Business development Archives - Page 44 of 83

Why some businesses thrive in 2020, yet their competitors struggle

By Jim Connolly | August 10, 2020

Today’s post is about two service providers. In the same industry. In the same country. Serving a very similar marketplace. With all the same coronavirus / economic hurdles as each other.

I was prompted to write this, after an email I received from a reader. He thanked me for the post I’d just written, then explained how tough things were for his business.

He said he was going to “keep his head down” and wait for the coronavirus to pass and the economy to pick up. He went on to explain that you can’t make money in his industry right now, “because no one is spending”.

Here’s why his email stood out

I’m currently working with someone in the same country as him, in the same industry as him. My client’s business is flourishing. And this is largely because her focus is 180 degrees different to his.

For example.

She’s focused on growing. While he’s focused on surviving.
She’s focused on moving. While he’s focused on waiting.
She’s focused on opportunities. While he’s focused on losses.

Interestingly, she started off just as worried about the future as he is. What made all the difference is how she responds when she’s worried.

I remember vividly how fearful she was on our initial session, in March. She told me that her strategy for dealing with fear is to use it, to motivate her to look for answers. In this case, she found my service when looking for a way to navigate the changing economy caused by coronavirus.

She told me that taking positive action gives her a sense of control and keeps her focused on what she wants, rather than what she fears. This fills her with energy and justified confidence for the future.

Move forward with justified confidence

By choosing to focus on thriving, you drastically improve the scenario.

You get to spend your days working on successfully growing your business. Your shift of focus also enables you to see opportunities, which fear-focused business owners will miss. You transition from a feeling of apprehension, to one of excitement.

And it improves literally everything for you and your business.

Business development seldom exceeds professional development

By Jim Connolly | July 26, 2020

I was just going through some notes I took, following a talk I gave to a group of entrepreneurs. I spotted something, which they found extremely useful on the day. So, I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s based on my answer to a great question. Someone wanted to know why over a thousand articles on my blog are tagged as professional development, when it’s a marketing blog.

Here’s a shortened version of my reply.

The reason I focus so heavily on professional development, is that without it, NONE of the information a business owner receives is of any value to them. I then shared one of the foundations of all business success:

Business development seldom exceeds professional development.

In other words, we can’t give our business something, which we don’t have. Here are a few of the examples I used.

We can’t avoid mistakes if we fail to see them coming.
We can’t benefit from opportunities if we’re blind to them.
We can’t enjoy a bumper crop if we harvest too soon.

I then explained how that’s only 50% of the problem caused by a lack of professional development.

Here’s the other half. And it’s a biggie!

Even if you give a business owner the exact answers they need, if they lack professional development… they’ll ignore it. That’s because when you lack professional development, REAL improvement always, always sounds scary.

It looks like this.

Improvement = change.
Change = risk.
Risk = fear.

Every business starts to grow after it launches. Then, the business reaches a certain point and hits a plateau. Some plateau in the first 12 months. Others don’t plateau for a decade.

And it doesn’t matter! Because it’s what happens when they reach that plateau that makes all the difference.

Business owners tend to fall into one of the following two, broad groups.

Group one

Business owners in this group need additional professional development. They are deliberately targeted by marketers, who exploit the business owners eagerness to grow their business. They entice them with webinars, Facebook Lives, growth-hacking secrets, and countless online training products; all promising “too good to be true” results.

That kind of advice sells. It’s all gain, with no real effort. And those testimonials are always so inspirational. It’s easy money too, because there’s an endless stream of business owners… hoping that THIS motivating promise, MAY finally be the one that works.

Of course, it fails.

It has to fail.

Why?

Because as we know, in business, meaningful improvement only comes after making meaningful improvements (meaningful changes). If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Business, like everything else in life, works on the law of cause and effect.

Now for some great news.

Group two

Every business owner in this group, (including me), started in group one. Then, at some point, they figured out they were wasting a lot of time and making very little progress. So they jumped ship into group two.

They now insist on expert advice from proven professionals. Professionals who will look at their unique situation and provide the unique roadmap or solutions they need. It’s why business owners in group two thrive.

