Have you ever heard the saying; “give until it hurts” and wondered what it means?

I believe that many misunderstand the statement.  They think that it means we should just give, give, give and only stop when we are out of resources; (time, money, energy etc.)

The wise man or woman knows that the time to stop giving, is BEFORE they feel the pain of giving so much, that they end up hurting – and unable to help anyone else.

Andrew Carnegie, perhaps one of the world’s best known philanthropists, is reported to have decided as a young man, that he would spend half his working life building a massive fortune, so that he could spend the second half, giving all his billions away.  Yes, he helped people along the way, but not to the point where it hurt him or his business so much, that he was unable to help all those millions of people later in his life.

This may sound like a contradiction, but I believe the key to successful giving, is to help as many people as you can!

Help as many people as you can, but as efficiently as possible

Through this blog, I provide free marketing tips and advice to thousands of people.  At the moment, I spend around 3 hours a week writing content; which I can do without it “hurting” or harming my business.  Just think how much LESS of an impact it would have, if I used those same 3 hours each week, to give 3 people an hour of my time.  If you are currently giving until it hurts, you may want to consider a similar approach.  Try putting your expertise in one place and then allowing as many people as possible to benefit from it.

I believe we each owe it to our families and ourselves, to get the balance right – So that we learn how to help as many people as we can, without the pain of neglecting our families or our own businesses in the process!

Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to attract new clients or customers when business is already going well, and that it’s harder to attract them when your business is struggling.  One of the primary reasons this happens, is that business owners tend to act, communicate and make decisions very differently, when times are good than when times are tough.

Marketing in good times: Typically, business owners act with confidence when times are good.  They speak in positive terms about their business, their marketplace and their future.  They make decisions based on what they want to achieve.

Marketing in tough times: Typically, business owners act with trepidation when times are tough.  They speak in neutral or negative terms about their business, their marketplace and their future.  They make decisions based on what they fear.

Marketing and confidence

Confidence plays a massive part in the success of any business, for example:

• We buy from people, who we feel confident about.
• We recommend people, who we feel confident can deliver.
• We follow people, who we feel confident can lead.
• We buy products that we are confident we can trust.

When we listen to people who speak with confidence, we tend to believe in them.  However, when we listen to those who lack confidence, we don’t.  In both cases, the speaker transfers either their confidence or their lack of confidence to us, depending on their disposition.  This is why leaders in every area of life, are those who can inspire confidence in their message; be that in a boardroom or sports arena.  By the way, I wrote about another aspect of marketing with confidence here.

The great news, is that confidence starts from within.  WE get to decide whether we project confidence or concern.

Marketing tip: Take a look at the information you currently feed into your marketplace.  This includes your interactions on social media sites, as well as marketing-specific messages and business conversations.  Now, check them to see how likely they are, to inspire confidence in you or your services.  If you think there’s room for improvement, seek to inject a more positive, confidence inspiring message from here on!

What makes you feel more confident about a potential provider?  What can providers do, to help you feel more confident about them and their business? Share your thoughts!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

How would you like to create a massive, positive impact in your marketplace?

Simple: Do some small things every day!

Over the years, I have found that success is seldom the result of a single, enormous action.  Instead, it comes from doing small things every day.  Each day, I make sure that as well as my regular workload, I take some time out to help others in small ways.

For example:

• If I see someone on Twitter, who has a problem that I can help them with, I will often give them a quick call.  I usually limit the call to 15 minutes and I don’t do this every day, but you would be amazed at the kind of response this simple act creates.
• If I use a photographer’s work here on the blog, I give them a name credit and link to their Flickr account, so others can check them out.  Many have thanked me and a few have even blogged about it.
• I have had many blog comments, tweets and emails from people, simply because I ask people to join me on Twitter – not follow me on Twitter.  In my opinion, the idea of  social media rockstars is not only wrong, it makes me cringe!
• When you leave a comment on this blog, if your name is included in your comment, I use your name as part of my reply.  I would use your name if we met, so why not use it when we meet here on the blog?  Again, this is commented on often

Each of the things listed above are just typical parts of my working week.  I’m sure there are others, which I do on auto-pilot and am not even consciously aware of.  These things are not deliberately done simply for effect, but from a career long belief I have had about the importance of making a positive contribution.

