Sales and Marketing Secrets » Business Wisdom

What I Recently Learned About Courage

Dr. Rachna D. Jain — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:11:35 +0000

So by now you've probably heard of the whole situation surrounding Susan Boyle, a 47 year old Englishwoman who recently appeared on the TV show: Britain's Got Talent (which is similar to American Idol.) I don't tend to watch TV all that often, but I read about her story on CNN and then checked out her performance on YouTube.

Please take about 5 minutes to watch the video before reading the rest of this post; it will make much more sense if you do.

(Back from watching?)

Ok- so I saw this clip last night and was totally overcome by what a fantastic lesson and inspiration this video has for every entrepreneur.

I mean, consider this: when you are "putting yourself out there" – whether you're launching something new, or stepping out in a new way, aren't you secretly afraid of everyone jeering, catcalling and making fun of you? This is what happened to Susan in the first few seconds of the video. She experienced the all too direct impact of stereotypes, criticism, and limited thinking.

Many of us would completely shut down and stop if we were treated this way. We'd shrink, hiding our wisdom and brilliance, and backpedal out of the spotlight in order to avoid further rejection.

But not Susan. She deflected the negativity as best she could, and then stepped up to the plate and sung her heart out.

Her voice is incredibly beautiful- almost unreal.

Her video has now received millions of views, and she's being interviewed on major television stations. She'll likely be getting a recording deal, if she hasn't signed one already.

So how does this relate to courage?

By being brave for a 3 minute performance, she has suddenly and completely changed her destiny. She captured the audience within the first one minute, and kept going. Audience members rose to their feet, and gave her a standing ovation for the rest of her performance.

So what I learned about courage from watching this video is that each of us needs to step up, been seen, be heard, and keep going, even when people are rejecting us.

Stepping out boldly and taking a big risk can open the door to a huge and bright future.

This definitely has me thinking…. where will I start showing more courage in my business?

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Resource for Life: Positioning Your Business for High Repeat Sales

Dr. Rachna D. Jain — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:19:17 +0000

As a professional services provider, you need to focus on positioning yourself and your business appropriately. Appropriate positioning, in this case, means that you should do everything possible to be seen by your clients as a "resource for life".

The "resource for life" approach means that you invite clients to engage with you now, and again in the future, whenever they need someone with your services and skillsets. The "resource for life" approach moves you from being a commodity (i.e. just anyone who can solve their problem right now) to a trusted and valuable advisor.

This shift from being viewed as a commodity to being a trusted advisor is one of the most valuable positioning efforts you can make. Why? Because positioning yourself in this way drives repeat business, and increases the lifetime value of a customer.

As marketers and business owners, we should be focusing about 60% of our marketing efforts on selling more to our current customers; aiming to increase both the number of sales AND the average cost per sale.

What this means is that we need to sell more, to the same people- and find a way to do this with integrity, over and over again.

Most business owners worry about generating new customers, when, in fact, their businesses would grow more quickly and be more profitable if they focused on selling more to people who have already chosen to buy from them.

Focusing on your existing customers can take weeks (or months) off the sales cycle.

So how should you position your business as a resource for life? Here are a few ideas:

Mention this at the start of any new client/business relationships. I have a few sentences in my initial consulting agreement which specify that I would be available for consultation and assistance in the future, on these or other issues, should the client desire my assistance. Just from this two line sentence, I've had clients contact me years later, wanting to work with me again. While I haven't actually ever sat down to figure out how much extra income this has brought me, I believe the number is at least in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Mention this at key points within the relationship. There will be points in the working relationship where you will have the opportunity to activate the customer to another level of engagement with your business. An example of this may be when your client is searching for a provider or resource in a particular arena, and you are able to provide this service as well. In this case, speak up. Most clients will appreciate the convenience of having additional services provided by someone they already trust.
Periodically contact expired or 'inactive' customers. Touch base and see how they are, find out how their businesses are doing, or how their lives are going. Be sure to mention any new services or products you have that might be interesting to them. They might not need anything now, but staying in touch, regularly, increases the likelihood that they will think of you when they do need something.
Keep adding services and skillsets to your business. The more services and skillsets you can provide in-house, the more money your clients are likely to spend with you. Being able to save clients time and money without sacrificing results is a way of providing huge value.
Keep looking for related services and products you could add. Part of being a "resource for life" is staying focused on how many MORE ways you can provide value for your same clients. Your clients are continually evolving, and your business needs to do the same.

