If you’re in business have you ever experienced the feast and famine so prevalent in small to medium sized businesses? At times you’re super busy and you don’t have time to scratch yourself. Then nothing while you wait around for the next client.
So what causes the feast and famine and how can you avoid it? (Full Transcript below the video)
Full Transcript
If you’re in business have you ever experienced the feast and famine so prevalent in small to medium sized businesses? At times you’re super busy and you don’t have time to scratch yourself. Then nothing while you wait around for the next client.
This is Rashid Kotwal.
So what causes the feast and famine and how can you avoid it? It comes down to a lack of consistent marketing and goes like this.
You get some big jobs and focus all your time and energy on delivering them.
You know they’ll end one day, but in your mind it’s a way off and you’ll have time to get more business then.
Until that day arrives. Reality hits and you realise you have nothing in the pipeline. Nobody who’s going to take their place. Frantically you put out feelers, hit the phones, talk to your network to see what’s out there. But nothing eventuates fast.
You may have enough money to ride out the famine. But what if you have fixed costs, staff, infrastructure that needs to be paid for? Where will you find the money to carry on?
That’s not a good place to be.
So why does this happen so often?
It comes down to your focus on delivery above marketing.
It’s not surprising as you love what you do. You’re good at it. So you want to spend the majority of your time producing and delivering. It’s normal. After all, that’s why you got into business in the first place.
So you spend the whole time working in your business. Doing the “technical work”, fighting fires, sorting out delivery, worrying about staff. The list goes on.
But who is bringing in the clients?
No matter how good your business is at delivering, unless you can successfully attract, convert, retain good quality clients on a consistent basis, you’ll never reach your full potential.
Which means, to be successful, you must change your focus. Rather than concentrating on delivery as your number one priority, your mindset must be one of being a marketer first.
Ergo, your number one job should be working on marketing and sales systems that bring in a steady stream of new business.
Now, on that note, realise that the process of selling higher value products and services has changed in the last few years.
Prospects now do their own research into issues, look for possible suppliers and are often way down the decision making process before contacting you.
Therefore you need to be constantly marketing so that you’re in front of them when they start looking. Your goal is to educate and engage them by demonstrating your authority, encouraging them to call.
Remember this simple rule.
A prospect who finds and calls you expressing interest is twice as likely to buy as someone you cold call.
So all of your marketing efforts must be designed to do one thing only…
Motivate qualified prospects to call you!
But that doesn’t happen instantly. It takes time for people to get to know you, like you and have a level of trust in your ability to deliver.
Marketing is like sowing a crop. You have to prepare the ground, plant the seeds, water and eventually harvest. There are no shortcuts.
So no matter how busy you think you are, keep marketing your business. Or one day you’ll wake up and find yourself in a dark place.
Now, if case you’ve missed previous episodes in this series on building a more profitable business you can watch them on our site revealedresources.com.
Finally, if you’d like help creating a marketing and sales system which will attract, convert and retain good quality clients, give me a hoy at revealedresources.com.
Until next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
