Jim Connolly Marketing

Why didn’t I get the contract?

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Why not me?

Thousands of business owners find themselves asking that question every day. They’ve lost out on a big sale, an important contract or massive project and they want to know why. Why didn’t they land it? Why was a competitor chosen instead?

There are a multitude of reasons why they didn’t get chosen.

  • Their proposal was very professional. But someone else’s proposal gave 3 recent, checkable examples of exceptionally high quality work.
  • Their presentation was really good. But the CEO’s best friend personally recommended another provider.
  • Their meeting with the prospective client went well. But their marketing caused the prospect to assume the fee would be lower, so the prospect hired someone cheaper.

It’s natural for our initial reaction, when we miss out on something, to be externally focused. We tend to look for reasons why another person wasn’t smart enough to see how good we are and hire us or buy from us. That’s certainly how I used to think.

But not any more.

Get picked or chosen

Experience has taught me, that it’s a great deal more profitable to look for ways to improve. To focus on how we can do better the next time and massively increase our odds of success. 

We start by replaying every situation where another provider was picked. We then unpack it and look for all possible opportunities to improve.

For example.

  • Could your opening be stronger?
  • Do you check for clarity (often enough) before moving on?
  • Does your proposal, presentation, or sales pitch have maximum impact?
  • And is it memorable?
  • Are there enough trust building assets included — enough reasons for a prospect to trust you?
  • Are you leveraging your contacts?
  • Do your testimonials inspire confidence and desire?
  • Could you improve with expert training?
  • Is your content, proposal, follow-up, etc., professionally written or DIY?

Those are a few of the most obvious places to start looking for ways to improve.

Be an engaged observer

And finally, decide to become an engaged observer. Pay attention to the most effective individuals you encounter, including those who sell their products or services to you or your business. Look for things they do that you can test in your own presentations. Also, look for things they avoid that you can test removing from your presentations. Oh, and when you’re is a situation where someone else is being ‘pitched’ to, observe what you can. 

It’s highly probable that you’re just one or two adjustments away from a significant improvement in your conversion rate. So give it a try.

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Build a better contact network, starting now

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building business contacts, better contacts

They say it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts. That’s because knowing the right people is essential for business success. It’s also why you’ll never meet a successful person who hasn’t built an extremely valuable contact network. Today, I want to help you build an equally valuable network of your own. 

It starts with a question: How many business contacts do you have?

You can easily get an approximate figure by adding together your LinkedIn contacts, your social network followers/friends and the contacts in your address book, etc. For some reading this, the number will be in the hundreds. For many it will be in the thousands or tens of thousands. And for others it will be a hundred thousand or more.

Here’s a far more meaningful question: How many business relationships do you have?

Business relationships are harder to count. These are the people you connect with on a deeper level. Not just numbers on the social networks you use. Not just names in your address book, who you have no real history with. 
 

Vanity metrics 

Building more and more contacts can be intoxicating. These contact numbers are often referred to as vanity metricks, because most of the numbers are visible to others, such as our social network contacts, and how many followers or online friends we have.

It’s a way for normal people (like me) to finally be like one of the popular kids at school. Even though we know hardly any of these people, we have the BIG contacts number. Go us!
 

Business relationship building

The number of meaningful business relationships we have is a lot less public than our vanity numbers, but a lot more meaningful and massively more valuable. With this in mind, how much time do you dedicate each day or each week, to building and nurturing business relationships? 

Here’s a tip to help you get started.

I want you to imagine you already had meaningful relationships, with 6 people who are useful and/or influential. Now write those 6 names down. Next, take time over the coming week to learn a little about them and how to get in contact with them. Finally, get in touch with each one, introducing yourself and letting them know how YOU can assist THEM.

[Important] Read this: Bring your seed, not your need.

The number of positive replies you receive will depend on lots of factors. This includes things like, how useful your assistance is to the other person, how effective your initial introduction is, how interesting you make yourself sound, and even how good your timing is, etc.

But if you stick with it, always seeking to improve your approach, you will find yourself building extremely useful, mutually beneficial business relationships, with amazing people.

Plus, they’ll get to see just how awesome you are, and introduce you to their contacts. 

You don’t need more awareness. This is what you need

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tanning photography of flying eagle owl

When a business owner is failing to get the sales they need, increased awareness is almost never the issue.

Think about it.

If all they needed was increased awareness, they could just advertise their product or service correctly. Depending on their advertising budget, they could reach thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of prospects. And fast.

It’s far, far more likely they have a different problem.

Most commonly, it’s one or both of the following.

