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The key to business freedom

Posted byIan Brodie on January 4th, 2015.

I realised today that it's been something like 3 or 4 years now since I actually made an outbound call to a potential client. Either warm or cold.

And as you probably know, I'm a great believer in not chasing, After a potential client has called me and we've spoken, I drop them a couple of follow up emails. But if they don't bite, I let it go and just continue with my regular value-added email follow up.

Now I'm absolutely certain that I could have won a bunch more business if I'd been more aggressive about outbound calling and chasing.

But you know what? I'm doing pretty well without needing to do all that.

I don't enjoy it, and one of the big advantages of having a lot of inbound leads is that I just don't need to do it.

In business, you sometimes have to go outside your comfort zone. Push yourself to do what's right and what's needed even if you don't personally enjoy it.

But how long can you keep that up?

Not very long I reckon.

One of the things about having your own business is you can shape it around what you want to do. If you're not enjoying your business, you might as well have a job really.

And the thing I've found that gives the most control and the most options is to have a steady flow of leads coming in to your business.

With a steady flow of leads (and a decent nurture system like email marketing) you can pick and choose who you work with and what you do.

If you find you're working with people you don't really want to work with, or on projects or topics you're not enjoying as much as you could my advice is that rather than trying to “fix” those relationships and projects, you should focus on bringing a lot more leads into your pipeline.

That way you can choose to work on the things you find the most fulfilling. With the people you enjoy working with. You get freedom.

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How real businesses are transformed

Posted byIan Brodie on December 21st, 2014.

You won't be surprised to hear that doing what I do, I subscribe to a lot of emails from marketing people. One I read recently made me grind my teeth.

The writer was talking about an event she'd just run for clients and she described how many of the particpants had told her, teary-eyed, just how transformative the event had been for them and their business.

Now of course, the purpose of the email was to get readers to want to be part of her next tear-inducing, business transforming event.

But in my experience, the whole “come along and be transformed” thing can be hugely counter-productive.

You see, big exciting seminars can provide intellectual and emotional stimulation. They can help you look at your business in different ways. Get new insights. Get energised.

But transform your business?

Transforming your business takes hard work. Day in, day out. It means doing things differently, not just thinking them.

It takes action. It takes persistence.

Encouraging people to believe that everything will change in the space of a seminar may help you sell a bunch of tickets. But it won't help your clients take real steps forward in their business.

Real steps forward, real transformation comes from hard work.

Never forget that.

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Sting vs Lady Gaga

Posted byIan Brodie on December 14th, 2014.

People talk a lot about being “authentic” these days, don't they?

I heard an unusual interview recently that changed the way I thought about it.

It was with Mark Ellen, a music journalist who worked on the NME in the 70s and who later edited various magazines and was one of the anchors at Live Aid.

He described a recent experience he'd had “interviewing” Lady Gaga.

What actually happened is that she and her huge entourage quizzed him to make sure he was the “right person” to do the interview and that the image presented to the world would be exactly the image they wanted to portray.

He contrasted that with when he'd interviewed Sting. This was back in the early 80s on the back of The Police's fourth number-one hit. They were the biggest band in the world, and Ellen had an interview with their lead singer.

The interview was in the house Sting had just bought in London. Ellen knocked on the door at the allotted time and Sting opened it himself. Inside, Sting was alone with only his young son to keep him company.

Ellen interviewed Sting without minders, PR men and spin doctors. He asked the questions he wanted to ask and which his readers would be interested in. And Sting answered candidly.

That was just the way they did things back then. It wasn't all about image and control.

I've previously lauded Lady Gaga for the way she interacts with her fans on social media. But although that kind of controlled interaction and managed image seems to work for many, I think a lot of us these days look for something more.

I suspect many of our clients do too.

At the risk of using what I think is becoming a cliché, they're often looking for authenticity.

Authenticity is different things to different people.

Personally I don't much go in for videos done in the back yard with your family. Or carefully scripted “outtakes”. Or telling everyone about your difficult childhood or your “rags to riches” story.

It all feels too pre-written and designed deliberately to create a certain impression. It's all still about image and control.

I like the kind of authenticity Sting showed. Here I am. What do you want to know? Here's what I really think.

