You aren’t alone.  There are 25,000,000 small businesses.  Each and every one frantically seeking ways just to survive today’s harsh economic climate let alone… make a buck!

While there’s some comfort in knowing you aren’t alone it doesn’t solve your problem.  If you could do just one thing to chart your course and set a path for prosperity I suggest it would be figuring out what you are really selling.  Then figuring out how to tell others what you are really selling.

Small businesses can learn a lot from the big boys… sometimes.  Realistically every big business that exists today was just a little business in the beginning.  There’s no reason your business can’t become a big business if that’s what you want too.

Don’t scoff at my suggestion that you figure out what you are really selling.  Let me make my point.  What does Nike sell?

You might tell me shoes, clothes, posters, etc.  And I would say, “Yes, they sell all those things but that’s not what they are REALLY selling.   Think about it.  What emotion is Nike pushing in every message?

WINNING.  Nike is selling winning, and they are persuading the buyer to open their wallet and buy because doing so fulfills the buyers internal emotional driver to WIN!

How about De Beers Diamonds?  What are they selling?  Diamond rings, necklaces, bracelets, etc.   What is the message in every communication?  A diamond lasts forever… meaning your relationship or commitment lasts forever.  De Beers is selling a lifetime commitment in your relationships.

Now I realize those are both tangible things and you are selling your service, but you can do the same thing.  What are the people who buy your service really looking for?  What’s the emotion connected with getting that?

eHarmony is an online dating service.  Aren’t they selling love?  Don’t they communicate in every message how their service made love possible for their users?

There’s no need to desperately search for an effective sales strategy.  Simply develop it.  Start by identifying the emotion that motivates your buyers to act.  Then communicate the connection between you, that emotion, and your buyers in every communication.

My buyers want financial success.  Success is the emotion that motivates them to act.  The message… “Gain an unfair advantage when prospects contact YOU“  Have you noticed where you can find that message on this page?

Why do you think I put that message there?

So… what are you really selling?

What’s the message that tells me that?

photo credit: El Grande78

Jason Cohen recently wrote about little companies trying to act like big companies.

It instantly brought back the humiliation I’ve experienced personally and vicariously when people try to present themselves as something they aren’t in their marketing efforts.

You know exactly what I mean when you visit a business website that’s trying to put on a “we’re a big company face”.  I ought to know about that one for sure my first website was worse than stinky feet.

From the home page to every other page linked to it you get a non-stop stream of what I call corporatese puke.  Evidently it sounds impressive to the business owner, but the reader is totally confused about what the heck you actually do.

Now that’s bad, real bad because if I can’t figure out what you do I’m gone forever.  I’m certainly not going to buy from you.  And I’m not going to have any interest in having any connection with you whatsoever.

You’ve experienced this at networking events too.  One stands out in my mind even today some 3 odd years after the fact.  This lady comes up to me in a very professional manner and introduces herself as an Executive Coach.  Okay, great.

When I asked, “So what exactly do you do?”  She replied, “We help people achieve their potential.”

Uh-em before I tell you what went through my head I have to confess I grew up one of five children three of which were boys.  My brothers never pulled any punches.  They always gave it to me straight up no sugar coating.  To their credit I learned some of the most valuable lessons in life from those none too kind brothers.

So I’m thinking, “What… you got a turd in your pocket?”  I mean you just told me you are an Executive Coach which is a one-on-one gig and then you proceed to speak about what you do in terms of “we”.  That doesn’t make sense.

Then you try to impress me by reciting some nonsense.  What the heck does achieve their potential mean?  Yeah, achieving your potential is important for any level of success BUT the way the line was used just didn’t feel real.  It felt like you were pretending to be something you weren’t.  It felt fake.

Since she didn’t give me anything I felt I could work with I tried another route.  I asked, “So what did you do before you were an Executive Coach?”  She proceeded to tell me she works as an administrative assistant for a Dentist until she has enough clients to quit.

Well, those were the first real words out of her mouth.  However, having been a corporate executive for over 15 years there’s no way I would have considered hiring an administrative assistant as my “Executive Coach”.  I mean, what could she possibly know about being an executive?

It’s too bad we don’t all have a “fakometer” built in so we could catch our own mistake.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being the only person in your business.  That’s honest that’s real.  Pretending you are a big organization so you can impress someone is fake.  It comes off fake.  It causes you to lose integrity.  And when you lose integrity with the other person you are DONE.

