Have you got a clear, concise marketing plan for your business? Or are flying by the seat of your pants hoping things will work out.

A marketing plan is arguably the most important document any business can create. If you've avoided creating a plan because you thought it would be too expensive, time consuming or difficult I have good news.

Author of the One Page Marketing Plan Allan Dib joins me to explain how you can create a sophisticated plan for your business on one sheet of paper in around 20 mins.

00:00:11:21 - 00:00:26:27
Warwick: Welcome to the marketers club podcast. The show all about helping you work smarter earn more and accelerate your success. And now he's your host. Paul McCarthy

00:00:30:09 - 00:01:15:20
Paul: Welcome to Episode 28 of the marketers club podcast I am your host Paul McCarthy and I'm here to help you market your talent so you can earn what you're worth and ultimately make more of a difference in the world. Great to have you company again for another episode of the marketers club podcast. Now let me ask you a question. What sort of marketing plan are you following. I mean do you have a marketing plan or are you simply flying by the seat of your pants waking up each day and just going and hoping that you get where you wanted to go. Well the reality is a lot of small business owners have no marketing plan in place and it's really hurting their ability to generate potential profits to really guide their activities in a positive way so they can create the outcomes they are looking for. Now

00:01:15:22 - 00:01:56:27
Paul: Now perhaps if you don't have a marketing plan in place it might been because you thought it was going be too expensive to build. Maybe it was going be too time consuming too complex to do and you simply didn't have the time to invest in it. Maybe you thought you'll create a plan that will lock you in or that you will create a document that you will never look at. Well my guest today has got the answer for you. He's the author of the book the one page marketing plan. Allen Dib is on the line to share his insights about how you can create a really sophisticated marketing plan with just one page a plan that will help guide your activities and generate a lot more revenue for your business.

00:01:56:29 - 00:02:38:07
Paul: And you can do it in around 15 to 20 minutes. Now Allen will share with us where you can grab a guide but essentially you're going to be using one sheet of paper to create a detailed marketing plan for your business. So this is going to be a great episode for you to take some notes to listen and to really dig into making a plan for your business. Because I can promise you once you've got a marketing plan in place it becomes a lot easier to execute what it is that you want to do in your business and start to generate the results you're looking for. So I don't want to take any more time. I want to dive into my conversation with Allen Dib and start to help you build your one page marketing plan. Allen Dib welcome to the marketers club podcast great to have you on the show.

00:02:38:18 - 00:02:40:04
Allan: Hey Paul. Pleasure to be on.

00:02:40:09 - 00:03:18:21
Paul: Well it's my pleasure to have you mate and you know obviously this is a conversation close to my heart. We're going to be talking about marketing and I'm mainly about the idea of the marketing plan and you've written a brilliant book around the idea of a one page plan and I think maybe that's one of the reasons people don't get to producing a marketing plan is they get overawed by the size of it and all of the things that are gonna go into it. You really helped to condense that thinking so keen to have a chat about all things planning around our marketing why we need to do it so let's start there. Why is it so important for us is as business owners as entrepreneurs to have a marketing plan.

00:03:19:03 - 00:03:53:08
Allan: Yeah. Paul that's a great question. What we find is that professionals have plans you know. And so whether we're thinking about like a the military the military hasn't operate military operations plan at whether we're thinking of a doctor doctor has a medical treatment plan a pilot a pilot has a flight plan. How would you feel about stepping on an airplane where the pilots say you know don't worry about the plan we know how to get there right. So you'd freak out and you should be getting on that plane. And so wherever the stakes are high you need to have a plan.

00:03:53:10 - 00:04:35:21
Allan: And so often when we find someone's messed something up. They either didn't have a plan or they didn't follow a plan. And so the stakes are really really high in business as well you know. You know we've got our livelihoods on the line. Marriages break up because of financial reasons as well so the stakes are really really high. Beyond just yourself it's your family your community the business environment and the economic environment. And so you need to have a plan to succeed in business. And really a marketing plan is the most important type of plan that you need to have. It's the plan that will help you get new leads new prospect new clients in the door and really from a business perspective. There's really nothing more important.

00:04:35:27 - 00:05:11:03
Paul: I agree wholeheartedly. I think that we we have to know where we're going. The old saying if you don't know where you're going any road will do and a lot of business owners sort of wake up in the morning and they just start moving but they're not sure where they're moving to or why they're doing what they're doing. So let's put some some structure around it if we're going to build a plan and obviously we'll let people know where they can grab your book and that they should definitely grab a copy of your book the one page marketing plan it'll be a great guide and structure but just walk us through I guess some of the structural things we need to think about in terms of where we start with building and planning. What's our first step.

