Attracting Perfect Customers
Jan S. Stringer
1h47min15
- Marketing et communication
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143 pages. Temps de lecture estimé 1h47min.
Most businesses spend far too much of their time and energy struggling to get new customers or hang on to existing ones-even customers who are ultimately more trouble than they're worth. Attracting Perfect Customers invites readers to move beyond the notions that "business is war" and winning market share means "beating" the other guy. The authors outline a simple strategic process for making businesses so highly attractive that perfect customers and clients are naturally drawn right to them.
Sound too good to be true? Hall and Brogniez have successfully shown clients how to do it for years, and now they share their secrets. They prove that it is no longer productive or profitable to conduct business using the war-like marketing techniques of targeting customers and outmaneuvering the competition. In fact, these techniques seem antiquated and labor-intensive when compared to the Strategic Attraction Planning process, which requires just five minutes each day and enables any business to easily attract customers that are a perfect fit for their organization-the kind of customers it is a pleasure to serve.
Attracting Perfect Customers takes you step by step through the entire strategic attraction process. The authors reveal the six success standards of strategic synchronicity and share simple, fun, and easy-to-follow exercises that can be applied to any organization. They walk you through the process of creating your own personalized Strategic Attraction Plan and provide 21 supportive tips for making any company more attractive to its perfect customers.
Attracting Perfect Customerswill take you to a place where there is an abundance of perfect customers and clients with whom you can build strong, satisfying, profitable, and lasting relationships.Chapter One
Be on Purpose with Your Mission
Work is evolving from
supporting only our survival
to nourishing and
encouraging our livelihood.
Martin Rutte
A FEW years ago, while working
at a job that she did not
enjoy, Stacey came across the
following affirmation: "Do what
you love to do and the universe
rushes in to support you." She
realized as she read the statement that she did not feel supported by
the universe in her job. Rather than being easily swept along to her
goals, she felt as if she were constantly walking into a windstorm.
Each day seemed harder than the day before. Although she originally
thought the company's mission and values were aligned with her own,
it became apparent that she had been fooling herself. In giving the
organization what it needed, she was increasingly surpressing her
own needs. Yet she was attached to the job because she wanted the
salary, prestige, and connections that came with it.
As a community service, she would periodically conduct free workshops
to teach marketing and communications principles to business
owners. She truly loved facilitating the workshops, and the people who
attended let her know how much they enjoyed her teaching methods.
She felt completely alive when she was leading those workshops.
Her personal mission - assisting organizations to operate in the
best interests of the community - had found a voice. When she
read that affirmation, the realization that these workshops were her
business mission, her unique service to the world, hit her like a
thunderbolt!
She had a choice: continue to fight against the wind until it finally
blew her away, or allow herself to be carried along by the wave of certainty
and joy that she had a responsibility to share her unique understanding
of marketing with the world.
Just one problem stood in the way of making what was otherwise
such a clear choice - money. She had to ask herself why she was making
her workshops available for free. The answer was that she was not
sure anyone would attend if she charged for them. She realized that
she would be stuck in an unfulfilling job as long as she lacked trust
that she could make money doing what she loved to do. With that
realization, she knew that it was time to open her own consulting
practice and be "on purpose" with her mission.
Richard Barrett, visionary, consultant, and best-selling author,
recently spoke about his work supporting leaders in building values-driven
organizations. At the end of the session, when one member
of the audience thanked him for his insights, Richard responded, "I
am grateful to be a channel for this information - and I thank God
that this is the way I get to make my living." In that one sentence,
Richard summed up what each of us who is truly living our passion
gets to feel about our business.
It is our belief that most successful businesses began with someone's
passionate mission: to share new information, produce a better
product, provide a new understanding, contribute to the culture. A
successful business remains successful because it stays true to its mission.
How does a business stay true to its mission?
* By becoming clear about whom it is meant to serve
* By hiring only people who are truly aligned with the mission
* By ensuring its products, its management practices, and its
organizational structures are all in alignment with the mission
* By measuring how well the organization has achieved its
mission each and every day
* By trusting that money is a natural by-product of staying
true to the mission
A business that stays true to its mission is an "attractive" business.
An attractive business is one that is standing still and solid, emanating
the light of its mission, so that its most perfect customers can easily
find their way to the company.
Is the Customer Always Right?
Businesses with an overactive appetite for short-run results - created
from a desire to grab the greatest number of customers in order to
make the most money in the least amount of time - are much like
the frantic lighthouse described above. Running up and down the
beach, these businesses soon get winded and deplete their energy.
