These days, growing and fostering discussion groups on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn is all the rage. And how!
When you invite your opted-in e-mail subscribers and social media followers to join your group, the most eager and enthusiastic among them will take that step.
You can communicate directly with them, giving and receiving feedback, letting them tell you more and more that helps you discover THEIR truth and what motivates them to consider investing in you for THEIR reasons.
Plus, every time something is posted in your group, the little red light on their social media account panel lights up, which is designed to cause them to stop, click, and see what’s going on.
Sure beats having your e-newsletter and nurturing e-mails consigned to the Promotions tab and ignored, eh?
Anyway, I encountered someone who was using ineffective language about the members of their group.
In working to segment their audience based on likelihood they would buy,
They Referred To Their Group Members As “Freeloaders.” Ouch!
I saw where this person was coming from.
Some people in the group would talk and talk and talk, but hadn’t shown up in the shopping cart as having bought products or joined the mastermind program.
In the meantime, they were getting all the educational benefits of being in the group for free.
Fair enough.
Nature of the beast.
Such is life.
That Doesn’t Make Them Freeloaders, Though. It’s Time To Call Them Something Else!
The purpose of the group was to build a core audience of top prospects.
Let’s also remember that groups like this serve the function of putting your satisfied customers and eager prospects in the same room, so the latter can hear from the former about how awesome you, your company, and your solutions are – in effect, enlisting your best customers to do your marketing for you without even having to ask them.
So, instead of assuming your prospects are freeloading, change the script.
The following applies to EVERYONE in your community who has not invested in you yet – not just members of discussion groups.
Assume they’re your upcoming paying customers, currently and actively in the process of deciding to invest in you…
For THEIR reasons…
In alignment with THEIR truth.
Let’s call them that.
From now on, during all of our internal discussions, let’s call them
“Our Awesome Community Members Who Are About To Invest In Us!”
Right now, your job is to do everything you can to support these prospects in their process and make investing in you feel like the best thing they can do to:
- solve their problems,
- achieve their goals, and
- whatever else you give to the world through your intersection of your brilliance and your passion.
As the business creator, you set the example.
When your employees and team members hear and see the language you use, they’ll quickly follow suit.
When you gently correct the first few who use words like “freeloader”, they – and the others – will get the hint.
The result?
No more ripple effect in the form of people who haven’t invested yet being treated as second-class citizens, but rather as existing customers who will be signing on the line that is dotted (or entering their credit card number on the form that is secure) any day now.
Remember what we covered earlier about how to structure a strong referral that creates the sense that your colleague and the person you’re referring to them are already doing business together?
The exact same principle applies to the labels you write for your community members.
Your team will apply whatever labels you write.
And if that means you’re leading them off a cliff, they’ll follow you there, too.
Let’s Team Up And Optimize Your Business
