It's Not What You Do Its The Way That You Do It - And Thats What Gets Results

I was talking to a prospective new client towards the end of last week about how the Business Accelerator Programme could specifically help her get off the starting blocks with her business idea and propel her to the position of business owner as opposed to where she currently is as a dreamer.

Quite rightly she had a lot of questions: How does the programme work? Can you guarantee it will be successful? What are the precise steps I need to take to get a good return on my investment?

All valid and very important questions that any prospective client should be asking and I totally understand the concerns. Over the years I have invested in many coaching, marketing and mentoring programmes but not all of them have delivered the results I'd hoped to achieve.

Was it the coach? Were they not knowledgeable enough? Was I attending the wrong seminars? Was I learning the 'wrong' approaches to marketing?

No not at all, every single seminar, conference I have attended has been full of high quality content, every book I have read has given me at least one or two new ideas or insights. So why in the past wasn't I getting the results I desired?

Neil Fellowes explains all in his article If they're not buying what you offer...

What's going on you might ask... you seem to be telling lots of people about what you do and how you can help them, but still they're not buying? You need people to buy from you because you can make a big difference to them personally or to their business.

Marketing methods that fail

Have you ever been to a networking meeting, not felt comfortable and not picked up any business? When this happens it's easy to say "I went, I met 20 business owners and not one of them bought". And you can be forgiven for thinking: "Networking doesn't work."

You could also try advertising. Spend a few hundred (or thousand), get little or no interest and say that doesn't work either.

You might not like writing, but because you hear articles or newsletters work, you try writing a half dozen. But still you have no interest and you conclude that doesn't work.

You could try direct mail and have that bomb too. You could try flyers, telesales or a hundred other marketing methods and still get the same response.

Why?

It's not the marketing method that doesn't work, it's something else.

Marketing Methods that work

Not so long ago I was chatting with a guy who makes a very nice six-figure income and his only marketing method is networking. One of my peers tells me one advert she runs generates a 38% response. I can tell you one writing method we use builds confidence and awareness which in turn creates sales for us.

So how come these marketing activities are no different from the ones people claim don't work? What makes the difference?

Using the strategy of Olympic Medallists

Olympic medallists are not just born, they dedicate time to making minor adjustments that give them an edge - sometimes a fraction of an inch that makes that difference between being a champion everyone remembers or the competitor who got forgotten.

It's most often about small improvements, made over time, and sometimes you need outside expertise on these things.

We made a change on one of our web pages recently that changed the take up by just 3%. That doesn't sound much, right? But 1000 people hit that web page and that product has a value of £1200, it's a worthwhile adjustment.

So, when people are not buying what you offer, it's not necessarily that the strategy doesn't work, it's likely to be the way you're currently using the strategy that hasn't worked... yet.

With marketing you have to keep refining things until you get results you want. It's all testing.


Neil Fellowes publishes his fortnightly CommunitySoul newsletter for businesses that take an ethical, sustainable or holistic approach to be strong thriving businesses and practices. If you want to make a big difference through your work and make a big profit, then join in our free tele-seminar www.communitysoulbusiness.com