Today, I want to tell you about an amazing opportunity, for you and your business.
Whilst the economy is the worst it has been in living memory, I’m working with small businesses and seeing other small businesses, which are growing faster than at any time in their history. In this post, I am going to share what I believe to be a key factor behind their success!
No tricks
One of the great lessons in business, is that there are no tricks when it comes to creating meaningful, lasting commercial success.
Since starting my marketing business 17 years ago, I have found that there are 2 camps, when it comes to small business owners:
- The first camp want to know how to do the right things, correctly. They don’t want to waste time getting from where they are to where they want to be. So, they find out what works and then work at it.
- The second camp are looking for tricks. They ask me questions like; what’s the trick to getting my business noticed, Jim? Their hope is that I will offer them a sentence or two of trickery, which they can use and immediately turn their under performing marketing around. I get people asking me things like this on Twitter, fully expecting the “trick” to fit into 140 characters or less.
The market for trickery is huge
Look at the marketing aimed at small business owners and you will often see outrageous claims,aimed at those in the second camp. Everything from how to get 100,000 Twitter followers in 36 hours to promises like how to earn a 6 figure income working 5 hours a week. These scammy products attract paying customers, because people are looking for that kind of impossible result. The people looking for tricks make up a huge proportion of society, which is why wonder diets sell like crazy, if they promise rapid weight loss with little willpower required.
Usually, when people ask me what’s the trick to (whatever), what they really mean is one or all of the following:
- What’s the quick way?
- What’s the risk free way?
- What’s the easy way?
- What’s the cheap way?
Here’s the trick
When people ask me those questions, the answer I give is always the same. I tell people that the fastest, least risky, easiest and most inexpensive way to improve their marketing and business development, is to do the right things, correctly. It’s how 100% of the most successful business owners achieve their results.
One of my clients has grown his coaching business revenues by over 500% and his profits by closer to 700%, but it took us 2 years. He now hand picks his clients, but it took us 2 years. His life has changed, but it took us 2 years. He now lives where he wants to live, but it took us 2 years. In that same 2 year period, millions of other coaches and trainers have just carried on making the same errors, often copying what they see others doing, unaware the person they are copying is often in just as bad a spot as they are. So, these coaches and trainers are still fighting to get noticed, still selling based on fees, still trying to find the trick that will work for them. It’s totally unnecessary.
Your amazing opportunity
You have an incredible opportunity right now. The economy is in bad shape, really bad shape – the worst in living memory. So, your prospective clients are thinking harder and harder, before they spend their money.
Here’s why this represents an amazing opportunity for you:
When your marketplace are thinking hard before making a purchasing decision, the providers (that’s you) who market their services the most effectively, win a disproportionately massive share of their business.
That’s because you can provide them with exactly what they need to see and hear, whilst your amateurishly marketed competitors camouflage themselves with the same uninspiring marketing.
For those seriously interested in growing a successful business, the trick is to stop looking for tricks and get serious. This is a bad time to dabble, but it’s an amazing time to finally blow the lid off your business potential and build that business you have always wanted.