Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Selling simplified: Get your prospects to say ‘yes’

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marketing, pick you, choose you

Here is a very quick marketing tip. It works online and also when you’re giving a presentation to a prospective client or customer. It’s based on one of the foundations of successful selling:

A confused mind always says ‘no!’.

In other words, when faced with a buying decision, a confused prospective client will not proceed. They’ll say ‘no’ or walk away, rather than risk making a bad decision. And you, the business owner, are the one who pays the price for that lack of clarity.

Clarity sells

With this in mind, I’d like you to think for a moment about all the different options or choices your prospective clients are faced with.

Here’s why it’s critically important for you to get the balance just right.

  • The more options you put in front of someone, the more choice they have.
  • The more choice they have, the harder it is for them to decide.
  • The harder their decision-making process is, the less likely they are to make the decision to hire you or buy from you.
  • They move on.
  • You lose a prospective client or a sale, to a less confusing competitor.

We don’t want that to happen to you.

The marketing power of clarity

I’d like you to take some time to go through all your marketing materials, especially your website. Then review the content of your sales presentation; what you say when pitching to a prospect.

Now, look closely for all unnecessary confusion.

Some good places to start (depending on your industry) may include.

  • The number of service levels you provide.
  • Your various pricing options.
  • The number of different bundles or packages you offer.
  • Any over-long feature lists.
  • The amount of information you require on your enquiry / contact forms.

You get the idea.

Now consider whether you actually need to offer so much complexity, so much potential for confusion. And if not, reduce. Everything that needs to be there should remain. But if it doesn’t need to be there, remove it. Cut the confusion. And make more sales.

Photo: Shutterstock.

How to quickly, repeatedly improve your sales

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marketing experiments, improve sales, sales results

Marketing relies heavily on creativity. It takes creativity to attract your prospective client’s attention. It takes creativity to stand out against your competitors. It also takes creativity to write a great marketing message or land a new client. 

The enemy of creativity is fear. Specifically, the fear of failure.

Today, I’m going to show you how to overcome this challenge, so you be free to create without fear and improve everything about your marketing at the same time. It’s based on a strategy I discovered in the mid 1990’s and it’s worked for me ever since. I hope you find it as valuable as I have.

It looks like this

I decided to improve how I felt about creating, by reframing my marketing as a series of experiments. This was not only extremely helpful. It was also factually correct.

Think about it.

Everything you do to market your business is done to achieve some kind of result. That result is feedback. By measuring the feedback, you learn, and can then improve the result next time. It’s a process of testing and measuring akin to scientific experiments.

Marketing experiments

So, I switched, mentally, from spending my day on a series of projects, to spending my day on a series of marketing experiments. It was such a powerful exercise that I even renamed my first office ‘The Lab’.

What I loved about this approach is that it made me vastly more productive. That’s because the more I experimented, the more feedback I received.

And that feedback is extremely valuable.

  • Sometimes the feedback is what I expected.
  • Sometimes the feedback is a total surprise.
  • Sometimes the feedback leads to a major success breakthrough.
  • Sometimes the feedback leads to a massively more profitable, new direction.

However, no experiment ever fails! 

That’s because the feedback you receive equips you to make better and better marketing experiments. With better marketing experiments, comes better marketing results; more new clients, more product sales, better client retention, higher profitability, more enquiries, more subscribers and every other sales metric you need.

As such, fear was eliminated from my creative output. This freed me to become vastly more productive.

You and your business

Could this approach work for you?

Yes. Yes it could.

However, you’ll never know if it works for until you give it a try. So, go ahead. Test, measure and improve your sales results. As often as you wish.

P.S. Here’s why people criticise you and how to deal with it, in just 3 steps.

Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash

They’re always right. Are you?

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learn buying style, prospect's buying style

If you want to make dramatically more sales, you need to start by knowing what your prospect’s buying style is. Once you uncover the way your prospects like to buy, you massively increase the likelihood you’ll make the sale. Over and over again.

It starts by understanding that people buy based on feelings far more than logic. [Note] I explain why, here.

We also need to understand that the prospect is right. And that they’re right every single time.

  • They’re always right about what constitutes value for money.
  • They’re always right about their past experiences of the type of product or service you provide.
  • They’re always right about the last experience they had with someone from your industry.
  • They’re always right about their attitude to risk (real or perceived risk).
  • They’re even right about whether pineapple belongs on a pizza or not.

That’s because THEY are always the most informed person in the world regarding what they think and how they feel. And as their thoughts and feelings are what determine their actions, you need to discover them fast!