The Executive Coach had taken some training and gone through a certification process to coach executives.  She was trying to get her first client.  That’s a hard spot to be in.  Every business has to have their first client before they can move onto bigger and better clients.

She could have kept her integrity and gotten results if she had been forthright from the beginning.  So in retrospect when the Executive Coach introduced herself she could have simply said, “I’ve just completed certification to practice as an Executive Coach.”  No shame in that.

Then when I asked, “So what exactly does an Executive Coach do?”  She could have said, “Well, there are a lot of things Executive Coaches do to help executives improve I want to focus on improving the way they communicate with their peers and staff.”

I can relate to that one.  Ineffective communication is probably one of the biggest problems in the corporate world.  I also would have thought of several people I could immediately refer her to.

I might have said something like, “You mentioned you just completed certification have you worked with some executives yet.”  Then she could have responded, “Actually that’s my big challenge right now… meeting executives willing to give me a chance.”

Now come on, if someone said that to you wouldn’t you actually do something to help that person?  I sure would.  I would have told her I knew just who she needed as her first client and then I would have set up a meeting with both of them.

No matter where you are that spot is just fine and a great place to start marketing your small business effectively.

Can your business succeed?

Do you have a good business idea?

Will your business survive?

All good questions every business owner asks at some point.  Ideally you should ask and answer a lot of good questions before you ever start.  Chris Brogan developed a nice list of questions everyone thinking about starting a business should review and answer.

Presuming you have a good business that does good things for the people who buy your stuff.

Presuming people are willing to pay to get your stuff.

Presuming you are capable of making good on what your stuff is supposed to do.

There is one thing that will keep you from succeeding.  That one thing is an inability to promote your business to the people most likely to buy your stuff.

If no one knows about your business or your stuff your business is history.  You will fail before you ever get the opportunity to succeed. You are shining your lamp under a bushel basket.  No one will know you exist.

You must be able to respond “yes” to these questions:

• Can you explain in simple words why someone would want to buy your stuff?
• Can you explain in simple words why your stuff isn’t just another warmed over version of the same stuff they can get elsewhere?

This can be a real challenge especially when:

• you are too close to your business
• you haven’t defined a specific group of people willing to buy what you have

Yet, it’s entirely doable.  Let me show you how you can uncover your slice of the market even in a crowded competitive market.  There are literally millions of blogs.  There are lots of blogs about blogging.

However, in that crowded market there are bloggers who have carved out there slice by establishing blogs for bloggers about…

• how to write a better blog
• how to build a blog
• how to develop blog readers
• how to create blog membership sites

While the segmentation would be different in other industries the ability to create this type of segmentation exists in every industry.

photo credit: azrianna azmil

This is an interesting question I get a lot.  Especially from people who don’t have a lot of money to invest in marketing.  While the question sounds simple the answer isn’t so simple.

First off, I wish every group or organization that holds networking events would give a copy of a networking etiquette booklet to all attendees so fewer people would embarrass themselves.  Shawn Kincaid wrote a nice little list of 10 things you should know about networking.  This isn’t secret or earth shattering information it’s common sense.  Common sense that most people new to networking seem to lack.

The reason most people embarrass themselves at networking events is because they completely misunderstand the objective of networking.  They think the objective is to sell someone something.  WRONG!  The objective of networking is to meet new people and make FRIENDS.

If you expect to make friends you should anticipate having a give and take conversation where the other person shares a little about them and then you share a little about yourself.  You should walk away feeling positive about having met that person.  Perhaps they’ve even peaked your interest to the point you’d like to speak with them further.  And that’s exactly what you should be trying to accomplish as well.

You want to make certain the other person looks forward to seeing you again and, ideally, you’d like that person to want to spend some time talking with you one on one so they can find out more about you and perhaps what you do.

Beyond the objective and etiquette of networking though, there is an important question you must be able to answer before you consider investing the time and money it takes to network well.  That questions is… “Will my best potential clients attend this event?”

The next most important question is… “Will I be able to engage with these people and make friends in the group?”

Contrary to what many people think even “free” networking events are far from “free”.  If you’re going to produce serious results from networking it requires a serious commitment.  That means you’ll need to:

• plan on actively participating in group events and activities
• prepare to make friends first
• prepare to add value to the members of the group
• take time out of your schedule to attend and participate consistently
• invest in travel, meals, and other expenses

To mention just a few things.

If you identify networking opportunities where you can respond “yes” to those two important questions AND you’re willing to make the investments you need to make to produce a return from your investment THEN networking could play a key role in your lead generation marketing strategies.