I hope to be able to live up to that myself on occasions.

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Dull systems = exciting business

Posted byIan Brodie on December 7th, 2014.

I heard an interesting comment recently. One I COMPLETELY disagree with.

The comment was from someone who said they didn't like to put structure and systems into their business because it stifled spontaneity.

And that since we lived in a “dynamic and ever changing world” our client's environment and organisations apparently change daily and so being structured ties us down too much and stops us responding dynamically.

Bobbins.

Those are the words of someone who's ill-disciplined and is looking for excuses.

Now I'm pretty ill-disciplined myself, but at least I recognise it and am trying to do something about it.

We may live in a dynamic world, but our clients don't change everything in their business on a daily basis.

Establishing basic disciplines like devoting the first hour a day to marketing, making at least 5 “keep in touch” calls a week to old contacts, or making notes on all sales meetings and tracking follow-up; none of that interferes with responding quickly to changes in the business world.

And establishing systems and having discipline frees you up to be creative and spontaneous where it's valuable. It doesn't stifle you.

I've developed some simple checklists of steps to take triggered by key events in my business. Stuff like taking on new clients, finishing a client engagement, or follow-up after a sales meeting.

Every time one of those events happens I simply follow my list of steps and I know I'm going to do a decent job at that critical point.

So, for example, every new client gets a welcome letter, details of our commercial arrangement, an invoice before we start, and they get tagged on my system for client follow-up.

Because I've written those steps down I don't have to invest brainpower in recreating them every time I get a new client. So I can focus my energy on coming up with extra new stuff that will make a difference.

That's where your spontaneity and creativity are best funnelled. Into really adding value, not reinventing the wheel on the basics.

All it takes is to write down what the critical tasks you have to perform are for key events like new clients or sales meetings. Then make sure you do them consistently every time.

Simple stuff. But powerful.

Have you done it yet?

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Why you don’t get the results the gurus get

Posted byIan Brodie on December 5th, 2014.

Have you ever tried to implement some recommendations from a big-name expert, but not got the results you were hoping for?

It's certainly happened to me a few times.

You watch a video. The guru tells you “follow my exact, step-by-step approach”. They say “do X, Y and Z”. You do X, Y and Z.

And your results are nothing like theirs.

Sometimes that's because the guru, ahem, “exaggerates” their results so you buy their products.

More usually it's because they neglect to mention the conditions they got those results in.

Like already having a huge mailing list and a pre-established brand. Or that this stuff works in their niche (usually the weird niche of people wanting to learn how to do marketing) but it won't necessarily work in your niche.

I'm sure the same thing has happened to people following some of my recommendations too.

Sometimes things just work out differently in different situations. Life isn't paint-by-numbers.

But what does work every time is learning. Trying out the recommendations and if they don't work as well as you'd hoped, tweaking them to make them work.

I ran a campaign recently based on a guru recommendation that started out badly. Results about half as good as he'd got percentage-wise.

But rather than abandon the whole thing I rethought it a bit.

I was sure the core idea of the strategy was good. It's just the type of offer at the end wasn't a great match for my clients.

So I changed it around based on feedback from clients. Lo and behold, my results were twice as good as the guru had reported.

Try the same thing yourself. Rather than just copying what the experts say you should do, treat it as an experiment.

Test what they're saying. If it doesn't work as well as you hoped, look at why not and try changing something.

You'll very often find that even if the expert's strategy doesn't work straight out of the box, there's at least the germ of a great idea in there you can use and get results from.

Success at marketing is never about just blindly copying others. It's about testing and tweaking and getting something that works for you.

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What’s your iPod?

Posted byIan Brodie on December 5th, 2014.

In November 2014, Apple Macs hit a market share of 13% of the global PC market. They've grown market share in 33 of the last 34 quarters.

There are many reasons why Apple's doing so well. Power, usability, ergonomics, fashion.

But I believe one of the biggest reasons for Apple's recent success in computers has simply been the iPod.

The iPod – and later the iPhone and iPad – made millions of people “Apple people”. People who hadn't previously considered themselves as Apple buyers.

Not only did they have a positive experience of Apple through the iPod, but for the first time, they considered themselves to be Apple buyers.

