Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

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.

12 Quick tips and ideas to help your business thrive

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get started, marketing

In no particular order.

  1. Be stingy with your time, but not with your ideas.
  2. Your past does not equal your future. Next level results are yours, when you take next level actions.
  3. All business is personal.
  4. Either do what you love or learn to love what you do. Both approaches work extremely well.
  5. To develop a new service, you do not need to reinvent the wheel. A relatively small improvement to an existing way of doing business, can open up a whole new marketplace for you.
  6. Outsmarting your competitors works best, when you’re outcaring them, too.
  7. Optimism is highly contagious. And never more so than in times of uncertainty.
  8. To be in greater demand, provide greater value. Whether a business serves the top end of the market or the bottom end, its customers always want value.
  9. A business can only be as successful as the weakest link in its leadership.
  10. Opportunities come with a use-by date. If something looks like it has potential, do the research and if it stacks up, get moving.
  11. Be eager to take responsibility. Step forward. Especially when others step back.
  12. Whenever possible, be kind. And it’s always possible.
  13. Strive to give others more than they expect from you. That little extra has a big impact.

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.

Sales Targets: You’re doing it all wrong

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Much better than I expected

There’s something a lot of business owners get wrong about sales targets. It’s simply this: They usually misunderstand the reason for setting these important targets. And in doing so, they miss all the important stuff. The stuff that helps them achieve spectacular sales results, month after month and year after year.

Here’s why you need to set sales targets, along with 13 examples.

Why sales targets are essential

The reason you need sales targets is to improve the sales effectiveness of your business.

  • Not to motivate you to work harder.
  • Not to motivate you to do more of the same, only faster.
  • Not to treat it like the daily steps target on your smartphone app.

No!

You need to make changes in order to:

  1. Improve your knowledge of the marketing strategies and tactics that work best today.
  2. Improve the quality of prospects you attract.
  3. Improve the story people in your marketplace have, when they talk about your business.
  4. Improve how you measure the sales-effectiveness of your marketing activities.
  5. Improve the commercial value of your contact network.
  6. Improve the experience of doing business with you.
  7. Improve the way your business looks to the outside world. Design, photos, use of social media, etc.
  8. Improve your marketing response rates.
  9. Improve your awareness of the problems your prospects are most concerned about.
  10. Improve the way you handle inbound enquiries from prospects.
  11. Improve how visible you are to your target market.
  12. Improve the number of advocates your business has.
  13. Improve your marketing decision making.

And carry on improving, until you get the maximum return from all your marketing and sales efforts. When you do, you’ll start to benefit from compound marketing. Compound marketing does for your sales results, what compound interest does for your money. It grows at an accelerating rate.

When it happens, your business will experience exponential growth. So set those sales targets, and let them inspire you to make the improvements required. You have everything to gain.

How to know if your next business idea is a winner

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winning idea, next idea a winner

So, how do you know if your next business idea has the potential to succeed?

One way to get a very good steer in the right direction, is to share the idea with a select group of people before you launch it. These should be people you trust, and whose opinion you value. They should also be the kind of people your product or service is aimed at.

Then, observe what happens

– If those people ask you if they can tell their friends about your idea, or they ask if they can get involved in your idea, you could have a success on your hands.

– If those people smile, tell you your idea is great, but don’t ask you if they can tell their friends, or don’t ask if they can get involved in it, you probably need to improve the idea or ditch it.

In business, when you want to know what someone really thinks, focus your attention on what they do. Actions not only speak louder than words, they tend to speak the truth.

Increase your value. Then market it effectively

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Marketing and value

If you’re a service provider, your income is based on just 2 things.

1. The value you bring. This is what determines how much your clients pay you. Between the best paid and the lowest paid, there can be a factor of 10x and often much more. Much more? Absolutely. My friend hired a photographer for a product shoot in London recently. The person he hired charged £17,000 for the shoot. The lowest quote for the same shoot, was just over £900.

2. How effectively you market the value you bring. This is what attracts the attention of your prospective clients. It’s what communicates your value in a way that motivates people to hire you.

