by Jason Linett
I foreshadowed that the key to a successful business comes down to selling one thing. Ready the drumroll. It’s time to reveal the “one thing.” The game changes when you discover the secret product that all your business systems should be designed to sell: THE NEXT STEP.
When you focus on selling the next step along the journey, your focus is naturally on deepening the quality of your relationship to your buyer. Remember the list of life events that led to ten years of marriage? Buying a home together and getting pets seemed like a logical progression toward having kids. You can break down your entire business into these “next step” mentalities.
The subject line of an email sells the next step of opening the message. The images and layout inside the email sell the next step of reading the email. The links within the message sell the next step of clicking and watching a video. An appropriate attention-grabbing statement in the first ten seconds of the video sells the next step of watching the entire sequence. The more likely I am to succeed in these baby steps along the journey, the more likely my audience will go through the steps necessary to purchase. Purchasing one of my online programs will more likely sell the next step of private consulting.
Why are you learning this from a hypnotist? Because that’s how hypnosis works. It’s a process of compounding levels of heightened receptivity in the mind. It’s a natural experience in which more profound hypnotic phenomena are possible the deeper someone moves through the process. In my demonstrations, perhaps there’s the moment where someone has their eyes open looking at their own arm, and it’s magical as the more they try to bend it, they cannot. Deeper into the experience, I can suggest a negative hallucination as if I were to physically disappear. In terms of hypnotic technique, I know the negative hallucination requires a more profound depth of hypnosis than the experience of the stiff arm. Even without hypnosis training, you can now guess that I’d want to have produced the stiff-arm phenomenon to know I can proceed with the mental vanishing stunt.
The core of my presentations is to use a memorable experience to drive home a teaching point. When you change the picture in your mind that it’s a steel bar rather than your own arm, you can accept the hypnotic suggestion as if it couldn’t bend. Imagine if you now change the picture in your mind to see yourself as a successful business person. What can now begin to happen for you? There is an abundance of business opportunities waiting to be had. The negative hallucination experience demonstrates how to avoid the situation of missing out on business that’s been in front of you the whole time.
Examine how this “next step” philosophy is the foundation of my speaking. I used a valuable experience to drive home a teaching point. Heighten attention before making an important statement. Your communication is always influential, so I suggest you make it impactful.
Ask yourself what “next step” would be the most appropriate to assist your customer in making a buying decision. It requires some creativity as you design your systems. Once you know the logical progression of the relationship with your customer, you know how to build more lead generation steps for people to build relationships with you through your funnels. This takes the stress out of running a business. Lead with education, inform your potential client, build stronger connections, and you’ll build a solid business.
Now, your task is to put this into action. Start to build your systems to grow your business. Use the principle to WORK SMART designing the journey your clients will take. Start with the end in mind and stay client-centered with the process. Think through each step along the lead generation journey, so you help your buyer achieve several small wins. Empower them to become more informed each step of the way. Ask yourself, “How can I demonstrate value?” The valuable experiences you are designing will naturally position you as the authority you are in your industry without the need to brag or boast.
There’s science to this. These small wins may produce positive results in their brain chemistry. The success they achieve along their journey helps to ride that dopamine rush, a feel-good hormone within the mind and body, which encourages them to move on to the next step of the journey. There’s something appropriately hypnotic about providing value to draw people in, building reciprocity, and guiding them to the next logical step.
Is this manipulative? The truth is we’re always influencing, so learn to do it ethically and respectfully. Use your powers for good! The strength of content marketing and lead generation is that you’re learning to lead with value. You’re improving people’s experiences along the journey. Be sincere with your communication. Make it your goal for people to be better off than when they first found you. You can still produce raving fans and receive outstanding referrals even from people who haven’t spent money on your services.
The benefit of producing media on a regular basis is that you’re establishing a cycle of communication to launch your products while exponentially building more raving fans. The “know, like, and trust” momentum burns like an eternal flame. The small wins you create build a logical next step to go deeper into the relationship and become a paying customer.
This is your opportunity to brainstorm. What can you share with your potential audience? What experience can you provide? The simple answer? “Anything people can interact with.” I’ve found the best result by mind-mapping headlines, titles, and specific themes. I only think about what platform is best for delivery once I have nailed the concept that needs to be shared. Your delivery mechanism could be an email, a paper flyer, an MP3 download, a series of videos, a live event, or almost anything else. The only limitations are your budget and imagination.
Modern technology has made “information-on-demand” an instant-gratification experience. I can turn on my phone and be in front of thousands of people in a matter of moments. Start producing content. Make a video. Start writing. Send an email. Draw something by hand and outsource it to someone else to design it into a marketing piece .