This might include, what they value most when making a purchase, whether they’re in the low price crowd or the premium quality crowd, if they’re someone who likes to take their time or prefers to move along, what their past experience of your industry was, how they feel about risk and any other factor you would like to know.

If you try to get them to make a purchasing decision without you knowing that information, your chances are radically reduced.

  • You’ll be making assumptions based on what you know about your service and what you feel are the most important points.
  • You’ll be focusing on things that don’t motivate the prospect.
  • You’ll be missing things that they need to hear from you before they will buy.

In short, you’ll be trying to sell to them based on hunches and guesswork, rather than knowing exactly what they need to hear or see from you.

How to get it right

Only when you have a good idea of how they think and feel from their answers to your questions, should you start to explain how your service will benefit them.

By matching the focus and tone of your conversation, or presentation, to your prospect’s thoughts and feelings, you’ll be fully aligned with them. Yes, this makes the sales process a great deal smoother and easier.

But more importantly, it can dramatically increase your sales results.

Core essentials: Accelerate the growth of your business

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business development

Successful athletes focus heavily on building their core body strength. They know that a strong core is essential to their overall performance.

 Equally, a business needs to be strong in all its core areas if it wants to succeed. To get you started, I have included a few business-related cores you should focus on. Plus, I’ve added some guiding questions, to prompt you to find the specific answers you need.

The core values of your business: What does your business stand for? Do you just want to make money or do you want to make a difference?

The human core of your business: How effective are the people who work for your business? Do they receive regular training and appraisals? Is it time to invest in higher level people?

The core of your innovation: Do you introduce new products or services regularly enough? Do you seek out ways to improve existing products or services? Do you encourage problem solving? Is your business agile?

The core of your marketing message: Why should people buy from you or hire you, rather than one of your competitors? Is your message clear? Is it easy to share? Is your message compelling enough to attract the attention of your marketplace? Does your business have a story, which people tell their friends about? Can your message be improved?

With a strong business core, you’ll be ready and able to seize future opportunities. You’ll also be better equipped to weather the inevitable storms ahead.

And by regularly strengthening these core areas, you won’t just get strong. You’ll stay strong.

Make lots more mistakes

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It’s not only okay to make marketing mistakes, they’re absolutely essential if you want your business to grow in any meaningful way.

Here’s why these mistakes are so important. And why you might want to re-evaluate how you feel about making mistakes with your marketing.

Let’s go!

make more mistakes

Why are marketing mistakes okay?

They’re okay because they’re temporary.

Temporary?

Yes. Much of the marketing we do can be adjusted in minutes, with useful feedback sometimes obtained in hours.

For example, you can try a new call-to-action on your website. Then, check the conversion rate as soon as you have enough data in. If it’s worse or no better than the previous call-to-action, try a better one next time.

You’ll either win fast or you’ll learn fast. Not bad, eh?

Instead of thinking of your marketing as a somewhat rigid set of activities, try thinking of it as a series of temporary steps. Steps that you replace with something better, as you try new things. Because that’s exactly what the most effective marketing looks like.

Why are marketing mistakes essential?

They’re essential because you can’t possibly know if a new marketing idea or activity will work without testing it first. So, if you’re committed to growing your business, you’ll be committed to testing different ways to improve your results.

With testing comes measuring.

Measuring is where you find out what works.

It’s also where you find out what doesn’t work (the mistakes).

As such, the business owner who seldom makes a mistake with their marketing, seldom tries anything new and is leaving money on the table every day.

You may have heard the story about how Steve Jobs reprimanded team members, if they were not making mistakes often enough. Whether that’s true or just part of the Steve Jobs legend, the fact remains that mistakes are directly linked to progress. In trying to avoid mistakes with your marketing, by repeating what feels comfortable, you inadvertently block your business from the very success you long for.

So, expect marketing mistakes.

No… Scrub that.

Welcome marketing mistakes for what they truly are: A critically important part of the success of your business.

No one gives you the initiative

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take the initiative

There’s something wonderful and extremely powerful about initiative.

Just think about this for a moment. No one gives you the initiative. You take the initiative.

It’s that last part that is easy to overlook. Initiative us something we take. This means it’s down to us to make things happen. And this is true regardless of where we are right now. Regardless of what season our business is going through. Regardless of how the economy is performing. Regardless of our age, industry, background or our past performance.

Initiative: Your free, always-on opportunity

Better still, not only are we free to take the initiative. We’re free to take it any time we choose to. We have the green light to make something amazing happen.

Those are not just empty words.

Any business owner right now, who’s looking to improve their current situation can make amazing things happen.

