Make Your Practice Truly Noticeable

Make Your Practice Truly Noticeable (and Clients Will Come)

The topic of "wow-ing" clients comes up a lot with my own private coaching clients. Many of those who've attended my Client Attraction workshops have heard me recommend the book Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard. It's about taking the client experience to a level that makes them literally RAVE about you and your services to their friends and colleagues.
I also recommend Seth Godin's book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. If you have never read it, the book is about having your business stand out and be SO remarkable that clients and the general public can't stop talking about you (hint, hint, this attracts lots of new clients).
Here's the book description:
"Cows, after you've seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though . . . now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff – a lot of brown cows – but you can bet they won't forget a Purple Cow. In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It's a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place."
OK, you're probably saying "That's great Fabienne, but what about MY business?" Here's a client example: A real estate client in Manhattan was looking to stand out of the New York real estate marketplace (there are literally hundreds and hundreds of real estate brokers in New York). We came up with a list of ways to Purple Cow her business so her clients and others would start talking about her services to anyone and everyone they could. Here's what we came up with. (Note: Some of these ideas she is able to implement right away. Some will have to wait a few months or a couple of years until finances can allow. Either way, they're a great example to get YOU started on making your own Purple Cow list.)

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  Having a chauffeured Lincoln Towncar take home buyers from property to property.
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  Providing a hot lunch or gourmet sandwiches in the car at lunchtime.
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  Bringing a basket of wine and cheese in the early evening.
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  When finances allow it, drive her clients around in a vintage Rolls Royce.

Now tell me, what other New York City real estate broker does this? None that I've heard of…until now. But you better believe that if she starts doing this, people will start talking and want to work with her exclusively.
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
Your turn to think about how you could "Purple-Cow" your business to attract lots of new clients and referrals, simply by being remarkable. This will bring a huge (and even unfair) advantage to you in your Client Attraction efforts.
Schedule some quiet time to think about how you could make your business so unusualand so what-the-client-always-wanted that clients and prospects can't help but talk about you, recommend you, and want to work with you.
Go crazy, go nuts. Don't stay with what seems safe or affordable. It's just an assignment and I want you to have fun with it. Talk to your friends about it. Look around and see what other industries are doing that seems over the top and very cool. Take some time with this over the next week or two. Write it all down on a sheet of paper. Once you've written it down, look at the things that are realistic to do right now, and those that you would save until later. Then do it.

Make Your Practice Truly Noticeable (and Clients Will Come)

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Best Low Risk Short Term Investment Strategies

 

If you're looking for a short term savings solution, there's no shortage of banking products available to meet your needs. Money market accounts, savings accounts and CDs (certificates of deposit) are all common and popular short term investment vehicles. Other products, such as municipal bonds, treasury bills and I-bonds may be available, but when you're looking for low-risk savings strategies that still allow you to get a return on your investment, it's hard to beat CDs.

Getting the Best Rates

Many banks claim to offer competitive rates, but some go beyond the industry standard. The online bank, Aurora Bank (Equal Housing Lender, Member FDIC) offers some of the highest CD rates available. Of course, to get the best rates, you'll either need to deposit a large amount, or keep the CD for a longer length of time (called the maturity date). Either (or both) of these options can help you get the best possible CD rates. Maturity date lengths and deposit amounts can vary. CD timeframes range from 6 months to 5 years, and deposit amounts vary, but it's best to keep a minimum balance of $1,000 in order to avoid any extra fees or account maintenance charges.

Making Money on Your Money

One of the best reasons to consider CDs for short term investments (anything five years or less is considered short-term), is simply because you get the benefits of compound interest. Every day, the bank pays you interest on the money you've deposited in the CD, and at the end of the month, this interest is added to your account on top of what you've already deposited. So you're essentially making money on the interest that the bank is already paying you.

Safety and Security

Another reason why CDs make ideal short term investments is because of their safety, security and stability. Unlike some other banking products (particularly investment-related products like stocks and bonds), CDs are covered by the FDIC – a government institution which protects your deposits up to $250,000 per account, against the highly unlikely event that the bank itself goes bankrupt. It's worth noting that since the FDIC was created after the Great Depression (credit unions have their own federal institution called the NCUA), not a single person has lost money in their account due to bank insolvency.

In uncertain economic times, it pays to have money invested across a wide spectrum of banking products. As you may already know, different products produce different results according to your risk tolerance level, amount to be deposited and how long the money is kept with that particular product. With this in mind, it's a good idea to speak with a banking professional about how to use CDs to reach your short term savings and investment goals. Considering today's competitive rates, CDs are a low-risk way to keep your savings secure for up to five years.

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