This “next step” doesn’t have to be something involving a computer. Highlight your services with a free consultation either by phone or in person. Your time can be the “next step” along the lead generation journey to build value and rapport. My hypnosis business was originally built by offering a consultation to explore the process and talk about how it would work for them. The user experience of a free brief meeting established the rapport and expectation necessary to sign up for a program.
Ever walk through the food court of a shopping mall? Some restaurants’ “next step” is a sample of their food. Ever attend an open house of a home for sale? The “next step” is to tour the home. Even a drug dealer’s business model hinges on “the first taste is free,” though I’d encourage you to be inspired by better metaphors!
It all comes back to starting and maintaining relationships. You hear a song that you like. You purchase the album. You watch clips of the singer on YouTube. You buy tickets to see the performer in concert. You buy t-shirts at the show. Maybe one day, you purchase the VIP meet-and-greet. Your journey began with a simple introduction.
Rapport will naturally be in place before you ask someone to make a purchase. I call this “The Willie Nelson Effect.” I saw him in concert many years ago. At the end of the concert, he sat on the edge of the stage and signed hundreds of autographs. To overhear the conversations with fans, you’d think they already knew each other. These fans had been listening to his music for years, interacting in a dialogue with his songs, and the conversation naturally picked up in person for the first time.
Wouldn’t you like your business to have that feeling? Build rapport so your clientele naturally feels a connection to you. Providing value builds a strong bond between you and your customer, eradicating the challenge of becoming a replaceable commodity. Deep rapport is in place before the sale is made.
Stories sell. Stories build value. Before a hypnosis client sees me to quit smoking, they watch a video on my website introducing a giant glass jar filled perhaps two-thirds with crushed up packs of cigarettes. I say,
“Each pack of cigarettes tells a success story of someone just like you. Though I should mention why this jar is kind of empty. It’s empty for a good reason.” I produce a second glass jar overflowing with cigarettes, and I continue in the video, “It’s because this one didn’t have any room left. Please pick up the phone right now to talk about becoming a nonsmoker once and for all.”
This strategy was effective given the surprise of the sight of so many thrown-out packs of cigarettes. The story drew in the audience to build rapport, and the call-to-action was well received. Thanks to the analytics of online marketing, I could track people who were watching the entire video and at what point they decided to call me.
For those who were on the fence in making a decision, I had an email opt-in series to receive further information on the process of quitting smoking. These two journeys into the same process had the same benefit. People were walking into my office with their cigarettes in hand ready to throw them away. I did not have to give the instruction, make the request, or even hint at a demand. They had conditioned themselves for the experience to be successful. By thinking in content marketing and lead generation principles, you create a better customer experience.
Nobody wants your newsletter. I know, I’m taking a risk in saying something that bold to you. You’ve read my book up until now, so I don’t mean to offend. Allow me to explain myself. Imagine this:
“Hey! It’s Tuesday! And because it’s Tuesday, I’m sending you an email, because that’s what I always do on Tuesdays!”
How exciting is that! It isn’t. People have become immune to marketing messages. We see them all the time. In the words of Gary Vaynerchuk, we’re all in the business of “day-trading attention.”
Here’s a better option. What if I knew you had an interest in improving your public speaking? Perhaps I had three specific conversational strategies you could implement immediately to become more ethically influential while reducing fears. Would you rather receive that or my Tuesday newsletter? Remember the goal is to provide an experience and create a personal win. Ride the momentum of this mini-success into the sale.
And thingify it. Make it a thing. Name it and make it something specific. “Public Speaking Tips” or “The 3-Step Influence System.” Which would you rather have?
Make your offer stand out. Be memorable and specific. Avoid the challenge that confusion doesn’t sell. Name your piece something short. Give it a subtitle to explain it. Want an example? You’re reading it. The name of this book is a short title followed by a brief explainer subtitle. By the end of reading the title, you know what you’re going to receive. That’s likely why you picked up this book.
This strategy doesn’t have to apply only to the first step of the lead generation journey. Brand and label all that you do to have a common language and become more memorable.
If I’m offering a class, it’s never “click here to learn more.” Instead, it’s “click here to get the video test drive experience. Learn what it’s like to take my class before you even take my class.” I’ve shared this strategy with other speakers. As they branded their video welcome as a “backstage tour,” their new client interactions grew.
Keep your focus on the relationship metaphor. Genuinely care about the people you’re in a relationship with. I would insist you be authentic and maintain integrity with your customers. Business is noble when you’re solving someone’s problem. Create stronger relationships as you create a stronger business.