Their attractiveness quickly fades because this least-common-denominator
approach lacks the depth of a more sophisticated strategic
understanding of how to build longer and more satisfying relationships. A
slower, surer reliance on the process of attraction allows
a business to expand from its capacity to serve appropriate, appreciative
customers who respond to the company's intent and mission
without having to be "sold," "baited," or "snatched away" from the
competition.
While nothing is inherently wrong with the old approach, it does
require a business to expend a great deal of time, energy, and money
on developing tools to predict every possible customer need and
desire. It also has to prepare for "damage control," to handle the many
complaints that come when its predictions are inaccurate.
Conversely, when the owner, managers, and employees design the
business out of their mutual goals and shared values, they know
exactly which types of customers the business is suited to serve. They
know exactly which services and products they desire to provide to
these customers. They know the business's hours of operation, they
know the size of the staff, and they know what to charge for the
products and services.
This information comes directly from asking themselves, "How
would I want to be served by this business?" They trust that their
mission is to serve others in just the way they would want to be
treated. This means standing absolutely secure in the knowledge that
many others need to receive their services or products. The energy
that emanates from such confidence is like the light that shines from
a lighthouse.
As the sky becomes dark, the light in the lighthouse automatically
turns on. That is its mission. It does not wait for a boat to arrive
before shining its light. It never waivers from its function of being a
lighthouse, even if no boats are in the harbor on a particular night.
A perfect example of the concept of designing and maintaining a
business committed to its mission is shown in The Nordstrom Way:
The Inside Story of America's #1 Customer Service Company, written by
Robert Spector and Patrick D. McCarthy. Nordstrom's mission -
"Not service like it used to be, but service that never was. A place
where service is an act of faith" - encourages entrepreneurial, motivated
men and women to operate from their own personal missions
in making an extra effort to provide customer service that is
unequaled in American retailing. If revenue is an indicator of how
true a company stays to its mission, then Nordstrom, with sales in
excess of $4 billion, is solidly secure and a very "attractive" company.
What Are You Bringing to the World?
The key to staying fully passionate about your business and fully
empowered is to ensure that your personal mission and your business
mission are completely aligned. Whether you own, manage, or
work for your company, you as an individual have a personal mission.
Are you clear about what it is? Do you know what you want to bring
into the world each day?
We had the pleasure of working with Bambi McCullough, senior
vice president of the Houston-based Sterling Bank, and her fellow
executives in aligning their personal missions with the organization's
business mission -"Exceptional People Providing Unexpected Personal
Service." With the vision of becoming the number one bank
in the country for owner-operated businesses, they are delivering on
their mission through these six service standards, which define what
customers can expect from each and every employee:
1. To make every day our grand opening.
2. To Listen, Listen, Listen.
3. To serve others the way we want to be served.
4. To fulfill the customers' needs and exceed their expectations.
5. To be appreciative and respectful.
6. To be confident, knowledgeable, and continue to learn.
Each time Ed Young, owner of Edwin G. Young II Insurance
Agency, serves his most perfect customers, he has a clear sense of how
closely his personal and business missions are aligned. He proudly
displays his unique mission in his e-mail signature line "Your Friendly
Farmers Agent and Reconstructionist: When tragedy strikes, we help
you reconstruct your life with dignity."
To know if your business is aligned with your personal mission,
you must first be aware of your personal mission. One way to construct
a personal mission statement is to start by distinguishing the values
that you hold closest to your heart. Your core values are those qualities
and principles by which you measure your integrity. They give
you a foundation to stand upon.
Rick Sidorowicz, editor of The CEO Refresher, referencing the
work of James Collins and Jerry Porras in "Building Your Company's
Vision," gives a concise and complete overview of the nature of these
core values, whether they are held by a person or an organization:
Core values are the organization's sense of character or
integrity. Core values define what an organization stands for.
Values are "core" if they are so fundamental and deeply held
that they will change seldom, if ever. On the other hand it is
more likely that the organization will change markets if necessary
to remain true to its core values.
Perhaps the key to "greatness" in the sense of viability,
adaptability, longevity, and relevance for organizations is this
sense of character, identity, unwavering purpose, integrity and
the core values that you truly stand for. You discover core ideology
by looking inside. It has to be authentic. You can't fake
it. It's meaningful only to people inside your organization and
it need not be exciting to others outside.
How do you get people to share your core values? You
don't. You can't. Just find people that are "predisposed" to
share your values and purpose, attract and retain those people,
and let those who don't share your values go elsewhere.