00:05:11:16 - 00:06:23:09
Allan: Yes. So firstly I created the one page marketing plan to make it really easy and simple for someone to put together a marketing plan. The reason I did that was because I've got a lot of resistance from clients when I said look let's put together a marketing plan and they thought it'll be too expensive. Don't know what to do. Need to hire a consultant. All of this sort of stuff. And so by necessity I created the one page marketing planning process where literally in a single page in 15 to 20 minutes you can put together a very sophisticated direct response marketing plan. And so if you're in front of a computer you can grab yourself a copy of the one page marketing plan template for free it's just on my website which successwise.com That way you've got a got a visual guide or if you're driving or listening somewhere mobile you'll just have to visualize it. And so if you visualize a single sheet of paper split into nine squares so that three squares or three lots of three. So the top three the middle three and the bottom three. And so that's what makes up the one page marketing plan canvas and so the very first step in the one page marketing plan canvas is all about attracting attention.

00:06:23:11 - 00:07:21:17
Allan: So it's we call it the the before phase. That's before someone knows that you really exist. And so the before phase entails firstly selecting your target market and being very very clear on who do we want to receive our message. And then the second part of the the before phase is what message are we going to give them. So what's going to connect with them at an emotional level where they say Hey yes I want that. That's for me. And then the third part of that before phase is the media. How are we going to reach them. So are they on Facebook. Are they going to reach them by email. Are we going to reach them by print via broadcast medium of some sort. So really those three set us up for the before phase to really get awareness. So before someone knows that we exist. So they consist of your target market your message to your target market and the media that you're going to reach your target market with.

00:07:21:23 - 00:07:50:15
Paul: We're singing from the same hymn book. And so we're deeply aligned in our thinking. Allan but so let's just have a quick chat about some of these elements. I mean first target audience many entrepreneurs feel like it is going to restrict their ability to attract clients if they start to get too targeted about who they are going after. So tell us just quickly why is it important for us to narrow the focus and get a target audience.

00:07:50:17 - 00:08:56:05
Allan: That's such a good point because a lot of people think hey I'm an accountant or I'm a lawyer. Everyone's my target market. That feels like you casting the widest net possible and that feels logical like you know we don't want to exclude anyone because then we're kind of getting the most opportunities possible. And so this is a really major mistake that business owners make where they say look my target market is everyone and what that means is is that your target market is no one. So no one is seeing what you do and saying hey that's for me. And I don't give you an example to illustrate this. So recently my wife she injured her knee and you know it was interesting to see her on Google what she was typing and she was typing knee specialist and then the area where we live now even though a physio or a chiropractor that specialised in necks, heads, backs whatever could probably help her. What was she looking for. She was looking for a knee specialist because when she had that very very specific injury and she wanted someone who's a specialist in that area.

00:08:56:10 - 00:10:01:21
Allan: And when you think about people and particularly your target audience you know I'm kind of obsessed with kind of visualizing what do people type into that Google search box you know. And it's very rarely something General. It's usually very specific like when I think of myself when I'm trying to solve a problem I'm typing very very specific things into that Google search box I'm not typing general stuff like rarely would someone just typing doctor or lawyer or whatever you would say you know lawyer in this area that specializes in X Y Z. Right. So and so this is why it's very very important to select your target market. The second reason is that you probably don't have enough firepower to do mass marketing so and by firepower I mean time and I mean money. So to reach a mass audience particularly with the the amount of fragmented media we have and by fragmented media I mean we used to be able to reach everybody just by getting on TV and getting into the newspaper there were maybe a few TV channels and a few newspapers and you know that's it.

00:10:01:23 - 00:10:48:12
Allan: We could pretty much reach everyone now. Media is so fragmented. There's you know billions of blogs there's different Netflix Hulu all of these kind of streaming on demand. There's free to air TV this cable all of that. And so it's very very difficult. It's very very expensive to reach a mass audience. And so you need to be hyper targeted because like I said you've got limited firepower. And by firepower I mean time and money. So you need to use that firepower in a very targeted fashion to get a good result. Otherwise you're gonna be shooting bullets in all random directions and maybe you randomly will hit a hit a target that you want but that's not a good strategy. That's that's unlikely to get you a good return on investment.

