Magnetic

Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business is a look at how consistently successful businesses are able to attract a steady and ever-increasing flow of customers. This innovative text examines a range of simple, powerful strategies that businesses of any size or type can use to attract new customers. The key is to do those things that harness the power of the single most important factor in buying decisions: positive word of mouth and referrals from happy existing customers.

Magnetic businesses are intentional, strategic, and focused on creating positive experiences that become the stories their customers tell about them. Whether on the internet or face to face, it's what satisfied customers say about you that is the most powerful driver of growth for your business.

Becoming Magnetic and attracting business, truly is an art, rather than a science, because every business is different, and uses a unique combination of strategy, people, and purpose to achieve success and growth. There is no one-size-fits-all formula, but with creativity and focus, any business can create a powerful revenue growth engine that continuously works to build and sustain success.

Learn how to match successful growth strategies with your people, purpose, and culture to create your own unique 'magnetism' to attract business.

Discover the simple, powerful keys to growth used by a range of market leading businesses, from a snowboard manufacturing startup company and a website design professional to a minor league baseball team and an family owned upscale grocery store. All of them utilize ideas that you can put to work immediately in your business to become Magnetic.

Create a magnetic mindset in your people that leads not only to happier customers who refer others to you, but to more satisfied employees who help attract and recruit great new employees to keep your momentum going.

Simplify and clarify how you think about your business to have your entire team become more focused, efficient, and effective in doing those few vitally important things that matters most in driving growth and sustaining success.

1 Why Magnetic Matters 1

The Art of Attracting Business 3

Ideas That Work across the Board 4

What’s Not in the Book 5

It is Your Marketing 6

Where We’re Going 6

2 The Power of Word of Mouth 9

The Greatest Marketing Program of All Time 11

What Mama’s Means to You 11

Whom Do You Ask? 15

Deciding to Buy (or Not to Buy) 16

Zero Moment of Truth 17

The Most Significant Shift 19

Rethinking Your Strategy 20

3 The Hard Work of Making It Simple 21

Get Your Thinking Clean Enough 23

4 The Three Things You Want Them to Say 25

“You Should Try This Website Designer, Doctor, Book, Accountant, and Computer.” 27

Everyone Gets It 29

What Do We Want Our Customers to Say about Us? 30

Make An Emotional Connection 31

Don’t Overthink It 32

Your Three “What We Want Them to Say” Statements 33

5 The Three Things You Must Get Right 37

A Simple, Powerful Formula to Attract Business 39

Solid Gold Strategy 41

The Grand Guarantee 42

Do It Your Way 46

6 The Best Idea Ever 51

Make Sure the Other Guy Wins 53

An Elegant Equation to Explain Everything 53

Look at the Options 54

I Hate to Lose 57

I’ve Developed Reverse Paranoia 58

“We Make People Lose” 59

It’s Like a Cultural Miracle Drug 60

Standing Out Like a Sore Thumb 60

Constructive Disagreements 61

The Ultimate Guideline 62

7 Better Beats Different 63

Don’t Strive to Be Different. Be Better. (Now That’s Different.) 65

Not the Most Unusual Pickup Truck 65

The Connection Between “Better” and “Distinctive” 66

Being Better Means Innovation 69

8 From Magnetic to Irrelevant 71

The Greatest Threat 73

Wild for CB Radios 73

Dogs are Loyal. Customers Aren’t. 74

Think Again 76

9 Never Stop Improving 79

You Could Just Do This, and You’d Succeed 81

Lip Service 81

A Daily Ritual 82

Without a Process It’s Just a Slogan 83

You Have to Get Specific 83

If It’s Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing Wrong 85

All Sorts of Things Occur 85

It Can Always Be Better 86

10 The Magnetic Mind-Set 89

Common Threads 91

11 The St. Paul Saints: It’s All Word of Mouth 101

Not Your Usual Case Study 103

Fiercely Loyal Customers Year in and Year Out 103

The Most Spectacular Experience You Can Have 104

“A Whole New Ballgame” 105

12 A Magnet Needs a Market 111

It Seemed Like Such a Good Idea at the Time 113

Who’s Going to Pay You for It? 114

Spreadsheets Don’t Buy Anything. (Friends Usually Don’t, Either.) 114

A Great Idea in the Wrong Market 115

Just Follow Your Passion. If . . . 116

“I’ll Put It on the Internet” 117

The Most Crowded Market in the Universe 118

13 Lessons from a Startup Magnet 121

Looking at Your Business with New Eyes 123

David and Goliath 123

Lessons for All of Us 124

What If I Were Starting Over? 135

14 Who Moved My Market? 137

Whom Would You Call? 139

The Opportunity of a Burning Platform 140

We Print Checks. Now What? 141

Who Moved My Market? 142

We Live in Interesting Times 144

15 You’re Fired! 147

The Common (and Fatal) Mistakes That Businesses Make 149

Joe Calloway Fired a Phone Company 149

Mark Sanborn Fired a Restaurant 150

Larry Winget Fired the Garage Door Company, the Air Conditioning Company, and His Doctor 152