And that’s because:

  • We’re free to take the initiative and build great relationships with the key people in our industry.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and answer important problems, which prospective clients will eagerly pay us to solve.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and massively improve the course of our business and our future.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and develop a better version of an existing product, which customers will flock to.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and endeavour to become a leader in our industry.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and strive to provide the best customer service in our industry.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and generously encourage others.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and connect people who may be able to help one another.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and improve one key area of our business, every week.
  • We’re free to take the initiative and increase our knowledge.

And we’re free to take the initiative with a thousand other useful things.

Sometimes, what we need in order to turn things around is a gentle nudge in the right direction. A reminder to take the initiative and make things happen, rather than passively wait for someone to give us the initiative.

That’s why I wrote this today. I hope this brief message provides you with a gentle nudge of encouragement.

How to find your hidden opportunities

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unmet needs, marketing, usp

Right now, your marketplace has unmet needs. That may not sound particularly exciting.

But it should.

Why?

Because when you provide what they need, you gain a powerful advantage over all of your competitors.

It’s easier than you think

Unmet needs are usually easy to find. That’s because your clients or customers will tell you what they are.

Here’s a quick example from a couple of years ago.

I met with the owner of a successful accountancy practice. She focused on serving local, independent retailers. During our first meeting, I asked if any of her clients had requested something that her practice did not currently provide. She said that clients would sometimes say they wished accountants opened earlier. Her practice, and all the others in her area, opened no earlier than 8:45am. Her clients explained that even if they got the earliest meeting slot, they would have to open their store an hour late. That costs them valuable trading time and money.

I suggested the accountant trialled opening her practice an hour earlier, 2-days a week, for 8-weeks. Then, we would measure the results. She agreed, and had 4 of her team available from 7:45am. It became immediately obvious that the new opening times were extremely popular. These early slots were always the first to get booked. After 4 or 5-weeks the accountant started getting new clients from referrals; when her clients told other retailers about the earlier opening times. After the trial period, the early opening was made permanent and extended to 3-days a week.

Note: By the time her competitors figured out what was happening, my client already owned the retailer-friendly chunk of her marketplace.

Is it always as easy as that?

No. Sometimes it’s even easier and sometimes it’s a little trickier. But it’s never particularly difficult.

The challenge is figuring out how to provide the unmet need. You have to find a way that’s both effective and sustainable for you.

Is it worth a try?

Yes, definitely. The upside when you get this right can be huge.

10 Marketing ideas and oodles of useful resources

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how create, new high profitable service

Here are some marketing ideas, along with links to useful resources.

But first, I have a little surprise for you.

If you need immediate marketing results this post has you covered. It’s one of the most popular ever published on my blog and has tons of ideas, many of which can be deployed in minutes. And as you’d expect from me, none of them require you spending a penny on ads.

Now for those 10 ideas.

  1. Do you already know the most influential people in your industry? If not, discover who they are and introduce yourself to them. The better connected you are, the easier it is for you to succeed.
  2. How can you make it feel less risky for people to buy from you? The lower the risk, the greater their motivation will be.
  3. Is your marketing useful or does it read like a sales pitch? Remember, people hate being sold to.
  4. Does your marketing create enough urgency? You need people to take immediate action; to hire you, buy from you, make an enquiry, fill in your contact form, subscribe, etc., while they’re engaged with your marketing material. This post will help you. It’s a long read, with stacks of tips.
  5. What was the last piece of marketing, which inspired you to take action? Review it and look for ways to adapt its powerful message into your own marketing.
  6. Who already has the attention and trust of your prospective customers? Consider a Joint Venture or Endorsed Relationship with them. This post will help you.
  7. What is the biggest barrier that blocks prospects from hiring you or buying from you? Figure out how to remove it. Then, let them know. Tip: There’s always, always a way to remove the barrier.
  8. How tricky would your clients find it, if they needed to replace your services? You need to be as irreplaceable as possible. This post will help you.
  9. Have you considered offering a premium version of your services, for high-value prospective clients who are eager to pay more, for the ‘extra’? This post will help you.
  10. Is your business providing you with the quality of life you want? If not, don’t lower your expectations. Raise your revenues and profits instead.

I hope you found this useful.

Empathy in marketing: It’s absolutely essential!

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marketing empathy, marketing with feeling

How interested are you, regarding the challenges facing your prospective clients or customers? That may seem like an odd question, but your answer is spectacularly important.

Why?

Because the most effective marketing, and strongest business relationships, are all built on a foundation of empathy: The ability to understand and share in the feelings of another person.

Think about it for a moment.

