Marketing tips, marketing help and advice

The common factor behind self-made millionaires

October 24, 2020 by Jim Connolly

In every industry, during every economy, there are businesses that thrive. There’s no mystery as to why this happens. In fact, we can choose to become one of them. And that’s what today’s message is all about.

I’m very specifically referring to the business owners who:

Have the courage to do things their way. As Warren Buffett says, the best investors sell when everyone else is buying, and buy when everyone else is selling.
Have the courage to turn away the wrong kind of projects and clients. They know that no business can thrive without a strong client base or customer base.
Have the courage to develop innovative, new products or services.
Have the courage to refuse to do average work. They know that people judge them based on the quality of their work. So they set the bar high and increase their value.
Have the courage to set deadlines and deliver as promised. They’ve figured out that this is one of the best ways to earn the trust of their clients.
Have the courage to charge 100% or 500% more than the industry average.
Have the courage to focus on what they want. They’ve learned that we tend to move in the direction of what we focus on. So they refuse to focus on what they fear.
Have the courage to lead. When everyone else is waiting for someone to take action, these business owners lead by example.

Time and again, I find that the most common factor behind successful business owners and entrepreneurs, is courage.

The role of courage in business success

Fact: A courageous business owner will always outperform a fearful one. This holds true, no matter how smart the fearful business owner is.

For instance, many of the most fearful and least successful business owners I have met or studied, were very highly educated. However, as former US president Calvin Coolidge famously said, “The world is full of educated derelicts“. They were great at detail. Wonderful with research, yet lousy when it came to leaving their comfort zones. They lacked the courageous mindset of an entrepreneur.

Smart and courageous

Conversely, Apple was co-founded by a courageous university drop-out. And Steve Jobs was not alone. Dell founder Michael Dell never graduated. Nor did Henry Ford, Wendy’s CEO or Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. (Ellison is worth an estimated $54 Billion, around 10 times more than Sir Richard Branson). Smart people for sure. That goes without saying.

My point is that their lack of academic qualifications had no negative impact on their success, and that gaining academic qualifications is no guarantee of success.

In the 25 years since starting my business, I’ve worked with thousands of business owners. I’ve found that nothing can stop a smart, courageous business owner from succeeding. And that nothing can stop a smart, fearful business owner from being average… at best.

The good news is that courage is NOT the absence of fear.

Courage is a choice we make.

Courage is how we choose to respond when faced with the risk that comes with every genuine opportunity. It’s how we choose to respond when faced with the current uncertainty.

And we can choose to start acting with courage, whenever we wish.

Closing the sale

October 22, 2020 by Jim Connolly

When I started out in sales and marketing, it was all about closing the sale.

In fact, good salespeople were often referred to as good closers.

Decades later, I still see sales recruiters asking for candidates who have a proven record of closing.

Here’s why we need to be extremely careful before adopting the closing mindset, or any of the countless closing tricks and techniques.

Closed for business?

The challenge with the closing mindset, is that it positions the prospective customer as little more than a barrier. A hurdle between you and the sale. An obstacle to be overcome. Little wonder so many closing techniques are based on psychological tricks.

The use of long, uncomfortable silences at key points in the sales process, for example, is used to put pressure on the prospective client. So is refusing to accept a “no” from them, by asking what they need additional clarity on, each time they clearly just want out.

In a nutshell, the focus is on outmanoeuvring your opponent. It’s them against you. A confrontation.

Here’s a very different approach, along with why I strongly recommend you use it.

Opening relationships

I built my reputation in sales by adopting the polar opposite approach. Instead of focusing on closing, I focused on opening.

Opening relationships, to be exact.

I found (and still find) the idea of closing to be self-defeating. I discovered that you can achieve a great deal more, by opening relationships with people. This means taking time to listen to them. And then learning about their challenges and what they want / need. If our marketing is targeted correctly, we’re automatically only speaking with people who are our ideal profile of client.

When handled correctly, and preceded with effective marketing, this means there’s no need to close anything (or close on anyone).

