trust building exercises? I guess circling back
around a bit more to the point of the episode
though, too. detailed how you standing out as
a business. Like that's what we're talking about.
So you've got a, you've got a small business,
you've got fundamentally, you're doing the same
thing as other people. Not too many small businesses
are completely unique as far as they've got a
different product or a different service or,
you know, new invention. Most of the time we're,
we're doing the same thing other people are doing
for roughly the same price in the same area in
the same way. You know, how are we standing out?
So we're talking about all the different ways
to. to see the people, but how are we standing
out to them? That's the interesting bit here.
I think it's the branding. The thing on trust,
well, just circle back to what you said there.
The easiest way to build trust is to do what
you say you will do when you say you will do
it. And everyone can do that. Don't over promise
and under deliver. Flip that script under promise
and then over deliver and have people go, wow.
I paid X amount of dollars and I got two X worth
of value. That was incredible. I'm going to tell
people about that. Definitely one way. It's pretty
simple. And it doesn't have to cost you time
and it doesn't have to cost you money. And I
found it doesn't have to be huge to make people
go wow, because there are a lot of people who
start a small business and get busy and can't
do the simple thing of doing what they say they
will do. When they'll do it, if you can come
into any space, whether it's coffee, whether
it's fast food, whatever it is. And that person
walks out of your premises or your online store
or wherever you're selling and says, that was
an awesome transaction. I'll do that again. You've
you're one step forwards to winning the battle.
And then a few more of them. Now you've got a
marketing budget because you've got some profit.
It's interesting. I see it differently in like
the way to comment. Yeah. I just, I, you're talking
about the business working and proving itself
and that sort of thing. But you talk about a
one man band. I'm, I'm thinking on the side of
how did they then. build their network in order
to support their business. Their business is
running and the results are speaking for themselves,
but then how do you draw more people? So you're
saying, assuming we're doing what we're saying
we're going to do, we've got that up and running,
how do we draw more people into it? Yeah. And
so I'm thinking more along the lines of getting
out and doing things in the sense that let's
just say I have a sewing business and I need
to get to know people. And what I'll do is I'll
go and join sewing groups because that's where
the people are that I need to talk to. And I
think that's a way better way of approaching
people and networking because you're not sitting
in this manufactured environment where you're
doing a networking lunch and everyone feels really
awkward. You're sitting, chatting, doing something
that everyone loves and you've got the opportunity
to meet 15 people and have a good conversation
with every single one of them. It doesn't mean
they're necessarily going to turn into customers
the next day, but if you have that touch point
every single week, I think that's a better networking
approach. Yeah, exactly. And so I think those
are the activities you should be doing instead
of. Cause everyone says you need to go out and
network. Well, personally, I don't see that as
a nice word. You need to be, you need to be well
known. So going back before, if we back calculate
things that you can, depends on what you're doing
to how many people need to know you. Do you need
to be famous like Michael Jordan to do the numbers,
to sell the shoes? Or do you need to be less
famous, but more direct in your little group
approach? Jordan's a good example. Cause he.
went with the shoe company that he didn't want
to go with based on their sales pitch. He wanted
Converse and Nike come to him and said, we want
to build the entire brand around you before you've
won an MVP, before you've won Rookie of the Year.
They believed in him and look at that now. I
don't expect you to be a Michael Jordan. I like
what you said with going to networking groups.
and specific niche groups. But also don't forget
that you are always networking as a business
owner. So everyone you talk to, you meet new
people out on the street or you play sport. You
play sport, I play sport, Rowan plays sport.
You meet new people having a beer after a game
or a soft drink or whatever. And one of the first
questions people ever ask you is, oh, what do
you do? Be proud about that. Be proud of what
you do and say, I run probably the best business
in the world. And they're going to ask you a
question like who, who the hell has a small business
owner sits here and goes, I love my job, especially
when you are trying to grow. It's, it's, it's
hard. If you can put that, I guess it's a persona
on if, if you don't truly believe it yourself,
maybe find a way to believe it, but be enthusiastic
passion sells. Even if you're in a sewing group
once a week, your passion and enthusiasm for
your business is going to make people go, I want
to be a part of that. That makes sense. That's
exactly why I said earlier about being authentic.
It's just easier if you are. You love what you
do. And your business, because it's going to
show when, when you're doing your sport and you're
feeling most doing whatever you, it is that you
want to be doing, you are representing your business.
