Jim Connolly Marketing

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

I made a mistake. And I’m sorry

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im sorry, mistake, responsibility

Mistakes. We all make them.

Much has been said about the need to learn from our mistakes. It’s extremely important. After all, it’s how we improve. It’s how we build better relationships and stronger businesses.

There’s something else about mistakes, which every business owner needs to understand. I’m referring to the importance of taking responsibility for our mistakes and then apologizing. The sooner the better.

Because…

  • By taking responsibility, you demonstrate leadership. As a business owner, there’s a direct link between your ability to lead and your commercial success.
  • By saying sorry, you switch the situation from confrontational to conciliatory. Instead of blaming one another, both sides can now focus exclusively on putting things right.

Learn from the mistake. Take responsibility. Say sorry. And then work on the resolution.

P.S. Read this » 10 leadership habits of highly successful business owners.

When you’ve run out of options

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… you haven’t.

There’s always an answer. A way forward. A way to turn things around.

  • Often, the answer you need is already within you, but you need to dig deeper to find it. So, go for a long walk, meditate, or ask yourself a better version of the question.
  • Sometimes, someone else has the answer you need. So talk to people. Especially those who you know are resourceful. Your answer could be (literally) one conversation away. So, get talking.
  • Other times, the answer you need is in a book, a newsletter or article. So, get reading.

Once you’ve accepted that there is an answer, you’re now free to focus 100% on finding it.

Think.

Talk.

Read.

You’ll soon find exactly what you need.

Target the unhappy, not the uninterested

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marketing unhappy, not uninterested

I want to share one of the foundations of effective marketing with you today. It’s something that can help you dramatically (and quickly) increase your sales or client acquisition figures. It can also help you save time, money and focus your marketing far more effectively. 

It starts with understanding the following.

People who are happy with the products or service they get from one of your competitors, are not looking for whatever your business is offering.

Satisfied people are exactly that. They’re satisfied. They value their current provider. And like you, they ignore marketing messages when they’re not interested in a new (whatever).

This remains true even when:

  • You’re providing amazing value.
  • You are less expensive.
  • You are faster or more reliable.

Despite this, most marketing from small and medium-sized businesses tries to be relevant to as wide an audience of prospects as possible.

Yes, it’s certainly true that you can change someone’s worldview or mindset. But it takes time. Lots and lots of time. It also takes a great amount of effort. Even then, the conversion rate is low.

That’s why I recommend you adopt a more effective approach.

Focus on the unhappy. Avoid the uninterested

Yes, it’s important to build an awareness of how great your product or service is. You need people to know where to go, when they’re looking for whatever you provide.

But what if you need to quickly increase your sales figures or attract new clients? Then my friend, it’s time to adjust the focus of your marketing. If you want to have the full attention of the most motivated buyers, (people ready to make a purchasing decision right now), focus on the unhappy, not the uninterested.

The ‘unhappy’ are actively looking for what you offer.

  • They’re eager and ready to proceed.
  • They already have a budget allocated.
  • They’re highly motivated to take action right now, and buy from you or hire you.

To profoundly increase your sales numbers or client acquisition rate, your marketing needs to talk directly and exclusively to these red hot prospects. And as a bonus, you’ll also attract very few, if any, time wasters. 

Targeting the right prospects makes sense at any time. But in today’s economy it’s absolutely essential.

21 Business habits of highly successful people

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Success habits, business owners

Over the years, I’m blessed to have worked with many exceptionally successful business owners. Here are some of the success habits I see repeated over and over again, which you may find useful.

In no particular order.

  1. They personalize the way their business operates, so that it’s uniquely theirs. This is true no matter what industry they’re in. Why? Because it helps them get noticed. It helps them get talked about for all the right reasons. And it’s a proven way to become as close to irreplaceable as possible.
  2. They strive to achieve something compelling with their business. This forces them to think bigger, and as actions are preceded by thoughts, they get further, faster.
  3. They know success is about more than money. At some point they figured out that if you’re rich and unhappy, you’re still broke.
  4. They show people, rather than tell people.
  5. They out-care their competitors.
  6. They out-smart their competitors too.
  7. They do all the work required, rather than the 95% of things that every business owner does. That extra 5% is worth an absolute fortune.
  8. They set extremely high, self-imposed standards. Then they achieve them. This process runs like an endless loop throughout their business.
  9. They throw away the manual and write their own rules. This is also an essential part of the previous point.
  10. They focus on what they want rather than what they fear. Sounds obvious. However, it’s the total opposite of what the vast majority of business owners do.
  11. They learn how to be great decision makers. They get the information required, study it, request advice if needed, then decide. They know that if they fail to make their own decisions, time will make their decisions for them. This is one of the master skills of success.
  12. They avoid those expensive detours, which come dressed-up as short cuts, business hacks and “scaling”. Warren Buffett often says a key reason for his amazing results, is his commitment to get rich slowly.
  13. They regularly take time to relax. If you work smart during work time, you can relax when it’s family and friends time.
  14. They seldom watch TV.
  15. They are very selective regarding who they associate with. As a mentor once told me, “If you hang around enough people who’re going nowhere, one day, everything they have will be yours”.
  16. They lead. They’ve worked out that the world already has more than enough followers. And that those followers are eagerly looking for leaders.
  17. They manage their time extremely well.
  18. They intentionally build a valuable network of contacts, long before they need them.
  19. They help those less fortunate than themselves. This is a key factor in point 3.
  20. They choose to stand out.
  21. They summon the strength to do what’s required, rather than what’s comfortable.
  22. They do more than expected. They know that it’s the additional, unexpected ‘extra’ that people remember.

Marketing, information and data

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information and data, difference between, marketing

A company pays a salesperson $125,000 a year.

That salesperson has generated an average of $250,000 a year, for 3 years, in high-profit sales.

They did great.

No they didn’t!

They were terrible.

In fact, they were worse than a waste of money.

That’s because…

They were losing their company a fortune!

You see, that salesperson left the company and was replaced by a new salesperson.

The new salesperson was also paid $125,000 a year.

And using the same source of leads, over the following 3 years they generated an average of $750,000 a year in high-profit sales.

In the space of 3 years, the first salesperson under-performed by $1,500,000.

Data and information

Too many business owners, and sales / marketing directors (who should know better) make decisions based on data, when what they need is information.

Information is what you get, when someone applies knowledge, experience and context to data.

  • Data will show you that your salesperson is generating a 100% profit.
  • Information does that. However, your information-based decision making causes you to research the average conversion rate for your industry. It immediately identifies a major problem that’s losing you a fortune. The salesperson is way, way below average and needs training or replacing.

This same data error is made by most small and medium-sized businesses, when they advertise.

  • They run the ads and data shows an ‘X’ percent profit is being achieved. They then look at ways to further increase that profit figure, with better written ads, better timed ads, better designed ads or placing ads on different platforms.
  • An information-based approach would start by looking at the data… then expand their potential by examining the profitability of investing in influencer-marketing, email marketing, joint ventures and endorsed relationships, etc.

In short, data is extremely useful. I rely on it multiple times every working day to create valuable information. It takes focus, time and effort. But you CAN NOT make informed decisions without information. Data is just a single component.

Make more mistakes. Lots more mistakes

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marketing, make more mistakes

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!

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.