Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Your prospective clients are always right. Seriously!

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customer always right, prospect, marketing

Seriously. They’re right every single time.

  • They’re always right about what constitutes value for money.
  • They’re always right about their past experiences of the type of product or service you provide.
  • They’re always right about the last experience they had with someone from your industry.
  • They’re always right about their attitude to risk (real or perceived risk).
  • They’re even right about whether pineapple belongs on a pizza or not.

They’re always the most informed person in the world regarding what they think and how they feel. And as their thoughts and feelings are what determine their actions, you need to discover them fast!

This might include; what they value most (low price or premium quality), what their past experience of your industry was, how they feel about risk… and every factor connected to what you’re offering.

If you try to get them to make a purchasing decision without you knowing that information, your chances are radically reduced.

  • You’ll be making assumptions based on what you know about your service and what you feel are the most important points.
  • You’ll be focusing on things that don’t motivate the prospect.
  • You’ll be ignoring things that they need to hear from you.

In short, you’ll be relying on instinct rather than what they need to hear or see from you.

How to get it right

The key is to quickly uncover their thoughts and feelings.

Here’s a broad outline of how to get it right.

Put a list of questions together, which will provide you with an accurate picture of the person you’re speaking with. Make the list as small as possible, with your most important questions first. Explain that you value their feedback. Then, work the questions into the flow of your conversation and give them plenty of time to answer.

Only when you have a good idea of how they think and feel from their answers to your questions, should you start to explain how your service will benefit them.

By matching the focus and tone of your conversation (or presentation) to your prospect’s thoughts and feelings, you’ll be fully aligned with them. Yes, this makes the sales process a great deal smoother and easier. But more importantly, it can dramatically increase your sales results.

How to create marketing that works

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Marketing that sells

I have a very effective marketing idea to share with you today. I’m going to show you how to create marketing, which people will value and that’s powerful enough to inspire them to hire you or buy from you. It’s based on the work I do with some of my clients and includes a brief case study, which you can learn from.

So, let’s get started.

Receiving attention or paying attention?

It starts with understanding that there’s a huge difference between someone receiving your message and someone paying attention to it.

For example, TV viewers are sent targeted marketing messages (commercials) during TV shows. What do most of us do? We fast forward through them or if watching the show in real-time, we go and make a coffee. Just because they send their messages, doesn’t mean we are paying attention.

For your marketing to work, you need to get a great message in front of the right people. In order to get this correct, here’s the key question we need to ask ourselves:

If I stopped my email marketing campaign or I stopped publishing my blog posts, newsletter etc, would people really MISS them?

As a quick look at the marketing you receive every day confirms, for most people the honest answer to that question is NO! We get bombarded with dull, uninspiring sales messages all day and see them as an intrusion, rather than something of value.

Of course, for that tiny minority of small businesses who DO produce marketing, which people genuinely value and would miss if it were to stop, the sky is the limit.

I’m going to share the process required to make this work for your business later in this post.

First, we need to understand why there’s so much dull and ineffective marketing out there.

Dull is cheap. Dull is fast. Dull is easy!

It’s cheap, fast and easy to create a dull marketing message and push it to a lot of people. As a result, there’s no barrier to entry today.

Things were very different 15 years ago. Back then, if a small business owner wanted to send a mail shot to 50,000 people, she’d have to spend some serious money.

  • She’d have to cover the cost of the mailing list.
  • Then she would need to pay for all that paper and the printing.
  • Next she would need to pay a company to get the letters folded and inserted into the 50,000 envelopes.
  • Then there’s the huge postage costs for those 50,000 pieces of mail.

All in all, it would cost many thousands. She would need to think long and hard about the value of what she put into those envelopes. Get it wrong and she would pay a hefty price.

Today, everything has changed

That same business owner today, can hit 50,000 people using cheap email software and her laptop. It costs just a little of her time. If it fails, maybe tomorrow’s one will work.

In short, it’s never been cheaper or easier to push dull, uninspired, poorly thought out, selfish marketing out the door.

So, that’s exactly what millions of people are doing. This is why there’s so much junk in your email inbox and on your social networking accounts.

How to get it right

There is an alternative approach I want to share with you, so people welcome your marketing, share it and hire you or buy from you. It requires that you take the exact opposite approach, to 99% of the marketing you see out there. 

It’s about shifting the focus of your marketing, so that it’s primarily of benefit to the people who receive it and secondarily of benefit to you.

It’s about producing content (audio, video, articles, blog posts, newsletters, social networking updates etc), which provide independent value to those who receive it. This means they get genuinely valuable or useful information from it, independent of them needing to spend a penny with you.

An example of how this works, based on one of my clients

Imagine you are a dog owner and after a trip to the vet, you subscribe to their dog owner’s newsletter. It gives you useful tips and ideas, to help you keep your dog healthy, fit and happy. At the bottom of each email are their contact details, so you can call them when you need a vet.

You find this free information so valuable and interesting, that you send it to 10 of your dog-owning friends.

  • They subscribe and then do the same.
  • Then these new subscribers share it too, and on and on it goes.
  • The amazingly valuable, highly-targeted readership just keeps on growing!

Soon, that vet (a former client of mine) was talking to thousands of local dog owners and positioned themselves in their marketplace, as THE place to take your dog for all its veterinary needs.

Their newsletter was eagerly anticipated by it’s readers. Yes, people wanted to hear from them and valued what they had to share.

Compare that vet’s approach to the typical marketing messages we see.

  • That vet doesn’t need to run expensive radio ads.
  • They have no need to waste time on Facebook. They own the communication channel with their prospective clients (by using email)!
  • They have no need to buy mailing lists.
  • They don’t need to waste valuable hours at networking events.
  • They certainly don’t need to pester people on social networks or ask strangers for recommendations on Linkedin.
  • They don’t need to invest in anything, other than the creativity required to produce a genuinely valuable newsletter, with useful content.

That example shows how a business can grow a massively powerful marketing asset, by sharing real value, rather than pushing unwanted messages. If you want to thrive in today’s exceptionally volatile economy, this is the kind of marketing you need.

The kind of marketing that increases in value every day.

The kind of marketing that requires zero advertising spend.

The kind of marketing that connects you with prospects in a way they actually look forward to and share with their friends.

In fact, the exact kind of marketing I have been creating for my clients, since the mid 1990’s. It works. And it works in every economy.

I made a mistake. And I’m sorry

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im sorry, mistake, responsibility

Mistakes. We all make them.

Much has been said about the need to learn from our mistakes. It’s extremely important. After all, it’s how we improve. It’s how we build better relationships and stronger businesses.

There’s something else about mistakes, which every business owner needs to understand. I’m referring to the importance of taking responsibility for our mistakes and then apologizing. The sooner the better.

Because…

  • By taking responsibility, you demonstrate leadership. As a business owner, there’s a direct link between your ability to lead and your commercial success.
  • By saying sorry, you switch the situation from confrontational to conciliatory. Instead of blaming one another, both sides can now focus exclusively on putting things right.

Learn from the mistake. Take responsibility. Say sorry. And then work on the resolution.

P.S. Read this » 10 leadership habits of highly successful business owners.

21 Business habits of highly successful people

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Success habits, business owners

Over the years, I’m blessed to have worked with many exceptionally successful business owners. Here are some of the success habits I see repeated over and over again, which you may find useful.

In no particular order.

  1. They personalize the way their business operates, so that it’s uniquely theirs. This is true no matter what industry they’re in. Why? Because it helps them get noticed. It helps them get talked about for all the right reasons. And it’s a proven way to become as close to irreplaceable as possible.
  2. They strive to achieve something compelling with their business. This forces them to think bigger, and as actions are preceded by thoughts, they get further, faster.
  3. They know success is about more than money. At some point they figured out that if you’re rich and unhappy, you’re still broke.
  4. They show people, rather than tell people.
  5. They out-care their competitors.
  6. They out-smart their competitors too.
  7. They do all the work required, rather than the 95% of things that every business owner does. That extra 5% is worth an absolute fortune.
  8. They set extremely high, self-imposed standards. Then they achieve them. This process runs like an endless loop throughout their business.
  9. They throw away the manual and write their own rules. This is also an essential part of the previous point.
  10. They focus on what they want rather than what they fear. Sounds obvious. However, it’s the total opposite of what the vast majority of business owners do.
  11. They learn how to be great decision makers. They get the information required, study it, request advice if needed, then decide. They know that if they fail to make their own decisions, time will make their decisions for them. This is one of the master skills of success.
  12. They avoid those expensive detours, which come dressed-up as short cuts, business hacks and “scaling”. Warren Buffett often says a key reason for his amazing results, is his commitment to get rich slowly.
  13. They regularly take time to relax. If you work smart during work time, you can relax when it’s family and friends time.
  14. They seldom watch TV.
  15. They are very selective regarding who they associate with. As a mentor once told me, “If you hang around enough people who’re going nowhere, one day, everything they have will be yours”.
  16. They lead. They’ve worked out that the world already has more than enough followers. And that those followers are eagerly looking for leaders.
  17. They manage their time extremely well.
  18. They intentionally build a valuable network of contacts, long before they need them.
  19. They help those less fortunate than themselves. This is a key factor in point 3.
  20. They choose to stand out.
  21. They summon the strength to do what’s required, rather than what’s comfortable.
  22. They do more than expected. They know that it’s the additional, unexpected ‘extra’ that people remember.

Marketing, information and data

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information and data, difference between, marketing

A company pays a salesperson $125,000 a year.

That salesperson has generated an average of $250,000 a year, for 3 years, in high-profit sales.

They did great.

No they didn’t!

They were terrible.

In fact, they were worse than a waste of money.

That’s because…

They were losing their company a fortune!

You see, that salesperson left the company and was replaced by a new salesperson.

The new salesperson was also paid $125,000 a year.

And using the same source of leads, over the following 3 years they generated an average of $750,000 a year in high-profit sales.

