With the businesses and professionals I meet every day, 3 things are of the highest valued commodities: time, information, and money. I hear "duh" coming from my audience. As obvious as these 3 things are as values, I think we lose sight of them in our 9-5 (or 24/7) grinds. Let's look at where we can help each other create casual sales from people seeking more time, money and information and who have a need for our services!
But first, I want you to really ponder the chicken and the egg. You know the standard question is, which came first? But, have you asked yourself which is more important? How valuable is a chicken to an egg, or an egg to a chicken. Money, Time and Information create a perfect love triangle this way. Casual but essential relations between them are key to our growth as professionals and business owners.
Now, with time, our customers, no matter the industry we are in, need to know we respect their time and that our time is valuable. Anecdotal evidence suffices when we look at how a doctor can either keep us tied up in his waiting room then only see us for five minutes. You know what happened with the last doctor that did that to me? He's not my doctor anymore.
Information provides the basis for which we make decisions every moment of our lives. It provides us direction. If you give your customer the information they need to be informed, you're going to be the better choice than the next guy who offers the same service. Think Google. They didn't start a website for people to post a bunch of ads. They started a revolution in organizing, managing, and optimizing information. That explains why 90% of searches are done on Google and not Yahoo, Bing, or ASK.com. It also explains why a search engine like ASK has to advertise on another search engine. Think of ways you could be leveraging your competitors information to help your potential customers too.
What makes the world go 'round? Money. What can we put where our mouth is? Money. It's the answer to life's many questions but it is only the means to the end. Money is very few people's actual goal. Most of your potential clients need to spend money to achieve the goal your product will help them reach. Maybe your client wants to be in less pain and you're a dentist, do you help them spend their money efficiently and give the best quality dental care? Tell them. It will make you a better choice than the other 20 dentists in your 10-mile radius.
