If you are a proactive business owner and you want to improve your sales or attract more high quality clients, this post is for you.
Jennifer, not her real name, emailed me yesterday to book a one-to-one “pick my brain” session with me. [If you read my work via email, you won’t know what that service is – read this.]
Jennifer’s business isn’t attracting enough clients and she doesn’t know what to do. Here’s an excerpt from her email:
“In the past I managed to get by thanks to client recommendations but these are unpredictable in both quality and regularity.” She went on, “[…] I’m tired of waiting for an enquiry to come in but I don’t know what to do.”
This is an extremely common challenge for service providers, so I’d like to share a few thoughts with you, which may help.
Acknowledge the urgency of your situation
The first step in resolving a challenge like this, is to acknowledge the urgency of the situation. That’s exactly what Jennifer has done. A challenge like this doesn’t magically vanish. It needs to be addressed and resolved. Doing more of the same won’t work.
Take intelligent action
The next step is to decide to take intelligent action. Knowing your business isn’t growing the way you want it to is very different from knowing you need to do something.
Many business owners put off taking action for months or years, hoping that things will just get better. I get emails daily from business owners worldwide, who are now almost broke. Unlike Jennifer, they waited too long to do something. Jennifer has a good business and booked a marketing session with me, before her challenge became a problem.
The lesson here is clear. Don’t delay. Once you acknowledge your business needs to improve, do something about it.
[Note: Intelligent action means doing exactly what you need to do, to get the results you want — rather than guessing and dabbling.]
What next?
My marketing business is 20 years old and in that time, I have spoken with thousands of business owners. I’ve found that they respond very differently when faced with the kind of challenge Jennifer has.
Sadly, most will wait until they are forced to do something because of the severity of their situation. They react when they have a problem, rather than act when they only have a challenge to deal with. That’s an extremely risky approach.
Others, like Jennifer, are proactive. They take intelligent action before things get critical and learn exactly what they need to do.
If you’re a proactive business owner and you would like a one-to-one marketing session with me, read this. It includes everything you need to know, including the fee.