I’ve given 4 pieces of important business development advice recently, which I’d like to share with you. Hopefully, it will help you or someone you know, to avoid making some costly mistakes.
Think long and hard before you do any of the following…
Take advice from a self proclaimed guru
Self-proclaimed gurus are exactly that: Self-proclaimed. There’s a world of difference between the fakes and those who other people proclaim to be a guru or thought leader.
How do you spot the fakes? Genuine thought leaders never use those words to describe themselves. Why? Because they know it’s not required. They are the real deal.
It reminds me of that saying: The guy who tells you he’s the cleverest person in the room… isn’t.
Assume expertise
Don’t assume someone knows their subject, because they claim to be an author, radio show host etc. Why? Because it no longer means anything.
- Anyone can claim to be a published author, thanks to services like lulu.
- Anyone can claim to be a social media expert, when they can buy 50,000 twitter followers for $100 and as many Facebook fans as they can afford.
- Anyone can claim to be the host of their own radio show, thanks to services like blogtalkradio.
For peanuts, anyone can be a published author, with 50,000 Twitter followers and legions of Facebook fans. Anyone.
Take traffic building advice
Be careful taking Internet marketing advice from someone, who talks generally about building traffic. General traffic is not only worthless, it can waste your time and suck up your bandwidth. As a business owner, you need targeted visits from people, with an interest in (or need for) your services. Not general traffic.
The difference is huge. Really huge!
Mistake a marketing pest for a marketing professional
Never hire a marketing provider, whose own marketing isn’t working. Here’s an easy way to tell the successful marketing professionals from the rest.
- Successful marketing professionals attract targeted leads, using effective marketing (as you’d expect).
- Ineffective marketing providers have to pester people for leads. So, we see them pester people for leads at networking events. They pester people with emails they never asked for. They pester people on social networks.
In short — successful marketing professionals attract your attention and earn your permission to connect with you. The others pester and pursue. Avoid the latter.
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