Jim Connolly Marketing

Keep the good. Lose the bad!

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marketing review, small business

A friend of mine regularly appears as an expert on business programs. She called me with a question. It’s a question about a foundational truth of all business success and I think you’ll find my answer useful, so I’m sharing it with you.

Okay. Here’s my friend’s question.

I need a piece of business advice, which would work as a very short sound bite. I’m live on TV in just under 30 minutes. Can you help?

Fortunately, I had been working a few days earlier with one of my clients and shared something, which he found really useful. I figured it might be what she was looking for. She loved it. She used it. And it worked perfectly.

It was this. “Hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t”.

Allow me to explain.

Holding on and letting go

Much of what we do as part of our day-to-day business is habitual. At least to a degree. Here are just a few common examples.

  • We have certain service providers we go to for particular challenges.
  • We have a familiar set of business strategies, which we’re comfortable using.
  • We rely on specific people for professional, expert advice.
  • We use a pretty fixed selection of software and hardware for certain tasks.

Over the years, these providers, strategies, people and technologies become a key part of how small business owners operate their business.

However, the most successful business owners use a different approach.

They keep their eyes open for better alternatives all the time.

They know that meaningful improvement is only possible by reviewing what you do, holding on to what’s working and letting go of what isn’t.

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Is it working or not?

It’s only natural for us to feel comfortable with what seems to be working. And after all, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it! The thing is, we can only be certain that something isn’t broken if we check for better alternatives.

Here’s a recent example. Organic SEO was a very powerful form of marketing. Is this true today? For millions of business owners the answer is a resounding ‘no!’. Since Google’s AI Overview was announced on May 14th 2024, organic search results have been pushed way, way down their search engine results page.

Google’s AI Overview is also answering the very questions people used to visit your website for. So, you could be the number one organic result and see a fraction of the traffic you used to receive.

And what about the assumptions we make?

For instance, consider the assumptions we make about the market we serve. Are these assumptions working for us? If not, we need to let them go and make better, informed decisions. This is especially the case if we’re seeing a drop in sales or marketing results.

Changes

With very few exceptions, people have significantly changed how they spend money and invest. The pandemic, followed by the economic fluctuations since, has radically altered priorities. Small business owners today, who are marketing similarly to the way they did back in 2022, are not even close to what their prospects need to hear from them two years later.

Why not take some time to review the things you’re currently holding on to. Especially those you haven’t changed in recent years. Make sure they’re still the best option for you.

Check if they’re still optimal.

Then hold on to what’s working and let go of what isn’t.

Marketing 101: Your prospects really need you

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marketing obligation, increase sales, professional obligation

Photo by Brooke Cagle.

Today marks the start of the final quarter of 2024 and I want to help you finish the year strong. So, here’s a proven way to significantly increase your sales.

Let’s go.

You’ve connected with a prospective client or customer.

You’ve taken time to fully understand their needs.

You are now absolutely certain that your service or product is exactly what they require. Experience of your industry assures you that they won’t find a better match than you, anywhere.

It’s at this exact point where you have a professional obligation to the prospect. An obligation to make sure they don’t make the mistake of hiring or buying from another provider.

Your professional obligation

The reason you have an obligation, is that as a professional, you always act in the interests of the market you serve. You have no way to know just how badly people will be served by one of your competitors.

The only thing you can know for certain, is that you take great care to provide your clients with a superb, professional service. In short, your prospects really need you!

Okay. Please hold that thought for a moment.

Now consider your next conversation with a prospective client.

Before you begin, simply remind yourself of the facts above; that you can provide exactly what the prospect needs, that you’ll serve them better than any of your competitors and that the prospect needs you.

Here’s what very often happens

Having shared this idea with countless business owners over the years, here’s what I have found again and again.

By approaching the conversation with your prospect, mindful of your genuine commitment to their best interests, it significantly improves how they feel about you and how they feel about what you say.

Interestingly, you don’t need to deliberately change the words you use.

Why?

Because what you’re doing is 100% sincere. It’s the real you.

It’s natural, not scripted.

It’s genuine, not a trick.

When I started to use this approach for my own business, I found that it soon increased my client base. And for decades, I’ve seen it help my own clients to greatly increase their sales.