And so it's just easy if you don't have to pretend
all the time. So talking about, um, those things.
And then I'm thinking about the similarities
between the different strategies, I guess we're
talking about or ways about going about things.
Um, but fundamentally, fundamentally we're talking
about coming back to word of mouth. Um, so whether
we're talking to thousands of people, whether
we're talking to two or whether they're clients
or not, we're saying we need to generate word
of mouth. So that might be us blowing our own
horn. Um, there might be us being confident and
might be us being not whatever it is. Um, but
I was listening to a podcast from Alan Weiss,
um, a few days ago, but I actually heard it 10
years ago, which was interesting. Uh, it's good
to see that we can reuse content or write that
one down. Um, but he was talking about one of
his old clients from back in the day, which was
Northern America, Mercedes. And at the time,
Alexis, um, which is the dear version of Toyota
was, uh, smashing them on service. So the feedback
and reviews for the customer service was far
beyond Mercedes and they wanted to fix that.
So they got him in to say, look, I want you to
go around and figure out what Lexus are doing.
And then we need to implement that in our dealerships.
So he suggested that maybe that wasn't the best
thing to do. um he knew the Mercedes had some
things that reverse engineer the cars with the
problems try to you know continue improvement
whereas Lexus weren't doing that they were fixing
the problems um and he he um said well hang on
let's not look at Lexus let's look at your best
dealerships so they said oh okay no worries and
it turned out the the best customer service the
best service dealership in the countries for
we're all Mercedes dealerships So they weren't
actually Lexus. Their overall was Lexus, but
the best ones were Mercedes. And the best one
was in Rhode Island where he lived. So he went
down there and he knew the dealer, bought a car
from them previously. And he said, oh, what's
happening? Why is your service so good? He said,
we have problems. Something that's, that's an
interesting one. Listen to that and see yourself.
What do you mean? You've got problems with customer
service and problems here. We have problems.
Problems are good. So what do you mean? So, okay,
well, we have a client picks up the new car and
then three days later and they call us, which
is reasonably common. And they'll say, we've
got a scratch and your car's got a scratch. So
most dealerships would be like, okay, bring it
in. We can fix it for you and give you a bill
and whatever. Obviously the clients scratch their
car within a few days. Now, what we do is we
say, oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible.
I don't know how that's happened. Bring it in
and we'll give you a loan car and everything.
We'll get it sorted for you. No charge. And then
what do you think that client does? Tells a story
Correct to their friends. So they're saying we
actually like problems because then we can use
as an opportunity To fix it and then what does
that mean for us? and they use another example
with a hotel and I'm trying to keep the reason
be short, but it was fundamentally around the
the room service being when it was bad They would
replace it and then take off the bill and give
them a bit extra. So it was an expensive hotel
And that was generating a whole lot of referrals.
I'd tell everyone and they'd come back because
they appreciated, they went to such a degree
to fix the problem. For minimal cost. Yeah. So,
if your food's terrible, no, we'll bring more.
We'll do this. We'll take it off your bill. And,
you know, blah, blah, blah, really went overboard.
But they meant they told all their friends a
story. Like, wow, we're at this place and da,
da, da. But the funny thing was that he referenced
to the food was always terrible there. And then
he said to the hotel manager, why don't you make
more problems? Why don't you serve them problems?
And you think about it like that. So it's a good
strategy. Put your best foot forward or under
promise over deliver. But then it's okay. Well,
when we actually have a problem that could be,
can we use as an opportunity to turn it into
something else word of mouth? So going back to
while telling the stories, we're talking about
whether it's a small scale network or a mass
marketing, we need a story for people to tell
and a story for people to share to generate that
word of mouth. And everyone's going to say word
of mouth is the best thing. and whether you leverage
that with paid advertising or not. Um, okay.
Well, as a business doing exactly the same thing
as everyone else in the same area in the same
way, well, how can we control a story that's
something unrelated to what we do? I'm sure I've
said it on the podcast before, but it's cliche
as cliche, but facts tell and stories sell. Yeah.
Yep. Um, and I know that most businesses, they
do a lot of really cool things. They have some
cool stories, but they don't share that bit.
