Today's podcast is a great follow-on from my recent article on the first steps to becoming an Authority where I highlighted that the first step is to understand your ideal clients and what they care about.

In the podcast, I talk to copywriter Chris Laub about the steps he follows when he's researching a market. And in particular how he does 1-1 interviews to build deep insight into potential clients.

In the podcast Chris shows you when research works well and when it doesn't, what sort of questions to ask to get beneath the surface and find real insights, and what pitfalls to avoid when doing research.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button below.

Chris is a direct response direct response copywriter who's worked with Shark Tank winners, Inc. 500 companies, and a host of well-known industry experts. These days, he focuses his efforts on helping experts increase sales of their high ticket training programs.

You can contact Chris here, and get a copy of his interview script here (I'd recommend doing so :) ).

Brent Adamson of the CEB is back :)

You may remember my podcast with Brent from a few weeks ago where we looked at his research into the “Challenger Customer” and its implications for selling high-value products and services.

You might also remember that we touched on the concept of “Commercial Insight”. It's perhaps the most effective method for individuals and firms to both differentiate themselves vs competitors and motivate their potential clients to take action.

So I got Brent back for a second interview to dive into more details on Commercial Insight.

In the interview we talk about:

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button below.

Brent is a principal executive advisor in the sales and marketing practice at CEB, and co-author of The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer. With more than 20 years of experience as a professional researcher, teacher and trainer, Brent facilitates a wide range of executive-level discussions around the world for Fortune 500/Global 1000 executives in sales, marketing, and customer service, including global sales meetings, keynote presentations, board-level presentations, and hands-on best practice workshops.

You can find out more about the CEB here.

And you can grab The Challenger Customer here – I recommend it!

If you market and sell your services to other businesses then the chances are you use Linkedin. Probably a lot.

If you know how to use it, it can be a really effective system for finding contacts and referrers to begin a high-value relationship with. And someone visiting your profile can be the first step towards them making contact.

But the whole Linkedin interface is about to change…

Only 22% of Linkedin users are active once a month or more frequently. Contrast that with 66% of Facebook's 1.79 Billion users who are active daily and you can see that Linkedin has a big activity problem.

The way they aim to address it is by simplifying the interface. Making it easier to use for the majority of basic users who they hope will then use it more.

But the flip side of simplifying the interface is that they'll be taking features away and making it more restrictive. If you're a frequent Linkedin user you'll find that many things you rely on now (like Advanced Search) are going away or changing significantly.

On this episode of the More Clients Podcast I interview the UK's “Mr Linkedin” Mark Williams. Mark has been training businesses in how to use Linkedin since 2008 and he runs the Linkedinformed podcast where other Linkedin trainers and advanced users go to find out the latest news and tips on Linkedin.

Mark has had special access to the new Linkedin interface since October last year, and in this interview he walks us through all the significant changes in Linkedin we'll see when the new interface is rolled out widely (scheduled to be completed in May this year).

He covers what the changes are, how it impacts the key things you might want to do on Linkedin, and what you can do to prepare for the changes or deal with them when they happen.

If you're a serious Linkedin user you MUST listen to this podcast and in many cases take action before the changes hit you.

Mark's Winbusinessin website on how to win new business with Linkedin is here and you can sign up for his regular updates on new Linkedin features and how to best use them here.

You can see Mark's video on how to search effectively using the new interface here (I suggest you bookmark it and come back to it when you get the new interface).

And finally, his 5C System for winning business on Linkedin is here.

If creating online courses is on your agenda for 2017, this podcast is a must-listen for you.

In it, I discuss the current huge opportunity in online education with Danny Iny, founder of Mirasee and author of “Teach and Grow Rich” which is about to be published in its second (expanded) edition.

We cover:

Danny is the founder of Mirasee, an online education business, and the author of “Teach and Grow Rich”.

You can still get Dann

This is a special podcast.

Partially because my guest, Brent Adamson of the CEB, is such an expert and entertaining speaker.

But perhaps more because the topic is so critical.

As I mentioned in Why Being An Expert Won't Get You Clients, we're in an era where it's becoming tougher and tougher to sell premium solutions to our clients. Time and time again a service we know will bring huge benefits is turned down in favour of a cheaper option, or the client just doesn't move ahead and do anything.

It's not just because of the way we're marketing and selling to clients; it's because the way they're buying has changed.

In this podcast Brent dissects the way corporate clients buy today, based his extensive research at the CEB. And he highlights what service providers like us MUST do if we want to win clients for our premium services in today's new buying environment.

Brent is a principal executive advisor in the sales and marketing practice at CEB, and co-author of The Challenger Sale and The Challenger Customer. With more than 20 years of experience as a professional researcher, teacher and trainer, Brent facilitates a wide range of executive-level discussions around the world for Fortune 500/Global 1000 executives in sales, marketing, and customer service, including global sales meetings, keynote presentations, board-level presentations, and hands-on best practice workshops.

