Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to avoid the worst mistake in business!

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Image: Shutterstock.

One of the greatest barriers to business success, are our undiscovered mistakes. I’m referring to those errors we make, without even knowing it.

Undiscovered mistakes are especially dangerous. That’s because we don’t know we’re making them, so we’re likely to inadvertently repeat them. Again and again.

How do we stop these mistakes from happening to us?

My mentor’s advice to me

Here’s something one of my mentors shared with me over 25 years ago. It’s simple and quite brilliant.

  • He told me to undertake a review, every time something of any importance goes wrong. Today we’d call this ‘unpacking the problem’.
  • He advised me to do this in as much detail as possible, and as soon after the mistake has been spotted as possible, and that it was essential to do it in writing.
  • By unpacking the problem soon after noticing it, we can still remember it clearly. So we’re less likely to miss anything.
  • By writing it down, rather than thinking it over exclusively in our head, we put space between us… and the problem.
  • He explained that the space between us and the problem, is where answers are born. This last step sounds a little poetic. Maybe it is. However, it’s also exactly what I’ve found happens.

I have no idea how (exactly) or why this strategy works. I only know it does, and with surprising frequency. That’s to say, it’s worked for me again and again over the past 25 years. And I’ve literally lost count of how many others I have shared the idea with, who have seen equally good, or better, results from it.

Give it a try the next time something meaningful goes wrong. You have nothing to lose from the additional clarity the strategy will bring. And you could find it saves you a fortune… or helps you make a fortune.

Either way, it’s certainly worth trying.

Marketing seminars are worse than useless

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avoid marketing seminars, marketing seminars useless,

Marketing seminars are worse than useless. No, not all of them. Just those offered to a non-specific audience, usually online.

Before I explain why, we need to acknowledge the following basic truths.

  • The marketing strategies and tactics that work best for a private school looking for students, differ wildly from the strategies that work for a chain of strip joints.
  • And the effective strip joint strategies are very different from the strategies required by an oven cleaning franchise.
  • And the perfect oven cleaning franchise strategies, are totally different from those required by a tech start-up… or a long-established family law firm…. or a record label… you get the idea.

General, non specific marketing seminars deliberately ignore this fact.

They provide strategies and tactics that are intentionally designed NOT to be specific to anyone attending, based on the most general, of general advice. They’re designed to sell as many places on the seminar as possible. It’s a cookie cutter approach. The exact opposite of what’s required.

Different industries and professions need radically different advice. Business owners need marketing strategies that are, at the very least, specific to their industry.

But even industry specific strategies aren’t that much better. They’re marginally less terrible, that’s all.

The danger of general marketing advice

General marketing advice is what the majority of businesses in any sector already use. It’s freely available on websites, podcasts, webinars, Facebook, Linkedin and Youtube, etc. It’s available from well-intentioned industry bodies and institutes. It’s available in those For Dummies books. Which is why the marketing of most businesses, in the same sector, looks so amazingly similar.

Here’s what we see.

  • They provide a very similar sounding range of services.
  • They use very similar marketing promises.
  • They offer very similar guarantees.
  • They charge very similar prices.
  • They target very similar prospective clients.
  • And they suffer with the pain of very similar results, with (at best), a very similar slice of their marketplace.

The last thing they need is even more, general marketing advice; wrapped up as a so-called marketing seminar.

It’s worse than useless. It’s toxic.

Toxic?

Yes. Because as you can see, it makes your business less visible, less relevant and less attractive. It gives a prospective customer or client absolutely no meaningful reason whatsoever to notice you, contact you, hire you (or buy from you)… rather than hire a look-a-like competitor.

What’s needed is the exact opposite.

You need a strategy that will work for your specific business, based on your specific resources and designed to achieve your specific business growth targets.

That’s unavailable on any general marketing seminar.

Einstein, Steve Jobs and the power of focus

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If you’d like greater clarity, more energy and dramatically improved results, you’ll find the following ideas really useful. It’s all about how to harness the power of focus.

It starts with something that seldom gets mentioned, yet is critically important.

It’s simply this: One of the fastest ways to massively improve your success rate, is to give your full focus to as few projects as possible.

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Photo: Shutterstock

Why focus on fewer things?

When you are a small business owner or consultant, you have a relatively limited number of resources. You’re required to work on many tasks, which larger companies have dedicated teams for.

