Into,Every,Life,Little,Rain,Mu DIY Into Every Life a Little Rain Must Fall - Part 1

When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in

"Into every life a little rain must fall." And into every business too.Don't have the luxury of surplus cash to fund a rainmaker for yourbusiness? Well then, it'll have to be up to you. As usual. Here'show:YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE COMPETITION"Everyone wants to win on Sunday, but not everyone is willing topractice Monday through Friday." Vince LombardiIf you asked all of your competitors whether they want to besuccessful, it's a fair bet that pretty much all of them would say"Yes, of course, who doesn't want to be successful?"But if you asked your competitors if they were prepared to do whatit takes to develop their businesses so they could ultimatelybecome successful, to pay the price in terms of effort, discipline,perseverence and patience, although most if not all wouldprobably answer "yes, of course, whatever it takes", the realityis that very few of them actually would.Although everyone wants success, very few are prepared to paythe price over the long haul. Oh, they may give it a good go fora little while but when the results don't come quickly, they decidetheir efforts aren't working and try something else.The cold, hard reality is that success takes hard work, lots ofit, and lots of time. Overnight successes are very rare. That's whysuccessful people say there's always room at the top. It's becausemost people quit before succeeding, even when success isliterally just around the next bend. This is why you have verylittle competition. Although you may think you have a lot ofcompetition, in reality you're really competing against onlyten percent or so because the other ninety percent will drop outbefore they achieve success.Think of your business as a garden. The first stage is todecide what you want to grow, the second stage is to go getseeds and plant them, the third stage is to tend your garden andthe fourth is to reap what you have sown. The greatest challengefor most people is to sustain themselves through the third stage.This is where patience is essential because it may be someconsiderable time between planting and reaping. Tending yourgarden also requires, in addition to patience, creativity, self-motivation, self-discipline, perseverence and resilience (all thebetter to bounce back with after disappointment, my dear).The good news, though, is that ninety percent of your competitorscan't or won't stick it out long enough to reach the harvest stage.This is why you can be always be a success no matter how muchcompetition you have. So, let's get to it.DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO GROWBefore you can plant your seeds, you need to know what it isyou want to grow."Communicating one on one is different. This requireslistening, never taking your eyes off that person, conveying theimpression that this conversation is very important to you." RickPitinoThe first step in communicating with anyone about your businessis knowing with absolute clarity what it is you and your businessare about. You must decide what it is that you offer and to whom.This means finding your niche. It is the kiss of death to anybusiness to try to be all things to all people. Accept the fact thatnot everyone is a worthwhile prospect for your business and don'twaste your energies targeting anyone who is not a worthwhileprospect.For example, let's say your business is about web site optimizationfor search engines. You take your clients' web pages and youoptimize them for each of the engines, tailoring the pages to rank well.You don't design web pages, you don't create them, you don't offercredit card merchant facilities or shopping carts. You optimizeexisting pages to rank well in the search engines. Period. This is avery specific niche within the broader market of those requiring helpmarketing their web-based businesses.Although that broad market will include people interested in webpage optimization, it will also include people interested in learningHTML, looking for shopping cart assistance, looking for websitedesign services or information on successfully promoting affiliateprograms. If you targeted this entire market, it would be like tryingto find a needle in a haystack identifying those people interestedspecifically in web page optimization.Instead, narrow your focus to that niche of the market that you havedecided to target and target ONLY that market. Everything youdo needs to be focused on web site optimization and nothing else.Every communication you make must be to that end and no other.Don't allow your message to be diluted by generalizing. Don'tallow your business to become fragmented.The most effective rainmakers are very skilled at differentiatingthemselves and their businesses from the competition because theyknow exactly what they are selling and to whom before they evermeet their first prospect. They have rehearsed over and over in theirminds what it is that makes them special and why a client would besmart to do business with them. They relish questions such as"So what do you do?", "What makes you special?" and "Why shouldI do business with you?". While ordinary mortals may stumble andfumble for effective responses to such questions, rainmakers haveno such problem. Effective rainmakers know, specifically andprecisely, exactly what they do and who benefits from their servicesand they are ready with powerful statements about their skills andtalents.You