Professional development Archives - Page 8 of 54

Risk reduction 101

By Jim Connolly | October 20, 2023

want something done, ask busy person, sayings

In business, reducing your exposure to risk makes sense.

Eliminating your exposure to risk make no sense whatsoever.

Why?

It’s impossible to eliminate risk from any business. Even if things are going great, and we decide to just carry on with whatever we’re doing, we risk becoming obsolete. We risk becoming irrelevant. We risk losing clients or customers to agile competitors.

In seeking to eliminate risk, we automatically eliminate every great, genuine opportunity. Think about it, every genuine opportunity comes with an element of risk.

In short, reduce your exposure to risk, for sure. But don’t try to eliminate it.

That breakthrough you need

By Jim Connolly | October 12, 2023

step by step success, breakthrough business

There’s a lot of commercial doom and gloom out there right now. That’s why it’s essential to remember that your business success remains under your direct control.

You’re in the driving seat.

It’s in your hands.

Better still, those who have succeeded in the worst of economic conditions have given us one of their keys to success. Take a moment to study their stories and you’ll immediately notice a pattern.

A wonderful pattern.

A pattern that you can follow and achieve similar breakthroughs in any economy. It’s simply this: Their success was achieved one step at a time. For example.

One connection at a time.

One opportunity at a time.

One proposal at a time.

One presentation at a time.

One meeting at a time.

One new client (or customer) at a time.

One major new client at a time.

One life-changing contract at a time.

By looking for where your big breakthrough will come from amid the economic gloom, your mind isn’t in the present moment. And it’s easy, really easy, to miss the daily steps you should be taking that will lead you to breakthrough success.

Here’s your next step

You know what you want to achieve. So just ask yourself. Based on what I know right now, what’s my next good step?

Then resolve to take that step. Do the same thing tomorrow and the following day, and every day. Just one step.

The success of this approach is easy to verify. You simply need to read the chronicles of anyone who’s ever achieved anything of great value. It’s the worst kept secret in business. And the best way to achieve the success you desire.

All it takes is one step at a time. One day at a time.

You can thrive in the weeks and months ahead. Remain focused on what you want to achieve and do the right things correctly. Easier said than done, but it’s not exactly difficult, either.

Sales tip: How to turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’!

By Jim Connolly | October 10, 2023

When a prospective client or customer decides not to hire us or buy from us, how can we turn their no into a yes? And how can we do this, even when they’ve had their objections or concerns fully answered and they still say ‘no’?

Faced with that kind of rejection, there are 3 broad ways we can choose to respond.

We could just leave it. They’ve made their decision. End of story.
We could reply and let them know why they’re wrong and make sure they know they’ve made a big mistake. If we know the competitor who won, we could also include all the bad stuff we know about the lousy dirt-bag.
Or we could contact them and be more genial, positive and helpful to them, than if we had won the contract!

Yes, it’s number 3 I’m going to focus on. Because it’s exceptionally effective.

Turning a prospect’s no into a yes

Imagine how the following might work, as a massively more effective way to respond to a prospect’s ‘no’.

You contact the prospect and thank them for the time they spent with you or with your proposal.
You also let them know, up-front, that you respect their decision. This is important. It shows you’re not doubting their ability as a decision maker.
You add that as a result of their decision, you’re working to improve your proposal or presentation.
You then find something generous to say about the competitor who won, so long as it’s true. Nothing sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek, but truly gracious.
And finally, you let them know that if they ever need anything, you’re there for them and happy to help.

Here’s what we know for absolute certain. Very, very few people respond with that type of good-natured, yet professional strategy. But when they do, they get remembered for the very best of reasons. It’s exceptionally powerful and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen it work.

Here’s what can happen

Here are just some of the outcomes this can generate for people, who were originally rejected.

In many cases, the prospect who rejected them suddenly wonders if they made the wrong decision, in choosing the other provider. I’ve personally seen this result in an immediate about-turn, with the rejected provider winning the deal.

Much more commonly, I’ve seen the rejected provider given the contract, as soon as the winning provider screws up!

It’s as if the prospect is unconsciously looking for their original choice to fail, after becoming fully aware what a wonderful provider they rejected. By respecting the prospect’s decision and leaving the door wide open to them, the rejected provider makes it extremely easy for the prospect to contact them.

But that’s not all!

Ask anyone who uses this approach and they’ll confirm that it also results in a number of referrals, from the prospects who didn’t change their mind about hiring the rejected provider.

I’ve used this strategy for years and seen amazing results. My clients have, too. So give it a try. You literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Photo by Jim Wilson on Unsplash

What is sub-scratch and why must you eliminate it?

By Jim Connolly | October 4, 2023

You’ve never heard of sub-scratch before. That’s understandable. It’s a term I created. Here’s how I explain it to clients, and why you need to AVOID it.

