“Guide your customers to an end result with a great product or service that provides value to his/her life or business” Craig Connelly
Passing on guarded secrets and insider tips from your business could well be the profit enhancing magic bullet required in 2016 to out do your competition. Not only can this technique increase your sales, but will also help build up a loyal following for your brand, business or yourself.
Introducing a 60 year old strategy that still works in 2017
I have been preaching the benefits of helping potential clients achieve successful outcomes in their business now for 30 years now and this technique has proved successful for those who embrace it. Helping people and businesses succeed in what ever field they work in, positions you as an industry expert and provides invaluable loyalty, solid business transactions and excellent referral business long term. It has many terms and the one I like to use is Benefactor Marketing?
Benefactor marketing is a marketing technique based on giving away good information and helping people and in doing so build up a solid following from a target audience.
An example of this technique in a more basic way, are the major hardware stores doing Saturday morning DIY classes, providing insider secrets and time saving tips for their clients. Laying pavers, making a fence, tiling and so on with the end result being that the clients are more motivated to purchase the products being used on the day from the store providing the training.
Other examples could include
- Tips on how to book ahead to avoid hideous queues at main sight seeing locations from a travel agent
- Tips on special tools used to maintain cleaning machinery to avoid downtime from a supply company
- A list of the top 5 methods for reducing tax legally from an accountant
These types of tips are applicable to most industries and requires one simple task to obtain them.
ASK OPEN QUESTIONS THEN LISTEN
Ask open questions and listen to your clients to understand their problems, concerns and so on. A technique I use regularly, is to ask my client what are the common grizzles coming in each day on the phones or from sales representatives from the clients and then use these to establish the insider tips for publication.
If I think back on my marketing career, many influences and learning’s I have acquired, came from superb mentors gifting me the information first, building my trust in their techniques and then making me an offer to purchase upgrades, VIP membership and so on. Because I trusted them I purchased. Exactly the same technique outlined above.
To this day I still invest in developing my skills and keeping the learning process going. I also understand that I can learn from others every day and their experiences. The learning never stops as long as I am breathing.
GIVING A HAND UP IS NOT CONSIDERED A HANDOUT
In discussions today for a speaking circuit with a National business group it suddenly dawned on me that the organisers had a genuine passion to see Touch Marketing succeed as well as the people I would be coaching. In other words my time and effort also has to be rewarded aside from any payments made on the day. This was discussed openly and was the first time for me that a speakers future success should also be considered in the plan.
The general ethos of that organisation being that all participants should succeed including the coaches. We should all enjoy and improve our successes as part of the overall plan.
Making that the primary focus for any businesses, can make the business more profitable.
Since mankind crawled out of the black swamp , we all have similar desires that don’t change as the years go by. We want to be happier, healthier, life longer, become slimmer, sexier, feel loved, feel appreciated, respected and so on.
- We want to hit that golf ball like Tiger and then be complimented when it happens
- We want to loose that belly fat and then get compliments on how great we look and sympathy for the perilous journey we undertook to get there
- We want to make those big business decisions correctly and then be respected for making the correct choice by our colleagues.
The basics of human nature never change and therefore represents a great opportunity to be used in your marketing.
Marketing needs to be about your clients concerns, wishes, hopes not about yours. Use these techniques in your business and start to build a fan base, a loyal following and in time increased profits and referrals.
See this process in action on Craigs blog
“Guide your customers to an end result with a great product or service that provides value to his/her life or business” Craig Connelly
Craig Connelly. The originator of Benefactor Marketing
Connect with Craig on Facebook or his blog