More Clients Memorandum

“Can’t I just outsource marketing and sales?”

Posted byIan Brodie on May 31st, 2015.

If you don't enjoy marketing and sales then it can be very tempting just to think “why can't I just outsource it and be done with it?”

After all, it's the consulting/coaching/training/legal work/accountancy that you do that adds value to the client. you just need someone to get you more of them.

Two big, big problems with this approach.

The first is that if you don't undertand what good marketing and sales should look like for your business, you'll end up hiring someone who does the wrong things for you.

I've seen businesses spend small fortunes on websites that simply didn't work for them (but looked great). On SEO that got them #1 ranking for searches on keywords that never turned into enquiries. On telemarketing that they were told worked for everyone but it turned out didn't work for them.

You've got to understand something before you outsource it, otherwise you're going to get screwed.

The second problem is that in all honesty, in many businesses, getting clients is the difficult bit. Providing the service is easy.

It's all well and good saying “all I need is someone to get me more clients” but if the real value in the business is that client acquisition, then in truth, they'll end up getting the lions share of the profits.

It's happened in the legal sector where lead generation firms get customer enquires and sell them on to law firms. It's the lead generation firms who are making all the money and the law firms who are just scraping by.

Money always flows to the rarest valuable talent. If you can't or won't learn how to win clients for yourself, then you're going to end up paying through the nose to someone who can and will.

More Clients Memorandum

The sacrifice of success

Posted byIan Brodie on May 24th, 2015.

My email last Sunday was about a friend of mine who's just launched an online training product, and the work he had to put in to get it going.

Whenever you're launching something big and new you often have to make sacrifices in terms of time and money to make a breakthrough.

That might mean accepting a lower income as you do less client work to focus on the new thing. Or it might mean you work weekends or late into the night for a while.

There's a lovely saying I heard a few years ago that “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't”.

There's a large grain of truth in that.

I often speak to people who want more clients, but won't give up their paid work and won't work extra hours to get them.

Or who want to have passive income but don't want the pain of creating products that goes with it.

Does. Not. Compute.

Sure, there are shortcuts. Ways of doing things efficiently.

But lets not kid ourselves. If you want significantly different results you've got to do something significantly different.

If you're not prepared to do that, that's fine. It doesn't make you a bad person. But be honest with yourself. Accept it and get on with your life rather than constantly looking for miracles.

But if you are prepared to do that hard work, now we're talking.

I believe there's more opportunity for small firms and individuals today than there's ever been.

Clients can find the right people to work with in ways that weren't possible even a few years ago – IF you put the work into being found and finding them.

More Clients Memorandum

Your choice…

Posted byIan Brodie on May 17th, 2015.

I met up with an old colleague a while back who'd recently launched an online training program. We'd spoken about it about 6 months earlier and I'd given him some options and ideas.

6 months later it was live.

Not that it had been easy. It has been a ton of work. He told me he almost cried when he finally launched it, and again when he got his first sale.

Later that evening we went out and met up with a whole load of other ex colleagues for a reunion event. All doing well. But in truth, all really doing the same thing they were doing 10 or 20 years ago when we worked with them.

Many were intrigued by the different business model we'd adopted. But for most it just all seemed like too much work. Why create content, do video or podcasts, write a book, when you can do OK just farming your exsiting contact network?

One guy had even been offered a multi-thousand pound advance to write a book but he turned it down because he could earn the same amount with just a few days consulting.

These were great people, don't get me wrong. But if I had to take bets about who, in 10 years time, would have a thriving business rather than still ticking over doing the same old same old, it would be my friend who launched the product.

He had the courage to do something different. And the discipline and strength to stick at it throughout all the hard work of making it happen.

I think most markets are a bit like this.

The majority of suppliers are content to just keep plugging away doing the same things that worked OK for them in the past. Unwilling to put in the effort and make the sacrifices to get a big change.

Which means that if you are prepared to put in the work to learn and do something different, you have a huge advantage.

Maybe the marketing approaches I teach in Momentum Club are your “something different” that will make a big difference to your success.

Or maybe it's something else.

Either way, it really is your choice. You can stand out and do something different. Or keep doing the same old same old and hoping for better results.