Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

How to avoid fee sensitive or cost conscious clients

By |

Why would one person earn 10 times more than someone of the same age in the same profession?

I’ve spoken with service providers in the same town, serving the same marketplace and yet one person is out performing the other by over 1,000% in financial terms.  They work the same number of hours, so why would one of them be earning so much more than the other?

To have more, we must first become more

Although we are all equal as human beings, in the marketplace, we each have a market value.  This market value is determined by the amount of value we bring to the marketplace.  The greater the value, the higher we are rewarded.  The solution to earning more, is to become more.

This is why it’s so important NOT to follow the crowd and emulate what you see your competitors doing.  The more you comply to what’s seen as your industry average, the more average your market value will be and thus your results.  The more generic advice you take, the more you will develop a generic business.  That’s why people like me exist!

The industry average is substandard

Those who achieve at the highest levels in any industry, do so because they have cultivated their value accordingly.  They see the industry average as substandard.  You know what?  They are right!  The only people who actively seek out an average kind of service, are those who are focused on price.  These people have no understanding of value – so they buy services based on the lowest prices.

Naturally, the providers in every industry who offer an average service, are attractive to these fee-sensitive or cost conscious people.  They complain about people being fee sensitive, yet they do nothing to attract business from the higher end of their marketplace.

They leave the cream, to those providers who have increased their market value.  It’s insane!

Become more

Take every opportunity to increase your skills, especially those skills that boost your market value.  If you work in a highly competitive industry, like most of us, look for ways to add unique value to your services.  By continuously investing in yourself, you will become a more valued provider and will attract enquiries and leads from people who are focused on value, rather than fees.

What are you doing right now, to increase your market value and attract the right kind of clients?

You are on your way – But where?

By |

In 3, 5 or 10 years time, your business will truly arrive!

The question is; “where?”

Over the past 15 years, I have worked with thousands of business owners all over the world and in my experience, people tend to focus too much on instant gratification.  They are unwilling to invest in ideas unless they believe there will be a super-fast return. This is why so many scammy products exist; offering us super-flat abs in 3 weeks or Internet millions in 3 months!

Paying the price in advance

I’m fortunate to know many self-made millionaires and one of the major differences between them and the other 99.9%, is that the most successful businesspeople are prepared to pay the price for success, in advance.  They know that before they can reap, they have to sow.

For example:

  • They take time to learn the business of business.  They know how a successful business is supposed to work.
  • They take time to research the needs of their marketplace and the best way to service those needs, with the most value possible.
  • They take time to deliberately build contacts with the right people – Not the people who just happen to attend networking events.
  • They take time to understand the meaning and value of integrity.
  • They take time to read the success stories of other successful people, so they can develop their own recipe for success.
  • They know that success is not about money, but lifestyle.  You won’t find them jetting off all over the world doing business, missing their kids growing up.  That’s not success.  It may lead to financial wealth, but success is valuing the things that money can’t buy WAY MORE than the “toys” that money CAN BUY.

For most businesspeople, January does not signal the start of a new year.  It’s simply another chance to live the same old year, all over again. The same financial frustrations.  The same business worries.  The same bullshit that they hope, will one day “just stop.”

If you want a better future, you have to be smarter than that!  This starts with a commitment; to spend less time looking for quick fixes and more time deliberately planning (and working toward) the kind of future you REALLY want.

The price is easy when the promise is clear

By |

How clear are you about EXACTLY what you want to achieve from your business and your life?

Here’s one of my favourite sayings: The price is easy when the promise is clear!

Those rare people, who know what they want from life, find it easy to do whatever is required to succeed.  They are happy to pay the price for success, because they can see what it is leading to.

Conversely, the vast majority of people really don’t know what it is that they want from life.  They think in fuzzy terms, like; “I want things to be better,” or “I want to be financially secure,” BUT they don’t get specific.  They go through life, like a driver who’s heading off on an important journey, without knowing where it is that they are going.  They know they don’t want to be where they are and they know they want something better – But that’s it.  They don’t know if they are on track or heading in the wrong direction.  They waste years going round in circles, working hard and getting nowhere.

Thankfully, as soon as you give yourself some clear, specific, measurable goals or targets – everything changes.  Suddenly, it’s easy to spot if you are on track or not.  It becomes easy to identify the key people you need to connect with.  Yes, there will be a few detours, but because you know what your destination is, you simply keep heading in the right direction.

If you want more from your business or your life in general, take some time to explore the areas of your life, which you want to improve. Then, set some clear, specific, measurable goals for each of them.

Are you REALLY prepared to pay the price for success?

By |

If we want commercial success, there is always a price to pay!

