Do you know what marketing professionals consider the Holy Grail of advertising? 🙌
It’s not a Superbowl ad. 🏈
It’s the TRUSTED REFERRAL. ✊
And this isn’t just true for credit repair, it’s true for most businesses!
Think about it…if a good friend tells you about a great mechanic, the next time your car breaks down, you know where to go to get it fixed!
It’s that simple! You TRUST the person recommending the product or service.
So, in this week's podcast, I’m going to share with you the FREE secret weapon for generating leads and receiving trusted referrals…CREATIVE THINKING!
As an entrepreneur, it’s your job to figure out how to generate leads AND turn those leads into trusted referrals!
According to Forbes, LinkedIn, and Nielsen…Word-of-mouth marketing results in 5 TIMES more sales than paid media. And people are 90% more likely to trust and buy from a brand that was recommended by a friend.
These trusted referrals are so important that marketing experts work their butts off to get them, and if they can’t…they manufacture artificial ones!
For example, influencer endorsements…
Kylie Jenner earns more than a MILLION dollars per sponsored Instagram post because social media has blurred the lines between reality and advertising. Her connection to her followers has them believing that the products she’s promoting are organic, word-of-mouth recommendations, not standard paid advertisements.
Still, influencers and celebrities don’t compare to the effectiveness of someone you know recommending a product or service.
You’ve probably never heard of the Girls Intelligence Agency...
The G.I.A. is a West Coast marketing firm that collects buying habit information from about 40,000 'tweens (girls ages 8-to-13) through a "Slumber-Party-In-A-Box" marketing tool. The GIA recruits popular girls, secret-agent style, to host slumber parties with their friends where they distribute never-before-seen products, including branded clothing and cosmetics, as though they were word-of-mouth recommendations.
These are the lengths companies will go to manufacture trusted referrals!
That’s how powerful they are!
So, how do YOU get people to recommend YOUR BUSINESS?
You do it by:
- THINKING CREATIVELY
- NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS
- GETTING RESULTS for your clients!
And today, I will tell you how to do that on a shoestring budget!
I’m going to describe different tactics that others have used to find leads in unique places!
And I’m going to teach you ways to generate HUGE numbers of trusted referrals for your business!
Ok, let’s get into this…
At CRC, we work hard to develop effective techniques for generating leads. We promote the process of learning to repair your own credit first, honing your craft, doing free work for friends and family, leveraging your social media accounts (while being careful not to violate Facebook's terms of service), and connecting with affiliates to create mutually beneficial relationships…
This process works.
But what ELSE can you do?
Well, it’s time to get CREATIVE!
According to the FTC, 79% of Americans have errors in their credit reports. That’s FOUR out of FIVE people you see on the street!
The odds are in your favor!
You just need to BRAINSTORM your options and CHOOSE a place to start.
We’ve had Millionaires Club members do things like deliver donuts to beauty salons and nail shops – places where word travels fast – to amplify their brand within the community.
We’ve had Credit Heroes go to laundromats and repair shops – businesses that traditionally service middle and lower-income communities – to befriend the managers and post flyers.
And we’ve had entrepreneurs utilize their hobbies, local clubs, and even their children's school groups in order to meet more potential clients.
This means as long as you’re respectful, ethical, and professional…And you deliver AMAZING results…there is no wrong way to generate leads!
You just need to think CREATIVELY!
If you’re a first-time entrepreneur, you probably can’t afford to spend a lot of money on advertising.
And that’s okay.
Actually, it’s probably a GOOD THING.
More than likely, if you do have money to spend on advertising, you’ll probably blow it on the wrong types of advertising. That’s what happened to me when I was first starting out.
Your goal at this stage should be:
- Figuring out a client base to target
- Determine where those people are
- Figure out how to communicate your business to them sincerely
Sounds kinda fun, right? Like a strategy game?
Okay, here’s what you need to know…
The first step in the creative thinking process is a BRAINSTORM session.
Set aside time to focus. Then write down a list…
This list should include everyone you are connected to in ANY WAY:
- Friends & Family
- Secondary Acquaintances
- Local Organizations
- Clubs & Hobby Groups
- Co-workers & Colleagues, etc.
You should also write a separate list of business owners to contact for affiliate referrals when you feel ready to take that step.
After you’ve written down EVERYONE you can think of (online and offline), now is the time to add a note next to each of their names that details:
- Reasons why they might need your services
- Ways to respectfully approach them with your services
This exercise will help you see the full scope of your potential client base, and it will give you ideas on how to reach individual people.
You need to be prepared to focus on your individual client's wants and needs. Remember, this is about them!
The next step is to review who’s in your potential client base and narrow down your tactics to the most realistic options.
For Example…
Let’s say you live in a city with a large population of Veterans…or you’re near a military base…you may even be a Veteran yourself…
That’s when you do a little research and learn that, according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, nearly 90% of active service members and 84% of their partners have worries about personal finances.
So, in order to help those Veterans and their families, maybe you contact the local VFW and VA offices and respectfully ask if you can put up some flyers or leave behind a stack of business cards?
Make it clear that your intentions are to help improve the lives of the Veterans. Maybe you even offer a Free Service Giveaway for the first ten Veterans who sign up?
Or another example…
Maybe go to all the priests, pastors, rabbis, or social/political organizers in your area, people who have the pulse of your community, and explain who you are and what you do. Many successful credit heroes speak in churches to give credit advice, and you know what? Not only are they helping people by giving away this knowledge, but they always leave with new clients.
Remember, financial hardship is often embarrassing, and many people don’t want to talk about it. So, be discrete and make your good intentions clear.
Learn your strengths as a salesperson and play to your strengths!
It costs you nothing to tell your story.
It costs you nothing to make a contact and build a relationship. Even if they decline your services, that person you spoke to still learned about you and your business.
We’ve had Millionaires Club members visit high schools and prisons to educate people on credit, which allows them to position themselves as an expert in the community without hard-selling anyone.
You could visit a local community college, set up a “Free Credit Advice” desk on campus, answer questions and ask for email addresses in return.
You can go to all the bowling alleys in your town and ask the owners if you can put business cards in the shoes! It's not silly if it works!
You just have to think CREATIVELY!
Once you have the lead, you still need to convert them into a client, OVER DELIVER value, ASK for a testimonial, and SHARE the results everywhere!
That’s when you turn one client into five or ten more.
So have fun BRAINSTORMING!
Our Facebook Community is a great place to get lead generation ideas. And I’d like to keep the conversation going, so take a moment and post your craziest or silliest, or most successful lead generation ideas in our community, or on any of our social media channels!
I want to hear from you!
Also, Lead Generation is one of the many marketing topics we cover in-depth in our Credit Repair Cloud Masterclass!
If you don’t already have a Credit Repair Cloud account, check it out. It’s the software that most credit repair businesses in America run on. Just sign up for a 30 day free trial at creditrepaircloud.com/freetrial
And If you’d like me to hold you by the hand as you launch your own credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge! 
It’s an amazing program where you’ll learn the processes that have made millionaires, and it costs less than you'll spend taking your family to McDonald’s for dinner.
We’ve got another challenge starting in a few days so grab your spot right now at CreditHeroChallenge.com!
Until then, keep thinking outside of the box…
And keep changing lives!
Be sure to subscribe on your favorite platform below!
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