One area of my business that still isn’t easy for me is sales. Although, my business has managed to survive through the past few years. Taking full ownership of my less than illustrious sales record, I haven’t relied completely on my business to sustain me, but I would dearly love it to.
The irony is, 80% of my clients are small business owners themselves and I help them over the hurdles of starting their businesses, which of course, includes sales and marketing. They are assigned to me, so I don’t have to sell my services to them. The blind leading the blind you might comment.
On the contrary, knowing my weakness, I invest heavily (time as much money) in professional development activities to compensate. The point is, I know enough about what to do, my challenge is actually applying it to my own business.
Frankly, it’s much easier to coach others and help strategize marketing plans to fit their businesses. Providing a sounding board, and asking the right questions, really helps to test assumptions and clarify directions for promoting a business. Plus, I get to share gems from the Sales and Marketing Experts I’ve learned from. Gradually the message is getting engrained in my psyche and I’m starting to put into practice what I’ve preached.
One of the most effective approaches I’ve come across lately is Charlene Brisson’s 3 Step Marketing (for non-marketers). Charlene’s marketing expertise spans executive level marketing positions for major media and telecommunications corporations, operating her own small businesses and teaching sales and marketing. She has been through the trenches and has helped hundreds of businesses succeed.
In a recent interview with Ann Pustil, of ‘In A Nutshell Coaching’ Charlene talked about MSS: Marketing Stress Syndrome It was a really entertaining conversation and they had me giggling about how much we struggle with this stuff. MSS occurs from
- overwhelming confusion – wondering where to start, what to do, frustration, spinning your wheels.
- Paralyzing fear of spending in the wrong place
- Marketing Insanity: repeating the same things and expecting different results
- Breaking into a Cold Sweat with the idea of cold calling
- Wallet Fatigue: spending and not getting results
- Procrastination and head-spinning indecision
Charlene’s message is to keep it simple, with three steps to overcome the madness.
1. Know your ideal customer. Pinpoint all of the factors: geographic, demographic, psychographic, so precisely that you could give your ideal customer a name and write a story about who they are and what they do. This gives you a foundation on which to develop your strategies. Use surveys and research to support your assumptions.
2. Craft a message that speaks to your ideal customer. What you now know from step one helps you to know what to say. Let them know why they should do business with you; and what they can expect from your services. State your Value Proposition or Unique Selling Position – What you do that is bigger, better, faster, than everyone else. State your clients’ situation and guide them through the resolution process in real time.
In addition to other brilliant examples on the call, they shared Anne’s marketing message for her business. “In a Nutshell Coaching: Gets to the heart of the matter quickly and resolves it quickly.’
3. Select effective marketing tactics to reach your ideal customer. Strategically and optimally target your tactics to get the response you want. Tactics won’t work if they are not aligned with methods used by your ideal clients. Always ask yourself if your ideal client uses the media you are planning for.
Granted there are so many traditional and new media marketing tactics: to choose from it can still be daunting. Charlene has solutions for you in her new book “148 Ways to Advertise & Promote your Business”.
Have fun working easier with your marketing!
