My clients are amazing.

In fact, they’re totally and utterly amazing.

I’ve loved serving my clients for over 25 years. And I respect them. Every single one of them.

Why?

Because they’re not like the average business owner. That’s why their businesses succeed, when the average business fails in the first 5 years, or worse; slowly fails to deliver the results they need for decades.

My clients want to succeed, but they know that DIY marketing can only take them so far. So they choose me to be a part of their success. For which I’m eternally grateful.

The biggest accomplishment of my career, is nothing I myself have done. It’s that I get to spend every working day, with inspirational, smart, courageous people, helping THEM achieve. Imagine that: Every day since 1995, being fortunate enough to do something I love, with amazing people I admire and respect.

You deserve clients like mine.

How to work with totally, utterly amazing clients

Here are a few useful pointers, based on what I do.

• Before I work with a client, I always speak with them to determine if we’re a great fit. I only suggest we work together and explain how my service works, after I’ve established I can definitely improve their results. I strongly recommend you do the same.
• Only work with people you instinctively trust. If they lose your trust, fire them. Fast. By the way, I’ve only done this once in 25 years, because I take time to make sure we’re a great fit, first.
• Treat different clients differently, based on their unique needs. No two clients are the same, so adapt to their specific wants and requirements.
• Resolve to do everything possible, to help them succeed. I’m talking about going WAY above and beyond the claims you make in your marketing. For example, when appropriate, I connect my clients to my contacts, opening up possibilities they’d never dreamed of. Do the same. All or nothing. If you can help, help. Period. If you don’t trust your clients with your contacts, you should seriously reconsider who you’re working with.

And always follow the golden rule… care more about your client’s success, than you care about your own success.

Remember.

• You’re never more than one idea away from a life-changing breakthrough.
• And it’s never been easier to put your ideas into action and show the world. YouTube gives you a free, global TV channel. WordPress gives you a free, global publishing platform and Gmail gives you free, global message distribution.
• Whatever problem you’re facing right now, has already been overcome by countless other business owners. This means the answer you need is already out there. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Just try looking in better places or asking for some informed help.
• Thanks to social networks, you can listen to your marketplace and find out exactly what they want. This means you can develop a product or service, knowing in advance that the demand will be high. No more guessing. And that means way, way less risk.

There are very real commercial challenges out there right now. No doubt at all. But it pays to remind ourselves that we have opportunities to overcome them, which previous generations of business owners couldn’t have even dreamed of.

Photo: Shutterstock.

One of the most important lessons in marketing, is to understand that none of us have any clients or customers.

In other words, the client relationship is not ours.

We have to earn the privilege of providing a service to our clients… and then keep looking for opportunities to re-earn it. This means consistently looking for ways to deliver more value than they expect. And determining that an outstanding service is our absolute base line, our bare minimum, and never offering anything less.

Pure marketing gold dust

Only by accepting that we have no clients, can we avoid complacency and operate at our very best. And by operating at our very best, we become not only invaluable to our clients; we also leave a trail of outstanding work that inspires client referrals.

Think about it.

• Massively higher client retention than others in our industry.
• Far, far more client referrals than others in our industry.

It’s pure, marketing gold dust. A robust, unstoppable way to grow a successful business.

As I have said many times before, everything in business is marketing. This includes the quality of the service you provide to your clients, and your absolute commitment to their success.

Photo: Shutterstock.

We’ve all seen the tragic, human cost of the pandemic unfolding and the heroic work of those working on the front line.

Commercially, as countries start to sketch out their plans to ease certain restrictions, we can get a better idea of the business disruption we’re likely to see between now and next year. With that in mind, and to help you plan ahead, here are some specific marketing challenges, which business owners will need to overcome.

I’ve split them into 2 groups (business to business and business to consumer), though you may find some overlap.

If you sell products or services to businesses.

• Those offering design, branding and so-called ‘soft skills’ training may find prospects holding back on investment, until things settle down.
• It’s likely that a number of the businesses you serve will cease trading. This will vary depending on the industries you sell into.
• If your customers have been scaling back or reducing staff numbers, this could reduce the frequency or size of their requirement / future orders from you.
• With almost every business taking a financial hit from the pandemic, you will encounter more price resistance than before.
• Leading on from the previous point, your low cost competitors are likely to be a greater threat to your business than they were.
• Some of your competitors will be a lot more active with their marketing. Most will rely on DIY marketing and have little effect on your business. However, some may get expert help and eat into your market share.