That price is the courage to do all the things we need to do, in order to succeed; rather than cherry-picking the things we find easy, and ignoring the rest.

Think of it like this:  If you were to try and bake a cake, but decided to miss out some key ingredients, like flour and water, the cake would be a mess.  Well, when someone decides to avoid the key ingredients for business success, they end up with the same kind of disappointing end result.

My mentor, the late, great Jim Rohn, used to put it like this:
“For every promise, there is a price to pay.”

The courage to succeed

One of my clients told me on Wednesday morning that she has seen around a 300% increase in her turnover/revenue in the past few months, whilst working with me.  This made me particularly proud, as this lady did a number of marketing activities that were new to her, and outside of her old way of thinking.  This lady is a regular commenter here and if she recognises herself from that description, she may want to let you know who she is.  She deserves a massive amount of credit for what she has achieved in such a short time!

In my experience, most business owners and entrepreneurs already know many of the things they need to do, in order to succeed; but they lack the confidence / courage to put them into action.  I’ve seen their bookshelves – Packed with worldclass marketing information, which they have never used.  This is why I work to inspire my clients, rather than “just” give them the marketing ideas and answers they need.

A solution

If there are marketing activities you know you should be doing, but have stopped yourself from doing from fear of failure (or fear of success), why not try doing just one of them today?  Here are 140 marketing ideas to get you started.  The results can often be amazing and create a momentum, which motivates you to carry on driving yourself forward.

I would be interested to know if you have experience of motivating yourself to do what was required, and then seeing a direct improvement in your results.  Let us know!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Marketing, persistence and pests!

By |

Don’t you find it amazing that in 2010, people are still using the 1980’s sales and marketing model of pestering and pursuing people?

Here’s the problem with that approach: People hate being pestered and pursued.

For example, I received an email last week, whilst I was on holiday with my wife and 4 year old son.  The email started with the line; “I know you are on holiday with your family but…” then he hit me with a sales pitch.  He showed me zero respect and instantly alienated me.  The same guy then emailed me again today with the same pitch and said he hoped I “respected his professional persistence.”  There’s nothing professional about what he did.  In fact, the message he gave me was; “Yes, I know you are on holiday but I really don’t give a shit about you – buy this now!”

Permission marketing & professional marketing

For over 2 decades, I have successfully used and advocated the use of, what some people today call permission marketing.  Back then, we simply called it professional marketing.

Professional marketing is about treating the marketplace with respect.

It’s about operating with class.

It’s about building a strong, professional reputation.

It’s about building relationships.

It’s about trust.

It’s about professionally researching your marketplace.

It’s about considering the person behind the “sale” and not just thinking of everyone as a number.

It’s about engaging with people, who have a genuine, potential need for whatever you are offering and who have given you permission to market to them.

That’s how to build a very successful marketing function!

It’s ironic when you consider the example I gave earlier of a pushy marketer, but email marketing is one of my favourite forms of marketing.  That’s because it lends itself beautifully to the professional marketing model.  When used correctly, it can be super-effective and generate incredible results.  Of course, very few people use email marketing correctly – choosing instead to buy lists or copy them from websites, and then pester people with unwanted sales pitches.  They may get 1 person in 5,000 to place an order, but they will have just sent what felt like spam to the other 4,999! 

A company using that approach for long enough, will actually make their prospective customer base smaller and smaller, with each unwanted email they send.

Have you been pestered by pursuit marketers?  How does it make you feel about the people behind those tactics?  Let us know!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

How to set sales targets and achieve them!

By |

hit sales targets, set sales targets, reach sales targets

I have a question for you today: Are you on track to reach your sales targets?

Don’t worry if you just answered “no” to that question, because I am going to give you some ideas and a stack of free resources, to help you hit your sales targets.

I’m also going to give you a simple 5 step guide, to show you how to set your sales targets in a way that’s easy to manage and achieve!

OK, there are 3 possible answers to my opening question:

  1. Yes.
  2. No.
  3. Sales targets?  What sales targets?

Sales targets: If you are on track

If you are currently on track to reach your sales targets, keep on moving forward.  Just make sure you don’t allow complacency to rob you of a great year’s results.  Examine what you have been doing and look for the most effective elements of your marketing, as well as any elements that have underperformed.

Seek to improve your weaker areas and refine your stronger areas.  Nothing happens in business by chance, so be sure to research where your successes have come from, so you can build on them in the 2nd half of the year.

Oh, and WELL DONE!

Sales targets: If you are off track

If you are currently off track, this is a fantastic time to review your marketing strategy and get yourself on track.  Make a list of every marketing activity you are using as part of your overall marketing strategy and examine how well or how poorly they have been performing for you.

