Are You A Small Business Owner Who Needs A Strategic Business Approach?
The Tip:
Are you a small business owner who needs a strategic business development approach that gets results?
How to eliminate sales & marketing confusion by increasing brand awareness.
Case Study:
If a strategic approach were like fixing cars, manufacturing parts or mass-producing food, small business owners would have an easier time with them. Why? Because you can do those things 1000 times in a row, and you’ll get the same, predictable results.
Are there “methods” to business development and branding? Yes … but it’s easy to apply the wrong method to the right customer. This creates confusion.
Small business owners are passionate about their fields. You love your product or service … why wouldn’t everyone else?
Not so fast. Customers don’t care how passionate you are. They are interested in results and deliverables.
The strategic messaging plan that attracts customers clearly explains how it can solve the customer’s problem or help them achieve their goal.
In all forms of outreach from sales to social media, we need to be able to do it … in seconds.
Some owners I meet are reluctant to do sales. I don’t blame them. What’s the use of and outreach if you aren’t clear on your own identity, mission or offer?
Sales and Marketing of any kind is risky, if you lack:
1. Clarity around who your ideal client is
2. Understanding what they want and need
3. Ability to communicate what outcome they can expect
4. Clarity on your deliverables
It’s critical to think through these concepts, before we consider email marketing, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Otherwise, you’ll pour time, money, and energy into a game of “roulette.”
When people hesitate, I take them back to those four core details – who, want, outcome and deliverables.
Outcome:
Once those details are clear, however, don’t be surprised if you have a much better idea of how to brand yourself in selling, networking and online
How so? Well, here’s an example:
Let’s say you’re an insurance agent, and you’ve distinguished yourself by your reputation as a networker and connector. Would this sentence describe your mission?
“To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”
It probably describes your mission. It sounds like a good reason to be on social media. In fact, it IS a reason to be on social media – it’s the mission statement of LinkedIn.
Or suppose you’re a business coach, and you help clients get better results and outcomes. Would this statement sound like you?
“To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”
That’s a good statement for a business coach. It also happens to be the statement of Microsoft.
Businesses that eliminate confusion answer their own questions about sales and marketing. One of those questions – “Should we learn how to increase brand awareness?” – becomes a no-brainer.
Because if your mission is to connect the world’s professionals and make them more productive and successful … obviously, you need to increase brand awareness!
The same applies when it comes to your “why,” or the clarity of your offer and identity of your target customer. Either you are clear on these details, or you’re not. When sales and marketing fail, it’s because we’re doing it wrong.
Clarity destroys confusion! Start being obsessed with clarity, and you’ll brand yourself as unique. It will require a lot of work up front … but before you know it, you’ll get conversation and conversions that build your client base.
