The above ranges from “getting it” to, well, probably “hating it.” Each stage of the spectrum, however, has pain points that Sufi healing could directly and positively address.
The one’s and two’s are easy – they know they need someone like you, but they’re also a more informed consumer. As a result, they might be pickier about your pricing, background, training, or offerings, etc., in ways that someone who’s more of a two or three wouldn’t. Someone at the four or five level may need the most work and ultimately demonstrate the most transformation (a highly valuable testimonial, btw), but you’ll have to quickly break through / break into their cynical context, because they wouldn’t necessarily dream they need a Sufi healer.
I think it’s important for you to decide which end of the spectrum you’d like to focus on. That will be vital with regards to messaging – and even the way you deliver your services. Your choice, therefore, should probably be based on your strongest area of expertise. That way, you’ll have the fastest curve to making money.
What’s inherent in what I’m laying out here is that you cannot be all things to all people – especially in the beginning. For word-of-mouth to work effectively, (perhaps THE most powerful marketing tactic of all) one needs a clearly understood and compelling story that resonates with the desired customer. That story, we can develop together, and will be woven throughout all your marketing assets (website, emails, even where/how you network).
Next, what’s their pain?
After you’ve decided on an area of focus with regard to the “get it/ hate it” spectrum, next it’s time to become an expert on the areas in their lives that aren’t working – as it relates to their closed / malfunctioning hearts. Dig deep to really understand and empathize with the limiting beliefs, the self-indulgent perspectives, the feelings of helplessness and frustration.
Notice that I didn't give their ‘pain’ any technical prescriptions. We’re not there yet. Simply focus on what it’s like to be that prototypical person. Get lots of data for this one. Look at blogs and website where this group is complaining. Talk with people you know who fit the profile and interview them as if you were a reporter – not a healer. Ask friends and colleagues if they know people who fit the profile and interview them, too.
Being thorough at this point is your biggest guarantor of speed and efficiency, because it will save you from wandering around the prospect landscape, altering your message for each person you come across.
I used to tell my clients that when you’re comfortable enough with your target that can do a one-act play featuring “your customer,” you’ve virtually guaranteed your success in business. You’ll know always have a feel for what to do and when to do it.
Now, the Competitive Part: Who else is talking to them?
Generally speaking, sometimes people know they’re in pain and sometimes they don't. We all go through phases where we think we’re improving only to realize later that we’d just found a new way to rationalize a lack of discipline, for example.
Regardless if our experience of pain is well-known, or under the surface of a 20 Bon-Bon per day habit, we will find ways to cope or solve for the pain. And, it’s your competition who are the ones delivering those ways to cope or solve for the pain.
Competition is broadly divided into three categories: 1) direct competitors (e.g. other people offering Sufi healing); 2) indirect competitors (psychologists, new age counselors, that close friend or family member everyone goes to, etc); and, 3) situational competition.
I’ll get to #3 in a minute. Direct and indirect competition will be pretty clear as you do your homework, because folks often “complain” to those of whom they perceive has helpful. Once you fully understand your target and have become an expert in how THEY SEE their pain, you can efficiently develop a matrix of your advantages and disadvantages as compared with each. For example:
- “talking” therapy – pros: a lot of data can be shared; it’s a familiar process. Cons: talking is too effective at avoidingfeeling
- family /friend support – pros: they love you so of course they have your best interests at heart. Cons: what are you, fucking crazy?? They just want you to stay the same so you wont leave them. (I gotta throw a joke in here now and again as a reward for reading this far)
If you were to attempt this exercise without identifying the target and their pain, you could go in circles and ultimately feel like you’ve simply chronicled the obvious. That’s why knowing the target and the particular ways they define and deal with their pain is so important. It gives efficient focus to everything you’ll do.
As for the third type of competition – situational competition – most don't even consider it because, while it is responsible for precluding customers from buying from you, many businesses simply don't know how to plan against it.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you offer your services on Friday afternoons. Everything goes well until the Summer months, when families like to pack up early and head someplace nice for the weekend. You didn't do anything wrong, per se. You know who you’re talking to, what their pain is, even how to deliver and market your services so that they are superior to other Sufi healers and others who offer comfort, advice, and consolation. But, here comes another gorgeous Friday afternoon again, and your 1pm is late, and your 2, 3, and 4pm customers all asked to reschedule.
There are other kinds of situational competitors that can do equal damage. Prospective or existing clients that are embarrassed to discuss your work in front of co-workers, family or friends; being difficult to drive to/park; or, requiring a heavy up-front commitment in time, money, etc., with little obvious reward.
It may take a while to understand these situational competitors and overcome them one by one. The main issue is to be aware that they exist and refine your messaging and deliverables as you go. Understanding your target and pain will give you a big head start on this. Imagine, for example, that you identify your group as being right-brained and bad with time management? That would greatly affect the situational competitors you plan against.