If you are currently using certain types of marketing simply because you see others using it or because it feels comfortable, STOP!

You need to identify the correct marketing mix for you and your business, based on your sales targets, your resources and what you want to achieve. Here are 180 marketing and business development ideas to help you.

Here’s a list of 32 questions, to help you get your marketing and business development back on track.  Oh, and if you have not yet discovered the right marketing for you, here is a list of my top marketing tips.

Sales targets: What sales targets?

Most small business owners don’t have a process in place, to set and then track their sales targets.  It’s easy to see why, when you consider that the whole process seems so complicated.  This makes it hard to focus and to he honest, a little daunting too.  The good news is that it’s easy to set realistic, easy to follow sales targets.

The key, is for you to know how many sales you should be making each month or each week, in order to meet your annual turnover and profit goals.  By chunking the annual number down into monthly or weekly targets, it’s far easier and less daunting to keep on top of the figures.

Here’s a simple, easy to follow way to discover what your sales targets should be, in weekly or monthly chunks.

  1. List your turnover / revenue targets for the next 12 months.  We need to know what this figure is, in order to know how many sales you should be making each year.
  2. Now, list how many “average” sales you would need to make over the next 12 months, in order to achieve the above figures.  Write this number down.
  3. To get an approximate idea what your “average” sale value is, list (for example) the value of your last 20 sales, and then divide that number by 20.  This is only an approximate figure, but it will give you something to work with and is usually pretty accurate.
  4. Now, divide the number you wrote down in step 2, by 12.  This will give you a monthly sales target.
  5. If you want to work on weekly targets, (this suits some business types better than others), simply divide the annual number of sales by 52.

The great news is that no matter how things are right now, you can improve your sales and not only reach your annual targets, but blow the lid off them!

Whatever you do, make sure that if you are off target and not enjoying the success your hard work deserves, that you make the changes required.  Things will not “just get better” by themselves.  For better results, you need to be making better marketing decisions.

Tip: If you found this useful, you can get my latest ideas delivered direct to your inbox, for free, right here.

Marketing and reliability

By |

This post is all about the role that reliability plays in marketing.

Close to where I live, there’s a sign on the road outside a cafe that says open. Now, even though this place is only open during certain hours each day, the open sign is always there.

In effect, the sign is useless or maybe even less than useless for the owners of that cafe.

Why?

Because people will see the sign, pull over and try to go in, during times or days when the place is closed.  If you really want to hack-off a potential customer, get him or her to get out of their car in the rain and run over to your cafe, so they can learn that you’re actually closed, but you’re too lazy to change the open sign.  So, by not changing this sign, the cafe will be wasting a lot of potential customer’s time – people who will never again trust that the place is actually open, just because the sign says so.  It’s easier for them to go to a reliable place, that’s open when it says it is.

Marketing and reliability

I saw something similar last year, with a restaurant that kept changing it’s opening hours.  One week it would be open Monday – Friday another week it would only be open 4 days a week and another week, it would only be open on weekends.  Guess what?  It pretty quickly went broke.  Potential diners never knew if it would be open or not, so if they were out and wanted a meal, they wouldn’t risk going all the way there, to find it closed.

In business, there is a need for reliability.  People need to know that if we, as service providers, will be there when we say we will.  We need to ensure that we turn up regularly.  We need to earn the trust of our marketplace, so they know they can rely on us. This is part of the reason, why I sent out scheduled blog posts last week, even though I was on a week long holiday.  People come here expecting to see something new, so I made sure they were not disappointed.

The marketing power of giving

By |

Whilst I had not planned to write any new blog posts during my holiday, (I’ve been sending out scheduled posts since last Thursday), I really wanted to share this with you.  It’s all about the power of small, simple human connections – the kind that are easy to forget, yet can be so powerful for you and your business.

What follows is a recent example, of how taking a few moments to think about another person’s situation and then offer some help, in even a very small way, can totally change that person’s day and the way they think about you.

It’s cool to help

On Saturday, I took my family to visit a castle in North Yorkshire.  It was a hot, sunny day – around 80 degrees.  The place was packed.  The castle shop and ticket office were looked after by a very warm looking man, who I would guess was in his early sixties.  He was busily working hard, to get everyone into the castle, whilst serving the gift shop’s customers too.  I took a moment to speak with him and handed him a cold drink, which I’d got from the drinks machine.

His face lit up!  He told me that in 14 years of working there, no one had ever done that before.

On our way out, the guy came over to us and thanked me again.  The queue in the shop had gone and he was looking a lot cooler.  He then gave my son a quick lesson on the castle’s history and handed all three of us, free tickets to a medieval jousting and falconry display; taking place there that evening.  These tickets had been sold out for ages; we knew this because we tried to buy some before we set off on holiday!