To tie it all together, the relationship continues even when they become your client. Through a principle of “onboarding,” I created a “start here” video at the beginning of one of my flagship products. There were instructions to get more value throughout the program. I sold the “next step” even to people who had already paid me. The results were dramatic as people were getting even more value from the program. The side benefit was the product refund requests were virtually negated.
Put value at every step of your customer’s journey. You will receive more value in return.
WORK SMART ACTION STEPS:
☞ Imagine yourself in the shoes of your potential client. What goals do they have? What challenges are they facing? What common questions are they asking? It’s important to let the journey focus on their story even more than yours. Compile a list of their needs. This will become the roadmap for your content creation.
☞ Is there a part of your business that’s struggling? Shift your perspective and ask where you are in the relationship with your audience? If you’re trying to metaphorically consummate marriage before the first date, it’s time to add a few more steps to your buying process. Enhance the relationship with your potential customer.
☞ Commit to a schedule of producing systems that will guide more people into your business. You can still continue to just sell your product directly. The benefit of adding lead generation to your strategy is a widening web to attract more people. People have different buying strategies, so you will appeal to a wider audience. Outsource the technology tasks that aren’t an effective use of your time.
☞ Consider the people who are already paying you. What “next step” strategies can you implement to give them a greater experience? The more I’ve put value into my programs over the years, the more client referrals became the dominant force that drove the success of my business. Create systems to enhance customer satisfaction.
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CREATIVE SOLUTIONS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
Wayne Dyer once said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Inside of you is the ability to WORK SMART in your creativity to address many of the challenges people face in their professional or even personal lives. How is it one conflict can stop a person in their tracks, yet the same conflict becomes an inspirational spark to someone else? The difference is in their thinking.
As much as I’ve shared the principle that “it’s very rarely the platform, it’s almost always the strategy,” it’s time we talk about mindset. My goal is to put specific action steps in your hands so you take action when things may seem stacked against you. This chapter will help you change your mindset.
Think of a current problem or challenge you may be facing. Is it business? Is it personal? For now, just label the issue. Before we explore the conflict in depth, simply acknowledge the block that might currently be there.
Start with the end in mind. Assume you’ve already resolved the issue and you’re out there in this future result. At the end of this journey, what will you have learned? What skills will now be a part of you? What kind of growth will you have experienced?
Mentally zoom out the visual perspective of this scene, as if you could observe it all from start to finish. Realize there are so many different paths to get from the starting point to the end. Just as you could imagine floating out of this experience and observing it from a distance, you can imagine many more creative ways to resolve this conflict.
Here are some stories to illustrate the idea of “Creative Solutions to Dissolve Problems.”
I speak to businesses and organizations about turning goals into actionable steps to create desired outcomes. Do you need your staff asking for referrals more consistently? Are there divisions in your company that are not yet working together as they should? Are there leadership themes that need reinforcement?
When I’m speaking with the executive team in advance of an event, I’m looking for the key solution-based statement that will become the theme of the presentation. If we don’t yet have the specific conflict that needs to be resolved, the intended message will become diluted and unrealized.
At first, the response is too often generic and nonspecific. “We want our team to be motivated!” they request. I have to ask, “For what result?” You can throw all the darts you want, but, without the dartboard, they’re not going to stick.
These business events often have a message to the staff that needs reinforcement. With the threat of downsizing, it’s necessary to comm
unicate that their jobs are safe and to highlight the business methods to move forward: “The robots are coming. Here’s how we can better work together as a team to keep the human-to-human connection.” They have a team of employees that need to be motivated to perform as leaders.
Did you see the movie Office Space ? It’s a parody about a business that hung a banner reading, “Is this good for the company?” Modern CEOs and administrative teams know you need something creative to lock in the right message. I start my conversation with the executive team with a “needs analysis” to customize the program I’m going to present to the staff. The presentation features the core message of the company, shares specific mental strategies to internalize goals, plus humorous hypnotic experiences to highlight solutions in a memorable way .
The formula is “show,” rather than “tell.” Rather than LECTURE people about their problems, or simply issue a memo with the organization’s new mission statement, the method is to generate a creative solution to show how to move forward. Actions speak louder than words.
As I spoke to schools, the creative solution to “show” people working together and becoming good community members was absorbed faster than simply lecturing to the students. They’re already being bombarded with messages to “Do this” or “Don’t do that.” By thinking outside the box on how the message is delivered, we potentially hedge off major issues later when they become adults.