Knowing Your Ideal Customer- Next Level Notary Principle #3

Your Ideal Customer

 In Next Level Notary Principle #3, we are going to talk about your ideal customer, or client. Clarity is this area is imperative to your success. Knowing who it is that makes the decision to hire you as a mobile notary and loan signing agent impacts every marketing, and relationship-building, decision you will make. 

Luckily for us, as a mobile notary and loan signing agent, our ideal customers are pretty apparent for us, by nature. Still, there is a LOT of room for creativity here. Your business, and the relationships that come about in it, are limited only by your imagination.

Who's Got My Money?

When I first heard this from Grant Cardone, it totally turned me off. At first glance, it sounds arrogant and obnoxious, as well as way too focused on money, for my taste.

Then, I listened to the strategy. While it’s very direct, it’s actually very true, and in our industry, the question of, “Who’s Got My Money?” is very clear, so thinking like this allows laser focus of who you need to be connecting and building relationships with.

Every marketing, advertising, and networking decision you make in your business will be impacted by the answer to that question. You must know who you are after. Who hires you?

The Loan Signing Agent

As a loan signing agent, there are basically two groups you’ll want to connect with, depending on the business model you choose. If you just plan on being an independent contractor for existing signing companies, then that’s exactly who’s got your money-signing companies. You’ll want to research and apply for signing companies that work for you.

As a Next Level Notary, you become more particular, and strategic, in your company choices. You'll focus on companies that are committed to a win/win arrangement with fair fees and mutual respect. 

The right partnership here could yield tens of thousands of dollars in revenue, or more. 

If you choose to work directly with escrow companies, then Escrow Officers (or closing attorneys) and their managers are who you want to connect with- They’ve got your money!. Short and sweet.

Sure, you may have to get “approved” by a corporate office, but most escrow officers ultimately decide who they give their signing business to. It’s your job to connect with them and earn their business with value.  And, remember that each Escrow Officer within an office may have complete autonomy on the signing agent decision. That means that an office with 6 Escrow Officers gives you 6 different relationships to work on. If you don't hit it off with one of them, you have 5 more chances.

General Notary Work

I urge loan signing agent to embrace general notary work, as long as it makes sense in your state. General notary work is just about every other notarial act outside of loan signings. 

A guideline for determining whether or not this is a financially worthwhile endeavor is if you can charge at least $5 per notary stamp/signature, and charge some kind of mileage or convenience fee, you can make this work. 

I'll talk a lot more about the importance of general notary work in later Principles. 

For now, if you choose to embrace general notary work, your ideal customer broadens to whole new levels. In fact, everyone in the country will need a notary at some point, so your job is to make it as easy as possible to find you.

The most important way to find your ideal customer in general notary work is to have a professional, and well-placed "storefront" where your customers are shopping-the web. 

You must have a search engine optimized website that helps your website get to the top of Google or Bing. That's where your ideal customers are going to find a "notary near me."

Starting in November, I'll be doing an online workshop that walks us through building a website and optimizing it using custom notary templates from Green Monkey Marketing. This is a Notary Coach exclusive, so if you're interested in participating, keep your eye out for upcoming email announcements.

The second way to generate Next Level Notary business in general notary work is to build strong referral relationships. You can get very creative with this, because the need for notaries abound. Here are some basic ideas for referral relationships:

• Senior living facilities
• Hospitals (nursing stations, volunteer desks)
• Tow yards
• Medical Offices
• Doctors that do medical liens
• Bank Branch Managers
• Fedex Offices (they don't always offer notary services anymore)
• UPS Stores for after hours or mobile services
• Family Law Attorneys for Wills, Trusts, and Medical Directives

You’re only one relationship away from your dream business and dream life.

One relationship, or connection can change everything. In my highest producing year as a single signing agent, so far, (nearly $400,000) I only had four main clients. You don't need dozens of clients, you just need high performing, quality clients that trust you as much as you trust them. 

Get clarity on who you want to work with and go get it. This is thinking like a Next Level Notary.