Tag Archive for: growth strategies

What’ll It Be, Today?

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I get to talk with different business owners about their marketing.  Sometimes it’s a casual conversation while waiting for a meeting to begin.  Other times, it’s a formal one that’s key to a project we’re working on.

Flavor-of-The-Week Marketing
But more often than not, I find business owners change their marketing tactics about as often as they change their underwear.  That’s a lot more frequently that it should be, too. (their marketing, not their underwear!).

Marketing Momentum
If you change what you do for marketing too often and/or without good cause, you risk losing the momentum that a consistently applied marketing message, media and method can generate for you.  That’s not good marketing and it’s definitely not good for . . . you!

KEY POINT:
In marketing, being consistent is a good thing

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Consistency Wins The Race

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Did you ever consider how great and substantial results are more frequently produced by the simple consistency of focused actions than wild bursts of frenetic activity?  I do.  At least that’s been my experience.

Sporadic execution of brilliant ideas rarely produces bigger and better results than consistent and conscientious activities driven by good-but-not-great ideas.

A steady ‘drip’ campaign of email or snail-mail may not be terribly exciting, but is more likely to produce results — i.e. RESPONSE — than an massive but singular ‘blast’ of marketing communications.

The effectiveness of your marketing is more likely to reflect good choices and consistent actions than good choices and inconsistent actions.  Remember our Tortoise and Hare . . . ‘steady’ as she goes . . . is a formula that will take you to the bank!

KEY POINT:
Consistency beats Creativity!

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Dark and Stormy Nights

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“It was a dark and stormy night . . .”

Don’t you just love a sinister, scary story?  It’s so captivating.
You just know something bad is going to happen to an unsuspecting ‘innocent’ who is put in harm’s way and . . . well, I won’t ruin the ending but you know it’s not going to be pretty, is it?

Lately a similar movie has been playing out in a number of smaller businesses.  The plot goes like this — a business owner ignores the ‘warning signs’ of competitors who are being more pro-active about marketing than they are.  Slowly, the danger approaches the business and then . . . WHAM! . . . it hits the business like a load of bricks.

What might be a good ‘antidote’ for the  danger of little or no or bad marketing is Duct Tape Marketing’s Group Catalyst program.  It’s a series of 12 bi-weekly webinars.  Each session provides good information and assignments are given to ensure you apply what you’re learning in a way that generates results for your business.

KEY POINT:
Bad marketing isn’t something you have to live with — call (860) 798-6964 to get more business with the Duct Tape Marketing Catalyst Program

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21 Ways You Mess Yourself Up

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Ever get a FLASH . . . of insight?  Sometimes you find a bit of wisdom that’s so ‘spot on’ that you swear someone had to be watching your life and how it was going (or, not going!) just before they gave you a FLASH of wisdom that you couldn’t deny and you needed to remember.

Here’s a list I feel meets that standard. “21 Ways To Self-Sabotage”.  Enjoy . . . reflect on it and act accordingly.

  • Fear of failure
  • Fear of taking risks
  • Fear of making mistakes
  • Inability to listen to instructions carefully
  • Inability to plan ahead
  • Inability to say “no” to others
  • Inability to consider the consequences of our actions
  • Inability to think carefully before making decisions
  • Inability to think critically or practically
  • Inability to think flexibly about problems
  • Inability to admit mistakes or errors
  • Worrying constantly
  • Having unrealistic expectations
  • Critically judging self or others
  • Constantly comparing self to others
  • Always complaining about people, life, circumstances or perceived bad luck
  • Habit of procrastination
  • Habit of perfectionism
  • Accepting people’s advice without question
  • Limiting beliefs, emotions and attitudes
  • Limiting thoughts focused on what’s not working or on wishful daydreams

Get a beautiful MINDMAP of all these ‘self-sabotaging’ moves from a wonderful website.

KEY POINT:
Download The Mindmap!

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Revenues are a Symptom

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If you’re not generating enough revenues from your marketing, you’d best go back ‘up’ the marketing process to learn where you may have missed a key action or failed to apply a key element of effective marketing.

If you have a problem with your pipeline, there’s a good reason.  You must address that issue or . . . you’ll suffer the consequences of not doing that.  But if you do, you’ll make significant improvement to your marketing and . . . the results you’re seeing from it.

Today, let’s get you an overview or ‘blueprint’ of what service practice marketing must address. Basically, three keys:

Strategy — aligns your Mission / Ideal Market / Competitive Position
Message / Media — communicates your Mission to your Market
Method — orchestrates the activities needed to generate selling opportunities

KEY POINT:
Clarity about Strategy / Message & Media / Method will improve your marketing

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Modest Action / Significant Improvement

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This week, I’ve suggested 3 ways to grow your revenues.  First, see more people.  Second, sell more effectively.  Third, improve your ACT (Average Client Transaction).

If you want to increase your revenues, consider this:  “Doubling ANY one of these three factors will double your revenues”. Consider therefore, the following:

Row ‘A’ . . . shows the relationship of the 3 factors that drive the revenues you’ll generate.
Row ‘B’ . . . shows that doubling the number of  ‘prospects seen’ will double revenues.
Row ‘C’ . . . shows that doubling the level of ‘selling skills’ will double revenues.
Row ‘D’. . . shows that doubling the size of your A.C.T. will double revenues.
Row ‘E’ . . . shows that increasing each factor by only 25% will . . . DOUBLE your revenues

The problem is . . . it may be unrealistic to ‘double’ your seen, skills or case size.  But realistic improvement across-the-board is likely to produce magnificent results.

KEY POINT:
A modest improvement in key factors can significantly boost your revenues.

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Growing Your Revenues

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Good topic, right?  Here are three strategies to do this:

1.  Increase Your Opportunities
2.  Improve Your Selling Skills
3.  Increase Your Average Client Transaction

Today, let’s consider the first strategy:

Option 1: Increase Your Opportunities
Years ago I was in a workshop where an attorney in the Advanced Underwriting department of an insurance company (Connecticut Mutual Life) shared a brilliant insight with the group.

He asked the producers assembled, “How many of you came here to learn new ideas?” Then he asked, “How many of you came here to learn how to make more money?” Next he asked, “How many of you believe that learning new ideas will, by itself, cause you to make more money?” The answer was obvious.  Finally he said this, “Folks, if you took the next few days and learned NOTHING NEW . . . except how to see twice as many people as you do now . . . you’d double your income, wouldn’t you?”. That hit home with me.  I hope it hits home with you, too.

KEY POINT:
If you are competent to do what you do, increasing your ‘new seens’ will increase your income.

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