I shared 5 ideas with a business group recently, which they found extremely useful.
Here they are, in no particular order.
1: Offer something exclusive
Think about offering an elite or exclusive version of your services. There will always be a market for exceptional service and gold-standard products. It’s an extremely profitable market, too.
2: Never underestimate the importance of the human touch
So much of what we do today can be automated, from Facebook updates and tweets, to auto-responder emails. Whilst there is a place for some automation, you can’t automate your way to success.
Business is all about people and your competitors are forgetting that. You can gain a huge advantage over them, if you look for opportunities to interact with people. Keep it as human as possible. Never automate anything, unless it’s essential. The cost in lost business can be staggering.
3: Study the gold dust around you
If you find yourself reading a marketing email or mail shot today, stop! You have some potential gold dust in front of you. Examine it and look for what it was that compelled you to open it. Then, think about what caused you to start reading it.
Finally, consider how you can make your own marketing more effective, by incorporating or adapting what you have just learned.
4: Let people Pick Your Brain, commercially
If you get people asking you for free advice and you place any commercial value on your time, consider offering a Pick My Brain service. It has 2 enormous benefits.
- Those who were purely intent on grabbing a freebie from you will vanish. The second they know there’s a fee, they go and look for another victim.
- It can prove to be an extremely valuable service for those who really do value your advice (and for you, too).
Business is all about mutually beneficial relationships – not greedy people taking advantage of your expertise for their own selfish reasons.
5: Motivation alone is not the answer
When your business is heading in the wrong direction, you don’t need motivation to speed you up! You need guidance to get you on the right path. Working longer hours in an under performing business, just means you will go broke, faster. No matter how fast you row your boat in the wrong direction, you will still get lost.
I hope you found these ideas useful, my friend. More importantly, I hope they inspire you to take action.
IMPORTANT: If you want to make more sales, boost your profits and grow an amazing business, this will help you!