August 20, 2020
If you struggle with knowing how to go about speaking directly to your ideal client and crafting your message in a way that is actually relevant to the person you want to work with, keep on listening! Today’s guest is the incredible Bill Cates! He chatted with us all about the principles in his book Radical Relevance.
Bill Cates is an internationally recognized client-acquisition expert, author, and speaker.
As a successful entrepreneur, Bill started and sold two book publishing companies. Turning his attention to help other businesses grow, Bill has written four best-selling books: Get More Referrals Now, Don’t Keep Me a Secret, Beyond Referrals, and Radical Relevance. The last of which we’re diving into today.
Bill has worked with over half a million professionals, small business owners, and salespeople across 5 continents; helping them increase revenue without increasing their marketing budget.
Bill Cates’ client-acquisition system has been featured in such publications as Success Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Selling Power, the Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. And his own business success has been featured in Money Magazine.
Bill is also one of the coolest men alive. He’s trekked through the Himalayas of Nepal and the Andes of Peru. He has lived on a houseboat in Kashmir, India, climbed Machu Pichu, reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, camped in the Arctic Circle, and he’s toured the country as the drummer in a rock and roll band.
In today’s show, he dives into his rules of radical relevance, some of the most mind-blowing strategies for marketing ever. We chat about why most businesses struggle with crafting their marketing message in a way that speaks directly to their audience and ACTUALLY converts to sales. We also talk about how powerful referrals can be as a business owner, and how to go about getting them. This episode is filled with SO much goodness.
After graduate school, Bill actually toured the country as a drummer in a rock and roll band for a while. After about two and a half years he did a talent assessment and realized he would probably be playing at Holiday Inns for the rest of his life so he figured it wasn’t his thing to continue.
Next, he took a job working in customer service at American Airlines for about 6 years. This is where he started to get the entrepreneurial bug. Both of his parents lived through the Depression and were very conservative. His mother always said that you don’t quit one job until you have your next job lined up. Here Bill was quitting with a glimmer of a business idea.
Bill wrote a book on airline careers and started advertising it in the back of magazines and publications (before the internet). This is where he learned advertising, direct response, how to produce a book, and so much more. From there, he had a coworker who wanted to write a cookbook so he helped her publish it. He noticed people would buy and read cookbooks and not ever cook the recipes. He eventually started to publish cookbooks. He borrowed $40,000 from his father (and at the time that was astronomical) to put out six cookbooks and began to sell them in gourmet shops and eventually did 45 books! It grew and grew.
When he first started the business, he knew he needed a name quickly so he decided on WRC (William Richard Cates) Publishing. He was doing okay, but not great. He decided to shift and changed his company name to The American Cooking Guild. If you are a gourmet shop, grocery shop, or kitchenware shop, that name was far more appealing! That was the turning point in his business. It helps when the name speaks to the market and creates some credibility to potential customers.
For 25 years, Bill has been teaching small business owners how to build and grow a business. What he found is that ] these businesses struggle to talk about their value and describe it. He’s not just referencing the elevator pitch, although we all need a short and succinct way to talk about what we do, but rather about all the different ways we talk about the value from getting everyone on the same page at a company to the discussing value to your niche market. The subtitle of the book really says it all and describes the problem it solves. It is “Sharpen your marketing message, cut through the noise, win more ideal clients.”
We know there is a lot of noise in the market and the internet has made it very easy for us to get our message out. Therefore, it is hard to get our message out, because it actually is so easy. There is so much clutter!
It is estimated that the average person gets 3,000 marketing messages a day in all of its various forms.
Another problem that Bill wrote the book to help solve is that one of the biggest challenges and objections we get from potential clients or customers is inertia. What he means by this is that they don’t want to do anything or change. They are happy to be where they are. Your message needs to not only be relevant enough to resonate and catch someone’s attention, but you need to figure out how to move them to take action. You have to compel and move them forward. Both of these are very important.