You can find out more about the CEB here.

And you can grab The Challenger Customer here – I recommend it!

It pains me to say this, but email marketing is not the only answer :)

OK, all joking aside, what is vital for any business is to build a platform: a way of regularly communicating and keeping top of mind with your ideal clients.

Email marketing is a particularly powerful way of doing that. But it's not the only way.

In this podcast Stefan Drew explains how he built a successful platform for his consultancy in the education sector without using email marketing.

You'll see that the same principles that normally apply to email marketing can also be applied to other media to build that personal connection with potential clients that leads to a steady stream of work.

Stefan and I also discuss how he's managed to get so much good PR for his business and clients including regular slots on radio and in the press (including a time when he temporarily became a reporter on the collapse of the Berlin wall!).

More importantly he gives his tips for how you can break in to getting media appearances on a regular basis.

You can find out more about Stefan and his business here:

>> Stefan Drew's Site <<

I've got a fantastic podcast episode for you today.

In the podcast I interview Mike Kerrison about how he built his hugely successful consulting business

After launching 3 multi-million dollar technology firms, Mike left the corporate world to join the ranks of solo consultants. In the last 15 years of running his consulting business he's facilitated over 200 strategic planning sessions for Fortune 500 companies to small entrepreneurial growth firms. His programs have reached over 400,000 people and he has graduated over 10,000 sales and management professionals from his Breakaway Schools

But like most new consultants, he had to start from scratch and build his reputation and client base. He also had to learn new ways of marketing, delivering his services, and teaming up with others to deliver projects too big for just one person.

In this interview Mike shares the details of just how he did that. He'll tell you what types of marketing worked for him, how he found partners to work with, how he got his first few clients, and how he got more leverage in his business.

Whether you're a consultant, a coach, a trainer or any service business owner you'll get great insights into how to successfully start and then grow your business

You can find out more about Mike and how he does what he does at his site here:

>> Mike Kerrison's Site <<

This is the second of my two part interview with motivation expert James Sale.

In this episode James talks about the 9 fundamental motivations that drive behaviour, and how by understanding those we can get better results from our marketing and sales.

We cover how to identify the major motivating factors for people you're talking to, how to reflect that when you're selling to them, and how to adapt your marketing to appeal to the major motivation factors of your ideal clients.

You can listen to yesterday's podcast where I interview James about his transition from running a 1-1 business to a more leveraged business with products and licensees here.

You can find out more about James and his work on motivation here:

Motivational Maps and James Sale

His new book Mapping Motivation is due to be released by Gower on Jan 28th, you can pre-order it here.

Mapping Motivation (UK) and Mapping Motivation (US)

Today's podcast is the first of a two part interview with motivation expert James Sale.

In this episode James talks about how he made the shift in his business from 1-1 work directly with clients to creating products and licensing his methodology to other consultants and trainers who now carry out the client work for him.

He talks about the need to professionalise your products when focusing on corporates, and how to make the critical mental switch from doing client work you love to creating products and managing others.

If you're considering moving to a more leveraged business model, James has some great nuggets of wisdom to share that will help you make faster progress and avoid the pitfalls.

You can listen to Part 2 of my interview with James where we shift gears and talk about his topic of expertise: motivation, and how we can use an understanding of what makes our clients tick to market and sell better here.

You can find out more about James and his work on motivation here:

Motivational Maps and James Sale

His new book Mapping Motivation is due to be released by Gower on Jan 28th, you can pre-order it here.

Mapping Motivation (UK) and Mapping Motivation (US)

Today's podcast is the first in a new mini-series I'm doing on creating effective membership programs.

Over the next few episodes I'll be sharing my best tips, experience and ideas on creating profitable membership sites and programs. And I'll also be interviewing a veriety of experts on membership site strategy, how to build them, and how to run them.

My special guest on this very first episode is Robbie Kellman Baxter. Robbie is the author of the Amazon #1 Hot New Release The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction and Build Recurring Revenue.

She created the popular business term “Membership Economy” and is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a strategy consulting firm that has advised dozens of associations, entrepreneurs and corporations including Netflix, SurveyMonkey and the National Restaurant Association.

In this podcast I discuss with Robbie how membership models are replacing many traditional transactional businesses, the best membership models for services businesses to start with, how to use membership models to move your live work to more premium positioning, how to get people to make that first commitment to your membership program, how to onboard them so they stick around, and how you can add valuable community elements to your membership program.

You can get Robbie's book The Membership Economy on amazon.com here and on amazon.co.uk here.

And you can connect with Robbie at her website here or on twitter here.