The whole process becomes a naturally-flowing conversation, where we seek to help people overcome a challenge, with the products or services we provide.

It’s a beautiful, fulfilling way to do business.

It also means refusing to sell anything to anyone, if we believe it’s not what they need.

Too passive?

This approach may sound passive, but consider your friends. Consider the people you like. The people you trust. The people you love to have around you. Are they aggressive towards you? Confrontational? No! That’s because we prefer those who respect us and are open and honest with us.

We like people who are open and honest.

We buy from people who are open and honest.

We trust people who are open and honest.

We recommend people who are open and honest.

In short, the more open we are, the more opportunities we’re open to.

How a failing business increased revenues by over 1100%

October 21, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Almost every small business owner is wasting their time and money on the wrong kind of marketing.

Here’s why you’re probably making the same mistake, plus an example of what happens, when you switch to the right kind of marketing.

The wrong kind of marketing

I’m referring to the obvious stuff that small business owners think of, when they consider marketing.

This includes the things they do when business is quiet and they have to do SOMETHING. The things that look easy enough for them to try. The things they copy from their competitors. The predictable, uninspiring messages they put on their websites, newsletters and social media accounts. In short: the obvious things that small business owners dabble with.

That’s not how you grow a business. No. That’s running blind, hoping you’ll get lucky. And it’s why the majority of small businesses go broke.

The right kind of marketing

I’m referring to creative marketing. You already know what creative marketing looks like. It’s what 100% of successful businesses do; from the expanding small businesses in your marketplace, to the consultants who work from home yet service international brands and earn a fortune. It’s also what the world’s fastest-growing brands do and how they stay ahead.

Creative marketing is not only spectacularly effective, it’s rare among small (and medium-sized) businesses. Really rare. This is one of the reasons it’s so powerful, compared to the dabbling bullshit I mentioned earlier.

Here are just a handful of reasons why creative marketing is so powerful.

It’s hard to copy, which means it carries on working.
It requires little or zero money, so your competitors can’t out-spend you (think about that for a moment).
It stands out, so you get noticed.
It helps you differentiate your business, products or services, so you never have to sell based on prices / fees or work with low value clients.
It inspires your prospective clients to take action.
It gets shared. This increases the reach of your marketing.
It’s memorable. Because small business marketing is useless, creative marketing finds it easy to make a positive, memorable impact.
It touches people in a way that never happens with uncreative marketing.

Still not convinced?

I’d like to tell you about Sara.

What creative marketing can do

Sara emailed me before the pandemic and invited me to lunch. She’s semi-retired now, but I mentored her a while ago and we’ve been great friends ever since. She now knows how to creatively build an extremely profitable business, in any sector or industry. She’d previously been a very good business consultant, but always struggled to get the flow of high quality clients she needed. Sara went on to build an amazing business and today invests in small and medium-sized businesses.

Why am I telling you this?

Over lunch, Sara told me that 2 and a half years ago she’d invested in a small, independent bakery. The bakery was already employing great people, already using premium quality ingredients and already making delicious food. BUT too few of the right kind of customers knew it was there, as they’d been using typical, small business marketing.

Sara spotted an opportunity and because she knew the owners, she offered them a price for their business. They eagerly accepted, especially as Sara promised she’d employ the same team to run it. (And they were going broke).

I asked Sara how the bakery was doing. She said she’s increased the turnover by almost 1100% and it’s massively more profitable, too.

One thousand, one hundred percent.

Massively higher profits.

Remember: She kept the same team, the same levels of quality, the same delicious food. Her only change was to switch from typical small business marketing, to creative marketing.

This probably goes without saying

But I’ll say it anyway.

If you’re currently dabbling with the usual type of ineffective, small business marketing, it’s time to switch.

Switch to a deliberate, creativity-driven approach. It’s what 100% of my work is based on, both with my clients and my own business.

Punch above your weight, by creatively gaining the attention, trust and patronage of your marketplace (ahead of your competitors). Look to the future with excitement, not apprehension, because your creativity-driven approach works perfectly in every economy, location and industry.