Take a moment now to write down in the space below the values
that are at your core. Feel free to create your list with a partner with
whom you can bounce ideas back and forth.
To get you started, you might want to consider the following core
Values - integrity, joyfulness, confidence, dedication, a sense of humor,
commitment, spirituality, honesty, service, leadership - and add some
of them to your list. Next, consider what other values are important
to you, and add them to the list below.
My Core Values
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
From this list of core values, select the three or four that are the
most important to you.
Next, arrange these values into a mission statement. For example,
if you selected joyfulness, honesty, dedication, and service, your sentence
might be "My personal mission is to ensure that I bring honesty,
dedication, and service joyfully into everything I do for others."
You may feel that one value is more important to you than all the
rest. For example, you may believe that the most important value is
justice - that without justice, nothing else matters. If that is the case,
then your mission statement might be "My personal mission is to
ensure that everyone is treated with justice."
Now you have a basis from which to determine if your business is
also operating from this mission. Are the core values of the business
you own, you manage, or that employs you in alignment with your
core values?
If your answer is yes, you have a solid foundation on which to create
your Strategic Attraction Plan for more perfect customers.
If not, we encourage you to use the Strategic Attraction Planning
Process provided in part II to attract a more perfect job for you, one
that is aligned with your core values and your mission.
Vibrant Businesses Are More Attractive
Why is it so important for your personal and business missions to
be fully aligned? With this alignment, you stand taller, your light
shines farther, and you are more vibrant, more clearly visible, and
much more attractive to the customers who are most perfect for you
to serve. This is what it means to be on purpose with your mission.
Now let's explore in detail whom and what you want to attract.
Chapter Two
You Have the Power to Attract
Whatever You Desire
Manifesting - the business
of doing nothing more
than bringing into form
a new aspect of yourself.
Wayne W. Dyer
IF YOU can envision it, you
can manifest it. It's that simple.
Recent studies in the area of
quantum physics have resulted
in a growing understanding and
acceptance of the concept of
"mind over matter," that we can control the outcome of events by concentrating
on changing our current thought patterns and envisioning
the outcome that we prefer. Numerous consultants, behavior
therapists, and authors have expounded on the practice and process
of manifestation. Two such proponents are Wayne Dyer and Eileen
Caddy.
In his book Manifest Your Destiny, Dyer shares his experience that
"the process of creation begins first with a desire. Your desires, cultivated
as seeds of potential on the path of spiritual awareness, can
blossom in the form of freedom to have these desires in peace and
harmony with your world. Giving yourself permission to explore this
path is allowing yourself the freedom to use your mind to create the
precise material world that matches your inner world." Dyer is
reminding us that what we sow with our thoughts, we reap in the
physical world.
Eileen Caddy's Findhorn Community on the northernmost coast
of Scotland is internationally known for growing an abundance of
plants, vegetables, fruits, and herbs, even in the worst possible conditions.
Caddy attributes her green thumb to her philosophy of expectations:
"Expect your every need to be met, expect the answer to every problem,
expect abundance on every level, expect to grow spiritually. You
are not living by human laws. Expect miracles and see them take
place. Hold ever before you the thought of prosperity and abundance,
and know that your doing so sets in motion forces that will bring it
into being."
You have undoubtedly heard stories of people training their
minds to overcome personal and physical obstacles, healing themselves
of life-threatening illnesses, for example. These breakthroughs
have opened the door for us to use this process in healing our businesses
as well. First of all, it is time to recognize that marketing is,
and was always intended to be, about envisioning and then attracting
to us those customers who are perfect for our business to serve.
It's time to shift our thinking about our businesses from a
"scarcity" model - where there are not enough customers to go
around - to a model of abundance. We must turn our attention away
from the schools of thought that have taught us that good customers
are difficult to find, that we have to steal them from our competitors,
and that we have to keep meeting our customers' ever-increasing and
outrageous demands in order to keep them as our customers. As long
as this is what we believe business to be, this is the kind of business
we will create. In fact, this idea has become a self-fulfilling prophecy
for most businesses.
"Synchronicity Strategists," practitioners of the Strategic Synchronicity
marketing model, know that their business magnetism
(and profit) grows when they simply focus their attention on envisioning
perfect customers flocking to their doors on a regular basis.
"How could it possibly be that easy?" you may ask. Consider this:
if a picture is worth a thousand words, then one's vision speaks volumes
in attracting those qualities and attributes that one desires to
have in a perfect customer, coworker, employee - even a spouse.
(Continues...)
