Jim Connolly Marketing

The easy switch: Attract clients like a magnet

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switching providers, make switching easy, marketing tips

Today, I’m going to share an extremely powerful marketing tip with you. It’s something that the vast majority of your competitors either won’t be doing correctly or won’t be doing at all. Get it right and you’ll give yourself a massive competitive advantage. 

It starts with this fundamental truth.

People, including your prospective clients, universally HATE the hassle associated with switching providers.

Think about it.

I’m willing to guess that you and I probably have at least one current provider, who isn’t ideal. Their charges may have increased, with no meaningful increase in the value we get from them. Maybe they’re slow to respond when we contact them for support. Perhaps they’re not as interested in dealing with our problems, as they used to be. And we’re pretty darn sure that there are better providers out there.

So, why do we stay with an under performing provider?

We stay, for the same reason your prospective clients have stayed with their current provider.

It’s simply this.

Switching providers is risky and a time suck

People are hardwired to intentionally avoid risk. And because switching to a new provider feels risky, we tend to avoid it.

Yes, YOU know there’s no risk whatsoever in switching to you from their current provider. You know that you’ll look after them better than they could dream of, because you’re capable, reliable, trustworthy and honest. But THEY don’t know that!

People are also busy and switching providers is often time-consuming and frustrating.

So, what’s the answer?

Make switching stress free and easy

The proven solution to this problem is something I call The Easy Switch. It’s a strategy where you make it as easy as possible for prospects to switch to you. It requires a two pronged approach.

1. Showcase your trust assets.
Make it as easy as possible for prospective clients to see for themselves, why they should trust you. You do this using your trust assets; things that help establish you as a safe, low-risk option for them.

Your trust assets might include providing them with a list of your success and achievements. You can also highlight the promises and guarantees you offer, along with testimonials you have from extremely happy clients. And if you’ve been in your current line of business for a long time, don’t keep it a secret. Include that, too. 

2. Make switching to you as simple as possible.
This is the most important part. Even after trust has been established, the perceived challenges involved and the time required in order to switch providers is enough to put people off.

Some providers use a version of the lock in effect / vendor lock in, where they deliberately make moving from them as hard as they can, for their clients. This is a huge problem in some industries, but less of a problem in others.

Regardless, you need to make the switch to you as frictionless, uncomplicated and stress-free as possible.

The best providers have a client transition process in place, where someone from their team manages the whole process for new clients. They stay in close contact with the new client to answer questions, overcome issues with the former provider and offer all the help they can. I do this with my new clients and I very strongly advise you to do the same. 

Show them how easy it is to switch to you

Once you’ve addressed those two parts of the switching process, it’s really important to let your prospective clients know. It needs to feature very prominently in your marketing, especially if you’re in an industry that’s known for making it hard to switch. It needs to be a key point in your conversations with prospective clients.

Equipped with visible trust assets and an equally visible strategy to make switching to you an absolute breeze, you become a much more attractive choice for prospective clients.

You will become the natural choice. The stress-free choice. And for many, you will become the only choice.

Closing the sale?

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sorry closed wooden board at entrance
Photo by Mathias Reding on Pexels.com

When I started out in sales and marketing, it was all about closing the sale.

In fact, good salespeople were often referred to as good closers.

Decades later, I still see sales recruiters asking for candidates who have a proven record of closing.

Here’s why you need to be extremely careful, before using any of the countless closing techniques and tricks.

Closing for business?

The challenge with the closing mindset, is that it positions the prospective customer as little more than an obstacle. A barrier between you and the sale. A hurdle to be overcome. It’s little wonder so many closing techniques are based on aggressive, psychological tactics.

Here are a couple of the worst, widely used examples today.

  • The silence close. This is where a series of long, uncomfortable silences are used at key points in the sales process. The person selling uses this discomfort to exert the maximum mental pressure on the prospective client. It’s borrowed from interrogation techniques!
  • Assuming the sale. This is where the person selling literally ignores the prospect’s lack of interest and acts as if the prospect has agreed to make the purchase. They just start asking for the delivery address and a suitable date. When/if the prospect objects, the salesperson responds with a series of why? questions, further pressuring the prospect.

In a nutshell, the focus is on outmanoeuvring your opponent. It’s them against you. A confrontation.

Here’s a very different approach, along with why I strongly recommend you use it.

Opening

I built my reputation in sales by adopting the total opposite approach. Instead of focusing on closing, I focused on opening. And I made a fortune.

Opening?

Yes. Opening relationships and opening opportunities. I found the idea of closing to be self-defeating. I discovered that you can achieve a great deal more, by opening relationships with people. This means taking time to listen to them. And then learning about their challenges and what they want or need. If our marketing is targeted correctly, we’re automatically only speaking with people who are our ideal profile of client.