  1. It could be that too few people who are aware of (whatever they sell), are motivated enough to buy it. In this case, the business owner needs to figure out how to inspire prospective clients or customers to take action.
  2. It could also be that too few people who do buy it, are impressed enough to tell their friends or become a repeat customer. In this case, the business owner needs to improve their product or service. They need to make it highly referable. Something worth talking about.

Now what?

The first challenge is to identify and accept the actual problem. Acceptance is by far the hardest part. In my experience, once the problem has been accepted by the business owner, they’re 90% of the way to resolving the whole issue. 

The second challenge is correcting the problem. And that’s massively easier. There are lots of proven ways to quickly and inexpensively put things right.

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How to know what your prospects REALLY want from you

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feedback

Here’s what we’re told. The key to business success is to give the marketplace what it wants. That sounds easy enough.

  1. We ask them what they want.
  2. We provide them with what they want, and we do this to the best of our ability.

The trickiest part there is step one. That’s because history assures us that people tend not to tell us what they actually want. 

  • Some will tell us what they think we want to hear.
  • Some will tell us what they think makes them look smart.
  • Some will tell us what they think makes them look considerate. 
  • And others will tell us what they think makes them look edgy, unique or creative.

If we really want to know what people think, we need to study what they do. Their actions speak louder and with greater accuracy than their words. That’s worth taking into account, the next time you’re tempted to survey people.

Here’s an alternative approach. 

Try this instead

Social media provides you with a wonderful way to see where the attention of your marketplace truly is. You can see what they’re excited about, what they’re worried about, what they’re investing in and what their challenges are, etc.

This can give you valuable feedback, equipping you to make better decisions and spot new opportunities.

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How to lower the risk & make more sales

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risk reversal, risk reduction, marketing, risky

One of the most effective ways to increase sales, is to lower or remove the perceived risk attached to buying from us or hiring us. It’s easy to see why. Let’s face it, we’ve all paid for a faulty product or poor quality service at some time. So today, I’ll share some ideas with you on how to make more sales, using risk reduction and risk reversal tactics.

Let’s go.

Risk reduction

A proven way to reduce the risk, is to offer a free sample of your product or a free trial of your service. Combine that with relevant, recent testimonials from delighted customers to further reduce the perceived risk. And if you have been trading for a long time, include that prominently in your marketing to reduce the perceived risk even more. If you have any relevant awards include them, too.

A word of caution. There are lots of risk reduction tactics out there, which actually increase the perceived risk. I’m referring to free samples or free trial periods that come with caveats. The prospect sees all the strings attached, rolls their eyes and moves on.

Risk reversal

Risk reversal is when you take all the risk, and not your prospective customer. Hiring you or buying from you is now risk free. The prospect has literally nothing to lose. And as you’d imagine, it’s a spectacularly effective marketing tactic.

However, risk reversal is only suitable for certain types of product, and certain types of service. The following example may help you decide if it will work for you and your business.

This is a very personal example, because I offer risk reversal myself for this service. It’s simple. The service is based on a 2-hour meeting with me. At the end, I ask if they received great value. If they say no, I give them their money back. It works, because I only accept clients who I know for certain I can provide outstanding value to. That’s why I’ve never had a refund request.

In short, risk reduction and risk removal are powerful marketing tactics. They help to lower or eliminate a major barrier between you and the prospect, making it massively easier to buy from you or hire you.

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Increase your prices. Boost your sales!

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increase your prices, fee increase

Your pricing is a critically important part of your marketing. And today, I’m going to recommend some of you consider increasing your prices or fees.

Here’s why a price increase could be just what you need.

Why so low?

When your marketing positions your product or service as high-quality, your prospects expect your price to be within that high-quality price range. They expect value for money, and when your price is too low, they begin to question the actual value — why so low? Today, this pricing error will see small businesses everywhere missing out on sales or new clients.

It’s a serious error that often creates a negative spiral. It looks like this. Their lack of sales causes them to further lower their prices, which makes things worse. So they try another price drop in an attempt to get ‘some’ money in. That’s unsustainable.

If you suspect you could be undercharging, here’s a suggestion. Take a balanced look at the value you bring to the marketplace. Clearly state that value in your marketing. Then set a price that reassures prospects, while also representing outstanding value for money. And finally, measure the results.

In case it doesn’t go without saying, this advice is general. It’s not intended for everyone. In my experience, small businesses are more likely to be undercharging than overcharging. Though obviously not all of them. Some small business owners reading this will already have perfect pricing. Others will be pricing too high.

However, if you have reason to believe you could be undercharging, you should absolutely consider an increase.

Photo by Teuku Fadhil