Last week I was on a mastermind call with 6 other successful entrepreneurs. I’m very lucky to be part of this group as the breadth of knowledge of the members has really helped me to grow my business. In another post I’ll talk about the importance of a mastermind group and how to set one up, but for today I want to share with you what I learnt from one of our members, Jim Chambers. You can check out Jim’s Institute for Organizational Leadership at www.iolglobal.com.
Jim teaches that there are 6 Laws of Money which every business must obey in order to succeed. It is interesting to see how you can relate these to your on-line business.
Law 1. All money comes from people.
Sounds silly doesn’t it? Too often when we deal with companies we forget that there is a person at some level in the organisation who has made the decision to spend money with you. With our on-line businesses, it is so easy to think of people who spend money with us as a faceless customer as we never get to meet them. Never forget that every transaction you make, there is a person’s name attached.
Law 2. People only give their money to people they trust.
People do not usually trust others instantly. Think about purchases you have made recently. If it was an on-line purchase what was it that made you feel comfortable enough that you were happy to hand over your credit card details? What made you trust them? Had you known of them for a while or did you purchase from them the first time you visited their site? If you did purchase from them when you had no previous relationship I want you to really think about what is was about their business that made you feel you could trust them. Trust them to actually deliver the goods and services they promised.
It is very likely that you were referred to their web site by someone else - someone you trusted. Maybe you checked them out as to what other web sites said about them - this is social proof. Very possibly, the web site owner provided that social proof for you, by providing lots of testimonials on their site by a wide cross section of people, so you could find someone there who you could relate to and trust their opinion. You may also have been impressed by their long list of credentials. These are all things you can use on your own web sites to help potential customers to know they can trust you.
Law 3. The only way to get someone to trust you is if you get to know them. You need to have a relationship
When people think about Internet Marketing, relationships is not usually the first thing they think of. In fact, the Internet can often seem like a place that does not allow a relationship to develop. I disagree with this very strongly. Every successful On-line entrepreneur I know points to relationships as the key to their success.
We’ve already talked about using other people’s relationships with your potential customer to help create trust (by referring you and through testimonials). You also need to develop that trust further by entering into a dialogue with your web site visitors. Take the time to reply to emails from clients (or get your assistant to) and start talking to your visitors through an email newsletter. Every contact you have with people who visit your web site or who have joined your mailing list should provide great value. If you help them by giving helpful information and great tips, they will learn that you can be trusted. Then they will feel comfortable to buy from you often.
The important thing with developing these relationships is to be yourself. People need to trust the real you, not someone who you think you should be. It doesn’t take much to sense that you are not comfortable with yourself. So if you usually call a spade a bloody spade, then do the same when you communicate with your email list (within reason). Remember in each email you are really only talking to one person, the person who has opened that email and is learning to trust you. That person who Jim mentioned in The First Law of Money.
Law 4: The only way to get to know someone, is to spend time and attention on them.
Sounds like the first law of marriage doesn’t it? In last week’s article we covered that all money comes from people (law 1), people will only give their money to people they trust (law 2), and people will only trust people they know (law 3). We talked about the different ways that you can help people get to know you on-line and to learn how to trust you.
There is a mistake that many people make when they start an on-line business and they fail because they are breaking the Fourth Law of Money. They are not spending time and devoting attention to their customers and potential customers.
Have you bought the Internet Lifestyle Myth? Did you start your on-line business believing that you can lay on the beach and just check your bank account each afternoon? It’s a lie. You can do this, but you aren’t going to make a lot of money. At some stage you need to spend some time and attention on your customers and potential customers. You need to invest time developing a relationship and trust. Sure you can automate a lot of your communication (and you really do need to or you’ll go mad) but you need to make a commitment (by the way, this is who we use to automate our emails http://www.nichepartners.biz/recommends/aweber).
Lets refer back to marriage. If you spend a lot of time and attention to your new love to start with, you can be pretty confident that you will be rewarded with their trust, a relationship and hopefully their commitment. But what if after a little while, you stopped putting in the time? It’s pretty likely they’ll stop trusting you, commitment will waiver and hey, they might even forget who you are! The same with your online business. Don’t start a relationship if you don’t intend to maintain it! For example, I have numerous websites of my own or with joint venture partners. Some of these, I haven’t put the effort into creating an ongoing relationship with potential clients. I don’t have a newsletter or blog attached to those sites. I don’t expect to make as much money through those sites but that is a conscious decision. I run 2 newsletters and 2 blogs (and will start a third in a few months). I have committed myself to writing weekly to each of these lists and providing real value. I want to develop a relationship with you and others as these 2 (soon to be 3) areas are my real passion. I will only commit to what I know I can deliver. Look at your own business. Are you spread too thin? Are you delivering value routinely to the people you want to create a relationship with? Are you obeying the Fourth Law of Money?
Law 5: If you spend time getting to know people they will open new business opportunities.
Did you know that most people you get to know will know at least 20 people who are in very similar circumstances to themselves and who could also use your service or product? Think about that. You do not have a relationship with those 20 people but that one person you do know does. If you have committed the time and attention to earn the trust of that one person, they will refer those other 20 people to you. And because they have been referred by someone they trust, you automatically benefit.
If you have spent the time developing a relationship with a person on your mailing list, how often do you ask them to refer new business your way? You can do this simply by using a tell-a-friend script on your web site (this is the one we use http://www.nichepartners.biz/recommends/viralfriendgenerator) , or simply asking people to forward on your newsletter. Here’s a more powerful way. Email each customer (you can set this up to run automatically) and ask them explicitly to refer a new customer to you. Tell them upfront that you intend to offer them such great service that you expect them to refer people to you. Make it a separate part of your communication with them, not buried in your newsletter. If people trust you, they just need to be asked. You can also reward them for their referrals. There are many ways to do this but a simple way is built into the tell a friend software I recommend at http://www.nichepartners.biz/recommends/viralfriendgenerator.
Law 6: Shortage of money is directly proportional to a shortage of relationships.
This is the law that really ties the Laws of Money to the bottom line. If your business is not making money, or has started to slow down the first thing you need to do is look at your relationships. When talking from an on-line perspective you need to look at 2 things first: The size of your mailing list (how many people have signed up for your newsletters) and how responsive that list is. If people reply to your emails and purchase the products you recommend in your emails, then that list is responsive. Well done, you’ve done a great job at developing trust. If your list is not responsive, you better have a good look at how you are communicating with your list.
The other relationship you need to look at, is the relationships you have with other people in your field. These are people who can help you grow your on-line business and refer new customers to you. These relationships are essential for you to spend the time developing (applying the Fourth Law of Money).
I hope Jim’s 6 Laws of Money have given you food for thought. The underlying theme of all of the 6 Laws of Money is relationships. Taking the time to develop and nuture relationships is what will make the difference between an on-line business that struggles and one that really thrives. |
