Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

The top business in its niche, is seldom the best in its niche

By

marketing, best in niche, results

Today, I’d like to help you avoid maybe the most frustrating thing in business. I’m referring to watching your less capable (and often less ethical) competitors, gaining more of the market than you do.

It all starts with understanding the following.

The most successful service provider and the best service provider, are seldom the same service provider. In fact, it rarely happens.

That’s because being the best doesn’t automatically mean people will notice you, believe you or hire you.

Why is that?

Commercial success requires a critically important balance.

You need to balance the development of a great service, with the development of a strategy to earn the attention, trust and patronage of your marketplace.

Here’s why that balance is essential.

  • If your prospective clients don’t know you exist, it doesn’t matter how exceptional your service (or product) is, because you’re not an option for them.
  • If your prospective clients DO know you exist, but your marketing doesn’t inspire them to trust you, they won’t hire you or buy from you.
  • And if your prospective clients know you exist, and they trust you… but your marketing doesn’t motivate them to take action, they won’t hire you or buy from you.

Without that balance in place, trying to grow your business is extremely frustrating, as less capable competitors grab your share of the marketplace. You will already know competitors in your space, who are nowhere near as good as you, yet they’re flying.

With that balance in place, you get all the rewards your hard work and dedication merits.

Thankfully, this is something directly under your control. All it takes is a decision. The decision to adjust the balance, so your business attracts the volume and quality of clients you deserve.

But here’s the challenge. It’s even easier to ‘keep on keeping on’ and hope things just get better. Which is why this message is ignored by most people I share it with. It’s why there are business owners still whining about how unlucky they are… and how unfair the marketplace is… 5, 6 or 7 years after they started their business.

It’s not luck.

It’s a decision. THIS decision.

And it should be the easiest, most obvious business decision you’ll ever encounter.

You know what’s good for business?

By

Whats good for business

It’s good for your business…

When you make short-term decisions that are consistent with your long-term plans.

When you hire amazing people and pay them what they’re worth.

When you build a reputation as a trusted source of value.

When you connect with the right kind of people.

When you feed your mind with rich mental protein and take care of your body.

When you pause to reflect before saying, publishing or sending anything important.

When you start each morning thinking about the things you’re grateful for.

When you start your working day, writing a list of things you want to achieve. And close each day, with a review of the things you’ve learned.

When you build your primary marketing channel on a platform you control. Your website. Your email list. Social media platforms can, and do, wipe out businesses by deleting their accounts.

When you treat different clients differently, according to their unique needs.

When you make promises to your clients and deliver on them.

When you learn to absolutely LOVE what you do. Because work becomes joy and this improves literally everything.

Let’s look at closing the sale

By

When I started out in sales and marketing, it was all about closing the sale.

In fact, good salespeople were often referred to as good closers.

Decades later, I still see sales recruiters asking for candidates who have a proven record of closing.

Here’s why we need to be extremely careful before adopting the closing mindset, or any of the countless closing tricks and techniques.

closing the sale, sales closers

Closing for business?

The challenge with the closing mindset, is that it positions the prospective customer as little more than a barrier. A hurdle between you and the sale. An obstacle to be overcome. Little wonder so many closing techniques are based on psychological tricks.

The use of long, uncomfortable silences at key points in the sales process, for example, is used to put pressure on the prospective client. So is refusing to accept a “no” from them, by asking what they need additional information on, when they clearly just want the salesperson to go away.

In a nutshell, the focus is on outmanoeuvring your opponent. It’s them against you. A confrontation.

Here’s a very different approach, along with why I strongly recommend you use it.

Opening

I built my reputation in sales by adopting the total opposite approach. Instead of focusing on closing, I focused on opening.

Opening relationships and opening opportunities.

I found the idea of closing to be self-defeating. I discovered that you can achieve a great deal more, by opening relationships with people. This means taking time to listen to them. And then learning about their challenges and what they want / need. If our marketing is targeted correctly, we’re automatically only speaking with people who are our ideal profile of client.

When handled correctly, and preceded with effective marketing, this means there’s no need to close anything or close on anyone.

The whole process becomes a naturally-flowing conversation, where we seek to help people overcome a challenge, with the products or services we provide.

It’s a beautiful, fulfilling way to do business.

Too passive?

This approach may sound passive, but consider the people you like. The people you trust. The people you enjoy having around you. Are they pushy with you? Confrontational? No! That’s because we prefer those who respect us and are open and honest with us.

We like people who are open and honest.

We trust people who are open and honest.

We recommend people who are open and honest.

We buy from people who are open and honest.

In short, the more open we are, the more opportunities we’re open to. And yes, the more referrals we get and the more sales we make.

Enthusiasm is marketing gold dust

By

Today, I’d like you to consider your answer to the following question.

Marketing enthusiasm

How enthusiastic are you about your business?

Here’s why your answer to that question is so important: People can tell almost immediately if you’re enthusiastic or not. And that matters! It matters because is has an immediate impact on how they feel about you, your business and the service you provide.

Allow me to explain.

Enthusiasm makes things happen

When you speak (or write) with enthusiasm, people feel more positively about you. Enthusiastic business owners exude confidence, which is essential. Think about it, we only hire people or buy from them, if we have confidence in them.

