Here we are again at What Went Wrong? Wednesday…where we where we take a hard look at where our best marketing and sales efforts go wrong. This week, we’re tackling a more GENERAL problem, where DESPITE your best efforts, your business simply isn’t making money the way you imagined or would or need it to! You’re twittering, networking, facebooking, blogging, planning, faithfully doing your “one-on-one” coffee dates, attending your weekly breakfast meeting, and you’ve exhausted all of your leads. You’re doing your best to “attract” success, your office is feng shui’ed. You LOVE what you do, and you’re good at it.
ONLY ONE PROBLEM — at this point you’re more volunteer than self-made millionaire. Yeah — we’re tackling THAT problem! =) So, what went wrong?
Here’s the truth: There’s NO WAY to know what went wrong without more information. You see, most business owners who find themselves in this situation are DOING a lot and MEASURING far too little. They’re following conventional wisdom — EVEN THOUGH conventional wisdom leads 80% of businesses into failure — and never holding their actions and efforts accountable for creating success.
Here’s the solution:
- Write down everything you’re doing to grow your business. Every event. Every coffee. Every paid ad. Every free networking meeting. Every home party. Every hour on facebook. Every week blogging.
- Beside EACH item on your list above, write down a specific goal you want that activity to produce for you. Do you want it to bring you sales conversations, leads, referrals — and how many? And in what amount of time? If you know WHY you’re doing everything you’re doing, you’ll easily be able to hold EVERYTHING you do accountable for producing a desired result! And, when it doesn’t work, well, you can free up some time to either REST or to double up on that which IS working.
- Now, highlight the items on your list that ARE working. And take note of those that aren’t. Decide when you’ll DROP that which isn’t working. The formula for success is doing MORE of what works and LESS of what doesn’t.
- Put your list away for now.
Now we can get to the MEAT of this blog post — the REAL SOLUTION.
Break out a new piece of paper (if you’re a pen in hand gal like me) or another digital file. Write the following words across the top: POND, LEADS, RELATIONSHIP, SALES CONVERSATIONS, DEPOSITS. THIS is where you’ll find out what went wrong in YOUR business. You’ll need a separate sheet of paper for EACH pond. See my example below:
- Your POND is your target market. You’ll likely have more than one. Essentially, where are you fishing for clients / customers? Maybe this is a geographic region, maybe it’s a professional association, maybe it’s a networking organization.
- What are you doing to generate LEADS (or nibbles, bites, etc.) from this POND? What are you doing to get people IN THAT POND to raise their hand and demonstrate interest in what you sell or do? Write all of this down. Circle or highlight those actions, offers, strategies that are, in fact, generating LEADS.
- Next, write down your process or plan for generating professional RELATIONSHIPS with your LEADS. In other words, how will you indoctrinate, educate or nurture this lead? People want to be served. Not sold.
- Next, write down your plan to scheduling a SALES CONVERSATION with this new relationship. Don’t disguise it as a relational coffee. This is business. Something as simple as, “I’d like to sit down with you to discuss how I might be able to serve you better. Are you open to a conversation about my product or service? ” is far more preferable than multiple coffee dates that have no agenda.
- Finally, write down your strategy for closing the sale and making the DEPOSIT. How will you wrap this up?
Is all of this clear as mud? If not, take another look at my five step business building process here.
Now, you’re ready to answer your OWN question of “What Went Wrong?” Look at your sheet again. Where is your plan for making sales going wrong? Where’s your plan dropping off? Do you not have enough leads? Or do you not have enough leads willing to hear a sales conversation? Maybe your sales conversation / presentation needs some work — because you’ve got the leads, relationships and conversations — but no deposits.
It could be you’re in the wrong POND. If so, go fish somewhere else. You can’t fish in a desert.
It could be your problem is with generating LEADS from this pond. TRY a different bait offer.
It could be you’re jumping STRAIGHT from “Great to meet you!” to “Buy from me!” If so, focus on RELATIONSHIP.
It could be you’re not scheduling enough sales conversations. You’re hoping your product or service will sell themselves. (They won’t.) Or maybe you’re not ASKING for the sale in an effort to make the deposit.
It could be a combination of any of these factors, but if you’re not making the money you want to make — it’s AT LEAST one of them. There are no mysteries here. Business success is — truly — more strategy than secret.
