Well, I’m finally glad the election’s over.  I don’t know about you, but it got to the point where I couldn’t even turn on the TV without wanting to run the other way, screaming at the top of my lungs.

I was so fed up with all the political back-and-forth ads by the time it was said and done that I made a rule that no one could watch the TV unless it was a DVD or had been DVR’d and the commercials were skipped. I normally like the commercials because I love analyzing them, but even I needed a break for a while so thank goodness that’s over with!

Now, let me warn you right off.  I don’t normally wax too political because I try to keep things practical and useful.  Plus, my political views won’t do a thing to help you get more new customers or do a better job of selling to the ones you already have.  However, I’d be a total fool if I didn’t take this opportunity to examine the recent election and share some lessons we can learn from it.

First off, there’s no doubt this was a historic election.  Having just elected our country’s first African-American President, it should serve notice to EVERYONE that this is still the land of opportunity.  You should NEVER allow anyone to convince you that you can’t do something, no matter what handicaps or disadvantages you think you MIGHT have.

Whatever you set your mind to, you can achieve it if you work hard enough and take advantage of the opportunities around you.  In spite of the challenges swirling around you on a daily basis, remember that no one is standing in your way but you.

Second, aside from a message that resonated with many Americans, I think one of Obama’s keys to victory was superior marketing.  He was a freakin’ marketing machine!

Now even though he was able to outspend McCain by as much as 5-1 in battleground states, he utilized his resources and the traditional media very well.  In fact, most would argue he used it much better than any candidate ever has.

He and his team understood the power of the new media and how consumers are fed up with the old way of advertising, which is basically to spend as much money as you possibly can in order to scream for as long as you possibly can at as many people as you possibly can.  No, he understood the importance of building relationships with his prospects and he did a VERY good job of that through not just his speeches and TV appearances, but also through the new media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

Also, he wasn’t just relying on one method of finding and communicating his message with his target audience.  He knew he wouldn’t be successful if he simply relied on only TV to grow his campaign.  He employed as many methods as possible and as a result was able to build a large base of active participants in his campaign.

This is the exact same thing we should be doing to build our businesses.  Remember, there isn’t one single way to get 50 new customers, but I can easily show you at least 50 different ways to get one new customer.

How many different methods are you using to communicate with your target market and existing customers?

And finally, whether or not you voted for Barack Obama, the results your business will see in the next 4 years are completely up to you.

Obviously I have my own view on what the next 4 years will look like, and to go off on a quick sidebar, I do think Joe the Plumber barely scratched the surface on Obama’s ‘redistribution of wealth’ philosophy, but regardless, life will go on and business will still be done.

The real question comes down to, will we be the ones doing business over the next 4 years or not?

No matter what happens over the next 4 years, we’ll still have the opportunity to work hard to grow our businesses.  It won’t be easy and there will most likely be less money left over for ourselves at the end of the day, but don’t use that as an excuse!  Your competition is in the exact same position.

It’s up to you to make the decision that you’re going to go ‘pedal to the metal’ and position yourself as the dominant player in your marketplace.  It’s totally possible no matter who’s sitting in the White House.

The real question comes down to, are you willing to put in the hard work and effort to take advantage of the available opportunities? 

If you are, stick around because I’ve got some killer business building resources coming out in the next few weeks.  Keep your eyes on your inbox and my blog because I’ll be announcing them very soon.

And as always, it’s a pleasure and a joy for me to share my insights and ideas with you.  I do love hearing your feedback and comments so if there are questions you have, or specific ideas you’d like me to touch on, please let me know and I’ll do everything possible to make it happen.

I look forward to working with you over the next 4 years to help grow your business no matter what our new President decides to do!

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, things will be different from here on out.  And just because not everyone voted for Barack Obama doesn’t make him any less our new President.  In fact, I thought his acceptance speech did a great job of pointing this out.

Now, whether you agree with his agenda and the principles espoused by the Democratic Party or not, the job of rebuilding our economy rests with each one of us individually.  No one can do it alone and it’s going to take a collective effort by us all in order to drag our lagging economy back to where it needs to be.

How do we do this?  By going out and doing a better job of selling the products and/or services we sell, by providing exceptional customer service, and by doing everything we can to make sure our customers spend as much money as possible.

Is it bad to expect your customers to spend money with you?  Absolutely not.  In fact, that’s the only way we’ll be able to stimulate the economy.

