It isn’t a secret that successful entrepreneurs don’t make it on their own.  They are usually supported by a tribe of people that know who they are, love what they do, and tell anyone they meet about how amazing they are.  Having a tribe of people that loves your business and champions you is nothing short of amazing – you get great referrals, people to brainstorm ideas and challenges with, and it makes the entire entrepreneurial journey enjoyable.

So how do you build a tribe?  Let’s examine a few common mistakes that I’ve seen people make:

• being unclear about why customers buy from you (if you don’t know why, your tribe will get even more confused and won’t know how to refer you)
• pitching for referrals before they even know who you are (same issue as this)
• diving too early into the alliance details (I’ll do this for you if you do this for me)

Remember that people have to know you, like you, before they trust you and will recommend you.  Guess what’s the best way to determine if someone should be in your tribe?

Get to know them.  Figure out if you like them.  Decide if you trust them.

I had a meeting last week with an IP lawyer.  My clients often have questions about issues that are outside of my coaching domain (accounting, tax, legal questions, SEO, etc) and I rely on having the right people in my tribe to refer clients to.  In working with clients that are licensing out their products and services, trademarks and IP protection often comes up.  Since I’m no lawyer, it was great to meet with a recommended expert who specializes in this field and find out more about how to best prepare for IP protection.

It was like any other coffee meeting, except it was like no other coffee meeting with a lawyer.  We talked about how we got into our field, laughed at lawyer jokes (he brought it up), chatted about sailing (which I know nothing about), bringing up kids (where I am a few years ahead of him), and at the end, we found out more about each other’s services and how we might work together.  He mentioned a few people he would introduce me to, said he would send me his fee schedule and gave me a few tips for my clients, and offered to talk at Mom CEO Academy if it would prepare more entrepreneurs to start off on the right foot.

It’s no wonder his firm gets 95% of their business from referrals.  I am now a big champion and can’t wait to send people to him.

So what is the key to building a tribe of champions?  Do as this lawyer did, don’t focus on the “doing”, focus on the “being” when you’re meeting with a potential champion:

• be curious about who they are and what they do
• care about where they are and where they want to go
• enjoy the discovery process
• have a bit of fun (note: lawyer jokes are funny when told by introverted lawyers with a slight self-deprecating humor)

Want to find out more?  Join me at the next Entrepreneur Mom Now Webinar series where we will discuss how to prepare, build, and manage a strategic alliance the right way.

Do you ever feel discouraged about your marketing efforts?  Do you sometimes send out marketing material, place ads in online or printed publications, exhibit at trade shows, meet countless potential customers through networking events, only to find that you don’t make a sale?

There are lots of ways to ensure that your marketing is effective.  Of course, you have to make sure that your niche markets or ideal clients understand why they should buy from you.  Of course, your pricing needs to align with the value you provide.  Of course, you need to build visibility (telling people who you are and what you do) and credibility (making sure that people understand why you are good at what you do).  However, beyond all this, there is also an element of timing.

The foundation of marketing management involves having systems to track, manage and improve the odds of meeting the right customers, educating them on why they should buy, and managing conversion rates and effectiveness of closing the sale.  However, sometimes people you meet or talk to just aren’t ready to buy from you.  They either have the need but don’t have the money, or have the money but don’t have the need.

It’s not you.  It’s them.  Don’t beat yourself up over it.  Don’t get discouraged about marketing, don’t stop networking, don’t stop building business, don’t quit because people have said no to you.  Not now doesn’t mean not ever.

Instead, keep finding ways to meet the right clients, and at the same time, don’t throw away your previous efforts by losing touch with people that you have met.  Develop a system so that you have an easy, low-effort way to keep in touch.  I’ve given countless seminars, gone to hundreds of networking events, and have spoken to thousands of potential clients.  Not everyone hires me right away. Some never work with me because we are not the right fit and will never be (I refer them to other coaches), others hire me months or years down the road when the timing is right.