Bill also talks about ideal clients in the subtitle. He talks about the “right fit” clients. One rule of marketing that Bill has learned is to use words and concepts that are already in the brain of your prospects so you are not making them work too hard. Everyone understands the term “ideal clients”, but on the inside of the book, Bill makes the case for why you want to find your “right fit” clients. These can also be personas or avatars.
Sometimes when you are starting a business you will talk to anyone that is breathing. You do all the projects that you maybe wouldn’t normally do. This can be okay because it can lead you to other things that you might not have thought of. You should listen to the market and what people are wanting. But, you need to be careful about those shiny objects that can pull you away from what your core business is. Any entrepreneur or business owner goes through this. Eventually, you want to settle into your core.
Most businesses these days would be more successful if they think about narrowing their market, narrowing their message, and narrowing who they are trying to serve. We have a big market available to us, so, therefore, we can afford to get more narrow. By doing this, your messaging gets better and stronger. When you are trying to appeal to different types of folks, the messaging gets weak. If you start to hone in on a specific market and specific right fit client, then your message is right on and resonates with the bullseye of their brain.
One of the reasons people may struggle with this is that they may not know their market as well as they need to know it. Because of this, they come up with words, phrases, and concepts that feel and seem right based on what they know but are not necessarily what the market needs or wants.
Becoming radically relevant starts with an incredible obsession of knowing your clients, customers, and potential customers. There are 17 Rules of Radical Relevance scattered throughout the book.
#2 is to give your clients a seat at the table. You don’t want to develop any significant product or service or messaging without talking to some of your clients and even perhaps some prospects. Sometimes we talk in marketing and technical speak and use phrases, words, and concepts that go over the heads of our clients. It’s like the billboard test. If you see a message on a billboard down the road you make think it’s clever, but you missed the exit. Your message has to resonate already in the head, and you can achieve this by talking to clients and customers. Talking to your clients is a great way to brag on your company or yourself and it comes straight from their mouths. This can soften the message a bit.
Another mistake is when you try to be too much to too many people. If you say your market is “everybody” then you don’t have a market, especially in today’s day and age.
You don’t want to try to be too big to too many people all at once because it waters down your messaging and doesn’t resonate with everyone.
The truth is, the more precise, the better.
You can have more than one market over time. If you are just getting started, you really want to pick one, grow it, and get it established before looking at other related markets. If you have more than one market, it’s good if they are ancillary to each other and complement each other. You can also have more than one bullseye on a target. You don’t have to have just one person that you serve. You can have more than one, you just need to be crystal clear with who those are and adjust your messaging.
When Bill works with clients he always asks the following two questions. What problem do you solve? Who do you solve it for? So many people struggle to answer these. Until you know the answer to these it is hard to communicate your value effectively.
There has to be an element of joy in what we are doing. A right fit client is someone you were meant to serve and was meant to be served by you. It is someone you enjoy serving and they appreciate your value for all the reasons you want to be appreciated. They are usually more joyful and profitable to work with. When you first start out, you are probably going to have a lot of not right fit clients. You have to figure out along the way who your right fit client is.
You often don’t hear business folks talk about joy in business. It’s not a common conversation. If we look for that, we can find it. If you don’t look for it, sometimes you get a few years into your business and your business starts to own you.
There are two types of missions. Some companies have missions that are company-centric. It is their mission to accomplish something or do something. There is little mention of the customer or client. It is not an outward stroke of a mission.
On the other hand, you can take the why you believe in your value and why you help people and make that your mission.
When you think about the mission of your business, is it an outward stroke? Are you really trying to serve people? This is an attractive quality. When you can talk about what you do and why you do what you do in a missionary sort of way, you start to attract people with your passion and enthusiasm for what you do.
Rule #1. The shortest root to relevance is through an introduction from a trusted source. If you are trying to reach strangers, the fastest way to become relevant and known in their life is by an introduction by someone they already know. We want to make sure we are building our businesses through referrals and introductions. It’s not just icing on the cake or nice when they happen. If most of your clients would prefer to meet you through a referral, then it really should be your primary method of building your business.