As more and more people spend money, there’s more money available for your business to invest in exapansion.  The more money people spend, there’s more available for you to hire more employees, which in turn means they have money to spend on other products and services.

You see, it’s a big cycle and as long as people are spending money, our economy will continue to grow and progress.

Now, there’s always the fear that this new administration will raise taxes to the point that nobody has the funds available to spend more money with you, but whether that happens or not, it’s your job to find customers that have money to spend regardless and then convince them to spend their money with you.  So again, it’s a bit of a cycle.

The big key is to assume that things will be challenging regardless and just go out and focus on finding more new customers, BETTER customers, and then sell them as much as you can.

If you’ll do that, it won’t matter what our new President and his cronies decide to do.

The Future of Your Business After Today

Today’s Election Day here in the US and I thing’s for sure, things are going to change.  No matter which Presidential candidate you voted for (you did vote, right?), life as we know it is going to change.

People have been unhappy with the direction our country has gone the past few years.  Terrorism is always a constant threat.  The economy is on a roller-coaster ride.  And people have little trust in our elected officials.

In a nutshell, there’s a pretty good chance things will look significantly different 4 years down the road.  The question is, will they look better or worse?

Now, while many on both sides of the political isle want to say life will be much better with ‘their’ candidate in office, the way things look will ultimately come down to ourselves.  You see, no matter which candidate is elected President and no matter how divided the Senate or Congress is, the success we achieve is nobody’s responsibility but our own.

So, how can we make sure things are better for us 4 years from now?

Here’s a list of 5 steps you can take to ensure this happens:

1.    Focus on building a lean, efficient business

For the foreseeable future, the economy’s going to continue to be on a rollercoaster ride.  If you want to do more than just survive, it’s important to build an organization that’s lean and efficient.  To do this you’ve got to cut the dead weight, systematize EVERY aspect of your business, and ensure you’ve eliminated as much waste as you possibly can.

2.    Know who your ideal client is and focus your efforts on them

To ensure you’re as lean and mean as possible, you’ve got to focus your marketing efforts on those candidates most likely to purchase your services.  If someone’s not a good candidate, don’t send them your marketing materials.  If you don’t know if someone’s a good candidate for your services, find out.  If you can’t control who receives your sales message, consider using a different medium.

You absolutely MUST market using a rifle with a laser sighted scope, not a shotgun.

3.    Use ONLY direct response marketing to ensure maximum effectiveness

Only direct response marketing allows you to track your efforts, measure the results you get, and scale up or down as necessary.  While most businesses are busy trying to build their brand or establish name recognition through branding style marketing, you’ll efficiently build your business, attracting clients RIGHT NOW while at the same time building the name recognition without wasting money to do it.

4.    Build an impenetrable fence around your existing clients

As the face of marketing continues to evolve, the effectiveness of traditional marketing methods will continue to decline.  As a result, it will become increasingly expensive to market your business.

However, if you focus your efforts on the clients you ALREADY HAVE, you’ll find that you have a ready-made market that already knows, likes, and trusts you, and as a result, you’ll be able to grow your business WITHOUT having to worry about ineffective methods your competitors are desperately trying to make work.

5.    Become a student of effective marketing

As the owner of a business, customers are your lifeline.  Without new customers and the ability to hang on to them, your business will dry up.  As a result, it’s important to constantly be learning new and innovative ways to generate new customers and maximize the existing relationships you already have.  The only way you can do this is to constantly learn about new ways to market your business.

So, whether your candidate gets elected tonight or not doesn’t really matter.  Again, what matters most is what you do with the challenges and opportunities that we’ll be presented with over the next 4 years.

Will you use them to grow your business?  Or will use them as blame for the reasons why your business is not where it needs to be.  The choice is up to you.

So, how have the ups and downs of the economy treated you thus far?  Are you seeing your customer base slowly shrink away?  Are you finding it harder and harder to line up new customers than in months or years past?  Well, if you have, you’re definitely not alone.

There’s absolutely NO DOUBT things are going to rough for a while.  I’d be blowing smoke up your skirt if I didn’t admit that.   However, that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to build a thriving, profitable business.

Did you know that during the Great Depression, a time many keep comparing our current situation to, there were more millionaires made than during any other time in history?  And did you also know that there are quite a few prognosticators predicting that we’ll see more billionaires come out of this current slump than any other time in history?