00:10:48:17 - 00:11:25:12
Paul: Absolutely and I think so if we get narrow and as I say sometimes for people it may feel a little counterintuitive but it's the only way to go. We've got to really position our expertise if we want to be found. But then if we target our expertise in and we attract people in. Then the message that we bring to the market is going to be crucial so any tips for us in terms of that messaging. What we need to do to make sure that our message is really clear. Because obviously many people's messages are simply confusing the audience when they land and therefore they as you said if they are Google searching they click in and click out as fast as they came in so. Absolutely. What we're gonna do to make sure our message gets heard.

00:11:25:18 - 00:11:38:00
Allan: Yeah I had a whole I had a whole webinar just yesterday on messaging so I've got this nice and nice in the fresh. So here's what we know. We know that a confused mind says no.

00:11:38:07 - 00:12:51:08
Allan: So many people think that by being clever or by using weird or professional sounding language or phrases or things like that that that's going to attract people or that if people are confused they'll contact them and inquire for more information or that'll pique someone's curiosity and I don't know about you but I've probably got a hundred browser tabs open right now and you know these are things that I might get to one day I might never get to maybe my computer will crash and I'll let you know all of those tabs will be gone. And so you need to think of yourself in the context of your ideal prospects day. So you're one of a thousand things that they've got going on that day. And so unless they are highly highly motivated around what you do if they're confused if there's confusion they're highly unlikely to engage with you. They're just gonna close a tab or forget about you and move on to the to the next person that they're dealing with. What we need to do is get a very clear message out and forget about cleverness forget about you know trying to be humorous and all that like I've sent business names that are kind of a weird play on words and you're thinking What is this all about.

00:12:51:10 - 00:14:10:11
Allan: Well you go to a web page and then you know they're talking about you know how a grandfather started the business in 1974 and you know using crazy words and phrases and and you still can't figure out what the heck this is about. And so you've got to be you know don't be clever don't be confusing. Just be clear focus on clarity exactly what you do. So super super important. There's really nothing more important from a messaging point of view than getting clarity and then really hitting some of the emotional hot buttons of your target market. So what is it that they're afraid of. What's keeping them up at 3:00 a.m. What's the conversation going on in their mind and addressing that. You know sometimes as marketers we kind of skirt around the issue like we know there's an elephant in the room and we kind of skirt around it and we just focus on the positive things. But it's the it's the negative aspects that will still fester in the mind of a of a prospect and I'll give you an example as a coach as a consultant as a marker. One of the biggest battles that we will fight is that people will think oh yes look this this process or this thing that you're doing that that will work for John Smith because John Smith is richer smarter more handsome in a different geographic area or whatever but it's not going to work for me.

00:14:10:13 - 00:14:53:01
Allan: And so being able to show a prospect that hey this will actually work for you and entering that conversation going on in their mind. And that elephant in the room where where I know. Often the prospect has that on their mind the way they are thinking yeah this all sounds really good but I don't think it's gonna work for me because an insert excuse well because I'm in B2B or I'm in B2C say or my clients are really cheap or because you know I live in Australia or because whatever you know. So really entering that conversation going on in their mind addressing their fears and concerns and interest. And that elephant in the room I think from a messaging point of view these things are all super critical.

00:14:53:08 - 00:15:23:23
Paul: Know we like to say at the marketers club that it's about eliminating the yes but questions and I think that's exactly what you're talking about. We've got to understand what that is. Yes but questions on how we get rid of them. So we've got our first phase is looking at you know before we in the prospecting phase the next is once we've generated that lead. And during that lead phase. So tell us about what we've got to do to capture leads and to manage those three to do a sales process.

00:15:23:29 - 00:16:19:23
Allan: The during phase is really laid capture and then lead nurturing and then sales conversion and that's where we take someone from being kind of vaguely interested in what we've got to do what we've got to offer. Maybe they put their hand up by and they can put their hand up any number of ways. So it could be you know clicking on onto your ad or opting into your mailing list or calling your your office phone number or whatever. So now they've put their hand up and said look I'm vaguely interested in what you've got to offer. Tell me more. And so this is where a lot of business owners kind of go into you know hard selling mode you know great you know they kind of get the this feeling it's called hope and pride. So right we've got a hot prospect here. And so it's time to close them right. And so and there's nothing there's nothing wrong with kind of you know being keen to make a sale and things like that. But I've often found that.

