Recognition is so freaking fleeting

It’s 10am on Tuesday, which means that it’s time to workout with my personal trainer Marvin.

Great guy. Really good trainer. He’s 33 so I always enjoy getting his perspective on things.?

For reasons I can’t recall, the topic of Paul Newman came up.??

Of course,?Marvin knows who Paul Newman is. Everyone does.?

“He’s the salad dressing guy.”?says Marvin.?

Well, sure… but he was also a superstar actor! Three Best Actor Oscar nominations for?The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke,?and a win for?The Color of Money.??

Iconic roles in?Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid,?not to mention?The Sting.?

He was a freaking movie super-star for generations. He appeared in over 64 films.?

Marvin looks at me blankly.?

Seriously??

“Oh yeah, wasn’t he in that hockey movie?”?

I’ll admit Slap Shot was a pretty good movie… but salad dressing and a somewhat cult film is the recognition he has today??

There’s a big lesson here.?

?? Recognition is fleeting.?

If you’re serious about becoming one of the recognized experts in your field, you not only need to focus on?how you’re going to get that initial attention,?but equally importantly,?how you’re going to stay top of mind.?

That’s where I come in.?

Obviously, I don’t know how long you’ve been a member of my community or how familiar you are with me.?

But here’s a couple of reasons why you should listen to me:

1) One of my larger clients was the wealth management division of one of the top money center banks. I created a series of trojan horse campaigns for them… these are where you’re stealthily building relationships without ever mentioning what you actually get paid for.?

In this case I created a program that focused on the kids of the wealthy.??

Without going into huge detail, it was awesome, the kids and their parents loved it.??

And best of all, because I got the wealth managers…kicking and screaming…to actually follow up with the parents…it generated a little over $110 million in new assets under management.?

Another of my clients was a large consulting firm. Been around since 1926.?Historically worked 100% on referrals.?

Which was ok for a while, then the great recession hit, and what was once a billion-dollar?firm, dwindled down to $450 million when I arrived.?

Like many people who rely solely on referrals they thought?“selling”?was unseemly or something.??

I did a series of workshops, and then 1-1 coaching with all the partners in the firm, on how to get more comfortable and effective at networking, and how to keep in touch with prospective clients.??

Anyway, the personal coaching (they’d probably call it, me being an enormous pain in their tuckus) resulted in them?adding $95 millionin new billings that they credited directly to me.

And that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.?

If you’re on the fence about whether I’m someone you should listen to, read some of my books, watch some of my videos, Google me and see if what I say resonates with you.

Now… back to the topic de jour…?Recognition is Fleeting.

So, this is a two-part challenge:

1) get the affluent to pay attention to you

2) stay in touch to build trust and credibility.

So…let’s talk about #1…Get them to pay attention to you

I have a bit of a contrarian opinion…

I think social media channels are great to increase visibility and awareness.

BUT?the goal should be to move them off of wherever they are, to a community that you have total control over.

? Facebook can change its rules and squash your ability to stay connected with your people. (Actually, they’ve done it before, and they’ll likely do it again.)

? Instagram…same types of issues.

? Ditto for LinkedIn. (Additionally, LinkedIn doesn’t enable you to communicate with everyone who is connected to you except by posting on your profile or through newsletters like this.)

The only platform that enables you to have total and complete control over your marketing is YOUR HOUSE LIST.

Thus mission #1 is to get them on it!

How do we do that?

It’s simple.

Offer something really cool on your website and in your social posts?that your target audience would be interested in?and get them to opt in to get it.

I can’t believe in this day and age,?how many websites I go to that don’t make me some sort of offer.

That’s just dumb.

Which brings me to…

Mission #2: Stay in touch.

According to those who track such things,?the average number of times a prospect is followed up with is 1.5.

Pitiful

Pitiful and dumb

People (especially the rich) aren’t going to buy from you the first, second or third time they hear from you…?you’ve got to be in steady contact… FOREVER.

…Or at least until they buy or unsubscribe. That’s the purpose of creating a list.?

Tony Badour paid me $25,000 against 10% of the revenues we generated, to develop a marketing campaign for him. He connected me after he had been on my list for 32 months! (The campaign ultimately resulted in $475,000 in new business so we both were pretty happy.)

Follow up requires a plan. A system. Otherwise it will fall into that big junk box of things that?“you’ll do if you remember.”?

Which you won’t.

Obviously, there’s more to staying in touch than just saying?“OK, got it, I’ll do that.”

You’ve got to figure out what to say. When to say it and… How to say it.

It’s got to be INTERESTING

That’s the type of thing I discuss in my?Whales Not Minnows ?video?newsletter and?you should be a subscriber.

I’m not going to try to sell you on all the reasons why you’ll love it.

I created a nifty sales page that does that.

See the nifty sales page…and a cool video from me…HERE?

Onward!,?

Mark

PS: New edition of Whales Not Minnows comes out on June 1st. I discuss the 5 keys for building trust with the affluent. It's a bit of a contrarian approach but it's highly effective.

Test Drive Whales Not Minnows