Why is this do you think?  What is it about these turbulent times that these millionaires and billionaires know that we don’t?

Well, to be completely honest, I don’t think they know any more than we do.  I think it’s what they DO that makes them so successful.  You see, instead of sitting in the dark, sucking their thumbs, these money-makers are out aggressively pursuing the many opportunities becoming available.

Now, you obviously need to proceed with caution, but sitting back, waiting for things to blow over is certainly no way to come out the other end of this mess smelling like roses.

In that spirit, I’d like to share with you 5 things you and I can do over the next little while to make sure our businesses keep growing and prospering in spite of the trouble marketplace:

1. Cut the dead weight

Listen, just because I’m saying it’s still possible to build a thriving, profitable business doesn’t mean you have to drag the whole flying circus along for the ride.  You’ve got to utilize this opportunity to get lean and mean.

Go over your organizational charts and look for ways to consolidate job functions without sacrificing productivity.  Are you keeping staff around doing jobs that could be done better, cheaper, or faster by someone else?  Have you considered outsourcing some of your more ‘commodity’ jobs?  Do you have employees that aren’t pulling their weight?

It’s important to look for every opportunity available to cut the fat and get as lean and mean as possible.  Sure, it’ll take some sacrifice and difficult decisions, but the well oiled machine you create right now will become even more profitable for you once things do turn around.

2. Implement systems for EVERYTHING

As you’re looking to eliminate unnecessary waste with your employees or processes, if you haven’t already, now’s a great time to begin the process of implementing systems for everything.

And I mean systems for EVERYTHING. Operational systems.  Equipment maintenance systems.  Employee hiring systems.  Employee training systems.  Financial management systems.  Customer service systems.  Joint venture systems.  Marketing systems.

Again, systems for EVERYTHING.  When you learn to systematize your business you’re able to accomplish more with less and all the added profit these systems produce flows directly to your bottom line.

3. Analyze your target market and adjust if necessary

In a tough economic climate like this there’s no denying the fact that a lot of people are struggling financially.  Joe the plumber isn’t the only one trying to squeeze every last penny of his paycheck.  Everybody feels the pinch.

However, there are some segments of your marketplace that are more insulated than others.  These are the segments you want to go after.  Why?  Because they’re less affected by the ups and downs of the stock or real estate markets, and they pay less attention to the talking heads screaming about how the sky is falling.  This means their grip on their pocketbooks isn’t as tight as everyone else’s.

Now, if you’re worried about competing in a more affluent market, don’t be.  The companies that are already there have NO CLUE how to properly market their business.  As a result, they’re probably competing on price, just like everyone else.

So with just a small amount of knowledge regarding how to differentiate yourself from the competition, you’ll absolutely blow away your competition and quickly become the service provider of choice.

4. Commit to becoming a master marketer

Listen, you probably don’t realize this because you’re down in the trenches every day, but when it comes to marketing your services, you and your competition are saying THE SAME THING.  As a result, your prospects and customers don’t know how to tell the difference and they usually end up making a decision based on price.

Now, be careful not to fool yourself into thinking they want the cheapest price.  They don’t .  In most cases, they would gladly pay a premium IF they were presented with the right value proposition.

Remember, the world doesn’t owe you a thing, but they’ll gladly pay any price for the right value.  It’s your job to present that to them and the only way you can do that is through effective marketing.

5. Focus the a healthy portion of your budget on your existing customers

This one is key in today’s market.  Unless every one of your existing customers is ‘Joe the plumber’ and his cronies, you should be focusing a good bit of your resources on selling more to your existing customers.  This means locking them into service contracts when possible and selling them additional services when applicable.

This also means you need to invest some resources in building a solid relationship with your customers.  Stop viewing them as a simple transaction.   Take the time to express an interest in their lives and they’ll reward you by remaining loyal through thick and thin.  Plus, chances are they have a few friends they’ll gladly introduce to you as well.

So, as you can see, right now is a GREAT time to grow your business beyond where it is currently.  However, it’s not going to happen by accident and will require sacrifice and work.  But it can happen.

The growth of your business is dependent upon one thing and one thing only. If your job description DOESN’T include this particular responsibility, your business will become stagnant and growth will be difficult.

In this new report, I’ll share with you 5 reasons why your job description needs to change.

Your Job Description MUST Change

To download the report, rick click and then select ‘Save As’.