If you sell direct to consumers.

• Many consumers will be forced to scale back on non-essential products and services. This is less of an issue if you sell into the expensive end of your market, or the low cost end of the market. It’s a bigger concern if you sell into the middle of the market.
• If most of your customers are elderly, many will be required to stay in lockdown until a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 is developed. You’ll need to create a safe way to serve your customers. Then, you’ll need to market your new approach clearly.
• Those offering so-called ‘soft skills’ training may find customers and prospective customers less willing to invest, until their financial situation is more certain.
• Restaurants, coffee shops and cafés, etc., are likely to be required to provide social distancing for customers, until a vaccine or cure is developed. This means you’ll have a smaller capacity, fewer tables / fewer seats and probably fewer customers. You’ll need to work hard on increasing the average order amount.

Issues like these will impact millions of business owners, but you don’t need to be one of them. Everything here can be overcome successfully, if marketed correctly. Everything.

So get to work now on the areas that are likely to impact your business. And give yourself the advantage of adapting to the new needs of your customers, before your competitors do.

This is a short post. It’s also the most important I’ve written in a long time. I strongly recommend you take a couple of minutes to read it.

Photo: Shutterstock.

During the pandemic.

• You have the freedom to focus on surviving.
• You have the freedom to focus on thriving.

If your thinking is all about how to survive, it will have a hard limit. A limit that sees survival as the desired end point. If things go as well as they possibly can, you’ll still be in business by the end of the pandemic. If things fall (even a little) short of your desired end point, you’re out of business.

If your thinking is all about how to thrive, it has no limitation. No restriction on your end point. If things go well, your business (and you) will have absolutely thrived by the end of the pandemic. If things fall short of your desired end point, your business can still grow!

Focusing on thriving will open you up to outstanding possibilities. It will boost your energy levels. It will inspire the people around you. It will excite your marketplace. It will open your eyes to opportunities that the survive crowd aren’t even looking for.

Picture this for a moment. Imagine how much better your chances of success will be, if you choose today to focus exclusively on thriving. This means you too will be working on outstanding business possibilities, with boundless energy, surrounded by  inspired people, with an excited marketplace, and all this whilst simultaneously enjoying new opportunities, just like my ‘thrive’ clients.

I hope you found this useful, but more importantly, I hope it inspires you too, to thrive.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Many of you have emailed me, asking for advice on what you should be focusing on right now.

Obviously, different businesses have different needs. But as we all know, hunkering down and waiting for things to magically just get better, isn’t an option.

With that in mind, here are some general examples of things you should consider.

1. Research the new needs of your marketplace. It definitely will not be business as usual after the crisis passes.
2. Stop watching rolling news and feed your mind with useful ideas instead.
3. Build strategic alliances. Partner-up with providers, who offer a complimentary, but non-conflicting product or service.
4. Sketch out ideas (and then develop) new, highly profitable services.
5. Plan the way forward for your business.
6. Form endorsed relationships.
7. Before you market anything to anyone, remember that these are weird times for everyone.
8. Look outside your industry for new ideas, which could dramatically improve your business.
9. Get to know your clients better.
10. Hire expert marketing help. This is the worst time in history to rely on DIY marketing.
11. Start a blog, then distribute it via email. Like I do.
12. Ramp up your marketplace outreach.
13. Look for ways to connect your clients or customers with one another.
14. Ask your clients and former clients, “How can I help?”.
15. Send a ‘thank you’ to all those helping you during the crisis.

Most importantly, get active now. Don’t let your competitors gain a huge advantage over you, by building their businesses while you’re waiting to see how things pan out. That’s an unnecessary additional business problem, which you really don’t need. So get moving. And get moving now.

Photo: Shutterstock.

I wrote recently that your marketing is toast. That’s to say, what motivated people to hire you or buy from you before the coronavirus pandemic, has changed. In that post, I provide some ideas to help you put things right.

Today, I want to help you identify and fix another two, extremely widespread marketing challenges.

Check your marketing promises and guarantees

I’d like to start by drawing your attention to the various benefits of buying from you or hiring you. Specifically, the guarantees and promises you offer. That’s because almost every business makes promises in their marketing, which they can reliably keep in normal times, but can’t achieve in the current economy.

