How To Pick Your Brand Name

One of the most common questions I get asked by startups or new companies is ‘what should I choose as my brand name’. For most entrepreneurs, it’s like naming a baby with far reaching consequences and a thousand unforeseen implications.

• Here’s what I tell them: First figure out your niche. That means who your ideal client is and what area you’re an expert in. Don’t guess this, learn how to research this strategically.
• Then figure out the words that your ideal client is googling to search for you online. Find out what words they use to describe the pain that they’re in.
• Then use those words in your brand name. The best brand names are simple and short English words that represent something about what you do, such as Staples or ToysRus.
• For example, when a marketing consultant client niched in helping small food manufacturers get and stay listed in grocery stores, we picked the name ‘Food Distribution Guy’. When a financial planner client niched in Divorcing Women, her brand name became Divorcing Woman. One of the most successful brand names and url for a business I know is called Stenographers.com. Sounds simple doesn’t it?

So you see, it all starts with figuring out your niche, and what words your ideal clients are using. It’s not really ever about what you think is cute or relevant or sexy, it’s always about them.

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The Verbal Diarrhea Elevator Pitch

Come on, admit it. You’ve heard it or done it. I know I have…The verbal diarrhea that happens when someone has to introduce themselves to a group of peers or prospects. The explanation that drones on and on about what someone does for a living, leaving the listeners perplexed and exhausted. And those are the people who are actually listening to the intro. Most actually have checked out after 5 seconds and are dreaming of their upcoming beach vacation or the hot checkout clerk who helped them at Wal-Mart.

Let’s examine this strange phenomenon more closely and talk about why this odd circumstance happens with a lot of small business owners:

Nerves

Ok, it’s nerve-wracking to have a whole lot of eyeballs on you, listening and judging you. I get that. However, if you’re in business for yourself, you’re pretty much going to have to get over it and do your thing. At least you can spend the time and effort to do it well so that even if you are wetting yourself in fear, you end up getting clients out of the ordeal.

You Don’t Really Know

If I had a dollar for every time I think this happens…. When a business owner has a verbal-diarrhea-elevator-pitch-moment, it’s usually because they either don’t have a niche (a focused target and specialty) or they have multiple ones that they can’t decide between. Do the strategic research and find out where your business needs to focus on before you try to introduce what it is that you do. Clarity gets remembered. Confused minds don’t buy or refer.

You Get Into The ‘How’

Most people are simple and linear creatures. When they ask you what you do for a living, they’d like to hear something that they already have a category in their head for, like a dentist or a therapist or a consultant etc. When business owners are unclear about how their ideal clients categorize what they do,  they try to compensate by getting into the HOW of what they do. They think that by adding more information, that people will better understand what they do.

For example, is it better for an elevator pitch to say ‘I’m a financial advisor and I help divorcing women to navigate the settlement negotiation’ or ‘I’m a resilience activator who helps divorcing women through the settlement negotiation by setting goals, managing relationships and providing financial planning while supporting them through their journey of divorce.’ In my opinion, the ‘how’ version is too long. The elevator pitch is just the teaser to let your audience know if they’re your ideal client. If they are, don’t worry, they’ll ask you to go into more details about how you help.

You Throw in Your ‘Why’

I badly teed off a seminar leader who was making the room full of business women stand up and tell their ‘why they do what they do’ as part of their elevator pitch. I simply stated that in my experience, and in my experience through my clients, that getting into ‘I am a leadership coach who helps IT companies because when I was at ABC Inc, I got unfairly fired etc.’ would actually be an ineffective way to do that initial intro because it was too long and would lose the audience engagement. The seminar leader staunchly stated that she didn’t agree but you should’ve heard how long some of those ‘why’ stories were. I simply couldn’t see how any audience would stay engaged in this particular sort of verbal diarrhea. An Elevator Pitch in my mind is simply to establish 2 things: what business is this person in and can he/she help me or someone I know. Anything over and above that belongs in a deeper conversation.

So don’t be an elevator pitch chump and capture way more interest and dazzle with your concise and distinct self-intro. Believe me, you’ll feel the results almost immediately when people approach you after your intro to ask more about what you do.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch me on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk

Why I Give Everything Away For Free

I can’t stop talking about this man. (no, not the Godfather!) Last week, when I heard marketing legend Gary Vee saying that he believed in giving everything he knew away for FREE to anyone and everyone he met, I was blown away. I have been saying the same thing to my clients for years!

Here are the reasons why we do it:

They Won’t Implement It By Themselves

As Gary so eloquently expresses himself: “Even if I tell you everything, I  know you won’t do s*** with that info!” When I heard him say that, I almost fell off my seat laughing because while I’d often thought this, I had never heard it put exactly that way. This is sooo true. Think about how your life would be different if you implemented every book, talk show advice, guru-how-to that you’ve ever gotten your hands on. The hardest part is accountability and the motivation for consistent implementation.

Information Is Everywhere Anyway

Have you met my friend Dr.Google? He’ll heal your body, your marriage and your marketing problems. His close cousin Dr.Youtube even gives you videos so you won’t feel so alone while you’re solving your problems. When you’ve got 2 Dr’s like this in your posse, who needs anything else? All your issues are resolved instantly, right? Unfortunately the more information that is out there, the harder it is to make a decision about what to do about our problems. Yes, all information is now available for free but who will help you customize it to your particular pain? Better yet, who will walk you through the fear of actually doing what needs to be done?

