How would you describe the way you market your business?

When I used to speak with marketing students, I would explain the three basic small business marketing approaches like this.

Marketing approach 1: Chopping down a tree with a hammer

Yes, you can chop a tree down with a hammer but it will take days of needless, backbreaking work.  This is what happens when you use the wrong tool for the job.

Most of the small business owners I hear from fit into this category.  Instead of using the correct marketing tools for what they want to achieve, they use the tools they are comfortable with.  They complain about their lack of success, but keep repeating the same old errors.  If you are not getting the results you want from your marketing, stop whatever you are doing and make sure you are using the right tools for what you want to achieve.

Marketing approach 2: Chopping down a tree with an axe

Yes, you can chop a tree down with an axe and instead of it taking you a few days, as it would with a hammer, it might only take you a couple of hours of hard work.  This is what happens when you use a tool that’s designed specifically for what you want to achieve.  It’s massively more efficient.  You get better results, for less effort.

From a marketing perspective, a far smaller group of small business owners fit into this category.  These are the people, who have invested their time refining how they market their business and thus eliminated what didn’t work and embraced what did.  What’s left is a shiny set of effective marketing tools.

Marketing approach 3: Chopping down a tree with a chain saw

You can chop a tree down with a chainsaw in minutes; without even breaking into a sweat.  Like an axe, it’s a tool that’s specially designed for the job.  Unlike the axe, which was designed hundreds of years ago (or more), today’s chainsaws use the very latest technology.  So, not only will the chainsaw do the job, it will do it better, more accurately and  in a fraction of the time.

From a marketing perspective, very few small business owners fit into this category.  These rare people are the ones who have not only discovered some marketing tools that work; they have also discovered the perfect tools for what they want to achieve and the most effective way to use them, so they get the best possible results.  They plan their marketing ahead of time and make far better decisions.

Compare that approach, to the more typical small business owner’s attitude to marketing. Marketing is something these guys do when there’s a problem; like the loss of a major account or the sudden realisation that they are not making any real progress.  So, for example, they might decide to “try a mail shot” and send a poorly written letter (which is essentially a sales pitch) to an out of date list of people, who never asked to be contacted.

They then usually proclaim; “we tried mail shots – they don’t work!”  I’m assuming they are the same people who think “cars don’t work” because they don’t know how to drive!

Most people reading this, will see themselves primarily in one of those three general groups.  The best advice I can give you, is to get yourself into that third group, as quickly as you can!

Photo: Foxhill Matt

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Here’s some GREAT news for anyone who needs to see better sales results in their business right now.  You can massively boost your sales, by making just minor adjustments!

That’s right, you can improve the success of your marketing enormously, my making tiny changes to what you already do.

For example, you can increase the success rate of a mail shot by 500-900% or more, by improving the headline, (sometimes called a strap line by trendy marketing people.)

A brilliant headline will encourage more people to start reading the letter, and the more people who read it, the better it’s chances of success.

A quick 350% increase, right here!

I recently changed one small thing on this blog and have achieved a huge, 350% increase in subscribers to my marketing newsletter.  What did I do? I added that small rectangle box at the end of each post, which lets people know they will get a free ebook from me (10 secrets of success) if they subscribe to my newsletter.

I also used that box to ask people to subscribe to my blog’s RSS feed. Guess what? Yep, a 120% increase in RSS subscribers too!

I once suggested to a business owner, that she changed the sign outside her store, so that it had the words; “come in” added to it. She reported an immediate increase of around 8% more people coming into the shop.  This, over the space of a year, equated to hundreds of ‘new’ customers and tens of thousands in extra sales.

If you are looking to boost sales significantly, here’s a suggestion.  Before you go and spend a ton of money, make sure you’re not missing something simple, which could boost your sales and profits massively.

Your experiences

What small changes have you made to your marketing or seen others make, which has produced great results?  Share your feedback with is!

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One of the secrets behind the most successfully marketed small and medium sized businesses, is that they utilise more forms of marketing than their less successful counterparts!  In my experience, ‘the average’ business will use just two or three different kinds of marketing – yet the most successful businesses will be benefiting from eight or more.

Compound marketing leverage

By developing a marketing strategy, which leverages many complimentary forms of marketing, you start to build a ‘compound marketing’ effect.  This is where the results you get for your combined efforts, are far, far greater than they would be; if you had done each activity in isolation.

Also, by relying on a number of different forms of marketing, your business’ future is far more secure.  I interviewed a businesswoman once, who relied on an advertisement in an industry magazine for almost all her new business. A competitor then started advertising in the same publication.  Overnight, her sales and enquiries dropped by more than half and she eventually went broke!

If you currently rely on just a small number of marketing activities, no matter how effective they currently are, make sure you are not too reliant on any one of them and always look for new ways to get great results.

Over to you

What forms of marketing have been the most (or least) effective for YOU? Share your experiences with a comment below!

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When I started my first sales job, over 20 years ago, my boss gave me a piece of sales and marketing advice that has helped me generate millions of pounds worth of sales – and I am going to share it with you right now!

“To make it in sales, fish for whales!”

I asked my former boss what his comment about fishing for whales actually meant.  He explained:

“Jim, if you go fishing and you catch 10 goldfish, you won’t even fill a cup – but if you catch 10 whales, you will fill half the beach!”

