Financial advisors, insurance agents, and business owners–just like sports teams and politicians–purposely reach out for the recognition and affirmation that they have what people want. Many businesses have thereby gained elite status and positive exposure among those who know them best: their clients, fans, and constituents.
Trumpeting Your Best Qualities
But getting clients to "go wild" about you and what you do is elusive for most. First there must be some attribute worth going wild about. It requires that you find those interested in your message and offer and that they pass what they know along to others. Individuals don't randomly stumble upon an insurance agent. This act of reaching out is marketing.
Marketing is about attracting qualified buyers to your products or services. And, there have been hundreds of thousands of books and articles written about marketing tactics, new and traditional strategies, ideas and formulas to use in your business to attract clients, convince them to buy and then get them to do it (buy) again. But cutting through all of it, the concept of marketing is, more simple than all the definitions and words written on the topic. After spending more than two decades working and marketing in different industries including politics, sports and technology, with the past 15 in financial services marketing, I have my own definition of marketing:
Marketing is the act of creating a compelling message for an offering that clients will buy and then won't be able to stop talking about.
It is not about finding and implementing a hundred new tactics for reaching your target audience. It is about finding and implementing a few strategies that cause people to pass along the "good word" to others.
Tapping the Emotional Connection
However, in order to truly get clients to 'go wild' about your business, there must be an overriding strong emotional connection. This connection is the same one we feel when we cheer for our favorite sports team or support a cause that we are passionate about.
An individual can get others to connect by emotionally energizing them through a passionate delivery of information. It is a true differentiator because few actually act with great passion. Thus, when someone is exhibiting passion about something, we take notice.
In my book, "The Connectors," I wrote about the critical importance of connecting with others in business to fulfill your potential, create enormous opportunities and gain the personal success you desire. A step beyond being a connector is to define the specifics that will turn connections into sales, and buyers into fans. The connection you make with others is what creates the possibility. Only when we tap into the emotional connection will people "love us" and go wild about what we do.
Tapping into the emotions of others requires creating an Emotional Convention (See Chart 1-A) in the minds of those who will buy from us. An Emotional Convention happens when seven basic factors come together to form a powerful, undeniable emotion. The convention is ultimately the agreement that your conscious and subconscious mind makes accepting the merits and value of a certain person, company or offering. The Emotional Convention, if successful, results in an "I'm wild about you" conclusion.
Have you tapped into the Emotional Convention in the minds of your prospects and clients?
In business today, it is more critical than ever that we create a strong emotional connection between the business and the client. Without this, the product or service is lost in a sea of noise and similar offerings.
Factors in the Emotional Convention