  • The vendors you are most loyal to, are those you feel have a connection with you.
  • The vendors you tell your friends about, are those you feel confident recommending.
  • The vendors you feel closest to, are those who understand your wants and needs, because they took time to find out.
  • And the vendors you appreciate the most, are those you feel you actually ‘know’.

Conversely, the vendors you have no interest in are those who have a mostly transactional relationship with you. These are the vendors that don’t really give a rat’s ass about you or what matters to you. Their focus is cold and based on how to maximize their yield from you.

Show your empathy through your marketing

Despite the value of demonstrating empathy and the damage caused by a transactional focus, most marketing lacks feeling. Instead we’re hit with needy messages transparently designed to milk us like a cash cow; sales pitches, killer deals, special offers and marketing gimmicks. It’s stripped of empathy, yet that human connection is the most valuable part.

Here’s the thing:

Business is all about people. And marketing is about how those people feel.

That’s because our feelings are what drive the decisions we make and the actions we take. Feelings are what cause people to hire you, buy from you, recommend you and remain a loyal customer. Without those feelings there’s no connection.

And without that connection, you and your business lose.

You know that you care about your customers and the community you serve. So, don’t keep it a secret. Instead, make empathy a visible part of the way you do business and the way you market your business.

Look for empathy opportunities

Proactively look for ways to demonstrate empathy.

Yes, demonstrate!

Words have amazing power. But when you show someone, it has massively greater impact, than when you merely tell them.

Here’s a suggestion. Do a review of the way you communicate with your customers and prospective customers. Are you creating empathy? Are you building them-focused relationships? If not, put it right.

Because when you do, it will radically improve the way they feel about you. And those feelings are what drive their decisions and actions.

Stop explaining everything. Really. Stop it!

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Jim Connolly marketing, Curious

One of the most common marketing challenges facing business owners is also one of the most serious. I’m referring to a lack of regular client enquiries or sales leads.

Today, I’m going to show you a key reason why this happens, and how you can overcome it.

I need to start by asking you something: Why do prospective clients call you, email you or ask you questions?

The answer can be summed up in just one word. Curiosity.

It’s their curiosity that motivates them to get in touch with you. This means it’s their curiosity that provides you with business enquiries. So, if you want more enquiries, your task is to make them more curious.

Hold that thought for a moment.

Now, do a quick review of your marketing materials and just look at how many questions you answer about the services you provide. This is really, really important.

Why?

Because with each question answered, you reduce a prospective client’s curiosity. You make them less likely, then unlikely, to contact you with an enquiry. You proactively lose yourself the super-valuable sales leads your business needs.

The balance you want to strike, is to give them ‘just enough’ information to make them curious. Just enough information to motivate them to contact you for answers or advice.

Just enough information, so you get all those sales leads or client enquiries that you’re currently missing out on.

A powerful lesson from Apple and Starbucks

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apple marketing, starbucks, marketing advice

Is your business both focused and flexible?

Those words almost sound like opposites. They’re not. In business, they work together beautifully.

  • It’s essential to know what you want to achieve and to stay focused on it.
  • However, you also need to remain flexible regarding how it happens. Then, as new information and opportunities come along, you can adjust your approach.

So, you remain both focused and flexible.

You couldn’t buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks

It’s true. Starbucks had already been in business for several years, and opened its first 5 stores, before you could buy a cup of coffee from them. Until then, you could only buy their coffee beans. Originally, customers were offered a free cup of coffee, in order to sample the beans.

Starbucks then started selling the coffee and the rest is history. Flexible thinking allowed them to identify a new opportunity. (I wrote a useful post about a marketing lesson from coffee shops, which can be applied to every business, including yours).

Starbucks’ focus remained the same: to build a successful coffee business. However, their approach changed.

And Apple only sold computers and software

Apple’s surge to being the world’s most valuable company started with a pivot. Initially, Apple was exclusively a computer company. Steve Jobs decided to enter the music industry, with the iPod and iTunes. Then, Apple pivoted again, creating the iPhone. Based on June 2023 data, if iPhone was a company by itself, its revenues would be $394.33 billion; that’s hundreds of percent higher than Coca-Cola and MacDonald’s, combined! Flexible thinking transformed The Apple Computer Company Inc, into the world’s most valuable brand.

Apple’s focus remained the same: to create beautifully designed technology and software. However, their approach changed.

Learn from the success of others, my friend. Remain focused on what you want to achieve, but be flexible on how you achieve it.

P.S. For more ideas on how to make this work for your business, I’ve written this:
Agile Thinking – A new mindset for a new landscape.

The marketing power of ‘Style Over Substance’

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marketing style

The following statement will sound counter-intuitive. That’s because you’ve been lied to for years. Okay. Here goes.