Think about it. There’s a really good reason why:

Literally every successful business owner makes important decisions based on trusted, informed, targeted advice.
Literally none of them make important decisions, like how to grow their business, based on the toxic junk that business owners in group one rely on.

That’s why I focus so much of my content on professional development. I try and educate business owners, so they avoid the stress and wheel-spinning of being in group one. I strive to inform business owners who are trying to get the help they need, but looking in the worst possible places.

I hope you found this useful. Moreover, I hope you do something with it.

A marketing lesson from the world’s best coffee shops

By Jim Connolly | July 25, 2020

What are people hoping for, when they hire you or buy from you? That’s one of the most important questions in marketing.

Think about it.

People visit Facebook, because they hope it will entertain, inform or connect them.
People donate to charity, because they hope it will make things better for others.
People relocate to nice areas, because they hope it will improve their quality of life.
People subscribe to a newsletter, because they hope it will be useful.
People buy big name brands, because they hope it will ensure high quality.
People buy from local providers, because they hope it will help the local economy.

Your prospective clients are just the same. They’re hoping for something. And it isn’t always obvious.

A marketing lesson from coffee shops

Ask the owner of any successful coffee shop and they will tell you, the quality of their coffee isn’t the secret of their success. It isn’t even in the top 5 reasons why people choose them over their less successful competitors.

Instead, successful coffee shops thrive because they focus on what people hope for, when they visit a coffee shop. People hope it will provide them with a great place to meet friends, an interesting change of environment, a space where they can relax… and a thousand other non-coffee-related things.

Struggling coffee shops fail to provide the kind of experience, which the marketplace is hoping for. So even if their coffee tastes great, it doesn’t matter. That’s because no business, in any industry, can succeed or even survive, by failing to meet or exceed what people hope for.

As business owners, our task is to uncover what our prospective clients are hoping for. And then make it a foundational element of our service and our marketing. Offering a great service (or great coffee) isn’t enough, by itself.

21 Tips to massively improve your business results

By Jim Connolly | July 18, 2020

Photo: Shutterstock.

In no particular order.

People buy what they want. Not what they need. It’s why people renew their phones every 12/24 months, even though their ‘old’ phone works fine. They want a new phone. They treat themselves to a new phone. But they don’t need it. Once you understand the difference, you can massively improve your marketing.
Avoid using buzzwords. Those who don’t understand them will be confused. Those who do understand them, will cringe. And buzzwords get old, really quick.
When you want to generate high quality cash flow fast, find new products for your existing customers. It’s far quicker and more profitable, than finding new customers for your existing products. I’ve helped hundreds of business owners enjoy windfall profits this way. Yes, windfall profits. It’s that easy.
Stop waiting for the right opportunity to come along. Make it happen. Create it.
Embrace brevity. Shorter messages are more powerful. Most marketing I see is 75% too long.
Keeping your promises is a proven way to build a great reputation. (Read more).
You don’t have any clients, customers or subscribers. They’re not yours. You simply borrow them. This means there’s no room for complacency. You need to earn and then re-earn their custom, attention and trust.
Learn how to make your marketplace curious. Why do prospective clients call you or email you? It’s because they need to know something and their curiosity motivates them to get in touch. So, you get a sales lead or client enquiry. And a chance to convert them into a new client or customer. As I said a few days ago, don’t explain everything in your marketing, unless you want very few enquiries. (Read more).
If you want your marketplace to talk enthusiastically about your business, do something worth talking about. If it’s remarkable enough, they’ll remark on it!
A confused mind always says no. Keep your marketing as brief and clear as possible. Fewer options. Fewer words. Less fluff.
The most successful business owners decide who their ideal clients are, then market exclusively to this super-valuable group. You should do the same. The average business owner relies on DIY marketing and takes whatever comes along.
People buy for their reasons. Not yours.
Include deadlines in your marketing messages. They’re an exceptionally powerful way to motivate people to take action. (Read more).
Everything your business does, is marketing. The way you answer the phone, your payment terms, the way you reply to emails, your location, the way you write, the design of your website, your prices, your social network activity… it’s all marketing. This means it needs to be intentional and consistent.
Don’t rely on Facebook, Linkedin or any third party for your communication channel. It’s like building a house on rented land. Instead, attract people via third party platforms. And then encourage them to subscribe to your email list.
Building an email list is a massively better option than buying a list. The people on paid-for lists don’t want to hear from you. These so called opt-in lists are mainly just lists of people, who completed a form on a website once, without reading the small print.
Businesses with a fixed marketing budget never achieve much. It shows they regard marketing as a cost, rather than an investment. This is then reflected in their results.
The most powerful marketing is permission based. When people subscribe to your list, your message is treated very differently, than an unsolicited email from a needy stranger.
The more your services or products resemble what your competitors offer, the less visible your business is.
Tell the truth. It’s the easiest, least stressful way to build a great business and your marketplace will respect you.
If your business isn’t attracting regular sales leads or client enquiries, your marketing is broken. This means the very thing that feeds your business isn’t working. It’s losing you a fortune. Needlessly. Why are you allowing this to happen? Think about that for a moment.

