Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Stop working for assholes!

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I was working on a client project when I came across a wonderful quote. It’s intended to be light-hearted, but it contains a spectacularly important message. And rather surprisingly, it also carries a valuable lesson for every business owner.

“Real wealth is never having to spend time with assholes.” – John Waters.

In the speech that quote came from, Waters talks about being rich and how it’s given him the freedom to avoid assholes.

Similarly, one of the many freedoms of owning a business is that you get to select exactly who you choose to work with. As a business owner, there’s no need whatsoever for you to spend time around bad clients (or customers)… assholes, as Waters describes them.

And that message is really important to remember. It’s important because somewhere along the way, many business owners forget that they have total freedom to only work with great people.

Beggars can’t be choosers

Whenever I speak about this with a group of business owners, someone will usually tell me that they have to take whatever comes along. And in support of that factually incorrect statement, they’ll tell me that ‘beggars can’t be choosers’.

I then remind them.

They’re not beggars… they’re business owners.

And that as a business owner, they have to be extremely choosy who they work for. You can’t build a successful business on a foundation of bad clients.

No one wants to work with whatever their definition of a bad client is. The problem is a natural consequence of feeling trapped, because you’re not attracting enough new, high quality clients.

It looks something like this.

  • The business owner identifies a client as a pain in the ass. Maybe the client pays late, is rude, over demanding, unprofessional, whatever.
  • The business owner clearly does not want to work with them.
  • However, the business owner is scared to fire the asshole client, fearing they’ll be unable to replace them with a high quality client.
  • The asshole is then left free to take the joy (and usually the profitability) out of the business owner’s work.

The good news here is that bad clients are not an unavoidable part of being in business. In fact, they’re a must-avoid part of being in business. Bad clients are like poison. They’re toxic to the success of your business and to your mental well-being in some cases.

If this is a problem for you, take some time to describe what your ideal client looks like. Include as much detail as possible. And remember that you’re describing your ideal client. So be really choosy.

Then focus 100% of your marketing on these amazing prospective clients. Talk to their needs, wants and expectations.

You deserve great clients. Great clients who inspire you to do your very best work. Great clients, who recommend you to more great clients.

And shun the assholes.

Styles make sales: How to motivate massively more people to buy from you

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style makes sales, marketing

I think you’re really going to love this.

In today’s post, I’d like to share how a simple idea can help you develop a massively more effective way to sell your products or services.

Okay. Let’s go!

Styles make sales

When I started out in sales and marketing, one of the first things I learned is that styles make sales. It works something like this.

Certain salespeople have a style of selling that is very effective with certain prospective customers. Conversely, if a salesperson’s style is at odds with a prospective customer’s buying style, the salesperson is less likely to get the sale.

In the companies I worked for back then, there were large and diverse sales-forces. A sales manager would look at the data they had on a prospect, then try and match our styles to the prospect’s profile.

I know you’ve spotted the challenge here.

As a small business owner, you don’t have that same abundance of salespeople to mix and match to the prospect’s buying style.

Usually, the salesperson is you.

This begs the question: How do you sell effectively to prospective clients or customers, who have a buying style that’s different to your sales style?

The answer is to align as closely as you can with what motivates them.

How?

Develop your own styles make sales model!

Here’s a quick look at how to get yourself started.

Before you begin your pitch or presentation, spend a little while asking the prospective customer a few informal, preprepared questions that require useful answers. For example, you could ask questions, where the replies will indicate whether they are more (or less) influenced by facts, figures and graphs… than by stories, feelings and pictures. Then match your presentation style to theirs as closely as possible.

As your presentation continues, look and listen for other signals from the prospect, which indicate that you’re on (or off) the right track.

Spend the time required to get this right. And it does take time. Make no mistake, this isn’t busy work. It’s really important, valuable and challenging work. You’ll need to create several easy to answer questions, which uncover your prospect’s buying style. You’ll also need to park the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach to sales, if that’s what you currently use. And comfortable, old habits are hard to break.

The pay-off?

It’s huge.

