time and money trying to get more sales enquiries, the real issue goes unseen and doesn’t get any time or investment from you. The reason why most businesses don’t attract enough sales is not because they don’t have a good marketing strategy. It is simply because not enough time and energy is invested in making sure every client becomes a raving fan. Think about an Apple store every time a new iPhone is released – that’s what I mean by creating raving fans. Just imagine if your product or service was so good that your ideal client just had to have it and felt the need to tell other ideal clients about it. I’m sure you already know that the best way to market your business is good old fashioned word of mouth. The trouble is, if your product or service is merely ‘good enough’, you will be lucky to get any word of mouth referrals. For example, Zappos, a billion dollar business, was once a small business too. In 2002, with sales around $1.6 million, it had cash flow issues and was struggling to survive. Incredibly, it decided to stop spending on advertising and to focus on building a culture of extreme service to customers. By 2009, company sales were over the billion dollar mark when the business was sold to Amazon for around one billion dollars. It was Zappo’s focus on creating raving fans instead of investing in marketing and advertising that led to billion dollar success in only eight years. My recommendation? Stop spending money on marketing tactics and advertising until you have started making your business so good at serving its clients that all your clients are becoming raving fans. There are five steps in the process of creating a raving fan base for your business. 1. Understand the psychology of the market Understanding the psychology of your market is all about gaining clarity on your clients’ buying strategy. Find out how much they know about: What you offer The nature of their problem What they understand about potential solutions The benefits of solving their problem now Willingness to seek the solution How much they will invest to solve their problem. 2. Make Your Business Attractive Make your business attractive by developing clarity and certainty about what you stand for, which will automatically attract people who aspire to the same values. This means creating services, products and processes that: Draw people in irresistibly like a mouse to cheese Provide a great experience Make them want to talk about you. 3. Clearly Communicate Your Message Clearly communicate your messages in a way that elevates you from being transactional around your products of services to building relationships with Raving Fans by focusing on what’s important to them, with the following steps: Define the ideal client profile you want to attract Intimately engage that market Educate the market on what really matters Propose the start of a potential lifelong relationship Remove the risk of failure. 4. Deliver the Ultimate Experience Crystallise the physical, psychological and emotional needs of the market into an ultimate experience that creates Raving Fans by developing: A team of people who care Processes that serve Service that wows. 5. Build the Raving Fan Community Building a Raving Fan community is all about uniting your Raving fans and mobilising them as a powerful force to accelerate your growth exponentially with: Energetic celebration Significant connection Viral communication. Troy Eadie is co-director of Business Success Systems, specialising in leveraging businesses by attracting more ideal clients and building the systems to create raving fans. For more information, visit www.BusinessSuccessSystems.com.au or email  troy@bssteam.com.au.