Create a Customer "Addiction"

Note: I expect this article may start a flame war. It was so problematic that EzineArticles.com took a while to approve it. I think the idea of equating crack addictions to marketing will probably stir a few pots. This is essentially a further development of an idea I posted previously into a full fledged article. Let the great debate begin. -Lisa

I've been toying with the idea that in order to be successful in business, you have to create a loyal following that goes beyond "customer satisfaction" and even a bit past "customer loyalty".

I call it "customer crack addiction".

Now, I mean this in the nicest possible way, with no offense to any crackheads that might be reading.

I examined other possible ideas and concepts. I've read Jeffrey Gitomer's book, "Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless", and I agree with so much of what he writes.

At one point he draws the comparison to a marriage. Would you want your spouse to be "satisfied" or "loyal"?

Great analogy. But I think there's another level that every business would love to attain: "Addicted"

In my mind, I want my spouse to be addicted to me. He can't get enough of me. Would do anything to be close to me. He would stay up nights thinking of ways to be around me more frequently. In short, his world would revolve around me. It borders on an unhealthy obsession, but only borders on it. We do, after all, want our clients to keep their sanity, lest they be seen as crackpots instead of crack heads.

The Bible tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. In my mind, that means be willing to die for me. To lay down his life in order to save me. Periodically, I ask my husband if he's willing to take a bullet, or give up a kidney for me.

I'm still working on getting him "trained".

As business professionals, we all want to have that handful of clients that raves about us to everyone they meet, can't say enough good things about us, and can't wait for our next product or service to be unveiled. These "crack heads" lead the charge for us, investing in and putting to use everything we bring to market. They are not just our most loyal customers, they are our evangelists.

In business, you can create an addiction to your products and services. It's not hard, but it takes a certain amount of work and investment on your part. Before we walk that road, let's look at what happens with real crack addicts to draw our analogy.

Crack/Cocaine is a nervous system stimulant. It affects the brain, and leaves you in a temporary state of euphoria. Essentially, you feel SO GOOD while you're "high" on the drug that you lose touch with the problems and issues of your reality. Tony Robbins explains in his Personal Power series that basically, you are feeling immense pleasure and absolutely no pain while you are under the influence of the drug. You have no inhibitions, no fears, no doubts, worries. Nothing negative exists in this world.

NO WONDER people become drug addicts!

And how does the pusher work?

He gives you a taste for free. You might remember the commercials that ran in the late 80's/early 90's with the kid who was just supposed to give the 'stuff' away. Then when his friends came back - "THAT'S When I start charging?" said the kid.

So it would seem simple to say that the solution to creating a customer crack addiction is to give away free samples of our "stuff" and charge returning customers a premium for the full package. However, a piece of the equation would still be missing.

The key to crack's effectiveness is it's potency. There's a difference between baking soda and cocaine. Both look very similar, but have entirely different effects. You can see this in business every day with knock-off clones of products stocking shelves in every store. Many are very similar, but in the end, cheap imitations, when compared to the higher priced original.

In the online marketing world, there are thousands upon thousands of 'freebies' that are given away every single day online. For nothing more than your name and email address you can get access to free ezines, special reports, a tip of the week, etc. For a while, this was an effective ploy. But for most people, an immunity is being built to the regular fare that's been posted, hashed and re-hashed in the marketing world. It's one of the reasons why so many marketers have resorted to adding bonus after bonus to their high priced coaching and product offers. We need to keep doing more and more to attract and keep customer focus.

Unless they are addicts.

In this evolving economy, if you you want business for decades to come, you want to create a crack addiction with your customers. You want them to be so excited about the products and services that you offer that they don't blink an eye about opening their wallet to "get the goods" from you.

And like a drug addiction, you're not paying big coin for baking soda or powdered sugar. You need to create a powerful, mind expanding, state altering product. Once they've tried it, they'll never go back to the way they were. It's not possible without major intervention. Your customers will have changed in their very core.