00:16:20:04 - 00:17:44:09
Allan: Well here's what we know. We know that about 3 per cent of your target market on average in general will be hot prospects who are ready to go right now and everybody is fighting for those prospects. So all the competition all the ads all the all the Google clicks all the Facebook ads they're targeting those people who are ready to buy right now. So there's so much competition for them and they're a very small percentage of the of your target market. But here's what else we know. We know that a further 7 per cent there maybe not ready immediately but they kind of quite open to having a conversation and they could be ready to go at any time. Then there's a further 30 per cent who are interested but not right now. So they might be interested in 30 days 60 days 90 days a year two years or whatever else. So that's a really big chunk of people 30 per cent then we know there's a further 30 per cent who just aren't interested. And the further 30 per cent who probably wouldn't even take your product if it were free. So we don't we don't worry about those. But you know if we can take our addressable market from 3 per cent the people who are ready to buy today to 40 per cent which is those 3 per cent the 7 per cent who are kind of open to having a discussion and they the next 30 per cent who are interested but not today then that massively increases our addressable market and increases our addressable market by over twelve hundred per cent so.

00:17:44:18 - 00:18:49:24
Allan: So what we need to do is have a way of capturing leads of people who are interested but not today so that they're going to be a pipeline of clients who are going to be clients in 30 days 60 days 90 days a year two years. So I recently had someone who signed up for my high level coaching and I asked him I asked him how long have you been on my mailing list. And he said two years. Right. So if two years ago he'd have said look this this person's a tire kicker I'm not going to keep in touch. That would have been a wasted opportunity and I would say the vast majority of my certainly my high ticket items are people who've been engaging with me for a relatively long time so it might be 30 days 60 days 90 days a year two years whatever else. But these people make up your audience and these people make up your future revenue and so the sophisticated marketer is someone who knows how to keep in touch and nurture those leads over a long period of time like anybody knows how to deal with a hot prospect who's ready to go to that you know clicks a Buy Now button or sign up here or whatever.

00:18:49:26 - 00:19:42:17
Allan: But it's the sophisticated marketers who know how to keep in touch with people over a long period of time so that when they are ready to buy you you're kind of ready to go. And so that's really what we want to do and we don't want to be it's not keeping in touch in terms of you know being a pest and you know constantly following up and pushing pushing. It's about being that trusted voice that educator that person who takes them through the the buying journey said that they're they're really well-educated because we know a better educated prospect is a better prospect. And so that's where we want to kind of lead them naturally through the sales conversion process rather than kind of just jumping at a prospect to who's just indicated interest and you know kind of ramming it down their throat. So that's really what we want to do in the nurturing phase through to lead conversion.

00:19:42:19 - 00:21:00:06
Paul: I think a lot of people go too hard too fast just chasing the quick sale and they don't take the time to build a relationship. I think let's say if you walk into a into a party and you're meeting a bunch of strangers it's unlikely that in that environment you would walk up to somebody and say Would you like to buy I'm going to build a relationship and establish a connection. And over time once you understand their needs you're going to build on that and support them and help them. And I think also part of the nurture process is is obviously that people don't move until something hurts enough. So when the pain is high enough then they make the decision to engage as this gentleman has done after a couple of years of being in your world has gone rotten now is the time. So something's moved me sufficiently for them. So part of our nurture is going to need to be about how we skillfully agitate the pain and bring people's awareness. Understanding the implications in terms of I guess the tools again people going to need to have the right tools in place. So what are what are a couple of the tools you would suggest or recommend that you guide your clients towards in terms of being able to capture leads to nurture leads. Because this is not something that you can do in your head.

00:21:00:08 - 00:22:07:12
Allan: No certainly not really at the heart of your tools is your CRM system. So yeah and you know people always ask What's the best CRM system and really my answer to that is the best CRM system is the CRM system that you'll actually use. So don't worry about the actual tool. I mean I can make specific recommendations if someone someone wants but really what I want my CRM to do is to better capture leads to be able to tag and segment them to be able to automatically create triggers and follow ups. So based on the behavior of the prospect say for example if they click a a page on my website or open an email or whatever so I want to be out to create rules where it triggers fire things off in the CRM so where and where they can be automatically contacted by email or another medium. So really that's what I want my CRM system to do. A good number of CRM arms will have that kind of functionality. And so really I want my CRM to do a lot of the heavy lifting the automation.