They share what they did. Um, Oh, we did this
really cool install. Um, you know, check out
what this house looks like. Um, but really what
the owners are going to say to other people,
you know, the people that built our house back
in the day. I don't say, Oh gee, the house was
so good. And you know, the bill call is amazing.
I'll be like, Oh yeah, we had the corners fall
off twice. Once after a year and once after two
years around the joinery and they came back and
fixed it. Like that's great. Isn't it? That's
what got other people to build with them. And
remember the maths that most people. are gonna
tell maybe three people if they have a good job
done, they're gonna tell 10 people if a bad job's
done. Yep. And then we say, well, we don't want
them to have that bad story to tell, but if they
do, they're gonna tell the bad story, but they're
gonna tell what we did to fix it. Exactly. It's
not the problem. Another cliche, it's not the
mistakes you make, it's how you respond to them.
Yeah. So the big learning there is when you come
across a scenario, when you're talking to someone,
it's how can we leverage this to the future work.
And that's a interesting way of looking at it
because you can't really compete against other
people while other people can't take that from
you. Yeah. Every story is unique. Yes, it certainly
like reinforces credibility. And it is interesting,
especially when you are having those very, what's
the word for it? Just no, I can't think of the
word. We'll just leave you hanging. Yeah. Yeah.
We'll just, we'll pause and. It'll come. We're
just having a very like normal conversation with
someone. Yeah. And it's yeah, you're just sitting
next to someone having a conversation. You've
got this story about something that did or didn't
happen or did happen as a small business owner.
You're just telling them about, oh, well we had
this happen and this is how we fix it was interesting.
The person's going to remember that as opposed
to what your job title is. So that certainly
helps. You've just got to give yourself the opportunity
to have those conversations. Um, so what that
might look like, I mean, local events going and
just having a conversation. You've got to not
be an introvert. That's for sure. Well, how can
you be in front of the thing? So, you know, volunteer
a local event and let's do the, let's do the
plumbing for the event. Okay. Yeah. Bring all
the portaloos in, we'll set it all up and you
just put big signs up, you know, sponsored by
boom. Yeah. So it's, it's been known. So how
are you going to be known? Get a column in the
newspaper. That's a bit weird, but you probably
could do it. There's no journalists these days
actually writing stories. So just do a press
release and keep sending it in. You'll probably
get printed. Especially if you make it easy for
the pseudo journalists to be able to just print
it as is. They don't want to actually work for
their money. So that's even back when journalism
had a bit of credibility. I'm not slagging off
journalists, I probably am. Ruthless. Yeah. Once
upon a time you needed a very high ATAR score
to become a journalist and now anyone with a
TikTok account can be a journalist. But if you
can make it easy for a journalist to look at
that headline and go, I want to read more on
your press release and then have some actual
content in there, that's a people interest story
if ever I've seen one. you're getting printed.
It's not even about being a good story, it's
about being in the print and people see it. They
might not read it, but they'll just sort of remember
that that was there. And then seven points of
contact. Yeah, a local business with a sport
club, they'll approach to hire an excavator to
help them with a project. And they just said,
have it, you know, we'll sponsor you guys. So
that's nice. Probably a lot of businesses do
that, but they don't tell anyone. So yeah, no
worries, we'll give it to you. Just give us a
blast on Facebook that we're supporting you,
it'd be great. And then that edification coming
from a third party adds up. Absolutely. Yep.
But even if it's not blasting out, then all the
people in the clubs sort of know, oh, we use
their digger they gave to us. That's great. You
know, there's 30 people going, oh, that's really
nice of them. And it adds up. It's again, it's
not about rate. It's not about this or that,
the other, it's that who do you know the word
of mouth that's getting that referral? Because
most people aren't buying based on price or based
on where they find it or which advertising method.
Someone they know have told them that that's
Hey, you should go there. I've just realised
that my brain works mostly in cliches. It's not
what you know, it's who you know. Yeah. Everything
we say, I'm just like, there's a cliche for that.
Yeah, that's a pretty common saying for a reason.
Yeah. So, you know, people were worried about
all these other things, price, product, blah,
blah, blah. No, it's who you know. So how can
we get in front of more people, all the right
people? But again, back calculate. Do I need
to have everyone in town know me? Yes, no, that's
one strategy. Do we need the whole country to
know me? That's one strategy. Do I need 10 people
to know me? That's another strategy. But give
them a story, give them some things that you
can deliver, maybe make some problems to fix,
which is counterintuitive. I had a sales trainer
many years ago. Classic. sales training, you
talk about your pitch, you talk about closing,
you talk about dealing with rejections and objections.