Then, give them a sample strong enough to get them hooked. Newsletters alone don't cut it any more. And repurposed content better be powerful and hard to find. Savvy customers are taking the time to research and save their pennies now more than ever. If they can find your content somewhere else for free, they will.

And there goes your crack addiction.

Now is the time for quality and quantity. In days past, it was acceptable to burn a CD with poor audio quality and photocopy a couple of pages of notebook scribbles and sell it for thousands of dollars. Not any more. Packaging, presentation, and quality are all part of the equation now. Your product or service not only has to be full of solid content, it has to be presented in such a way that people are proud to own it. At the very least, re-type your photocopies into a legible format, and move away from the inkjet printer CD labels. First impressions go a long way in business. Think of yourself for a moment as the "pusher" - who always arrives in style, well presented, and ready to do business. the same must be true of you and your products/services.

Make sure your product is potent and effective. Make sure it does exactly what it says. Better yet, make sure that it's better than described. People are pleasantly surprised when a product outperforms it's advertising - and they will rave about it.

Don't be afraid to give it away to the right people. If you find someone that you know can absolutely benefit from what you have to offer, don't be afraid to share it with them at no charge. They'll feel indebted to you and psychologically obligated to share the greatness of your offering with the world. And reward them for their referrals. Keep your addicts clinging to you for their "fix" and you'll earn a customer base that goes beyond loyalty.

Start your own customer crack addiction by examining your offerings. What can you improve or modify to make even more impressive? Start with simple changes that make a big impact. Sometimes those minor adjustments can make a big pricing difference because of your audience's perception of value. Create massive value, then give a sample away.

Then watch your addicts flock to you.

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Lisa Robbin Young teaches direct sellers how to be a superstar in the eyes of their customers. As Founder of HomePartySolution.com, Ms. Young has garnered the attention of thousands of direct sales consultants around the world looking for ways to integrate online marketing with their offline businesses to achieve greater success while working from home. Sign up for her free ezine at HomePartySolution.com

Clue#7: Creating a Crack Addiction

I've been toying with the idea that in order to be successful in business, you have to create a loyal following that goes beyond "customer satisfaction" and even a bit past "customer loyalty".

I call it "customer crack addiction".

Now, I mean this in the nicest possible way, with no offense to any crackheads that might be reading my post.

I examined other possible ideas and concepts. I've read Jeffrey Gitomer's book, "Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless", and I agree with so much of what he writes.

At one point he draws the comparison to a marriage. Would you want your spouse to be "satisfied" or "loyal"?

Great analogy. But I think there's another level: "Addicted"

In my mind, I want my spouse to be addicted to me. He can't get enough of me. Would do anything to be close to me. I might draw the line at being obsessed with having me, but I think you get the idea.

The Bible tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. In my mind, that means be willing to die for me. To lay down his life in order to save me.

Periodically, I ask my husband if he's willing to take a bullet, or give up a kidney for me.

I'm still working on getting him "trained". Hee hee.

But in business, you I believe you CAN create an addiction to your products and services. Before I share that wih you, though, let's take a look at the desired results:

Crack/Cocaine is a nervous system stimulant. It affects the brain, and leaves you in a temporary state of euphoria. Essentially, you feel SO GOOD while you're "high" on the drug that you lose touch with the problems and issues of your reality. I heard Tony Robbins explain it in his Personal Power series of 20 years ago. In basic terms, you are feeling immense pleasure and absolutely no pain while you are under the influence of the drug. You have no inhibitions, no fears, no doubts, worries. Nothing negative exists in this world.

NO WONDER people become drug addicts!

And how does the pusher work?
He gives you a taste for free. You might remember the commercals that ran in the late 80's/early 90's with the kid who was just supposed to give the 'stuff' away. Then when his friends came back - "THAT'S When I start charging?" said the kid.

Before this story takes a dark turn, let's bring it back to my business analogy.