The marketing power of giving

When I started out in sales, a former boss of mine told that it was important to help as many people within our marketplace as possible.  He said these should be small, easy things – acts of kindness or help, which didn’t take too long to deliver – but were hard to forget.  It worked.  In fact, it worked extremely well and has continued to do so for the past 24 years!

Now, back when I started out proactively looking for ways to help prospective clients, it was almost exclusively with a focus on what I would get in return.  Interestingly, after just a few weeks, I found that it had become a natural part of my daily routine and not just limited to business.  I started looking for ways to help people, no matter who they were and without any thought of how it might benefit me (hence the castle example above.)

Most people will help someone in distress.  This is different! This is about helping people, who may not be standing with their arms waving for help – those whose need may be less obvious or less vocal.  If you have not previously tried this approach, I suggest you give it a try.  As I wrote previously, small things can have a massive positive impact on your results AND make work a lot more fun too!

I would be interested to hear if you have had similar experiences to mine or what you think about this simple idea.  Get in touch and let us know!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

3 assets worth more to you than money!

By |

There are a number of assets in business, which have greater value than money.  Here are three examples and why I believe they are worth so much.

Self-motivation is worth more than money

If you have the MONEY to hire the best advisors, but lack the motivation to actually use their advice, you will quickly lose the money.  However, the person with the self-motivation to take intelligent action can have as much money as he or she is committed to earning.  This is why people can go from rags to riches and why many rich people, end up not only broke – but broken.

In my business, I work hard to avoid people, who want to hire me as their marketing coach, just so we can have lots of interesting conversations.  This is because I know that unless someone is motivated enough to get off their butt and work with the ideas and answers I provide to them, they won’t achieve anything. However, a self-motivated person working to a great plan, is simply unstoppable!

Faith is worth more than money

No matter how rich a person is financially, if they lack faith in; them self, their spouse, their friends, their company or product etc  – they won’t feel very wealthy.  Personally, I find that during the crunch times in life, and we ALL have those times, it’s also great to have faith in something that’s bigger than we are.  In my case, that’s faith in God.

It’s impossible to move forward, unless we have faith in others and ourselves; from faith that the brakes on your car will work, to faith that if you work hard enough doing the right things, your business plans will work.

Knowledge is worth more than money

If someone dumps a million or two into Bob’s bank account, he better quickly learn how to be a millionaire!  Otherwise, Bob won’t be a millionaire very long.

The reason lottery companies provide financial experts to work with the lottery winners, who win the major prizes, is that they were worried about all the negative stories, of multi-million lottery winners, who went broke and often ended up with less than they started with.  That’s because money without knowledge, tends to disappear very quickly.  A fool and his money, and all that!  Of course, many lottery winners still went broke after getting great financial advice, because they lacked the self-motivation to use what they were told.

My mentor, the late Jim Rohn, used to say that the real value of building a million dollar business is NOT the million dollars.  It’s the learning and knowledge we acquire earning that fortune.  Take a million away from a millionaire, who made that money themselves, and they can make another million.  This has been proven again and again to be true.

Buyer’s remorse: What is it & why does it matter?

By |

Have you ever heard of the term; buyer’s remorse?

This post will explain a little about what it is and how to stop it from hurting your business!

Buyer’s remorse

Buyer’s remorse is the name given to that feeling we get, when we buy a product or service and then discover something that makes us wish we hadn’t.  With product sales, we generally feel buyer’s remorse when we find a lower price for the same product, somewhere else.  With services, buyers remorse often happens when we learn that the great service we received during the sales process, is not how that company looks after us once they have our money.

It’s that feeling in the pit of our stomach that tells us we have been fooled or suckered and it’s extremely powerful.

Powerful?

Oh yes!  If enough people feel buyer’s remorse about a particular service provider, it can put that provider out of business!

Buyer’s remorse and customer service

Many companies allocate more time and effort to marketing, than they do to customer service.  They wrongly see marketing and customer service as two largely unrelated things.  The truth is that they are both essential parts of a business’ development.

Why?

  • A business that increases sales by 20% in a year BUT loses 20% of their customer base annually because of average quality service, is going nowhere.
  • A business that increases sales by 20% in a year BUT loses 21% of their customer base annually because of poor quality service, is going broke.

As I have said here before, companies that look after their customers and genuinely go the extra mile, not only retain more of their existing customers, they also enjoy a windfall reward:  They attract word of mouth referrals from their happy customers!

Conversely, when companies under-deliver to their customers, they find that their reputation within the marketplace can be severely damaged.  Today, if Bob upsets a customer, they won’t just call his company and complain – they will tell their buddies on Twitter, Facebook etc.