Here are a few examples of great ways to keep in touch with prospective customers:

• Build a mailing list and send out email newsletters with helpful, relevant information at regular intervals
• Build your social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, blogging etc) to make it easy for your clients to get to know you and engage with you
• Offer free or low-cost and low-risk versions of your products or services (basic models, introductory pricing, group classes instead of one-on-one, ebooks or downloadable products, trial size products) to experience buying from you

What can you do to keep in touch with people that are not ready to buy from you now (but might very well later)?

In a custom sales training session this past week for a client with five retail locations, the district manager came up to me after the end of the session with this question: “Felicia, I have a question for you.  I have been wondering why our flyer, which we spend lots of money printing and distributing, isn’t effective at all.  Any ideas?”

After taking a look at the flyer, I noticed that, like many other flyers I’ve seen, it touted a 20-40% discount rate for their products, picture of the products, and then the usual contact information for the various locations.

I asked “Is this distributed to current customers, at a tradeshow where you exhibit, or where else?”  He said “This is used for mostly for area codes in the neighborhood of the retail locations, where people don’t really know us yet but we want to incent them to come in.”

Here’s the issue.  Giving a discount and asking for a sale when someone doesn’t know you yet is like proposing on the first date.  I don’t know anything about you, I don’t even know if I want a second date yet, and you’re asking me to marry you?

When one goes to a grocery store, do you automatically pick up something just because it is on sale?  Probably not.  What if you have used the product before and it’s on sale?  Now that’s a different story.  When you visit Costco, have you noticed that discount coupons are more effective when paired with sampling?  Give me a chance to try your product at no risk, and if I like it, then give me a reason to buy now with the discount.

So what do you do when you’re marketing to brand new people who know nothing about you?  Think what you do on a first date.  Introduce yourself.  Be curious about them and what they like.  Tell them a little more about you.  Notice where you make a good fit.  And then ask them on a second date to explore more (and don’t forget to get their phone number and contact so you can call later).

‘Tis the time of year that everyone is talking goals and resolutions, setting intentions, and designing outcomes.  Did you decide what you want to accomplish in 2012?

I’ve found that many are giving up on making resolutions because they don’t work or last very long, so why do it because they are sure to be disappointed with (yet) more failed resolutions by February?  As an engineer-at-heart, I find myself intrigued by why resolutions don’t work for so many people.  Here are my thoughts:

Hunch #1: My feeling is that people overestimate what they can do in the short term, and underestimate what they can do in the long term.  Most cram too many ambitions into the daily, weekly, monthly cycles, and not enough into the yearly, biennially, and even longer, say 5 year time frames.  It’s not really surprising because we are all programmed to have a bit of ADD with information overload, ever changing business environments and priorities, and we all want and expect instant gratification.  3 year planning?  5 year planning?  Why bother?  Most can’t even imagine where things will be or what they want 6 months from now.

Hunch #2: People make resolutions that require them to live with conflicting values.  For example, if I want to lose weight by eating at home instead of eating out, but I value convenience over health, I’ll likely opt for the fast-food meal option in a time crunch.  If I want to eliminate watching TV at night and start reading, but I enjoy the perceived relaxation of TV-watching over the perceived benefits of reading, I likely won’t stick with my resolution for long.

Hunch #3: People make resolutions but don’t build resources to see it through.  By resources, I mean taking the necessary steps to adjust the mindset, learn the skills, seek the right advice, or build the proper environment and tribe of supporters to make sure that their resolutions have the best chance to come to fruition.

A hypothesis: resolutions aren’t just for some hard-core driven people who have unnaturally high resolve and can stick through things while others can’t, nor is it about an old concept that is ideal but hardly relevant in this day and age, but that the real issue is about how clear we are about what’s important to us, and whether we have done the work to clarify what is really needed to have it work?

Here’s a challenge for you: take the time to clarify your vision of what wild, ultimate success is for you 3, 5, or 10 years from today.  Imagine what that success would mean to you.  Why it would be important to you.  How would a life lived that way benefit you and those around you?  What would be the impact to your community?

My hunch is, if you became more clear about why you are making the resolution and what its impact and value is far, far, down the road, you might find that doing it is more important, more rewarding, and less painful than not doing it.  If your resolutions are crafted such that they are truly important, fun, and attainable, then implementation of your resolution becomes a positive and motivating exercise.

What do you think?  Share your thoughts in the comments below!