Jim Connolly

Get reflective: Your products or services will almost sell themselves

March 6, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Right now, there’s a motivated sales force out there, who happily work for free and are waiting to tell people all about you and the services you provide.

Here’s how to put them to work.

It’s based on an idea I borrowed, from studying the world’s top industrial / commercial designers.

One of the attributes of commercially successful design, is that the object needs to be reflective. This means it should cause us to think about it. To reflect on its utility, weirdness or beauty.

I’ve found that a commercially successful business also needs to be reflective.

A business that’s useful has utility. A business that’s meaningfully different is weird. And a polished, professional business that runs smoothly is a thing of beauty.

Allow me to explain why this should matter to you and your business.

Your unpaid salespeople are waiting

Designers know that reflective products almost sell themselves.

For instance, my wife bought me some Apple AirPods just after they launched. Their unique look caused total strangers to ask me about them. Their build quality and ability to instantly connect wirelessly, inspired me to tell my friends about them.

Just by owning them and using them I became an unpaid salesperson for the product.

Take a look at your products, services or business model and look for ways to make things more reflective. Who knows how many unpaid salespeople there are, who’ll spring into action as soon as you give them something reflective to share with their friends.

The questions that helped my client quickly increase revenues by 150%

March 4, 2021 by Jim Connolly

So, who are your customers?

When I ask a new client this question, they almost always reply with some demographics; average age, location, income level, etc.

Whilst demographics are certainly useful, they’re just a piece of the picture.

From a marketing perspective, you’ll find it massively more valuable to know things like:

What do they believe?
Who do they trust?
What do they care about?
What improvement are they looking for?
What do they talk about?
Who do they talk to?
What do they fear?

Equipped with demographics, you’ll know who to target with your marketing.

However, to get them to buy from you, you need to know what matters to them.

That’s where the money is.

For instance, I was motivated to share this with you today, after learning a new client has increased their revenues by over 150% since the end of summer. Their profit margins are even higher. By focusing on the right things, correctly, we were able to increase their fees and their conversion rate. This will further increase in the coming months.

So, take the time to get it right.

Bon courage! It’s way, way more useful than good luck

March 2, 2021 by Jim Connolly

I’ve never really liked the phrase, ‘good luck’.

I get the idea behind it. I also know people say it with the very best intentions. But to me, especially when related to business, it really isn’t particularly useful. That’s because it places things totally outside the person’s control.

My wife speaks, reads and writes in French. When we first met, she taught me a French alternative to good luck: Bon courage! I find bon courage far more relevant and useful than good luck. Especially when it comes to business. And that’s what this brief post is about.

Bon courage

There are a couple of ways to interpret bon courage. One of them is that you want the person to have the strength or courage required for (whatever).

Here’s how bon courage stacks up against good luck:

Bon courage is internal: You summon the courage.
Good luck is external: You wait for good luck to appear.

It’s impossible to achieve meaningful success in business, or anything else for that matter, without courage. Courage is required to stand out, when it’s easier to blend in. Courage is required to zig when your competitors zag. Courage is required to launch a new idea, when it feels safer to just do more of the same.

In fact courage is required for every major move we make; renting / buying our first home, falling in love, starting a family, starting a business, etc.

The next time you want a friend to succeed, try wishing them bon courage. If they ask you what you mean, explain it to them.

And next time you notice yourself wishing for better luck, find a way to summon bon courage instead. It really is hard to overstate what you can achieve, when you have a great plan and the courage to see it through.

Start with the end in mind

March 1, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Small business owners come to me regularly, asking for something they don’t want and they don’t need. I’m sharing this with you, because it’s a symptom of a problem. A serious problem that loses business owners a fortune.

Here it is… plus how you can avoid it.

First, here are some examples of dangerously misleading statements. I receive these pretty-much every day from small business owners.

I need more leads for our sales team.
I need more enquiries from my website.
I need more social media followers.
I need more traffic to my website.

They’re wrong. One hundred percent, provably wrong.

More sales leads, additional client enquiries, bigger social networks and more website traffic are not their desired outcomes. That’s because they’re not end results or ultimate marketing goals. What they actually need, is more customers, higher profits, bigger contracts, higher revenues or more sales, etc.