Randy Pennington Fired the Lawn Service 154

Scott McKain Fired the Oncologist 155

It Wasn’t the Lack of a “WOW” Factor 156

Famous Last Words 157

16 Magnetic Connections 159

Go Retro 161

Get Face-to-Face 161

Practice Retail Politics 162

The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note 164

17 Losing Your Magnetic Mojo 167

Can a Magnet Lose Its Strength? 169

Rave Reviews. Amazing French Food. 170

It’s Not As Good As It Used to Be 171

That’s Just Table Stakes 172

The Big Lie 173

Good to Great to Gone 173

18 The Amazing, Simple, Overlooked Advantage 175

Stories about How Amazingly Responsive You are 177

Brian Will Get Back to you Immediately 178

A New Standard of Performance 179

I Loved Them 180

Until I Didn’t 180

Too Little, Too Late 181

Real-Time Response 182

Sorry, That Won’t Work for Me 183

19 Tomorrow’s Magnetic Business 185

The Pace of Change Will Increase 187

Your Customers Just Changed 187

If You Make Customers or Potential Customers Wait, You Lose 188

Your Customers are Superconnected 188

Every Person in Your Organization Must Have a Customer Focus 188

You Have to Change from Talking to the Market to Talking with the Market 189

Sell Me Stuff I Want 189

Don’t Appeal to a Demographic. Appeal to Me. 189

Having the Right Technology is Great. Having the Right People is Better 190

“Simple and Easy” is the New Added Value 190

Use Video 190

Win on the Basics 190

Index 193

JOE CALLOWAY helps business leaders and entrepreneurs make great companies even better. His interactive keynote presentations and workshops enable organizations to focus on what is truly important, inspire new thinking about challenges and opportunities, and motivate people to take immediate action. Joe has been a business author, consultant, and speaker for 30 years, and his client list encompasses small to midsized business groups all the way to international corporations.

Seventy-seven percent of consumers are more likely to buy a new product they learned about from their friends and family. Eighty-five percent of Facebook users recommend brands they like to friends. Eighty-one percent of U.S. online shoppers make purchase decisions based on their friends' social media posts. Magnetic shows you how to be the brand they are talking about.

There's a good chance you're reading this because someone told you about the book, and that's exactly what Joe Calloway shows you how to do in this step-by-step empirical guide to exponential growth through customer experience. Through Joe's award-winning presentation style, leaders, owners, and entrepreneurs can find clarity on exactly what customers should say about their brands and then execute the strategies to make it happen and attract brand followers. By examining real companies, businesses, people, and organizations from many different perspectives, the complete picture of what it means to be extraordinarily magnetic gets pieced together. In the process, you take away actionable strategies to:

• Know what you want your customers saying about you and why
• Leave a path of winners and ultimately be a winner yourself
• Do three important things right every day
• Develop the habits that will make you magnetic
• Innovate yourself out of the commodity-business trap
• Always keep your magnetism at full strength
• Never lose sight of the people behind the scenes

At the end of each chapter, Joe applies his world-class coaching to the lessons he presents by asking thought-provoking questions to guide you through adapting the covered skills and strategies into your own business practices.

Analytics can tell you how and where to talk about your brand, but real conversions happen when customers talk about you—that's Magnetic.

Praise for MAGNETIC

"We need a new breed of entrepreneurs and business leaders and Joe Calloway shows us how to get there in Magnetic. Straightforward, powerful, and insightful, Joe shares the keys to sustainable growth in any industry. This is a must-read, a secret weapon for every employee, business owner, leader, or aspiring entrepreneur looking to improve performance or grow their business. I love this book."
—Carey Lohrenz, author of Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons From The Flight Deck

"Joe has done it again. Magnetic has practical information on how you can make price irrelevant and make your business the one that your customers can't live without. I love this book!"
—John R. DiJulius III, author of The Customer Service Revolution: Overthrow Conventional Business, Inspire Employees, and Change the World

"Customers are exhausted. They are tired of the relentless pursuit by an infinite number of organizations making immeasurable attempts to acquire new business. Joe Calloway proposes a distinctive solution: What if you were so magnetic, you could attract customers to do business with you? In this remarkable and game-changing book, you'll learn what it takes to move from a constant chase for clients into the advantage of customer attraction. It may change the way you think about management, sales, and leadership. Magnetic is a must-read."
—Scott McKain, author of Create Distinction: What To Do When "Great" Isn't Good Enough To Grow Your Business

"In Magnetic, Joe Calloway sorts through all the clutter and brings clarity to building the emotional connections that inspire customers to buy from you. Organizations spend countless hours and resources chasing business while missing the point that being really great at what matters most will bring the business to you."
—Tim Leman, CEO, Gibson; author of rEvolution: Turn Crisis into Clarity and Ignite Growth