ANCHOR SEVEN™ STRATEGY AND DISCOVERY
This anchor screw (pictured above) allows you to mount any item on a wall or ceiling without the concern of damaging drywall or the artwork you choose to hang on the wall or ceiling. It’s the structure of the screw itself that makes it strong and immovable. When it is drilled into the wall, it immediately releases arms that anchors the screw into the wall. It’s the perfect image to illustrate the principle of the Anchor Seven™ Strategy.
Identifying your Key Anchor Seven™ Customers
- Who will specifically take your class or training
- Who will pick up, purchase and read your book
- Who will faithfully subscribe to your You Tube Channel
- Who will faithfully listen and subscribe to Your Pod Cast
- Who will purchase tickets to your keynote and training presentations
- Who will you market, enlighten, educate and promote to
The value of the anchor provides in principle, a strong, immoveable foundation that channels your message and the knowledge of who you are directing your message to. In this section, we’ll focus on developing seven different customers that you know are your key customers. This framework will ensure you consider every aspect of why your customers will be thrilled to buy you and all of your products.
The more specific you can be with your exploration of each Anchor SEVEN™, the more you will be forced out of your head and into your heart. Knowing exactly who your customers are keeps your message truthful, full of integrity and completely grounded. You won’t believe how it unleashes your curiosity on how to solve problems for them. By focusing your delivery and attention to seven of your strongest customers, the better you’ll be able to relate to them with honesty and sincerity with a genuine interest in their well-being. You’ll feel like a six year old on a Christmas morning. That excitement and childlike spirit is the kind of energy you need to cultivate as you are creating your content.
From my experience of presenting on tv and on stage, part of what I find fun and highly engaging is talking directly to my seven customers when I’m building my presentations and in the studio. I picture them all hanging out with me doing their own thing. NO, I don’t need to be put in a white padded room! This is how I get myself psyched up to the point that I can’t wait to show and tell them what I have to share about my message and products.
You may ask what about the eighth customer or the tenth? As this is a creative process, you will always have the option of adjusting the details as you continue to fine tune and grow your message. The fact that you make very bold and specific decisions is part of the power of its results. Your audience is far more willing to stick around to listen to you if they feel they are being directly spoken to. One can notice the difference between someone who is talking in generalities and to everyone in a large room versus someone who is talking to just you. This is the tone we are looking for with all of your public work. The ANCHOR SEVEN™ STRATEGY AND DISCOVERY 2 medium of all social platforms is one of intimacy and therefore needs to be addressed in this specific manner. When we’re focused and completely clear on who we are talking to, we’re just better at what we do.
Discovery
This entire next section is devoted to helping you to discover and uncover not a 2D cut out, general impression of what you think your customer looks like, but a fully formed 4D mage of a real people. There are no wrong answers to this process. This is the creative work that will differentiate you from all other guest experts and will be one of your secret weapons. The intention of this work is not to win at a creative writing contest, but rather to become more able to consider different perspectives as you build your selling messages. It will also steer you away from developing a canned performance as it will free your imagination and inspiration to focus on how best to connect with your key customers and their friends. There are six steps to the process. Each step will build on to the next so resist the urge to jump ahead.
Go old school with this exercise and please use paper and pen.
- Consider your specific category – think about the totality of your industry – (even if perhaps today you are not reaching that sector).
- Identify the gender split of your industry – male/female split. Decide how many customers (out of seven) will be male and female. (As an example –30% male / 70% female).
At this point – do not assign ages to your customers yet. Hang on tight, it’s coming.
Decide on the age range of your customers – You may find that the age range may be smaller, but make sure you explore the possibility of every age group before you delete some. One of the most important elements in deciding the age range is who is actually purchasing the product?
Age Group:
20 – 30
30 – 40
40 – 50
50 – 65
65 – 90
- Name all of your seven customers and picture them as specifically. With the work you’ve done in the preceding five steps, images of your customers have most likely started to form. You may even have thought of people in your own life that are your exact customers. Perfect! I generally mix a few different people together to round out my Anchor SEVEN™. The questions you can ask yourself are endless. The following lists of questions will spark your imagination and direct you on the right path for you and your category.
The more specific your overall attention and focus can be while creating content no matter the platform of communication, the more easily the creation of content will be.
On the next 2 pages, I have provided even more specific questions to help further deepen your exploration and understanding of your Anchor SEVEN™ customers.
Here are examples of two of my Anchor SEVEN™ customers (condensed information), in the industry of Home Décor:
Nigel and Reesa – They both just turned 50 this year. They have three kids (one that they share). She is a smart shopper and will spend hours and hours online finding the best deal for an oversized Italian down filled couch. She often uses Groupon where saving even $1 is worth the extra trip for her, as bragging rights are a big part of how she sees her role as a good mom and wife, which she is. The couple loves blowing off some steam going out with their city friends to enjoy exclusive supper clubs and bars. He’s an entrepreneur and owns a gaming company. She has been one of the top pharmaceutical reps for one of the largest firms in the world for more than fifteen years.
Courtney – She’s a university student in her early twenties and shares an apartment just off campus with five other girls. She makes her own money and her parents handle her school expenses. She, unlike most girls her age, isn’t too influenced by her peers and takes a while to make decisions on spending her own money. Since she only has a small space to decorate, she
loves pretty items that look good now. She doesn’t think long term with her clothing or décor purchases, as she knows most of her pieces will be pitched by the time she leaves university.