To sum up this point, as a marketing colleague and friend of mine used to say, even the top rated show at 10pm has to compete with sex – because that’s when people often have sex, right?
Finally…
Based on the above findings and observations, what can you do or say, to
1) build credibility in their (biased) eyes,
2) convey impressive value,
3) be highly relevant, AND
4) develop a shared sense of urgency to move forward in all the right ways, together?
That fourth step (comprised of four parts) noted above, is where you and I can really brainstorm and develop powerful and efficient ways to position yourself, your services, and your mission for being in business. It’s easy to think that following this approach is an exercise in pandering. Far from that, it’s a way to appropriately contextualize your beliefs, offerings, working style, messaging, etc., so that it’s win-win.
Consider that if you simply launched a site with knowledge of your needs, goals, and ideals that it would be pandering – to you. By using your personal criteria as your compass and being aggressive about understanding the landscape, you will be able to present yourself quite well and very quickly.
The 4-part question, is something that I’ve used for years in helping to determine how successful I can be in any particular scenario, and given all I’ve laid out above, I’d like to share it with you here.
Imagine a mathematical formula that will accurately report on your trajectory of success. Moreover, it will help you to know what you can ask of the marketplace or even particular prospective clients, at any given moment.
The formula is a fraction that always totals 1. The value of 1, varies greatly, however. I’ll explain.
The numerators are variables, C V R U (Linda's perceived Credibility, Value, Relevance, Urgency)
The denominator is P (Permission - what you can ask for, given the above). As I mentioned, in this formula, P is always equal to the sum of C V R U.
Let’s do a hypothetical example of Linda Manning’s business. Let’s say that, on a rating from one to ten, your perceived Credibility is a 6, because while you have great messaging, you’ve not been in business for a while (I’m just making this up to explain the exercise, remember). And, let’s say, due to a really accessible payment and pricing strategy, your Value is perceived at 9. Given the above homework I suggested, your Relevance is a 10. And, the homework allowed you to quickly identify ways to collaborate with your customer, to develop a shared sense of urgency (perhaps he/she is gunning for a big promotion next year, or trying to reverse a negative slide in a key relationship, for example). So, Urgency is a 10, also.
Your resulting C V R U score is a 35.
With a 35, you have pretty good permission: you can easily gain interest, but will likely have to deal with negotiations that lower your cost, or require some other kind of concession on your part.
Any lower, and you’d have more work to do. If, for example, your C V R U totals 30, then you can expect a “yes” when you ask for their interest in further conversations. If you were to ask for some kind of real agreement in taking action, however, you’d likely get a “no” response or the typical “I’ll think about it”. Note, when you request permission for something beyond your CVRU score, it hurts your credibility (and therefor your score) because you send the message that you don't get them. Sorry.
Anything less than 30, will allow you to ask that they remember you or perhaps to ask that they continue the conversation. Remember, at a 30, you’ll have to add some kind of offer or concession so that you can bump your score to 31 or 32. At that new level, you can request permission for future contact.
So, you always want to be shooting for 40 and definitely no lower than 30, at any given time.
Once you’ve done your homework, you can look at Linda’s CVRU/P formula from the perspective of YOUR CUSTOMER and give yourself a pretty accurate score, based on how you’re describing your business, offerings, results, and style of working. That puts you in the control position of tweaking things to bring up the score of each of the variables. Even if you can’t fix /tweak them immediately, you can set your expectations in a very realistic manner while planning for longer-range improvements as needed.
I realize this is a lot for an email that was supposed to respond to your request for a good name/URL for your business. I hope you can see, however, that despite the many steps I’ve outlined, the above approach will allow you to launch successfully, earn more money quickly, and reach your goals much confidently than without taking these steps. Waiting, or simply throwing up a website right away puts you in a situation of working against the many unintended messages you'll be transmitting about yourself.
Just so you know, I used this approach to build 4goodmedia in to a business that nearly hit the $million mark last year. I used it to get every job since 2004, and lots of raises and promotions since. Put it this way, in 2004, I was making $60k a year. Less than five years later, I had a VP title and was making $170k a year. During that time, I used this approach to help plan successful marketing campaigns and programs. It’s how I won Harley-Davidson, Dow Chemical, IBM, Levitz, EMC, Answers.com and a host of big brands. Actually, not only how I won those accounts, but how I was able to consistently meet their demanding marketing expectations. I’m always monitoring my CVRU/P
So trust me when I tell you that it’s an awesome feeling to be able to have a strong sense of your CVRU/P score, even during conversations. You’ll be able to say to yourself, for example, ‘ok, I’ve totally established credibility, value and relevance – we’re bonding over all the same perspectives, but I have to start digging into why this person would want to act now. I have to surface their urgency.’
Most of all, I hope this is helpful. I’m pretty flexible, especially at night, so call me with questions/comments, or if it’s easier, just reply back.
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