If you want to position your business for high repeat sales and lifetime customer loyalty, position yourself as a trusted advisor for life.

You'll enjoy increased profitability, better relationships, and the increased satisfaction of knowing that your clients are being very well served.

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Focus is Not a Dirty Word

Dr. Rachna D. Jain — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:00:53 +0000

If you’ve been involved in your business for any length of time, you will have noticed an interesting phenomenon. When you first started your business, you approached it from one point of focus, and that was to actually get your business up and running.

Now, that may have taken quite a bit of effort in multiple areas. For example; you would need to determine your product or service, you would need to determine your target market, you would need to determine how you were going to reach or market to these people. You would also have had to figure out your business hours, some of the technology to support your business such as computer systems and phone systems. You would have had to figure out the extra services your business would need such as accounting, invoicing, time scheduling, things like that.

So, the thing is, when you were first starting your business, there was a lot of focus around getting the business going. If you remember that process, it was actually very simple. Everyday, you did something to move your business forward. The reward, or benefit, was that you saw these things actually being completed, and actually getting done.

Now, when you’ve been in business for a while; your focus naturally becomes somewhat divided because you have sort of accomplished that first thing, which was to get your business off the ground, and you are setting ongoing or recurring goals for how many people you’ll make contact with, how many products you’ll sell, how much services you’ll offer.

But, as you continue to grow your business, you start to realize that there are these ever widening circles of complexity; because all of a sudden, you need to be able to track your results. Is your marketing working? Are you making as many sales today as you were this time last year? In some ways, having a history for your business can become a bit burdensome because all of the sudden you have all this data that you have to be aware of and constantly stay in touch with.

With those ever widening circles of complexity, our focus becomes fragmented even further. This is a completely natural occurrence, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the best option for your business. I’ve been guilty of this myself, as I’ve been attracted or seduced by all these different options, alternatives, and opportunities in my business, and it sometimes has moved me away from my core focus or my core understanding of what it is I’m offering and who it is I’m serving.

In addition to that, it can become very confusing because every time you add in a new opportunity to your business, you basically are saying no to something else. So, if I am saying yes to going and speaking at a particular event, I may be saying no to the opportunity of developing another product because I can’t do two things in two different places at the same time (yet).

So, when you are looking at your business, and you are feeling this loss of focus which I think happens to all of us at some time or another, there are a couple strategies I would recommend for getting back focused.

The first question to ask yourself is this: At what times am I feeling the best in my business? And, if you don’t know the answer to that right now, keep track of it over the next week. Just take a piece of paper – put it next to your computer or wherever you do the majority of your work, and just ask yourself – when am I feeling best? And, every time you notice that you are feeling really good, just jot that down.

Than, ask yourself what are my areas of biggest concern in my business? You’ll want to jot those down too because that will give you some really important clues about where your business may need a little bit of extra structure or support.

Than, the third thing to ask yourself is: What can I do today that would make the biggest impact positively on my business? Again, that may not be a question that you can answer right away. But, if you can’t figure out what would make the biggest impact on your business today, you obviously aren’t going to know what you should be doing.

So, by taking the time to answer these questions: What do I feel best about? What is/are the biggest areas of concern? What is one thing I could do today to move my business forward? – you’ll begin to focus in on what’s most important for the health and continued growth of your business.

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Your Biggest Business Lesson of 2007

Dr. Rachna D. Jain — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:15:16 +0000

Well, with just a few weeks left in 2007, I thought it would be a good time to ask the question, "What's your biggest business lesson of 2007?"

I'm thinking of something that you have finally learned this year which has changed the way you will do business in 2008 and beyond.

For me, the biggest business lesson has been around inviting other people into my business. 2007 has marked a turning point for me in terms of making new connections and developing some deeper business friendships. I've really, really grasped the benefit of having trusted advisors, and the benefit of having extra help, guidance, and contacts to smooth the way. Having a group of people to share my business challenges with has made a huge difference in terms of my perspective and the range of solutions I can implement.

It's always amazing to me how many different ways any problem can be solved. And with having a quality team of people to share my challenges with; the quality of my solutions has improved significantly. Now, I can't imagine accomplishing big things without at least a few people to provide understanding and advice. I'm able to get more done, faster, by building on this team's collective experience and wisdom.

Building a team of people for support and structure has been my biggest business lesson of 2007.

What's yours?

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