GKIC London April 2015 Meeting Near The Magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral
A full and very informative meeting of the GKIC London Chapter this month on 21 April at “The Happenstance” near the magnificent St Paul’s cathedral. Three guest speaker plus the always insightful David White.
David kicked off the afternoon talking about…
…“6 Ways To Strengthen Your Business”…
…where he took a look at 6 areas common to every business, where sales and revenue are being lost. Making improvements in these areas can result in a significant boost to your bottom line.
Here are the first 3 of those 6…
1. Leads
2. First time buyers
3. No sale: prospects who got a sales presentation but didn’t buy
As an example of what you can do to improve results, in category 3 you could take a look at the follow up process. If you don’t have a follow up system in place, then that’s one thing you can do straight away.
The second part of David’s presentation covered…
…“8 Questions To Consider For Reinventing Your Business”.
If you’re wondering why you might want to “reinvent” your business, one very common reason is the need to adapt to changing circumstances.
That might be a change in market conditions or a change in the economy.
For example, a BIG THEME in Dan Kennedy’s recently updated…
“No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent”
…is the dramatic shrinking of the middle class and the middle market (in the U.S.A. in particular). So if your business serves that segment, it’s almost imperative to move upmarket and find a more affluent customer base.
Other changes might simply be you want a different lifestyle and you need to reinvent your business to make that possible.
Here are the first 2 of David’s questions to spark of ideas about how your business could be reinvented…
1. What don’t I like?
2. What do I want? Typically, business owners would love to do less and earn more but rarely do they organise the business with that in mind.
The first guest speaker was Chris Payne who is a man of many talents. Serial entrepreneur and info-marketer, his main focus now is helping consultants, trainers, coaches and others create quality e-products they can give away or sell.
Frankly, that massively undersells what Chris offers as he demonstrated in an excellent presentation all about…
…the power of stories and how to use them in your marketing to make more money.
Stories can be very effective in your marketing because, in general, we love to hear stories. We seem to be hard-wired to listen to stories, perhaps because for thousands of years in the past they were to primary way to pass on information. Plus, of course, good stories can be entertaining and inspiring.
Because people like stories, they are a great way to “fly under the radar” and bypass the sales resistance that usually crops up. Good stories have an hypnotic effect.
Chris covered the type of stories you can use, how to make sure they capture attention and delight the audience, where and how to use your stories and much more (such as how to use pictures the right way with your stories).
Much more about Chris at his website…
…including lots of stories (great examples for you to learn from). There’s a ton of great material on the site and so engrossing that one person confessed to Chris they had ended up spending over 10 hours going through the site!
Next was fellow GKIC London member Max Alter who delivers affordable video marketing for local businesses. Today, it’s easier than ever to create videos to use in marketing…
…bit there’s a right way and a wrong way to do that! Just because you can put together a video, it doesn’t mean you are going to get the results you want.
Max demonstrated some of the fatal mistakes to avoid with a critique of an online video from someone who, really, should know better.
First up, an effective video is really another form of sales message and needs to follow the principles of effective direct response sales copywriting. That may well include a story of some sort, constructed along the lines set out by Chris Payne.
Also, did you know that the sound quality is one of the key factors that determines the effectiveness of a video? Obvious when you think about it but many people simply use a “built-in” microphone rather than something that will deliver the right quality (and it doesn’t have to be super-expensive).
More about Max Alter and how he can help you at www.BigVideosLocal.co.uk.
Finally, speaker and IMA expert James Knight used the occasion of St George’s Day on April 23 to talk a little about the story of Saint George and to make some excellent point about how human nature and what inspires remains pretty constant through the ages.
Naturally, there was plenty of opportunity to network and chat about business topics of common interest, in particular in the bar upstairs after the formal session ended. Thanks, as always to David White for organising and hosting the event (which included some very tasty buffet food from “The Happenstance” – the mini “Fish and Chips” gets my wholehearted thumbs up!).
Next GKIC London events…
There’s a “GKIC Foundations” meeting on 7 May 2015 and the next main members’ meeting is on Tuesday 19 May 2015.
All the details and how to reserve your place at the main GKIC London page.