What do YOU do in order to make a difference within your marketplace?  Let us know!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Thankfully, we don’t have to guess or wonder what it takes to be successful in business. The answers are in the stories behind every successful businessperson, who has been kind enough to share them.

Here are 4 things I have seen over and over again, in every successful businessperson I have ever studied:

1. Expert advice

Successful businesspeople invest in expert advice. As a result, they make better decisions and take the right actions, for what they need to achieve. Unsuccessful businesspeople do the opposite. They try and do too much themselves and immediately lose ground to their successfully guided competitors. They literally set themselves up to fail, under the misguided belief they are actually saving money.

The stock reply whenever I speak with someone, who refuses to pay for specialist help, is that they can’t afford it. The belief here, is that every small business, other than theirs, has access to a stack of money. The reality is very, very different.

It’s about priorities!

I spoke with a guy recently, who “can’t afford” a professionally designed logo – yet he “can afford” $4 a day (over $1,200 a year) on a “grande” cappuccino.

I’ve discussed this bizarre approach to business with scores of people over the years and the general consensus, is that this is what happens when someone without a business mindset, decides to start a business. These guys focus on loss, so they lose. Successful people focus on achievement, so they achieve.

2. Comfort zones

All business owners will tell you that they work hard, and most of them do (really hard.) However, hard work is not the key to success. If it were, our grandparents would have been millionaires!

Here’s where the difference is: Successful businesspeople work hard doing what needs to be done, whilst their less successful counterparts work hard doing what’s most comfortable. Successful business owners love what they do, but realise that they often need to break out of their comfort zones if they want their business to grow.

Less successful business owners only really leave their comfort zones, when pushed by external factors – like the loss of a major client or another problem that forces them to s-t-r-e-t-c-h. As a result of this unwillingness to grow, their business reaches a certain point and stays there, spinning it’s wheels; until they retire, go broke or learn how to take action!

3. Association

As human beings, we are all of equal value. However, in business, we each have a value; based on what we bring to the marketplace. This is why some hard working people earn minimum wage and others work the same number of hours and earn 7 figures every year.

Here’s what we know about people who are commercially successful. We know that they associate with other, commercially successful people. This is because they understand the  massive power of association. As my friend Michael told me, when I was starting out in marketing, 25 years ago:

Jim, hang around with enough people who are going nowhere and one day, everything they have will be yours!

You should always be aware of the impact your associates are having on you and your happiness / success. Why? Because everything we come into contact with has an impact on us, either positive or negative. When it comes to our associates, especially those with whom we habitually associate, it pays to ask ourselves some questions about the impact they are having on us. For example:

• What have they got you reading?
• What have they got you saying?
• What have they got watching and which other voices do they have you listening to?
• What have they got you believing?

Even well intentioned associates can knock us off course, without meaning to. It’s up to us, to filter out the negative influences and spend more time around those who help us be happier and more successful.

4. Learning

The most successful businesspeople I know, are lifelong learners. I don’t mean they just read books, buy programs or attend seminars / training events. I mean they learn from life. They know that if they try something and it doesn’t work, they need to learn from it and move forward. They see a bad result simply as valuable feedback. This attitude means they become better decision makers and action takers, because their “mistakes” are of value to them.

Now, compare that approach, to the approach used by people whose businesses spin their wheels. These guys keep repeating the same errors. It’s why they make so little progress.

Remember: If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!

A common example I see in my profession, is when business owners waste years, trying to improve their marketing by doing it themselves. They grab information from the Internet / newsletters etc – NONE of which has been developed for them, their business or their skills or resources. This actually costs them massively more in both time and money, BUT it’s comfortable and as said in the previous section, they love being comfortable above everything else.