By focusing your valuable time on developing too many ideas or opportunities, you dilute how effective you can be with any one of them.

What follows are 2 well-known examples of the power focus, along with lesser known benefits of improving your focus.

Einstein on the power of focus

Einstein is famously quoted as saying that one of the reasons for his amazing success, was his ability to focus on each individual challenge for as long as required.

By intentionally choosing to focus on one project or plan at a time, and saying ‘no’ to the multitude of other ideas demanding your attention, you get to give your full mental resources to the development of that idea.

You also eliminate Mind Fog: The fuzzy thinking that comes from focusing on too many things simultaneously.

Steve Jobs on the power of focus

Steve Jobs shared his thoughts on the power of focus, at the Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference in 1997:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all.

It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
– Steve Jobs

The lesson here is clear. In all of your planning, it pays to start by determining what’s the very best use of your focus. Then, give that project, idea or opportunity as much of your available time as required.

But that’s not all.

There’s another major benefit to channelling your focus correctly.

The ‘extra’ power of focus

As well as the benefits already mentioned, the power of focus brings with it another, highly valuable component.

I’m referring to off-the-charts energy levels!

Not convinced? Well, you’ve already seen this in action many, many times. It’s what you witness every time you’ve heard someone talking with great enthusiasm and passion about a project, idea or opportunity.

These high energy entrepreneurs and leaders do not see their energy defused by foggy thinking. Instead, their laser sharp focus brings great clarity. That clarity increases their direction and purpose. They’re then energized and ready to go!

I hope you’ve found this brief look at the power of focus useful. More importantly, I hope it inspires you to take greater control over the number of things you focus on.

5 Of the most powerful words in business: Much better than I expected!

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Think about it. When you’ve delivered a project for a client, you want them to say to themselves, “this is much better than I expected“.

When you tell someone about the service you offer, then quote your fee, you want them to say to themselves, “this quote is much better than I expected“.

When someone experiences your customer service, you want them to say to themselves, “this service is much better than I expected“.

Much better than I expected

There’s REAL power in those 5 words. They’re a sure sign that you’re exceeding expectations. And the most successful business owners strive to exceed expectations, with every interaction.

Here’s why:

They know that by truly exceeding expectations, they’ll retain more clients. They know they’ll also receive highly valuable client referrals. And they know they’ll build an exceptional reputation, too.

The reason the majority of small businesses fail to achieve this, is that it presents the business owner with 2, tricky challenges. When you overcome them, you can benefit from all the advantages of exceeding the expectations of your clients and your marketplace. And that’s what I’m going to share with you today.

Let’s start by looking at those 2 challenges and how you can turn things around.

1. Almost every business owner thinks they’re already exceeding expectations

They know how hard they work. They know how passionately they care about their clients. They then confuse their hard work and passion with delivering a remarkably good service.

Working hard doesn’t mean you’re exceeding expectations. After all, you can work darn hard just delivering exactly what your client expects from you! That kind of hard work is merely meeting expectations. Not exceeding them.

How do you find out for sure, if you’re exceeding expectations?

Simple. Just look at the number of referrals your clients give you. This may sound harsh, especially if you’re not receiving regular referrals. But in every industry, people proactively recommend the products and services that really impress them. They want their friends to know. That’s how word of mouth works.

Some clients will stay with an “okay service provider” for years, just because it’s easier than switching to a better provider. The provider can wrongly assume this loyalty is a reflection of truly remarkable service. It isn’t.

When a business isn’t getting a regular stream of client referrals, it’s a sure sign that the business isn’t exceeding what their clients expect from them. And it’s a wake up call. A wake up call to put things right, to up their game, to go from average to remarkable.

At least it should be.

2. It’s harder to exceed expectations than to meet them

Even if a business owner accepts they’re not exceeding expectations, it can be a challenge to figure out what they need to do, to turn things around. Every marketplace is saturated with average providers. And this can make it tricky to get out of that mindset. To see what’s truly possible and blow the lid off the service you provide.

Fear not!

Here’s something I share with my clients, to help them overcome this challenge.

The best way to elevate your own expectations of what’s possible, is to look outside of your industry and beyond your competitors for guidance and inspiration.

For example.

  • Compare your customer service to Disney.
  • Compare your product’s build quality to Rolex.
  • Compare your design quality to Apple.
  • Compare your distribution to Amazon.

