Feb 12, 2020
Hello again, sleepless warriors (omigod SO TIRED)! It’s time for another episode of the Four AM Report! As if being sleep deprived over one issue wasn’t enough – this week we have a guest who is sleep-deprived TWICE OVER!
Welcome Kim Chernecki *sleepy Kim rubs sand out of her eyes 👀👀👀*, CEO and founder of Freedom Street, Canada's leading expert on helping freelance executives, consultants and small business owners land lucrative corporate contracts.
Today, we’re talking about two issues that drive MOST people running a business to drink (oh wait…maybe that’s just me? 😂🍷😂) – list building, and then landing that elusive corporate contract!
Here’s a sampling of what we talked about – but if you want the full-monty NOW – click here to listen to the entire sleepy chat!
Running a Business is a GRIND, Ya’ll!
List building. Ugh. How many contacts do you have? Who’s graced you with their email so you can market monthly to them directly? How can you BUILD that list? And how important are those numbers?
“Firstly, I lose sleep over that classic marketing issue, which is trying to build my list, I have to tell you, since I've been in business, it’s really been a grind, you know, and it almost feels like the struggle - and I've got a pretty good list - but trying to really take it to that next level. I've just found it being a grind. So that's the first thing that I lose sleep over.”
So, Where Should You Focus Your Resources?
Do you spend valuable time (and hellooooo, time is money💰💰💰, amiright?) constantly trying to lure in new leads? Or do you focus on the loyal peeps you’ve already got in your little marketing handbasket??
“I was looking at some stats, and I found this little interesting tidbit - it costs five times more to attract a new customer than it does to get business from somebody already on your list. So, let's approach this from a bit of a different perspective. Yes, we all want to grow our list. But the end goal is more business. And I'm sure Susan agrees with me here. The first rule is let's work the clients we already have. Let's work that list that we already have. Let's work on retaining clients. repeat business building a long, loyal, lasting relationship.”
Small But Mighty Can Result in Big Wins!
It all comes down to how you *koff* service the people on your list!
“For a few years, we made six figures with 44 people. That's, that's all we had on our list. We didn't try to grow it in any way. We just made sure that those 44 people were being it! There are two levels to it, I guess. One is the service level, as the industry would probably call it, which is you do what you say you would, you deliver things which far outweigh you know, what would be like median average, like you're really outstanding, like 10% more than what anyone expects. So that's obviously the first part and the second is you keep in touch and you offer help and you offer those contacts and you hook them up with people with no questions asked. So that's how the 44 people resulted in that level of business.”
Then I wanted to also talk about something that causes my clients to lose sleep. And that's getting in the door, actually getting those meetings and getting in the door with corporate clients.”
But WAIT! I Want My Leads List to GROW!
Yes, yes, we have advice for you on that too!
“[Let’s say] they downloaded this or they booked the call or whatever those, you know, we like to call them micro conversions, nobody's going to come in and buy 10s of thousand dollars-worth of packages based on a Facebook ad - you gotta like, show them something, bring them in and say read this next piece, then show them a larger piece of infrastructure, maybe it's a podcast, maybe it's a download, you know, something like that. And then you keep getting them further and further into the universe until they're willing to give you that email for that pitch. So it's about it's a little bit of respect, I guess for the for the process and the fact that it's all the little breadcrumbs that you're posting along the way. And that's where the content comes in is like, you know, the master class and the webinar. You're saying show up, you will learn the following three things.”
“I think where a really great parallel can be drawn here is the whole trusted advisor approach. So, you know, it's really about being that go to resource, adding value, being that trusted advisor to those corporate decision makers, until they have a need, like you might meet them and they won't have they won't need your services yet, but it's like you start developing that relationship with them until it's time that they can buy so I really do see some overlap there some connection.”
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