But one of the things that he put up on the screen
was the old scene from Glen Gary, Glen Ross,
one of the Baldwin's, I think, many years ago.
And it's always be closing. And people think
that the end of the pitch and then you ask for
the sale, that's the close. The moment you meet
the person, you've already started closing. most
people have decided whether they're going to
buy from you in the first four seconds, believe
it or not. It's a gut instinct, it's an Olympic
brain thing. If you're positive about the way
you introduce your business to somebody or even
just talk about your business, people are going
to pick up on that and they're going to go, if
he's like that, his staff are probably going
to be like that and the product's probably going
to be pretty good. The psychology of sales behind
it is is irrefutable that the evidence and and
you watch people like you walk into Harvey Norman
for instance and you walk in and you start looking
at couches and you'll have the guy sort of hover
around for a little bit and then sort of if he's
a good salesman he'll kind of walk past this
Oh yeah, I've just got to go do this. Um, you
guys all right there for a second? I was about
to say, if he's a good salesman, just come sit
next to you. Yeah, I would. But generally, Hey
guys, what are we doing today? Generally, like
the real good ones will be doing something to
make it look like they're too busy to, to, well,
not too busy, but that they just got to finish
this thing first and then they'll come back to
you instead of just walking up to you and go,
Oh, do you need any help with that? Your immediate
response to do you need any help is no, just
browsing, just having a look. Whereas if you
just make yourself available in a moment, as
a salesman. Now I've got to work for it a little
bit and that's not the usual, not the usual script
in one of those department type stores. It's
kind of like yeah no I'm just browsing I'll come
and find you when I need you and it just interrupts
it. It's kind of like a circuit breaker. It's
hard to be proud of what you do, I suppose, as
a Harvey Norman salesman. It's hard to have that
enthusiasm when you can only work weekends. I'm
not caning the salespeople too much. No, I'm
not caning the salespeople. It's a difficult
job because they're on a low retainer and the
commissions aren't fantastic, but you need to
sell. I guess if we're talking about the other
types of businesses or whatever we turn into
some theory we can actually implement or work
on aside from when we're talking to a client.
It's putting some structure or some obstacles.
in place so you know you've scarcity mindset
of something curiosity something's limited edition
there's only so many spots left we know that's
a bit appealing for urgency but also having some
standards for who do we work with so oh we've
got these clients they're really demanding we've
got to do all these things to do it and it's
always the same okay well what can we change
to make it so Instead of them being demanding
of us, we're demanding of them. Yeah, well, we
couldn't do that, but you probably can. So this
is something that most businesses can do, which
is client selection criteria. So for example,
we could be a bar and you have to wear shoes
to come in. Shirt and tie. Yep, correct. No jacket,
no service. Yep. you can be an accounting firm
saying if you don't have net assets over a million,
you can't come in. Sounds pretty ruthless, but
we can also have standards in return. So I remember
a firm I used to work at, there was a list of
10 different things and being reasonably new
to taking on new... soliciting new clients, I'd
be like, okay, well, let's go through the client
selection criteria. I remember when I was inducted,
I thought that's pretty interesting, you know.
So we've actually got client selection criteria,
let's go through it. And, you know, we'll go
boom, boom, boom. So they must be willing to
accept advice and keen to, you know, take on
the world and a few other things. I'm keen to
have them change their accounting file to be
on the hosted version of NYB back in the day.
And people would literally go down and like,
oh yeah, we'll do that. Yeah, that's fine. Okay,
we're actually. probably this one, we're not
quite there yet. And they're like, oh, but we
want to, you know, that really try to score and
get it. And then by the time you go through the
10th one, you're like, you said, um, the theory
you were referring to before or studies or fact
check those later, um, was that, uh, they would
decide whether they're going to buy. And the
fact that they had to tick themselves off against
the client selection criteria meant that they
were pretty much like, Oh, I'm not going to quite
make it, but I want to make it like, this is
good. You've got standards. This must mean that
your quality is good. you've got standards for
clients, that means you're going to have standards
for your work. So there's things like that that
we can introduce, you know, solving the problems,
having some standards, we can control the conversation,
how we deal with people to make our business
different from what the other businesses are
and have that way forward. So going back to what
you were saying earlier, like how do we, yeah,
we're going well, but how do we keep growing?
