… ask him who his best customer is.
I’ll bet you the pack of biscuits I’m going to devour when my wife pops out that it’s isn’t me.
If he’s bored and has some time on his hands after saying “John who?”, he might check his records and discover that even though I’ve bought a few of his offerings, I’ve given him less than $150 during the many years I’ve been on his list.
(And he sells a LOT of stuff too – there’s an offer in pretty much every one of his emails)
If he’s REALLY bored, he might check out his email stats, where even more disappointment awaits the poor man. I open (at best) 20% of his emails and… the ones I do open? I rarely read every word.
So, when I spent an hour or so this week unsubscribing from newsletters and came to the name “Michael Senoff”…
… you’d be forgiven if you thought my trigger happy clicking finger veered towards the “unsubscribe” button.
(Especially given I was in my strictest “culling” mode)
Not even for one iota of a second. Senoff’s a keeper.
Why? Let’s talk about stats again…
Stats wise, mine and Michael’s relationship (I often refer to us as “Jochael”) is on rocky ground. I delete most of his emails sight unseen and he has me segmented in the “why the hell am I paying to email these people?” camp.
But we’re not rocky.
We is solid, as the young people at my local garden centre would say.
Turns out, some things count more than stats.
Like what? Well, from my point of view…
The audio quality of the trainings I’ve bought isn’t the greatest… and, when we’re living in an age with plenty of platforms to access digital products…
… the products aren’t the easiest to access (we lost three men on the last trek!), and yet, despite this…
I listen to the courses I bought from Michael more than any other training I own.
They’re amazing.
Everything I’ve ever bought from him has been top quality and exceptional value – some of the best training I’ve ever bought (and I’ve bought a LOT).
Whenever he makes an offer, I have zero doubt and 100% trust that it’s going to be the same. No question.
How would you like your customers to say that – completely unprompted – about YOU?
How would you like the kind of brand that is so darned good… even one of your “Z list” customers feels compelled to tell HIS subscribers about it?
You’d pay for that kind of branding right?
How do you get it?
Is it a jazzy website, with a powerful logo, bold, yet empathetic colour scheme, and lots of whooshing and graphicy things?
If you’re thinking that, then visit Michael’s website and bask in the glory of a site that, let’s be honest, any 9-year-old Amish child with 2 hours of training could slap together.
The problem a lot of business owners have is that they think the “branding” stuff (logos, websites, and letterheads) comes FIRST.
“I’ll start looking for customers when I’ve got my business cards sorted…”
This is a big mistake.
I’ve long said that a good definition of branding is, “how people talk about you when you’re not there”.
The easiest way to get people to talk about you in a certain way?
ACT in that way.
Michael Senoff created his “top quality and exceptional value” branding by selling and offering me stuff that was top quality and exceptional value.
In other words, the service came FIRST… and the branding SECOND.
When you realise this, you’ll never have to worry about your branding again.
Your actions will communicate who you are better than a logo ever will.
Want people to think you’re a generous person? Then BE a generous person.
Want people to feel they can count on you? Then be someone they can actually count on.
Want people to have 100% trust in you, knowing that whenever they whip out their credit card, they’re going to get top quality and exceptional value? Then be…
(You get the gist)
Wayne Dyer (oh yes, I went there) was fond of saying that, for cats, happiness was at the tip of its tail.
If you’re a cat (and you’re not – I checked while you were sleeping) you have a choice – you can either waste your energy, trying to chase your own tail, or…
… you could get on with your life, knowing that, no matter where you go, your tail isn’t far behind.
Branding is the same – it follows you around.
Your job is to figure out what you want people to say about you when you’re not there…
… and then demonstrate that as often as you can.
John Holt
P.S. Of course, the cat thing is horseshit. We all know that happiness for cats is found in their love of tormenting the human race.