In marketing, there’s a case for style over substance.

It’s a strong case, too.

Just think about this for a moment.

  • The top political commentators get paid a ton of money, to deliver their take on the news for major networks.
  • The also-ran commentators get paid peanuts, to deliver their take on the news, for small, local networks.

Here’s the thing. In both cases, the news (substance) they comment on is the same. Here’s why one of them is earning 10 times or 50 times more than the other. It’s their style. The style with which they work.

For example:

  • Their courage, when choosing to take, or avoid, a controversial stance.
  • Their ability to communicate with confidence.
  • Their vocabulary.
  • Their energy.
  • Their effectiveness when injecting their personality (style) into their work, so that it’s truly theirs.

Here’s my point: When it comes to business, the substance should be there by default. Every qualified consultant, coach, lawyer, adviser, etc., knows what their service (substance) is and how it works. It’s their style that sets them apart from the crowd.

Style over substance in marketing

The newsletters, blogs, Facebook groups, YouTube channels, Social media accounts and podcasts, which people take notice of, all have their own style.

And the ones that fail to grow, fail to get noticed, fail to make an impact… well… they don’t.

Instead, they follow the cookie-cutter approach to marketing. They bought into the lie. The lie that says; ‘Just market your stuff this way, like everyone else, and it works. Follow the steps. 1-2-3’.

That’s bullcrap.

You can certainly learn substance that way. However, your style, the very thing that gets you noticed, by default, can’t possibly be learned from a marketing seminar, a course, a book or any other generalized form of information.

Why?

Because your style is all about you.

Where are you right now?

Okay, you obviously understand the services you provide extremely well. So the substance is there. You know what you’re doing. You’ve got the substance part covered.

But what about the style?

When it comes to your marketing, when it comes to the story behind your service, are you telling it from your perspective? Are you sharing the substance of your knowledge, using your voice, your perspectives and your experiences? Because these help form your style and your style is what people connect with.

  • It’s your style that sets you apart.
  • It’s your style that makes you approachable.
  • It’s your style that inspires people to share your message.
  • It’s your style that gives value to your substance.
  • It’s your style that motivates people to want to hire you or buy from you specifically.

And none of that can be copied from a book, seminar or course. Because it’s you.

In fact, with so many competitors trying to get the attention of your prospective clients, your style is the most powerful tool in your arsenal.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Build your ideal business. No selling required. None. Zilch!

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marketing, no selling

I’m going to share a powerful marketing idea with you today. It’s all about how to attract high quality clients or customers. With no selling required.

These leads will come from people who already know you, who already value your work AND who really want to work with you.

Let’s go.

I need to start by asking you a question: Over the past 6 months, how much valuable, free information have you given to your prospective clients?

I’m specifically referring to things like newsletter articles, blog posts, videos, Zoom sessions, podcasts etc., which offer useful and valuable information… rather than thinly-disguised sales pitches.

Here’s why that question is critically important to building your ideal business.

No selling required

If you want an endless stream of high quality clients or customers, you need to be front of mind when they have a requirement. You need them to be thinking about you. This means you need to regularly give them something, which they will value. Something useful. Something that makes them interested in what you have to say.

Most small business owners waste their time, trying to get their marketplace excited, using sales messages and special offers. They haven’t figured out yet, that they need to develop a relationship with their marketplace, in advance, if they want to attract the very best enquiries.

Notice I said ‘attract‘ enquiries?

That’s right.

When you stop selling and start helping, your prospective clients come to you. I haven’t sold my services to anyone in over 20 years. But people hire me all the time.

And the difference this makes is huge.

Engage and inform: Don’t just sell

The secret to attracting high quality inbound sales leads, is to focus on engaging your marketplace. Educate them. Inform them. Inspire them. Help with their problems. In short, become a valuable resource. And do this before they even need you.

By engaging in this way, you’ll quickly begin to build relationships and credibility with the people who pay for the exact kind of service or products you offer. And if you tailor the information you provide, so that it’s directly relevant to your IDEAL prospective clients, that’s who you’ll attract enquiries from. (Note that word attract again?)

Through the distribution of valuable, free information, you position yourself as an authority in your field. You also build a relationship with your prospective clients, where they naturally think of you as the source of the help they need. This makes you a safe pair of hands. It also makes hiring you or buying from you way less risky when they need a new provider.

Make no mistake, if you embrace this marketing idea and do it correctly, the results can be breathtaking. You can build your ideal business, working with great clients who value you.

And with no selling required.

Photo: Shutterstock.