Marketing 101: Stop selling to yourself

By Jim Connolly | July 9, 2020

Photo: Shutterstock.

Are you selling to yourself?

That may seem like an odd question, yet it’s one of the most important questions in marketing.

Why?

Because small business owners almost always market their services, as if they were selling to themselves. Or selling to someone in their own industry, to be more precise.

Sounds weird, right?

Well, here are a couple of industry examples. Though it applies to literally (not figuratively) every industry.

Read the marketing of most web designers and it’s filled with jargon and buzzwords. They talk about things like; HTML5, CSS and standards compliance. These are things designers know are important. However, those terms mean nothing to their prospective clients. Their prospective clients want a professional looking site. They want to know how a new website will help them make more sales and attract more enquiries. They want to know they can trust the designer to do a great job. And they want it explained with clarity.

Read the marketing of most accountants and you will find graphs, statistics and logos from the bodies they’re a member of. This is what accountants think is important, but it’s not what their prospective clients are looking for. The prospective client wants to know why they should hire this accountant (and not an equally qualified competitor). They want the story behind the numbers in their business. They want to know how the accountant will help them build a better business. And they want it explained with clarity.

Every business owner using that self-selling approach is leaving money on the table every day. Don’t let it happen to you.

What next?

Take a look at your marketing messages from your prospective client’s vantage point.

Make sure you’re using their language and not yours.
Lose as many industry terms and buzzwords as possible.
Focus on the results your product or service delivers.

And remember to highlight why they’d be nuts not to hire you or buy from you.

Rediscovered: My business development notes from the 1990’s. Take a look!

By Jim Connolly | June 29, 2020

Okay, this one is a little weird.

While going through some of my old notebooks at the weekend, I rediscovered this list. It’s a series of points I put together back in 1998, to help guide the development of my (then) fledgling business. The list had things added and removed from it over the years, but these raw, original points were extremely useful to me. So I thought I’d share them with you.

Photo: Shutterstock.

In no particular order

Marketing is already full of robots in suits, so work like an artist. Make your work your signature. Think Warhol, Basquiat and Haring.
Eagerly seek out demanding clients, who need you to be at your absolute, creative best. They force you to stretch and improve.
Do something every day to earn the reputation you want. People need clues.
Avoid energy vampires.
Focus on being as useful as possible.
Love the marketplace you serve. Especially those who are the hardest to love. They need it the most.
Keep learning. You can’t share what you don’t already know.
Let your work be your megaphone, your networking and your primary source of recommendations.
Set deadlines. Tell the client what to expect, when to expect it and then deliver as promised.
Don’t borrow money. If you do, make sure it’s not for a depreciating asset.
Focus on creative ways to produce amazing results.
Do something every day to help those less fortunate than yourself.
Try and connect good people to other good people.
Learn from the success and failures of others.
When you think it’s correct, have the courage to take a different path from everyone else.
Eagerly look for the tricky kind of projects that others run away from. It’s the most rewarding work.
When work starts to become boring, stop. Identify the problem. Then fall back in love with the service of others.

I hope you found that useful.