Look around you. Unless you have a completely unique product or service (highly unlikely), you’ll have myriad competitors. So what distinguishes you from all of them? The answer is YOU! No matter [...]
As a professional consultant do you cycle around questions like, “What should I charge?” “How much could they afford to pay?” “Will they pay that?” If this is you, stop right now. [...]
In any field, one of the greatest influencers of your success is your attitude of being of service. Zig Ziglar summed the mindset up beautifully, “You can get everything in life you [...]
Have you ever been cheesed off because you gave a referral, they got the business, but you never heard back. No acknowledgement or thank you. I know I have. Today I’m going [...]
I’m sure you’ve asked for referrals, maybe from clients, associates, even friends. hey say yes of course, but nothing happens. You may ask again, but still nothing. Disappointed, you eventually give up. [...]
There’s a big myth. That getting a referral means you just rock up and the sale is in the bag. Nothing is further from the truth. In essence a referral is nothing [...]
There’s a big myth. That getting a referral means you just rock up and the sale is in the bag. Nothing is further from the truth. In essence a referral is nothing [...]
What makes some businesses stand out from the crowd, attract premium clients and have a waiting list? While others scrabble for market share and often attract price shoppers who show no loyalty [...]
Ask any business owner and they’ll say referrals are the best source of new business. And they’re right. A good referral could be worth their weight in gold. But ask the next [...]
A fundamental marketing principle is Market-Message-Media match. You have to find the right audience (market), create a message which resonates and have a mechanism to get traffic. Which brings us to the [...]
What’s the one thing guaranteed to perk your immediate interest? It’s hearing your name mentioned across a crowded room. Self-interest sparks and you immediately wonder what they’re talking about and why. Your [...]
Have you ever wondered why some books, movies, plays or TV series become best sellers and endure while others, equally good, flop? All enduring stories follow particular structures. Be they origin stories [...]
Many years ago a mentor who’s an extremely wealthy businessman hammered a concept into me. You can be the Jack of all trades, and master of none. Or you can be a [...]
I’m going to put a stake in the ground and say every professional consultancy should niche down, narrowing their target market space. Now, I can hear some of you saying, “If I [...]
Do you drop everything when a prospect or client calls? Or do you have a business posture which says, "I provide real value and my time and knowledge deserves to be respected". [...]
Had a number of comments on “Would you give this guarantee?” Readers wondering how they could give a guarantee when they had no control over how their clients used the product or [...]
Fear is one of the greatest barriers to a sale. Will I get what was promised? Will it work? What will my family, friends, co-workers, bosses think? Will the supplier stand by [...]
Been watching a fair bit of the Winter Olympics. Every competitor has a strategy for winning. They scout out the lie of the course. Complete practice runs to acclimatise to the local [...]
Business posture means you decide who you want to work with. And who to reject. Not out of arrogance, but simply because you can’t add value and help them. We covered this [...]
Had to reject some potential business recently. We would done this type of work in the past, but now his request didn’t fit with our service offerings. One of the major signs [...]
A colleague noticed that every time they had an addition to the family, and he spent time away from active lead generation, 7 to 9 months later there’d be a major lull in [...]
What does “The independent financial advisor” conjure in your mind? I would hazard a guess you’d expect their advice to be completely unbiased and in their clients’ best interest as they don’t [...]
Every Friday we’ll be sending you a bite sized practical tip designed to help you grow your business. This week… What are you measuring? There’s an old saying, “What gets measured gets [...]
Imagine going to your mailbox and finding a heavy red padded envelope personally addressed to you. You’re curious, rip it open and find a heavy Gold Bar. Intrigued, you read the covering [...]
Growing your business means bringing in new clients while servicing the ones you’ve got. Coming up with new products and services and possibly branching out into new markets. Do all this and [...]
Got a great product or service? Know exactly who you need to target? But are having trouble getting through? We live in a world of information overload. Constant bombardment of emails, Texts, [...]
If a real prospect came across your website could they immediately figure out what you are about? Dig deeper, contact you? Or will they simply bounce away? Or... You’re at a networking [...]
Conceptually all marketing can be broken down into a simple formula. Market, Message, Media match. i.e. You find a market which wants what you provide. You create a congruent marketing message that [...]
The old Abbot is performing a tea ceremony with the young novitiate. The Abbot pours the tea until the cup overflows and continues to do so. Novitiate exclaims, “But Abbot, the cup [...]
Google gets searched over 5.5 Billion times per day! And every search is typed in by a person with an itch they want to scratch. i.e. They have a problem they want [...]
How many times have you been to a business event where you’ve met someone who expresses interest in what you do and exchange cards. You walk away thinking, “Here’s a live one”. [...]
Years ago I heard a talk by the editor of a local newspaper talking about how businesses wasted their advertising dollars when placing ads. In short his argument was a one shot [...]
One of the first areas we focus on with new clients is RFM (and no, it’s not the popular acronym you might be thinking of). I’ll get to why in a second. [...]
Here’s a quick quiz. See which one of these four behavioural descriptions you MOST vibe with. You want to know “why?” Why should I do this? Why is this relevant to me? [...]
No matter what the industry, be it professional services, manufacturing or retail, your clients initially want the benefit of your expertise and experience to solve a specific problem. So you do what’s [...]
One of the biggest ways you kill a sale is by not explaining or articulating the value of what you’re selling. I’ll get to why in a moment, but first let me [...]
Richard Branson did it. Donald Trump did it. The late Steve Jobs did it. Every one of them has created an empire from nothing, boldly going where others feared to tread. Each [...]
Want to become a brand leader? Have prospects want you over the competition? Give a balls nailed to the wall guarantee. Something that makes you sweat and go, “Oh no! I could [...]
Want more business? I’m willing to bet there’s stuff right beneath your nose if only you took the trouble to ask the right questions of the right people. Start with your current [...]
Marketing is all about communication. But all too often we rely on impersonal ways of communicating. Email, Twitter, TXT. Anything to avoid picking up the phone. But there’s nothing quite like speaking [...]