When You Give, You Get

In his famous book Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook Gary Vee talks about using marketing platforms like social media to give give give value first before you ask for anything from your audience. The theory being that the ratio of giving to asking should be heavier by a large margin on the giving. Why do you think free seminars give you valuable information first and then add a sliver of time to ask for a sale at the end?

I Don’t Work For Free

When you have an abundance mentality (there’s plenty of everything for everyone under every circumstance) you don’t see giving away everything you know for free as an insult to your sense of value. You see it as an investment in a relationship with your audience who then start to see you as a trusted resource. After all, when an Unresolved Pain Point meets a trustworthy and valuable Saviour, it’s called Marketing Magic (which is slightly but not too different from Magic Mike!)

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch me on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk

5 Things I Learned About Business While Shark Diving

Sitting on the ocean floor during the shark dive

Yes, I was crazy enough to go shark diving. Not in those cages either. I actually jumped into a water infested with fins. It was unnerving to say the least but there were lots of other divers already in the water so it seemed harmless. As in everything I do in my life, everything comes back to how it applies to small business.

Here are some things I learned about my own small business that day…

1. Prepare Yourself

Before the big ‘shark dive’ portion of the live-aboard dive trip I took, we had briefing after briefing about what to do and what not to do. Stay away from the food they lower to the ocean floor. (A guy actually lost a limb when a piece of food floated his way). Don’t make sudden moves etc. In business, I often find that people just throw themselves out there. Sometimes with little to no preparation for their mind or skill set. Unfortunately statistically speaking, they end up shark bait to their competitors.

2. Watch Your Surroundings Constantly

As part of the briefing, we were told that if a shark is swimming erratically and speeds up while swimming towards you, you’re in trouble. There’s not much you can do at that point. However, we did learn to be extra vigilant of our surroundings because the sharks were literally everywhere-in front, behind, and on top of us as we sat in a circle at the bottom of the ocean. It’s actually not a bad metaphor for the business world. Are you out networking with your competitors? Are you attending their seminars or webinars? Watch your surroundings in business constantly. Or you might get attacked.

3. Watch Yourself Constantly

One of the biggest things I had to watch out for was my air consumption because I was breathing heavier due to my elevated heart rate. Cut me some slack here, I was literally swimming with sharks during their feeding! Still, I had to be extra aware of my air flow and keep an eye on my tank supply. In business, your cash flow is your oxygen. During times of crisis you use more of it and need to keep a constant eye on it because as in the ocean, there’s no life without air.

4. Stick To Someone Bigger Than You

I was so paranoid about getting bitten by a shark that I picked the most heavyset, enormously overweight dive buddy on the entire boat. He was easily 4 times my size. I figured even a hungry shark might be intimidated by that size. I mean, if you were a shark, would you eat a steak your own size? I stuck to him like glue. Of course, he did get stuck while passing between two reefs but we were well-trained to calmly back out and untangle our gear from the reefs. Similarly in business, I pay extraordinary amounts of money to walk with the giants of my industry standing next to me. My coaches have been responsible for doubling and tripling my income in the three years since I started my business. Stick to someone bigger than you, always.

5. Have Fun

All the while I was calculating and analyzing and listening to my own heavy breathing in my mask during the shark dive, I was exhilarated. I was doing something most people wouldn’t even dare to dream of doing. I felt brave and alive. Every time I meet miserable people who work for someone else, I feel the same exhilaration for having had the guts to leave that life and work for myself. Just as in the shark dive, I sometimes have to remind myself that the journey of an entrepreneur is scary but it is a ton of fun.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch me on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk

3 Simple Steps To Pick Your Ideal Client (VIDEO)

Hi, this is Chala Dincoy from Coachtactics.com your no-nonsense marketing coach who gives your small business a booster shot in the arm. In this video, I’m going to be addressing a big headache of small businesses –How Do I Pick My Ideal Client?

First of all, I want to congratulate YOU ON KNOWING that your business needs an ideal client. Somehow, you’ve figured out that  you will run out of time, energy and money fast if you try to go after EVERYONE and market to every type of client.

Let me put you out of your misery and tell you the quickest way to pick your ideal client group to work with. There are 3 criteria that you can use when deciding on a target market.

First Simple Step

First you write down a whole bunch of different target groups you could have.  Say Housewives, Dentists, Mining Companies, etc. Then you put them through these three criteria to pick the best one. The first criteria is whether there’s a fit with that target client and your own personality, background and skill set. I mean if you’re a vegan targeting meat companies like a client of mine once did, you may want to rethink that one.

Second Simple Step

Number 2 criteria to pick your ideal client group is whether they can afford to pay you the level of income you want to make.  I mean, what if your soul cries out to help a group of people who are broke? I say, do like I do and get more paying clients so you can give away a portion of your time as charity to those who are less fortunate.

Third Simple Step

The last criteria in choosing your ideal client group is access. Do you have or can you easily get access to large groups of these people. For example, a client who wanted to target millionaires found that she couldn’t afford to join their clubs or networks and didn’t have a single millionaire in her personal network. So, do yourself a favour when you’re planning to grow your business and use these 3 simple criteria to pick the right target client.

Need more chicken soup for your biz? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch me on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk