Jim Connolly Marketing

How to make decisions, like the world’s top entrepreneurs

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decision making entrepreneur

The best decisions you ever made all had one thing in common. Can you guess what it was?

It’s simply this. They were big decisions. All of them.

Think about it: The decision to start a family, to buy a home, to start a business or change careers… these decisions are huge. They’re life changing. And they were risky, because none of them came to you with any guarantee of success.

The same is true in business.

Major success only comes after you’ve made breakthrough decisions. And breakthrough decisions are big. Big enough to break through the challenges that are holding your business back.

Decision making and risk

Every big business decision comes with what seems like an equally big risk attached. At least, that’s how it feels at the time. However, the riskiest thing any business owner can do is to try and avoid such risks. By seeking to avoid risks, they actually avoid opportunities.

In working with business owners, I find that ongoing business problems can always be traced back to a big decision, which is being avoided.

It looks something like this.

  • They know there’s a persistent or recurring problem in their business.
  • They also know something needs to be done about it.
  • The decision to do what’s required, usually to make a significant change, feels too risky.
  • So, they decide not to do what’s required.
  • Instead, they do something that seems easier.
  • Naturally, their problem persists.
  • The business continues to struggle.

The entrepreneurial mindset

One hundred percent of the most successful businesses, in every niche, are directed by people with an entrepreneurial mindset. That’s because entrepreneurs evaluate risk in a massively more effective way.

Entrepreneurs know that letting a problem persist is always riskier than making the necessary decision. They know that ignoring the black smoke bellowing from the rear of a car doesn’t make the problem go away. It only makes things worse. And that ignoring a business problem doesn’t make the business problem go away. It only makes things worse.

Interestingly, the entrepreneur is still avoiding risk. All that changes, is what they attach risk to. They attach risk correctly, make far better decisions and achieve far better results.

In short, if you want the right results for your business, you need to make the right decisions for your business. And if your business isn’t performing the way it should, it’s because there’s an urgent decision you need to make.

Predictable?

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Predictable, marketing tip

Predictable can be life saving: The braking system on your car is a great example. You need to know that each time you put your foot on the brake, you’re going to slow down or stop as expected.

Predictable can be reassuring: It’s reassuring to know that the quality of products or services you receive from a vendor, will be predictably excellent.

However, predictable can also hurt your business. Imagine a prospective client is looking for a new service provider. For whatever reason, their previous provider didn’t fulfil their needs. The last thing that prospective client will want, is another provider that seems too similar looking, to the one they just fired.

Conversely, they’ll be extremely attracted to providers that combine being reassuringly professional, with fresh ideas and uncommonly great service.

That’s where YOU come in my friend. At least it should be.

Don’t let predictability bite your ass

Being predictable in the wrong areas will destroy your marketing.

  • It will attract fewer enquiries.
  • It will motivate fewer prospects to hire you.
  • It will position your business as a commodity. People buy commodities based on the lowest price or fee.
  • It will camouflage your business and stop you getting noticed.

This is the total opposite of what you need in order for your business to succeed.

Make no mistake, it takes guts to build your own version of how a service provider in your niche should operate. It’s hard to zig when your competitors zag. It’s so much easier to play follow the follower. That’s why only the top few percent in any industry truly stand out.

Those of us who want our business to fly need to be smarter than that. We need to only be predictable where it matters. Because the alternative is to be invisible. And a business that lacks visibility, places a very low ceiling on its potential.

Are you listening or paying attention? The difference is huge

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decision making, paying attention

There’s a big difference between paying attention, and listening.

Yes, listening is indeed one way to pay attention.

But commercially, we learn a lot more about a person, a company culture or a company as a whole when we pay attention to what they do. Their actions reflect their motivations, beliefs and priorities with much greater accuracy than their convincing, carefully polished words.

Here’s what one of my mentors taught me when I started out in business. It’s saved me from making bad decisions countless times over the years.

What people say, is what they want us to think they will do. What people do, is what they actually do.

I’ve found that advice to be enormously valuable, before making any important, commercial decisions. I hope you find it equally useful.

Almost everyone will ignore you

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Marketing to everyone

Almost everyone will ignore you.

And that’s perfectly fine.

Because some people will love you.

The message in those 3 sentences is worth remembering. For example, when you’re creating a new product, or putting a marketing strategy together.

Here’s the thing

You can’t appeal to everyone.

You don’t need to appeal to everyone.

Think about it, if everyone wanted to hire you or buy from you, you couldn’t cope!

So focus your marketing, and wider business development, on some people.

Some people?

  • The kind of people who ‘get’ the way you work.
  • The kind of people who value your vision.
  • The kind of people who will love working with you or buying from you.
  • The kind of people who make the very best clients or customers.

