Using setbacks to propel your business forward

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Posted on 24th November 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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This article is based on a OneCoach Expert Interview with Willie Jolley. OneCoach Business Growth Network™ members can access the full transcript and recording of the interview on OneMarketplace™.

If you stood in a room with 500 business owners and asked that anyone who has had setbacks to raise their hands, you would likely see 500 hands raised. Everyone has experienced and can relate to a plan gone wrong, a dream unrealized, a vision that met a roadblock. Yet if you went back and asked those same people how they handled those setbacks, you would get a multitude of answers.

A setback is not a cue to stop moving forward. Setbacks allow you to review your plan, make the necessary revisions and continue moving forward. Some setbacks are minor: a seminar that did not draw the anticipated attendees, or a glitch in a marketing plan. Other setbacks may require a shift in a completely new direction, such as the loss of a job, or the loss of your company. Here are his tips for turning setbacks into a setup for a comeback:

If you’re willing, new opportunities await. Handling setbacks in a positive manner requires a positive mindset. You must have flexibility and a willingness to change and move quickly. Look past the setback for the new opportunity. You may find that tremendous success lies ahead because you were willing to adapt.

Plan to be successful. The most successful organizations did not just happen, they planned it. Plan to be the best, see the possibilities and then consistently do the things that it will take to realize your plan. Make the necessary investments in your organization and your people and foster a “can do” culture. Everyone must not only work toward the plan, but believe in the plan. Belief will drive action and action will lead to success.

Eighty percent of success is just showing up. Before you can be successful you have to show up. Perhaps you have not perfected your technique, or achieved your plan of being the best in your field, but if you don’t show up you will not win. There are countless examples of people who were bold enough to show up where they did not belong and as a result of showing up they were successful. Do not hinder your success by being afraid to take a risk and show up.

After you show up, stand up! You must continue working on yourself and your business. Do not become complacent in your success but determine each day that tomorrow you will be better than today. The secret to success is never ending self development.

Step up and take your swing. As children we are taught that success is rewarded and failure is punished. This mindset has caused many people to be afraid to take a shot if they were not assured of succeeding. Yet in life, we fail much more often than we succeed. The failures are lessons which help us to learn how to succeed. If you fail to hit the ball the first time or even the 100th time, you learn to adjust your stance, your grip on the bat, even your coordination. The next time the ball comes you are better prepared because of your failure.

Failures and setbacks are a part of everyone’s life but the response to these events is what separates winners and losers. It has been said that regret is worse than failure. If you are afraid to try for fear of failing you will never have the life or the success that you desire. You must be willing to do a thing bad until you can do it well. With determination and endurance you will develop the mindset of a champion and your life and business will reflect it.

What women want?

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Posted on 23rd November 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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That’s right. We’ve been able to decipher the age-old secret of what women want. We broke it down into two simple truths:

First, make their lives easier.
Second, make their time more meaningful.
That’s it. If you constantly incorporate ways to enrich their lives and make things easier for them, then you’re sure to get lifelong customers.

Of course men are extremely busy too. But you’ve got to consider that 75 percent of women are working today, many of them full-time, and they’re spending an additional 25 hours taking care of life at home.

You must understand that it’s not just about a woman’s need to know she’s significant, but that she’s also juggling and trying to enrich the lives of everyone who’s important to her.

As a result, women have become very savvy consumers and are starving for efficient solutions.

So here’s how to reach women prospects: Make yourself an ally. Provide the means to help get her through the day without a headache and she’ll tell 26 people about how much she loves your business. So, either through a focus group of women, or by taking some quiet time for yourself and really trying to get inside the mindset of women, figure out exactly what makes a woman’s day easier.

Whether it’s flexible hours of operation, high-quality referrals you provide, or plentiful resources that help her make an educated decision, you need to remember the importance of convenience in a woman’s life. Figure out how to make her life easier by making the buying and customer-service experience better, and you will attract more women to your business.

Next in this series: That’s me.

This post is the third in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with Lisa Johnson, CEO of ReachGroup, formerly ReachWomen, an international marketing consultancy. She also co-authored: Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy and How to Increase Your Share of this Crucial Market.

Why you must know exactly who your ideal client is

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Posted on 22nd November 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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Your ideal client is much different from your typical client. How?

Your typical client NEEDS what you sell. Your ideal client WANTS what you sell.

That difference is huge. Prospects may or may not buy what they need, but they will always buy what they want… even in a tough economy like we’re experiencing today. Here’s what you need to know…

Needs are logic-based, wants are emotion-based. So when your product or service matches your prospect’s specific wants, you have found an ideal client. And your ideal client will make you the most money.

