Before I start let me warn you now – some of this may offend you. Read at your own risk.

You see it everywhere. Ads for business services promoting themselves as the best at what they do. Realtors with their glamor shots photos and their million dollar designations. Ads that are painfully ineffective, “Williamsburgs (not a real place so I don’t offend you) Top Agent”, or “Jonesboros Top Lister”.
Really? Really? I don’t mean to pick on realtors – it’s just I use to be one (LONG ago) and my dad has been one for 35 years. It’s not just them though. Pasadena’s best coffee, or New York’s best pizza – every Pizza place in South Florida has that in their window. I know everyone does it but trust me it is an absolute waste of time and resources.

Firstly, do any of your customers really believe it? Even if it’s true, do any of your customers care? Let me answer that for you – emphatically, No! Your customers are tuned into WIIFM as Zig Ziglar use to say, What’s in it for me. They are not interested in you – they are interested in themselves and if you are to get them to initiate with you for your products and services then you better start giving them what they want.

Let me give you three tips to putting together an offer that speaks to your customers and gives them what they want.

1. People are interested in the benefits not features of your business. So what’s the difference you ask – “Ah, good question grasshopper.” A feature is simply a characteristic of a product or service while a benefit explains what you have to gain from using it. For example, using our friend the realtor – rather than saying, I am the city’s top salesman (so what’s in it for me) you may say, “as the city’s top realtor I have many buyers on my waiting list to buy that allows me to sell your home faster and for more money than my competitors.” That’s what a seller wants to hear. You can get me more money faster than anyone else – now you’re giving them what they want.
2. Make a special offer and give them a reason for it. Everyone likes a deal – doesn’t matter when or why. The key is to be creative with what you have. For example, any holiday or special time of the year is an opportunity to use to offer your services and products for a small discount. Did you know that March is National Peanut month? Really, I’m not making this up. Be creative and fun – add personality in your offer – people want to be entertained. For example, “In honor of March’s National Peanut Month we are offering our Teeth Whitening Service for 50% off – other dentists will think we are nutty when they hear this!” Dentists can be so boring, imagine the buzz they would get with an offer like that.
3. Lastly, try to figure out something you can offer for free. And please not a “free consultation”- boring! Any time you can engineer something for free for people it gets them off the fence and makes them engage with you. It could a simple article that you write answering the 5 most asked questions about your business or service. For example, “The 5 biggest mistakes investors make when choosing a mutual fund”. It offers value and again it answers the client’s question, “what’s in it for me?”

So remember, be creative, be interesting and for crying out loud give your customers what they want!

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If I were to go to the top of a tall building, look over the edge, crawl out on the ledge and then decide to jump – what result would I get?  Yeah, splat!  Yet you Mr. Christian are a child of God, loved by Him and protected – why then would He “allow” such a thing?

Simple answer is a little thing called, gravity.  You see there are certain laws and principles that God set in motion and will apply each and every time we interact with those laws – laws like gravity.

Now, could God temporarily (or permanently for that matter) cancel those laws for his own purpose or desire?  Of course, and we see evidence of that time and again in the scriptures.  Yet, that is a very rare and purposeful event – it is not an event that occurs simply because some fool decides to test God and jump.  Even Jesus, God’s son, was tempted by Satan to give it a whirl and he said, No!

Now, how does that relate to your business?  It’s elementary, my dear Watson, many Christian business owners are going splat in their businesses right now because they do not know what these laws are – and ignorance of the law is no excuse!

They have jumped off the building (I certainly have in the past – have you?) and are now moving at 100 mph towards the sidewalk and are wondering why God is not catching them or helping them!  “I’m a good Christian”, they say.  “I love the Lord and am doing this because His Spirit prompted me to”, they cry out.  That may all be true but don’t fool around with gravity ‘cause someone will get hurt.

OK, so now someone will ask, “what are these laws of which you speak dear sir” and I shall say, “Great question, my good man, come closer and I shall reveal the secrets of marketing.”  Hehehe.

There are many “laws” that we can discuss and over the coming weeks we shall discuss many of them.  Today I want to begin with the big one – the law of “gravity” for your business.  This is the one that is most overlooked and leads to the most business failures.  I call it the Law of Occupation.  Let me illustrate it for you.

If I were to ask you what you do, what would you say?  Would you say you are a plumber, hair stylist, attorney or doctor?  The answer to that is most assuredly, yes.  If you are one of those things, of course.  Let me ask another question then.  So, what if you were a doctor and had no patients to treat?  What if you were a plumber with no pipes to plumb, stylist with no hair to style or attorney with no case to file?  Kinda rhymes.  I digress.  Then would you be ANY of those things?  The answer is no.

The Law of Occupation states that,” a business person must move from the doer of the thing to a marketer of the thing or he/she will become business road kill.”  Someone will hear this and think, “Ugh, I hate selling, I didn’t get my degree to sell.”  That person doesn’t get it.  I’m not talking about selling.  I’m talking about marketing.

Marketing is the act of ATTRACTING customers, clients and patients to you so you DON’T HAVE TO SELL!  Not knowing this law and the need to embrace it causes more Christian businesses to fail then all other broken laws combined.  In the future we will discuss this law in depth.

Take a minute and give me your feedback below – I’d appreciate it!

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