Here’s a great question, to help ensure you’re not mistaking activity for progress:
“Is my marketing based on doing the right things, correctly OR doing things I feel comfortable with?”
Review what you are comfortable with
Whilst most small business owners have varied working weeks, there are certain things they do routinely. Now, if those routine activities are correct they will work for the business and the business owner will see measurable progress. However, many routine business activities are repeated simply because the business owner feels comfortable with them. They get into a habit of doing certain things a certain way, often unaware that if they improved their approach, they could be enjoying massively better results.
The perfect scenario is for us to become comfortable, doing the correct things. This starts with a willingness to embrace change and let go of ineffective marketing activities. Like many things in business, this is easier said than done. However, those only prepared to do what’s easy in business, place a very low ceiling on their potential.
Quick Tip
If you are not getting enough sales or sales inquiries, take a look at the marketing activities you engage in. How many of them are you confident can generate the results you need? How many of them are you certain, you are doing correctly? Stop anything that isn’t working and either fix it or replace it with something that works. Don’t stick with anything, just because it’s comfortable!
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I wasted 2 years and a huge amount of money at breakfast networking meetings. I then realized that few of us there were getting anything from it. The only real benefactor was the company we were paying our subs to.
You get stuck in your ways Jim and before you know it, you’re a busy fool.
This is something I hear more and more of these days, Gareth.
People often get so used to the routine of attending ‘networking breakfasts’ that they seldom stop and think if all that time couldn’t be invested more effectively.
Fabulous post,thank you. It’s all about re-inforcing your continual message that you give to clients. One of my most difficult jobs is finding time and – enough inspiration to write new blog posts – so sometimes I put it off. I know I must not do this because I can see the great results when I do find time and inspiration to blog more often. Sometimes it’s easy to justify not finding the time because ‘I am just so busy’ but that really shouldn’t be an (my) excuse!
Thanks for the kind words, Shona. I think it’s about developing routines, which serve us.
We use our time based on what we feel we want to do. This means we often focus on things that are either pleasurable (TV etc) or urgent / important (a client has a problem). When we determine that marketing is important, it becomes easy.
You only need to see the way companies suddenly embrace marketing, when they lose a major client and discover they need to find a new one fast, to see how the focus shifts when it’s important.
Thanks for the feedback, my friend.
How funny it is, today I’ve been at a conference and the speaker (who’s an exceptional and very impressive woman by the same way) explained how our world has changed and why do we need to get out of the comfort zone by now before it will be too late.
Every entrepreneur has to break the rules and avoid the status quo in order to prevent from falling into an unusable state of mind.
Her final point was: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” -Theodore Hook.
I think it’s a part of our mission to move on and looking for better results each day.
Cheers,
Hi Yael. Sounds like an interesting conference.
When we develop the routines or habits required for business success, we massively increase our chances. This can be uncomfortable, at least to begin with, but it’s often the difference between success and failure.
Thanks for the feedback, my friend.
Fear is the main driving force in these circumstances.
We are desperate for something different to happen (and don’t mind trying something new), however we don’t REALLY know what we’re doing so we just feel that maintaining a foot on the gas is better than asking some probing (or even critical) questions, ripping everything out and starting again.
Many small business owners and indeed people generally are simply fantasy stricken. Reality is often too stark a concept.
Thanks for the post, Jim.