Rule #2. Give your clients a seat at the table.
Rule #5. Only differences that matter, matter. Why is what you are saying about your business that is different a value to your clients. Your difference needs to matter to your client.
Rule #15. Your prospects and clients aren’t mindreaders. Never assume a prospect or client can read your mind and take the action you want them to take. Everything we do should have a call to action. Although it may be obvious to you, it might not be obvious to them.
Rule #16. Test test test. This is the universal rule of marketing. We can make certain assumptions based on our own experience, history, and intuition, but you will never know until you test. You can have a best guess, but you won’t know until we test.
Imagine a graph. On one side is the idea of whether a problem is blatant or latent (obvious or unknown). Is the problem that you are trying to solve obvious for your clients? Do they know they have that problem? You may have to ask questions to your client to make that problem more obvious.
The horizontal access represents if it’s aspirational or critical? Is this a problem that would be nice to solve or is this a problem that is critical to solve?
The best place where people will invest their resources of time, dollars, and resources, are the problems that are obvious and critical. When we are thinking about approaching the market, we need to figure out if we are attacking and addressing obvious and critical problems. This doesn’t mean you can’t address problems that aren’t critical.
You can bring problems to being both critical and obvious through education.
Engagement. Leverage. Connection.
Think of a wheel spinning. On three parts of the wheel, it says engagement, leverage, and connection. The first thing we need to think about in terms of getting more referrals is are we referrable in the first place. Is our product, service, business, or us personally referrable? How do we know? The barometer of referability is if we are getting unsolicited referrals. Every business should be getting unsolicited referrals or something is missing.
Engagement. While satisfied clients are loyal, there is a low correlation between getting referrals from these people. What we need are engaged clients and customers. An engaged client is someone who engages with your value meaning they like the value that you bring, the questions you ask, the problems you solve, the things you teach, and responsive service. There is also the personal connection. With all things being equal, we know that people do business with people they like and trust. All things not being equal, people still do business with people they like and trust and sometimes will even pay more.
Leverage. Leverage is proactivity in terms of getting referrals and introductions. How do you ask for referrals and introductions in a way that is not begging or pushing? When you are asking, you don’t want to open up the whole universe to your clients. Instead, have a way to picture people in their mind’s eye so they can land on them visually. The bullseye of asking for introductions is specific people that you know they know. Ask very specifically for someone you know to introduce you to someone they know. Help your referral source trigger some people in their mind’s eye to connect you with.
Connection. Connection is the introduction. We’ve got to get the introduction. Work together with your referral source and figure out what that looks like. Word of mouth isn’t enough, you really want to be appropriately proactive.
If you do all of these, the wheel just keeps spinning! You truly can create an unlimited flow of good quality prospects and clients coming into your business if you follow this wheel of engagement, leverage, and connection.
If you work hard to give connections to others, they are likely to connect you as well.
One of the biggest lessons he has learned is to not go too far developing a product or service or approach to the market without talking to some clients. Focus on the market and make sure you get enough information.
HoneyBook: share.honeybook.com/heart
In addition to a FREE 7 day trial, get 50% off your first year of HoneyBook, a $200 value!!
www.theheartuniversity.com/apps
If you want to connect with us and other listeners in the Heart and Hustle community join our Facebook group here.
Book: www.RadicalRelevanceBook.com
Free Guide: www.ExponentialGrowthGuide.com
www.referralcoach.com
Follow along:
www.instagram.com/mrslindseyroman
www.instagram.com/theheartuniversity
WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
meet l&e
keep reading
GET OUR 'TOP 5 APPS WE USE FOR INSTA
GRAB OUR FREE GUIDE BELOW ON THE TOP 5 APPS WE USE IN CONJUNCTION WITH INSTAGRAM TO UP LEVEL OUR INSTA GAME! TRUST US, YOU'LL BE A PRO IN NO TIME!
ARE YOU RIDING FRONT SEAT ON THE INSTAGRAM STRUGGLE BUS LATELY?
Be the first to comment