If you get it right you’ll enjoy the rewards of having a fluid presentation model, which matches the motivation your prospects need, in order to buy from you. Just think what that could do to your sales figures, my friend.

The marketing tip that’s guaranteed to work, even if it fails

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marketing tips, free marketing, marketing advice

A reader emailed me with a good question, followed by a very good question. It’s about a highly effective strategy I mention often, yet I’ve never previously explained that it’s guaranteed to work, at least to some extent.

He asked: How can I earn the trust of prospective customers, when they don’t already know me?

My reply: Make a big, audacious promise to your marketplace, with a confirmed deadline, then deliver the promise on time.

He then had an even better follow-up question.

He asked: But what if something goes wrong and I deliver after the deadline?

My reply: Well, you’ll have proven to your marketplace that you’re brave enough to set clear, measurable deadlines. In addition, you’ll have proven that you’re honest enough to admit you were late. Whilst also proving that you’re professional and dedicated enough to keep going and deliver, albeit late, rather than quit and fail to deliver at all.

In short, even if things go wrong, you’ll still have proven your; courage, honesty, professionalism and dedication. Those are huge trust-building assets.

If you’ve heard me extol the effectiveness of setting deadlines before, yet been worried about the potential downside, I hope this gives you a clearer understanding.

Everyone will ignore you

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Marketing tips

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, working with a designer or putting a marketing strategy together.

Here’s the thing

You can’t appeal to everyone. So focus your 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.

It’s the fastest, least expensive and most straightforward way to dramatically improve your marketing results.

What the past 7 days can tell you about your future success

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marketing 2021

Today, I’d like to share a profoundly important marketing and business development idea with you, which is often ignored.

What makes it “profoundly important”? It’s literally (not figuratively) essential if you want to build a successful business and a very bright financial future!

I need to start by asking you something: How many of the marketing tasks you worked on last week, were due last week? Your answer to that question is important. It’s a great snapshot of how long term (or short term) your current horizon is.

The next 6 months, 12 months and 36+ months

It’s natural to focus on making your next sale or getting your next customer enquiry. It’s really important, too. However, it’s profoundly important to come up for air and look to your future. To work on the foundations of your marketing and business development, which will determine your success over the next 6 months, 12 months and 36+ months.

This might include answering key questions like.

  • How can you meaningfully increase the number of sales you make, in the next 6 months, 12 months and 36 months or more?
  • And how can you increase the profitability of those sales?
  • What could you be doing in order to significantly improve your customer retention rate and the number of customer referrals you receive?
  • What valuable, new product or service could you be working on, for your current and future customers?
  • Who are the useful people you need to introduce yourself to now, so you’ll have an existing relationship with them in your medium and longer term? There is a direct link between how well connected you are, and how successful your business will be. There’s more information on this here, (in the 3rd marketing tip).

Today’s important tasks absolutely need to be worked on. But the only way to build a spectacularly bright future, is to work today with your future in mind. To regularly invest your time, thinking, planning and imagination on where you want to be. And to resist the temptation of being so wrapped up in today’s business challenges, that you have too few foundations in place, for the future success and rewards you deserve.

Unbelievable results in unbelievable time with unbelievably little effort

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marketing snake oil

They’re everywhere: experts, claiming to be able to deliver unbelievable results in unbelievable time with unbelievably little effort.

Don’t believe them!

Growth hacking, business hacking, success systems, tricks and shortcuts are everywhere. Not because they WORK, but because they SELL.

A huge subset of the population wants to believe that they can get rich (thin, healthy) quick. They want to reap the harvest, without planting the seeds and tending the soil. They want the rewards, without the effort. They’re looking for magic – something that breaks the laws of cause and effect.

This is why today, we see the marketplace flooded with online gurus selling the 21st century equivalent of snake oil. It’s well-crafted bullshit. Bullshit designed to press all the right buttons, on those who are looking for unbelievable results. And the hungry marketplace laps it up.

The fastest route to success

The fastest way to get from where you are, to where you want to be, is to take the most direct route. To find out what works and do it. It’s about doing the right things, correctly.

Shortcuts to success are nothing more than costly detours. Be extremely cautious of anyone trying to tell you otherwise.