The Online Prosperity Experience

We tend to take for granted that our customers know how to buy.

We think they know who should be involved and why.

We assume they know how to get approval, how to contract, how to issue an order.

The reality is unless they are in a role where they are shopping frequently, they don’t know these things–yet we assume they do.

Too often, our customers get derailed in their buying journey. They want to buy, they need to buy, but they don’t know how to navigate the process and the hurdles put up by their own organisations.

We know the majority of buying journeys end with no decision made.

We know this has little to do with selecting a vendor, but aligning the buying team and navigating the buying process.

Customers need our help!

If we are going to help them reach a decision, buy, and implement the solution, they need our help.

Some things they probably don’t know:

1. Who else should be involved in the buying process?
2. What questions should they be asking? 
3. What do they need to do to get approval to move forward?
4. How does this initiative support corporate strategic objectives?
5. How do they actually buy?

We create great value for our customers by helping them navigate the process.

When they aren’t involved in the right people/organisations, when they aren’t considering the critical issues, when they don’t understand the detailed activities to make it happen–we create great value in helping them navigate the whole process.

Buying is never easy.

But we help our customers succeed, and we help ourselves when we help our customers navigate the entire buying process.

As coaches and consultants, we struggle with determining new ways we can add client value.

We wrack our brains for breakthrough products and services or new content and resources to engage our clients.

However, we are missing the one thing that we do that adds the most value, which is when we serve our clients simply as a sounding board.

All senior executives have a ton on their plates and on their minds...and not a lot of people that they can talk to that do not have an agenda or expectations for them to be in perfect control at all times.

But when we, as consultants, offer our thinking partnership to them, we provide a SAFE PLACE to help them sift through clutter and chaos to more quickly set to clarity in terms of both thoughts and desired action, so that results they seek can be accelerated and realised. 

When we act as an executive sounding board, we provide significant benefits

When you own a business, it is inevitable that at some point you will experience crisis and disruption.

The question to ask yourself is, should I pull back or lean in? 

Being afraid in uncertain times is normal, but fear doesn’t have to define your response. When seasons of crisis come, you can strategically pivot in the face of the unknown and lead with confidence, make solid decisions, and find a way through.

Learning from other entrepreneurs and reflecting on my own experiences, I’ve discovered this four-step process for working through a crisis:

It’s easy to feel like we’re constantly going from one thing to the next.

From our tasks at work, to our responsibilities and commitments at home.

There are seemingly endless demands on our time and attention.

We can only keep up the juggling act for so long. Soon, some areas of our lives will begin to suffer neglect in favour of other areas.

But our lives are more than our work.

They are more than our social lives outside of work.

In fact, it’s helpful to see our lives as consisting of 10 interrelated domains: spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, relational, parental, social, vocational, avocational, and financial.

All of these domains are connected. Each one affects all the others.

For example, your physical condition impacts your work; your financial state will affect your social life.

To get the life you want, you have to be touching all the domains. Only then will you have the balance you need. 

How many times this week have you been asked, “How are you?” and have responded with all too familiar, “Busy!”

Whatever happened to the pat answer, “Fine?”

Our culture has become ridiculously busy and, as a consequence, many of us suffer from what can be referred to as an addiction to busyness.

We may FEEL time-poor and stressed out. 

But here’s the kicker.

For many of us, we are not too busy simply because we feel societal pressure or need better time management.

It is because we are addicted to being busy.

Like all addicts, we are not crazy about the effects on our health, performance and well-being. But we like the “high” that being busy gives us.

Let me share with you four reasons why this addiction, this “too busy addiction”, is so powerful and even better than crack.

Why Every Coach, consultant or Small Business Needs A Website.

A business’s online presence, regardless of industry, can have a massive impact on its success.

In this day and age, some coaches, consultants and small businesses still don’t realise that a majority of their customers will visit their website before making a purchase.

Having a strong online presence, particularly a website, can be a make or break for generating more revenue.

Yes, the quality of your website impacts results, but the purpose of this podcast is to stress the importance of making sure you have a website.

I've helped numerous companies of varying sizes create their digital presence.

In some cases, some coaches, consultants and small businesses are hesitant to get online because they feel they are not tech-savvy enough and don't understand how to manage a website. Other times, companies are concerned about the price.

The good news is that there’s a solution out there that will work for you.

