Looking forward to 2020 and beyond

There is a lot of excitement this time of year around the holidays and the new year just a few days away. One question that many business owners start asking themselves now (if they weren’t already thinking about this a while ago) is: what are my goals for 2020 and what do I need to do in order to reach those goals?

Some people are going to be looking at 2020 and thinking they want to increase sales; grow their mailing list; do more for their communities – the list can go on and on, but the key takeaway is this – let’s look at what your main goals and priorities are for 2020 and write them down.  Then, with each of those goals, let’s come up with 5-7 strategies you can use to meet those goals along with the resources you will need to complete the goal.  The 5-7 strategies are necessary at the beginning because it allows you to pivot quickly to another strategy if the earlier one didn’t work.

If you need help in getting your goals and strategies in place for 2020, let’s talk!

Jennifer Glass Releases “It’s the Bottom Line That Matters” Helps Small Businesses Stop Losing Money on Marketing that Doesn’t Work

Jennifer R Glass releases new book; shows small business owners and entrepreneurs how to grow their business with smart marketing and strategies to grow.

“Know the ways to market & have a market-dominating position:
SMB owners can make a few tweaks in their marketing resulting in tremendous gains often without spending a cent on hard marketing tactics”

We all do it…

How many of you are going to networking groups/meetings? I am often invited to and asked to attend numerous groups and meetings as part of my role as VP of my local Chamber of Commerce, but also as a speaker and educator for various groups.  What amazes me most is how many people go around the room, make very little effort to try and get to know the person they’re speaking with and say “here’s my card. Call me if I can ever help!”

Now a lot of you may be wondering, what’s wrong with that above statement, “call me if I can ever help,” right? Here’s what’s wrong with that statement – the person making it is 99% of the time not caring about the individual they’re speaking with, they’re simply looking for the sale and saying “call me if I can ever sell you” and not “how can I make your business/life better by being a resource” – you want to be seen as someone that people want to speak with. You want to be seen as someone that is a connector – bringing various people together, even when it is NOT your business that is benefiting! Why? Because in the long-run, you do benefit when someone sees you as caring because of the Law of Reciprocity – people feel indebted to those that help them.

Try it out next time you’re at an event – go up to people at the event and ask them how you can really help them. Say to them, I’m not looking to sell you – what do you need in your business most right now? That may be a new marketing plan, a new website, a VA, a new hire, etc and you may not be doing ANY of what they’re looking for, but if you know people or resources you can refer them to, you’re now in good favor with them!

Do you need resources to know of when speaking with people? Look at companies like Fiverr, FreeeUp and other such sites where you can direct these people to go when they need the assistance they may require.  Also, take a look at your LinkedIn network – who do you know in a specific area that may help?

What happens as a result of offering the help where you aren’t even getting value? Some folks may believe that it’s useless – but I am telling you it’s far from it! The law of reciprocity kicks in once somebody believes you helped them and now they want to help you – do you need something? Maybe if you grab a coffee with your new networking friend, they’ll be open to hearing what you do in much greater detail and want to see if they can work with you or who they know would be a good fit. Try it out next time you’re at an event and let me know what results you get!

Are you looking for more tips and ways to grow your business? Let’s chat and schedule your Rapid Growth Business Growth Coaching discovery call!

Kick Start Your Marketing

Today I’d like to teach you about the three most important start up marketing tools you need to get and keep new customers.

1. In person: It’s essential you meet with customers/clients in person whenever possible. This shows you respect them and take the time to work with your clients to give personal attention to each of them.
2. Follow up letter: Always take a moment to send a follow up letter about what you talked about, new agreements or partnerships made and to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Likewise, you should always send thank you letters or small gifts to partners you find success with.
3. Phone call: Use a telephone call to follow up with them to talk again about the matters you talked about in your meeting and offer any assistance you can to help their business run smoothly and more successfully.

None of these will work if you don’t have a quality product/service to back you up!

Here are the key steps for putting together your start-up marketing tools:

1. Research potential customers, buyers, competitors and their preferred methods of distribution.
2. Talk to potential customers. Take a hard look at your product from a customer’s perspective and see what it needs to be successful.
3. Follow up with your 3-step process from above.
4. Develop systems for contact follow through, quality control standards and customer service.
5. Develop post-sale follow up system to keep lines of communication open is customers and build on your current relationship which increases future purchases.

“Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs” Peter Drucker, management consultant

Here’s another one I love from an icon:

“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

This lesson has offered you the tools to put together a start-up marketing plan that can be used over and over again to help your customer base and business grow in a manageable way. The tools offered in our FREE test drive offer these very same things.

Stop Wasting Your Resources!

Today you’re going to learn how to find a target market of potential customers so you aren’t wasting precious resources on blitz marketing. So, the two questions you have to ask yourself are:

• What do people really want to buy from me?
• What related products are they already buying?

Once you figure this out you will know who is more predisposed to purchase your products/services. Then, you find other businesses with the same customer base who you can customer share with. Come up with an incentive and great arrangement to encourage both of your customer bases to shop at both of your stores.

The basic concept is this:

You want to find existing businesses who have the customer profile that you are looking for to market your products/services to.

Then strike up a relationship with those business owners to work out an incentive for customers to purchase from both businesses.

As a result, you have an audience to market to and they generate an added value from their current base.

So, how do you figure this out? There is a great formula from Jay Abraham you can follow with great success.

LV = (P x F) x N – MC

Here’s what it all means:

• LV is the life time value of a customer
• P is the average profit margin from each sale
• F is the number of times a customer buys each year
• N is the number of years customers stay with you
• MC is the marketing cost per customer (total costs/number of customers)

Once you know how much you need to spend to attract a new customer, you will know how much of an incentive you can offer to a business to help attract new customers.

So, here’s your step-by-step process:

1. Find companies who already have the customer base you are looking for.
2. Negotiate an incentive for them to share that customer base with you.
3. Focus your marketing resources to this group of predisposed customers.

If you need help working through this process, check out our FREE test drive for the most comprehensive system of marketing tools and resources.