What changes by is how you communicate; your eagerness to listen fully to what they say, the cadence of your conversation, your facial expressions and your body language, etc. You’re now communicating with them as an ally who is looking out for them and their best interests. Because that’s exactly who you are, and it’s exactly what you’re doing.

It all starts with reminding yourself how much you care for your clients, how truly committed you are to delighting them and how much you want to help them avoid making a mistake.

More cold coffee

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marketing, business development, cold coffee

Early in my career, I noticed I could always tell when I was making real progress and smashing my goals. How? I’d find myself drinking a lot of cold coffee!

Don’t laugh.

You probably do something similar.

Maybe with tea.

Either way, it looks like this.

  • You make a coffee and bring it to your desk.
  • Then, because you’re so engaged with what you’re doing, you lose track of time.
  • You grab your coffee and start to drink it, immediately noticing it’s no longer hot.
  • So, you guzzle it down quickly and make another.
  • If this happens again, you’re officially on a cold coffee productivity streak.

Your progress during these cold coffee streaks is off the charts.

It’s why the most successful businesspeople are full of energy. It’s why they’re genuinely excited about what they do.

It’s why they have an infectious passion, which people find utterly compelling. It’s why when they talk about their work or project, people about their work, people lean forward and listen.

That energy, excitement and passion attracts clients like a magnet.

Hot coffee work

Conversely, hot coffee work is not exciting. It’s not even engaging. It makes you feel tired, instead of bursting with energy. It’s work that drags on. And importantly, it’s work that doesn’t stretch you. Remember, you can’t grow without stretching… and your business can only grow if you grow.

That’s why cold coffee work is essential!

Here’s how to get started.

Full agency = Cold coffee

People often ask me how they can access the energy, excitement and infections passion, which cold coffee people enjoy.

It starts with accepting that you have agency over what you think: freedom of thought. Many small business owners see the news, the economy, the speed of change and wrongly assume they have little if any control.

In reality, if you choose to, you can decide to transition into a cold coffee business. A business that provides you with the kind of work, projects, clients/customers, finances, freedom and lifestyle that brings you excitement, energy and passion.

Be stingy with your time but not your ideas

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share ideas, stingy time

Laura emailed me with a great question. She is a member of my newsletter community and wanted to know I find time to give so many ideas away in my newsletter, blog and on my Twitter or X account. My reply contains a really useful idea, so I decided to share it with you.

It starts with understanding that sharing useful ideas is a very different type of sharing.

  • If you own 3 bars of gold and you give 1 of them away, you are left with 2 bars of gold. Give all 3 bars away and you’re left with nothing.
  • However, if you give someone a useful idea, you still have just as many ideas as you had before. Plus, you have just enriched the other person. That person could tell others how your idea helped them. So you may also have made a new business contact or a number of new business contacts.

However, there’s something else about sharing useful ideas that’s extremely important.

Scaling your sharing

You need to choose a way to be generous with your ideas, which scales.

  • If you give an hour of your time, to share useful ideas to each of 10 individual people, you have just spent 10 hours of your time. It doesn’t scale. It’s unsustainable.
  • But if you give an hour of your time to your community every day, in a way that reaches 10 people or 10,000 people you have only invested 1 hour. Newsletters, YouTube, blogging, podcasting and social media publishing are just some of the ways you can achieve this.

Be stingy with your time

Here’s how I explain the balance required: Be stingy with your time, but not your ideas.

You have a limited number of hours available each day and you need to use them wisely. Thankfully, by scaling the way you share useful ideas with your prospective clients or customers, you can choose to give generously. You can contribute to the success of dozens, then hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands of your prospects. And the initial financial investment required from you, in many cases, starts at zero.

Just think about that for a moment. And if it sounds interesting, why not give it a try?

How to land breakthrough opportunities for your business

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business breakthrough, business development

I recently shared some ideas about how to prepare when a major breakthrough comes your way. If you missed it, you can read it here: Seize the moment: Be prepared.

Today, I’m going to give you some proven ideas, to help you attract that major breakthrough you need.

It starts with 4 examples, based on breakthrough opportunities that small business owners often ask me about.