When handled correctly, and preceded with effective marketing, this means there’s no need to close anything or close on anyone.

The whole process becomes a natural, flowing conversation, where we seek to help people overcome a challenge, with the products or services we provide.

It’s an effective, rewarding and professional way to achieve amazing sales results, and build masses of high-value relationships that last.

Too passive?

No way! This approach may sound passive, but consider the people YOU like. The people you trust. The vendors you’re already purchasing from. Are they pushy? Are they confrontational? No! That’s because we avoid people like that. Conversely, we’re attracted to those who respect us and are open and honest with us.

We trust people who are open and honest.

We buy from people who are open and honest.

We value people who are open and honest.

We recommend people who are open and honest.

In short, the more open we are, the more opportunities we’re open to, the more sales we make and then, the more referrals we receive.

Achieve high impact sales, with minim effort or budget

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Marketing, business advice, get moving

Small business owners have limited resources to dedicate to marketing. This should not be a barrier to success. Far from it. Here are some high impact marketing ideas that require very little time, and little or no marketing money.

Allow me to explain.

When you find yourself with limited resources, the key is to focus on doing less, but doing better. However, lots of small business owners find they spend a lot of time and/or money on marketing, for relatively little reward.

The most common example is social media marketing. Yes, it can work. But I can’t think of a less effective, yet more demanding and stressful option. There are small business owners who regularly spend their valuable time, feeding content black holes like Instagram, LinkedIn, TikToc, etc. Other’s pay ‘social media managers’ to do it for them. There are much better, easier, faster, free-of charge ways to achieve vastly higher sales results.

Here’s a high impact example of what I mean.

It’s an idea that came to me while enjoying a coffee. And it took the coffee shop owner just 20-minutes to deploy. Today, over a year later, it still gets regular customers from various social media networks, without the coffee shop owner having to invest time on any social network. Read how I did this, here.

Here’s another example.

Attract customers on YouTube… without a YouTube channel

You can achieve high impact results from YouTube, without even having a YouTube channel. And not just results, but results that will put you, your business, products or services in front of thousands of targeted viewers.

No advertising required.

No money required.

Just a high impact marketing idea.

You’re an expert in your area of business. YouTubers who interview, or chat with experts in your business niche, struggle to find enough high-quality people to speak with. This is especially the case with YouTubers who have well-established channels.

Here’s how to start. Email the show’s host with an introduction or call them. When one of them invites you on their channel, you will be swapping your stories or expertize for exposure. So, for their part, the host will let their viewers know who you are and how to contact you. Once you’ve appeared on a number of channels, invites from other show hosts will start coming to you. Remember, YouTubers have the trust of their viewers. Their positive words about you and your services or products, can have off-the-charts sales results… short, medium and long-term.

In short, there are a lot of ways to massively increase your sales or attract new clients, without spending your valuable time or money. You do not need to buy ads, pay social media managers or dance the social media dance.

So please, aim for high impact instead, my friend.

Keep the good. Lose the bad!

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marketing review, small business

A friend of mine regularly appears as an expert on business programs. She called me with a question. It’s a question about a foundational truth of all business success and I think you’ll find my answer useful, so I’m sharing it with you.

Okay. Here’s my friend’s question.

I need a piece of business advice, which would work as a very short sound bite. I’m live on TV in just under 30 minutes. Can you help?

Fortunately, I had been working a few days earlier with one of my clients and shared something, which he found really useful. I figured it might be what she was looking for. She loved it. She used it. And it worked perfectly.

It was this. “Hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t”.

Allow me to explain.

Holding on and letting go

Much of what we do as part of our day-to-day business is habitual. At least to a degree. Here are just a few common examples.

  • We have certain service providers we go to for particular challenges.
  • We have a familiar set of business strategies, which we’re comfortable using.
  • We rely on specific people for professional, expert advice.
  • We use a pretty fixed selection of software and hardware for certain tasks.

Over the years, these providers, strategies, people and technologies become a key part of how small business owners operate their business.

However, the most successful business owners use a different approach.

They keep their eyes open for better alternatives all the time.

They know that meaningful improvement is only possible by reviewing what you do, holding on to what’s working and letting go of what isn’t.

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Is it working or not?

It’s only natural for us to feel comfortable with what seems to be working. And after all, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it! The thing is, we can only be certain that something isn’t broken if we check for better alternatives.

Here’s a recent example. Organic SEO was a very powerful form of marketing. Is this true today? For millions of business owners the answer is a resounding ‘no!’. Since Google’s AI Overview was announced on May 14th 2024, organic search results have been pushed way, way down their search engine results page.