So, how long does it take to tell your whole social network about your bad experience?  Seconds!  This is one of the reasons why today, it makes more sense than ever to connect your customer service operation and your marketing operation.

Buyer’s remorse: Why is it so common?

One of the reasons there is so much buyer’s remorse out there, is that many businesses are very poor at listening to their customers and clients.

Providers make the mistake of assuming that silence is golden – That if they are not getting calls and emails of complaint, that everyone’s happy. Of course, the reality is that in the massive majority of instances, this is just not the case.

Many people choose to avoid confrontation with a supplier and simply leave the service, as soon as they are able to.  In fact, as I said earlier, people today are a lot more inclined to share their frustration with their friends on a social network, than to confront the provider.

The bottom line here, is that business owners simply cannot allow this to happen.  It’s important to proactively ask for feedback, especially from those customers you have not heard from in a while.

The best businesses listen to their customers and seek to constantly improve the quality of their offering.  They see buyer’s remorse as a complete failure and work hard to combat it.  They want every customer experience with them to be not only positive, but of such great value that their customers want to sing their names from the roof tops!

If a business  wants to attract word of mouth referrals, it need to offer a level of service that’s REALLY worth talking about.

To be remarked upon, we must first become remarkable!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Don’t get a bad name!

By |

If you are starting a new business or launching a new product or service, it’s really important to get the name right.  Sadly, it’s very easy to get it wrong and end up wasting a lot of time and money trying to unpick the mess!

So, here are 3 tips to help you get it right first time:

Choose a name that’s attractive and positive

The name should create an attractive, positive image in the mind of those who hear or read it.  This is because people think in pictures.  We hear a word and BOOM – We build a mental picture.  For example, it’s hard to think of the word elephant, without seeing the image of an elephant in our mind.

So, pick a name that creates the kind of image that your target market will be attracted to.

Choose a name that’s easy to spell

If you give your business a name that’s hard to spell and people go looking for it on a search engine, there’s a real possibility they will not find you.

Famously, a search engine launched last year with 33 million dollars of investment behind it, which was called cool dot com (but spelt cuil.com.)  One of the many reasons given for its failure, is that people were hearing all the buzz about cool.com, when they should have been going to cuil.com.

The bottom line here, is that a tricky to spell name creates unnecessary additional barriers between you and people looking for your services.

Think about the URL

It makes sense to pick a name, which has a version of it’s URL available – so you end up with a relevant website address.  There are also some huge SEO benefits from picking your name / URL wisely.

Here’s a quote from a post I wrote about the importance of getting the right URL for your business:

“By including the words marketing blog in the URL of this blog, almost every link that points here also includes those 2 words.  This means there are thousands of links, which point here and tell Google that this is a marketing blog.  As a result, anyone searching for marketing blog or marketing blogs etc on Google, will find this blog on page one; even though there are over 100 MILLION results listed.“

Google, social media and SEO

By |

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks, about probable changes to the way that Google ranks search engine results. The general belief is that mentions (links) to your site from social media sites are starting to play a bigger role in where Google ranks you.

Because of the secrecy that surrounds Google’s algorithm, it’s not possible to say definitively what kind of additional influence this is having on search results.  However, it now seems increasingly likely that links from places like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Linkedin etc may be carrying influence with Google.  This post on Mike Moran’s SEO blog by Chris Angus, explains the impact of social networks on SEO nicely and in plain English too (Kudos Mike.)

Whilst the number of pages / sites linking to you is still the key factor in your overall visibility, it seems that mentions on social media sites are starting to be used as a form of additional verification.  It has been clear for some time that Google understands the importance of the communications shared across social networks.  This is why they added Tweets and shares from other networks, in their search results some months ago.

Failings with the current system are obvious.  A good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) provider can get a site of average value thousands of places above a poorly optimised site, with great value content.  This is why so much superb content goes undiscovered and why we often find results for searches that are disappointing.  Clearly, Google is keen to try and address this issue, though I can’t see their latest initiative changing things much.

Why?

Good SEO providers are already adapting their strategies and incorporating social media as part of their SEO mix.  As soon as Google changes their algorithm (or it is believed they have), the SEO guys change too.  These SEO’s are masters of testing and measuring.  If they see that incorporating social media or social bookmarking is boosting search rankings, they simply add it to their SEO tool kit .

Bottom line: Today AND for the foreseeable future, great content backed up with solid SEO are a vital part of gaining visibility for your site.  High value content will keep people coming back for more and encourage them to recommend you, but they need to find you in the first place.  Embracing social media has always been a good idea, but perhaps even more so now.