  • Maybe you’d love an invitation to appear on the biggest TV show, program or podcast in your industry.
  • It could be you want the endorsement of the person best-known and most respected by your prospective clients or customers.
  • Perhaps you’d love to receive a new marketing strategy that increases your client base or customer base, by a thousand percent.
  • And it might be that an introduction to an investor, who has the courage and finances to back you, is exactly what you want right now.

In fact, it could be any type of breakthrough that would lead to a life-changing improvement.

If you want to achieve that level of success, there are 2 business assets you need to develop.

  1. Door building.
  2. Success readiness.

Let me explain why those assets need your urgent attention, if you want something amazingly transformative to happen.

1. Door building

Breakthroughs don’t magically happen.

In order to achieve a massive breakthrough, you need to build yourself a door. A door, which your breakthrough opportunity can knock on.

Let’s take a look at what this means, based on those examples above.

  • Are you ready to do what’s required to attract the attention, and earn the interest, of the producers of those TV shows, programs or podcasts?
  • Are you ready to do what’s required to get yourself in front of the best known, most respected person in your industry. And when you have, are you ready to do what’s required, to earn their trust?
  • Are you ready to do what’s required, to have a marketing strategy that’s powerful enough to drive a thousand percent increase in clients or customers?
  • Are you ready to do what’s required to create a product or service that’s so valuable, wealthy investors will want to invest? And then, are you ready to do the work required to capture their attention?

So, that’s the door building preparation you need.

Now it’s time for success readiness.

2. Success readiness

This second step relates to the readiness, which turns the breakthrough opportunity into massive breakthrough results.

  • So, you get the invitation to appear on that prime time TV show, program or podcast. But are you ready to get the media training required in advance, so you give a great account of yourself?
  • You got the endorsement of the best-known and most respected person in your industry. But are you ready to put plans in place, in advance, so you can maximize the potential of this superpower endorsement?
  • You just witnessed a one thousand percent increase in clients. But are you ready to build a scalable process, in advance, to handle or onboard that thousand percent client increase?
  • You now have access to all the capital your business needs, thanks to that investor. But are you ready to study, in advance, how to grow a business with that spectacular level of funding?

What’s the lesson here?

  • Breakthrough opportunities come to those who carefully plan for their opportunity in advance.
  • Breakthrough success comes to those who are fully prepared, when their opportunity arrives.

It’s important to know that the breakthrough you’re wishing for, need not be a wish. It’s something you can make happen, with basic planning and preparation. I’ve done this countless times for my clients and for my own business.

You can do it, too.

Better still, after you make it happen just once, you’ll be able to repeat the process, and repeat the results.

Protect your business from time thieves

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marketing tip, packaging, time wasters

Photo: Shutterstock.

Your time is easily the most valuable asset you have. So today I’m going to show you an effective way to eliminate time wasters and replace them with high-quality, eager prospective clients.

Let’s go.

Salt and sugar

To begin, I’d like you to think for a moment about how similar salt and sugar look. They’re almost indistinguishable to the human eye. Even close up.

So why don’t people regularly add salt to their beverages by mistake? Sure, at home people know where they keep the salt and the sugar. But when they’re out? Why don’t we constantly see people in coffee shops and restaurants, having salt and sugar related accidents?

Looking for clues

A salt shaker looks very different from a sugar bowl. That’s why we never pick up a sugar bowl and assume it contains salt. Or vice-versa.

  • The container (packaging) gives us powerful clues about what’s inside.
  • These clues send us a direct message regarding what to expect.
  • They also guide the action we decide to take.

People use clues like this all the time. And that includes our prospective clients. When they need a new provider, they’re looking for guidance that confirms we offer exactly what they need.

So, what kind of decision-making clues are in your marketing?

For example. Do your clues set the right expectations regarding your fees, or do they attract fee-sensitive enquiries? Do your clues motivate people to want to purchase now, or do they attract early stage researchers, who’re not ready to buy? You get the idea.

If you’re sick of wasting your time with the wrong kind of client enquiries, check your clues. Look at your marketing through the eyes of a stranger; someone who doesn’t already know the type of clients or customers you want to attract. Then, make sure your messaging clearly positions you in the correct way.

I hope you find this idea useful but more importantly, I hope you give it a try.