I wrote recently about how people often look for the right answers to the wrong questions, so the best they can hope for, is to discover how to do the wrong things, correctly.  Here’s a quick tip, if you want to avoid the cost and frustration of this happening to you!

Know your outcome

In order to start getting the right answers to the right questions, you need to get back to basics and ask yourself what ULTIMATELY is it that you want to achieve – Your outcome.

For example: A guy recently asked me how to improve the results of his paper company’s telemarketing team.  That was the wrong question, because it’s not the outcome he wanted to achieve.  What he ACTUALLY needed to know, was how to cost-effectively increase the quality and volume of sales into his company.  I explained this to him and was able to show him how to cut his overhead by more than £50,000 a year and increase his sales at the same time – sending his profits into the stratosphere!  Had I simply answered his question, he would have seen a smaller increase in sales and far smaller profits!

Take a moment to consider the outcomes you want to achieve for your business and see if you are focusing on the right questions and answers, for what YOU want to ultimately achieve.

Do you set time aside to ask questions that ensure you are on track?  What kind of questions do you find useful?  Let us know!

How well do you prepare for unexpected, potential business problems?

Some people are great.  They cover all the bases and sleep well at night.  Others are not so good; like the trainer I heard of, who had 30 people in a conference venue waiting for his seminar, only to find that his laptop was broken.  He failed to take a second copy of his presentation, to use on a replacement laptop.  The event was cancelled.

A USB thumb-drive with a copy of his seminar presentation would have cost him pennies and saved him thousands in refunds.

From a marketing perspective, I’m always amazed that so many business owners rely too heavily on a single, major source of new business, leaving them exposed and unprepared, if that source stops delivering.

I remember speaking with the owner of a printing business, who attracted most of his sales leads from a networking group he attended.  Although it worked for him, others in the group saw little in the way of results, so the group folded.  Overnight, he lost his primary source of new business.  His income dropped like a stone and he ended up having to let some staff go, because he literally couldn’t make payroll.  It took him almost 18 months to get back to where he had been, before the collapse of the group!

Your marketing strategy needs the right mix

As I have said many times, one of the secrets to a successful business, is to have a number of effective marketing processes working for you all the time, to form a marketing strategy.  The most successful businesses I know, use 8 or more different forms of marketing at any one time (often more.)  This broader approach to marketing provides 2 massive benefits:

1. It means the business is never over dependent on any single source of sales or enquiries.  This makes your business far more robust and better prepared.
2. A number of effective marketing processes working together, creates something called compound marketing leverage.  Like compound interest, compound leverage gives you a disproportionately large increase in sales; because the sum of the parts is greater than the total of their individual values.

If you are over dependent on a small number of marketing activities, the time to develop a broader, more robust and reliable marketing mix is now!

So, how many different forms of marketing are you using right now?

In marketing, we know that feedback can be extremely valuable.  That’s why marketing professionals like myself test and measure everything.  It’s too easy to wrongly assume that something is working or under-performing, just based on hunches or ill-informed input.

I was talking to a lady yesterday, who had recently redesigned the window display in her soft furnishings shop.  She told me that the day she changed it, several people commented, to say they didn’t like it.  One said “it just looks horrible!”

However, she explained that since changing the display, she was attracting considerably more paying customers than before.  Had she acted on what those first people told her, she would have quickly gone back to the previous, under-performing window display.  Instead, she decided to wait until there was some measurable data and THEN make an informed decision.

Whenever we get verbal or written feedback, it’s important to treat it in the correct context.  Here are a few questions I ask myself, before I decide to act, which I would like to share with you:

Is the person commenting from my target market? If not, it could be that their feedback is well-intentioned, but not reflective of what your marketplace thinks, wants or needs.

What is this person’s motive? Why would someone go to the time and effort, to get in touch with you regarding something they like or dislike about your business?  There’s ALWAYS a reason!  Some are motivated by a desire to help, others by a desire to hinder.  Some are motivated by contribution, others by envy.  Figure out their motive, then listen to what they are saying in context.