And it has never been more effective, than it is right now.

The 6 word secret behind all success

October 20, 2020 by Jim Connolly

It’s simply this: “In business, the winners get moving”.

Here’s why.

Every business owner has ideas and occasionally great ideas.
Every business owner is presented with opportunities to succeed.
Every business owner can choose to be a leader.
Every business owner can instigate, rather than wait for someone else to move.
Every business owner has potential to be better today than they were yesterday.
And every business owner has the same 24-hours available to them every day.

It’s what we DO that counts.

Not our intentions.
Not our network of business contacts.
Not our cutting edge technology.
Not our plans.
Not our targets.
Not our qualifications.
Not our potential.
Not our competitive edge.
Not our ingenuity.
Not our skills.

Action always, always, always precedes success.

That’s why in business, the winners get moving.

Choose to thrive, my friend. Choose to absolutely thrive

October 19, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Today I want to make an important plea to you. I want you to focus like a laser on making your business absolutely thrive over the next 12-months.

Yes, I know it’s 2020.

Yes, I’m very aware of the challenges.

I am also aware of the importance of looking to your future with the overriding goal of absolutely thriving.

When the marketplace is in turmoil, business owners set one of the following two broad targets. They either choose to survive (the vast majority) or they choose to thrive (a tiny minority).

We must choose our target wisely.

Choosing to survive means you may just make it, if you achieve the target.
Choosing to thrive means you’ll have an exceptional year, if you achieve the target.
If you fail the target of survival, even by 1%, by default you don’t survive.
If you fail the target of thriving, even by 25%, you can still have a better-than-average or average year.

Your target determines your focus. It sets the stage for the plans you make and the decisions you take. It shapes the conversations you have. It guides the opportunities you attract (and those you repel).

Your target also determines how you feel and how you make others feel about you and your business. It builds or erodes confidence.

Survival mode is a source of anxiety. When we speak with an anxious business owner, we sense their worry and stress. We feel apprehensive about them and apprehension turns prospective customers away.
Thrive mode is a source of excitement. When we speak with an excited business owner, we sense their energy and motivation. We feel positive about them. This is commercial gold dust. Especially today.

Given this, we all have a decision to make.

We can’t change the duration of the pandemic, or the even longer duration of the economic carnage it leaves us with. But we can choose the target we focus on.

And as I have seen with my 2020 client intake, it is possible to absolutely thrive.

Exposed: The biggest lie in business

October 16, 2020 by Jim Connolly

Are you tired of prospective clients (or customers), who don’t get back to you when they say they will? If you are, here’s something you may find extremely useful.

Here’s the thing. When a prospective client tells you they didn’t have the time to meet you, return your call or consider your offer… they’re lying. They had the time.

They had the time to do all the urgent or important things. They also had time to do the stuff that interested them. And they had time to attend to the things that captured their attention. Its also safe to say they had enough time to check their social media accounts.

What they lacked wasn’t time.

What they really lacked was the motivation to do whatever you requested. As far as they were concerned, it wasn’t important or urgent enough. So, they didn’t consider it a priority. And that’s why it didn’t get done.

Okay Jim, how do I stop this from happening and massively improve my results?

Great question!

To motivate your prospective clients and customers to take action, you need to do the following.

Make your offer as attractive as possible. Look at what you’re asking people to do and make it more captivating. More interesting. More compelling. Remember, motivation comes from the words Motive and Action. When the motive is powerful enough, the action follows. So, use all your creativity to make whatever you’re offering as compelling as possible.
Then give them a deadline. Deadlines focus the mind. They create urgency. Here’s why marketing deadlines work.

Make no mistake, the most powerful way to motivate your prospective clients to take action, is to provide them with a highly compelling offer, which is attached to a deadline. Get those 2 steps right and you’ll find the marketplace will always have time for you. You’ll also enjoy a dramatic improvement in your sales and marketing results.