Starting from scratch / sub-scratch

Starting from scratch is an opportunity to start anew. It frees you to build a project on a clean, clear foundation. And it’s extremely underrated.
Starting from sub-scratch is the exact opposite. It’s what happens when you start work on a project, which is already broken. You need to pick up the pieces and erase the damage before doing anything else.

I was prompted to write this, after learning about the following, recent sub-scratch example.

A business owner wrote, and sent, a very pushy marketing email to everyone in a local business directory. None had requested the information. She then discovered that she and her ‘spammy email’ were being trashed in the local Facebook business group. The business owner then posted confrontational responses to some individuals in the group, making things even worse. By choosing to dabble with the initial marketing that caused the problem, then dabble with the PR required to mitigate the problem, she’s seriously damaged her reputation within her target marketplace.

My expensive sub-scratch mistake

I made my own sub-scratch mistake well over 20 years ago. It cost me a fortune. I still cringe when I think of it. I had a financial investment decision, which I was maybe 80% sure I knew the answer to. Rather than hire a professional Financial Advisor, I dabbled. I asked a wealthy friend and he agreed I was right. So, I proceeded. I was wrong and so was my friend. It ended up losing me thousands. I still needed to hire a professional Financial Advisor, but she needed to unpick my DIY financials, before building me a solid foundation.

As small business owners, you and I need to make sure we don’t create sub-scratch problems. We need to be very intentional about the things we absolutely know we’re able to do, and those things where we lack the knowledge required. It’s always more effective and far less expensive, to hire an expert at the start, rather than afterwards.

Photo by Francisco De Legarreta C. on Unsplash

Get sharp. Get ahead. Then stay there

By Jim Connolly | September 23, 2023

small business marketing, sharp, accurate

When I was a kid, my dad taught me that a sharp bladed knife was safer to use than a blunt one. He explained that blunt blades cause us to use too much force to cut something. This renders the blade inaccurate and hard to control.

Sharpness in business is equally important.

For example.

If our communication skills aren’t sharp enough, prospective clients will struggle to understand what makes our products or services perfect for them.
If our creative skills aren’t sharp enough, we’ll fail to develop the compelling new products and services our marketplace needs.
And if our motivational skills aren’t sharp enough, we’ll be unable to get people excited about those new products and services.

You get the idea.

Of course, when you run a busy business, the temptation is to keep your head down and plough through the work ahead of you. You have deadlines to keep. Clients to delight. People to see. Places to go. And only so many hours each day to cram everything in.

However, when we review the most successful business owners, we find they make time to sharpen their skills. They continuously invest in their professional development; doing the reading and the studying, getting the coaching and always improving.

Where to begin?

Take time out to identify the area of your business, which you would benefit most from improving. Something that would help you overcome a current challenge. Then, put some time aside to learn more about it.

Photo by Elena Kloppenburg on Unsplash

Get reflective: Your unpaid salespeople will do the rest

By Jim Connolly | September 18, 2023

marketing, reflective thinking, design, utility

Right now, there’s a motivated sales force out there, who happily work for free and are waiting to tell people all about you and the services you provide.

I came up with this idea 20 years ago, after studying the world’s top industrial designers and commercial designers. It blew me away.

Here’s what I discovered.

One of the attributes of commercially successful design, is that the object needs to be reflective. In other words, it causes us to think about it. To reflect on its utility, uniqueness or beauty.

I’ve found that a commercially successful business also needs to be reflective. A business that’s useful has utility. A business that’s meaningfully different is unique. And a business that runs smoothly is a thing of beauty.

Allow me to explain why this should matter to you and your business.

Your unpaid salespeople are waiting

Designers know that reflective products almost sell themselves.

For instance, my wife bought me some Apple AirPods just after they launched. Their unique look caused total strangers to ask me about them. Their ability to instantly connect wirelessly, inspired me to tell my friends about them.

Just by owning them and using them I became an unpaid salesperson for the product.

Take a look at your products, services or business model and look for ways to make things more reflective. How many unpaid salespeople are there, who’ll spring into action as soon as you give them something reflective to share with their friends? Give it a try and find out.

Photo by Maria Fernanda Pissioli on Unsplash

25 Reasons why people don’t buy from you or hire you

By Jim Connolly | September 12, 2023

marketing, removing blocks, increase sales

It’s a massive source of frustration. You’re trying to sell your service or product to a prospect, but they just don’t get it. Here are 25 common reasons why people don’t buy from you or hire you. By learning what’s stopping them, you’ll find it easier to turn things around.

Here they are in no particular order.