If you can’t respond “yes” or you can’t make the required commitment then networking probably isn’t worth any investment.  Don’t expect to sporadically attend random networking events and have big things happen.

Just like it takes time to make friends and develop relationships in any situation it takes time to accomplish those sames things from your networking efforts.  Networking is a long-term investment that can produce tremendous value as long as you know what to expect going into it.

photo credit: Bex Wade

Octomom (Nadya Suleman) is the mother of eight babies born through scientific intervention.  Just in case you’ve never heard of her.

I don’t intend to comment on Octomom.  There are plenty of other people voicing their opinions.  That’s not what you came to read about here.

Octomom is just another example of the reality TV invention.  Evidently at least a couple of television stations intend to air reality programs about Octomom.  The lesson for here is the reason for reality TV.  Television stations are producing and airing reality TV programs in droves.  Viewers can’t seem to get enough of them, and the more we watch the more reality TV we’ll get.

From the television stations viewpoint why not more and more reality TV?  Reality TV is very profitable.  The producers don’t have to pay big names to star in their programs.  I doubt there are any continuing syndication residuals for the participants when the show is rerun.  Plus if the viewers don’t like a participant they don’t hold it against the station or the advertisers.

Some big name actors and actresses have decided we care about what they think and have decided to share their opinions politically and otherwise.  Those views don’t necessarily sit well with everyone.  Sometimes their openly shared opinions polarize audiences who then hold those opinions against the station and it’s advertisers.  Ooops!

We get reality TV because, from a business standpoint, the business is giving us what we want and making a good profit doing it.

The interesting question is… why do we want that?

Here’s what reality TV gives viewers:

• The ability to vicariously experience what the participants experience
• The ability to observe how others behave and deal with circumstances we can relate to as fellow human beings
• The ability to feel like we are developing a relationship with complete strangers over time as we watch them in the most intimate settings
• The opportunity to engage with other viewers and sometimes… determining the outcome of the reality show
• The opportunity to act and feel part of the show and the community of fellow watchers

Even if you personally hate reality TV are you beginning to understand why it’s so attractive to the viewers, as well as the people who produce and air the shows?

These concepts are like business candy.  If you can create a similar environment in your business you have the opportunity to make giant leaps in growth rather than incremental growth.  There are lots of businesses who do a good job of this already, Disney and Zappos for example.

So…

• How can you help potential buyers have a no risk experience with your business?
• What about your business can your best potential buyers relate to?
• How can you develop a relationship with your potential buyers over time where they feel like they are getting real value from that relationship?
• How can you get your best potential buyers to engage in your business?
• What action could you ask your potential buyers to take?

This is tapping into the humanness of both your business and the people you want to work with.  It’s respecting who they are and what they want. It’s about developing a safe community where people with common interests and needs can come together and interact.

Feel free to share ways you’re doing this in your business.

photo credit: chalomadek

Listen to discover the one thing you could to today to instantly increase your sales.  Pay close attention to the example.  It may help you uncover the exact thing you need to change your business results…

 

 One Thing You Could Do Today to Instantly Increase Your Sales: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (194)

Get your copy of “The Blueprint for Increased Sales” here.

If you have plenty of people to sell to you may not think marketing is important.  You may think whatever you are doing now is working just fine and there’s no reason to fix what isn’t broken.

YET, if you are only closing 30% or less of your appointments you have marketing challenges that are causing a much higher cost per sale than it could be.

While some business owners, entrepreneurs, and soho’s would be floating on
cloud nine if they could close 30% of their appointments that’s a pretty low closing ratio for most successful businesses… and a very expensive closing ratio at that.

The average cost per sale for face-to-face sales is around $200.  But your cost per sale will be much lower than that if you can increase your sales closing ratio even a little bit.

The reason for lower sales ratios is likely to be ineffective marketing.  Your marketing efforts should:

1. Get the attention of the right potential buyers (prospects)
2. Help those potential buyers (prospects) to self-select
3. Get those potential buyers (prospects) to take action
4. Develop a relationship that transitions strangers to buyers
5. Increase your closing ratio above 30%

When you do a good job with your marketing your closing ratio can easily increase to +90% because you are only holding appointments with ready buyers.

Not only will effective marketing help you sell more… it will help you sell more at a lower cost.  Plus it makes it easier to gain repeat business and referrals.

So if you have plenty of people to talk to and a low closing ratio the first thing you may want to look at adapting is your marketing efforts.

photo credit: Brylan