These vary from industry to industry and may include things like:

• Guaranteed delivery times.
• Payment terms.
• Guaranteed results.
• Price match promises.
• Enquiry response times.
• Opening hours.

Obviously, if you’re no longer able to fulfil any of the promises or claims in your marketing, make the required adjustments. Also, look for new, attractive promises that you can deliver on.

What’s new with your competitors?

I also very strongly recommend you take time to do a little research on what your competitors are doing right now.

That’s because it’s entirely possible some of them will have made significant changes, which could impact your business. Even those competitors that seldom change their marketing may be forced into action, as they try new things in order to adapt to the current challenges.

Again, these adjustments will change from industry to industry and may include:

• Discounting their prices or fees. Many will start discounting, because they have no expert marketing help, are panicking and assume slashing prices is the right thing to do. (It absolutely isn’t for a number of very good reasons).
• Changes to their payment terms.
• New bundling of products or services together, in a way that makes them more attractive to prospective clients (your prospective clients) than they used to be.

Once you know what you’re competing against, you can look for ways to regain your competitive advantage.

I hope you found these ideas useful. If you did, please continue to share them with your friends. We’re all in this together.

Photo: Shutterstock.

A few months from now, we will all know a lot more about our business, our marketplace and the people we rely on.

That’s because when times are tough, we learn what people really think. We learn what standards they have and what their priorities are.

• We’re learning how strong our relationships are, personally and professionally.
• We’re learning who we can trust in the future.
• We’re learning how honest our service providers are.
• We’re learning who we can recommend.
• We’re learning who the real leaders are.
• We’re learning how people, systems and businesses perform under stress.
• We’re learning who really does go he extra mile.

And our clients, customers and marketplace are learning this too.

Warren Buffett famously said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently”.

As you have almost certainly seen by now, a lot of business owners are not taking his advice. They’re thinking very short-term and creating a far bigger problem for their business, than the coronavirus.

In a few months

Long before the pandemic ceases to be the main news story, business restrictions will start to ease. People will be able to move around more freely. Things will start to feel closer to ‘normal’ than they do right now.

As this happens, the marketplace will start regaining confidence. Spending will increase. Cash flow will improve and increase.

It’s at this point that many business owners will pay the price for short-sighted decisions.

We have to be smarter than that.

We need to be very aware that every decision we make has consequences. The marketplace is watching us. And it will remember. As Buffett said, one short-sighted move and a 20-year reputation can be destroyed in minutes.

The only way forward is to think ahead, because things will improve commercially, and a lot sooner than many business owners seem to imagine. Only then can you plan effectively and make decisions that are best for the medium and long-term.

Photo: Shutterstock.

I want to share something with you today, to help you grow your business. It’s something to help you thrive, whilst many of your competitors fail to even survive. And it’s based on work I’m doing right now, with thriving service providers worldwide.

Allow me to explain.

I’m writing this on Wednesday morning, in lockdown because of the coronavirus.

Between now and the end of business on Friday, I have meetings scheduled with business owners in.

• Nebraska, USA.
• Melbourne, Australia.
• Pennsylvania, USA.
• Dublin, Ireland.
• Alabama, USA.
• Brisbane, Australia.
• London, England.

And my son is currently having his guitar lesson via Skype for the first time.

Here’s the thing

Working during a period of lockdown does NOT mean you’re isolated. And it’s vitally important you are aware of this in very real terms.

Why?

Because if you operate from an isolation mindset, your thinking will be drastically limited. Limited thinking produces ineffective outcomes. It’s almost literally “thinking INSIDE the box”, massively reducing the vision you need, to successfully navigate the coming months.

Think about it

Many service providers, probably most, can grow their business very effectively right now. You can thrive, let alone survive! These include almost every consultant, coach, trainer, accountant, lawyer, designer, PR agency, communications agency, web developer and marketing provider.

Growth: You can speak with new, prospective clients via voice or video, whichever they prefer. You can invoice the new client via email as usual, and receive money via bank transfer almost instantly.

Retention: You can also render outstanding service to your current clients and help them, thus retaining them.

Now consider this

The vast majority of your competitors are in panic mode right now.

• Their thinking is about isolation; “when will it end!?!”.
• They’re fear-focused.
• They’re wondering how they’re going to get through this.
• They’re not looking to expand, they’re desperately trying to contract.
• They’re seeking ways to limit their overhead.
• They’re refusing to pay key people to their business.