Six things I discovered this week

By |

Here are six things I discovered this week, which you may find interesting:

  1. I discovered that when some a-list bloggers offer a free report, it’s actually just a long advertisement, with some tips at the beginning.  That’s not a report, that’s an advertisement that tries to fool people into reading it.  Not a great way to win a prospective customer’s trust or respect.
  2. I learned that Google Buzz has a great deal of potential as a place to learn and to share information with your contacts.  You can connect with me on Google Buzz here.
  3. I learned that my intuition is still alive and well.  I was thinking of doing a post here, that recommended a service provider I use, but something kept telling me not to; even though the service had been extremely reliable.  The service went down this week and the customer service was one of the worst I’ve ever experienced.  Your intuition can be a huge asset when you learn to trust it.
  4. I discovered this very clever quote from Winston Churchill: “When you are going through hell – Keep going!”
  5. I saw that Facebook held a “crisis meeting” because of the feedback to their attitude to user privacy.  Maggie Shiels’ article on The BBC website covers it extremely well.
  6. I noticed earlier that this will be the 28th post I’ve written in the past 28 days.  I’m pretty sure that’s a record for me.

So, what did you discover or rediscover this week?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Small things can make a BIG difference!

By |

How would you like to create a massive, positive impact in your marketplace?

Simple: Do some small things every day!

Over the years, I have found that success is seldom the result of a single, enormous action.  Instead, it comes from doing small things every day.  Each day, I make sure that as well as my regular workload, I take some time out to help others in small ways.

For example:

  • If I see someone on Twitter, who has a problem that I can help them with, I will often give them a quick call.  I usually limit the call to 15 minutes and I don’t do this every day, but you would be amazed at the kind of response this simple act creates.
  • If I use a photographer’s work here on the blog, I give them a name credit and link to their Flickr account, so others can check them out.  Many have thanked me and a few have even blogged about it.
  • I have had many blog comments, tweets and emails from people, simply because I ask people to join me on Twitter – not follow me on Twitter.  In my opinion, the idea of  social media rockstars is not only wrong, it makes me cringe!
  • When you leave a comment on this blog, if your name is included in your comment, I use your name as part of my reply.  I would use your name if we met, so why not use it when we meet here on the blog?  Again, this is commented on often

Each of the things listed above are just typical parts of my working week.  I’m sure there are others, which I do on auto-pilot and am not even consciously aware of.  These things are not deliberately done simply for effect, but from a career long belief I have had about the importance of making a positive contribution.

What do YOU do in order to make a difference within your marketplace?  Let us know!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Are you sounding your horn or trying to help?

By |

I remember seeing a car that had broken down in heavy traffic, on Times Square, in Manhattan.

The driver was frantically trying to restart it, whilst the man in the car behind kept sounding his horn.

The harder the driver tried to restart her car, the noisier the guy behind became.  Suddenly, the driver of the broken down car got out, went up to the noisy guy behind and made a suggestion:

“Tell you what – How about you try getting my car started, whilst I sit in your car and make noise like a jerk for you?”

In a situation like the one above, people fall into 1 of 3 groups.

  1. Those who sound their horn and make things worse.
  2. Those who notice there’s a problem, but do nothing.
  3. Those who notice there’s a problem, then look for a way to help or contribute.

That first group is (thankfully ) fairly small.

The second group is by far the largest.

The third group is rare.  This is also where the gold is.

The world loves and rewards problem solvers.  The marketplace does too, which is why we always need to be focusing on contribution.  More than this, we need to proactively increase our problem solving skills; because the bigger the problems we can solve, the greater the marketplace will value us.

Look at the products or services you provide as answers to the marketplaces problems.  Now, what can you add to your current offering, which will allow you to be of even greater help?

What problem does your service or product solve for people?  Me? I help small and medium sized businesses make more money and attract the kind of clients or customers they have always dreamed of working with.

Are you getting bankable results from your blog?

By |

Fact: Very few small business owners who blog, generate anything like the results they could.

Why?

This is the easiest question I have ever answered here! The reason so few bloggers attract the volume of sales, leads or enquiries they should, is that they copy what they see other bloggers doing.

Here’s what I see all day every day:  I see bloggers writing a valuable, correctly optimized blog post, before heading off to their preferred social networking sites to try and get the post noticed.  Sound familiar?  If it does, I hope it’s not because you are using that same approach.  If you are, you are missing the most important elements – those rare, additional steps that make all the difference and get people spending money with you!

I was explaining this to a new client of mine yesterday afternoon.  She’s intelligent, charismatic and a specialist in her profession.  However, like many specialists who use blogging as part of their marketing mix, she had been using the same approach that I outlined above – which failed her (which is why she hired me.)

