Now a days it can take upwards of 12‐15 touches with a prospect before they choose to buy your product or service. You must be persistent and consistent in your message without being a pest. Most small business owners will give up after three. Be prepared for this and develop a series of touch points that will continue to nurture your relationship with this prospect at every touch point. You want to be adding lots of value at ever touch point, thus raising the “temperature level” of a prospect until they decide to buy. Obviously you cannot just keep calling them or leaving a voice mail every few days. One of the most effective methods is a weekly e-Zine, Newsletter or a Blog. Make sure your target audience wants to receive your communication by having them opt in to receiving your message. They’ll buy when they are ready, not when you are ready. Your job is to cultivate this relationship with the value of what you do until they say, “yes, I’m ready”. Remember: everyone wants to buy something to solve their pain, but nobody wants to be sold.
It’s so interesting how people procrastinate. We received almost as many marketing tip submissions the day after the deadline as we did the whole 3 weeks prior…why do people wait? If you want to change your results you must change your actions. Check out this video to see if you still have a chance to get your submission in.
At the recent BNI International Conference in Los Angeles, almost one-thousand small business owners gathered to learn new revenue generating strategies, network with other like-minded entrepreneurs and create strategic relationships geared towards growing their business.
The special guest presenter, Brian Tracy, spoke on business building topics such as doubling your income and achieving financial independence. And as much respect as I have for the brilliance that Mr. Tracy brings to the business and sales world, I couldn’t help but think that he was not presenting any new ground breaking material…there was no rabbit in the hat, no magic blue pill…though as I looked around the room, all I saw was big eyed optimists looking for the ‘Answer’ to solve their problems, to get them focused, to generate more business and money than they could ever imagine. And as I continued to listen to Mr. Tracy present the importance of how the 80/20 rule relates to your daily activity and the overall results you are getting in your business, I noticed a strange act among the small business owning participants. In unison, they were nodding their heads up and down, they were taking notes, they were turning to the person next to them to say things like; ‘yes, he’s right’, or ’so true’. Now I understood. It wasn’t the fact that the information was not new. It was the unfortunate reality that small business owners are NOT doing what they are supposed to be doing on a daily basis, to generate the desired results that they truly want in their life and their business. The average small business owner is overwhelmed, unfocused and wearing al the hats! They know all of this stuff, their just not doing it.
What does this mean?
Well sure, it means that to increase revenues and profits and grow your business, you cannot allocate the same amount of time to all of your business management activities.
And of course, the secret to running a successful business—whether you have $1 million or $1 billion in annual sales—is to find out what you should be doing and hire, barter or outsource people to do everything else.
But this information alone is useless…you must TAKE action! You have to DO something about it!! If you choose to download this worksheet, promise me you will commit to taking action.