You’re connecting to them using the wrong medium. You’re using email instead of sending a letter. A letter instead of a phone call. A phone call instead of Zoom. A Zoom instead of in-person.
They make decisions slowly. You move quickly. They’re still trying to process things.
They make decisions quickly. You move slowly. They’ve lost interest.
You’re assuming too much about what they know or what they need, etc.
They’re short term focused and you’re selling a medium to long-term benefit. Or vice versa.
You’re dealing with the wrong person.
You have a closing problem. Read this.
They’re under a great deal of stress. Which is really common right now.
You’re using too many words to describe your proposition. This is extremely common.
You’re using too few words to describe it. This almost never happens.
There are too many steps in your sales process. You’re losing them. They get half way through whatever you’re communicating, and they’re already forgetting the start.
You’re using incompatible marketing ideas, approaches or strategies from a different industry. This is a huge, HUGE problem for service providers. I wrote about how to avoid the problem, here.
They can see the value, they do want it, but are lying to you because they’re broke and embarrassed.
Your product or service, if purchased, would force them to admit they failed in some way.
You’re attracting poorly targeted leads, so they lack the need, the finances or both.
You haven’t given them a deadline to make their decision. Deadlines sharpen the mind.
They don’t trust you enough yet, to lower their guard and let your message land.
You’re confusing them, because there’s a disconnect between what you say and what they see. This is very common. The vendor says they’re professional and reliable, the vendor IS professional and reliable, BUT their marketing gives the opposite impression.
They’re very visual and your marketing or sales presentation isn’t.
You’re not enthusiastic enough, about your product or service, so they’re not enthusiastic enough to hire you.
You haven’t demonstrated the full value of your product or service to them. So, they wrongly believe it’s too expensive.
You haven’t explained the core benefits of what you’re offering, so they don’t even know they need it.
They’re apprehensive about making the purchase or hiring you and your level of reassurance isn’t cutting it.
They’re expecting the approach or marketing from someone in your industry, to look or sound different.
You haven’t made it easy enough for them to switch to you from their current provider.

I hope you find these examples useful.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Enthusiasm is pure marketing gold dust

By Jim Connolly | September 5, 2023

Today, I’d like you to consider your answer to the following question.

How enthusiastic are you about your business?

Here’s why your answer to that question is so important: People can tell almost immediately if you’re enthusiastic or not. And that matters! It matters because is has an immediate impact on how they feel about you, your business and the service you provide.

Allow me to explain.

Enthusiasm makes things happen

When you speak (or write) with enthusiasm, people feel more positively about you. Enthusiastic business owners exude confidence, which is essential. Think about it, we only hire people or buy from them, if we have confidence in them.

I once heard the definition of making a sale described as, ‘the transfer of enthusiasm‘. That’s a great example of just how essential enthusiasm is to the success of your business.

Also, when you speak with enthusiasm, people listen more attentively. They’re drawn in. You sometimes notice their body language change, as they lean forward because they’re paying attention. And this happens in seconds.

All these benefits of enthusiasm, and more, combine to create an immediate, positive impact. In a moment, I’ll give you 10 important ways that this can help you greatly improve your results.

A lack of enthusiasm makes things happen, too

When enthusiasm is lacking, people are less motivated by you. They pay less attention to what you say, because your lack of enthusiasm is talking louder than the words you use.

I experienced this recently, talking to a business owner. She was saying positive things about what she wanted to achieve with her business, yet she was clearly lacking in enthusiasm. And it sucked all the confidence and impact from her words. I honestly can’t recall much of what she said. Just her total lack of enthusiasm.

Unleash your enthusiasm

Here are 10 ways you can improve your results, by letting your enthusiasm shine through everything you do.

It will generate more sales, as you ‘transfer your enthusiasm’.
It will improve perceptions of you, your business and the service you provide.
It will encourage the people around you. This super-valuable trait is common to every great leader.
It will inspire confidence in you and what you do.
It will attract opportunities that you wouldn’t have previously been offered.
It will attract the best clients, too.
It will position you in the marketplace, as ‘one to watch’.
It will energize you and everything you do.
It will motivate people to recommend you to their friends.
And it will make you happier with your business, which further boosts your enthusiasm and amplifies all those great benefits.

Okay. So, not everyone reading this is brimming with enthusiasm right now.

Let’s look at that.

What if you’re not feeling enthusiastic?

Think of it like this. You’re the business owner. So, you’re in control.

This means you have the freedom, starting right now, to build a business that enthuses you. A business that excites you on every level.

Remember: You choose where you work. You choose who your clients or customers are. You even choose what you charge. This means you get to decide where you work, who you work for and how much money you make.

So, if your current business doesn’t cause you to feel enthusiastic, improve it until it does.

You can do it. That’s for certain. I know, because I see it happening every day with my clients.

How to quickly, repeatedly improve your sales

By Jim Connolly | August 29, 2023

marketing experiments, improve sales, sales results

Marketing relies heavily on creativity. It takes creativity to attract your prospective client’s attention. It takes creativity to stand out against your competitors. It also takes creativity to write a great marketing message or land a new client.