The challenge with searching for the wrong thing, is that it will lead you down the wrong path. You’ll ask the wrong questions, get the wrong answers and end up with the wrong outcomes.

Think about it

If fewer sales leads, BUT from high spending, profitable customers is exactly what’s required, you’ll never find it by asking the wrong questions.

If you can quickly (and massively) improve your profits / revenues, by developing new products for your existing customers, you’ll never find it by asking the wrong questions.

If you want to escape from the feast and famine cycle, by developing a reliable source of profitable new clients, you’ll never find it by asking the wrong questions.

So, start with the end in mind.

Get specific. Decide what your desired marketing outcome is. In other words, determine exactly what you need your business to achieve. Then, focus on that like a laser. This will help you get your marketing on the right track and ensure you’re aiming for the correct targets.

Success 101: Here’s why you really need a new product or service

February 27, 2021 by Jim Connolly

Marketing new products services

In today’s post I explain why you really should offer a new product or service, along with some useful advice on how to get started.

The fastest, most profitable way to generate additional income for your business, is to sell new products or services to your existing customers. It’s a lot easier than finding new customers for existing products and services. Why? Because your customers already know you, trust you and have an existing trading relationship with you.

Whenever I share this idea with a new client, they immediately see the potential. They then follow it up with a great question:

“How do we get started, Jim”?

Obviously, when I work alongside one of my clients on this, I can help them develop exactly what they want. However, I thought I’d share some very general pointers that you may find useful if you’d like to have a DIY shot at it.

Getting started

A useful place to start, is to take one of your existing services and as my client Paul says, premiumize it. In other words, look for ways to add valuable, premium features to it. In every economy, there is an eager marketplace of people who actively seek out premium products and services. It’s why we have luxury restaurants, clothing brands, hotels, mobile phones, cars, etc.

Alternatively, you could look for opportunities to create an express version of one of your current services, for those who value speed and will happily pay for a new, faster service. Tip: Express services always work best, when you offer a guaranteed deadline.

If you want to introduce an all-new product, a useful place to start is to look for things that will compliment what you already provide. It works like this: If someone already uses (x) they’ll have a potential need for (y). Accountants discovered years ago that their clients would also value additional services from them. So they started offering services aimed at improving profitability and developing HR policies, etc.

Amazon really gets this. For example, when you buy a fountain pen from them you’re quickly presented with a selection of inks, writing paper and notepads.

You might also want to consider the huge market for environmentally friendly products. Developing a product that’s kind to the environment makes sense on so many levels. It’s good for future generations, good for the planet and good for your bottom line, too.

I hope those examples offer some food for thought.

Give it a try

Some people find developing a new product or service a lot easier then others. Even when I’m working with a client on this, it takes us a little while to get to the point where we announce their new offering and watch the money come in.

So give it the time it deserves. Because as I see over and over again with my clients, when you get it right the results can be absolutely transformational.

Sorry, but you’re too expensive

February 25, 2021 by Jim Connolly

That’s what prospective customers or clients often say, when you ask why they didn’t buy from you.

And it could be true. However, it usually isn’t.

Allow me to explain.

Let’s start with just a small sample of far more likely reasons for their decision.

Your marketing could be suffering from Toxic Complexity. This is dangerous and extremely common.
You could be marketing to the wrong people.
You could be asking people to make a decision before they have all the information they need.
Your marketing promises could be too similar to those offered by your lower priced competitors.
Your marketing could be failing to clearly demonstrate enough value, making your prices seem high.
You could be responding to enquiries too slowly (or too quickly).
Your branding could be positioning you (in the mind of your marketplace) as a lower priced provider than you actually are.
You could be contacting them at the lowest part of their cash flow cycle.
Your payment terms may not be flexible enough for them.

And there are tons of other reasons. None of which have anything whatsoever to do with your prices or fees, and everything to do with your marketing and sales process.

Here’s the thing. Lowering your prices can be tempting. It’s a quick and extremely easy way to make your products or services seem better value.

However, it’s a terrible, low profit strategy.

A far better alternative is to find out what’s actually causing people to think you’re too expensive. And to then focus on improving your marketing in those key areas.

If you’re not sure where to start looking for answers, the brief list above is a useful place to begin.