Jim's Marketing Blog

Much has been said about the importance of persistence. And rightly so! After all, if you persistently do the right things correctly, you will succeed.

However, persistence is also the cause of almost all business failure.

Allow me to explain:

• If you persistently repeat patterns of decision making, which are failing you, you’re wasting your time.
• If you persistently attend a networking group and get the occasional crumb from a struggling business owner, you’re wasting your time.
• If you persistently use marketing that fails to generate the volume and quality of clients you need, you’re wasting your time.
• If you persistently work hard for too little reward, you’re wasting your time.
• If you persistently find yourself lowering your goals, to make up for an under-performing business, you’re wasting your time.

And the kicker here, is that we each only have so much time.

The clock is ticking

As  Benjamin Franklin said; “You may delay, but time will not”.

Your time is too precious to waste. So use your persistence wisely. Find patterns of decision making that are not working for you. Then, replace them with more effective alternatives. If you do, you will find yourself persistently doing the right things correctly… making progress and enjoying the fruits of your success.

If you’re not sure about what you need to do, I’m here for you and happy to help.

The weirdest thing just happened to me. And once I explain what happened, I’ll share 2 useful ideas from my experience, to help you grow your business.

I switched on my MacBook Air earlier. I hadn’t used it for a week and immediately noticed that the screen looked terrible. It’s usually bright and everything looks crisp. Today, it’s dull and everything looks grainy.

What makes this weird, is that I know the screen is exactly the same as it was the last time I saw it!

I have changed

No, my eyesight [thankfully] hasn’t got worse. What happened is that I’ve spent a week working with a new MacBook Pro, with a brighter, higher resolution screen. I have become accustomed to a better quality display. What I was delighted with a week ago, is now substandard.

A better quality alternative has raised the bar on what I expect. I’m now dissatisfied with what was the status quo, just 7 days ago.

So, what can you learn from this, to help you and your business?

2 valuable marketing ideas

Firstly, just because your clients love you today, does not mean they will love you tomorrow. That’s why you need to continuously improve the quality of your work. You need to make your service so outstanding that:

• Your current clients will want to stay with you [and recommend you].
• Your prospective clients will see what you offer and become dissatisfied with their current provider.

Secondly, if you develop a new product or service, which is massively more valuable than your current one, a subset of your clients will demand it.

The fastest way to dramatically increase your revenues and profits, is to find new services for your existing clients. These people already know you. They have an existing business relationship with you. And most importantly, they trust you. It takes a lot longer to find new clients for your existing services.

I hope you found these ideas useful. More importantly, I hope you do something with them.

Tip: Read this and learn about offering new services to your existing clients.

Word of Mouth spreads between the people in your marketplace.

• It goes from person to person.
• Not from you to them.

So don’t interrupt people. Don’t pester people.

Instead, invest your time creating a story worth sharing. It’s a far better way to spread the word than pushing an average marketing message at people.