Strategic Marketing Solutions

What’s in it for ME?

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

The purpose of business is to create a customer.
–Peter Drucker

I was talking to a colleague the other day who is struggling to take his business to the next level.  He’s an IT guy who helps companies “maximize their technology dollars.”

“I know when I stand up and say that I work with technology, 80% of the people in the room turn their brain off,” he laments.

Ew!  I think I might be one of those people.  Talking about technology, to me, is stressful, frustrating, and frankly, B-O-R-I-N-G!  This guy’s service offerings really are fabulous; he’s a best-kept secret because people “don’t want to talk about it.”  Been there?

So what do you do when your prospects, though they NEED you, don’t want to think about the problem(s) you can help them solve?  In the new book I’m finishing (details coming soon!), we talk about this in detail:  Before you can package your offerings, determine your marketing strategies or develop your promotional tools, you must know who your customers are and how to connect with them.  When we take our clients through this phase of the marketing-development process, there is travailing and gnashing of teeth; figuring this out can be tough.  But when the finally light dawns (and it always does), they have a born-again experience!

The first step in the sales cycle is ATTRACTION.  You MUST position yourself in the marketplace so that what you offer is attractive to your prospects.  You do this by understanding your prospects’ frustrations and pain, and showcasing your solutions to connect with them (leave out the “icky” details for now).  You are their RELIEF. Once you’ve connected with a customer’s pain and they’ve said, “Tell me more!”, you can schedule a follow-up “consultation” to provide more information.

This can be the most difficult, frustrating puzzle to solve in your business.  But solving it is CRUCIAL if you want to connect with qualified prospects.  No matter how difficult this conundrum seems to be, there IS a way to strengthen your position of power.  You can, and you must!

Is your busyness killing your business?

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

So, have you been busy lately?

If you’re like most independent professionals, the answer is a resounding “YES!”  Between answering the phone, responding to email, managing details for multiple projects, checking to-dos off your lists, keeping up with Quickbooks, running to the bank, dropping packages off at the post office, you’re lucky to have time for lunch!

For many business owners, the busyness isn’t translating into depositing more checks, which is the point of all this busyness, right?

Can you relate?  Do you ever feel like you are just too busy to market your business?

It’s the classic conundrum: There is so much to do that you don’t have time to do what is most important:  find new customers.  Hey, I ain’t pointing fingers … I can be just as guilty as the next guy.  Our busyness can be our doom if we aren’t careful.

So what does the busy one-man-show super-businessperson do to avoid the busyness trap?