7 Essentials for business success

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marketing, usp, different

In just a few weeks time, we will be half way through the year. So, how’s things? Are you on track to hit or smash your 2023 goals?

If you would like a little help, you’ll find this useful. It’s something I’ve shared with thousands of fellow small business owners over the years. It’s 7 essentials we need to regularly remind ourselves of, if we want to build a successful business.

  1. Don’t wait for permission. You don’t need it, so you’re free to get started.
  2. Don’t wait for inspiration to appear. Command it to appear.
  3. Don’t wait for the right opening. Create it.
  4. Don’t wait for someone to pick you. Pick yourself.
  5. Don’t wait for the perfect time. The time is never perfect.
  6. Don’t wait for the initiative. Take it.
  7. Don’t wait for opportunity to knock. Go and build a door.

All 7 of those essentials can be compressed into 1. It’s simply this: Don’t wait for things to happen. Decide what you want to achieve, then get moving.

That’s the only way to take control of your results and get from where your business is right now, to where you want it to be.

The question is, what exactly are you waiting for?

That isn’t a rhetorical question. If you’re not enjoying the level of success you want, there is definitely something that’s blocking you. This is guaranteed to help you find it. And fast!

There’s a world of opportunity out there, which is yours (yes yours) for the taking. So get moving.

Jim, why have my sales numbers dropped?

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Have you noticed an unexpected drop in sales or new clients?

If you have, you’re not alone. It’s a challenge, which business owners regularly reach out to me for help with. Their sales numbers are down, but they haven’t changed anything. And they’re looking for answers.

If this is happening to you, or you want to stop it from happening to you, today’s post contains a few of the most common culprits, along with some ideas on what you should do next.

So, what gives? I’ll explain in a moment.

But first… the elephant in the room

The economy is certainly in bad shape. However, it’s in bad shape for all your competitors, too. And as you probably know, there are businesses in every sector, doing massively better than the rest. Many have thrived. I know this, because I’m working with them; making them as compelling and valuable as possible.

Here’s what we know. When times are rough, people think a lot harder before they spend their money or their budgets. They spend it were they see the greatest value. The most compelling provider wins. And they win big.

Now, let’s look at some very common reasons for an unexpected drop in sales.

Advertising roulette

This is becoming a huge problem for small businesses.

Someone is out-bidding you for online ads (GoogleAds, Facebook Ads etc.). So, the prospective clients who would have clicked on your ads are now clicking your competitor’s ads. You can also experience the same drop, if a competitor has created a more compelling ad.

In either case, they get your buyers or client enquiries. In 2023, advertising (buying sales) is a spectacularly risky way to grow a business. It requires constant monitoring, eats into an indeterminate percentage of your yearly profits and is extremely volatile.

Better competition

A new, agile competitor has arrived, or an existing competitor has hired expert marketing help. In either case, your clients and prospects are now being expertly marketed to, with compelling messages that grab their attention and convert them into paying clients.

Consequently, a number of the sales leads or client enquiries that would have been yours, are now theirs.

A well-funded competitor

A well-funded competitor is targeting your clients and prospects, offering very low prices. The competitor usually commits to losing money for between 6-months and 24-months, in order to gain as much market share as possible. They also bank on a number of their competitors going broke. When handled correctly, this strategy can be extremely effective.

Well-funded businesses, ranging from independent coffee shops to international service providers, are increasingly using this ‘last one standing’ approach.

Value proposition jump

A competitor has found a way to significantly increase the value of their products or services. And it’s selling like crazy.

So, even though your quality or range of services is just as good as ever, it’s no longer as compelling, when measured against the newly improved competition.

What’s the answer?

The threats I’ve just shared with you are only a few of the more common ones. The key is to do some research. Identify what’s happening, then put a strategy in place to overcome it.

The best advice here is this: Be proactive.

For example.

  • Massively reduce or eliminate your reliance on paid advertising. I haven’t spent a penny on advertising since the 1990’s and you don’t need to either. It’s essential that you regain control over getting your sales message out there and acted on.
  • Don’t wait for an agile competitor to turn up, before you seek to increase your value to the marketplace. Do it now. It’s easy. And you’ll win big. I can usually find 5 ways in as many minutes.
  • Adapt fully to whatever challenges the economy is throwing at you. When you do, you’ll not only grow your business, you’ll have a bigger slice of the marketplace. Why? Because your fearful competitors will be hiding from reality in their comfort zones. Scared into inaction. Actually, scared stiff.
  • Get a marketing strategy for your business, which a well-funded competitor can’t penetrate. Then, build a wall of financial security around your business, which a well-funded competitor can’t penetrate. Grow your business. Get stronger financially. Repeat.
  • Become an engaged observer, so you know exactly what you’re competing against. It’s never been easier. Social media lets you see what your marketplace is saying about your competitors. Competitor websites and competitor social media accounts show you what you’re marketing against.
    • Come on. In the past, business owners had to guess. You can just take a look and see what’s going on!