The enemy of creativity is fear. Specifically, the fear of failure.

Today, I’m going to show you how to overcome this challenge, so you be free to create without fear and improve everything about your marketing at the same time. It’s based on a strategy I discovered in the mid 1990’s and it’s worked for me ever since. I hope you find it as valuable as I have.

It looks like this

I decided to improve how I felt about creating, by reframing my marketing as a series of experiments. This was not only extremely helpful. It was also factually correct.

Think about it.

Everything you do to market your business is done to achieve some kind of result. That result is feedback. By measuring the feedback, you learn, and can then improve the result next time. It’s a process of testing and measuring akin to scientific experiments.

Marketing experiments

So, I switched, mentally, from spending my day on a series of projects, to spending my day on a series of marketing experiments. It was such a powerful exercise that I even renamed my first office ‘The Lab’.

What I loved about this approach is that it made me vastly more productive. That’s because the more I experimented, the more feedback I received.

And that feedback is extremely valuable.

Sometimes the feedback is what I expected.
Sometimes the feedback is a total surprise.
Sometimes the feedback leads to a major success breakthrough.
Sometimes the feedback leads to a massively more profitable, new direction.

However, no experiment ever fails!

That’s because the feedback you receive equips you to make better and better marketing experiments. With better marketing experiments, comes better marketing results; more new clients, more product sales, better client retention, higher profitability, more enquiries, more subscribers and every other sales metric you need.

As such, fear was eliminated from my creative output. This freed me to become vastly more productive.

You and your business

Could this approach work for you?

Yes. Yes it could.

However, you’ll never know if it works for until you give it a try. So, go ahead. Test, measure and improve your sales results. As often as you wish.

P.S. Here’s why people criticise you and how to deal with it, in just 3 steps.

Photo by Yassine Khalfalli on Unsplash

Personal news. Einstein’s marketing tip. And more

By Jim Connolly | August 22, 2023

Before I start, it’s been a huge week here in the Connolly household. My son Lewis got a place at his first choice university. That has nothing to do with marketing. I’m just sharing a proud dad moment with you.

Okay. Now let’s grow your business with some marketing ideas!

Overcome a common marketing problem

I’m hearing from a lot of small business owners lately, who have the same challenge.

Here’s what they’re telling me.

They offer a great service. They’re working at least as hard as they always have. But their results are either plunging, dipping or not growing in any meaningful way. And the ads or marketing that used to work, are no longer as effective.

If you’re in a similar position, there are a few things I recommend you take a look at.

Demand

Has your marketplace shrunk? A growing number of services that people used to pay for, are now available for free via AI. Initially it was content writers whose services saw a huge drop in demand.

Now it’s far wider. Including; SEO providers, photographers, recipe planners, course/training creators, those selling online information products, web developers, commercial artists, designers, data analysts, technical writers, paralegals and tutors.

Note – This applies exclusively to those who serve the middle or lower end of the market. If you’re one of them, focus on what you can do, which AI can’t do. And make that a key element in your marketing.

Otherwise you’ll no longer be competing against lower-priced competitors, you’ll be competing against zero-priced competitors.

Templates

If your marketing is based around a checklist, template or online course/program, you’re really hard to hire or buy from. That’s because you’re invisible. You’re camouflaged amid the millions of others following the same type of cookie-cutter approach.

Instead, look for intelligent opportunities to zig when they zag.

It’s not about being different.

It’s about finding ways to capture attention, which your prospects will love. It’s about knowing how to earn the trust of your prospects, before they hire you or buy from you. It’s about becoming a must-buy proposition. It’s about being the obvious choice for your prospects to make. That’s the exact opposite of the template approach to marketing.

New needs and wants

I’ve mentioned this a few times this year, but it’s something that’s created a huge shift in the way you need to market your business. The speed of change over the past 3 years has been greater than at any time in living memory. And it’s charging ahead at an accelerated pace.

This means your marketing needs to adjust to the new needs and wants of your prospects.

So, talk with your prospects.

Dip into forums and social media.

See what they’re excited about.

See what they’re worried about.

See what they’re paying attention to.

This is critically important. You can’t market effectively unless you know who you’re marketing to and what they want.

Einstein’s marketing tip

I’m certain you’ve read the following quote. You may not have applied it to your marketing efforts, though. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.

When your sales results are going in the wrong direction, or going nowhere, it’s time to stop doing the same type of marketing.

When I explain this to business owners, they almost always draw the wrong conclusion. They conclude that I’m asking them to try different types of marketing.

I’m not.

I’m asking them to adopt a successful, uniquely them, marketing strategy.

That’s why some people reading this will find it interesting, then go to YouTube in search of sales hacks and tricks (template information). But the entrepreneurs reading it will see this as an opportunity to close out the last 4 months of the year thriving, and enjoy an amazing 2024.