In a nutshell, ignore everyone with your marketing and focus very specifically on some people.

It’s the fastest, least expensive and most straightforward way to dramatically improve your marketing results. And build a world-class client base.

Moving your business forward

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work harder, the success code

If the work you’re doing right now feels comfortable, it’s almost certainly not moving your business forward. It’s not helping you make meaningful progress and not leading you toward the attainment of your goals.

Why?

Because your best work never feels comfortable. Here’s what your best work looks like.

  • It’s the kind of work that forces you to grow into the person who can take your business up a level.
  • It’s the kind of work that inspires you to make better decisions.
  • It’s the kind of work that gives you energy and makes you feel truly alive.
  • It’s the kind of work that attracts the clients or customers you want.
  • It’s the kind of work that gives you a sense of real optimism.
  • It’s the kind of work that causes you to make exciting plans for your future.

Look at that list. Now, ask yourself if the work you’re doing is honestly your best work. And just as importantly, if you’re not doing your best work, find out what’s blocking you.

Your top 2 marketing goals for 2023

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increase value, client retention, attrition

There are two essential marketing goals for you to focus on in 2023, which I’d like to share with you.

First, some context.

In recent months, we’ve seen the start of a massive change. Consumer spending is falling and company budgets are in equally sharp decline. This is forecast to get worse in 2023 as we enter a global recession. And it has already started to change the way your prospects purchase things. They’re having to take drastic action and cut back on expenditure.

  • They’re looking for cost savings on essential purchases.
  • They’re eliminating or reducing non-essential purchasing.

Here are those two essential areas I’d like you to be aware of, along with some ideas on how to put them to work.

1. Increase your value and let your prospects know

You need to greatly increase the value of whatever you provide. Then, powerfully market that greatly increased value to your prospects. Your prospects are thinking really hard about purchases, making value for money an essential if you want their hard earned cash or company budget. I give some tips here on ways to create value.

A common way to greatly increase your value, is to greatly reduce your fees or prices. Lowering fees is a bad idea in any economy. However, when your own overhead is increasing, lowering your fees makes no sense at all. It’s also totally unsustainable, given the long-term economic forecast.

Of course, once you’ve created a way to radically increase the value of your products or services, you need to let people know. This means attracting their attention. Then clearly explaining the compelling benefits you offer, in a way that motivates them to buy from you or hire you. If your service is faster, explain why that extra speed is so valuable to them. If the quality of your product is demonstrably better, explain why that superior quality represents amazing value for them.

Don’t just greatly increase how valuable your service is and expect prospects to ‘get it’. It’s critical that you tell them, in a way that moves them to take action and make the purchase.

2. Work harder than ever on client retention

You need to make retaining your existing clients, a top-level business activity. Their income or budget is being severely squeezed. This means they’re vastly more likely to shop around. This includes clients who until now, have been loyal for years.

To compound things, your clients will be increasingly targeted by your competitors with attractive reasons to switch. Your competitors are experiencing similar challenges to you. Expect them to respond with increased marketing activity and hunger.

In part, you will already improve your client retention by implementing the previous suggestion.

But you’ll need all the commercial firepower you can muster. So, I’m recommending you do what the leaders in client retention do.

It’s simply this: Maintain useful, regular contact with your clients. Clients are used to being contacted when it’s renewal time or when they’re involved with you in a transaction or on a project. The type of regular contact I’m referring to, goes beyond that. And it’s spectacularly effective.

How do you maintain useful, regular contact?

Some common examples include sharing useful resources with them, maybe an app, productivity tool, or useful piece of information [like this]. Also, if you have a contact that could be a great fit for them, connect them. And if you learn of an event that could be helpful to them, let them know. You get the idea.

It’s about being mindful of your clients as you go through your working day, and collecting any resources worth sharing with one or more of them. No, don’t pester them every few days. In my experience, a few times a month is a great place to start. It keeps you front of mind. It’s a great way to become a semi-regular part of your client’s business. The closer the connection between client and provider, the more value you can be to your clients and the harder it is for a competitor to get them to switch.

Thriving in tough times

As we’ve seen over the past 36-months, there have been some huge changes to what we consider business as usual. Each time things took a turn for the worse, some business owners went broke, others struggled but survived, and others thrived. As you’ll know, there were small businesses in each of those three groups in just about every town and city. This often included businesses in the same industry, targeting the same prospects, facing the same restrictions and challenges, yet with very different results.

Certainly, some went into those struggles with significant resources behind them. But that was not so for the average small business owner who thrived. What allowed them to thrive was that they adapted their business to the new ‘normal’. They didn’t hunker down. They didn’t just carry on as if nothing was happening around them. They remained agile and benefited from opportunities that their competitors were not even looking for.

You should consider doing as they did, my friend.