When it came time to buy a new PC, instead of just looking at Windows options as they'd done previously, many of them widened their horizons to consider a Mac. Previously, a Mac just wouldn't have figured in the decision – it'd have been ruled out subconsciously.

But once our self image includes an Apple buying element it becomes much easier for us to consider a higher priced part of the range.

We no longer have to make that psychological leap to seeing ourselves as an Apple buyer. We're already there.

The same thing happens with many potential clients.

If they've not hired consultants, coaches or whatever it is you do before, there can be a huge, inbuilt resistance to doing so.

They just don't see themselves as someone who hires a coach or a consultant. They barely consider it.

But if you can construct a simple “no brainer” offer. Your version of the iPod: a brilliant product with a low price tag. You can shift their perception.

You can get them to see themselves as a person who buys consulting or coaching. And so someone for whom buying a large project is just a step up from what they've done previously, not a whole different thing.

Someone who's bought even just one day of consulting is exponentially more likely to buy a big engagement than someone who's never bought consulting before. The same goes for almost every conceivable service.

So what can you construct that's a low-cost, no brainer offer that will get your potential clients to see themselves as a buyer of your type of services.

What's your iPod?

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Have you turned your marketing into a system?

Posted byIan Brodie on November 30th, 2014.

“Systems” is such a dull word. But systems are vital if you want to move your business beyond startup mode.

When you're starting up everything is new. You make things up as you go along. You just do what it takes to get things to work.

But when you've built that initial client base and you're fairly busy, if you want to progress you can't waste time recreating things all the time.

I've learnt that personally I only have limited mental capacity. I can think hard about stuff for a few hours a day, but after that my brain is much less effective.

I can continue to have meetings, chat to people, do familiar tasks. But I can't create a lot of new stuff once my mental capacity has been exhausted.

So I need to reserve my limited brain power for when I really need it.

For me that's stuff like working directly with clients, creating new training material and writing blog posts, emails and maybe doing the odd video.

I don't have the capacity to be constantly thinking about what to do next. Or how I'm going to get more email subscribers. Or what I can do to get more website traffic.

That's why I've created systems to do that stuff for me.

They're not all automated, but they are all “no brainer” stuff.

My website traffic these days comes from online advertising campaigns, some guest blog posting and appearing on other sites in interviews or podcasts, and sharing of my material on social media.

I review what I'm doing quarterly. But on a day by day basis I don't have to think about it. It's either running itself, or I just get on and do what I need to do.

Similarly for nurturing relationships with potential clients, I don't spend time thinking about what to do next and coming up with lots of new stuff. I just write emails as part of my system and send them out.

Selling stuff? My system is to include a link at the bottom of my emails for people wanting to learn more and get faster results. And I do occasional webinars to promote products.

But again, I'm not reinventing the wheel all the time. I'm not having to think hard about what to do, I'm just executing my system.

Have you got systems in place in your business, or are you having to think hard every time you do marketing?

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Get over yourself Ian

Posted byIan Brodie on November 16th, 2014.

You know when you go to an event or you meet people you know and you ask them “how's business?”

Has anyone ever said to you “not that great” or “pretty bad really”?

No? Me neither.

No one wants to be seen as anything other than super successful. So we build this veneer around us so that we're never seen as anything but brilliant by the outside world.

And that's usually fine. In the absence of other evidence, some clients will interpret how well you look like you're doing as being how good you are at your job. A worn-out suit, battered briefcase and hangdog look don't send the right signals about how successful you'll be working together.

But many of us take it too far.

We go beyond giving a good impression to being petrified of seeming weak or needing help or being anything other than perfect.

It means we don't call old contacts to see how things are going because we don't want to “seem desperate”.

We spot opportunities where we could help clients in other ways but we don't bring them up because we don't want to look like we need the business.

We reach the end of sales discussions with clients and let it peter out because we don't want to seem “salesy” by asking the client if they're ready to start working with us.

But it's all in our minds. Calling up old contacts to explore opportunities is sensible business. Alerting clients to areas you could help is sensible business. Asking clients if they're ready to start is sensible business.