We've all seen the thousans upon thousands of 'freebies' that are given away every singleday on the internet. Put you email address here and we'll give you our free ezine, our free special report, our free tip of the week, our free piece of day old limburger cheese...

I'm kidding about the cheese.

But you get the idea. Everyone's offering something for free to get you to give up your precious contact information so that they can barrage you with emails about the latest and greatest thing they want to sell you.

Here's where I start to huff and puff. I'm blowing the house down, folks.

I've built my newsletter over the past year to a sizeable audience. Thousands of you read my work every week. I'm humbled by that. And I don't charge a penny for it - and never will as far as I can tell. As long as email is free, my newsletter will be too.

But like cocaine, once you develop a tolerance for it, you need more and more to get the high you first did. And no, I've never done drugs, just so we're clear on that. I'm a just say no girl. If anything, chocolate is my drug of choice!

So you, as a consumer, have grown immune to the "click here for your free report" type marketing. And that's GOOD news for you.

Because it means we as sales people have to raise the bar and give you more value.

As far as I'm concerned, I want your business. I want to make millions and millions of dollars off my customers for decades to come. I want to create a crack addiction with you. I want you to be so excited about the products and services that I offer that you don't even blink an eye about opening your wallet to "get the goods" from me.

But like a drug addiction, you're not paying big coin for regurgitated crap. I'm not selling you baking soda or powdered sugar. This is a powerful, mind expanding, state altering product. Once you've tried it, you'll never go back to the way you were. It's not possible. You will have changed in your very core. You will be SO different because you will know things you may not have known before. You'll be so CLEAR on your mission and passion in your life, that you'll know what to do and how to take action.

But like any good "pusher" you first have to get a sample...

Some of you are giving some great guesses. Tell your friends to join in the fun, there's still time! The big announcement is tonight at 7pm. Post your guesses here, and watch this blog for more clues throughout the day!

Choice Vs. Action: Which Frog Are You?

I'm sure you've heard the story of the two frogs that are sitting on a lily pad.

No? Let me recount it for you:

There are two frogs let's call 'em Joe and Spike) sitting on a lily pad. Spike jumps into the pond and starts to swim away to another, greener, fresher, more satisfying lily pad on the other side of the pond.

A few minutes later, Joe decides to jump in and go for a swim, too.

Question: How many frogs are sitting on the first lily pad?
Answer: Only Joe. He only DECIDED to jump. He didn't actually do it.

So here's my question to you: Which frog are you? Spike, the frog of decisive action, or Joe, the frog who is quite comfortable where he's at.

Oh, I hear you thinking - but he DID make a decision, didn't he? I mean Joe's a good frog, works all day, comes home to his wife and tadpoles and puts in an appearance at "the local" every now and then. He's sure to be moving up in this world. He's destined for greener lily pads, right?

Um.. not so much.

Tony Robbins, that "personal power" guru says in his book "Awaken the Giant Within" that "it's in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." It's right there on page 40 if you don't believe me.

But he's only partially right.

Listen to me! Contradicting one of the world's foremost authorities on increasing your personal power, and becoming all you've ever wanted to be in life.

But he's only PARTIALLY right.

It's not just your decisions. It's the actions you take based on those decisions that shape your "destiny".

You know, actions speak louder than words, right? And a picture is worth 1000 words, so if you visualize your destiny and then ACT on it, you'll be louder, bolder and more audacious than any 1000 word decision you'll ever make.

Yeah, I'm stretching a bit there, but you get the idea.

So my final question to you is this: What decisions are you making? Are you trying to build your business? Create a happier homelife? Pay down debt? Lose 100 pounds (that's one of mine)? Something entirely different?

All those decisions are well and good, but what are you DOING to activate those decisions?

Just something to think about.

Oh, by the way, thinking IS an action. So is deciding, for that matter. But it's the physical actions that happen AFTER those actions that truly shape your life.

Now tell me again, which frog are you?