If you still need convincing, here are the top reasons it’s important for your business to have a website:

How Do Your Customers Find You?

How do you find stuff nowadays?

Whether you’re looking for where to buy the best digital camera for under $500, or the best toaster for under $50, where do you look? I’m guessing that, if you’re like me, you’re searching online.

According to Nielsen Media, 82% of consumers and small businesses use internet search engines to find out about local companies. Hardly surprising, in today’s digitally-connected world.

How Can They Find You If You Don’t Have A Website?

But the research goes on to say that a mere 44% of small businesses have a website. Most of the companies surveyed directed less than 10% of their marketing budget towards online activities – search engines, optimisation, blogs, email marketing and the like.

Based upon the types of coaching, consulting or small business marketing inquiries we receive, there seems to be an endemic feeling that certain businesses don’t need a website.

Just this morning, I had a conversation with a coach who was reliant on her business Facebook page as the only online property for customer interaction.

I asked her why she didn’t feel it was necessary for the business to have its own website. She explained that since all her customers were on Facebook, it made more sense to have a Facebook presence than a web presence.

Without going down the road of inquiring why she thought one thing cancelled out the other, I asked her what would happen if Facebook changed their minds?

Supposing Facebook started charging every time someone views your business page or mandated that businesses spend a minimum amount on Facebook ads in order to have a page at all, for example?

The answer was, predictably, silence.

A Multi-Platform Online Presence Is Essential

Putting all your eggs in anyone’s basket is a dangerous thing. Putting the future of your business in the hands of Facebook is tantamount to commercial suicide. Whether it’s failing to block fake ads designed to manipulate opinion, or just changing the way users see branded content, Facebook’s already shown its colours on more than one occasion.

But I’m not singling out Facebook. The very fact that this coach has decided her entire target audience is on Facebook just shows how poor her marketing strategy is.

I don’t care what you’re selling, your customers are not all in one place.

Time To Outsource Your Marketing?

One of the benefits of the new, tech-driven business environment is that today’s coaches, consultants or small businesses don’t have to have all the traditional infrastructure in-house.

You can outsource pretty much every part of your business – accounting, HR, project management, sales – and, of course, marketing.

Outsourcing isn’t a new idea at all.

The difference today is that it works for any size business. Many people assume that outsourcing business processes such as marketing are only for medium to large-scale organisations: Not so.

The same reasons that big companies outsource apply just as well to small businesses. Even a one-person business.

But outsourcing your business marketing isn’t just something you should, kinda, maybe, vaguely consider. I think it’s a lot more important than that.

How much more important?

Well, how about if I lay it out like this:

Unless you’re a marketing professional, marketing your coaching, consulting or small business on your own is going to end in failure.

There, I said it.

If You Don’t Outsource Your Marketing, Your Business WILL fail.

Unless you’re a marketing professional, the chances that your coaching, consulting or small business will succeed without professional marketing help is small at best.

Sorry, but it’s true.

Over the past decade, we’ve helped more than 450 small businesses with their marketing.

I’d say at least 90% of the business owners we’ve worked with would agree that, after working with us, they realise they actually didn’t have a clue about what they needed to do.

Too many business owners think they know what’s required. But they can’t see things clearly because they’re too engrossed in the mechanics of business.

Outsourcing your marketing gives you access to top-drawer experience, experience, and advice.

But you’re the boss – you’re in control. You’re still driving the initiatives, it’s just that someone else is behind the wheel.

Can the industry that you are in, be replicated by your customers?

Could your customers do what you do cheaper, better, faster?

Every now and again, it’s important to take a look at technologies and systems that are appearing in your commercial environment – as well as in other commercial environments – to see whether your business value proposition still makes sense.

No coach, consultant or small business owner is immune to discovering that their – once-lucrative – offering is no longer relevant.

If your business occupies a space that could conceivably be embraced by your current customer base, then why should they continue to buy from you?

This change in B2B buying models demands a similar change in how coaches, consultants and small business owners operate.

The ROI of the longstanding model of talking to customers continues to diminish.

A modern B2B environment requires a more collaborative approach, one that sees customers as partners along the sales journey.

It requires building trust, an intense focus on customer needs, and articulating value and solutions quickly and regularly.

For coaches, consultants and small business owners who are trained in traditional models of in-person sales, adding technology to navigate the sales process may be viewed with suspicion.

