Ever wondered why I never write about how or where to spend your marketing money?

Well, today I spill the beans. And it can save you, and make you, a fortune.

There are a lot of ways you can spend money on marketing. Advertising and promotion is available via thousands of providers. It’s so easy.

• You pay them your money.
• They say they’ll get your message in front of X number of prospective clients or customers.
• Hopefully, a percentage of these will contact you.
• And a percentage of that percentage, could spend money with you.

So far so good, right?

It would be, if your competitors didn’t have the exact same options.

But they do.

Buying attention is overrated

Obviously, your competitors advertise to the same marketplace as you… otherwise they wouldn’t be your competitors.

So your ads are always competing against their ads.

Whoever spends most money, gets the most attention. This is equally true when you advertise on different platforms, as digital advertising reaches the same target groups regardless of where they are.

This makes buying attention with ads extremely precarious! Your ad reach will always depend on the marketing money your competitors choose to spend. It’s out of your control. It’s also impossible to plan the future growth of your business with confidence.

Why?

A well-funded competitor can, quickly and easily, wipe your visibility out before you even know what’s happening.

Thankfully there’s an effective alternative.

Marketing creativity over marketing money

I choose to focus 100% on a very different marketing model. It’s a model that is impossible for your competitors to copy, as they can’t see what you’re doing, unlike paid ads / promotion.

• They’ll know that you get talked about a lot more often.
• They’ll also sense there’s a real buzz around your products or services.
• They’ll notice their existing clients or customers switching to you.

BUT they won’t know why.

That’s because the marketing model I use is entirely based around creativity, not money.

It’s about attracting attention, not buying attention.

It’s about giving your prospective clients something to talk about.

And it’s exceptionally effective. In fact, The Wall Street Journal came to me for an example of how I achieve massive marketing success for my small business clients, using creative marketing strategies, and NOT A PENNY spent on advertising or promotion.

In short, I don’t write about how to buy attention because it’s a risky, expensive, unpredictable and exceptionally limited way to grow your business.

So, now you know.

When you ask why they didn’t buy from you, prospective customers or clients often say that your prices are too high.

And it could be true.

However, it usually isn’t.

Here’s what you need to know.

Your prices are seldom the problem

Let’s start with some far more likely reasons for their decision.

• Your marketing could be suffering from Toxic Complexity. This is dangerous and extremely common.
• You might be marketing to the wrong people.
• You could be contacting them at the lowest point of their cash flow cycle.
• You could be asking people to make a decision before they have all the information they need.
• Your marketing could be failing to clearly demonstrate enough value, making your price seem higher than they expected.
• Your marketing promises could be too similar to those offered by your lower priced competitors.
• Your payment terms may not be flexible enough for them.
• Your branding could be positioning you as a lower priced provider than you actually are.
• You could be responding to enquiries too slowly.

And there are lots of other reasons. None of which have much to do with your prices or fees, and more to do with your marketing and how you sell your products or services.

It’s a trap

Lowering your prices can be tempting. It’s a quick and extremely easy way to make your products or services seem better value. But it’s a trap. A trap you need to avoid. A trap that can put your business in a dangerous race to the bottom. You do not want to be in a race to the bottom!

A far better alternative is to find out what’s actually causing people to think you’re too expensive. And to then focus on improving your marketing in those key areas.

If you’re not sure where to start looking for answers, the brief list above is a useful place to begin. Try to look at each item on that list from the perspective of a potential client. Remember, most prospects will have done at least some research. So check your competitors to see how your; services, marketing, payment terms, promises, guarantees, branding and response times, etc., stack up against theirs.

And make lowering your prices the very last thing you consider.

So, you want to get your products or services noticed? Of course you do. You work hard, your business is excellent and more people need to know about what you do.

However, before you start working on how to get noticed, you’ll need to put some foundations in place. Otherwise, you’ll blow a ton of money, waste your time and miss out on some potentially great opportunities.

With this in mind, be sure to check the following.

• Do you have an accurate way to measure the number of prospective customers or clients who notice you?
• Have you determined the number of people you need to notice you, in order for your business to flourish?
• Are you able to accurately track whether you are getting noticed by the right people, or just a poorly targeted mix?
• When people notice you for the first time, do your *touchpoints build an image of trust? *Touchpoints are the places where a new prospective encounters you, such as your website, Linkedin, your newsletter, your office, your store, your advertising, etc.
• Will new prospective customers find your marketing message compelling enough, to motivate them to place an order, to contact you, to come back for more, etc? [This tip will help you]
• And have you made it extremely easy and intuitive, for them to recommend you to their friends and contacts?
• Do you have a robust strategy to get their permission to stay in touch with them?
• Are your systems, both online and offline, regularly tested, to ensure they’re working, or are you losing prospective customers or important data, without even knowing it?

The key is to make sure you don’t simply get noticed, but that you get noticed by the right people. And that when these prospective customers notice you, you’re optimized to turn their attention into money in the bank.

Get this balance right and you’ll convert more people into customers in 2025 than ever before.

Here’s a very straightforward, proven way to build a successful service-based business. I’m going to suggest you reject the mob.

All right. That’s the intro finished. Let’s go!

Depending on the service you provide and your location, there are thousands, maybe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of prospective clients.

Except, they’re not really your prospective clients at all.

No.

