After five years of trying and failing, Dr. Suarez and Dr. Larabee finally had a colony of the elusive Dracula ants to study. They then discovered a problem. The equipment in their lab at the University of Illinois wasn’t fast enough to study them. So they took the ants to Duke University which had a camera that could film at a million frames per second.
As a result, they made a startling discovery.
The jaws of these ants moved faster than any living thing yet studied. They closed at 200 miles per hour in the barest fraction of a second. This powerful snap is used to stun prey that the Dracula ant then brings back to the nest to devour.
This lighting speed comes as a result of the two mandibles coming together, pressing hard against each other, then snapping the way we snap our fingers. All that potential energy is released in an instant. Pop! Similarly, we want our free lead-generating reports to give our clients a sense of their own potential. We want them to know that they can be better at one thing and do so in a short time frame. We can do that with any one of three different approaches to creating a lead-generating report (aka lead magnet).
A: Showing them the first step in detail
B: Making them qualified to hire you
C: Helping them get better at a recurring task
A: Showing them the first step in detail
One great way to make a lead magnet is to give them the first step in your process. This displays your expertise and also makes them realize they need more. For example, back in 2005, I wrote a book called the SAT Essay Formula that helped high school students excel on what was then the new SAT Essay requirement. When I sold the book online, I knew I’d get more people to buy if I offered readers a valuable freebie first.
So what did I give them?
A report on how to dissect the SAT Essay prompt so that these students would know exactly how to structure their essay. This technique took about 2 minutes and it ensured they’d write a focused essay. Students loved this freebie and many asked their parents to buy it for them after reading it. Why? They still needed the other strategies that would allow them to write the best possible essay … and they now trusted me to show them how to do it.
One company I worked for coached people on overcoming limiting beliefs. Their most effective lead magnet was a video that showed people how to keep a very common belief from blocking their way to action. About half the people who saw this freebie thought the process worked for them and many would buy a $200 product right after using it.
The key is to make sure the step you teach is done well. You don’t want it to be an overview. Go deep enough that the client now has a new skill or a positive outcome. Of course, they can get even better results by working with you or purchasing your courses, but they should feel proud that they actually learned something of value. Of course, the client may not always be in the best position to hire you yet, that’s when the next idea becomes most useful.
B: Make them qualified to hire you
There are many products and services that a person has to “qualify” for before they are ready to buy. Before buying diapers, the couple needs to have a child. Before you get that cell phone, you usually want cell service. Before you get a computer, you’d better have electricity. If you can help your prospect get qualified, they will remember you as the one who helped them do it. And they will be more inclined to take the next step with you.
To figure out how to get them qualified ask “What would they need to know or be able to do to be ready to buy my course or service?” Then teach them that so they are qualified to hire you. For example, a consultant who teaches people how to build local internet marketing businesses gives away a freebie on lead generation for that type of business. Once someone knows how to find prospects, guess what they need next? They need to know what to sell them and how to close those sales. They are now ready for his courses on those topics.
MailChimp has a free guide on building an email list. The steps take less than an hour to follow. Why do they do this? They know that if you can clearly see the steps to building an email list that you’ll be qualified to take the next step and sign up for their email service. Just knowing how to build an email list readies you for that purchase. If you want to sell web hosting, why not teach someone how to build a simple website quickly using free tools? Then you can reveal that you support those very same free tools.
Showing the first step and getting them qualified to hire you are both important events that you can take advantage of to move prospects to becoming clients. They can get clients to hire you quickly. But if your sales process is a bit longer, you may need something that can keep you constantly on the customer’s mind. The next idea is ideal for that purpose.
C: Helping them get better at a recurring task
In every business, there are recurring tasks. A manager may need to delegate on a regular basis. A trainer has to orient new classes of trainees. A coach has to have that first coaching session with each new client that walks through the door. If you can make your prospect more skilled, faster or more joyful through this recurring task, they will be grateful. You’ll have done them a service and your guide may even be something they refer to regularly.
But how do you find these recurring tasks?
One way is to simply ask your prospects what they do every day that they wish they could do better. Another is to simply use your imagination. Put yourself in their shoes. What are they doing daily? One of the best lead generation tools I’ve ever seen was a simple report on how to make headlines better. This report is responsible for millions in sales for its author. At first, it wasn’t obvious why this report was so successful. I read it, I liked it and I learned a lot from it.
And after I started applying it, the answer to why it worked so well became obvious. If you market online, you are writing “headlines” of one type or another all the time. You title your social media posts. You title your videos. Your blogs need headlines. So do your sales pages. And even the subject line of an email is a type of headline. Making headlines is clearly a recurring task. Every time I had to make a headline, I used what I learned and as a result, I always remembered the author and he became an important teacher of mine.
To sum up:
We can create a lead magnet that really helps our clients by using any one of these three ideas:
*Showing them that first step in great detail. Do this well and you will give them the confidence to take the next step and they may want you to take them there.
*You can get them qualified to hire you. When you prepare them to be your client, you help them and you help yourself. They get further along their journey and you get clients who are far more ideal because they are ready for what you offer.
*And finally, you can help them get better at one of the many recurring tasks in their business. If your report is a constant reference or leads to a skill that’s used often, they will have you to credit for the results they get making them much more likely to buy from you in the future.
All of these ideas can provide a quick win for your clients and can lead to quick wins for you … this reminds me of something else that is also very fast.
The jaws of the Dracula ant which close at 15 millionths of a second.
While we may not be able to get our clients to a result with that kind of speed, we can certainly help them achieve something of value in a much shorter time frame than they’d expect. Do that and they’re far more likely to become a client. And you will feel good about how you persuaded them because you didn’t use some trick. You gave them honest results in advance.
How important is speed in business?
We all know the importance of speed in business, yet sometimes we can feel that our businesses are growing at a pace slower than we’d like. The solution is often to take small actions consistently. And this is what I typically share in my newsletter, concepts and actions you can use right away to grow your coaching business. To make sure you never miss a newsletter, click here to subscribe.