00:22:07:14 - 00:23:33:24
Allan: So I don't want to have to remember to follow up with Bob Smith. I want my CRM system to automatically do that for me. So yes you CRM is really at the heart of it very closely connected to your CRM is your Web site. I think for the vast majority of business owners. Unless you're running a really really small business and even if you are running a really small business you're probably going to need a Web site because people will come and check you out and see what you have to offer. And so you want your website to be very tightly connected to your CRM system so that you can track where pages people have visited so that people can opt in on the website and join your mailing list. And so that you can keep in touch with them so those would be probably the two essential non-negotiable tools outside of that. There are many tools that that can assist you know things like chat systems or chat bots that they can be very very useful. We've got landing page systems and funnel kind of builders. If you're selling an online course systems that will allow you to easily sell online courses and give access to to people to that material. If you're running a subscription of any kind a system that takes payment and manages those subscriptions so there's some of the tools that we use but really at the core at the center the non-negotiable is are really your Web site and your CRM system.

00:23:34:14 - 00:23:59:15
Paul: So we've got our target market identified. We've built a message that's resonating it's speaking in their language we've captured the lead we've nurtured that layer we've made the sale we move into the next phase the next three stages of the plan. So the the after wins now somebody is a customer. So I talked to us a little bit about that journey and how we maximize the value of the people we bring into our world.

00:24:00:03 - 00:25:07:03
Allan: Yeah. Great question so a lot of people think hey I've attracted attention I've closed the sales so my marketing is done right. That's it. And really that's kind of the hard and expensive and difficult part of it. And really where the where the real money is made is in the after phase. So that's when someone has become a client. And our job is threefold in the after phase. Firstly we want to deliver a world class experience. We want people to have an amazing experience with us. Why do we want that. We want that because here's here's what I know is that a dollar from a raving fan is more valuable than a dollar from someone who is just buying from you in a transaction where you know they bought from you because you were the cheapest price or the most convenient or or whatever else. So a dollar from a raving fan is more valuable than a dollar from someone who's just buying from you transaction. Despite the fact that your bank manager probably won't agree with that but that really is the truth because raving fans are more fun to deal with.

00:25:07:09 - 00:26:13:22
Allan: They spend more they refer more and they just make business fun right. If you're dealing with people who are disgruntled who are shopping on price were difficult to deal with who pay late. That's an awful way to run a business. And so you want to create that tribe of raving fans. Now the next thing that you want to do is really increased lifetime value so we can increase the lifetime value of a client's time. Maybe somebody is bought from you once and now your job is to figure out how can we increase the lifetime value. It's not for selfish reasons. It's I mean you get a benefit of course but it's really about giving them the optimal experience making sure that they buy in enough quantity in enough quality in enough volume to really get the result that they're after. And I'll give you an illustration so recently I had switched Internet service providers and you know I'd been with the previous Internet service provider for many many years. And you know when I bought that there that product from them when I bought my internet from them at the time it was it was fit for purpose.

00:26:13:24 - 00:27:31:22
Allan: It was nice and fast did everything that I needed. And then you know of course Netflix came out streaming services came out cloud services came out and all of this sort of stuff. And it was no longer fit for service it was too slow. It was not not fit for my needs. And so because my internet service provider did not keep in touch with me they did they could have sold me the next plan up the next version up the next whatever but they didn't they didn't keep in touch with me. And so that created a switching event that created an event where I went out to the market and say okay what's available that I can buy that will fit my needs. So really it's incumbent on you as a marketer to make sure that your existing clients you know they've got what they need not just today but into the future. So making sure that they're buying. Like I said in enough quantity and quality and volume to satisfy their needs and get a really good result over time. And so you can do that through ascension through subscription programs through many many different methods. And so we we need to make sure that people are getting a good experience and that we're giving there they're giving our product to them in sufficient quantity quality or volume or whatever else that that's applicable so that they get the result that they need.

00:27:31:24 - 00:28:08:06
Allan: The last thing is is orchestrating and stimulating referrals and I purposely call this orchestrating and stimulating referrals because it implies something active a lot of people kind of just hope and pray for referrals and you know it's nice when one lands in your lap but what is your system for actually orchestrating those referrals for making sure that they actually happen and creating an environment where it's easy for somebody to refer to you. So that's really the after phase where we're delivering a world class experience with increasing customer lifetime value and then we're creating a system for orchestrating and stimulating referrals.