Sales leverage

With that simple explanation, he taught me how the amount of time and effort required to win a £50,000 sale, was not a great deal more than it took to win a sale of £5,000.  This simple idea totally blew my mind!  It was my introduction to what I know today as leverage.

I immediately realised that if I wanted to succeed in sales, I needed to prioritise my sales efforts and focus on where I could deliver most value as a salesperson – because that’s where all those whales are!

If you want to dramatically improve your sales figures, make sure your time and energy is invested wisely – fishing for whales and not goldfish!

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I am going to show you a simple, high leverage way to generate stacks more sales super-fast; WITHOUT you having to invest a penny more on marketing! This is a step by step guide that anyone can follow, which can generate an almost unlimited amount of sales for you; with very little effort on your part.

Leverage leverage leverage…

When you study the the world’s most successful businesspeople and salespeople, you will see a word popping up again and again. That word is leverage.  Leverage, when referred to in marketing or business development terms, is all about getting the maximum return on everything you do.

I use leverage to get results in every area of my business and I want you to start doing the same from now on because the rewards are stunning!

Leverage an extra £500,000 in sales – for free!

Allow me to introduce you to a few people who can easily help you leverage your best sales, profits and turnover figures ever. These people have the attention of hundreds or thousands of new potential clients for your services – possibly even more!

You already know these people. . . they are your Accountant, Business Bank Manager and Company Solicitor.  How many local businesses does your Accountant work with 500 or 5,000?  And what about your Solicitor – another 1,000 or so?  Ok, what about your Company’s Bank Manager – 5,000 or 10,000 local businesses?

Of these thousands of local businesses, how many have a potential need for your services? If you are in a service industry; Recruitment, Insurance, Internet, IT or Training – there is potential for you to supply your services to almost ALL of these thousands of local businesses!  If you provide a product or a range of products, you will quickly know roughly what percentage of these local businesses are likely to have a need for your offering.  In either case, the potential here is massive!

Getting referrals and recommendations!

Speak with any group of businesspeople or salespeople and you will quickly learn that one of their most pressing marketing problems is winning new, high quality clients or customers on a regular basis.

Despite this, very few of them have actually held a meeting with their Accountant, Solicitor or Bank Manager to specifically request leads from their massive client base!

Business owners and entrepreneurs usually make the costly mistake of assuming that their Accountant, Solicitor and Bank Manager will ‘automatically’ recommend them and their services to their masses of clients and contacts. This is seldom, if ever, the case!  Accountants, Lawyers and Bank Managers are extremely busy professional people and unless there is some motivation for them to proactively pass leads to you – they won’t!

Leverage in action

What you need is a strategy that leverages the motivation of these professionals; making it easier for them to provide you with referrals than NOT to – and here it is!  These three great questions should be asked, preferably face-to-face, in the exact order they are given:

Question 1: How many clients do you have?
Question 2: How many of them do you think use (whatever you offer)?
Question 3: So, how many leads do you think you can pass to me over the next 30 days?

What these three questions do is extremely clever. Here’s the science behind each one:

Question 1: How many clients do you have?

This is what I refer to as the ‘foundation’ question. It forms the foundation upon which the rest of the questions stack.  People are proud of the size of their client base and are only too eager to show you just how hard they work and how successful their bank or practice is.

Question 2: How many of your clients do you think use (whatever kind of service/product you provide)?

This is what I refer to as the ‘focus’ question.  It causes the listener to focus on the profile of his or her client base and the nature of your product or service, before joining the two together. They know that you will have a very good idea of how many businesses, on average, have a requirement for your services or products – so their answer to you has to be realistic.

Question 3: So, how many leads do you think you can pass to me over the next 30 days?

This is what I refer to as the leverage question.  It causes the listener to review the two answers they have just given you and then give you a number.  It also sets up a time-scale and as the old saying goes; “what gets measured gets done!”

At this point you have just leveraged their motivation – making it far easier to pass you leads and far harder not to. Even if they fail to give you a definitive number, it is no longer easy for them NOT to provide you with regular introductions, referrals or leads. Now that there is a time-scale for when you will be expecting to have received some leads, they will find it easier to help you than ignore you.

Your Bank Manager, Accountant and Solicitor are trusted professionals and their recommendation is extremely valuable.  They will also know all about you and your business and they will know that you offer a great product or service – so there’s no barrier to them recommending you.

Each of these hard working professionals will be keen to help their other clients, and if they believe that your service will benefit their other clients, it’s only natural that they would introduce your services to them!

If you find it a little ‘awkward’ asking these questions, ask them in a playful way!

Amazingly, even if you ask these questions with a big smile on your face, as I always do, the impact is exactly the same!

Some numbers you will find interesting

If only one business in ten, on average, has a need for your type of product or service, it’s likely that your; Bank Manager, Company Solicitor and Accountant combined will have access RIGHT NOW to A THOUSAND new clients for you and your business.

If you only sold £500 worth of goods to these people each year, that’s a half a million pounds a year increase in YOUR turnover!

A quick million

If you work in any of the industries I have already mentioned in this free guide; that figure will be closer to a million pounds a year in new business for you and your business!

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