Episode 84: How to Fix Money Draining Mistake #5, with Stephen Woessner.

Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.  

Good Morning, Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner.

Since the advent of the commercial Internet…I have collected tens of thousands of data points that have given me the ability to identify what I call the 8 Money Draining Mistakes. These are the things that literally cause a business website – like yours – to leak serious money every day.

You may remember that I mentioned the Money Draining Mistakes during episode #68…but we didn’t have time to dig deep.

So for today’s solocast, I decided to loop back around and dedicate today’s episode toward how to fix one of the most expensive mistakes.

It’s Money Draining Mistake #5…and I call it “Not Knowing Your Customer.”

I am excited to share this strategy and recipe with you because every time I sit down to prepare for a solocast…I think about you…and what I hope will be the result outcomes for you as a result of you listening and applying what you learn.

Why do I do this?

Because we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I take it very seriously that you chose to share some of your invaluable time with me today. As a result…I put in the time – the hard work to ensure that I deliver significant value.

It needs to be a fair trade of your time for the business value I deliver. I consider your time investment to be sacred.

So here it is – for this episode – we are going to dig deep into why most companies do not know their customers – how they miss the single WORD that could completely alter the customer relationship – and I am going to give you a specific step-by-step strategy or recipe for understanding exactly how to connect with your customers on a different and more valuable level than what you may be doing currently.

My hope for you is that you will take this recipe – apply it – and see predictable, measurable, and repeatable increases in sales inside your business as a result.

This episode represents such a significant opportunity for you and your business because only about 5% of the business owners listening right now will take action on the steps I share. You may nod your head in agreement – maybe even take some notes – or share this episode with a colleague.

But ultimately, your inaction will signify your acceptance of operating your business – and maybe even your life – at the level of the status quo. Onward Nation – please don’t let this be you!

Don’t fall into the trap of procrastination. My hope for you is that you will take the notes – have the discussions with your team – and then put the steps into action – swiftly.

This strategy has the potential of being a game-changer for you.  

Let’s begin.

First…I will ask you a question.

What’s the number one reason people buy anything?

I will give you a hint. It has nothing to do with the features, advantages, or benefits of the product or service.

In fact – it has everything to do with just one, four-letter word.

And that word is “HOPE.”

The only reason we buy anything is because we HOPE that tomorrow will somehow be better than today as a result of buying the product or service we are considering. That’s it – HOPE.

So in order for you to fix this Money Draining Mistake you need to understand how to make an emotional and empathetic connection with your prospects and customers.

You do this by becoming a HOPE Dealer to your customers.

Let’s take this a little bit deeper with another question.

What percent of people make a purchase decision based solely on emotional reasons?

Would you guess 20%? 30%? 50%?

The answer is 100%.

Yes, 100%. We like to think that we are such rational creatures and we only make decisions based on objective data and thoughtful analysis. But the reality is that all of our decisions – yes, 100% of them – are made for purely emotional reasons.

I explain why within the solocast.

This is an incontrovertible fact. Therefore, you need to understand your prospects and customers from an emotional perspective.

You need to understand their challenges.

You need to understand their pain points.

And as one of my mentors, Darren Hardy likes to say, you need to metaphorically “Lay in their bed at night” to understand what is causing them pain.

So during this solocast, I share eight specific questions you and your team need to ask each other and then go out and ask your prospects and customers the same questions.

Once you have collected that data – you will have all you need in order to create your customer or client “Avatar.”

CAUTION!

Your avatar is one person. Not an email list of 20,000 people. One person and you give him or her a name, a personality, you hang a photo of her on your conference room wall, and every time you write an email campaign, shoot a video, etc. you speak directly to your avatar.

For example...when I am not interviewing today’s top business owners for Onward Nation episodes, I am the CEO of Predictive ROI…a digital marketing agency that specializes on delivering guaranteed sales and financial return on investment for our clients, or our work is free.

So at Predictive ROI…our client avatars are “Harry” and “Sally” (we chose those names because “When Harry Met Sally” is one of my favorite movies of all time).

And this is Sally:

Sally and her team are ambitious and want to learn new things
She knows there is more opportunity and growth “out there” and is frustrated she does not know how to capitalized on it, faster
She reads lots of books but doesn’t know a good idea from a bad one
She is uncertain and afraid to fail
She has been fooled before and does not know who to believe
Everything sounds too good to be true
And Sally has said to me…“Stephen...I want to trust you...that you can do what you say you can do...show me the evidence quickly that it is working and that you are delivering on your promises”.

During more than one prospect client presentation, “Sally” has said to me – “My goodness, that is me.” I smile when it happens because I know we just made a powerful connection.

You can too if you answer the eight questions in this episode and apply what you learned.

In closing…remember this reality…you are the average of the people you spend the most time with.

So you need to spend your time with people you have a common future with – not a common past.

And by consistently listening to Onward Nation – you are spending time with today’s top business owners…the people who are crushing it and already at the next level…the people whose recipes and strategies can help you grow your business, make your network more robust, and become more influential.

All so you can reach your goals and move your business onward to that next level.

I hope that makes sense.

Okay, Onward Nation – my hope is this solocast was valuable to you.

Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought.

Keep the feedback coming.

You can reach me directly at stephen at OnwardNation.com and let me know -- thumbs up or thumbs down?

Onward with gusto!

-- Stephen  

 

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