00:28:08:08 - 00:29:36:29
Paul: Again three brilliant points for us to focus on. I was reading recently about some of the work on the studies that buzz sumo had done in relation to viral materials and content that had spread virally and I was out not that I would be encouraging people to chase the idea of generating viral material because it's one of those kind of elusive things. But if they they boiled down and looked at common traits and the number one thing that they found across all of the content was it created a sense of awe in people. And I think you know as part of the experience is if we were to stop and ask ourselves in your customer dealings as you in terms of the experience you provide your customers what point in that or how often would you say that you create a sense of or where you completely surprise and blow them away. And I think that if if business owners marketers stop and really analyze that I think the answer to that question will be very seldom that we do that. So how do we really boost up that that experience and build on that that lifetime value a suspect for a lot of people well and that one of the issues and one of the reasons is you sort of said at the beginning there that we're not maximizing the lifetime value of a client is because we think the job is already done that the hard work and we won the customer.

00:29:37:08 - 00:31:11:03
Allan: Yes. And so that that comes back perhaps even to a whole business model conversation about what business I'm really in and and how do I deliver the full value to the client. So it's understanding the journey and that maybe rather than necessarily selling the the big end consultants he always said to people you know it's unlikely that if I stepped on a stage for the first time in front of a strange audience and offered my private consultancy or my top programs that many people would sign up. But many people end up there because they start a journey they took a little step and they built on that. So this ascension structure or process is there any tips or ideas for us in terms of what we can do to assess how and where we're taking our clients. I find that the sales you know very rich rarely does someone can you convince someone to do something that they don't want to do. And so because so much of selling that I've seen and sales training is about you know overcome objections push push push follow up follow up follow up and all of that sort of stuff. And yes there's a measure of yes you do. You do need to get people to take action and and you do need to follow up and all of those sorts of things so there's nothing wrong with that per say. But what I find is the vast majority of people unless you're selling something really low value you really can't push them into doing something that they don't want to do. And so really what we want to do from a sales perspective is get to the truth.

00:31:11:05 - 00:32:09:26
Allan: So create an environment where your prospect is comfortable enough to tell you the truth. Say look I don't have the budget or you know I don't have the time right now or you know I'm not really the decision maker or whatever else you need to create that environment because if you don't do that you're going to get weird stuff happening like like putting pressure on a prospect. It feels weird from us from our perspective like we don't feel like you know if I said if I get up every day and make 20 call calls like I would hate that right. So because it's weird. It's kind of weird to have to cold call and push push push and all of those things. And so it's weird for you but it's also weird on the receiving end. So you know you push. So if I push you What are you going to do. You're going to push back. And how does a prospect push back in a sales perspective so they start not responding to your emails or avoiding your phone calls or saying things like you know I'll think about it and all those sorts of things that's.

00:32:10:01 - 00:33:29:07
Allan: That all comes about because you're creating an environment of pressure. So what you need to do as someone who is in sales and marketing is to create a safe environment where you diffuse pressure where it's the prospect feels comfortable telling you the truth saying look I'm just not ready right now or I just don't have the budget right now. And so you being in that life and having that contact with them on a regular basis way way you're providing them value so that when they do become ready when something does change in their life or their circumstances and now what you've got is a good fit for them then of course your your top of mind you know who would you rather buy from from a friend or a trusted adviser who's been in contact with you and provided you a lot of value over time or just some random stranger. And so it's about creating that environment where people are comfortable telling you the truth. From a sales perspective and being there they're top of mind when that when those circumstances change in their life. There's a lot more to it of course we will go into a lot of death with sales training but that's the that's kind of the high level view is really how can we defuse pressure. How can we not make someone feel like we're pushing because what they're going to do is push back.

00:33:29:21 - 00:34:55:25
Paul: Great completely agree and I think that part of it is that we have to check our intent and if our intent is to push for a sale or if our intent is to serve our customer more effectively one is driven by our need one is driven by their needs save where they're in their corner supporting them then they're not going to feel that sense of pressure they're going to feel a sense of support and when they're ready to move and we've just got to be there long enough. You mentioned about the power of referrals and in Episode 3 of the marketers club podcast. I spoke to my good friend Bill Cates from the US who's a leading referral coach one of the leading referral experts in the world. And we chatted about the power of referrals and getting referrals and building a referral based business. And I'll put a link to that episode in our show notes. But one of the things that Bill talked about with referrals he said you know it's not hard to generate referrals it's just easier not to easier not to do the asking. So you know you've really nailed it by talking about that we need to orchestrate we can't be just sitting with our fingers crossed hoping that they passively roll in. But in terms of generating a referral if you go to a strategy or a tip for us in terms of something we could do that will help us to convert more referrals.