We need to differentiate somewhat. We need to
have some things that are easily... easy to replicate
or a common story to tell, but that's the client
service standards. You're almost talking about
a script there. It's a very prescriptive process
of having those standards in place and then saying,
this is my ideal avatar of a customer. Now we've
got 10 points that these people must or ideally
will have, and you create that competitive mindset
within your own clients or potential clients.
I used to be one of those people that looked
at scripts for salespeople and go, oh, geez,
that could never work. But once you take on a
script and make it your own and have it in your
back pocket so that it's almost muscle memory,
that there's certain parts of scripts that you
can take and make your own when you're talking
to people about your business, and they definitely
work. It's just the way to sell your business.
Networking is great. Building up a relationship
and having rapport with people is fantastic,
but at the end of the day, as a small business
owner, you are a salesman. And you need to have
a skill set to be able to sell your business
or the idea of your product to people. So read
a book, listen to a podcast. I mean, you're listening
to this podcast right now, so you've taken the
first step. Educate yourself. So he's got something
to add here. I don't know. I just, not off the
mark. I just think if I, when I have conversations
with people who are potential clients and natural
conversation, yes, the script is obviously important.
The client criteria is important because I know.
Having clients that don't meet that criteria
does actually make your life more difficult So
you have to have that and I think you can weed
that out when you have those conversations But
it's not at the forefront of my mind when I am
Having those conversations like because I know
what I do for work. I have stories to tell I'm
excited to tell people it's very natural to me
and and the clients I do get is because I've
spent months and months and months, chatting
to them, talking to them, doing the journey with
them. Um, and then it gets to the point where
I identify something, for example, your website
needs improving. Like, did you know that? And
they're like, oh yeah, far out. I like, I do,
I does need, it's been on the top of my mind.
I just haven't, I'm like, well, Hey, like let's
have a chat. And you've, you've You're done.
Like, yeah, exactly. And so yes, the client criteria
is important. Yes, the sales script is important,
but what I think to me personally is, is those
relationships and building those. And I think
that is something I did lack for a long time.
in growing my own network, I needed to spend
the time in different groups and getting to know
people. Um, and it, and it's not a simple, like
you cannot, in most circumstances expect someone
to buy immediately. Like, what do you do? I'm
a business consultant. Oh, a hundred percent.
I need that. Let's catch up tomorrow and sign
a proposal the next day. You've got to have some
renown. Yeah, exactly. And so fake renown. Yeah.
What if you, um, What if you change your answer
from I'm a business consultant to I help small
businesses who earn X amount of dollars create
10 times that amount? Yeah, 100%. But you still
need to build the trust. We're looking at something.
So we're going back to the concept of, you know,
we need to be known. Okay. And how do we stand
out differently to other people? So you say your
consultant, that's going to have conversations.
We say we do X, Y, Z, and then that's going to
flag in my head is, okay, well, you've gone to
all the marketing courses. Then we can look at
that a different way. So you spend a lot of time
building a relationship with these people to
then get one project out of, or, you know, for
example, I forged some relationships with local
bankers. Okay, so those bankers get access to
some information for the clients that they bank
with, they wouldn't normally get. They can say,
oh, what'd you do here? You tell them exactly
what you did. It's not an issue. You can also
do some work for the clients with them. Those
joint projects, we're not going to do any work
for the banker, are we? But are they going to
refer 10 people? Yeah. And then do we have to
spend three months building a relationship with
those people? Nope. Nope. Nope. Correct. They're
going to roll in. I'm here to talk to you because
you're this and I'm going to buy straight away.
So I think we have the description, we have the
stories and we have the problems. We have all
those things, but it's not necessarily boom,
boom, boom. We're building relationships. We're
being known in the right places to get X amount
of inquiries coming in. So, you know, the bank
would be called a center of influence would be
the theory there. So you don't have to necessarily
be talking to your clients. It could be networking
with people who know your clients that you can
tell the story to. Yeah, exactly. And I think
that's generally. look at the majority of clients
we get, but from other clients have said, hey,
you should be dealing with these guys. It's never
from, hey, we've worked on you and we do get
those ones, but they're hard and lower conversion
rate. But again, how can you get that out there?
