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When the Competition is Extreme, MAKEOVER Your Clients

by Linda J. Parker
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Pick any network, any night of the week. You will find an enthusiastic host with his or her keen sidekicks, knocking down the walls in someone�s home, throwing their clothing out with the trash, or using a felt-tipped pen to map out the lucky person�s new face, abdomen or buttocks.

The world has gone makeover crazy. Take advantage of the trend and give your clients that magical makeover experience.�Fascination with makeovers is not new. Since childhood, we�ve all had an eye out for a brass lamp to rub, a magic star to wish upon, or just your basic fairy godmother to change our lives.

You understand the appeal of new beginnings. Your clients, regardless of their business, background, age, or gender, share your feelings. Thanks to the wizards of television programming who have figured out ways to feed us the magical makeover experience in thirty-minute bites, it has become more than �okay� to admit we�d all like a little reinvention in our lives.

The media has your market hyped and hungry for a makeover experience. It is up to you to take advantage of the opportunity. Consider these suggestions:

�� Focus on changing a single element of a client�s business. Can you repackage a service or product that you typically offer as part of a collection, into a stand-alone? Can you un-bundle your offerings? If so, then you can sell your clients a makeover of some aspect of their business, even if they might not have the boldness or the bucks to take on full-blown change. And remember when you price your menu of stand-alone services or goods: in business, the individual pieces are always worth more than the sum of their parts.

�

�� Go for the total makeover. If you can create new business by separating services, perhaps you can also package services to create your makeover opportunities.�Buy �A� and I�ll throw in �B�at a reduced price, is a time-honored approach to increasing sales. With a little creative packaging from you, it can be a successful technique for spurring a stagnating client into growth and change�viola! A makeover.

�� Enlist help from your client�s clients. If your client does not already have an advisory team in place, take charge of helping him or her build one. An advisory team can include mentors, peers, or even clientele.�

Make certain that team members understand that being advisors does not call for them to contribute financially, nor will it make great demands on their time. In fact, for purposes of your makeover, advisory team participation can be a onetime effort. You are looking for subject matter experts or prototype consumers who can give your clients a fresh perspective of their business.

�You may find that either you or your client needs to offer an incentive to team members to get them involved. That�s okay. Just select �giveaways� of products and services that have a high marketing value, and which will turn the team members themselves into your own future clients.

�Remember that people are very protective of their time. Don�t expect to always assemble the advisory team in roundtable fashion. You and your client can take advantage of their wisdom in individual meetings, by email, telephone or through group teleconferences.

�� Learn from television.Be sure you give your client a clear sense of his �before� and his �after� picture. Find and use concrete ways to document the positive changes your makeover has created, i.e., surveys, increased response to marketing efforts, growth in sales, or other appropriate measurements of success.

Because no two businesses are alike, you will have to put some thought into how to make the makeover concept work for you. You may even have to do a little making over of your own business in the process. Put forth the effort; it can be highly rewarding.

You can make your clients� image, products, services, or facilities fresher, timelier, user-friendlier, more cost-effective, or just more sizzling. It is a wonderful gift to their business. The fact that your clients will pay you money for your effort is a wonderful gift to you�just think of yourself as a fairy godparent with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Quotable:�

�Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.�� Margaret Thatcher.

�(This article was previously published in Vol. 41, Oct. 2004 of the IGPC Newsletter.)

Originally Posted: May 7, 2005 at 7:00 PM
Last Updated: May 16, 2008 at 11:53 PM
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