How to solve your sales and marketing problems once and for all

GISELLE P HUDSON

Most service based businesses – whether one man service professional outfits or larger firms – have one major problem. They are making their businesses way too complicated to gain any traction.

Does this sound like you?

• Getting the business development part of growing your company of one or many is a struggle

• Some months you got money rolling in but you never seem to sustain the momentum; there is always a dip around the corner.

• Your work is worth more than you’re charging, but without a pipeline, you’re afraid to raise your prices.

• You’re not booking enough sales appointments to reach your income goals

• You’re selling something expensive but your marketing is designed for a transactional sale

• You know you need to go out and develop relationships but because it’s so time consuming, you never get around to it

Chances are you are running around trying this and that; being pulled in one direction then another – with very little to show for your efforts. Money is going out but not much money is coming back in.

Frustrating isn’t it? Especially when you know that you can really add value to people’s lives based on your special gifts. Instead you end up taking on projects you hate because you need the money and it will fill a hole. You work with customers who are the worst possible fit for you, but you must tolerate their veiled abuse because, again, you need the money. No way to live but you have a rent, mortgage, food to buy and bills to pay. Survival at its worse!

In his interview with Pat Flynn on the Passive Income podcast, Clay Collins, founder of Lead Pages laid out the rule of five ones to growing and scaling to a seven-figure business:

• One product or service

• Market it to one type of ideal client

• Focus on one way to get leads

• Send those leads to one conversion method

• Stay focused on these four pieces for one year

Simple right?

Yet what do we do? We spend hours on social media, tweaking our web site and spending money on magic bullets and magicians who promise a world we never ever experience.

I’ve said this in previous columns, and it’s worth saying again: You must give your business some thought. You need to work out what is going to work for you. And the five ones is an excellent place to start and gather all the information you need to tweak, improve and make adjustments until you start seeing the results you are after.

In his sales appointment blueprint, Unstoppable CEO Steve Gordon says, "Too many folks think of their market as this vast ocean and they’re sitting on top of it. You know that fish exist, but you don’t know if they are any good and you don’t know exactly where they are." As a result you engage in “thin” marketing. You might run some ads; post on Instagram and Facebook; do some networking, mail a promo piece occasionally, and when you do these things you get frustrated because people aren’t responding. This approached needs to be transformed into one that’s highly targeted. You need to make hidden prospects visible and know them by name. For most businesses a list of between 50-100 names is all you need and all you can handle. Having this list is your first step toward taking control of your firm’s future. And you do this by creating your five one’s process.

It’s time to take the guess work out of your sales and marketing. Stop wasting time on “thin” tactics. Start creating real relationships quickly, with time leverage, so you are not selling to strangers but instead to new friends. Imagine knowing you always have a full pipeline of potential clients to talk to. It’s possible when you create your own 'five one’s' process.

Find out how you can create your own five one’s process and stop sales and marketing problems once and for all! Send an email to possibility2profit@gmail.com