Each of those areas can be improved. And by focusing on both areas, they leverage one another. When this happens, it radically improves everything for you.

Leveraged for spectacular results

That’s right. You get the financial reward of charging 5x, 10x, 20x… or whatever. Plus you’re also attracting more clients. These combine and compound. The results are transformational.

The best part?

All of this is possible, by focusing your attention and activity on just 2 things.

Business owners who work on those areas correctly, don’t just improve their results. They dramatically improve their results. So, refuse to settle for less than you deserve. Increase your value and then market it effectively.

Jim, when will things pick up again?

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Marketing forward

Here’s what business owners are telling me, in increasing numbers every day.

Our website used to generate regular sales or leads. Now it doesn’t.

Our newsletter used to attract client enquiries. Now it doesn’t.

Our Linkedin, Facebook (whatever) activity used to regularly drive decent traffic to our website. Now it doesn’t.

Our business used to grow steadily each year. Now it doesn’t.

Our future used to look promising. Now it doesn’t.

When things are heading in the wrong direction, literally the only commercially viable option you have is to change direction. To try something better. Something different. Something new. This means either adjusting elements of your existing marketing strategy, replacing elements of your marketing strategy or creating a new marketing strategy that’s designed for the unique economic conditions we all face.

The main challenge here is that everyone, including me, finds the process of change at least a little scary. However, when used correctly, that uneasy feeling can be what drives you and your business forward.

Allow me to explain.

There’s a business maxim I’ve heard many times over the years. You have probably heard it too. “If it doesn’t feel scary, it’s not moving you forward”. In other words, when you’re heading in the wrong direction, you can use fear as your compass, to guide you forward.

And conversely, if you feel entirely comfortable about putting your changes into play, it could be that you’re aiming too low for the kind of improvement you need.

For a multitude of different reasons, these are truly challenging times. And there’s nothing to suggest that things will ping back to anything like the way they were before the 2020’s.

None of us (small business owners like you and me) can tough this one out. It’s a 100%, totally open-ended situation. This means that every day you try to stay as you are, you’re actually going backwards at an accelerating pace, compared to your proactive competitors.

So, use your compass. And embrace the changes you know you need, even if they are a little scary.

Married bachelors and 3-sided squares

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marketing, prospecting

You’ll never meet a married bachelor. You’ll never find a 3-sided square. And you’ll never build the right kind of business, with the wrong kind of people.

  • If the wrong kind of people work for you, they’ll ruin your business.
  • If the wrong kind of people hire you, they’ll ruin your business.

The solution seems simple. Decide exactly who the right kind of people are for your business. And then intentionally hire, and market to, the right people.

The tricky part? Saying no to the wrong kind of people!

That’s why the best time to hire someone is before you desperately need a position filled. And the best time to choose a new client, is before you desperately need a new client.

It’s that easy.

It’s also that difficult.

Either way, it’s absolutely essential.

Get connected and prosper

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customer experience, marketing, word of mouth

As you start the second quarter of 2023, I have a suggestion you might find really useful. Why not connect with some people?

For example.

  • The people you know, who could help you to reach someone you’d like to meet with.
  • The people you know, who will give you their honest opinion on that idea you have.
  • The people you know, who always leave you feeling energized after you speak with them.
  • The people you know, who need your help or support right now.
  • The people you know, who have successfully duplicated their business model in a new location, and opened up a whole new marketplace.
  • The people you know, who you haven’t connected with in a while and you should catch-up with.
  • The people you know, who would make great Joint Venture partners.
  • The people you know, who are experienced at dealing with a challenge you have.

Your list

Your list of people will be different from the one above. And your list will change, as your situation changes.

For example, my wife is an author. Her list changes radically, when she gets the publication date of her next book. It changes again, when the publicity for that book starts. And again, when she starts research on a new book.

The key thing is to set time aside when required, to focus on the people who could help you, and those who you might be able to help.

Their list

As you know, there are people out there who rely on you for various things; both in business and life in general. You’re on their lists, even if they don’t have written lists. The myth of the self-made success is exactly that… a myth. None of us can do it all by ourselves.

So get connected. And prosper.