Maintain Relationships During A Recession And Recovery

HOW TO BOND WITH YOUR EXISTING CLIENT DURING RECESSION AND RECOVERY

Good day. Anthony Manly here from selfmanagedbusiness.com. I was on a phone call this morning with a client. And what was interesting was that he was more focused on now that we’re coming out of this coronavirus scenario. Which has been like here in Australia.

It’s been now for probably a good six. Maybe twelve months. Since we’ve started to progress forward what do we need to do to continue the momentum as we come out of the coronavirus? Because all around the world there seem to be the skies falling.

The Chicken Little scenario that we’re now headed into a recession like, I’m hearing that coming out of America, and everyone is wondering, well, hang on a minute. Nobody wants to spend money.

What you need to do is start thinking about going back to basics. 

So what I want to talk about today is, first of all, getting into bonding with your existing client base.

1. The first thing that you need to understand is that you may or may not have some kind of communication rhythm going with your current client base.

Now, what you should do is stop digging around, like stop thinking to yourself, what else can I do to reinstate or continue the momentum with my clients? Just number one, just stop doing that.

2. The second thing is, what you want to do is what can I do to maintain the relationship that I have with my current customers and also ask them what they expect of me.

So look for that feedback that’s coming back out of your customers, right?

3. The third thing you want to do is yamp up the frequency of your communication.

Now, I’m not saying spam people left, right, and center with buying my offer, buy my offer, buy my offer. What I’m saying is starting to trickle in little bits of information.

So in other words, if someone’s interested in solving a specific problem, what you need to do is start to think to yourself, well, hang on a minute. 

If that’s a problem that I know that people in my niche have, how can I solve that problem in a system with a quick win that I can create very fast for those particular people and just communicate with your client based on how you can solve that problem?

4. The fourth thing is you want to vary the message that you’re sending, right?

So when I say to vary the message, you want to vary the problems that you’re solving.

So don’t just hone in and focus on one problem just keep focusing on that one problem.

So a good one that we use is Escape and Arrival.

Now. The escape and arrival framework came from Frank Kern, originally.

That’s who I got the idea from and what it is, it’s understanding where your customer is and where they want to be.

Now, what you need to do is just map out a timeline of events.

So if someone is wanting to achieve something, all you’re going to do is just map out the core steps that that person would take to get to the other side to be a happy customer.

So they’re going to arrive at their ideal solution. 

Once you’ve understood that, you’ve then got to say to yourself, well, what are the major steps and what are the problems that I’m solving along the way?

And if you can break that down into a high-level, simple process and give people really good chunks of information that are actionable and they can get results from, you will be very surprised at how quickly you can keep your client base together.

Now let’s switch gears a little bit and love across and talk about what you should be focused on now that we’ve come out of the Coronavirus and been hit with this recession.

So as I mentioned, people are going to become very reluctant, or they are reluctant to spend money when they hear the word recession. 

I don’t believe we’re ever in recession. 

I just think it’s just this word that people make up.

People are either looking to spend money or they’re looking to expand. And I think that’s the type of thing that you need to portray to your customer base.

How do you sell post Coronavirus and in what we call a recession?

1. The first thing you want to do is you want to continue your marketing campaigns.

However, when I say I want to continue marketing campaigns, start to look to expand the audience.

So where can you also assist someone else in a similar business to yours, with your audience or with your solutions?

So start to think along the lines of, and I’m just going to use an example. If I’m a lawnmower guy, why don’t I tag along with a landscaper who has some kind of clientele and who has some kind of clients who may need their lawn mode?

What kind of problems can you solve for them?

So that’s an example of expanding who you’re marketing to.

What you then want to do is you want to lower the cost or lower the barrier to entry.

So whether that be a cost or whether that be solving problems., soin other words, don’t overprice your services.

What you want to do is just lower the barrier so that you can take someone from where they currently are and you can give them a slice.

Now, what I’ve seen a lot of people do is like, I don’t know if you ever read the book The Alchemist.

And inside the Alchemist, what he does is he starts as a shepherd and he starts heading out into the wide world and he starts to experience different things as he’s moving through the journey.

Now, if you know the book, you’ll know that as he progresses, he starts to grow as a person.

Now, what you want to do is not put in front of somebody a solution that’s meant for your top-end clients who understand what you’re talking about.

You want to have a small piece, a small slice of the pie to get them to a certain level before you move them on to the next level.

Now, when I say this, what I mean is that give them a solution that they can sit back, and absorb, depending on where they’re at on the level or the rung they’re on before they start to think about moving to the next level.

2. The next thing you want to do is go where the money is flowing.

So think about it. If everyone is pouring money into, say, getting their car washed because the weather’s nice, that’s where you want to head.

So if you’re like providing car cleaning products and it’s a beautiful day every day for the next, say, 30 days, what you want to do is you want to get yourself in front of that clientele who are looking to wash their car or get it washed by the local car wash like you want to get your products and services out there.

3. The third thing is a test.

Just keep continually testing what’s working.

Now ask other people that are in the same industry as yourself what’s working for them. Sometimes your competitors are a bit reluctant to help you, but it doesn’t stop you from asking that particular question.

And some people are very open to helping.

4. The last thing is you want to quantify your buyer’s timelines.

Understand that just because a customer is just sitting there looking, they may well buy at some point in the future.

What I’ve seen a lot of people do is they get out there and they get on social media like buy my stuff,  buy my stuff,  buy my stuff. I need sales, I need sales. And it screams that you need the sales right now.

Rather than treating them as a person and taking them on a journey, an adventure, so to speak.

And when you take them on a journey, it’s taking them to the point where they’re going to get this particular piece of information.

I need this information to take my business to the next level.

Everyone that you take on board or signs up for a product, whether it be a free product or even a lower-priced product within your business, they’re looking for something to assist them to get to the next level.

Now, I’ve seen people on our list that have been on there for two, maybe even four years before they’ll even go, hang on a minute, this guy’s got the solution that I’m looking for.

So do not discount just because someone signed up for a free service that they may not become a client down the track.

Because ultimately you’re going to get at least 20% of those people that may convert.

So I always work off the 80-20 rule. You’ll hear some people talk about the 64-four rule, which is just basically 4% of the work that you do yields 64% of the results.

It’s just another version of the 80-20 rule. So listen, overall, just remember, these are just some tips and tricks or tactics probably the better word that you can use to improve your business and grow your clientele as we start to move out of well, I don’t even think we’re in a recession. And dare I say the word but as we start to move out of Coronavirus completely have a great day.