Focus on the "Low Hanging Fruit"

Focus on the "Low Hanging Fruit"
Following up on leads is 90% of the game, right? At least
that's what we hear. You spend all this time networking,
marketing yourself, making cold calls, looking for the
right client, but what's the point of it all if you don't
follow up on the leads you DO have? This was a major
obstacle for one of my clients this week and a shift was
created when I shared the Low Hanging Fruit List with her.

Let's think about Low Hanging Fruit on a tree for a moment,
as it relates to its counterpart higher up on the tree. The
Low Hanging Fruit is heavier, probably riper and because of
that, easier to pick. Think of your warm prospects, those
that have already expressed an interest in working with
you, as this type of fruit. Ready for the picking.

Yet, many of us focus a lot of our energy on the higher
fruit, the harder-to-reach fruit or prospect. We spend a
lot of time working on far-fetched Client Attraction
projects, when we really could be spending the time
contacting and closing the deal with people who've already
said they'd like to work with us but haven't been turned
into clients yet. Logically, this doesn't make as much
sense, does it?

Well starting today, you're going to change that by putting
more focus on Low Hanging Fruit, while you continue to
market your practice as a whole. Here's how...

Your Assignment:

Have a Low Hanging Fruit chart on your desk at all times.
It should have several columns.

1. Name

2. Phone Number

3. Email Address

4. Referral Source

5. That Client's Particular Concern

6. Status/When to Contact Them Next

Leave this sheet on your desk at all times, in a place
where you can refer to it several times per day.

Go through your mental Rolodex, day-planner and sticky
notes to see who has expressed interest in working with you
over the last 6 months to a year, but hasn't been converted
into a client or patient yet. This could have been either
in passing ("Oh, I should work with you one day," to "I
want to work with you, but I'm not quite ready yet."), or
more intently ("Let's set up a time to talk about working
together") via email, verbally or third-party referral.

You'll want to list all of these people on this sheet. This
can also include those who you met with for an initial
consultation but who never signed up, for whatever reason.

This will be one of your more important documents you'll
use for getting clients and you should plan on using it for
the long haul. This method of keeping track of people who
are closest to becoming clients (and then following up with
them regularly, using different methods) is somewhat
deceptive because it's so simple, but the good things
usually are.

The bottom line is that when my clients use this list, they
enthusiastically report that they convert more prospects
into paying clients. When they stop using this list
briefly, prospective clients slip through their fingers.
That should tell you something.

Now, if you're not sure how to attract lots of prospects in
the first place, or get them to say "I want to work with
you!", then it's time to take action and invest in a
step-by-step marketing system that will feel easy and
authentic to you.

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The Client Attraction Home Study System avoids all the
unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most important
things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you
consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new
clients. It's all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of
things. So, you do step one of the system, and when your
done with that, you move on to step two and so on. You can
get it at http://www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com

Alternatives to good service

Alternatives to good service
It's Thursday today. Just a normal day, an ordinary day.
One more opportunity to get rich, and one more example of
being slammed around by people who never seem to have heard
of the concept of 'customer service'.

It seemed like a simple problem, at first. The post-person
arrived this morning, but they were only holding letters,
no parcels. We had been expecting a parcel for weeks. My
partner is taking part in a sale this coming weekend, and
had ordered some paperback books that she wanted to take
along and re-sell as part of a health package. The books
were ordered two weeks ago, with a promise that delivery
would take place in '3-5 days', but when no books arrived,
we had to email. We were told that the supplier didn't have
them and had had to outsource the order. Still, they said,
delivery wouldn't have been delayed. The books should have
arrived, they said. They would look into it. Next day an
email arrived from the outsourcer. It said that 'an account
had to be confirmed'. My partner tried logging on to their
website and was refused. She had to phone them.

So far, so bad. Still, don't forget we've only lost a week
at this point, and it doesn't seem fatal: we've got another
week to go, and as we know, the books could arrive in '3-5
days'. So that's all right, then. It was a nuisance that
the newly found supplier was telling us to register and
then had established a website which didn't allow a
non-customer to establish an account, but we thought we had
cleared that up on the phone. All was going ahead ' or so
we thought. No books arrived.

It's Thursday. We tried emailing, but got no reply. We
tried phoning the real supplier, the new one, but they said
their lines were busy. We went back to the original
supplier ' pre outsource ' and tried them. We couldn't find
a phone number, anywhere. It took half an hour, but there
it was at last ' no, not on the 'Contact Us' page. That
would be too easy. Okay, so we phoned and the man checked
his computer. He said no order existed. We asked him to
check again. He said the records showed that our order had
been cancelled the previous week. Right, so the outsourcer
had wanted confirmation of the account and, in the
meantime, cancelled the order. When he confirmed the
account ' with us, on the phone ' he forgot to re-instate
the order. He had an account but no order. He didn't query
or question that. He went on with his life, we went on with
ours. The difference is that we were expecting books to
arrive. They didn't. If we hadn't chased it up, we would
never have found out why, either.

The man on the phone was pleasant enough. He asked us if we
wanted to make the order again. We asked him when the books
would arrive. When he said, '4-5 days, after the weekend',
we declined his offer. The books were needed this weekend
coming. Not after. Definitely not after. What could he have
done? He apologised, which was nice, considering he would
probably be thinking that it probably wasn't his fault. Of
course, in reality, it was. He had set up a system that
placed orders to outside bodies and his company had no
quality control. They didn't cancel the order, so they
probably thought it wasn't their fault. Why not? Why were
they working with a sub-contractor who was so slapdash and
careless? Would they follow it up, complain, seek
recompense on our behalf? Not a bit of it. It's life. These
things happen. Life goes on. In our case, without the books
we wanted.

Well, we didn't place a second order and we won't be doing
it, not within the foreseeable future. If we can avoid it,
we will always avoid that firm in future. A very wise man
once said, 'If you make a client, you should keep them for
life and they will keep you'. The alternative to that is,
'If you lost a client, you never get them back'. That's
certainly true for us. Why? Because there are plenty of
other suppliers and, being human, we don't just want books,
we want service. Superlative service. Because, in answer to
the question, there isn't any alternative to good service.

I know what you're thinking. Look, you say, the guy isn't
going to apologise, rush down to the warehouse, pick out
your books and stick them in an envelope, posting them off
that very afternoon. Why not? Doesn't anybody do that?
Because I tell you what. The company that does that is the
one who gets our business, now and in the future. Everyone
else gets a surly customer, chasing an order they think
they placed and not understanding the lack of
communication. There's no profit in that. Or, just to make
it something you should think about for your customers,
doesn't anyone ' any trading company, anyone out there '
wonder why people keep phoning them up and complaining?
Could it be because you are doing something wrong?

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Mike Scantlebury is an Internet Author, happy to be of
service. He writes novels, stories and self-help advice,
which he sends out to his many websites from his base in
Manchester, England, home of good football and interesting
music. Find out more at http://www.mikescantlebury.com