An hour into our meeting, I showed her what’s possible when you use the right approach.  I quickly checked the email account, which gets all the enquiries generated from this blog.  In that hour alone, there had been 3 emails, including an enquiry for my services.  By the end of business yesterday, that enquiry became a confirmed, new client and I’m really looking forward to helping them achieve bankable results too.  I’m not telling you that to impress you, but to impress upon you just what’s possible, when you use the correct strategy.

Of course, there are 2 major problems with trying to achieve success, by copying what you see others doing.

  1. You might be copying what does not work.  It’s easy to see a blog with lots of comments or lots of retweets / facebook “likes” etc – and assume this means the blog is also commercially successful.  It doesn’t!All those measurements show you is that there are people who commented there or retweeted the post.It tells you zero about how commercially effective that blog is at generating new business for it’s owner.  Many of my clients come to me with large social networks and active blogs that they have worked really hard on, with nothing to show for it.  You know what?  People will have been copying THEIR approach too, because it looked successful from the outside!
  2. Not only may you be copying what does not work, but even if you found a blog that was doing things right, the untrained eye will miss it completely.That’s because the many differences between a blog that’s an income generating machine and one that’s not, are extremely subtle.For example, I don’t know much about golf, so when I see a golfer hitting a golf ball, that’s all I see.  When a professional golfer sees that same guy hitting that same ball, they can identify exactly what’s happening – what’s failing, what needs removing and what needs to be added to the golfer’s swing etc.

When it comes to marketing, a blog is like any other tool.  If used correctly, it can easily become your best source of new, targeted business.  However, just like every other marketing tool, only a tiny fraction of small business owners use blogs correctly, for what they want to achieve.

The rest just dabble and as a result, it costs them a fortune in lost business and YEARS in wasted time.

In short, if you want to enjoy better results you need a better strategy.  You need an effective strategy that’s been developed for; you, your business, your industry, your unique resources and what you want to achieve.  Whatever you elect to do, if you are not currently getting the regular stream of new business from your blog that you deserve, please change course.

As I have said here many times before; if you are rowing your boat in the wrong direction, no matter how hard you row, you will simply end up further and further away from where you want to be.  You deserve far better than that!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Just imagine this!

By |

I had breakfast this morning with my son, like I do every morning.  Today, we were joined for breakfast by; Noddy, a kitten, Luke Skywalker and a cow.  He saw them, we both spoke with them and I’m pretty sure everyone had a great time.  That’s because the imagination of a 4 year old child is incredible.

How often do you tap into your imagination?

Our imagination can be an amazing asset to our businesses (and our lives), if we use it correctly.  For example, just imagine for a moment:

  • If your business were perfect in every way, what would it look like?
  • If you spent the next 7 days focusing on what you want, and refused to think about what you fear, how would that change your decision making and your results?
  • If you were able to have any 10 people in the world as contacts, who would they be and how would your connection with them change your business and your future? (I explain, in detail, exactly how to do this and a lot more, in my audio program)

Someone once told me that our imagination is our window into our future.  I think he had a very good point.  Everyone I know, who has ever achieved anything, saw what they achieved in their imagination before they saw it with their eyes.  They felt it with their emotions, before they could feel it with their fingers.

What do you use your imagination for?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Loving life: Today and every day!

By |

My friend Doug (not his real name) has everything going for him, but until recently, if you had met him you’d have thought the weight of the world was on his shoulders.  He has a great family, wonderful friends and a successful business but never seemed particularly happy.

Then a few months ago he changed, I mean HE REALLY CHANGED!

Literally overnight, he became a totally different person.  He seemed enormously happier, more relaxed, more attentive and a lot more fun to be with.  I wanted to know why, so I took him out to lunch yesterday and asked.  His answer may seem a little basic, but it has already had a massive, positive impact on me.

Here is a truncated version of what he told me, which he was keen for me to share with you:

“I found an old workbook, which had my a first ever list of goals.  Of course, they were the goals of a 25 year old guy and I have long since achieved them.  I had never previously thought about it like that.  You see Jim, after achieving a goal, I replace it with another one, so that I continue to grow as a person.  So, the list just continued and never ended.  There was no closure.  I suddenly realized that I was in a game, which I could never really win, because everything that really mattered was being deferred until I reached the next goal, then the next, then the next…

No matter what I achieved, I always just saw it as a step to the next improvement or increase.  This means I spent 20 years with a feeling of dissatisfaction with everything, always seeking to improve.  I never once stopped to appreciate what I had at any point along the way.  Now, I take time to smell the roses.  I celebrate everything and am thankful for everything and everyone in my life.

It’s easy for any of us, as business owners or entrepreneurs, to focus too much on the future and not focus enough on getting the most out of the now.  Yes, we all need goals and targets, but something special happens when we learn to fully enjoy what’s worth celebrating in our lives right now.