In short, their focus is limitation, lack, fear, reduction, loss, contraction. And as people tend to move towards what they focus on, they’ll really struggle.

But not you, my friend.

Because with the right growth strategy, the sky should be your limit.

Whilst your competitor’s limit is the inside of their isolation box.

Photo: Shutterstock.

The marketing plan you developed in January is now toast. That’s because your marketplace is thinking differently today, than it did just a few weeks ago.

Very, very differently. And this will continue, until the pandemic has passed and the economy eventually returns to normal.

From a marketing perspective, this means the way you have traditionally sold your services or products needs to change. It needs to change, because the way your marketplace makes purchasing decisions has radically changed. Here is just one example, which is already having a massive impact on almost every industry.

• In a typical economy, people don’t have to think too hard about making a purchase. As such, even poorly marketed businesses are able to generate a level of sales; just by ‘being there’ or contacting prospects at the right time.
• When economies are plunged into crisis, people think far harder before they buy anything. Your prospective clients are anxious. They’re making fear-based decisions. As such, pre pandemic marketing and ‘being there’ just won’t cut it. Literally every marketing or business development decision you make, needs to take this into account.

Adjust and get the wind in your sails

The way we set our sail, determines whether we get the wind behind us and excel or end up on the rocks. We set our sail commercially, with the decisions we take (and the decisions we avoid).

A few areas to consider.

• Reduce the risk attached to hiring you or buying from you.
• Adapt your business, so that it’s more relevant to the current needs of your marketplace.
• Increase the value of your services or products.
• Introduce flexible payment options.
• Grow bigger ears. (This one is really important).

Faced with what now seems to be a long-term challenge, it’s essential to adapt as early as possible. It’s what your agile competitors are already doing. And it’s what your marketplace demands.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Just 5 days ago, I shared some ideas about how to boost your cash flow during the coronavirus restrictions.

Here’s some of the feedback you gave me, on how you’re tackling the impact of the virus. I also share a very important observation for business to business service providers.

Anita runs a vegetarian restaurant. “We were basically waiting for the order to close and figuring out how to survive with no money coming into the business”. […] “After your email I started thinking on things we could do and nothing came to me. I asked Joe my partner and he said why not provide a takeout service so we asked around our friends on Facebook to see if anyone was up for it. They were and we started 2 days later and today we’re getting some thermal bags for home delivery starting next week”.

Grant is a financial advisor. In his email he explained that he had built his reputation around a very personal level of service. “The thought of working remotely with clients left me cold plus I hate cameras”. […] I read your blog and decided to call around some clients to check if they’d like next weeks meetings via video and only one client said no. That’s because he didn’t have video set up on his home computer yet. I’ll call everyone next week and am hopeful about the future for the first time in a month.”

Alan runs a hair studio and liked the idea of offering vouchers, which can be bought today, to secure your place in the queue, when the coronavirus restrictions are lifted. He explained that a lot of his clients were due an appointment, so he emailed them. “Around 35% snapped the vouchers up and I think more people will buy them over coming weeks as hair gets longer and greyer”.

I was also contacted by a piano teacher, a fitness instructor and several business advisers who have offered their first video sessions, or plan to, next week.

Okay. I’m going to pivot slightly and focus on a specific section of readers.

Your marketplace needs you more than ever before

There’s something huge that I’ve noticed increasingly over the past few weeks. And it’s echoed powerfully in many of your emails.

Those who provide B2B (business to business) advice of any kind, are finding they are more needed by their clients now, than ever before. Their clients are worried, uncertain, in real need of answers and support.

However…

This surge in need is being totally missed, by providers who are scaling their services back, rather than ramping their services up.

I can’t help but think that many providers in; marketing, HR, recruitment, finance, training, PR, coaching etc., are missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve their marketplace, by refusing to adapt to the new needs of the market they serve.

If you’re one of these B2B providers, your marketplace needs you. And it needs you like never before. This is not the time to step back. It’s the time to step forward and adapt to the new landscape. Because your expertise has never been more needed. And in helping your clients and wider marketplace, you’re going to help your own business.

Just don’t expect to be able to carry on with a business as usual approach. If your marketplace doesn’t know you have the answers, support and ideas they need for this crisis, they’re not going to ask you for help.

Stay safe and remember, we’re all in this together, my friend.