Someone once told me that their definition of making a sale was: ‘The transfer of enthusiasm‘. That’s a great example of just how essential enthusiasm is to the success of your business.

And when you speak with enthusiasm, people listen more attentively, too. They’re drawn in. You sometimes notice their body language change, as they lean forward because they’re paying attention. And this happens in seconds.

All these benefits of enthusiasm and more, combine to create an immediate, positive impact. In a moment, I’ll give you 10 important ways that this can help you greatly improve your results.

A lack of enthusiasm makes things happen, too

When enthusiasm is lacking people are less motivated by you. They pay less attention to what you say, because your lack of enthusiasm is talking louder than the words you use.

I experienced this recently, talking to a business owner. She was saying positive things about what she wanted to achieve with her business, yet she was clearly lacking in enthusiasm. And it sucked all the confidence and impact from her words. I honestly can’t recall much of what she said. Just her total lack of enthusiasm.

Unleash your enthusiasm

Here are 10 ways you can improve your results, by letting your enthusiasm shine through everything you do.

  1. It will generate more sales, as you ‘transfer your enthusiasm’.
  2. It will improve perceptions of you, your business and the service you provide.
  3. It will encourage the people around you. This super-valuable trait is common to every great leader.
  4. It will inspire confidence in you and what you do.
  5. It will attract opportunities that you wouldn’t have previously been offered.
  6. It will attract the best clients, too.
  7. It will position you in the marketplace, as ‘one to watch’.
  8. It will energize you and everything you do.
  9. It will motivate people to recommend you to their friends.
  10. And it will make you happier with your business, which further boosts your enthusiasm and amplifies all those great benefits, (and more)!

Okay. So, not everyone reading this is brimming with enthusiasm right now.

This begs the question…

What if you’re not feeling enthusiastic?

Think of it like this. You’re the business owner. So, you’re in control.

This means you have the freedom, starting right now, to build a business that enthuses you. A business that excites you on every level.

Remember, you choose where you work. You choose who your clients or customers are. You even choose what you charge. This means you get to decide where you work, who you work for and how much money you make.

So, if your current business doesn’t cause you to feel enthusiastic, improve it until it does.

You can do it. That’s for certain. I know, because I see it happening every day with my clients.

Discover the “6 word secret” to business success

By

The secret is simply this: “In business, the winners get moving”.

Here’s why.

business activity, moving
  • Every business owner has ideas and occasionally great ideas.
  • Every business owner is presented with opportunities to succeed.
  • Every business owner can choose to be a leader.
  • Every business owner can instigate, rather than wait for someone else to move.
  • Every business owner has potential to be better today than they were yesterday.
  • And every business owner has the same 24-hours available to them every day.

It’s what we DO that counts.

  • Not our intentions.
  • Not our network of business contacts.
  • Not our cutting edge technology.
  • Not our plans.
  • Not our targets.
  • Not our qualifications.
  • Not our potential.
  • Not our competitive edge.
  • Not our ingenuity.
  • Not our skills.

Action always, always, always precedes success.

That’s why in business, the winners get moving.

Hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t!

By

hold on whats working, let go whats not,

A friend of mine regularly appears as an expert on business news programs. She called me with a question. You may find my answer useful, so I thought I’d share it with you. It’s all about the need to hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t.

Okay. Here’s my friend’s question.

I need a piece of business advice, which would work as a very short sound bite. I’m live on air in just over 30 minutes. Can you help?.

Honestly, that’s not the kind of thing I would usually be able to do with so little time. Especially as she specifically wasn’t looking for a famous business quote.

Fortunately, I had been working the day before with one of my clients and shared something, which he found really useful. I figured it might be what she was looking for. She loved it and used it.

It was this.

“Hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t”.

Allow me to explain.

Holding on and letting go

Much of what we do as part of our day-to-day business is habitual, at least to a degree. Here are just a few common examples.

  • We have certain providers we go to for particular challenges.
  • We rely on key people for professional, expert advice.
  • We use specific software and hardware for certain tasks.
  • We have a particular set of business strategies, which we’re comfortable using.

Over the months or years, these providers, people, technologies and strategies become a key part of how we operate our business.

However, the most successful business owners regularly review these habits.

They keep their eyes open for better alternatives all the time. They know that meaningful improvement is only possible by looking closely at what you do, holding on to what’s working and letting go of what isn’t.

Is it working or not?

The challenge with adopting this approach is that we can get comfortable with what seems to be working. And after all, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it! The thing is, we can only be certain that something isn’t broken if we check for better alternatives.

A laptop you spent a fortune on a decade ago, that’s now too slow, too heavy and has terrible battery-life, didn’t become antiquated overnight. If you’d just carried on using it, assuming it wasn’t broken because it was still powering-up, you’d be at a huge commercial disadvantage today.

The same is true of the providers we rely on. Their service may have been outstanding a year or two ago, but better providers and alternatives enter the market all the time. In many industries and professions, what was outstanding a few months ago is just average today.

And what about the assumptions we make? For instance, consider the assumptions we make about the market we serve. Are these assumptions working for us? If not, we need to let them go and make better decisions with better data.

Why not take some time to review the things you’re currently holding on to. Especially those you are comfortable with, but haven’t reviewed in a long time.

Check if they’re still optimal or not. Then hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t.