In the space of 3 years, the first salesperson under-performed by $1,500,000.

Data and information

Too many business owners, and sales / marketing directors (who should know better) make decisions based on data, when what they need is information.

Information is what you get, when someone applies knowledge, experience and context to data.

  • Data will show you that your salesperson is generating a 100% profit.
  • Information does that. However, your information-based decision making causes you to research the average conversion rate for your industry. It immediately identifies a major problem that’s losing you a fortune. The salesperson is way, way below average and needs training or replacing.

This same data error is made by most small and medium-sized businesses, when they advertise.

  • They run the ads and data shows an ‘X’ percent profit is being achieved. They then look at ways to further increase that profit figure, with better written ads, better timed ads, better designed ads or placing ads on different platforms.
  • An information-based approach would start by looking at the data… then expand their potential by examining the profitability of investing in influencer-marketing, email marketing, joint ventures and endorsed relationships, etc.

In short, data is extremely useful. I rely on it multiple times every working day to create valuable information. It takes focus, time and effort. But you CAN NOT make informed decisions without information. Data is just a single component.

How to have zero competition

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no competitors, zero competition, niche marketing

One of the things I work on with many of my clients, is the development of a valuable niche for their business. A highly profitable niche, with literally no competition.

Here’s a quick look at the approach I use, plus some ideas you can adapt into your own business.

The niche model I use is based on the strategy I developed for my own business. Here are just 3 of over 70 processes I’ve developed.

Enriching my competitors

Instead of focusing on crushing the competition, I focused on enriching the competition. When I started my business in 1995, my strategies were so different from the other providers in my industry, they were no longer competitors. This gave me the freedom to enrich, elevate, connect and promote their marketing businesses. That remains to this day.

The following is from a previous article I wrote on this subject – the full article is here.

“I chose to proactively seek out opportunities to help my competitors flourish, to open doors for them, to share new ideas and strategies I’d developed with them, to connect them with useful people, etc. I was in my twenties at the time and many in the industry said I was young and naive. I saw things very differently…”

Tip: If you found that interesting, I strongly recommend you read the full article.

Closing sales replaced by opening relationships

Instead of focusing on closing sales, I focused on opening relationships. It has always struck me as odd that good salespeople are referred to as good closers. So I decided to focus on opening instead of closing.

Opening relationships, to be precise.

Whilst sales closers have a toolkit of psychological closing techniques, I didn’t. Instead of seeing the sales process as a game of chess, pitting me against the prospect, I wanted to be on the same side of the table as the prospect. In their corner. Looking out for their best interests, exactly as I would if they were already my client. This transforms initial meetings with a prospective client. It switches things 180 degrees, from the usual chess game.

Yes, it does mean being willing to openly, honestly tell a prospective client if you don’t think you can help. When this happens, you’ve still planted some amazingly positive seeds.

You’ve just demonstrated to a prospective client that you can be trusted. You’ve also demonstrated that you offer an exceptionally professional service. In my experience, these same prospective clients often go on to become regular sources of high quality referrals.

This approach has set me apart and allowed me to further develop my reputation as a trusted adviser. That’s because it’s in such stark contrast to the usual strategy, of closing tricks and needy follow-up emails.

Building an influential network, not a big network

People in the marketing industry are known for the size of their networks. They’re at every networking event. They’re amongst the most active people on Linkedin. I took a very different approach. Instead of focusing on growing a large contact network, I focused on growing a small, but influential network.

Even when I was starting out, I never saw the value of what’s usually thought of as ‘networking’. For example, I think I had my last lot of business cards printed around 2002/3.

Oh, and I’ve never had a Linkedin account or had any need for one.

Why?

Business is all about people and the depth of the relationships you have with them. I chose to intentionally develop strong, meaningful relationships with people who I believed to be the best fit.

Initially my main focus was senior media people, marketing experts and mentors. I was 29 when I started my business, no one knew who I was and I needed to be around people who were able to help me get known and develop. If you followed the link I shared earlier, you’ll have seen how my first 6-months in business went.

As with every person I have shared this selective networking approach with, I too have found that you automatically get many of the benefits of a large network. Such as massively expanding the reach of your work, your opinions and your ideas.

For example, you’ll find that from time to time, your influential contacts recommend you and your work to their audience. An audience that respects their endorsement. Another example is media coverage, something I have professionally benefited from enormously. Lots of journalists have known me for years. They trust me and are comfortable enough to contact me, and cite me, when they need expert opinion.

Tip: One way to get started is to think who would be really useful for you to know in 12-months or 18-months time. And today, start to look for ways to earn their attention and then their interest. It’s not by cold emailing them or pestering them. It’s about being useful to them. Gently. Over time.

I hope that quick look at 3 of the 70+ processes I’ve developed, has encouraged you to seriously consider a more niche approach to the growth of your business.

Ultimately, you can choose to compete against the masses or develop your own, wonderful niche. You can choose to blend in or stand out. You can choose to be ‘yet another’ or uniquely you. It’s always a choice.