Calloway

A lasso just won’t do it. Neither will a harness, a come-along, or a whole pack of sheepdogs. No, there are better ways to get customers to your door, but what are they? What’s the secret to snaring new clients?

Author Joe Calloway – executive in residence at Belmont University’s Center For Entrepreneurship – knows, and in his new book “Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business,” he draws it out.

A long line down the sidewalk. For a business owner, there’s nothing better than to see customers waiting to give you their money. It’s irresistible and, says Calloway, it’s “what magnetic looks like.”

Magnetic is a way of business that attracts customers old and new. It’s a method for pulling in new clients by tapping into “the greatest marketing program of all time,” also known as word of mouth.

Calloway

“The single most important factor in the future success of your business,” he says,” is this: what your customers tell people about their experience with you.” Making sure that it’s positive is “the single most important thing… to grow your business.”

That’s done by determining the three things you want your customers to say about you, and the three things that you “must get right every time.” Those, says Calloway, are the “guiding elements of” a successful business. They can’t be general; they must be specific and “intentional” because you can’t, of course, control people but you can control your corporation and its culture.

Don’t rest on being “different,” however; Calloway says that being better is the key to magnetism. It’s also important to know that the greatest threat is irrelevancy: remember that your customers are connected, most will research you online, they know about the next new thing (even if you don’t), they have other choices in purchasing, and they won’t settle for anything less than immediacy. Don’t, therefore, sit on an email or tweet from a customer; to do so is to lose out.

Finally, remember that while you should work to “re-earn” customer loyalty every day, there will be times when “no” is the proper response to a client request. Cultivate a “filter” and don’t feel guilty when you listen to it.

Common-sense stuff? Yes, it is, and somewhat repetitive but be patient. Once you get to the nitty-gritty of what’s inside “Magnetic,” there’s plenty to learn.

Using his own business as an example, boosted by a plethora of stories from colleagues, the author gives readers sure-fire ways of changing the inside of a business in order to affect its outside success. There are no accidents or incidentals in the teaching in this book; Calloway is deliberate and, as it seems, politely short with problem clients.

He doesn’t apparently suffer fools gladly; readers might actually find a few surprises on that note, which may lead to real empowerment.

The repetition here can be a distraction, but I have to say that I learned quite a bit from this book.

If, in fact, you’re looking to gain clients with the right amount of efficiency, I think you’ll find “Magnetic” to be quite attractive.

Terri Schlichenmeyer’s reviews of business books are read in more than 260 publications in the U.S. and Canada.