One of the most important things any business owner can do right now is to keep their head up, remain optimistic, and keep pushing towards their goals.  As I’ve said again and again on this blog, the news media wants us all to believe things are headed for Hell in a handbasket.

Yes, the financial picture is pretty bleak and yes, people are losing their jobs and yes, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to grow your business.

BUT, that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel.

When times get tough, it means you’ve got to get tougher.  You’ve got to identify those areas where you can control the outcome and focus on those things.  Not everyone’s going to purchase your services.  Not everyone’s going to pay your prices.  However, there are still people out there that WILL purchase your services and WILL gladly pay the prices you’re charging.  It’s your job to go find them!

In yesterday’s post I gave you a list of 10 different ways you can beat the question of price.  I’d like to elaborate just a bit on that again today.

Of all the ways you can beat price, the one that stands head and should above the rest is positioning.  In other words, you need to position yourself as much more than just a ‘lawn care guy’.  You need to become the lawn care or landscape EXPERT and you need to provide a service so valuable that anyone would be foolish to hire anybody but you.

So, how to you position yourself in this way?  Here are a few suggestions:

• Become the recognized expert in your marketplace by writing articles for the local paper, giving interviews to local TV and radio, offering seminars at the local home improvement store, etc.
• Make it difficult to get on your schedule.  With this one, there are two ways to do it.  The first is perceived business, which basically means when somebody calls demanding your service RIGHT NOW, you tell them you’ll have to see if you can squeeze them in.  The second way is to just become so busy that you really do have to try and squeeze them in.  You do this through relentless, effective marketing.
• Provide such a quality service that everybody’s talking about you.  Remember, customer service these days is pretty much dead, so anything you can do to go above and beyond what your customers and/or prospects expect will help set you apart and position you as the ‘go to guy’.

So, as you work to build your business, remember that price is the LAST thing you want to compete on.  Find others ways to differentiate your business and you’ll soon find yourself the top dog in your chosen marketplace.

I’m sitting in a Panera Bread in Orlando, FL right now writing this post, and even though that may not sound like a big deal, it is to me.  You see, if you didn’t already know this, I live in Rock Hill, SC which is a quiet little suburb of Charlotte, NC.

I’m in Orlando today because I was meeting with a prospect I’ve been trying to get some business from for quite some time.  Now, the big deal really isn’t the fact that I’m in Orlando.  The big deal is how I got here.

You see, I woke up this morning at 2:30am, in Rock Hill, SC, to hit the road for a 12pm meeting with this prospect, in Orlando, FL.

That’s right, I didn’t fly.  I drove. All 8+ hours of it and just so I could sit with a prospect for no more than 2 hours and talk about MAYBE doing business together.

Now, I know it sounds like a totally crazy idea, but in my mind it was something I absolutely HAD to do.  See, I’ve been working on building a relationship with this gentleman for quite some time now so I knew he was qualified.  And he’s a bit scatter brained and ADD so if I wanted his undivided attention I knew I had to be sitting in front of him face to face.

No problem, right?  Not so.  He’s on the road about 200+ days a year so getting in front of him is no small feat.  When he told me he’d be in Orlando, FL today and would have a few hours to sit and chat I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.

So, what are the marketing lessons to learn from this?

First, know that I very carefully qualified this potential opportunity.  I knew he’d absolutely be a good candidate for my services, plus he has the potential to be a very big add for my business  so I was willing to take steps I wouldn’t take with most prospects.

Second, something you just have to do in person.  As much as I talk about creating marketing systems for generating leads, screening and converting those leads, and then maximizing your customer relationships, absolutely NOTHING beats sitting face to face with your prospect.  You just can’t get the same level of communication via email, direct mail, or the telephone you can when you sit down together.

And third, be willing to do big things to land the big fish.  Sure I drove 8 hours to get here and am getting ready to turn around and drive another 8 to get home, but with the way the meeting went, it will be 16 hours VERY WELL spent.

Oh yeah, and why did I drive instead of fly?  Because it was a last minute meeting (I found out about it on Wednesday) and I couldn’t really stomach paying over $700 for an airline ticket when it’ll end up costing me less than $100 in food and gas.  Heh, maybe when I’ve got Donald Trump type money it won’t be that big of a deal. 

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.