cannot be effective in developing your business unless you havemastered service knowledge. You need to know the features of yourproducts or services so that you can tailor the benefits to theprospective customer's needs. Be sure you know the differencebetween features and benefits. If you're selling bar stools, a featureof the stool is that it has three legs. The benefit is that sitting on itwill stop you hitting the floor. Remember: features tell, benefits sell.Now, once you've identified the features and benefits of your productor service, develop a fifteen second commercial that you can trot outon cue whenever someone asks you, "So what do you do?". Mostpeople are unprepared to answer a question like this effectively andso it is a golden opportunity to set yourself apart. Your fifteen secondcommercial will help you seize the moment and put your best footforward. Use your fifteen second commercial to let each person youmeet know exactly what you do and why you and your business areso special.A fifteen second commercial for our web site optimization servicemight go something like this:Prospect: "So, what do you do?"You: "I run my own business, "Web Site Optimization". I tweakclients' web pages to optimize them for the various search engines.By creating a web page that appears in the first thirty searchresults for a particular search term, the client gets a hugeincrease in traffic to their web site and their sales go through theroof."When should you use your fifteen second commercial? Each andevery time you are introduced to someone new. Get in the habit ofdelivering your fifteen second commercial to as many people aspossible. The more times you deliver it the more chances you haveto create rain.You also need to develop a uniqueness statement to respond tothe question, "What's different about your service compared to yourcompetition?". Use a three step format for your uniquenessstatement. Step one is to briefly overview the three features andbenefits that you will elaborate on in step two. Step two is to usethree tailored features and benefits to explain your uniqueness tothe potential customer. Select one about your business's services/products, one about something your business has accomplished,and one about you personally. In step three, summarize whatyou've just told the prospect.Here's an example of a uniqueness statement for our web siteoptimization service:Prospect: "So what's different about your service compared to yourcompetition?".You: "I'm glad you asked. What's different about "Web SiteOptimization" is the depth of our service, our results and ourpeople."Unlike most of our competitors, we don't just create one web pagefor all of the search engines. Each search engine has differentcriteria for pages to rank well. We create a different version of eachpage specifically designed for each main search engine. Forexample, one of our clients' rankings on Alta Vista increased fromthe 75th position to 15th in less than a month. He's experienceda 500% increase in traffic and sales as a result. I have a backgroundin software engineering for Yahoo so I have access to inside informationabout how the search engines work that most of my competitors justcan't get."So, in answer to your question, what's different about us is thedepth of our service, our results and the unique experience of ourpeople."It will take many rehearsals until you have your fifteen secondcommercial and uniqueness statement down cold. At first it willfeel unnatural to you to give people a rehearsed speech butover time it will feel less awkward and you'll be able to deliverit with an ease and assurance that will sound perfectly natural.PLANTING SEEDS"A network is an organized collection of your personal contacts andyour personal contacts' own networks. Networking is finding fastwhom you need to get what you need in any given situation andhelping others do the same." Harvey Mackay=> Your Existing NetworkNow that you know what to say, you have to find people to sayit to. To establish your network, start with who you know. Theseare your existing personal and business contacts ... the peoplewho will always take your call and who can help you reach yourgoals. Consider people such as your attorney, accountant, doctor,agents, sales people, family, colleagues, friends and vendors.Schedule a meeting with who you know for the express purposeof exploring ways you can help each other expand your respectivenetworks. If there's a fit, create ways to support each other. Youare not looking to sell the other person on your product or service.Instead, you are establishing a genuine relationship with this person.It doesn't matter that although you may be able to help this persondirectly, he or she may never be in a position to reciprocate. Thereason it doesn't matter is that this person has a network of his orher own and may therefore be able to put you in contact withsomeone else who can help you.Noticing the strengths in others and communicating them is oneof the greatest relationship-building skills a rainmaker can have.Much more than just paying idle, often shallow compliments,effective networkers focus on helping others focus on their strengthsby using evidence to back what they're saying. Article Tags: Into Every Life, Little Rain Must, Rain Must Fall, Fifteen Second Commercial, What's Different About, Into Every, Every Life, Little Rain, Rain Must, Must Fall, Search Engines, Site Optimization, Fifteen Second, Second Commercial, Uniqueness Statement, What's Different, Different About