Tools may be seen as a potential for displacement or ushering in a new sales landscape where these professionals are replaced, or their skills are deemed irrelevant.

However, the future of sales builds on the past. It merges intuition and experience with data, analytics, and innovation to create a new, prosperous, B2B sales cycle.

Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Times are hard. No one’s saying otherwise.

Sure, the global economy is in a bad way and may get worse before it gets better. We all know people who’ve been laid off or businesses that have gone under. One of my clients, who is a bankruptcy lawyer, has a four-month waiting list.

If your business is still around, however, bad sales are at the moment, then you are to be congratulated. It’s pretty brutal out there.

But don’t let the media talk you into thinking that it’s all doom and gloom.

• People are still buying things.
• Businesses are still selling things. Maybe not as much and to not as many,
• But commerce is still rolling on.

I truly believe that the majority of businesses that will fail by the end of the current economic turmoil are ones that are still using outdated methodologies in terms of strategy, marketing, sales and customer service.

Business methodologies rooted in commercial environments that haven’t been seen in more than thirty years.

It’s a kind of “Digital Darwinism” – the coaches, consultants and small businesses most adaptable to change have a greater chance of survival.

What I’m saying to you is that, tough as it may seem, now really is the time to stop procrastinating and implement a sales funnel – and take the best advantage when the sun comes out again.

I’m not saying it will be easy. I’m certainly not saying it’s a guarantee of survival. But if you’re looking to load the dice in your favour, I can’t think of a better use of time, money, and resources right now.

The biggest challenge in marketing is not budget, nor is it the reach-to-frequency rate. It’s the words we use, and how we go about using them.

Words matter. In fact, they matter tremendously.

The blog article you wrote yesterday. The product/service description on your website. That online ad you placed on Google.

People don’t read marketing copy in the same way that they used to. Email, web pages and pop-TV type soundbites have reduced all of our attention spans.

Instead, people scan your text to decide whether your message is actually worth reading. You’ve got a few seconds of their attention, so make it count.

Take websites as an example. Your site’s homepage is not the place to explain why you decided to open a business, what your passion is or the employment history of your management team. Don’t laugh – I’ve seen all of these, and much worse.

However, I’m not saying such information isn’t important to help customers make a buying decision.

That sort of stuff is invaluable in helping develop a feeling of affinity and trust with your business. They have their place in the hierarchical scheme of things, it’s just that place isn’t on your homepage.

Simplifying Messaging Is Hard

I think the reason more coaches, consultants and small businesses aren’t simplifying their marketing presentations is that simple is hard.

It seems to be far easier for organisations to hide behind fluff, rhetoric, and jargon than tell it like it is.

And that’s a shame.

Because customers are no longer tolerant of having to wade through reams of doublespeak. They know it no longer has to be that way. They’re fed up with being patronised, especially when customer-focused brands don’t make them feel small.

They judge their buying experience with you using the same yardstick as they do for the world’s biggest brands.

There seems to be a level of self-inflicted ignorance in many of our coaches, consultants and small business marketing materials. The common sentiment is that “we know better” or “we know what they really want”. In many cases we do, but in this area, I’d ask you to consider the reality that you don’t.

The path is set before you. Are you going to bow to the common language of your customers, or beat them senseless with your meaningless jargon?

Is your website little more than a glorified sales brochure?

Even worse, are you using pretty much the same text on your website features that you already have in your printed materials?

If your company has a website because you would like to generate sales leads from it, then there are a number of factors to consider.

1. Firstly, few coaches, consultants and small business owners can reasonably expect to compete in today’s business world without exploiting internet-based marketing tools.
2. Secondly, unless the site appeals directly to your target prospects, you run the risk of them visiting your website and not realising how your business offering relates to them.

When coaches, consultants and small business owners are aiming to generate more leads from their websites, they need to think not just about how to capture audience attention.

Attention isn’t the goal – that just gets you in the same boat as everyone in your industry.

The goal is the successful delivery of the message you’re trying to convey.

Attention without a message is just noise.

You need to consider how to structure the words, pictures (and increasingly, video) on the site in a way that makes sales prospects want to find out more about the product or service on offer.

In short, what’s required is a smart and well-considered lead generation strategy that includes the creation of valuable offers and experiences that fit naturally into the context of what your target market is already doing online.

By optimising their experience on your site, you’re making the most of the time site visitors are giving you, to increase the likelihood of website leads that, ultimately, lead to sales.