Google’s AI Overview is also answering the very questions people used to visit your website for. So, you could be the number one organic result and see a fraction of the traffic you used to receive.

And what about the assumptions we make?

For instance, consider the assumptions we make about the market we serve. Are these assumptions working for us? If not, we need to let them go and make better, informed decisions. This is especially the case if we’re seeing a drop in sales or marketing results.

Changes

With very few exceptions, people have significantly changed how they spend money and invest. The pandemic, followed by the economic fluctuations since, has radically altered priorities. Small business owners today, who are marketing similarly to the way they did back in 2022, are not even close to what their prospects need to hear from them two years later.

Why not take some time to review the things you’re currently holding on to. Especially those you haven’t changed in recent years. Make sure they’re still the best option for you.

Check if they’re still optimal.

Then hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t.

Marketing 101: Your prospects really need you

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marketing obligation, increase sales, professional obligation

Photo by Brooke Cagle.

Today marks the start of the final quarter of 2024 and I want to help you finish the year strong. So, here’s a proven way to significantly increase your sales.

Let’s go.

You’ve connected with a prospective client or customer.

You’ve taken time to fully understand their needs.

You are now absolutely certain that your service or product is exactly what they require. Experience of your industry assures you that they won’t find a better match than you, anywhere.

It’s at this exact point where you have a professional obligation to the prospect. An obligation to make sure they don’t make the mistake of hiring or buying from another provider.

Your professional obligation

The reason you have an obligation, is that as a professional, you always act in the interests of the market you serve. You have no way to know just how badly people will be served by one of your competitors.

The only thing you can know for certain, is that you take great care to provide your clients with a superb, professional service. In short, your prospects really need you!

Okay. Please hold that thought for a moment.

Now consider your next conversation with a prospective client.

Before you begin, simply remind yourself of the facts above; that you can provide exactly what the prospect needs, that you’ll serve them better than any of your competitors and that the prospect needs you.

Here’s what very often happens

Having shared this idea with countless business owners over the years, here’s what I have found again and again.

By approaching the conversation with your prospect, mindful of your genuine commitment to their best interests, it significantly improves how they feel about you and how they feel about what you say.

Interestingly, you don’t need to deliberately change the words you use.

Why?

Because what you’re doing is 100% sincere. It’s the real you.

It’s natural, not scripted.

It’s genuine, not a trick.

When I started to use this approach for my own business, I found that it soon increased my client base. And for decades, I’ve seen it help my own clients to greatly increase their sales.

What changes by is how you communicate; your eagerness to listen fully to what they say, the cadence of your conversation, your facial expressions and your body language, etc. You’re now communicating with them as an ally who is looking out for them and their best interests. Because that’s exactly who you are, and it’s exactly what you’re doing.

It all starts with reminding yourself how much you care for your clients, how truly committed you are to delighting them and how much you want to help them avoid making a mistake.

Success 101: Work differently, not harder. Here’s how!

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small business resources, marketing, expert
Photo by Miguel Cuenca on Pexels.com

When you’re already working hard to grow your business, and it’s not getting the results you need, working increasingly harder is a bad move. So, today I’m going to give you a much more effective alternative.

I’ve worked with some amazingly successful people over the years. In 2024 alone, this has included three business owners who took their small businesses from zero to over $10Million. None of them worked as hard as a hard-working, struggling business owner. And they certainly didn’t work longer hours.

So, what did they do?

Instead of over-working and working longer, the owners of successful businesses…

  • Invested in expert help.
  • Discovered how to do the right things correctly. Then got to work.
  • Regularly monitored their progress and adjusted as required.
  • Never made business decisions based on general advice.
  • Always accepted responsibility for their results.

But they absolutely did not work harder than a struggling business owner.

Why?

Because NO ONE works harder than a struggling business owner.

Here’s what happens.

When a business owner isn’t getting the results they need, the tendency is to over-compensate by working increasingly harder, doing longer and longer hours. So, that’s what they do. If you’ve tried this for any period of time, you’ll know it doesn’t work. It can also effect your overall well-being.

That’s a very unproductive mix, which does nothing to improve the situation. It leads to ineffective decision-making, increased stress and reduced enthusiasm. What’s more, it’s something prospective clients or customers pick-up on instantly. 

The way forward

When a business isn’t heading in the right direction, the harder the owner works and the longer they work, the further away they become from where they want their business to be. It’s time to stop over-working, get guidance and then proceed in the right direction.

Stop over-working: Because your current activity is moving you away from your goals or targets, which is making your situation worse.

Get guidance: Because you need to know what to do and/or get the help to do what’s required.

Proceed in the right direction: Because your work will now be rewarded.