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You may not believe this but hear me out.
People don’t buy products. Or services.
They buy outcomes.
You’ve heard it before:
The customer didn’t want a drill, he wanted a hole.
It’s your job as chief marketer and salesperson for your tiny business to paint pictures of outcomes in the minds of your prospects. If you only talk about the drill, you aren’t speaking your customers language.
That’s all fine and dandy. But you’re probably wondering how to put this powerful concept into action for your business.
Try these three tactics to start talking outcomes in your marketing and sales.
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That’s the goal right?
Getting what you want for your business in the easiest way possible?
You work with consultants to create a rock-solid business plan. Scour the Internet looking for tips and tricks on the “guru” blogs. Read New York Times best selling business books promising to contain the wisdom to take it to the next level.
All good.
But there is also wisdom in observing how the most uninhibited among us get what they want.
Children.
A child’s bi-polar combination of complete innocence and selfishness make for a powerful lesson in getting what you want.
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Ok, let’s admit it.
At least 50% of your business ideas are truly stupid.
Don’t feel bad. I am in the 75% range.
A truly stupid idea, if executed upon, is a disaster.
Money drain. Time drain. Energy drain.
To say nothing of your ego.
Let’s talk about that 10% of rock-solid business ideas
Thank God for the 10% of business ideas that are clearly not stupid.
Right?
These are the ideas that are clearly winners. Very low risk.
The trouble is that a business idea that is a clear winner is rarely a big winner.
If there’s little risk involved, there will be little reward involved.
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Generating sales isn’t easy.
If it were, there wouldn’t be gridlock traffic at 8 am and 5 pm every weekday.
You’ve heard that business blogging is a powerful way to generate sales.
It is.
Business blogging will generate sales. But first, you will likely endure a struggle similar to a 162 game baseball season.
Seeing a pattern
I was laid off from my job in February of 2009.
By the time baseball’s Spring Training schedule was firing up in April, I had started a blog. After a grinding three months of blogging in obscurity, I received my first comment (that wasn’t motivated by pity.) In October, as the World Series of Baseball was taking center stage, my blog was generating sales for my business.
Over the past two years, I have been studying the path that sales generating blogs have taken. It’s a challenging path. A path not unlike that of a grueling and lengthy baseball season.
The actions recommended below are by no means the only path to creating a sales generating blog. But it is the path I have taken to sell both products and services through my blog, and the path of others I have observed.
Are you ready? Let’s play ball!
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Great marketers are thieves.
They steal and collect marketing ideas that work. Facebook has something that works. And, they stole it too.
So don’t feel bad ripping off Facebook, they didn’t invent this idea, they just perfected it.
This is such a powerful marketing concept that you don’t need to execute it perfectly. Just get started and you will see results.
The concept is social proof, read on to see why it works.
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Lumpy oatmeal may be fine, but lumpy revenues —while common for entrepreneurs—can cause heartburn and sleepless nights for small business owners.
The good news is that there are concrete things you can do to help you generate more cash, reach your professional goals, and get back to sleep.
If your sales chart has more spikes and dips in it than David Hasslehoff’s career, here are five tips for coping.
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Scott Ginsberg has been wearing a nametag for nearly 4000 days. He is an author of 13 books, a world-renowned speaker and a relentless entrepreneur.
In his latest book, Ideas are Free, Execution is Priceless, Scott talks about perhaps the most critical aspect of running a tiny business.
Execution.
Learn these four concepts and more:
- How “The Nametag Guy” stays motivated to keep executing
- 4 types of execution that will move the needle for your business (velocity, volume, value, vitality)
- Why working with partners and teams may be hampering your execution
- The reason you need to know the “why” before the “how”
You can connect further with Scott on his website or his blog.
You can find out more about BrandTags, identity collages for businesses here.
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A sale is a response.
It is a response to a call to action. It is a response to marketing.
So, if you want to learn to increase sales, you must learn to increase response.
When you stand in line at the grocery store you have access to 100′s of lessons in response. As you stand, unsuspecting, in the checkout line you are targeted by the best direct response marketers in the world.
Usually to your left, you will find a dozen or so magazine covers printed with headlines that are proven to create response. They draw consumers in like magnets and they get consumers to respond.
Where to apply these lessons
The lessons you can learn from these headlines can be applied in literally thousands of marketing and sales activities.
Here are just a few:
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Have you ever wondered how some tiny business owners seem to make all the right marketing moves?
It isn’t because they are smarter than you. It isn’t because they work harder than you either.
It is because of the way that make marketing decisions.
Narcissists make bad marketers
This isn’t about you. It isn’t about your spouse or your close friends.
It’s about your customers.
Each and every marketing decision should be weighed against your customers, not you or your immediate acquaintances.
The worst statement you can make is…
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If you have a business, you have a brand.
Like it or not, you have a brand position in the minds of others.
Here is the good news…
The longer your business has been exposed to your market with consistent messaging, the more deeply rooted your brand is in the minds of that market.
Here is the bad news…
The longer your business has been exposed to your market with consistent messaging, the more deeply rooted your brand is in the minds of that market.
That’s not a typo. Having a strong brand can be either an advantage or a disadvantage.
Here’s why…
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