Are they an expert in that field? Never act on expert advice, unless it’s given to you by an expert.  There was a guy in our village pub last week, giving the waiter some medical advice. (He’s a retired history teacher with no medical expertise or experience.)

I see a lot of small businesses right now, opting to lower their prices or fees (herein called prices), in order to boost sales and grow their business.  However, I’m also seeing a smaller number of businesses, increasing their prices for the exact same reason.

Before you decide to cut or increase your prices, here are some things to consider.

Price cuts are easy – Increasing them again, well…

As I have said many times before, lowering a price is easy, but increasing that price again can be a far bigger challenge.  This is why it’s essential that you make sure the numbers add up, before you do anything!

For instance:  Imagine my friend Bob decides to reduce the cost of his widgets by 25%.  Depending on his profit margin, he may need to 2 or 3 times as many widgets, just to have the SAME profit figure he had before his price cut.  Many people slash their prices, only to find that the extra sales they generate, leave them worse off than before AND with more clients or customers to service too.

Price cuts can work, but only when the numbers are working for you.  For example, if you sell three times as many widgets after a price cut, you might be able to get a better discount from your supplier, increasing the profitability of each widget sold.  This is part of something known as the economy of scale.

Price cuts or price increases?

Though people typically associate price cuts with increased trade, it’s also possible to attract more customers and achieve far higher profits, by increasing your prices.  Yes, it depends on what industry you are in, but I have seen amazing results come from people, who have benefited massively from having an above average price tag.

For example: Around a year ago, a new bar opened in a town close to where I live.  The owner decided to use her prices, as a way to position her bar.  So, she opted to charge 20% MORE for drinks than her most expensive competitor.  People said she was insane, as pubs and bars here in the UK have been really struggling in recent years.

This price increase was designed to act as a barrier to entry, to what she referred to as “the town’s drunks.”  However, because these people kept away, her bar became a magnet for those looking for a more peaceful night out.  She knew that people would be happy to pay the additional 20%, for a better quality atmosphere.  12 months later, she boasts the busiest and most expensive bar in the area.

Remember though, the bar owner did not just increase her prices for no reason.  She was charging more BUT she was also giving the marketplace something of greater value than the increased price of her drinks.  The value is what sold it – Not the price increase!

So, what about product sales?  Apple Inc famously made record breaking sales and recorded the best trading period in the company’s history, during the height of the last recession.  They did this, despite selling hardware that was often several hundred percent more expensive than other brands.  They offered a great range of products, marketed them superbly and then charged for them accordingly.

Prices and promises

Before changing a price, always remember that your prices need to match your promises, if we want people to trust what you say.  That’s because of the well established link between quality and price.  For example, it’s unlikely that the best architect, web designer or lawyer in your area, works for the lowest fees.  It’s equally unlikely that the best restaurant in town offers the lowest priced menu or that the least expensive homes are in the best neighbourhoods.

The marketplace gets very sceptical, when they see the promise of a great product or service, for a bargain basement price.  That kind of mixed message causes confusion and as a result, it’s sometimes harder to win new business after lowering a price than it was before (depending on your industry.)

Prices and value

Your prospective customers want you to give them more value than they pay you for.  So, you can either:

1. Lower your prices and offer the same quality of service / product as you do today.
2. Keep your prices the same BUT add more value, so they get more value for money.
3. Increase your prices BUT pump massively more value into your service / product.

Here’s what doesn’t work though:  Lowering your prices so that you are no longer profitable enough or increasing your prices, without pumping massively more value into what you are offering.

Pricing is a key part of your business and I have written about it many times.  If you want to know more about pricing, value and how they can work for your business, here are a few links you will find useful:

Marketing & value

The hidden cost of price cuts

How to set your prices or fees in 3 easy steps

Standing out from the crowd

I would like to know what you think about setting prices or fees and what your experiences have been.  Please share your feedback with your fellow readers and myself, with a comment below.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!