Whilst you may be able to provide a degree of service to some of them, for the vast majority you won’t be exactly what they’re looking for. You can’t possibly be. None of us can.

After all.

• Some will want a more local provider.
• Some will demand the lowest priced provider.
• Some will insist on the absolute premium, and happily pay the maximum to ensure it.
• Some will need a provider that speaks a certain language.
• Some will be looking for a provider from one of their networking groups.
• Some will want a provider with a rare, highly specialist knowledge.
• Some will require a provider who charges annually in arrears.
• Some will only hire a provider with offices in multiple locations.
• Some will want unlimited phone access at no extra charge.

Given you can’t possibly serve the majority of your marketplace, I have a strong recommendation for you. I recommend you adopt a much more focused strategy.

Here’s why. Along with how it works.

Shun the masses

The temptation is to try and have as wide an appeal as possible, so you get a shot at as many prospective clients as possible. That’s a very common approach. It seems to make sense, but it’s completely wrongheaded. A bad mindset to work from. And a very expensive mistake.

Why?

Because by trying to be somewhat relevant to everyone, you fail to be directly relevant to anyone – including your actual prospects.

Your actual (genuine) prospects need to see your marketing and immediately identify that you’re talking to them. By weakening that message, you lose them.

They’ll assume you’re not what they’re looking for, when you’re exactly what they’re looking for and exactly what they need.

So my plea to you is simple.

Reject the mob. They’re not interested. They’ll waste your time. They’ll want ‘this’ when you offer ‘that’. And you’ll go nuts trying to make them happy, let alone keep them happy.

Embrace your actual prospects instead

Focus on being directly relevant to the prospective clients you can absolutely delight with your services. These are the people who will hire you, pay you the correct rate, recommend you to their friends and stay with you for years and years. These are the clients you can confidently build an amazingly successful business with.

These are the clients you need. And they need you. They really need you!

Now, go and let them know! Focus all your marketing, so that it’s strikingly obvious you’re exactly what they’ve been looking for.

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 you need to be extremely careful, before using any of the countless closing techniques and tricks.

Closing for business?

The challenge with the closing mindset, is that it positions the prospective customer as little more than an obstacle. A barrier between you and the sale. A hurdle to be overcome. It’s little wonder so many closing techniques are based on aggressive, psychological tactics.

Here are a couple of the worst, widely used examples today.

• The silence close. This is where a series of long, uncomfortable silences are used at key points in the sales process. The person selling uses this discomfort to exert the maximum mental pressure on the prospective client. It’s borrowed from interrogation techniques!
• Assuming the sale. This is where the person selling literally ignores the prospect’s lack of interest and acts as if the prospect has agreed to make the purchase. They just start asking for the delivery address and a suitable date. When/if the prospect objects, the salesperson responds with a series of why? questions, further pressuring the prospect.

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

I built my reputation in sales by adopting the total opposite approach. Instead of focusing on closing, I focused on opening. And I made a fortune.

Opening?

Yes. Opening relationships and opening opportunities. I found 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 or 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 natural, flowing conversation, where we seek to help people overcome a challenge, with the products or services we provide.

It’s an effective, rewarding and professional way to achieve amazing sales results, and build masses of high-value relationships that last.

Too passive?

No way! This approach may sound passive, but consider the people YOU like. The people you trust. The vendors you’re already purchasing from. Are they pushy? Are they confrontational? No! That’s because we avoid people like that. Conversely, we’re attracted to those who respect us and are open and honest with us.

We trust people who are open and honest.

We buy from people who are open and honest.

We value 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, the more sales we make and then, the more referrals we receive.

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.

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.

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

Here’s why those 6 words are critically important to the success of your business.

• 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 competitive edge.
• Not our ingenuity.
• Not our skills.

Intelligent action always precedes success. That’s why in business, the winners get moving.

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.

It’s tough being a service provider. There are so many of us in every industry. Not only that, a prospective client can find lower priced alternatives to us, on Google, in seconds.

With so many competitors, what can we do?

Well.

• We could try and out-spend them on advertising. Of course, this eats into our profit margins.
• We could try being the lowest priced. Of course, this almost eliminates our profits.
• We could try joining a networking group. Of course, we’d be relying on fellow group members to provide us with leads; the very same people who need to attend the group because they can’t even get enough leads for their own business!

There are better alternatives though. And one that works extremely well, is to become number one in a category of one.

It’s the strategy I follow for my own business and one that could be just as effective for you and your business.

It works like this

Let’s imagine you’re a financial advisor. (You could equally be a mentor, lawyer, designer, trainer, accountant, marketing consultant or whatever). Anyhow, unlike your fellow financial advisors, you choose to work exclusively with creative professionals. This immediately places you as number one in a category of one.

• The fact you understand their profession at a super-deep level, sets you apart from the rest.
• The fact you understand their terminology and speak their language, sets you apart from the rest.
• The fact you understand the threats and opportunities specific to their industry, sets you apart from the rest.
• The fact you understand their unique requirements, sets you apart from the rest.
• The fact you understand the creative mindset, sets you apart from the rest.

And because you’re clearly more relevant to the creative industry, you will stand out as the obvious choice, to be their next financial advisor!

It’s hard to think of a service provider in any industry, who couldn’t transition themselves into being number one in a category of one.

Including you.

Yes, including you!