Jim Connolly Marketing

Protect your business from time thieves

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marketing tip, packaging, time wasters

Photo: Shutterstock.

Your time is easily the most valuable asset you have. So today I’m going to show you an effective way to eliminate time wasters and replace them with high-quality, eager prospective clients.

Let’s go.

Salt and sugar

To begin, I’d like you to think for a moment about how similar salt and sugar look. They’re almost indistinguishable to the human eye. Even close up.

So why don’t people regularly add salt to their beverages by mistake? Sure, at home people know where they keep the salt and the sugar. But when they’re out? Why don’t we constantly see people in coffee shops and restaurants, having salt and sugar related accidents?

Looking for clues

A salt shaker looks very different from a sugar bowl. That’s why we never pick up a sugar bowl and assume it contains salt. Or vice-versa.

  • The container (packaging) gives us powerful clues about what’s inside.
  • These clues send us a direct message regarding what to expect.
  • They also guide the action we decide to take.

People use clues like this all the time. And that includes our prospective clients. When they need a new provider, they’re looking for guidance that confirms we offer exactly what they need.

So, what kind of decision-making clues are in your marketing?

For example. Do your clues set the right expectations regarding your fees, or do they attract fee-sensitive enquiries? Do your clues motivate people to want to purchase now, or do they attract early stage researchers, who’re not ready to buy? You get the idea.

If you’re sick of wasting your time with the wrong kind of client enquiries, check your clues. Look at your marketing through the eyes of a stranger; someone who doesn’t already know the type of clients or customers you want to attract. Then, make sure your messaging clearly positions you in the correct way.

I hope you find this idea useful but more importantly, I hope you give it a try.

How to be number one. In a category of one!

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marketing, outstanding, average

It’s tough being a service provider. There are so many of us in every industry. Not only that, a prospective client can find lower priced alternatives to us, on Google, in seconds.

With so many competitors, what can we do?

Well.

  • We could try and out-spend them on advertising. Of course, this eats into our profit margins.
  • We could try being the lowest priced. Of course, this almost eliminates our profits.
  • We could try joining a networking group. Of course, we’d be relying on fellow group members to provide us with leads; the very same people who need to attend the group because they can’t even get enough leads for their own business!

There are better alternatives though. And one that works extremely well, is to become number one in a category of one.

It’s the strategy I follow for my own business and one that could be just as effective for you and your business.

It works like this

Let’s imagine you’re a financial advisor. (You could equally be a mentor, lawyer, designer, trainer, accountant, marketing consultant or whatever). Anyhow, unlike your fellow financial advisors, you choose to work exclusively with creative professionals. This immediately places you as number one in a category of one.

  • The fact you understand their profession at a super-deep level, sets you apart from the rest.
  • The fact you understand their terminology and speak their language, sets you apart from the rest.
  • The fact you understand the threats and opportunities specific to their industry, sets you apart from the rest.
  • The fact you understand their unique requirements, sets you apart from the rest.
  • The fact you understand the creative mindset, sets you apart from the rest.

And because you’re clearly more relevant to the creative industry, you will stand out as the obvious choice, to be their next financial advisor!

It’s hard to think of a service provider in any industry, who couldn’t transition themselves into being number one in a category of one.

Including you.

Yes, including you!

Assess. Improve. Execute

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marketing tips, curiosity, sales leads, sales

Photo Finn Hackshaw

Today, I’m going to open-up a marketing idea with you that helped me increase a client’s sales results by just over 180% in 9-months.

It can be summed up in 3 words: Assess. Improve. Execute.

Here’s how it works.

Assess

The first step to improving your sales results is to assess your current situation. I spent some time digging into my client’s sales and marketing process and identified his company’s primary problem. It turned out they offered a superb service and when the right prospects learned about it, they absolutely loved it. This means I needed to greatly increase the number of high-quality prospects he got in front of.

Once we identified the root of his problem, it was time to improve things and free my client to dramatically increase his company’s sales results.

Improve

There was a number of areas in my client’s marketing that were under-performing. And others, he should never have used. You see, like almost every small business I’ve met, my client had been focusing time, and money, on lead generation. BIG mistake.

By making a small number of essential improvements at the very beginning, we were able to considerably increase his results. And fast.

I remember the easiest adjustment I made, was to improve the focus of their marketing message. It had previously focused on what their business did, how great their service was and how amazing their team was. 

If your marketing has a similar focus, it’s a bad, bad idea!

And here’s why.

No one buys a service or a product. They buy the result. For example, you don’t buy exercise equipment.
You ‘buy’ looking good and feeling great. So, sell the result of investing in your service or product.