Clients don't think less of you because you ask. In fact if you don't, some will wonder why they're not hearing from you, why you're not identifying things that could help them, and what the point of the sales discussion was if you're not going to propose something.

** Our hesitancy to reach out to clients because we're woried how it might look is much more about us and our own insecurities than it is about them **

I guess there are a lot of things you could do to examine your inner motivations and issues to cure yourself of this.

But personally, I find that what works for me is when I find myself thinking this way to say to myself “get over yourself Ian”.

Stop being so darned self-centred. The world doesn't revolve around me or you and what everyone else thinks of us.

So just reach out and ask the questions that will get you more business and help your clients more.

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Marketing is *much* easier if you have this

Posted byIan Brodie on November 9th, 2014.

I grabbed a coffee with a friend recently to talk about some new ideas for their marketing.

They're doing pretty well, have expanded to two offices, and now want to grow further.

I did my normal “quickfire” review with them where we look at their ideal client profile, their value proposition, and the marketing messages and methods that would resonate with their ideal clients.

And you know what? It was all pretty easy.

Not because I'm some kind of genius with secret sauce I can sprinkle on to any business to instantly supercharge their marketing.

But because they already had most of the key elements in place. They just needed some help harnessing them in the right way.

When I asked my friend about his ideal clients, he had a very clear picture of two different types of business.

When I asked him about what value he brought to those clients and which of those elements of value were distinctive to his business and different to his competitors; then after a bit of thought he was able to come up with a solid shortlist.

And when we talked about valuable content and insights he could share with his potential clients to get their attention, give value in advance, and sign them up for ongoing communication he came up with a whole bunch of ideas.

All it took then was for me to show him how a systematic marketing system works and to help him with a bit of prioritisation and planning and he was off and running.

Contrast that with some businesses where trying to get them to say who their ideal client is or how they add value and why they're different is like wading through treacle.

If your business is genuinely adding great value to your clients in ways that your competitors can't match, then creating a value proposition or USP is fairly straightforward once you know the steps.

But if you just do pretty much the same as everyone else and think people hire you because you've “got great people” or you're “good value” then you're going to struggle.

If you're bursting with useful ideas and tips and insights that can help your clients business then – when guided in the right direction – you'll be able to come up with literally dozens of effective ways of reaching more potential clients.

Because if you've got great stuff to share there are no end of people, websites and media happy to share it for you.

If you've got little new to say then the reverse is true. You'll struggle to get anyone willing to showcase you or introduce you to their contacts or audience.

A lot of people think of marketing as some kind of wand they can wave that will get them into contact with a whole bunch of clients and magically persuade those clients to work with them.

It doesn't work that way. Marketing isn't something you bolt-on. It starts with having a great business that does brilliant work for clients and has something to add that others can't easily match.

Crack that and the mechanics of marketing become way easier.

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Why you don’t need to be brilliant at marketing

Posted byIan Brodie on November 2nd, 2014.

Does it sometimes feel like not only do you have to be brilliant at what you do, but you also have to be brilliant at marketing (and selling and managing and technology and…) to succeed?

You really don't. Despite what it feels like sometimes, and despite what people selling you marketing training would like you to believe.

Millions of people find their life partners and fall in love every year without ever being brilliant at chat-up lines or romance.

What shines through is their good intentions and their love. That's what gets them their partner; not clever words or “pick up” techniques.

It's the same with your marketing. You could invest decades of study into getting brilliant with words, or hire a highly paid copywriter to write you the best ever sales page, elevator pitch or descriptions of your services.

You can have the most seductive, most perfectly written stuff on your website. And still it wouldn't hold a candle to the impact you can get from regularly adding value to your potential clients.

A “lead magnet” that people sign up for and that gives them incredibly practical tips on their key challenges. Regular emails or personal contacts that are interesting and useful.

They're much, much easier for us regular folks to produce than world-class copywriting.

But done repeatedly over time, “actions speak louder than words”.

They prove to your potential clients that your ideas or services work because they see the results in action. They build your credibility and create the desire to work with you far more than any brilliant advertising could do.

So next time you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by the thought that you have to learn even more clever new marketing techniques, just remember that the best form of marketing is to do useful stuff for people.