00:34:55:26 - 00:36:36:29
Allan: Definitely definitely. You know what a lot of people do and I've seen this in networking kind of events and things like that. You know if the lawyer stands up and says you know if you know anyone who's needing some help with family law just refer them to me and you know no one's going to refer people to you unless unless they know someone who is definitely in need of what you have to offer right then and there right now. And there's a kind of a like a desperate need. Like if I if you know someone even if you someone who maybe might need that service or product. You'll probably resist making that referral or that connection and the reason is you don't want to put your friend or relative or whatever under sales pressure. If if they're not ready or if it's not a good fit or whatever so you need to create a mechanism where someone can refer people to you without them having to necessarily just give you their phone number give them your phone number or whatever else or email address. Or that inside one of the best ways I found is figuring out something that they can pass on. So in my case in my business it would be my book. So I give my book out to you know to almost anyone because I know it's something that gets passed along. And whenever I send someone a book in the mail I'll send them to books I'll send them one for them and one to give to a friend or a relative. Right. Because if I said look if you know anyone who needs business coaching whatever just refer them to me. Unless you're absolutely sure that person is a really good fit for what I have to offer and they're ready to go right now. You're probably not going to make that connection but you may pass on my book. You

00:36:37:01 - 00:37:42:10
Allan: You may say look. Check out this book. And that's something of value that you can pass on because as a referral you want to look good and feel good about creating value for whoever your your referring. So so someone passing on my book it's like them giving a gift. They're saying look. Check out this book or check out this report or whatever else. So as a referral they feel good. It's kind of like if you think about the last time you referred a friend or a relative to go see a movie or a restaurant. Right. You weren't trying to do a favor to the restaurant chain or the movie production or anything like that you wanted your friend to have a good time because you had a good time and so really understanding that people make referrals for selfish reasons they're not doing you a favor they're doing they want to look good with their friend and they want their friend to have a really good experience like they did and say you know facilitate that by giving them something that they can pass on. That's a value. And that will be a next step to potentially them connecting with you in and doing business with you. Does that make sense.

00:37:42:12 - 00:38:16:10
Paul: It does. Thank you. It's it's great advice and that's good. Again really shifting the perspective in which we are looking at the reasons the motivation for doing things and so then then nobody does it for our reasons and throwing out vague. Just keep me in your mind and refer whenever somebody says that that is a absolute needle in a haystack approach to referral generation. You know I don't think many people are going to get that. I just want to wrap up with a conversation you mentioned as we were going through about the idea of the experience but but building your tribe.

00:38:16:12 - 00:38:58:21
Paul: So just to talk about briefly about the idea of the importance of your database and building your own community and having that audience how how incredibly important that is. I'll put my own bias in here and that is I think it's a mistake for people to make their tribe purely based on a social media platform because it's a platform that you don't control properly. And it can go away at any time so I'm always an advocate and a fan for people to build their own list and be able to control it lists. But I'd love to get your perspective on the idea of tribe building community building having a database and how important that is to us in terms of executing a successful marketing plan.

00:38:58:23 - 00:39:54:22
Allan: It's incredibly important. So it's kind of the difference between being the tenant and the landlord right. So on on somebody else's platform and I'm not saying don't use other people's platforms right. Use other people's platforms but be aware that it's a platform that you don't control like Facebook like Google like whatever your you're a tenant. Right. And so the landlord can change the rules on you anytime and the landlord has and does do that on a regular basis. So people might remember back in the day if somebody liked your Facebook page you were able to reach all of that audience and then Facebook came in and said no we're going to change that apps so now to reach your whole audience you have to pay and boost those posts or otherwise you're only going to reach a small percentage of them and that destroyed a lot of businesses and a lot of people might also remember the Google slap remember waste by be out by clicks really cheaply and just you know have crappy kind of landing pages. Google

00:39:54:24 - 00:40:55:20
Allan: Google came in with a quality score and the they called it the Google slap where you know clicks went up from a few cents to many dollars and many people went out of business from that. And that's because people were the tenant not the landlord in those cases. So you want to be the landlord where you can at least have some media where you can control fully so things like you email your Web site. That's why I talked about the importance of CRM and Web site. So you know no matter what Google Facebook or any apple or anyone else does. I'm gonna have my mailing list and that's a very very valuable asset insight. You've probably heard it said that your list of prospective and existing customers and your relationship with that list is the most valuable asset in your business and I fully agree with that. So really your your job is to develop and create that list and then create that relationship with that list. And so if you do that you're going to have a far far better result than if you're just fully reliant on somebody else's platforms.

