And today, we have a posting from Marco , a guest contributor.
Although I have owned a business for a number of years, I have just finished my first complete calendar year as a bonafide full time small business owner. As I look back at 2005, I realized some very important things.
The good: My business did better than in 2004. And, my business is still nicely profitable.
The bad: I did not attract as many clients as I had wanted. That shocked me, because after all my marketing efforts I was convinced 2005 would just blow my socks away.
Like any entrepreneur worth their salt I looked at the situation and asked myself – how can I attract more clients so that 2006 is an even better year?… But for some reason I did not find that to be the right question…In part because I thought that the answer was obvious. I can attract as many clients as I want if I become relevant to them. Period.
A better question, I though, was “how do I become immensely relevant in my field so that clients will be attracted to my business and consider me as their best option?”
Asking this question led to rather interesting epiphany on my part. I decided to make made a simple bet. My bet was that if I focused on ways to become more relevant to my prospective clients everything would take care of itself. In effect, two things would happen:
a) Clients would be attracted to my business
b) The specific marketing tactics would sort themselves out
Much like many corporate folks and business owners, I had spent 2005 single-handedly focused on b) or “marketing”. I had pondered the value of advertising, mailers, promotions, etc.
Again. I asked myself. How could I become relevant in the most effective way? Well, by giving my prospects the thing they want the most rather than what I think they want or should want.
And in my case, what did my prospects want the most? …. Or for that matter, What do most corporate managers want the most?
More often than not, they want two things.
1. Precise information to decide the best way to solve a problem
2. The implementation of best solution for the problem
Have you noticed that people tend to focus on #2 and gloss over #1? They want to jump right into the solution, without properly selling the concept and more importantly, without allowing enough time for the buyer to come to the realization that your solution is the best.
In my quest for relevancy, I switched what I did. I packaged my information so that prospects could analyze their options accurately and then arrive to their conclusions. Then – and only then – did I start to talk about the specific solutions that we offered.
Did I see results? You betcha. For starters, prospects started telling me that I was one of the few financing guys who had taken the time to listen to them and explain things… Apparently, most of my competitors were just trying to ram solutions down their throats.
But lets look at some numbers.
In two 1/2 months of implementing this way of doing business my pipeline has increase by about 650%.
Yes, that’s right. 650%.
I am now a true believer that the quest for relevancy has paid off. Handsomely.
So, now I must ask you. As you examine your situation in your business… Or at work. Are you relevant? Do people seek your counsel?….. What could you do to become more relevant?
About Marco Terry
Marco Terry owns a factoring company. His company can provide you with a free invoice factoring,medical factoring,freight bill factoring or purchase order financing quote.
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