In business, everything happens for a reason. If your sales numbers are down, once you identify why, you can adjust accordingly and turn things around.

This holds true in every economy (including this one) and for every small business owner (including you).

3 Essential things you must tell your prospects

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marketing response

Before you pull the trigger on your next marketing effort, here are 3 questions your prospective clients or customers need you to answer.

  1. I’m busy. Why should I give you my attention?
  2. Your competitors all claim to go the extra mile. They all claim to offer a great service. What meaningful reasons are there, for me to risk switching to you from my current provider?
  3. I’ve never done business with you before. Why should I trust you?

By answering all 3 questions clearly and correctly, you can massively improve the effectiveness of your marketing and your sales. You’ll also set yourself apart from the vast majority of your competitors.

You’ll capture attention, create a motivational message and build the trust required, to inspire your marketplace to respond.

Your future is as bright as you think it is

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marketing, bright future, succeed

I’ve been working with a lot of small business owners, who are prospering mightily right now. Today, I’m going to share a common factor that worked for all of them, and can work equally well for every small business owner reading this.

Yes, including you.

It can be summed up in 2 steps.

1. A shift of focus

We started each time, by helping them to focus on a bright, prosperous future. This sounds obvious, but it absolutely is not! Many small business owners, probably the vast majority, are in survival mode.

The problem with survival mode?

There are many.

The most obvious problem with aiming for survival, is that if you miss your target, you literally fail to survive. Another problem with aiming for survival, is that it’s very hard to succeed in a small business, when your motivation is based on fear. Fear motivation is destructive and exceptionally stressful.

2. A proven plan that they’ve never used before

Once the business owner was focused on knocking it out of the park, we built a clear, simple plan for them to prosper.

Then, we followed the plan.

How?

The small business owner examples I’m sharing with you, all came to me with an urgent need to improve their results. Their industries are all under pressure. Nothing seemed to work. Their sales pipelines and funnels were dry.

So, I used a superfast strategy.

We looked at business ideas from other industries, which are thriving right now. We then adapted them into my client’s small business. Their businesses NOW have a unique proposition to offer prospects. It improves everything. Even though in real terms, they’ve hardly changed! This works in every industry and profession, even the most strictly regulated ones. And it works amazingly fast. I’ve been doing this with clients for decades and I cannot understand why more small business owners aren’t doing it. (Note: That’s just one of the dozens of strategies I use).

Plan for survival and if you hit your survival goal, your ‘prize’ is another year treading water.

Plan to prosper mightily instead. Because your future is as bright as you think it is.

Stop focusing on more sales leads. Really. Just stop

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get more sales leads, client enquiries

What do you think is the most common problem that business owners ask me to help them with?

It’s a version of this: “Hi Jim. I need to get more sales leads (or client enquiries)”.

However, in over 25 years of working with business owners, I have never met or spoken to one whose actual problem was a lack of leads.

Their core (or root) problem is always a lot more obvious and a lot more direct. It’s THAT core problem, which needs their attention.

Not more sales leads

Their core problem will be a need for bigger revenues and profits, or a need for more high-value sales, or perhaps a need for more high-quality clients. That’s their actual problem. Instead, they are looking for answers to their “more leads” question. And it causes them all kinds of frustrating challenges.

Their incorrect focus points them in multiple, fruitless directions. It also confines their thinking around one, solitary aspect of marketing. And it misses their core problem completely.

When I explain this to business groups, I use the following scenario.

  • Imagine someone owns a car and notices the smell of rubber whenever they’re driving.
  • Their core problem is not the unpleasant smell of burning rubber.
  • Their core problem is that something in their vehicle is either burning or drastically overheating.
  • However, they focus on getting rid of the burning rubber smell.
  • They decide to drive with the windows open, but that doesn’t work.
  • They decide to buy an air-freshener, but that doesn’t work. They then buy a few more and none of them work, either.
  • They decide to have the vehicle completely cleaned inside and outside. That doesn’t work.
  • They then decide to plug their nose. This gets rid of the smell, but they can taste the rubber in their mouth.
  • Finally, their smelly car refuses to start. Its electronics have burned out. And their vehicle is trashed.

Focus on your core problem

Then look for effective ways to overcome it.

Just to get you started, here are some useful questions to help you redirect your thinking to successfully resolving your core problem. Use them as a starting point and add your own great questions.