If you’re like most business owners, 80 percent of your current revenue is generated by only 20 percent of your customers. That 20 percent represents your ideal clients. They love you and what you provide to them. They buy from you and you alone. They’re loyal and will never leave you. They sing your praises from the highest mountaintop, they send you tons of referrals and they give you unsolicited testimonials.

What if you could replace the remaining 80 percent of your unproductive clients with more of your ideal clients? Do you realize your income would explode by 16 times?

If your revenues right now total $50,000 annually, you have the potential to increase your revenue by an additional $750,000. No kidding!

What could you accomplish with that much additional revenue?
What would that revenue mean to you personally? To your business? And especially to your family?
Can you afford to continue to watch this much additional revenue fall into the pocket of your competition?
How can you attract more of your ideal clients and develop the critical skills you need to grow your business?

Online client acquisition, part two

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Posted on 21st November 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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Alright, you’ve got your brand-new Web site, and it looks great. So why aren’t you getting any visitors?

Because it’s not like you just wave a magic wand. You need to dedicate a portion of your marketing effort to driving traffic to your site. You can look at your marketing campaign as a fishing boat. Each marketing element – newsletters, news releases, PPC campaign, pop-ups – can be considered a line in the water. And with every additional line in the water, you increase your chances of catching a big one.

The best solution is found in a mix of marketing, online and offline, but we’ll keep it simple and just discuss online options for now.

Let’s start with Google Adwords (sponsored search), these are the ads found in the highlighted box at the top of the page and listed along the right side of the search results page. Google obviously knows what they’re doing, and their solutions tend to be very user-friendly, so they are a great place for even the greenest online marketers to start. With your analytics and sponsored search in place, you’re ready to start receiving traffic to your site.

Now, when a consumer clicks on your online ad, your analytics should track their path through your site. So if you want them to purchase a product, it’s a good idea to test going directly to the landing page that deals with that product or the specific offer you’re promoting.

It’s crucial to realize that it shouldn’t be a free-for-all once people land on your site. Too many people get so excited about the prospect of driving traffic to their site that they forget that visitors need their hands held throughout your site. So you’ve got to track their behavior from page to page.

Next in this series: Analyze, optimize and convert.

This post is the second in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with Justin Abernathy, co-CEO of SureClick Promotions.

Create a marketing mix that engages your prospects

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Posted on 19th November 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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As with stock options and retirement plans, you’ll find strength in a diverse marketing campaign. Specifically, it is to your advantage to create a balance between offline and online marketing. Here are three steps to help get your marketing propely aligned:

First, get the media to drive new traffic.
Second, capture your traffic’s contact information by giving them something (this is karmic marketing).
Step three, begin the process of creating a relationship.
One way to assure yourself of getting picked up by the media is to comment on something already in the news. Look at today’s headlines and see if something going on is applicable to your business – think like a reporter and look for the story.

Another point here is that you don’t have to actually write the story, just provide the idea and information for it, and the reporters will write it for you. This is also a good opportunity to take on a college intern – they provide free news releases and you provide free hands-on education.

You could also send out a news release that could be as simple as a tip sheet. You might give five great tips and say, “You can find the rest of my tips on my Web site.” This provides value and helps drive traffic to your site.

The important part is to get the media involved – let them do some of the work for you. Once the media gets a hold of it, the exposure they create naturally sends new traffic to your Web site, where people can find the rest of your tips or the rest of the information you promised in your press release.

To capitalize on this new traffic, include another call to action. Every step closer a prospect takes through your marketing is a unit more that they trust you, making it easier for you to capture their information once they’ve landed on your site. So take advantage of this and have them fill out a quick form to sign up for your weekly e-zine or e-mail newsletter – capture their contact information and create qualified, if not exclusive, leads.

Don’t let any of these leads slip through the cracks once you’ve got them. One way to ensure this is by using an autoresponder. Aweber.com is a reputable source for autoresponders, featuring filtering systems and spam-checking functions. You should offer more information and add value during this initial phase of creating a relationship before you ask them to buy anything. Adding an autoresponder is an ideal way to stay in touch, offer additional value, and let your prospect get to know you and your business.

The point of this mix of marketing techniques is that the consumer mindset is much different than it was five years ago. So this multi-step marketing is much more trustworthy and appealing for today’s consumer.

This post is the eighth in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with copywriter Joe Vitale, author of The Attractor Factor and Life Missing Instruction Manual, The Guidebook You Didn’t Get at Birth. For more information about Joe Vitale, visit his site at www.mrfire.com.

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