00:40:55:22 - 00:41:40:12
Paul: Well thank you Allan. I agree wholeheartedly and I think that's great advice. It's been a fantastic conversation I've loved it and I could talk marketing all day and I thank you for the book that you've put together and the really the gift that you've provided to any business owner a simple platform to put key marketing metrics in place to help them really build a thriving business is is a real gift to all of us. Thank you. On behalf of all business owners for taking the time to put that together. But if what people want to get a copy obviously they can go to where good bookshops stock but in terms of reaching out to you how can they connect with you. How can I learn more. So where did I go again to to grab their one page planner and so that I can get to work on it.

00:41:40:22 - 00:42:11:15
Allan: Yes. So you can grab a free copy of the one page marketing plan canvas on my Web site which is success wise dot com or if you'd like to grab a copy of the book wherever books are sold. Amazon Barnes and Noble in Australia. Book type here or Amazon as well so wherever wherever books are sold you'll you'll find my book and book is called the one page marketing plan. And it's also available on audio. So obviously people are listening to this on audio and you like audio books so I'm an audible and you can grab a copy there as well. Thanks

00:42:11:17 - 00:42:19:06
Paul: Thanks so much for your time and I know you've got a busy schedule so I really appreciate you making a little time to share your wisdom with us with our listeners today.

00:42:19:08 - 00:42:19:23
Allan: It's a pleasure

00:42:20:02 - 00:42:49:27
Paul: So I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Alan Dube and that you've now got this 10 plan a simple template to follow to create your own one page marketing plan. You can download a copy of Alan's guide or you can simply pull out a piece of paper and sketch it out into nine boxes. Remember you got three phases to focus on your before phase that attraction phase which comes down to you being really clear about who you want to target. Remember everybody is not your buyer.

00:42:49:29 - 00:43:57:24
Paul: We've got to get really clear about who your target market is. Then we're gonna make sure that we're building a message that's going to resonate with those people when they come into your world that they really connect with you because your messaging is clearly communicating and targeting them and helping them to solve the problem that they've got. And of course that you understand where you can reach those people is no point singing your song if you're singing to the wrong audience. You've got to get make sure you're getting in front of the right people and communicating on the right platforms to get and reach your audience. Then you move into the lead phase. So during the late phase we've got to be clear we've got to be creating a compelling reason for people to connect with you producing a great lead magnet and a resource that's going to draw people in and start that relationship that you'll be able to nurture those people you're going to have to have a CRM system in place to make sure that you've got good customer nurture in place so that you can help them through the journey of making their decision to work with you. And finally that you've got a clear pathway to conversion that you know what your first sale point is in the final phase.

00:43:57:28 - 00:45:01:16
Paul: That after phase a really important phase to maximize the value of every customer in your business right now. We often get hoodwinked into thinking that marketing is all about the front end of the process. You know the acquisition of clients and we don't put nearly enough energy into our existing base of customers. So that's where we get to provide great experiences and to really look at that lifetime value. How can we continue to add more value to the clients that we've already got. They're the easiest people to work with. They take less energy and effort to sell the next idea because they're already a fan of your works are putting more energy there and being active in your efforts to generate referrals from that base of people. So you've got a really clear plan. So I hope that you will sketch out maybe 15 20 minutes in your day grab a cup of coffee a pen a paper and sketch out your own one page marketing plan. It really will be a rewarding exercise for you to do and help you to really propel your business to another level. So

00:45:01:18 - 00:45:44:09
Paul: So I hope you enjoyed this episode and I look forward to joining you again next week with another big episode where we're going to look at the other side of the table from the marketing side we're gonna move into the sales conversation and we're gonna be looking at how you can sell more by selling less. It's a great conversation with a new buddy I've made in America. Alan Langer who is the author of this great new book and I'll walk you all of the details of that in our episode next week when Alan joins me to talk about how you can sell more by selling less until we meet again. I wish you all the very very best of luck with your businesses. But much more importantly with your lives take a bye for now