4 Secrets of the world’s most successful businesses!

By |

Thankfully, we don’t have to guess or wonder what it takes to be successful in business. The answers are in the stories behind every successful businessperson, who has been kind enough to share them.

Here are 4 things I have seen over and over again, in every successful businessperson I have ever studied:

1. Expert advice

Successful businesspeople invest in expert advice. As a result, they make better decisions and take the right actions, for what they need to achieve. Unsuccessful businesspeople do the opposite. They try and do too much themselves and immediately lose ground to their successfully guided competitors. They literally set themselves up to fail, under the misguided belief they are actually saving money.

The stock reply whenever I speak with someone, who refuses to pay for specialist help, is that they can’t afford it. The belief here, is that every small business, other than theirs, has access to a stack of money. The reality is very, very different.

It’s about priorities!

I spoke with a guy recently, who “can’t afford” a professionally designed logo – yet he “can afford” $4 a day (over $1,200 a year) on a “grande” cappuccino.

I’ve discussed this bizarre approach to business with scores of people over the years and the general consensus, is that this is what happens when someone without a business mindset, decides to start a business. These guys focus on loss, so they lose. Successful people focus on achievement, so they achieve.

2. Comfort zones

All business owners will tell you that they work hard, and most of them do (really hard.) However, hard work is not the key to success. If it were, our grandparents would have been millionaires!

Here’s where the difference is: Successful businesspeople work hard doing what needs to be done, whilst their less successful counterparts work hard doing what’s most comfortable. Successful business owners love what they do, but realise that they often need to break out of their comfort zones if they want their business to grow.

Less successful business owners only really leave their comfort zones, when pushed by external factors – like the loss of a major client or another problem that forces them to s-t-r-e-t-c-h. As a result of this unwillingness to grow, their business reaches a certain point and stays there, spinning it’s wheels; until they retire, go broke or learn how to take action!

3. Association

As human beings, we are all of equal value. However, in business, we each have a value; based on what we bring to the marketplace. This is why some hard working people earn minimum wage and others work the same number of hours and earn 7 figures every year.

Here’s what we know about people who are commercially successful. We know that they associate with other, commercially successful people. This is because they understand the  massive power of association. As my friend Michael told me, when I was starting out in marketing, 25 years ago:

Jim, hang around with enough people who are going nowhere and one day, everything they have will be yours!

You should always be aware of the impact your associates are having on you and your happiness / success. Why? Because everything we come into contact with has an impact on us, either positive or negative. When it comes to our associates, especially those with whom we habitually associate, it pays to ask ourselves some questions about the impact they are having on us. For example:

  • What have they got you reading?
  • What have they got you saying?
  • What have they got watching and which other voices do they have you listening to?
  • What have they got you believing?

Even well intentioned associates can knock us off course, without meaning to. It’s up to us, to filter out the negative influences and spend more time around those who help us be happier and more successful.

4. Learning

The most successful businesspeople I know, are lifelong learners. I don’t mean they just read books, buy programs or attend seminars / training events. I mean they learn from life. They know that if they try something and it doesn’t work, they need to learn from it and move forward. They see a bad result simply as valuable feedback. This attitude means they become better decision makers and action takers, because their “mistakes” are of value to them.

Now, compare that approach, to the approach used by people whose businesses spin their wheels. These guys keep repeating the same errors. It’s why they make so little progress.

Remember: If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!

A common example I see in my profession, is when business owners waste years, trying to improve their marketing by doing it themselves. They grab information from the Internet / newsletters etc – NONE of which has been developed for them, their business or their skills or resources. This actually costs them massively more in both time and money, BUT it’s comfortable and as said in the previous section, they love being comfortable above everything else.

Here’s a glimpse into YOUR future!

By |

Would you like to know what your commercial future looks like?

Let me show you!

Just as your past actions have created the commercial success you are enjoying (or otherwise) today, the actions you are taking today are what will determine your results over the coming months / years.  Cause and effect.

If you are repeating the same approach to developing your business today, as you have done in the past, then your future will be “about the same” as it is now.  Yes, there will be highs and lows, but these will be within the same ballpark as your current ones.  Never much better, never much worse.

Of course, if you are working smarter today than you were last month or last year, then your future will be brighter.  The highs will be higher – maybe MUCH higher, and the lows will be less frequent and not quite so low either.

The great news is that we can change our future and improve it beyond all recognition, by making better, more informed decisions today and taking action.

True; we can’t instantly achieve massive commercial success.

You know what though?

We CAN instantly set a new course, which will take us there!

Isn’t that fantastic?