Graham McGregor: What memorable ideas could your clients share about your business?

What is a memorable way to explain what you do for your clients? Photo / 123RF

At the end of March I had a heart procedure called Pulmonary Vein Isolation or PVI for short. (This was to treat a heart condition I developed at the end of 2016 called Atrial Fibrillation.)

PVI is a short operation that involved going into my heart via a vein in my leg and then making some minor alterations to part of my heart.

A few weeks before my operation I was chatting to a heart specialist who has performed over 387 of these PVI procedures.

He explained exactly what happens during the PVI procedure and the potential risks. One of the extremely rare risks is that a hole could be cut in my Oesophagus during the PVI procedure. If that happens "It has a 100% Non-Survival Rate" the heart specialist told me. (In other words I was guaranteed to die.)

I found the phrase "100% Non-Survival Rate" was a memorable one because it was such an interesting way of saying "You are guaranteed to die".

Now luckily my PVI procedure went well and I didn't die.

However the heart specialist's words got me thinking about the topic of memorable ideas and marketing.

If you have a memorable idea about what you do in your business that makes it far easier for your clients and customers to share it with other people they know.

Here are three examples to get you thinking:

"The Two Pots of Gold"

Peter Corban is a wealth management specialist with Craig Investment Partners.

I was chatting to Peter recently and he was telling me about a very popular live talk he gives to groups about managing their money.

In his talk Peter introduces a concept called 'Two Pots of Gold" and explains why both pots are important when deciding how to allocate the money you have to different types of investments.

Peter told me his 'Two Pots of Gold' idea makes his talk memorable and it also very easy for people to share with other people they know about what he does.

"Do Up or Done Up"

I read a fascinating little booklet recently called 'Five Steps to Sold' by Todd Yelavich.

Todd is an award winning real estate sales professional and in his booklet he was explaining how to get the maximum price when you sell your home.

In one section of his booklet Todd was explaining how to work out what you should spend money on with regards to making your home look more attractive to a potential buyer.

Todd suggested you imagine that every house you sell is either a "Do Up or a Done Up."

In other words the house needs improvements of some sort or it does not.

If it needs improvement you have to decide what amount of money it would make sense to spend.

I found Todd's phrase of 'Do Up or Done Up' is a memorable one and here I am sharing it with my Herald readers.

"Charitable Newsjacking"

I recently interviewed a fascinating business person shortly called 'Trent Silver from Media Mogul.

What I like about Trent is his marketing strategy called "Charitable NewsJacking".

As a modern-day Robin Hood, Trent works his marketing and media magic to "borrow" publicity from celebrities, allow clients to make a profit and give to the people who really need the money through charities.

Trent's marketing idea of Charitable Newsjacking is memorable and you might like to read my recent Herald Marketing Column which explains how it works.

Summary:

My message this week is simple.

If you can explain what you do in a way that is memorable that could make it very easy to get a lot of people to talk about your business positively to other people who they know.

"There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." - Brendan Behan

Action Exercise:

What is a memorable way to explain what you do for your clients?

Graham McGregor is a Marketing Strategist and helps business coaches attract perfect coaching clients from around the world. You can download his marketing guide ‘You Deserve Perfect Coaching Clients’ at no charge from www.perfectcoachingclients.com/