Then, look for better ways to deliver your services, based on what you learn from these (and other) examples of excellence. It takes a little effort. That’s for sure. However, it’s a proven way to radically improve your services. A proven way to get people saying your offering is “much better than I expected”.

And I’ve seen it work hundreds of times.

What next?

In my experience, it’s the first of those challenges that’s always the toughest.

Even when some business owners know they get very few referrals, they’ll still fail to accept it’s down to them.

  • They’ll say their clients expect too much.
  • They’ll blame their clients for being ungrateful.
  • They’ll tell themselves their clients aren’t the kind who recommend others.

In short, they’ll refuse to acknowledge the problem.

The second challenge is a little less tricky.

It means embracing the edges. And that feels riskier than staying in their comfort zone. But as any entrepreneur (I mean real entrepreneur) will tell you, the riskiest thing you can do is cling to the overcrowded middle ground.

Make no mistake, consistently exceeding expectations takes real commitment. And that’s why so few of your competitors will do it.

It’s also why this wonderful opportunity is open to you.

It’s an opportunity to attract the best clients, to attract endless referrals, to retain your clients for longer and build an outstanding business. A business that’s much better than people expected.

How to create a new, highly profitable service!

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Here’s a tried and tested way to create a new and highly profitable service that will be all-but irresistible to your marketplace.

It’s based on an easy to follow, 3 step formula!

1. Identify their major problem

Identify the biggest challenge facing your clients and prospective clients. If you think you’ve identified it, BUT it isn’t a big enough problem to keep them awake at night, you haven’t found it yet. So keep looking!

That may sound dramatic, however, there’s a direct link between the size of the problem you solve and the success of your new, high profit service.

2. Create the solution

Create a solution that will overcome the challenge.

Yes, you’ll need to get creative here. If the solution was patently obvious, it wouldn’t have an entire marketplace suffering with it.

Thankfully, big problems don’t always require a big or complex answer. However, the solution to such pressing problems can require some extra creativity.

With that in mind, here are a couple of tips to help you find the answer you need.

  • Look outside your industry for the solution. Problems in one industry (or region / country) have already been solved in others. The most famous example of importing a solution from a totally different industry, is from The Ford Motor Company. They developed the automotive production line, based on how Chicago’s meat-packing plants worked.
  • Ask others for their ideas. By encouraging people you trust to provide their input, you multiply your chances of cracking the problem. It’s possible one of them will figure it out. It’s also possible that one of them could propose a solution that doesn’t work… but which sets you on a new direction that leads to the answer.

And finally.

3. Market your highly profitable new service

Create a marketing strategy that will inform and convince your marketplace, that you have the answer they need.

When marketing your solution to existing clients, you should find a massive level of interest.

Once you’ve provided an extremely valuable service to enough existing clients, the word usually spreads and spreads.

This then leads to a consistent flow of high quality client enquiries. Initially from your local area, then spreading into new locations; opening up an ever-expanding market.

Obviously, if you don’t have any existing and / or former clients, you have a trickier task at hand. Existing clients already know you and trust you. It’s very easy to share an idea with them.

When you’re contacting strangers it’s a very different proposition. There’s no one-size-fits-all marketing approach. The way forward for you will depend on multiple factors. Note: If you’re in this position and want some alternative strategies and ideas, I strongly recommend you read this: 10 Reasons your business isn’t growing and how to fix it.

The most valued service providers are those who solve the biggest, most serious problems, and then market their solution effectively. By using that 3 step formula correctly, you can become amazingly valuable to the market you serve.

People will tell their friends about you.

Your reputation will sky-rocket.

And you’ll attract the very best clients, whilst enjoying the rewards that come from your new, highly profitable service.

Marketing 101: The most successful business is seldom the best

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Today, I’d like to help you avoid maybe the most frustrating thing in business. I’m referring to watching 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.

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

Here’s why that balance is essential for our business.

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

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

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

Thankfully, this is something directly under our control. All it takes is a decision. The decision to adjust the balance, so our business attracts the volume and quality of clients we 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, a decade after they started their business.

Naturally, it’s their choice.

They’re perfectly at liberty to complain about their situation, yet stay the same. But it’s infinitely more profitable to focus on getting that balance right. This will help: 10 Reasons your business isn’t growing and how to fix it.