Anyhow, we then dug a little deeper and uncovered a series of similarly untapped, windfall opportunities.

One of them was for us to switch the focus of their marketing copy. I needed it to make prospects feel massively more curious.

Curious?

Why curious, Jim?

Think about it. Every client or customer enquiry you have ever had, or will ever receive, only happened because that person needed to know something. So, if you want your marketing to attract massively more prospects, it needs to create more curiosity… and answer fewer questions.

Previously, their marketing tried to answer as many questions as possible.

  • I made sure it provided just enough information.
  • Just enough information to inform the prospect and magnify their curiosity.
  • Just enough information to compel, motivate and inspire eager prospects to contact them with a high-quality enquiry.

We wrapped these ideas into a plan, along with half a dozen other tactical improvements. Now we were good to go!

Execute

In a recent newsletter, I mentioned the importance of energy and excitement. Without doubt, this is the stage of working with my small business clients that excites me most. It’s why I do what I do.

Assess.

Improve.

Execute.

Focus like a laser on those 3-steps. Do it correctly and literally watch your business grow.

How to create a new, high profit service

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

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

new profitable service

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.

A new beginning or oiling the keys?

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content marketing topics

In business, things have changed more in the past 4 and a half years than they did in the previous 2 decades. The ‘old’ way of marketing, which many have patched up and tried to repair is not fit for purpose in 2024. It’s too irrelevant to be adapted.

It’s like oiling the keys on a typewriter, in an attempt to compete against the productivity of a laptop.

Here’s a proven, vastly better way forward.

Give your marketing a fresh beginning

What I did with massive success for my clients during the pandemic, and have carried forward since, is to start their marketing again. A totally new beginning. I started by asking them to answer the following question.

If you were marketing your business for the first time, based on today’s economic realities and marketplace expectations, what would your marketing need to look like?

By answering that question, you rid yourself of the toxic baggage that’s holding you and your business back. You give yourself the freedom to perfectly match the needs and wants of your prospective clients or customers. You free yourself of the legacy mistakes that are currently working against you.

That type of radical improvement is simply not possible, when all you’re doing is oiling the keys.

Go!

So, go on. Imagine you are marketing your business for the very first time. Take a look at the all-new landscape your business is surrounded by. Now, match your marketing strategy, your marketing tactics, your marketing messages, your promises, your guarantees, etc., so that they’re exactly what your prospective clients want and need.

I can tell you from experience, get this right and the results are spectacular.

Make 2024 your best year ever, even if you’re struggling today

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Business results, reflection, take action

Next week marks the 2nd half of 2024. If you want to finish the year strong, no matter how things are going for you right now, today’s newsletter is exactly what you need.

What follows is based on almost 30 years of experience, helping small business owners achieve their best results. It’s a very straightforward approach. And it works in every industry and profession.

And it starts with us taking a look at how our business has performed over the first half of 2024.

Reflection and action

If we reflect on our progress and discover we’re on course to hit or smash our 2024 targets, we need to take action.

  1. To stay focused.
  2. To persevere.
  3. To carry on doing the right things, correctly.

If we reflect on our progress and it looks like we’re not on course, we need to take action.

  1. To accept the urgency of the situation.
  2. To decide that more of the same is not an option.
  3. To get strategic. Important: Most business owners don’t know what an effective strategy is. Here’s a short, brilliant explainer video, by Professor Roger Martin.
  4. To make better decisions.
  5. To take better actions.
  6. To finish strong and turn things around.

And here’s the GREAT news

Whether we’re on target or off target, we can still make this a very successful year. Equipped with the right strategy and support, our decisions will improve, our actions will improve and our results will improve.

The key is to act. And to act in accordance with the results we’re currently experiencing.

Lots of small business owners get this wrong. Many of those who are off target today, will stay focused, persevere and carry on… with more of the same. They’ll stick with what they’re doing and hope that things will improve.

Over the years, I’ve helped thousands of businesspeople to transform their results. In every case, their turnaround success started after they took that number one step above. They accepted the urgency of their situation, which inspired them to make the required adjustments. 

Yes, I do this same exercise myself

On a personal note, the only reason my own business has been successful over the years, is that I have learned to review my progress, or lack of progress, and then to act accordingly.

If I was using the same approach to my business in 2024 as I was using even a few years ago, my own business would be contracting today.

We all need to reflect on where we are, and then act accordingly. So please take time to see where your business is today, look at its direction of travel, and make the required adjustments.

Photo: Richard Stachmann on Unsplash