  • What adjustments can I make to my product or service, which will open it up to a new, massively profitable marketplace?
  • Who has already achieved what I need to achieve, and how can I get them to show me the way forward?
  • How can I increase my average customer spend by x%, starting next week?
  • What new, high value services can I provide to my existing clients?
  • How many ways can I think of, to increase my referral rate by XYZ%?
  • How can I motivate customers to buy from me more frequently?
  • What 5 money-making lessons can I learn from (insert name of a successful company outside your industry)?
  • What are the best ways I can find to radically improve my client or customer retention rate?
  • Who are the people that my marketplace already trusts, and what’s the best way to get to know these trusted people?

I hope that helps provide you with some additional clarity, as you plan to smash your business targets.

Marketing that sticks, is marketing that sells

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marketing that sticks sells, marketing spreads sells,

Marketing that spreads does exactly that. It spreads from one person to another. And from a sales perspective, it can be a total waste of your time, energy and focus.

REALLY?

Yup!

That’s because marketing that merely spreads isn’t necessarily marketing that produces bankable results. Clickbait headlines, cute / outrageous / funny videos, provocative images, newsjacking, etc., can all be used to make a marketing message spread like fire.

Without generating a single enquiry or lead, let alone a new client or customer!

Marketing that produces bankable results; (creates sales, attracts new clients, grows your market share, boosts your revenues and profits), is marketing that spreads AND sticks. Most business owners pay way too little attention to that last part.

Marketing that sticks?

Marketing that sticks makes the prospect pause for a moment to take action, before they spread it.

For example, if it’s online, at the very least, they’ll bookmark it or save it, so they can go back to it later and place the order, make the enquiry, fill in the form, call the number… and THEN pass it on.

Yes, marketing that spreads is marketing that sells, but only if it sticks. So be sure to include a direct request (or call to action) in all your marketing. And especially anything designed to be passed around and shared widely.

Your opinions, voice, uniqueness and AI

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human opinion, ai, chatbots, marketing

Opportunity is knocking. It’s knocking loud and it’s knocking clear.

The best part? To benefit from this spectacular opportunity you just need to be yourself.

Allow me to explain.

It starts with a statement of fact: Your opinions are exactly that. They’re yours. They’re as specific to you as your unique blend of life experiences and lessons.

Conversely, artificial intelligence doesn’t have an opinion. Everything about its knowledge base is artificial.

Instead, AI is fed with masses of data. And it’s trained by groups of AI experts. One of the primary tasks of AI trainers, is to keep their AI as neutral to everyone as possible. And in seeking not to offend anyone, AI lacks even an artificial opinion.

In stark contrast

No person who has ever lived is neutral. Unlike AI, we not only have an opinion, we have countless opinions. This includes the opinions and feelings we have regarding the way we do business. And it impacts everything, including:

  • The business tactics we rule in or rule out.
  • The atmosphere we create for our clients or customers.
  • The way we sell or negotiate.
  • The value we place on our products or services.
  • The baseline quality of service or products we provide.
  • The type of staff we hire and the way we look after them.
  • The suppliers we choose.
  • The profile of customers we want to attract (and those we want to avoid).
  • The type of promises and guarantees we provide, etc., etc.

Your business, opinions, voice and uniqueness

Your opinions matter. They always have. They’re what give you your unique voice in the marketplace.

I firmly believe that today, and for the forseeable future, that uniqueness is a powerrful way, maybe the most powerful way, for your business to gain your biggest ever slice of the marketplace.

How?

A growing number of your competitors are switching to AI for their voice. For example, AI tools are creating and guiding their business plans; what to do and what to avoid. Chatbot apps are handling their frontline customer service. Chatbots are also guiding or shaping (and in many cases providing) their; newsletter content, blog posts, video / podcast scripts, advertising copy and social media interactions, etc. In short, everything that prospective clients or customers use in order to judge these businesses, is bland and lifeless.

I’m suggesting that you adopt a very different aproach to AI.

The most savvy business owners I know are also using AI. But the way they use it, excludes every area of their business that carries their DNA. Their opinions and their voice remain 100% human. It’s what guides their messaging, their priorities, their values, their commitment, their customer service and their willingness to go the extra mile. Their businesses have a pulse and personality. They are extremely easy to connect with. They are easy to relate to. And on a very human level, they’re easy to trust. Because they are human. And so is their brand. Not dull and lifeless like the previous example.

Very soon, you’ll be able to stand out and get noticed, in a way that wasn’t possible before. The opportunity is knocking. But only for those who choose to take notice of it.