Yeah, it just always goes back to the authenticity.
You can't, and it is so much easier if you're
doing things that you enjoy doing. Like networking
on the golf course is easy to me because I enjoy
doing it. But you're good at it. Yes. Well, we'll
see. But it's just in places that is easy because,
you know, We talk about burnout and those sort
of things just in the grand scheme of things.
If you're doing things consistently and it is
not overnight, it is not effortless. It's not
linear. You have to put effort in. If you're
doing something that you're happy, the environment
you're happy to be in and setting yourself little
goals, then I think it is better for everyone
involved. They see the real you. That's where
trust is built. You're not putting on a weird.
persona that doesn't feel natural. Your, your
script for use of a better word is there, but
it's coming naturally and it's coming through
stories. You're not just taking a script from
a book and reading it verbatim. You've, you've
made it your own is, is kind of my point of the
whole script, script thing. Cause that's based
on a lot of psychology. But I think going back
to again, the original. point of the episode
was that how can you stand out as a small business?
You're a small business owner now and things
are going okay, but now what? How do we grow?
So we need to have the criteria, we need to have
the stories, we need to have the problems, we
need to have something to talk about that other
people are interested to talk about. Something
cool. And then from there, we're trying to get
people to talk about it. That's fundamentally
what we're talking about here, isn't it? Generate
word of mouth. What I like was what you said
earlier, reverse engineering. So look at the
multi -million dollar businesses around the world.
They didn't start as multi -million dollar businesses.
A lot of them, Amazon started in a garage. Microsoft
started in a garage. One person had an idea.
How? How did they become what they've become?
Because if they can do it, you can do it. And
find out, read, learn. Listen, find out how they
did it because you can definitely do it. It just
takes consistency of effort and a little bit
of know -how. Become uncomfortable. That was
my next point. It was like you were talking about
do the things that are easy, which is great.
You find it easy to talk on a golf course or
you might find it at the moment sewing in a group,
getting a thimble on and... threading a needle.
That was the expert advice from Rowan earlier.
This is the needle and this is the thread. These
are the basics. But find that thing that makes
you uncomfortable as well. Maybe once a week
to start with, do the cold call. Pick a phone
number at random and just go, G'day, my name's
this. This is what I do. I notice you do this.
Can you tell me about your business? And let
them talk because everyone's favourite topic
of conversation is themself. Yeah, even easier,
I think, because I can't stay in cold calling.
To me, that feels like picking teeth out. Most
people. I would go and attend an event, find
an event that is interesting, is a small group,
and go join that for one afternoon. That would
be easier to me than a cold call, personally.
Other people might find it different. That's
why I would suggest to you to do a cold call
and get used to hearing no. No, I see an event
is hard enough. And I prefer just to wait for
someone to have a problem that knows someone
else that I know that they say, you need Rowan.
Yeah. So, you know, what's that summary? If we,
if we're wrapping that up, you know, Ian saying,
Hey, get out there, cold call, talk to people,
have a story, have a script. Okay. That's one
way. So you're saying like, go find somewhere
you're comfortable. plant the seeds, work on
it, work on it, work on it. And I'm saying, okay,
I've probably done that for a long time. At times
I've done what Ian's doing as well. And then
we've got, I've got a bit more renown with other
people and I can just sit there and wait for
it to happen. Cause I know they're going to come,
they're going to have a problem. They're going
to be told to come to me, we're going to fix
it. And they're going to tell their friends as
well. And I'm already there. Are you about to
say that the best idea is a mix of everything?
Well, it doesn't matter how you get there. Yeah,
exactly. But we need to sow the seeds, generate
the word of mouth. We need to have stories. It
doesn't matter how you do it. The fact is you
need to get people talking about you in a good
way. Yeah, that's the angle. Yeah. So I think
we've talked about, hey, it's a different, different
things and there's no necessarily right and wrong,
but pick your way. You could be more well known
for something and make sure that's different
to your competitors. If you're doing that, you're
going to have clients. Pretty easy. Pretty spot
on. Wrapped it up better. Then I have a good,
well done. Don't be like that. You should, you
should do the clothes. This has been the business.
To be honest, I don't actually know the words
for the clothes. All right. Well on that note,
I will actually close this up. So have a good
week. Everyone will chat to you in the next podcast.